My Vitality build only works because I have selectively chosen the right armour for it, currently the only plate armour mages can wear is the pre-update plate set which unfortunately doesn't drop any more meaning each item is worth alot of gold. With a Vitality build on a mage you can't use cloth because you'll take on too much damage from not having armour and some of the items that will bump up your life cost alot of gold also. You will only need abit of focus for my build, Energy Well will add atleast +150 Energy at level 10 and Meditate will ensure your Energy is replenished very fast after battle
- My opinion; its an amazing build if you want to tank everything and solo bosses but it comes at a very costly price when buying the armour and items to max the class build out. Your energy must be tailored to perfection so that you can get the maximum Vitality possible whether this means finding +energy items so that you can drop a couple points from Focus and put it into Vitality yet still have the same total Energy or buying sigils so you know as soon as you're out of a fight your Energy will replenish very fast
The Ice/Focus build is alot better for people who have joined after the update/weren't able to acquire a full plate set because Energy Shield is your armour which in turn makes your Energy your life. Thus meaning the more Energy you have, the more life you have. Energy Shield also governs how much damage is taken out of Energy instead of life; the higher the level, the more armour you have! This also enables you to just use cloth level armour because your Energy Shield soaks up the damage, having cloth also allows you to have more energy because of the low weight and since Energy = Life when using Energy Shield the more Focus and Energy you can get the better! Since you wont need Vitality because your life comes out of Energy you can put the majority of your stat points in Focus, giving you more life and a bigger pool of Energy.. It all pretty much works together to make Ice Mages very versatile.
- My opinion; Great for new comers and definitely the easiest and most forgiving build, bare in mind Mages cannot wear plate now and after many updates my Vitality build will become obsolete due to higher level monsters and mages not having a heavy armour.
Conclusion is the Vitality build is amazing for people who want to put the time and effort in to get the right items and tailor their stats so they are perfect and again the items used to create this build come at a very costly price. The Energy build is alot more forgiving and easier to use since all you have to do is max the Ice skills because they all work towards and work with each other to maximize the effectiveness of the Energy build and get as much Focus and Energy as possible, also because you don't need heavy armour you can use mere cloth and still do well with the Energy Build.
Hope this sort of clears things up about working on the two builds
