Energy shield for dummies

Hi,
I'm planning on changing from a vita only build to an ES

Nova sorc. I haven't done that before and was wondering about a few topics.
Unfortunately, I don't have too many respecs/tokens available to just try out all combinations.

Gear
I'm planning on self wielding Infinity and aim to reach 105 FCR.
The body armour is a 35/10 viper.

Resistances & MDR
I know the calculation order or ES -> res -> MDR, but what is the general recommendation?

• ignore res alltogether?
• reach at least -20/0/20/75% ?
• at what % does it make more sense to put a
  Mal or
  Um into the viper?

FHR
I don't think my gear has any FHR on it, am I cooked or is it okay with high levels of ES as I won't take too much life dmg?

Offhand
I can probably get away with no/minimal additional strength for my main hand, but then I won't be able to equip a Spirit on the offhand. Investing 60+ str just to get an additional +1 skill for the CTA feels backwards. (getting a +1 shield is easily done with Splendor)
Memory looks also very nice as an alternative to CTA but I'm not sure I want to give up the BO for the +7 ES (again, getting +2 from cta & shield).
Running both is too much hastle so I have to pick one.

Sunder
Do I still run a sunder charm? Infinity seems sufficient but I'm not 100% sure, especially how much the -res hurts.

Merc
I'm considering running a full

Prayer/Insight/Cure combo with Duress as the armour. Some CB seems good to kill bosses and for everything else he is just my mana helper.
The life gen & poison Cure seems like a real QoL over some additional damage.
How bad is this compared to a might/freeze with e.g. Andy's?

ES has diminishing returns
I read quite often that ES has diminishing returns and sometime people even recommend to only put 1 point into it.
What people seem to overlook is that a 1% change is not always the same: going from 50->51% has a much lower impact than going from 90->91%
So in case you are wondering, this is the graph showing the effective percentage change in dmg moved to mana for each ES level.
Any Insight (hehe) is welcome

Recently got 99 with this build, here some of my experience:

SuperIllu wrote: 5 months ago

Resistances & MDR
I know the calculation order or ES -> res -> MDR, but what is the general recommendation?

• ignore res alltogether?
• reach at least -20/0/20/75%

go 75/75/75/75 with charms > skillers imo

SuperIllu wrote: 5 months ago

• at what % does it make more sense to put a
  Mal or
  Um into the viper?

put

Um in it unless you can reach 75@ with gosu amu and trires

Boots. Even with nice trires alone i went

Ort in griffon and

Um in vipermagi

SuperIllu wrote: 5 months ago

FHR
I don't think my gear has any FHR on it, am I cooked or is it okay with high levels of ES as I won't take too much life dmg?

try to reach 42 if you got skillers of balance charms, otherwise ignore

SuperIllu wrote: 5 months ago

Offhand
I can probably get away with no/minimal additional strength for my main hand, but then I won't be able to equip a Spirit on the offhand. Investing 60+ str just to get an additional +1 skill for the CTA feels backwards. (getting a +1 shield is easily done with Splendor)
Memory looks also very nice as an alternative to CTA but I'm not sure I want to give up the BO for the +7 ES (again, getting +2 from cta & shield).
Running both is too much hastle so I have to pick one.

go high Call To Arms weapon +

Lidless Wall unless you got +3

Energy Shield +6 bo Call To Arms. +9 es Memory is also an option, but i went well with the first setup

SuperIllu wrote: 5 months ago

Sunder
Do I still run a sunder charm? Infinity seems sufficient but I'm not 100% sure, especially how much the -res hurts.

yes, run sunder. Infinity is not enough

SuperIllu wrote: 5 months ago

Merc
I'm considering running a full

Prayer/Insight/Cure combo with Duress as the armour. Some CB seems good to kill bosses and for everything else he is just my mana helper.
The life gen & poison Cure seems like a real QoL over some additional damage.
How bad is this compared to a might/freeze with e.g. Andy's?

Prayer/Insight/Cure is the only option here, as poison wrecks you

based on my experience playing my

Nova sorc, Memory has way more impact than

Battle Orders / Call To Arms. I got a plus 3

Energy Shield Memory and it made a WORLD of difference in survivability.

as far as resists - prioritize poison resistance because it bypasses

Energy Shield and get a

Prayer merc with Insight and Cure

Helm and a Chains of Honor chest piece and you'll be golden.

i would

Cap

Telekinesis first, then work your points into

Energy Shield (after light master +

Nova synergies of course)

FCR is not important because if they don't get through your

Energy Shield, they cannot put you into recovery.

i found a +2

Energy Shield 4OS base the other day if you want to make a Memory in it to test it and see what you think. Memory runes are cheap.

Spectie wrote: 5 months ago

based on my experience playing my

Nova sorc, Memory has way more impact than

Battle Orders / Call To Arms. I got a plus 3

Energy Shield Memory and it made a WORLD of difference in survivability.

Depends on lvl imo. 95+ you will be very close to having es + synergy maxed. Memory is better lower level tio get es as high as possible. Also mind that bo boosts your manapool alot

yeah i'm only 90 on my

Nova sorc, going from 80-90 was much easier with Memory than Call To Arms

Try out

Mang Song's Lesson instead of Infinity. It's good. I run Infinity on my merc.

SuperIllu wrote: 5 months ago

Resistances & MDR
I know the calculation order or ES -> res -> MDR, but what is the general recommendation?

• ignore res alltogether?
• reach at least -20/0/20/75% ?
• at what % does it make more sense to put a
  Mal or
  Um into the viper?

Other than poison, ignore res altogether imo. The higher your mana, the less need for res. Just go for a facet in the viper.

SuperIllu wrote: 5 months ago

FHR
I don't think my gear has any FHR on it, am I cooked or is it okay with high levels of ES as I won't take too much life dmg?

Well, with ~95% ES you barely lose 1\12 of your life in a hit (since 95% of the damage is absorbed to mana), yet there are mobs who stuns you anyway, so FHR doesn't hurt.

SuperIllu wrote: 5 months ago

Offhand
I can probably get away with no/minimal additional strength for my main hand, but then I won't be able to equip a Spirit on the offhand. Investing 60+ str just to get an additional +1 skill for the CTA feels backwards. (getting a +1 shield is easily done with Splendor)
Memory looks also very nice as an alternative to CTA but I'm not sure I want to give up the BO for the +7 ES (again, getting +2 from cta & shield).
Running both is too much hastle so I have to pick one.

With a few skillers you can reach high enough ES (on a high lvl char) to not need Memory prebuff at all.

SuperIllu wrote: 5 months ago

Sunder
Do I still run a sunder charm? Infinity seems sufficient but I'm not 100% sure, especially how much the -res hurts.

Def run a sunder. Gives a bit more damage against those mobs who would be immune without it. Another reason to ignore resists:P

SuperIllu wrote: 5 months ago

Merc
I'm considering running a full

Prayer/Insight/Cure combo with Duress as the armour. Some CB seems good to kill bosses and for everything else he is just my mana helper.
The life gen & poison Cure seems like a real QoL over some additional damage.
How bad is this compared to a might/freeze with e.g. Andy's?

You want mobs to run towards you (into

Nova's range) so

Holy Freeze wouldn't be good anyway. Still, I'd run the usual CoH on him for the life leech \ highler lvl of

Prayer.

SuperIllu wrote: 5 months ago

ES has diminishing returns
I read quite often that ES has diminishing returns and sometime people even recommend to only put 1 point into it.
What people seem to overlook is that a 1% change is not always the same: going from 50->51% has a much lower impact than going from 90->91%
So in case you are wondering, this is the graph showing the effective percentage change in dmg moved to mana for each ES level.

There are cases where a lower lvl of ES can be benefical, but a negative res, ~1K life, Insight\

Prayer\Cure merc sorc is not that one . I cast ES on CTA side (for the lower lvl 65% abs) on my max res, 2119 life 2118 mana full

Tal fire sorc.