The ESAI Build - Energy Shield Armor Immortality

SKILLS



PASSIVE SKILL TREE


GEAR



BASICS




ADVANCED



While this build has loads of defense and survivability , it lacks in offense.
With around 1200ish dps Groundslam with 3 stacks of frenzy charges, it proves to be inefficient at farming map fast enough. And even tho you cannot die, it sometimes takes too long to clear map especially those with curses such as Enfeeble or Temporal Chains,and therefore playing this build could feel quite frustrating.

I would recommend this build if you have a ground of 2 or 3 and you are to be the tank as it doesn't prove efficient for races or farming.

Reserved.
Open for discussion and questions.

Edit : 9:53 PM - there was a problem with links. Fixed.

Reply to ComicFusion
His question :


1: Armor/ES seems to be the only way to go here.
If you go pure Armor your ES will be low , so even if you have a huge ES recovered per block, your ES will not be high enough, thus making Aegis aurora redundant. You might as well run a normal shield Marauder.
Only ES gear would result in low armor which would result on ES recovery only when you're using Granite Flasks. For a melee that would not work but for a caster it might.
And yes Templar caster with this build is viable as well.

2: With the linked gear and discipline I run with 4.3k ES (lvl 70). When I was designing this build, all the possible variations I made, they all required about 90+ passive skill points and I choose going pure ES because you just don't have the points to put in vitality.
The Items were completely theoretical, I found them with the right sockets and alched for whatever happens.
If you do this build from scratch you'll probably have pure Armor and pure ES gear which works just as well.

3. There are 2 different types of ".. recovery" you can get. One is Shield Block Recovery which you can only get from the Passive tree. With the +50% on the witch part and another +50% node on the Templar part I have 100%. I'm not sure if you can go over 100% ,but if you can, do it.
The second one is Increased Block and Stun Recovery , which you can get from gear as well. I have 64% ,but its value is not as important as the shield block recovery.

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CosmicFusion wrote:

Hm... similar build for a caster Templar based on cold damage could be interesting.
One more question. How many armor and physical damage reduction you have?

Not that high but still it seems to be eonugh(end charges help as well)

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CosmicFusion wrote:

Hm... similar build for a caster Templar based on cold damage could be interesting.
One more question. How many armor and physical damage reduction you have?

I have a similar build as a caster and would have over 3K Armour if using that shield but the problem is you give up too much in terms of DPS to use it.

A caster is better off with a pure ES shield with Spell Dmg, Spell Crit and maybe some resists to go along with it.

This unique shield is made for 1hand melee chars and even then the %ES gained per block is too low unless you want to run around with charges and Granites all the time.

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BazzV5 wrote:

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CosmicFusion wrote:

Hm... similar build for a caster Templar based on cold damage could be interesting.
One more question. How many armor and physical damage reduction you have?

I have a similar build as a caster and would have over 3K Armour if using that shield but the problem is you give up too much in terms of DPS to use it.

A caster is better off with a pure ES shield with Spell Dmg, Spell Crit and maybe some resists to go along with it.

This unique shield is made for 1 hand melee chars and even then the %ES gained per block is too low unless you want to run around with charges and Granite all the time.

The shield is designed for a build like this. The whole point was to see if it can make you invulnerable , and you do run around with endurance charges,but not because you die without them, but just because that's the whole point of having them.And you don't need to chain pots to survive, as I said, for white and blue packs,I believe it does make you invulnerable.

I found this build pretty interesting. Here are my completely untested armchair observations:

Lightning Strike isn't really single-target, especially with Chain support. You could change your passives to avoid area-of-effect nodes and focus on getting Static Blows instead; I think a Chained, Elemental Proliferation Lightning Strike with 20% added chance to shock would DPS against groups just fine, and it would only cost you a mere 4 passive points. Diehards could also get Shock, in the Shadow beginning area. If you're concerned about Chain's increased cost, there are more mana regeneration passives between CI and Necromantic Aegis, with just 4 points you could get another 40% mana regen rate.

Going with skills with relatively low Dexterity requirements, in combination with a few Agility for Chain and friends, would save you some nodes by going Resolute Technique. RT and Chain are friends; projectiles that miss don't chain. There's really nothing about your passive selection that dedicates to critical strikes, and the aforementioned Static Blows works best when it always hits. Going down RT's direction costs 5 passive points total, far more than the point you'd allocated for Precision, and allows for better scepter wielding (probably the ideal weapon type for this build) as well as better clothes, without relying too heavily on Strength mods from gear.

Pure maximum energy shield passives aren't too useful. Between the intelligence, Body and Soul, and Unnatural Calm, you're already getting 150% increased energy shield, so 8% increased ES is only about 3% more, and even 18% increased is only about 7% more. The situation gets worse for Discipline aura (which is at about 180% increased due to Inner Focus) and for your shield's ES bonus (which gets another 55% improved from "improved shield defenses" passives). While we're at it, what does improved energy shield cooldown recovery do for this build? It's designed to be extremely tanky and almost always have the standard ES regen in cooldown. Arcane Focus and Unnatural Calm are both very skippable endgame. I will concede that these passives might be very important to the leveling-up process, but once you have Aegis Aurora you can probably refund them back.

When it comes to being more tanky, instead of going for more ES and better cooldown, I'd maximize blocking and armor. When it comes to passives, getting more blocking is what you want. With 3 more points you could complete another 4% block near Lord of the Dead, you can get another 8% block with 9 points extending from Ghost Reaver, and if you go RT there's 7% block available near the Marauder start, including 40% block recovery, by using 7 points. The points you freed from earlier cuts should probably go into getting these.

In terms of skill buffs, you should look into Molten Shell and Determination. Both increase armor, which means more healing, and you get more boost than usual thanks to Inner Focus. Determination has to compete against Hatred, however, and it might not prove the victor (especially if you're concerned about DPS). Molten Shell, however, deserves a spot on your bar for improving healing in addition to being an alternate form of DPS. (AoE passives are, as it turns out, quite good with Molten Shell, so this is a possible strike against Chain Lightning Strike.)

A key unique you missed is the Stone of Azhwar. This unassuming level 5 amulet has the rather incredible "50% of block chance applied to spells" mod, improving the chances for Aegis Aurora (and Molten Shell) to trigger, as well as just being flat-out good against the monsters that would otherwise frustrate you most.

I have a question about that kite shield.

If I'm using Eldritch Battery (converts ES to mana) will a successful block restore 4% mana instead of energy shield?