T-Energy Shroud

[Nzifklm 0]

FIRST POST!!

 

Can someone help me understand the T-Energy Shroud buff?

 

First of all it seems like there is very little point in eating more than one rune for this buff. Unless I am missing something higher CA levels would only increase the damage from derogate, the recharge, the reduction, and the chance to reflect spells. That is to say that increasing CA level would not improve the actual shields hp or anything, is this correct?

 

The only way to improve the actual shielding effect of this buff would be to take the skill warding energy lore, is this also correct?

 

Thanks for the help

[Zinsho 0]

I'll try to answer this bit by bit, and then likely I'll go and expand some information in the wiki as well:

 

The following is affected by T-Shroud CA Level:

* Block Warding Energy (A fixed decrease of damage, more useful at lower levels than high except perhaps with high values of mitigation)

* Regeneration Penalty to all CAs

* Maximum Warding Energy (It increases by ~1-3 points at low levels, at higher levels it increases by ~15-20 or more since the other modifiers affect it), from what I've seen this translates into a "Max Warding Energy" modifier that is innate.

As well as the modifiers:

* Derogate (+CC Damage)

* Recharge (In combat Recharge, 3+1/level * Tactics lore, cannot be increased any other way)

* Reduction (5% + 0.1%/level mitigation to all channels)

* Reflection (Reflect Spells, not sure of value)

 

The Following is not affected by CA Level:

* Absorb Warding Energy (% Of damage taken by the shield rather than by HP)

* Power modifications

 

So yes, increasing the level does increase shield value, although not by any large amount (relative to certain methods at least)

 

What can be increased for the T-Energy Shroud via skills and item mods is the following:

* Derogate Damage via Tactics Lore and +%Damage

* Block Warding Energy via Warding Energy Lore (WEL) and WEL unlocked modifiers on items

* Absorb Warding Energy via WEL unlocked modifiers on items

* Max Shield Energy via:

** Willpower

** WEL

** WEL unlocked modifiers on items

* Regeneration penalty can be decreased via Devout Guardian Focus and the gold mod "-Regeneration Penalty from Buffs"

 

 

As to whether it's worth reading runes:

* You will be able to get +T-Shroud, +Devout and +CA from your gear, so eventually you will have a high level buff regardless

* Higher levels increase the bonuses from mods, which makes the buff more powerful

* Melee TGs, and Source Warden TGs for the most part do not need extremely low regen times until late levels (Deathly Spears needs higher levels to be effective, Primal Mutation is more of a debuff for bosses and the AoEs are on a cooldown anyways) so the penalty won't inconvenience you nearly as much as it might a Lost Fusion TG who needs to be able to recast his CAs

[Nzifklm 0]

OK thank you for the info. Since this buff seems to have a huge hit on regen times, I plan on taking the shield power mods and the recharge mod. The damage from Derogate seems pitiful and the chance on reflect seems too low. Does this sound about right or does this buff get much better at higher levels?

[Ryanrocker 200]

I choose the power mod, the in-combat regen, and the reflect one. Llama wrote up a very good explanation in his build about why he modded it for reflect. With the reflect melee from the battle aura skill, and the reflect magic from the shroud, he stated that the only damage he wasn't really affected against was ranged damage. Then he used the untouchable force buff, modded for the chance to destroy incoming projectiles, and bingo! Protected against all kinds of incoming damage

[Zinsho 0]

Derogate vs Power is a matter of choice, however it is worth noting (This is based on memory since I don't have access to the game at the moment):

 

At ~level 57ish T-Shroud on a level 63 TG with:

~ +26 All skills

* Level 63 WEL

~ Level 20 Tactics Lore

* ~+43% Absorb Warding Energy

* ~+140% Max Shield Energy

 

* This provides ~4k Shield energy listed, with my +Max shield I have ~9.8k shield.

* Derogate deals ~400-500/tick I believe, enemies have ~3k life or so.

* Reduction is at ~11% Mitigation

** 11% would mean level 60. Now using that as a basis:

** level 60 would mean 63 regen per second from Recharge, level 50ish Tactics Lore is ~140% damage, so 63*2.4 = 151.2shield/s, for point of comparison

* Reflect is reflecting ~35-40% Spells, which is far from low when you consider the result.

 

If I took Power I would instead have ~800-1k more shield I believe.

Combine this with the reflect mod on Jolting Touch and on Combat Alert I end up with only ranged potentially hitting me, I don't have UF so it can hit me, but there aren't many very dangerous ranged foes (non-caster at least)

 

Now, as to Derogate vs Power it really depends on TG type:

* First off, Derogate provides Magic Damage which triggers Weaken, dropping target's attributes by 20%, always useful.

 

For a pure melee TG without Deathly Spears:

* Derogate provides your only real source of multi-target damage. It might not be enough to kill enemies outright but when you get mobbed it will allow you to focus on the champion, kill it off, then have little to no work left to kill off the non-champs.

 

For a pure melee TG with DS:

* The same applies if you only use DS for bosses, if you use DS as your standard damage attack, then it will simply supplement it, and it will allow you to take Singe as the DS mod to end up with 3 element damage hitting close enemies at all times (Physical + Fire/Magic from DS, Magic from Derogate)

 

For a Lost Fusion TG:

* Provides close combat damage to all targets, so obviously still useful since it will weaken/take out enemies while you focus on your main target.

 

For a Source Warden TG:

* Less useful, Fiery Ember/Icy Evanescence will kill enemies all over at the same time, they are non-directional. Charged Grid can provide Weaken, however it is a much slower Cooldown.

* Still provides Weaken so has it's uses.

 

Power vs Derogate comes to choice, vs Reflect comes to More protection vs less hits taken to it.