Energy Shield vs Armor - Chaos Inoculation?

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Getting twice the ES to life is bullshit. I am not even sure it is possible to get 10000 ES.

Tanky CI builds go for 15k ES. Max possible is something stupid like 30k+.

you can take all the es% nodes and CI in the tree with less than 76 skill points( lvl 56) now add some easily get 200-300 int from gear and 20%es amulet and you have 446/468% increased energy shield

so discipline alone without any aura nodes gives you 2k es, 800 es chest gives 4,6k, 400 es shield 2,3k now add remaining 1k es from boots/gloves/helm/aura nodes/belt/rings which turns to about 5,7k es

this translate to about 14,6k total which is achievable at around lvl 70, without any uber gear

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Nanaya_Kiri a écrit :

You break 10k ES only if you have the best gear possible (1k ES chestpiece, 500 shield and 4-500 circlet)... a more realistic ES pool would be 7k if you're going pure ES... Or 5k if you have hybrid gear.

with bis ES gear you can reach 20k ES, with bis hybrid es/ar or es/ev and right planning you can get 12-14k ES plus a ton of mitigation (ar or ev), with above average es gear you can easily reach 8-10k ES. Those who say otherwise have never played CI or they are bad at playing ES based characters. Even with low life + shavronnes and some end game good gear you can get like 7k+ ES and even get to reserve life for those pesky auras you need.


The only two disadvantages of ES vs life are stun and freeze and both can be eliminated with right tree and gear planning.

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Hanatsu a écrit :

Don't let peeps fool you. HP is better then ES in the current state of the game. Getting ES towards 10k is only achieved by those with near perfect gear.

i'm playing characters with both and i disagree.

they both work well.

CI: freezing is a serious problem. stun lock is a problem for a melee build but obviously not as much for ranged. My caster uses cast on stun to set up defenses (endurance charges) and curse (temp chains), my melee toon uses eye of chayula. you _cannot_ get stunned when you are melee. for the caster, hasn't been a problem at all, even in lunaris with crazy machine guns. that's why there are granite flasks.

my standard melee character has dream fragments. my ambush caster can't afford dream fragments so i use wanderlust shoes when the situation calls for it, like in the library.

melee uses evasion and acrobatics, caster uses Grace and IR.

chilling is actually a more insidious problem, it really takes a chunk out of your cast speed and/or attack speed, but chill affects life builds too, it just reduces the duration.

with discipline and _crap_ gear, i'm up to about 4.5k ES and there are at least 9 more +%ES nodes in easy reach. there are a _lot_ of +% ES nodes in the tree and they are well clustered.

it's much easier to build a really high ES pool than it is a high life pool.

and BTW, you will be oh so happy with CI when you are running around the sewers :-)

Currently I play low life ES rather than CI - but I've played CI in the past quite a bit. (most recently, my first Ambush character at start of league was a CI char)



In my experience - given equal, limited funds to throw at a characters gear then life will generally come out ahead. It is easier to acquire pretty good, useable gear for a life based build, and the passive tree usually makes for a much smoother leveling experience. Once you can spend a bit more then I really like ES though - it opens up so many powerful builds for you. (including CI using Melee Damage on Full Life which is a very powerful gem)


You definitely want Dispel Shocked on a flask though to be safe. If your character can make use of



then you have found your anti-freeze/chill spot otherwise you'll have to put defreeze on a flask as well. (or run Dream Fragments)

Unwavering Stance is a good node for ES based chars (and is close to Vaal Pact anyways) and solves your stun problem. Eye of Chayula is also a good amulet. (and even preferable if you're stacking some MF on the char)

This reddit thread may be of interest for those wondering about the potential of either:

http://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/1tyoms/theoretical_maximum_energy_shield_achievable_in/

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JakeAlmighty a écrit :

Currently I play low life ES rather than CI - but I've played CI in the past quite a bit. (most recently, my first Ambush character at start of league was a CI char)



In my experience - given equal, limited funds to throw at a characters gear then life will generally come out ahead. It is easier to acquire pretty good, useable gear for a life based build, and the passive tree usually makes for a much smoother leveling experience. Once you can spend a bit more then I really like ES though - it opens up so many powerful builds for you. (including CI using Melee Damage on Full Life which is a very powerful gem)


You definitely want Dispel Shocked on a flask though to be safe. If your character can make use of

then you have found your anti-freeze/chill spot otherwise you'll have to put defreeze on a flask as well. (or run Dream Fragments)

Unwavering Stance is a good node for ES based chars (and is close to Vaal Pact anyways) and solves your stun problem. Eye of Chayula is also a good amulet. (and even preferable if you're stacking some MF on the char)

I think you are right about gear, but I don't think the difference is that great. I'm not having a hard time building up pretty decent ES gear. I definitely seem to have a harder time finding good gear with life. Gear with high life rolls has become expensive.

Leveling is definitely easier as a life build, but I was very surprised how well I've been able to level my CI toons, and they were the 1st and 2nd CI characters I've run. Just keep up with life, watch your respecs, wait for the right time and switch over. Make sure that leech/ghost reaver is part of your plan.

It takes _planning_ but I don't think it's much more difficult. Try to level a CI toon without a plan, and you're going to have to re-roll.

The problem with defreeze on a flask is that whatever was freezing you will freeze you again. you'll run that flasks dry in a hurry. still, you have to have one. seriously, wanderlust, but that doesn't solve the chill problem.

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plasticeyes a écrit :

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JakeAlmighty a écrit :

Currently I play low life ES rather than CI - but I've played CI in the past quite a bit. (most recently, my first Ambush character at start of league was a CI char)



In my experience - given equal, limited funds to throw at a characters gear then life will generally come out ahead. It is easier to acquire pretty good, useable gear for a life based build, and the passive tree usually makes for a much smoother leveling experience. Once you can spend a bit more then I really like ES though - it opens up so many powerful builds for you. (including CI using Melee Damage on Full Life which is a very powerful gem)


You definitely want Dispel Shocked on a flask though to be safe. If your character can make use of

then you have found your anti-freeze/chill spot otherwise you'll have to put defreeze on a flask as well. (or run Dream Fragments)

Unwavering Stance is a good node for ES based chars (and is close to Vaal Pact anyways) and solves your stun problem. Eye of Chayula is also a good amulet. (and even preferable if you're stacking some MF on the char)

I think you are right about gear, but I don't think the difference is that great. I'm not having a hard time building up pretty decent ES gear. I definitely seem to have a harder time finding good gear with life. Gear with high life rolls has become expensive.

Leveling is definitely easier as a life build, but I was very surprised how well I've been able to level my CI toons, and they were the 1st and 2nd CI characters I've run. Just keep up with life, watch your respecs, wait for the right time and switch over. Make sure that leech/ghost reaver is part of your plan.

It takes _planning_ but I don't think it's much more difficult. Try to level a CI toon without a plan, and you're going to have to re-roll.

The problem with defreeze on a flask is that whatever was freezing you will freeze you again. you'll run that flasks dry in a hurry. still, you have to have one. seriously, wanderlust, but that doesn't solve the chill problem.

Yeah I've become an Auxium convert pretty fast since trying it for the first time this league. The reduced chill bit on top of just being a strong ES belt (not to mention that huge mana leech bit, but that is more character specific).

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JakeAlmighty a écrit :

Yeah I've become an Auxium convert pretty fast since trying it for the first time this league. The reduced chill bit on top of just being a strong ES belt (not to mention that huge mana leech bit, but that is more character specific).

guess i'll have to <censored> one, that's about the only way i'll ever own one ;-)

meanwhile i struggle on with my trusty pair of wanderlust. ran around in the library last night, not freezing. not bad for 2 fuses.

7k ES is "realistic" CI gear for most players, the way 3.5k life is realistic for most players!

Armor doesn't do much for the things that can actually kill you anyways. Block, dodge, resistances, and endurance charges are way more effective.

If life has any real advantage, it's that maximum life nodes are well distributed throughout the passive tree, including near block nodes and maximum endurance charges. Energy shield and intelligence nodes are pretty well clustered in the top half of the skill tree. Inevitably there are some builds that just won't be particularly tanky with CI and still have decent damage, while life builds can manage to pick up a lot more shield/end charge nodes.