Energy Management

Early on when I started playing a Guildmate gave me one of the death magic idols fromt he desert with the -1 energy regen. Since then I've always used it, or the Soul Reaping Cesta version, not wanting to sacrifice that extra 15 energy for an extra measly point of regen. Now I was contemplating getttng the Spiral Rod with the -1 Regen from the Maatu crafter and started doing some math. It's made me think I may have been missing the whole point of how energy regen works.

On first glance I see the potential for a 75 Energy, and more sounds better. If I just went with an insightful staff I'd be at 48, but with a regen of 4 instead of 2. If you look at it over a period of time it's obvious that the match says lower max energy and higher regen is better. The question Ihave is how does Soul Reaping factor into that?

So I guess what I'm asking for are thoughts on this matter. Is is better to have the big energy max bonus and low regen, or lower energy max and double the regen?

It may seem like a good idea to have high nrg, but it's not always. People seem to think that high nrg makes the difference, but it's my experience that soul reaping is what you really need.

I have a bleeched skull (cantha) that gives me something like 12 nrg. I use that with a wayward wand (nrg +5 when > 50%hp) and I'm sitting over 40 at all times. With an SR of 9+, I usually don't run outta nrg.


The other side of nrg managment is casting. If your spells are averaging over 7nrg to cast, you're going to run into problems. SUre you can start out strong,b ut it's the long term that you have to keep in mind. You can only cast so much before you run out of nrg. This is why it's sometimes better to have spells that do less dmg but only cost 5 nrg then spells for high dmg that cost 15 nrg.


I recommend balancing your Soul Reaping and equips to match your skills. Once you have this done, you can last quite a while before you run into problems regarding nrg management.

Honestly, I don't know.

I always prefer to have both.

Seriously, I think it is better to have more energy regeneration than a higher energy pool. For one thing, energy takes time to replenish, so if you aren't careful, you can find yourself waiting a while for energy to come back (how many 15 energy spells will you cast with a high end energy pool, compared to how quickly you can cast the same amount of spells with a lower energy pool but with higher energy regeneration).

Soul Reaping will give you upto your maximum amount of energy, any overflow is wasted. My only concern is in order for SR to work, things must die. I rarely find my self low on energy, so I don't need a huge energy pool.

BTW... 1pip of energy = 1 point of energy regained every 3 seconds.

Having 3 pips means you get 1 energy back every second.


So, consider this when you're taking a larger pool of energy over recovery.

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Pip

It's kinda the problem with elementalists. They have such huge pools of energy that it seems they can cast forever, but without a method of refilling it, they can only do so much damage.

ah...that blasted ANet balance thing.

I try and think of it this way...

I run a pool of 68 energy and -1 regen for spiking: cast fast, drain, run away and regen...works against certain targets that don't interrupt the longer casting times for some of the blood-spiking, heavier damage, higher-cost spells.

I run a pool of 49 energy and -0 regen for almost everything else

The difference comes down to style and flexibilty.

Sometimes I use the same set of skills and change gear to suit my circumstances...in PvP, for example, I use higher energy gear with the penalty to kill quick and move on with slow charge (typically RA or TA)...In PvE, I increase my survivability by depending on my team mates a wee bit more and casting spells/hexes on a wider variey of targets...Life Siphon becomes more useful as mobs benerally clster within the range of the spell more cooperatively...I want it to cast and recharge quickly so I can select targets a bit more carefully...that's just me I s'poe...I hate casting a 2-3 sec spell and having the mob drop before it goes off...so i pick the healthier targets.

Pick what you are more comfortable with, or carry both for situational use...

Energy regeneration is orders of magnitude more valuable than max energy.

The +15/-1 foci are invaluable as an emergency swap, but using them all of the time is almost universally foolishness.

Peace,
-CxE

See this is what I'm starting to realize. I primarily play a MM build and I'm finding that there are times I am wiating longer between animations for enough energy. So then I have to cast BotM to health the dying minions while I wait, which holds me back longer. So while the high energy pool is great for that quick burst of deathly spam, it sucks for long term maintenance.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the help.