No Energy Rule

Anyone should know when building a d2 char: my rule made about 18-20 years ago. No mana!

Now I have a character that drains mana and can't use

Energy Shield.

Should I start boosting mana and how much should I get a goal for

Energy Shield?

What build are you making? No points into energy you mean?

With good gear (CTA, SoJ, flat mana), you can get several hundred mana without any points in energy, which is plenty, so that's why endgame build guides tell you not to put any points there

On

Energy Shield sorc, you usually put all of your points into energy, unless you plan to fight enemies with the blood mana curse, or you are playing hardcore, or maybe other special circumstances

If you put everything into energy, you need poison resistance and reduction and other safety measures to protect your small life pool. I've seen lots of topics discussing this if you want more info

Energy Shield sorc is the only exception to this rule. In this case, mana is your life, so you invest into energy instead of vitality.

All stats to life other than what is required to get str for items and dex for blocking / items.
Points to mana is pointless.

Trang Oul wrote: 1 month ago

Energy Shield sorc is the only exception to this rule. In this case, mana is your life, so you invest into energy instead of vitality.

Warcry Barb is another exception. You've got enough life anyways and more Mana lets you maintain

War Cry

Stun longer. Similar to

Energy Shield sorc, you put some points in Vita to establish a solid life base and rest in energy

Semirotta wrote: 1 month ago

Points to mana is pointless.

Not QoL-wise. Points in Energy on Dru/Nec returns 2 Mana for example. If you don't go Insight with these Chars, some points there (Speaking about 30-50 or so) make you independent of drinking manapots while tele around

I have a

Frozen Orb sorc in HC that has just 1 point of

Energy Shield (and 20 on

Telekinesis). The + all skills will take it to 50%-ish of dmg absorption. I use

Stormshield instead of Spirit.

I did add some points to energy, but always making sure my life pool is greater than the mana pool. This is crucial to avoid those nasty curses that reduce your life when you cast spells.

The sorceress is almost immortal, has plenty of mana and enough skill points to max

Frozen Orb.

interesting to see cold sorc use this.
I play cold sorc for a while that my sorc almost not get touched.

That I never give

Energy Shield a thought. Going to try it some time later. Also , I havent use it in my newly build

Nova sorc.(all res ful, lots of life, block, fbr)

leox wrote: 1 month ago

That I never give

Energy Shield a thought. Going to try it some time later.

I also gave a try with

Energy Shield on a cold sorc but never found it optimal. You don't have + lightning skills from skillers GC and the rest of your stuff doesn't maximize your mana pool, unless you go to soj + Insight merc.
I reverted to the classic full vita, 75 all res and magic damage reduction which is imho, way smoother and gives you more MF.

A 35 FCR 8 magic absorb Spirit is so game changer on that build.

Hydra from the concil does almost 0 damage.

I maxed blizzard, 1 point in

Cold Mastery and the usual then the rest till 99 to

Telekinesis(20)
100 points into mana and rest to vitality, that gives you around 962hp 910mp, the maxed tele makes your mana last a lot, never understood the whole go full hp no

Energy Shield, seems like a massive waste of resources, leaving mana alone and not using it to tank damage.
even with 10 points alone into

Telekinesis you start feeling that mana is very useful to tank damage. you can even rape

Diablo Clone by just standing melee on him and just spamming blizzard/

Ice Blast, his little fire won't do shit to you.
1 point to tele is bad since it means your mana goes out with 2 hits, but 10 or more makes it last a lot longer.
my sorc is 97 and

Telekinesis is on 18, I laugh my ass off at the dolls trying to kill me.
2 polearms of space in inventory, 300mf gear and my sorc does 9.5 to 9.8k cold damage.

Playing sorc and not maxing mastery makes no sense and is a massive loss of damage.

I have never seen

Cold Mastery doing anything, every normal enemy dies in 1 or 2 hits, only the cold immune last a bit more, this with 1 hard point and 19 soft points, I heard soft points work on

Cold Mastery, don't see a reason to waste 20 points to get it to lvl 40 lol.
as I mentioned in the other post I have no problem at all farming

Diablo Clone with my sorc. I really can't tell a difference between 20 soft points and 40 soft/hard

Cold Mastery points, other than wasted skill points.

There's really no need to put into mana unless very early in the game or in case of some exception builds. However if you are NOT using Insight then you should consider a bit of mana gear like SoJs and/or Frostburns or even something like a

Silkweave to keep your mana flowing... Using mana pots is also fine since you are way too OP and you won't really need to have many life pots or rejuvs in general.

The Stone of Jordan

Frostburn

Blubbalutsch wrote: 1 month ago

Trang Oul wrote: 1 month ago

Energy Shield sorc is the only exception to this rule. In this case, mana is your life, so you invest into energy instead of vitality.

Warcry Barb is another exception. You've got enough life anyways and more Mana lets you maintain

War Cry

Stun longer. Similar to

Energy Shield sorc, you put some points in Vita to establish a solid life base and rest in energy

Semirotta wrote: 1 month ago

Points to mana is pointless.

Not QoL-wise. Points in Energy on Dru/Nec returns 2 Mana for example. If you don't go Insight with these Chars, some points there (Speaking about 30-50 or so) make you independent of drinking manapots while tele around

I played singer, not even once did I feel like I need to put my points into mana. It just is waste. The only when youd really need to take mana is the sorc

Energy Shield build and even with that its just a must or stack up mana from elsewhere which is harder.