The Blue Health Problem

Another rant from me. But this time it's all about 1 thing. And that is ES.

ES should NOT be a defense, rather it should be a form of health, treated exactly as life is. If you need something to replace ES as a defense, look no further than Ward.

(As a reminder for those uninitiated, Ward is a defense that removes as much damage as it's value from a single hit, breaking it in the process. Broken ward reforms after some time)

I am getting tired of walking around as a warrior or a merc with only 3k ehp, only to look at top side builds prancing around with orders of magnitude more ehp with casual investment. It does not help that ES is the only hitpoint type with FULL PASSIVE TREE support and existence on gear as an implicit due to it's classification as a defense.

This has happened before with Path of Exile 1. Remember all those builds that just go CI before 3.0.0? History is repeating itself once again.

So. Here's a more structured idea on how to solve this. In no particular order:

1: Replace ES on gear with Ward.

2: Add passive tree support for Ward, and add more life to ES conversion.

3: For every ES cluster on the tree, implement a equivalent cluster for Life. Not life regen, not life leech. Just maximum life. (This may require a monster re-balance to compensate for)

4: Life to ES conversion happens before any "Is" modifiers. This is to not screw over CI builds entirely.

5: Optionally declassify ES as a "defense" entirely.

-sigh-