Energy Shield Query

[FruityMcZ]

Ok so im going to make either an orb or FB sorc, and im going to max out tk and es, as Ive seen some sorcs using fully maxed out es who can barely be scratched. My question is how much energy is recommended over vita ?? And are % dmg to mana jewels useful to it ?

[chubbypuppy]

there's a couple of really good guides to read in the stickies. They helped me when I started to play with ES.

As to how much dex/vit/energy, that depends on your final equipment I guess. One of the guides suggests min str and the rest goes into energy, because with 95% ES (level 40) you are taking very little damage. Of course, to get to level 40 is pretty hard.

With my lousy equipment, I've put stats into my dex for max blocking and some into vit.

Regarding "% going to mana", the guides suggest that it's not worth it, because it's calculated off what the damage that actually reach you after ES and PDR, so it's not much to leech off. Your regen (with a huge mana pool) will overwhelm that % easily.

[Superhal]

depends what you will use it for. for pvp, slvl 40 is the magic number. for pvm, it's all good if you have maybe 5:1 ratio of tk to es base, a prebuff item, and a merc using insight.

[Dawnmaster]

Ok so im going to make either an orb or FB sorc, and im going to max out tk and es, as Ive seen some sorcs using fully maxed out es who can barely be scratched. My question is how much energy is recommended over vita ?? And are % dmg to mana jewels useful to it ?

As said in the previous replies, it all depends on your build, what gear you're using, if you have blocking, you can acquire expensive items etc...

Atm, my Orb/Es sorc (I'm gonna remake her, due to spirit being available etc) has base vitality (safe for the life from a few charms), just enough str to carry everything, just enough dext to get my max block from my shield and everything else in energy.

Eventhough she's very weak against OW or poison attacks, a lot of people get suprised by the amount of damage she can absorb before dying (if she dies at all) Zero vitality is a bit of a challenge, but if you use the right strategy and wits, it's a strong build.

As for the %dmg to mana, if you have sockets spare in your equip, put mana and/or life jewels/runes/gems in it, you'll benefit a lot more from those :thumbsup:

To present you with a quick number, with no resistances and no damage reduction whatsoever and 95% es, you'd need 3000% damage taken goes to mana to fill up the mana lost.
In fact, iirc, the max % damage taken goes to mana, if you neglect all your other gear, is 300%, more or less, and that only supports 50%es with no res and no damage reductions.

[bluedragoon]

its better to socket ur items with sols and mals for damage reduction, that gets trough the es. Also items like Gerkes sanctuary are nice to have. im making one myself with 20 orb 20 cm 20 es 20 tk and i expect good things of her. I dont have a lot of + skills so im planning on 100 base vita, little strengt and rest in nrg. Be sure to have a merc( im going with prayer) with insight.

my $0,02

[Dennis_KoreanGuy]

For PvM, 5 into ES is enough with an Insight Merc. If FB Sorc, do not go max block, just get decent pre buffed ES + Holy Freeze Merc + decent mana with CtA / Spider / 2x SoJs should get you safe in all situations. ;)

[chubbypuppy]

I remember reading a guide on damage reduction a long while back where this guy did a great analysis of all the monsters and what damage they can do in a single hit and from there tried to create a character that was basically immune to physical damage.

Is that guide still around? I was reminded of that guide thinking about how much ES is enough for PvM and how to optimize vit/ene ratio with no super-rich eq. For example, if the best a hell monster can do is 200 pts in a single hit, then I can get by with 75% ES, etc.

Also, what is the block % for a sorc with 0 investment in dex? I've always been a max block kind of sorc, but I read somewhere a 0 dex sorc was still getting around 15%, and I might decide to go max ES/0 dex around on my next sorc...

[chubbypuppy]

Ok no one answered me, I guess I gotta stop being lazy :)

A little surfing on battlenet shows the highest damage is act 4 hell megademon doing about 150 max dmg a hit. With a level 30 ES, 85% (127.5) goes into ES and 15% (22.5) goes to sorc. That means if I have damaged reduce of 23 I should be immune to all physical damage right?

Still trying to find the block % with 0 dex investment. Cant download the dex calculator...

Edit: Just found this other thread where prayer merc with Insight is giving around 40 hp regen/s. Wow Im tempted to make this tank sorc :)

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=377988

[Superhal]

es guide is still there and still useful.

[Dawnmaster]

A little surfing on battlenet shows the highest damage is act 4 hell megademon doing about 150 max dmg a hit. With a level 30 ES, 85% (127.5) goes into ES and 15% (22.5) goes to sorc. That means if I have damaged reduce of 23 I should be immune to all physical damage right?

150max dam? Think again, keep in mind they have skills as well, and the elemental damages are way more than that.

[Superhal]

150max dam? Think again, keep in mind they have skills as well, and the elemental damages are way more than that.

seriously, it's true. if you can get 30-50 pdr or mdr and even 1 pt in energy shield, you will be nearly invulnerable to all attacks.

the damage you see other chars take come from multipliers like resists, level difference, crushing blow, etc.