Balthazar's Spirit or Essence Bond?

Mo/N here. I want to devote a spot on my skillbar to either Balthazar's Spirit or Essence Bond. I will be casting this on myself, so the adrenaline bonus of BS is not an issue.

So, which one should I use? EB only triggers on physical damage, so I'm leaning towards BS, but it doesn't tell me how much energy it gives me. BS is linked to Smiting Prayers, but it doesn't say how. What exactly are the stats on BS?

The exact stats on Balthazar's Spirit have long been a mystery.
Both will give you 1 energy each time you are hit, but as you noted, essence bond triggers in fewer cases, so for your purposes Balthazar's is probably the better choice.

Scaph: also don't forget you can cast essence bond on someone else and reap energy every time they're hit. Nifty trick in PvE in particular is to essence bond the lvl 28 boss and rake it in as your team beats on it. In PvP I've used this trick to essence bond an enemy character with good success as well.

Balth's only works on yourself... and if you cast it on someone else... they get energy every time they're hit. (EG: something a Wa/mo could cast on a monk behind him or something like succor to move +1 energy regen from you to your monk or energy hog ele/necro/or ranger).

Personally I think the latest patch is a lousy kludge... the problem still remains life bond triggering effects.

You can essence bond enemies? Wow, I'm definately going to try that, thanks!

I thought Essence Bond had been tweaked so that it was no longer castable on enemies- but I haven't tried it myself. Easy enough to test. If it still works, it's definitely a good strategy to keep in mind.