Celtic Heroes

What you have to keep in mind, deathreaver, is that whilst bandage might be somewhat servicable on an armor heavy class such as your main, it is of little use for a class which, as bobert rightly points out, has the lowest armor in the game. The damage your mage will take as you start to hit higher level mobs will render bandage completely ineffectual, I assure you.
With energy shield / boost and a servicable build there will be far less waiting between mobs than a no shield / bandage combo. There really is no comparison.
If someone is stacked with sigils then they may find a no shield build suits their needs, but I certainly wouldn't give up my build in favour of it.
I also think its important to remember when posting on class issues, that not everyone uses sigils (and for a variety of reasons), and that each class should be capable of functioning without them. I am fortunate enough to have a fair amount of sigils (both health and energy) on my main, but I always give consideration to those who don't before giving opinion.
Gratz, relentless, on your no-shield build. If I'm honest I don't care much for PVP and so to me it is an inconsequential aspect of the game, and certainly I consider it of little worth when gauging a good main-game build. I am glad you are happy with it though, and that is the measure which is of most import.

that...still doesnt make any sense
energy shield is also affected by armor

armor has nothing to do with this
both hp and eshield are affected by armor

I am fully aware of the benefits of armour which is why I supplement my energy shield with a shield of the bastion and four pre-nerf greater charstone rings.
It is not the statement which is faulty but rather your assumption regarding it.
The point is that e-boost can be applied constantly to cover the running costs of spells and energy shield with little to no standing time. Without e-shield bandage wounds cannot possibly make the same claim regarding a mage's health running cost.
Bearing in mind in the sacrifice post you were advocating actually taking points out of vitality and dumping them into focus in a flawed notion that this would somehow negate the benefit of regen skills, and now you are proposing the complete reverse, but in an equally faulty attempt to make up for the loss of e-shield, perhaps you should test the cohesion of your theories before labelling others as nonsensical.

I have run multiple tests on energy shield and I can confirm that it is affected by both focus and ice magic and takes more damage than is listed in your skill page.

My most recent test is with my level 130 mage who has 675 focus, 1590 ice magic and a 23/30 energy shield that is listed at 849 damage.
I have confirmed that deathcaps deal exactly 2000 damage regardless of level, resistance, class or opinion.
Unshielded I take 2k damage from a deathcap.
Shielded with all gear equipped I lose exactly 774 health from a deathcap. Meaning my shield took 1226 damage.
I romove my 200 focus offhand and use shield, then I take another deathcap. I lose 810 health meaning my shield took 1190 damage.
I put my focus offhand back on and removed my adamant cane, reducing my ice magic by 300. I used another deathcap and lost 789 health meaning my shield took 1211 damage.

e-shield isnt worth maxing but it is a good skill. its kinda like a heal for mages and its good for soloing. at higher lvls half max it. the energy cost goes up by amount not percent, so the higher lvl u are it uses less percent of ur energy

Thanks Bob for conceiving of the death-cap test, and to Ed for extensively researching it.
The results are unexpected but welcomed.
I would ask just one follow up question though, Ed, if you don't mind... You stated death-cap damage is shown as a constant which is unaffected by external factors, but what of the variables that effect e-shield itself? Were any rings, charms or other, carried that might raise the level / effectiveness of shield, and which aren't shown in the listed damage description?

yay for ed in testing it for us!
anything that boosts eshield should automatically be applied to the skill description

"with little to no standing time" is your problem
if someone has both a maxed eshield and a maxed eboost then it will have LOTS of standing time (without sigils or any other boosts)

the sacrifice post is if you have too much HEALTH and are dumping it into ENERGY
this post is if you have too much ENERGY and are dumping it into "HEALTH" (not really health..but you get my meaning)

im simply saying it could be resolved by increasing your health and lowering your energy or vice versa

I want to be clear, deathreaver, in that I don't have anything against you personally and I'm sure in time you will develope into a fine mage. However, one of the reasons I find your mage posts frustrating presently is that you speak with authority and make absolute statements that are quite frankly incorrect.
An example of this is you taking it upon yourself to answer a question I posed of Ed, and yet again making an incorrect assertion. You stated that anything which effects e-boost should show in the skill description. That is simply not the case.
After this initial blunder, you then went on to try and educate me on the sort of standing time I can expect if utilising e-shield without sigils, and essentially calling into question my earlier post.
I can assure you that whilst I have sigils now, I didn't aquire a single one until sometime between late 140's - early 150's. I also levelled almost exclussively solo throughout that time, and on the rare occassions I did suffer standing time it was health related in the vast majority of cases. I didn't use resto's and the only lix I have ever used was the free quest one.
Btw, I haven't ever said I operate a maxed e-shield, that is yet another of your faulty deductions. If it helps you to know, I usually keep my e-shield 5-10 levels below the level maximum, and subject to need.
Hopefully it is now clear that when I spoke of e-boost's ability to sustain e-shield, and the effectiveness of that combination, it wasn't simply supposition, but tried and tested thoroughly and over a not inconsequential period.

Thanks Bob for conceiving of the death-cap test, and to Ed for extensively researching it.
The results are unexpected but welcomed.
I would ask just one follow up question though, Ed, if you don't mind... You stated death-cap damage is shown as a constant which is unaffected by external factors, but what of the variables that effect e-shield itself? Were any rings, charms or other, carried that might raise the level / effectiveness of shield, and which aren't shown in the listed damage description?

Negative, I have only firebolt and firestorm rings and a firebolt charm. The level of my stats and skill levels are as listed with the items I was holding.
Btw, I've been using the deathcap test since well before the update (shield was listed wrong then too). But the test I showed I preformed yesterday and recorded it carefully taking all aspects of my character into account.

i didnt realize i was speaking with authority....
only on things that im absolutely sure of ill use the word "definitely sure of"
otherwise take everything i say as "i think so"

also there was probably a misunderstanding with eboost and eshield....with your eboost maxed and your eshield not maxed of course it will generate faster (definitely sure of this lol)

plus i wasnt wrong about eshield because ed proved it for me


and for the sake of time i dont have enough time to do a debate on forums sorry :|
ill acknowledge whatever you want
ive got a lotta stuff to do ._.