ES/Melee Enchantress sorc - Vitality/Energy ratio?

[zaphodbrx]

Melee manaburners ( not ranged ones ) blow out your manapool instantly in 1 hit. That's the crux of the problem right there. Doesn't matter if you have MDR, PDR, block, insight, warmth or whatever they don't help you and now your character is crap you built it around the Energy shield that way and have like 600 life with no block or def. Only thing you can do vs them is pop some rejuvs kite around and pray. Not fun.

Otherwise ES totally kicks ass. Lvl 40 ES with max telekinesis and you can basically never die no matter if you have MDR, DR or whatever. 95% damage reduction means you basically have 20 times as much life.

My playstyle is such that I want my characters to be consistent. I don't want to give up/ S&E/ struggle/ die every time a mana burn mob shows up. I like to be able to beat all the mobs in the game, unless my character is just weak, which a melee sorc is not ( Hell p8 is totally doable with dream build ).

 

[BlizzBallerSorc]

Once upon a time I played around with ES A LOT to try to figure out how to make it work in PvM. I thought ES was complete junk until I started adding bits of PDR/MDR to my set-ups, and then it became much, much easier to make ES work with either a full, partial or even a tiny investment. Simply put, imho:

PDR/MDR are to Energy Shield characters what Resistances are to all other characters. In other words, PDR/MDR are essential.

At least, that's how it is for PvM (I never got into PvP to test it). As for ratios, levels, etc. my math was pretty simple.

Most monsters in Hell do about 60-100 points of damage-per-hit. A few do a little less, a few do a little more, and being cursed/convicted/or under other auras/mods will obviously affect that, but overall, you're going to be looking at 60-100 points of damage per hit for probably ~98% of the monsters you encounter. The other ~2% of monsters will hurt no matter what you do, so you need to avoid letting them hit you as much as possible (just like virtually any character in D2).

If you have 75% damage reduction from ES, that 60-100 points is now 15-25 points of damage per hit. Throw on ~15 points of PDR/MDR, and if monsters damage you at all, it will be by 1-10 points. If you have 25 points of PDR/MDR, only the hardest hitters will cause any damage to your life pool.

If you have a lower % of damage reduction from ES, you need more MDR/PDR to negate most/all damage, or you need to spend a little extra in Vitality to increase your life pool enough to absorb the higher loss-per-hit ratio. Likewise, if you have higher % of damage reduction from ES, you can obviously do well with a smaller amount of PDR/MDR.

Pretty simple, eh? From there, you can make a reasonable guess on what's an acceptable level of risk-tolerance (read: life-pool vs. mana pool) for you based on your equipment and skill-levels planned.

Thanks, this helps. I had already had my eye on PDR and MDR, and this confirms my speculations.
I will focus on the following when trying out ES:
-PDR/MDR
-Mana steal
-Mana regen (through equip, auras, etc.)

 

[pharphis]

Melee manaburners ( not ranged ones ) blow out your manapool instantly in 1 hit. That's the crux of the problem right there. Doesn't matter if you have MDR, PDR, block, insight, warmth or whatever they don't help you and now your character is crap you built it around the Energy shield that way and have like 600 life with no block or def. Only thing you can do vs them is pop some rejuvs kite around and pray. Not fun.

Otherwise ES totally kicks ass. Lvl 40 ES with max telekinesis and you can basically never die no matter if you have MDR, DR or whatever. 95% damage reduction means you basically have 20 times as much life.

My playstyle is such that I want my characters to be consistent. I don't want to give up/ S&E/ struggle/ die every time a mana burn mob shows up. I like to be able to beat all the mobs in the game, unless my character is just weak, which a melee sorc is not ( Hell p8 is totally doable with dream build ).

This is why I never build around ES. Even when investing heavily in ES I still pump life instead of mana and that way ES will help you against most mobs and doesn't negatively impact your survival against the mana burn mobs.

Also, mana burn is what full rejuvs are for