Energy Shield passives in middle a bit weak

On my CI witch I took all ES passives between witch and shadow (ES+evasion) starting points and near CI. I don't think it's that much. I can go for some more ES in middle but those passives are weak. There are only 6% nodes (while all other are either 8% or hybrid nodes with 6% and something else).

Tree where I just went for middle mana and ES nodes:LINK

It feels weak compared to life (8% and 12% nodes near middle now, also every other small life nodes are at least 8%) and evasion (all small are at least 10% except hybrid and so those in middle are 10% and have 1 big 30% node).

With percentage bonuses from intelligence and some big nodes (CI, Unnatural Calm, Arcane Focus) the 6% seems like a waste. Even 10 int node gives 2%.

To make them worth they should be at least all 8%. A big node (18%?) would be nice as the last one in cluster to allow good option for characters that want defense considering it's still not that great. I feel that most CI chars would not bother anyway and get more damage.

As it is, you can have more than two or three times more ES than life, with CI.

The problem mainly is that if you're going CI, you NEED every single energy shield passive on the tree. Your build chooses to have buff effect and hexes over +ES. If you got rid of those passives, and tightened up your passive usage, you could afford the +30% ES you get from those two chains of +6% ES.

You cannot strictly buff +ES any more than it already is. We used to let CI give +80% ES and it was downright broken. As it is, CI is very strong, though it requires a lot of 'forced' investment. If you're going CI, you need every CI node, you cannot pass them up or you will be very weak, particuarly when you first take CI.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAQYAAM5rSAcmypYL6q9zDfBgBRqdWbQw6WYSNrhKMD-eX01CTNa8SUc4nEyv9UNM4zQJTPtiQU0zvqtOYownT0NZfVGNSipiu-qUYzq_yGPyeo9nYnq6Z8KXp2xPIGJvQE-HdwAWCYRadRqhvSrYw7INgvs-I6j3PG97nTC414u_Ct-HnkkH5OiDI4wqiHb3IyC5u4z055Y6prTK3NwZyDkwAZwjPKycxUTN2Qkd2YfeJZOMWT7vrnNxA4-7Cp2FDkXvqb8HYr0hu1bNymZjxx9hHw==

Any dual wand Shadow that uses CI basically is 'forced' to build this way to achieve a sufficient amount of survivability. Maybe it's possible to function without the two +6% clusters, but you probably will not be bulky/defensive enough for PVP.

This is what I've been talking about in regards to defense and witch/shadow. I really like that GGG added lots of life nodes this patch, but I feel like some hybrid nodes are a little in order, to incentivize players to not take CI all the time. I mean... if GGG has decided that CI is here to stay, and that they aren't going to draft an alternative node to replace it with, the current defensive way shadows/witches build will be kind of binary: ES or Life. If they pick one, they will be forced to spend quite a number of points (in the case I linked above, 52), grabbing all the defensive nodes they can respective to that defensive type. This is partially due to the lack of evasion/armor nodes near the witch, but also because there are no +life regen, +life/es, or +es/life regen hybrid nodes, or any 'effect nodes' that give players bonuses when they use both life and ES, or both ES/armor, etc.

Of course, uniques can help solve this as well. Doesn't need to be a passive skill, GGG could introduce a unique like...

Force Armor
400-500 armor
200-300 ES

While Energy Shield > 0: Regenerate 3.0% life per sec
While Energy Shield <= 0: Energy Shield refresh 25% faster
+(50-100) life
+(15-25) int
+(6-12)% elemental damage
+some other stats?

A unique like this would make players stop and plan builds around both life and energy shield, possibly. Or life and evasion and armor and energy shield.

What I'm suggesting is that the current system of defense for shadow/witch is extremely binary, though if we consider ALL the other classes, this seems to be the case as well. Offensively though, it feels as though every class do try anything: rangers/duelists can casts spells fairly well, marauders can use wands fairly well, etc. but defensively, marauders always stack life, duelists/rangers probably always stack life and get IR (though evasion is pretty strong now)... keystones and passive placement are giving players both the illusion and possibly the necessity, of speccing a certain way to feel safe and feel effecient.

I don't think going for all out ES is so good. Of course I took increased buff effect as I use 5 auras, increased effect of grace and discipline alone makes up for defense (this is further multiplied by passives). Only problem I have is pretty bad gear. I had all shield cooldown nodes but forgot to take 3 after patch :P

Your example shows taking every single %ES ndoe but no cooldown nodes. I can tank enough to survive bursts, when not fighting many enemies my shield keeps regenerating with decent evasion and some block chance, when I have problems I just cast temp chains. I keep doing maps of levels higher than me and don't think much more ES is needed, I can die easily when swarmed but then even 10k ES wouldn't help me.

If you go for pure ES without evasion as defense, you need every single node. Still, the few extra % would not do so much. In PvP a few more ES points will not make you bulky (I think). Currently I am going to leave out the 6% nodes and just get more damage.

I got these: http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAQMABaqbVQcmypYOJuRFJrf_BzW1Kus268VUP3hcnj-eX01JRzicTTO-q1XIbMBcC6LoYEcEyWISGhZjOr_IZaSHCXL2CH93ABYJfIbKGYKqKcSDiLKqheVX3IiBozqWHGVqmSa45ZwjPKycxUTNsdvT9rsvofG9IbtWwwcy58SzJ3nGIRMCyDkwAcq5vZHNymZj2zMiuOBLbLbt17l47dl4SPU5uo_2fUgD92Y7SfiTG5z9mG3T

Currently i don't really have any problems, althrough i also use the Discipline gem, but i plan to change it out for something else.