Essence mastery vs Shaping skill

[Felix_Felicis]

I'm just doing some napkin math in my head and want to confirm this is correct:

 

At level 8, 1 point in Essence Mastery gives an additional 10 essence.

 

For many (if not all) creations, adding an extra 'attribute' bonus, that gives +1 to base level and a point in the specified attribute, costs 5 essence or less (I think for the Ur-glaahk it costs 6 essence). By that logic, by the time you get to level 8 and beyond, once you have the requisite minimum skill in the school of shaping to make what you want (Fire/Battle/Magic shaping 4 to get the higher-tier 3rd creation), you get more 'bang for your buck' in creation levels by increasing Essence Mastery than by increasing shaping skill, at least until Essence Mastery becomes twice as expensive as the shaping skill (and this would scale, because at higher levels each point in Essence Mastery gives more essence, but the cost to buff creation attributes does not increase), you get more stats in creations and more versatility in terms of what you can do with your essence (spells, all categories of creations) by buffing Essence Mastery compared with buffing your shaping skills.

 

Anything wrong with that math? I think it's fine, it just makes buffing your shaping skill (even as a shaper) seems like a bad value. Maybe that's a bummer since it's the most cost effective attribute to increase for the shaper class. If it's not worth pumping the shaping attributes (even for shapers)... then what's the point of the class? Might as well play agent or guardian, use tomes, canisters, and minimal skill point investment to hit 3-4 shaping skill, and then you can be exactly as good at shaping as the shaper class, but with far-improved scaling in your survivability, spells, and physical damage. I guess the counterargument could be that creations are always OP so there's no need to complain about things being less-than-optimized for the class.

Regardless I think I just convinced myself to focus almost exclusively on Essence Mastery as I level up... trying to figure out how to build a Shaper for torment and that seems like the logical play.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Felix_Felicis

[Randomizer]

There is a limit of 5 level increases that you can give a creation, so after those you need to increase the Shaping skill to give it even more levels. Also more canisters in the creation type will give it more levels, but there are usually only 3 or 4 except for the ornk.

 

Having more of the Shaping skill reduces the chance of a creation ogling rogue.

 

While an agent or guardian will always do more that an individual creation, It's easy to make an army of 7 creations that will combine to do more damage and even facing mental attacks, not all of them will suffer from them.

 

You can make a torment difficulty Shaper by focusing on both Essence Mastery and a single Shaping class. Use low level creations like cryoa or searing artila and get at least 4 of them that eventually have all 5 level increase, innate haste, no cool down period, and their area effect attack.

[alhoon]

Another thing is that essence mastery as you said gives 10 essence with which you can boost Just two creations to+1 lvl. I would have a large party, friend. So essence mastery doesn't give me more bank for my buck but I raise it because it gives me more creations. I think it's better to have +1 cryoa than to have 2 cryoas at +1 lvl. 

[RedBeard]

So in total, what is the maximum amount of points will you be willing to invest in Essence Mastery Skill?