Energy shield explained v1.1

[Soepgroente]

Q: What does telekinesis do for energy shield?

A: Energy shield takes 2 points of mana for every point of life it absorbs. Each point you spend in telekinesis reduces this by 0,0625 point. This means that after 16 points you’re only losing half the mana compared to zero points, or one mana per absorbed life. At 20 points you’re only losing 0,75 mana per absorbed hit point.

Q: So if you get a level 32 telekinesis you’re losing no mana through energy shield?

A: No, it only works with actual invested points, so level 20 (1:0,75) is the limit.

Q: How much damage can energy shield absorb?

A: It’s capped at 95%, which is at skill level (slvl) 40. After that only the duration of energy shield increases.

Q: What is the energy shield bug?

A: It doesn’t exist. This ‘bug’ you might’ve heard about, is simply an intended change from blizzard. This change is that energy shield is now applied before resistances, meaning your mana gets drained four times as much as it used to with maxed resistances. Telekinesis doesn’t totally make up for this, but it helps.

Q: Is energy shield applied before the PvP penalty?

A: No. This is good since this means 6 times less mana draining.

Q: How do I calculate damage taken to mana and life with energy shield?

There’s a formula for that:

Damage to life = InitialDamage*(W/100)*(1-X/100)*(1-Y/100)*(1-Z/100)

W = PvP penalty (for most, if not all attacks 17%)
X = % resistance (or damage reduction in case of a physical attack)
Y = % chance to block (in case of a physical attack or blockable elemental attack)
Z = % energy shield

Fill in zero if you have zero resistance or block or damage reduction.

For example if you take 12 000 damage hit from a fire ball when dueling another sorceress with maxed telekinesis, resistances and 95% (max) energy shield:

Damage to life = 12 000*0,17*(1-0,75)*(1-0)*(1-0,95) = 25,5 life lost

For damage to mana another formula can be used:

Damage to mana = Damage*(2 – 0,0625x)*(W/100)

x = slvl telekinesis
W = pvp penalty

Take the same example as above, with the fire ball hitting:

Damage to mana = 12 000*(2-0,0625*20)*(0,17) = 1530 mana lost

Q: Is damage to mana % effective in combination with energy shield?

A: No. Since damage to mana is now subtracted from the actual damage you take, in our fire ball example, it would take (1500/25)*100 = 6000% damage to mana in order to restore the lost mana. The higher your energy shield gets, the less you benefit from %damage to mana.

A formula for this is:

Damage to mana/Damage to life*100 = Amount of DmgToMana% needed to fully restore lost mana

Q: Is Energy shield viable?

A: Yes, this build is very powerful in both PvM as in PvP, the main problems are getting enough damage output, and mana burn monsters in PvM.

Q: I don't get all this math, in simple language, what can ES do for me?

A: It can absorb 95% of all damage you take, given that you can keep your mana high enough. Your lost life will be very minor, but your mana takes heavy beat. Telekinesis helps reducing the cost of mana.

Q: Does energy shield absorb all attacks?

A: No, it doesn't absorb poison and open wounds. There's also reports of a bug where it doesn't absorb charge either.

Input (still) very welcome, when constructively and at least somewhat nicely brought.

v1.1:
-Fixed formulae
-Added some information
-Corrected pvp penalty
-Slightly edited layout
-Minor spelling corrections

If you would like to use any of this information on other sites or such, please ask for my permission by sending me an email or a PM.

[SommerSky]

I am going to sticky this new guide for further discussion and unsticky the older one. :P

SS

[lextalionis]

Good Job, you got rid of a lot of clutter and updated it well.

Do you think we should add anything about mana regeneration? ie how Warmth works, how normal mana regeneration works, and how gear with increase mana regeneration (ie Trang's set) work?

[Soepgroente]

Nah, it's about energy shield, you can figure out on your own how to get sufficient mana ;) Thanks for the headsup though :drool:

@Sommersky: thanks for the quick sticky job :thumbsup:

[stupidgreen]

just wondering if reduce damage by X (as opposed to X%) is applied before or after energy shield

Thanks

[UserMathias]

just wondering if reduce damage by X (as opposed to X%) is applied before or after energy shield

Thanks

Right after.

[bob]

i noticed that ES has the problem where u might get "whiffed" where melee attack u and the ES animation comes up and u lose energy but no life. So does this mean that u would still lose mana even if u Blocked them? IF so would it be better to dump dex into mana?

[spencerjrus]

The problem I have with ES is that is had little application in PvM.

[LovelyGods]

is your chance to block (75%) before the damage goes to ES or after you get hit.

Example..

a zon shoots a arrow. Do you

1. loose mana first, then block

or

2. Block untill you get hit, after the hit, then loose mana?

[Zarhrezz]

Damage application mechanisms only trigger after a successful, unblocked hit has been taken.
So the order in which things are resolved:

Check hit chance (100% * AR/(AR+DR) * 2 * alvl/(alvl+dlvl)).
In case of succes: Check for block.
In case of no block/block failed: Check for Avoid/Evade/Dodge.
In case of no A/E/D or failure: Enter damage application stack.

In the damage application stack, XvX modification is first, ES second, MDR/PDR 3rd, etc.

[carebearonacid]

What is the bonus that telekensis gives to energy shield??
It doesnt say just says it recives bonus from it...
Would it be best to max ES and put rest into telekenesis or even them out?

[lextalionis]

What is the bonus that telekensis gives to energy shield??
It doesnt say just says it recives bonus from it...
Would it be best to max ES and put rest into telekenesis or even them out?

Max Telekinesis, one point in Energy Shield. Telekinesis reduces the damage done to mana. With 20 point in telekinesis it will take .75 points off your mana for each point of life damage was prevented. With one point in Telekinesis you will have 2 points in mana for each point of life damage prevented.

The telekinesis is very important since you won't have any resists or damage reduction to protect your mana. Even though sorceresses can have a lot of mana it cna go quickly.

[duabi]

When I first cast es, I have +3 skill to all, and I later switch my weapon, so I only have +1 skill. I was wondering if my es still gets +3 skill or only +1 skill.

[lextalionis]

When I first cast es, I have +3 skill to all, and I later switch my weapon, so I only have +1 skill. I was wondering if my es still gets +3 skill or only +1 skill.

ES takes the skill level at which it is cast.

[ash2ash]

Since ES is calculated before resistances are applied: in hell mode, does ES take a base resistance of 0 instead of -100, in effect giving you +100 res all to damage calculation?

Thx in advance

[Zarhrezz]

Since ES is calculated before resistances are applied: in hell mode, does ES take a base resistance of 0 instead of -100, in effect giving you +100 res all to damage calculation?

Thx in advance

The exact order and working of ES can be found here (http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=549#What we need to know about Energy Shield).

[Diabolico x64]

I'm really confused here; I've heard from some people that ES doesn't work with elemental damage (cold/fire/lightning)... that it depletes your mana pool completely vs. elemental damage.

And yet, you say:

Q: Does energy shield absorb all attacks?

A: No, it doesn't absorb poison and open wounds. There's also reports of a bug where it doesn't absorb charge either.



So does it work against cold/lightning/fire damage? What about pure magic damage?

[DeamonMonkey]

If you have some idea on how to do this that would be great:

I need to calculate my effective life, or how much damage it would take to reduce my life to zero in 1 hit. Right now in my excel sheet I can input Damage and see how much mana and life are lost, but what I want is to see with how much life and mana, how much damage I can take.

I hope that made sense... :scratch:

[lextalionis]

I'm really confused here; I've heard from some people that ES doesn't work with elemental damage (cold/fire/lightning)... that it depletes your mana pool completely vs. elemental damage.

And yet, you say:


So does it work against cold/lightning/fire damage? What about pure magic damage?
Problem isn't that ES won't absorb cold/fire/lightning attacks. The problem is that your resistances get figured in after ES has absorbed damage, but before the damage hits your life. Without resistances, elemental attacks do ridiculous amounts of damage and can very quickly reduce your mana shield to nothing and leave you no mana to teleport out of danger. Best example is probabably Gloams. Maxing TK helps, but doesn't solve the problem. Bigger mana pool helps, but it doesn't solve the problem entirely either.

And he is right that Poison, Open Wounds, and for some bugged reason Charge Attacks seem to ignore ES completely. They will thus go straight to your resistances and life total without ever being diminished by your ES. -- This can spell death for a frail caster who has put most all their stat points into Energy to increase the size of their mana shield.

Also dont' forget that Mana Burn monsters also can make for a quick death, which their are far too many of now. Even that said, this is a great build and provides very good protection against the majority of attakcs in the game.