Ice Archon not viable

I do not see how Ice Archon is viable. To activate it, the energy shield recharge has to start (it cannot be full nor be regenerating already). For that to happen, you need to take damage or use Energy shield as spell cost and wait the time to start recharging. If you use energy shield as spell cost, you cannot spam as it is your greater defense (maybe you can change weapons if there is something). I might not see the full picture ...

Agreed. I don't see a point in trying to use it unless you build specifically for it. The other two elements' Archon passives are good for any build that uses the element; not Ice.

I have seen that the only viable option is to be a Lich, sacrifice ES and use the persistent buff to start ES reg. If it works... It is only theory. Maybe it is intended that it is only viable with the Lich. But that would be sad...

It's really easy to trigger it at will by using Weapon Set Switching.

But I stopped bothering about trying to make Archons work. In their current state, you lose all bonuses of the "gain X% of damage as Y" kind. So you'll most likely be losing damage. There are better nodes you can use if you want to improve your ailment production.