I just do not understand Energy Shield viability.

Everyone ALWAYS talks about how ES is so insane, blah blah blah. But every time I make an ES'er, it always totally sucks. I just don't see it.

Unless ES'ers are ALSO expected to go "life" steal, which always feels harder to get and out of the way. But relying on recharge just feels miserable in so many situations.

Like the Malachai fight, for example. There's just so much garbage going on, actually encompassing 90% of the ground, that getting that recharge can seem literally impossible a lot of the time.

Plus, the nature of it encouraging you to play hit-and-run type things just feels like bad DPS (unless Brands?). Like, I tried Unleashed, and it's just reallyyyyy bad DPS. They'd have to gain seals maybe 200-300% faster for them to keep up in any way, I feel. Four spells once every... 2 or 3 seconds is a fraction of the DPS of someone with leech being able to park for a little bit and pump probably over 10 things a second?

I dunno.

I just don't get it. ES always feels REALLY bad to me. Is it entirely because I'm not playing ES leech in these builds? (Side note, would you say crit is almost entirely required to deal good DPS? Elemental Overload hasn't been feeling sufficient lately.)
Last bumped on Feb 24, 2021, 8:43:05 PM
I haven't played ES builds much, but I think the point is that you can get it much higher than life, and recover with leech or ES on hit or Vaal Discipline.
Last edited by TarrasqueSorcerer on Feb 21, 2021, 6:24:40 PM
I get that point, but even still.

I went ultra hard on ES gain (including taking tons of intel and tons of mana in my tree and my gear) on this Trickster build I designed a day or two ago. And I only came up with about 9900-something ES. The biggest thing it's missing is a bigger chest, currently "only" at about 520 base ES in that slot.

But even still. Things still chunk me, I've been 1-shot, and I've been nearly 1-shot many times. Without having ES leech, relying on ES recharge is insanely unsafe and unreliable, and feels REALLY bad.

So, does it require ES leech to really be good??

Another thing to note is that ES does not gain benefits from Armor. So it may have a bigger number, but that doesn't mean bigger EHP.

I dunno.

I'm guessing it's about the leech. Maybe I'll have to figure out how to get the leech high enough to outperform a Lifer's leech rates... if it's even possible.
i rarely go for leech on es builds now days. back in 2013 es builds with huge leech and vaal pact was a big thing but its dropped off over the years and now id say youd probably find most es builds not leeching? the es leech gem exists and people do use it, but to me it doesnt feel necessary or even a go to way of building es any more.


without seeing how ur games with ur build are playing out i cant rly add much more tbh, maybe the thing to do is find videos of es builds that seem to work and look at how they are dealing with fights? then you can compare it with how ur fights are playing out and see whats causing the difference?


my usual way of sustaining es now days is using it with evasion, having wicked ward keystone and stacking faster start of energy shield recharge.
ES leech, or high life regen+Zealot's Oath are usual means of regaining ES. There are a few others too. That does not mean necessarily using the ES leech support gem, given the damage output of players, if you're spell based, even just tossing one passive skill point to minor "leech 0,X% of spell damage as ES" will cause you to leech at maximum rate. And there are I think other means to leech attack damage as ES too.

In any case, I'd suggest you check out how armour really works. It's not that ES is that good unless you really massively invest in it...it's that armour is in fact bad. It's fine against small hits, but the most dangerous nukes basically avoid most of it. Because the amount of damage that armour can block from one hit is capped at 10% of total armour, you end up with 4000 health and 20000 armour being worse than 2000 health and 5000 ES.

That's why the best defense is to layer ES, some kind of evasion layer (dodge, evasion, block) and as much non-armour physical mitigation or taken as different element as possible.
Last edited by ExiledSarin on Feb 21, 2021, 7:56:37 PM
There is also recover % on kill and killed recently through cluster notables.

I have a LL vortex occultist and it's one of my tankiest builds ever. Would be even tankier if I went CI (but less damage...)

Looks like you are playing Storm Call? I think no guides for many leagues. There are only two on Ninja, and the builds are completely different from yours, but I'm sure you would learn some things by checking them out.
Last edited by GreyLensman on Feb 21, 2021, 7:59:51 PM
What's the ES leech gem?
"
ShadyC wrote:
What's the ES leech gem?


https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Energy_Leech_Support
Ohhhh, the support gem, derp @ me.
I use Corrupted Soul or Replica Soul Tether on a lot of my builds. They work best on block/dodge builds that rarely get hit or hurt, because the ES has opportunity to recharge. But yeah I totally understand how the fast-paced modern game where even in an un-juiced blue map, but you have conqueror mobs, beyonds and harbingers (due to Atlas passives), you'll get hit a lot of time. Energy Leech helps a little but the fact that your leech caps at 10% compared to 20% that life builds typically get, Wicked Ward seems mandatory. You might want to toss in Stone aura as well. The cluster jewel notable Disorienting Displays is an alternative if you can't reserve mana for Stone aura. You can consider Aegis Aurora or rare shields that give ES on block.

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