Why no love for Energy Shield?

[Zdun]

Only guide I read which recommended putting points into Energy Shield was the Energy Sorc guide, and that was, well, a "crazy" build.

And the math just doesn't add up.

Level 1 Energy Shield reduces incoming attacks by 20%. That's like having 20% Physical Resistance *and* 20% Magical Resistance, and it doesn't even take an item slot. How is that not awesome in every way? Granted, the ratio is 2 mana for 1 point of damage, but Sorceresses have a ton of mana, and mana regen, even with base Energy.

Then there are item bonuses.

Level 5 Energy Shield reduces damage by 40%. Level 10(Since +9 to all skills is a popular estimate in most builds) by 59%. All damage you take cut by half. For one point!

Okay, that's not "one point", and this is actually the one reason I can see against Energy Shield. You need to spend 4 points just to get it. But not having that +20% damage you would have with the 4 points elsewhere won't kill you. Not having 50% damage reduction will.

[stephan]

1. Your mana runs out really fast unless you completely stat and build around it.

2. Mana burners

3. It is relatively easy to get max resistances, which does the same thing except without the mana cost. %DR is not that important on a sorc.

4. It doesn't do any damage.

[sirpoopsalot]

On paper ES looks like a great skill. In reality (err... in game :rolleyes:) it's a tough skill to get right. I've tried it 4 or 5 times, and the only time I really liked it was when I spent 40 full points into TK/ES (but, of course, that's a lot of points that could've been used towards an attack skill, so using ES wasn't without sacrifice).

With only a single skillpoint in ES, if you invest too much into Vita you're stuck with a perpetually empty mana pool - and most sorcs need to have mana available at (almost) all times. And if you invest a lot into Energy, then you're stuck with a very low life, and mana burners will simply tear you up. The guide you mentioned (the one by RenegadeMaster) has a nice explanation of balancing thse, but even still your best hope is often just to play a sorc that doesn't really use much mana (an enchanted bearsorc maybe?).

But most of the time it's much, much easier for most sorcs just to get good life & resistances and go with that instead of ES.

[BlameGBush]

ES is a bit of a gimmick. I'm actually currently buidling a melee sorc. Currently, at level 35, I'm really feeling the drawbacks of ES. If I was anything other than a melee sorc, Mana would be a huge problem (and I have not even tried to max it yet.)

ES effectively turns your mana pool into your life pool. As others have said, mana burn is no longer a minor annoyance, but a life threatening ability. I'll post my opinion and results once she is done. Its really a fun idea, and allows one to play the game in a way which I have not played in a while.

Enjoyable, but has some quirks.

[nukka]

If you use Insight, ES is a god-given. With Infinity its still a god-given, have you folks ever heard of a mana potion? ES saves me in almost every baal run i do, max block can't do anything against souls. I guess it's just a different playstyle, but I'm all for 1 pt ES and TK.

[sirpoopsalot]

I seldom have problems with Baal runs without ES (maybe 1 NDE every ~25 runs) - even when Souls spawn, and even if they spawn with Conviction (as long as I see them first, there's no problem). And I don't need to drink a mana potion EVERY time I get hit, which was the problem I had with 1-point-ES.

[Kyrandia]

I really liked my ES sorceress (http://forum.diii.net/showthread.php?t=727081), but I agree that you need to plan your build carefully around the skill. Just putting one point in ES does more bad than good imo.

Though it is true that mana burners are potentially lethal for an ES sorceress, instead of merely a nuisance, most (if not all) elemental damage dealing monsters are suddenly harmless, including Gloams/Souls. In my experience the advantage of the latter outweighs the disadvantage of the former.

Having said that, in the hands of an experienced player a sorc's safety shouldn't really be a issue. And the combination of having to spend 20 points skill points and making several sacrifices gear-wise does hurt killing power.

It's a fun skill when applied correctly, but you can be (almost) as safe and more effective without it.

[droid]

Where do you get no love for it? Its in a lot of builds. I like it fine on my all-vit CL/FO sorc, with just 1 hard point. I use an Insight merc, though, so mana regen/pool usually isnt an issue for me. I do like that it splits the damage up between your pools (even if mana takes it at an accelerated rate), meaning those full rejuvs go twice the distance.

[Millard]

ES is one of the most underrated skills there is. Its extremely good with max telekinesis and even with just one point its not bad.

One advantage of energy shield is that mana regen is based around max mana. Once you get 3800 mana (which my PVP orb sorc has) your mana starts regening stupidly fast, at 100-200 per second without a potion. Once you get your mana that high (which would be hard for most, admittedly), Even mana burners are not a problem because you regen mana faster than they burn it. And you're really hard to kill. I can sit there and tank baal's minions while they whack me around and they'll bearly beat my natural mana regen. even after 30 seconds of just sitting there getting whacked, i'm still not out of mana and my health has bearly moved. And thats without insight or meditation or more than 1 hard point into warmth.

and yeah, you have to build your char around it for that ( my sorc uses 2 soj's, fburns, a 6bo cta and a full inventory of +mana+life charms...).

but even for casual use its still good. it will up your survivability a lot, especially with points into telekinesis.