Chaos Damage and ES Regeneration

So I just ran a 'Characters take X Chaos Damage per Second' map and realized that, once a character's Energy Shield is down (if he/she has one), the character is no longer able to regenerate their Energy Shield, I guess because they are taking damage.

I don't quite understand this mechanic though..

Chaos damage completely bypasses Energy Shield. Yet, taking pure Chaos damage also prevents Energy Shield from regenerating? Why would taking damage that bypasses Energy Shield also prevent an Energy Shield from regenerating? If the damage only affects the Life pool, why should it be able to prevent Energy Shield regeneration? This makes no sense to me.

I brought this up in a Global Chat in-game and got basically this answer: "Because you are taking damage, you cannot regenerate your ES."

And my basic thought was: "Yes, you are taking damage, but it is damage that never touches ES."

My suggestion, which may be a terrible one, is that taking pure Chaos damage, and only pure Chaos damage, does not prevent Energy Shield from regenerating. If a character is in a 'Characters take X Chaos Damage per Second' instance, and said character loses their ES, they can still regenerate their ES by not taking any other form of damage besides Chaos for the ES recovery period.

It is a shame for any character that has made heavy investments in Energy Shield to completely lose that line of defense simply because of Chaos damage per second, which never even hits their Energy Shield pool to begin with.

Any and all relevant comments are welcome!

Thank you for your response, Mark.

I suppose I am trying to relate two things that are unrelated. Still, it seems odd to me that Chaos damage cannot take down an Energy Shield, yet it can prevent one from regenerating. In an 'Characters take X Chaos Damage per Second' instance, characters are being hurt every second, therefore there is no chance to regenerate an ES if one is taken down. The only way to sustain an ES, that I am aware of, would be through the Ghost Reaver passive, life leech, and never letting your ES get to zero. Once it hits zero it isn't coming back (unless you leave the instance and come back, of course). I'm assuming that, even with Ghost Reaver, one would not be able to leech back their ES once it has hit zero, because it would need to first regenerate at least 1 hit-point, which ES cannot do while taking Chaos damage per second.

I guess, in my mind, I see damage that can reduce ES as being the kind of damage that can also prevent ES from regenerating. For example, if one takes Fire damage while their ES is down, the damage interrupts the ES recovery, and the recovery has to start over. Whereas, if one takes pure Chaos damage while their ES is down, the damage should not interrupt the ES recovery, because the ES cannot 'see' the damage, only the health-pool 'sees' the damage, so the recovery should continue. This is how my brain wants Chaos and ES to work :P

Obviously, Chaos is a different kind of damage from physical and elemental damages. However, ES recovery seems to treat Chaos damage just like the other damages. ES recovery doesn't differentiate between damage types once it hits zero, which I find unintuitive. If a type of damage bypasses ES, then why should that type of damage have any influence on ES recovery?

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Mark_GGG wrote:

Anything hurting your character impeeds the regeneration of ES, presumably by breaking concentration on the magic that powers it.

But why should a type of damage that cannot harm an ES also break concentration on the magic that powers it? ES seems to have the special nature of being resistant to Chaos. Shouldn't its recovery process also reflect its Chaos-resistant nature?

the way i look at it, which is perhaps a lot more simplistic, is to not split the notion of ES and Life.

if my character receives ANY sort of damage whatsoever = no ES regen (which makes sense to me since i won't have any cooldown recovery time while i'm suffering damage)

that way, i wouldn't need to confuse myself with what that damage is affecting or not.

ok how about that scenario: you have CI and you are going to said map(players take x chaos dmg per second ) your char still takes dmg even thou its value is 0 due to CI but game mechanic still count it as your char taking a dmg as far as i undersand it. will your ES start regen in that map or you have to get outside to get it replenished ?

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rvh1987 wrote:

ok how about that scenario: you have CI and you are going to said map(players take x chaos dmg per second ) your char still takes dmg even thou its value is 0 due to CI but game mechanic still count it as your char taking a dmg as far as i undersand it. will your ES start regen in that map or you have to get outside to get it replenished ?

I'm curious, if you have no HP regen, no Life on Hit and no Life Leach will your ES be able to recharge in such maps? Or will the game still consider you as taking damage (But dealing no damage since you're on 1 HP)?

Under those circumstances you never regain any health for the Chaos Damage to take any away from you...

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rvh1987 wrote:

ok how about that scenario: you have CI and you are going to said map(players take x chaos dmg per second ) your char still takes dmg even thou its value is 0 due to CI but game mechanic still count it as your char taking a dmg as far as i undersand it. will your ES start regen in that map or you have to get outside to get it replenished ?

You aren't taking damage, so your ES regenerates.

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Mark_GGG wrote:

Spoiler

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Perfect_Black wrote:

But why should a type of damage that cannot harm an ES also break concentration on the magic that powers it? ES seems to have the special nature of being resistant to Chaos. Shouldn't its recovery process also reflect its Chaos-resistant nature?

ES is not resistant to chaos - it's incredibly weak to chaos. The entire point of ES, the one thing it does, is to prevent damage getting to your life, and against chaos it's powerless to do that. ES, if anything, is the exact opposite of resistant to chaos - chaos is resistant to ES, and thus gets around what it does to any other damage types. ES is resistant to chaos in the same way electricity is resistant to rubber, or rust is resistant to stainless steel.

All damage types are trying to reduce your life. ES exists to stop them doing that, but is poweless against chaos damage, and lets it past. It makes no sense for ES regen to be less affected by chaos because ES is fundamentally weakest to chaos.

I feel kind of silly now. I'm not sure why I was thinking that ES is resistant to Chaos damage when it is in fact extremely weak against Chaos damage; it's a shield that is ineffective against Chaos damage. I guess I have been perceiving ES as an extension to the Life pool, and I somehow got the idea that if Chaos damage doesn't affect ES, then ES must be resistant to it. Silly me!

Thanks Mark, it is starting to make more sense now. Maybe I am just upset that the 500+ ES on my Ranger becomes useless after taking 500+ non-Chaos damage in a 'Characters take X Chaos Damage per Second' instance (no regen once it is gone).

It is surprising to me how effective damage per second is at negating ES from being a line of defense, once you have lost your ES to other damage. Without the Chaos Inoculation keystone or the ability to 'Ghost Reave' your ES back up before it hits zero, ES becomes virtually useless (at least for my Ranger) in a damage per second zone. #1 Rule -- Don't Get Hit, is still in play.