My last 2 characters (spellcaster thunderer and elemental archer dreamkiller) have given me some headaches on gear optimization

I'm quite content with my thunderer but my dreamkiller, although it's still on epic, i can already see I'm gonna have more headache when i get to legendary

so to keep my sanity, I'm planning to make a hybrid melee/caster juggernaut.. although it's a hybrid, my experience says hybrids are easier to gear than unconventional builds.. I'm quite sure I'm gonna bore with pure melee so I'll get volcanic orb and eruption

now here is why I'm making this thread: when i play hybrids, i either go str + dex first or int + dex first.. not start it as a hybrid as early as lvl 1.. skills won't be a problem i think because i can just respec and i don't think I'll have any difficulties before i get to delphi where the oracle first appears.. but stats are a different matter because i can't buy them back.. and it's been long while since i last played earth.. so my question: do i start as str + dex first or int + dex first? anyone can give their opinions but

@CrocMagnum
@Firebrand
@Benitot

i want you guys to chime in

i don't have many early game items but i remember i have:

amulet with + 1 to earth
fell blade
oath breaker
oracle's wreath
normal green helm of the magus (int req)
hallowed normal green helm (int req)
and the cheat weapon * although i might not use this except probably if shadowmaw spawns

edit: this is the * i meant
https://www.tq-db.net/category/staff
i can't link to the weapon probably because of the name..
so i just linked to staves.. first weapon on the list

right now I'm leaning towards int first either flame surge or volcanic orb.. I'm starting this as a lvl 1 character and as always, xmax x3

(This is not a critique or resentment to the game.  Sometimes it’s good to have fun    )

Aloha!  So let’s talk about items.  I know many items are good, some are so so.  But some are just plain out weird.



What is up with that reduced int requirement for armors and weapons? Why would you need to reduce int requirement when the item itself requires high int already?  Well i know it has it’s uses but… really? -30% int requirement for a lvl 48 mage item?  The reduced int requirement for weapons is even more weird.  The only int based weapons in this game are staves.  Reduced requirements, especially as high as 30%, is usually sought out so you can keep said stat to as low as minimum.  So basically, if you want to equip a staff, you would want to keep intelligence to as low possible because why would you need int for a staff weilder right?  Eh?  Is that right?  bonkers.

Veterans know that the best use for that is if you want to twink your toon to equip lvl 48 or below staves but with higher int requirement like Caduceus and Eye of Osiris to name a few.  But veterans also know that it’s a poorly thought out design because soon you can equip it anyway without the need for -30% int requirement.  The boots will just outgrow it’s usefulness and it’s a shame because it’s part of a pretty good set.





80% Reduced Defensive Ability.  On a bow.  Really now. Well yeah it’s still useful for a petmaster and for multiplayer.  Ok ranger, because this is one of the best weapons for a ranger right?  Surely a good tactic for a ranger is equipping a bow that reduces defensive ability right?  Forget about your own damage, the important thing is your wolves deal more damage.  And multiplayer because if you want to play an archer on  a multiplayer, surely you would want to be a support.  Right?  Get a grip.


So let’s talk about Ragnarok items..

Devs:  It’s Ragnarok and part of the new content is we will be adding a new type of weapon
Us:  Ok we’ll farm for them
Devs:  Yes.  We’ll make sure you find them.  Lots and lots and lots of them
Us:  This is too much really.  We want to find other items too 
Devs:  You're welcome 


Devs:  You know you should really try a club for a Hunting toon
Us:  Eh? Why would we want a club when a spear or bow is the ideal weapon?
Devs:  Because we’ll make it very good for you
Us:  Ok I’ll use it for my conqueror
Devs:  No please. We’ll even add +2 to Hunting

there 


Devs:  We’ve included many new items.  You should try them
Us:  Ok we’ll mix it with some of our items
Devs:  Ah no.  Those vanilla items are outdated now.  You can forget about them.  We’ll prove it to you

Sometimes it's fun to look back and remember the different bugs we had to endure when TQ on PC just came out. Many of these bugs were fixed in the fan patch but I'll just list what i remember:

1) deathchill aura - ravages of time did not work.. seemingly a very good skill from spirit is good only on the skill description.. but in-game, it does not give you anything at all

2) Triumph from warfare, another should have been very good skill, did not work due to bugs

3) Homados MI armor instantly maxes out your attack speed.. lolz.. although this is actually beneficial unless you're against cheesing

4) Hades' 3 high generals quest reward is 5% total damage.. very good... until you exit the game that is because the next time you reload, that 5% total damage is gone

5) Plague skill by nature.. this one i never got to experience or maybe just forgot but i read somewhere that once it was cast, it never ends.. there is no duration.. lol that must have been terrible

6) Pets including briar ward does not get difficulty bonuses.. Petmasters sure had a tough time

there must be more i just don't remember.. anything you can add?

This is not a guide.. I just thought of something crazy that i want to try with my dreamkiller in the coming days and i want to share it with you.. This is a theorycraft for now but the good thing is i already have a dreamkiller and it's a hybrid so i can go with whatever build i want

So how do we make a dreamkiller a petmaster hmm.. traps are pets now.. but why dream? ahh because of nightmare mastermind.. ok that's it, got the idea now.. that simple ...  ... nahhhh .. those 2 are part of this build but it doesn't end there.. we need more pets.. and the only way to truly justify dream is by getting lots and lots of pets so they all get mastermind.. that's where one particular pairing of skill and item comes... aphrodite's favor and throwing knife.. AoE mind control.. good for xmax.. but that's dangerous right? because what if the duration ends? instant mob.. enter traps and distort reality

this build has many holes:

1) it requires lots of skills so it takes a long time before the build takes shape

2) Aphrodite's favor is not easy to find and the level requirement is 52

3) build requires at least +4 to all skills, cast speed, and probably a bit of CDR.. maybe some pet buff rings as well

4) this build is useless in secret passage and primrose passage
(here i probably take back all the points from knives and envenom tree and put those on distortion wave)

those are the cons.. the pros are:

1) it is weird.. and

2) it is weird

that's good enough.. i will update in the coming days

Marbod's Mask.. found this in my tqvault.. what a wonderful item this is.. i'm perplexed i haven't thought of this when i first found it
-50% int requirement for armors.. what it does is it allows you to be sort of hybrid like without getting int.. which in my case allows my str/dex assassin to wear archmage's clasp



that int is only because of jewelries.. bleed res can be easily solved by secondary slot - i chose blood of ouranos



poison res, i can easily switch to apollo's will and chiron's loop.. pierce res, frankly i don't worry about that because of permanent battle standard and the playstyle of this toon.. it's primarily ranged knifethrower trapper but can also attack with onslaught.. suddenly my assassin got uber better

now i have a char i'll be busy playing again damn

but in general this item opens up other builds mainly str based toons able to wear int armors.. one time i got it to 0% int requirement.. Oddyseus armor (-30%), Marbod's Mask (-50%), and Thot's glory (-20%).. but -50% with some int from items is enough

Skinchanger - Defensive Petmaster Build Guide
Build a Fortress Around  You



First, let me just clear it... Despite what the title says, this is not a pure petmaster. You can play this as a pure petmaster but the kill speed will be slower. And besides, it's too hard to resist the urge to attack while hiding in briar ward. Make no mistake though, this is a pet heavy build. I've started this as a journal thread actually, if you want to read walls of text, you can read it here. If you want to know just how it turned out, continue reading.

At first look, nature and rune seems a clash of playstyles. Nature offers pets, what pet does rune have? stones? What aura does rune give for a petmaster? Energy armor which costs 3k+ energy to be somewhat effective? How about damage wise? Strength of the pack boosts physical damage, rune weapon deals elemental damage. The synergies of the 2 masteries seemingly clash with each other. When i created this character, i didn't expect much at all. I just believe that all combinations should be good depending on how it is built. I started this rough... well, not really rough but ugly. That's because i was going blind. I didn't know which direction to take. I tried several playstyles from melee to ranged attacker to pure petmaster, then finally settled for this build. I played it as a str/dex build with the intention of eventually going hybrid. It really started as a so-so character however when i started investing on int, that's when it started to take shape. And I'm not even talking about my damage. I'm talking about cooldown reduction and +to all skills. When i finally decided to optimize my gear to focus on those, i felt... the marriage of these 2 masteries is just divine. And i never regretted my decision to go hybrid. Gear optimization was easy enough i settled on some blues for endgame items. I have many purples and i could wear just about all of them but it's good as it is, I didn't want a self-induced headache. I never even used the legendary craftsmanship reward on any difficulty.

Stat and Gear Optimization

As you can see on the pic, it's a hybrid style but my stats aren't that high except str. But that's only because chakram of the sun has 10% str and talisman of the jade emperor has 15% str. Without those 2 items, my str is only 400+ which is still enough to wear my other items. I'm not really sure what the ideal stat distribution is and i don't really care because my stats are mainly to meet gear requirements and not really about damage dealing. Starting legendary act 1, i stopped putting points on str/dex/int and started investing on health. But this one is up to you. It just felt like most of the damage comes from my pets anyway so i decided to up my health instead partly to take advantage of max HoO. Actually, there is a hidden synergy here. The higher your health is, the more times sacred rage will proc. You don't need the exact same items i have but you would want the attributes i got from those items. My key item here is Odysseus' Armor (-30% requirements). I was able to wear it by equipping Alke/Timaios first to meet the str requirement. When i was able to wear the armor, i replaced my rings with pet jewelry. If you don't have Odysseus' Armor, there are other items that are easier to find like Symbol of the Polymath and Rhessus Whitewashed Armor. If you have reduced requirement items or items that boost stats by %, you won't lack in stat points. Skill and gear optimization, when i started focusing on pets rather than damage dealing, that's when life started getting easier. You can still play this as self-found provided you have enough knowledge about the game. I can say this because i only started gear optimization when i died against the manticore in epic. And even then i chose the wrong items. And i played this xmax x3. If you play this self-found though, farming is still recommended and you might have to start as a damage dealer. I do not recommend this build for beginners who have no experience in the game. You will see why when you get to the near end of this guide. I felt it's still ok writing this guide because i think most players who have Ragnarok have some experience with the base game already. If you think you're not ready to play hybrid, choose int/dex but if you want better end-game optimization, get str also. Don't worry if you think you will lack damage, the majority of damage dealing still comes from pets. And besides, this build is a defensive petmaster so higher armor is preferable. High DA would probably be good for this build but i find my set-up sufficient enough. Truth be told, I'm just too lazy to think of another set-up that offers high DA, high resists, high CDR and at least +4 to all skills . I chose my jewelries to be pet buff items. I really wanted to equip my ritualist of convocation amulet but i find torc of the ancestors too hard to turn down. Also, i wanted my pet rings to be 1 physical and 1 elemental but i don't have a better elemental pet ring and I'm too lazy to shop farm. It's ok though because i have strength of the pack. I don't really know which is better. I decided to use monkey king's trickery on each to reduce resistances and also to boost pierce resist. It's easier to spread resistance reduction if you use thunder strike. And that is why i don't hold back attacking with throwing weapon.

Skill Optimization

Despite the seemingly clashing playstyles, We can make the skills work together. Keep in mind though that these skills only work well together if you have + to all skills and high CDR. That's why i put gear optimization first before skill optimization.

briar ward and guardian stones - guardian stones are static pets so you don't want to run too far from them because mobs will just follow you and guardian stones wouldn't be able to reach them. Briar ward will protect you from mobs while your pets does the damage. Also for some reason, some monsters attack guardian stones so it also helps as a little CC. They won't die that easily because they also get HoO aura from you

sanctuary and energy armor - energy armor, at ultimate max, costs 3k+ energy. sanctuary reduces energy cost. You will still need some energy cost reduction from items. You can check the items i chose in my pic above. I have Pelaron shield on secondary to reduce energy cost just to cast energy armor. If you don't have them, surely you'll have golden fleece relic? Also, energy armor and sanctuary both provide damage absorption. I don't know the stacking mechanics when it comes to damage absorption but I'm 99% sure sanctuary and energy armor stacks. Why? because energy armor is flat while sanctuary is percentile. Add in overgrowth cast by nymph and that's a lot of damage absorption. I like to call these 3 skills the damage absorption combo   

energy armor and nature pets - if you cast energy armor while your pets are close to you, they get the aura too. Somehow it lasts longer on wolves than it does on my toon. I still have to resummon them from time to time but it really helps with their survivability i could get by without a convocation amulet

refresh and guardian stones - guardian stones have long cooldown. CDR and refresh will enable you to have them up at all times. You don't need too many points on refresh. You'd want the cooldown to be short also

briar ward and rune weapon/thunder strike - i went for throwing weapon and shield. Ranged weapons and briar ward really goes well together. Shield enables you to be tankier and rune has runeword:absorb. It's defensive but it goes well with the theme of the build. In my case though i only invested on rune weapon and magical charge when i had to choose between spending my points on nymph or rune weapon line. I initially chose nymph but i just kill faster if i mix some ranged attack in my playstyle so i took back those points and put it on rune weapon and magical charge. I had thunder strike maxed starting from epic onwards.

guardian stones and susceptibility - guardian stones deal elemental damage, susceptibility reduces elemental resists

briar ward and freezing mines - freezing mines? yep. I've read many people use freezing mines by luring monsters to them. I find that i can also use it with briar ward. By being stationary, you invite mobs to come to you. Freezing mines offer some protection. It freezes or slows enemies. Mines are actually only optional but it goes well with the defensive fortress theme. I suggest max briar ward and sanctuary but only 1pt each on runic mines and freezing mines.

rune of life, energy armor and permanence of stone - Rune of life gives vit and bleed res. Permanence of stone gives elemental res. Energy armor gives stun res. Those 3 skills will help you with gear optimization

HoO and sacred rage - i already mentioned this above but i felt like adding it here in the skills section anyway. Sacred rage will proc more often if you have high health. Basic math tells us with 5k health, sacred rage will proc at 2k health. With 8k health, it will proc at 3200 health. Nature and rune both give very low HP though so i compensate it with my 2 rings and some stat points.

So how does it work? As the subtitle says, Build a Fortress Around You. And as the title says, Defensive Petmaster:

1) Start by casting energy armor on you and your pets. I do this by switching to secondary which is Pelaron, then casting briar ward. Sanctuary will reduce the energy cost of energy armor. I call my pets using F1 so they also get energy armor.

2) Playstyle - Upon encounter of mob, cast briar ward first, followed by guardian stones, plague, runic mines then refresh. After that i shoot rune weapon and thunder strike, preferring thunder strike more. With 80% CDR, i can cast thunder strike every 1.4secs. Most of the time the wolves will attack monsters not in the range of guardian stones. So what i do is i press F1 and click near me, wolves will go near me and monsters will follow them, then guardian stones can attack them. It's not the case against archers. I get in their range and quickly cast briar ward. Energy armor gives me the opening i need to set up my fortress but i still take it slowly. It's too dangerous to get in the middle of them and eat all those arrows. It's not mana pot hungry because rune weapon steals energy and sanctuary reduces energy cost. I've included a short video at the end of this guide just to show how it works.

Even if briar ward falls down, you still have some protection given by energy armor, overgrowth and sanctuary. Yes, even if briar ward falls down, the effect of sanctuary stays for its duration. But you can cast briar ward again if you cast refresh provided you have high enough CDR. That's why i said earlier to focus on CDR and + to all skills items. You want briar ward and guardian stones to be always ready. But you also want briar ward, sanctuary, overgrowth, and energy armor at ultimate max level to fortify your fortress.

You cannot rely too much on briar ward though. Most Top Dog Bosses, it's better to be mobile than stationary. Some examples are Typhon (never), Surtr, Barmanu, Dactyl and Fafnir. It takes experience and familiarity of the game to know which bosses you can rely on briar ward and which you can't. But you know the other good thing about guardian stones, they don't move. It's bad but it's also good. You can summon guardian stones, cast plague, then run away to safety. Usually it's not enough but at least the stones will keep the bosses busy while you regroup or in some cases, prevent them from running away while you get to a place where they can't attack you but you can attack them. I've done this against loki and the demon bull in act 3, summoning briar ward first so they can't insta-kill me, run back, summon guardian stones and plague, then get back near entrance so i can retreat if i have to. By far the hardest boss was Typhon. You cannot cast briar ward at all because he will just replenish his life. You might kill yourself if you hit him while he has thorns. 3 Typhon legendary was just hell. You should be ok with 1 Typhon but if you want to fight 3 Typhon, say your prayers first .

There are areas in the game where you can only summon 1 or 2 guardian stones. I felt most of it were in caves in act 5. It sucks but you're still not alone. You still have 3 wolves, 1 nymph, and 1 or 2 stones. Plus you still have briar ward and throwing weapon. Another is great wall in act 3, the peng problems quest. I think the whole area i could never even summon 2 stones. It was easy though because i was tanky enough. Olympus portal, the way to Typhon, i can only summon 1 or 2 stones. But it was nothing compared to the hell that is 3 Typhon.

End of epic, my build looked something like this:

https://www.kirmiziperfect.com/titancalc-anniversary-edition/TitanCalcd6f4d6f4rune9de6.html?mastery=Skinchanger&master1=4&master2=10&sa=20&m1=32-3-15-11-1-1-7-15-3-7-1-3-1-1-5-11-1-7-1-7-1-0&m2=32-1-0-5-1-1-9-1-1-1-9-1-1-1-1-0-7-1-0-7-1-11-0

not exactly like that but close to that. i had more than +4 and i was playing xmax x3. If you want a more petmaster build, you can prioritize nymph over thunder strike.

Legendary, i started to invest some points on survival instinct, overgrowth, rune weapon and magical charge.

End of normal, i can't really remember. I tried many different playstyles that up until end of legendary act 3, i was still experimenting. I changed tactics like a girl changes clothes. Is that a bad thing? no, not at all .


these were played xmax x3 legendary
what better way to test its sturdiness than by face-tanking a pack of dragonians and act 4 lamia beastmen :>

added march 2019:

Yep title says it. This is actually my 2nd mastery guide (1st one was rogue). But unlike rogue which I've played as melee, archer, throwing weapon, mage, and petmaster, I've only played storm as a mage. Well, i think storm is best played as a mage anyway. Like my rogue guide, i will include spoiler videos to show some of my old tricks. Active members of this forum have probably seen these videos. I will not rate the skills though because it's... just.... too... hard

Storm has 2 skills that i would recommend for every build with storm no matter the playstyle or stat distribution is: squall and spell breaker. I'm not saying it's a must but if you want your gaming to be easier, i highly suggest you get those two.

Storm Mastery at lvl32:
+96 int
+32 dex
+672 health
+480 energy

Squall and Obscured Visibility:

These 2 combined are just so good i consider squall the best skill in the game (biased   ).. Obviously very good against archers and throwing weapon users but it's also good against melee mobs because it reduces physical damage by percent. Not that you would want to tank just because you have squall but it's a good defensive skill. It's also a good offensive skill because it reduces enemy resistances by percent. Only by percent but can you imagine if the devs made it flat with the same value? It would be too OP. What makes squall better is it only has 5 seconds recharge. It's not too long by itself but if you play caster, you usually would want CDR items. The recharge time becomes 1 second with 80% CDR.

Spell Breaker and Spell Shock

The other great skill. But unlike squall where you basically cast it all the time, spell breaker is only situational. Spell breaker dispels enemy buffs, drains their mana, and provides skill disruption. You can also use this to dispel hostile debuffs on yourself like study prey and ensnare. Some bosses have high skill disruption protection and energy leech resist so you can't rely on this too much. Still it helps big time against baddies like Typhon, Dactyl, Fafnir, etc. Also, i once killed myself by hitting a monster with energy shield (another storm skill) with lethal strike. I forgot it has reflection. If you have storm, you can dispel their energy shield 1st before attacking. Skill disruption seems to last longer if you cast squall first before spell breaker. I have no real evidence other than just the feel by doing it countless times. But it's possible because skill disruption is displayed as a secondary resistance on the 2nd tab of your character page. Unlike squall where it's very good to max even in early game, you can get by with just 1pt each for the most part of the game. Late game though consider maxing this skill tree. Side note: In TQIT, spellbreaker can kill bosses with just the energy drain but that was a broken mechanic and has since been fixed by the devs. It's still a very good debuff skill though and it has saved me many times from being mobbed by beastmen (ensnare).

Dactyl can't attack with his wave like thingy
Fafnir forced to attack melee
spellbreaker dispels Typhon's thorns

Ice Shard skill tree

Very good early game skill. You can clear normal with just this skill alone. If you plan to use this as your main skill all throughout the game including legendary, be sure to provide ample support. If you search for ice shard builds, the 2 most popular are probably druid and paladin. Druid is quite easy to understand because nature has briar ward and plague. Briar ward helps with survivability and energy cost while plague reduces enemy resistances. You can also have pets and of course HoO. But what  about Paladin? It seems best for melee but why are there many ice shard builds on youtube? Well, i played an ice shard paladin in TQIT and here is the answer i came up with: Ice shard is not a hit and run skill. It does very little damage if you use it like that. If you want to deal good damage you have to spam it. But if you spam it, it makes your toon static making you vulnerable to attacks. In comes defense. Defense does not have many CCs but when it comes to tankiness, Defense is still the best defense. So it helps offensively by being good defensively. What about attribute points? You need str and also int. Armor handling helps with that. It's still gear dependent because you probably would want Persephone's Caress. If you don't want to invest too many on str, you can look for swords that have % cold and frostburn suffix like of rime or of ice. You're lucky if you find it with a Tyrant's prefix. Requirement reduction items can also help. There is a less popular Persephone's Caress ice shard build. It's a Thane wielding 2 Persephone's Caress. If you have ragnarok, Rune allows you to equip 2 Persephone's without investing on str. If you want a tankier mage, Svalinn is a good shield option. cough *menhir wall* cough. Ice shard is one of the most mana intensive skills in the game so consider getting energy cost reduction or high energy regen.

Note: if you have ragnarok, you will need at least one more damage type other than cold and frostburn.

Lightning Bolt and Chain Lighting

TQIT, you could actually beat legendary with this skill alone. But those CDR OP days are long gone now. With 80% CDR capping, you can't get this to anything lower than 2.4 seconds, meaning you have to pair it with another skill of about the same recharge time or lower. Some examples are distort reality from dream and thunder strike from rune. But you know what i love about this skill? You can cast it on the far end of your screen and it will hit enemies even if you only managed to hit the ground. This results in tricks like clearing the secret passage without opening the gates or using it against the act 3 demon bull and then running back to the bridge. What about the damage? It might suck in legendary if you don't give it any support. Reduce resistances first.

beat secret passage the chicken way

Thunder Ball and Concussive Blast

Not a fan of this skill. But that's because i don't play storm as a melee char. The targeting mechanic makes this hard to hit your target if you are a ranged/caster build. It might be easier if you bind this to RMB but the problem is there are lots of better skills to bind to RMB. If you're somehow tanky like a melee storm, this will be easier to use. I always play storm as a mage so i tend to always avoid this. heck if i can play a conqueror as a mage, i will play it as a mage (lulz).

Storm Nimbus, Heart of Frost and Static Charge

The base skill gives little damage to your weapons but the 2nd and 3rd synergies are often maxed for certain builds. Max heart of frost if you deal cold damage like ice shard or ternion cold staff. Max static charge if you deal lightning damage like lightning bolt or ternion lightning staff. In AE/R, static charge also boosts EBD so that means it also boosts skills like distort reality, distortion wave, and thunder strike. However, if you are a weapon user investing on int, it might be worth maxing the whole skill tree. Throwing Knife (rogue skill) is considered a weapon attack so storm nimbus tree also boosts throwing knife. (ahh my favorite how i miss this)

Freezing Blast

In AE/R, this skill lowers physical resist by 100%. But don't be fooled into thinking you deal more physical damage if you cast this first. This skill gives damage absorption to frozen enemies by 66% and damage absorption cannot be reduced and is computed last after resistances and armor. So even if you deal double damage, you still take away more than half of the total. This means this skill is still best used as a CC. As a mage, i tend to ignore this skill but i remember one time when playing multiplayer, i was saved by this skill by a party member. i was running away with my health very low but my pots still in cooldown. Buddy cast freezing blast on the monsters pursuing me and i was saved

The Almighty Wisp

One pet that is good on all 3 difficulties even if you leave it at only lvl 1. Even at lvl 1, this pet already has 99% chance to avoid projectiles and melee attacks. It will still die against AoE spells but for the most part of the game, it will stay alive. And even if it dies you can just resummon it. But what makes this pet so good is eye of the storm. It increases your elemental damage by 100% at 8/8 and 140% at 12/8. This is a must for storm spellcasters. It's also an aura so it also boosts your pets and allies if you play in multiplayer. That means if you equip elemental pet buffs like jewelry, it increases your pets' elemental attacks. As a mage player though i always favor mage jewelry like occult rings rather than pet buff jewelry (yeah I'm biased). This also provides lighting and cold resist.

Storm Surge

For me, this is a one-point wonder. I like it for the stun and yes it always procs because you will still get hit. One point won't hurt.

Energy Shield and Reflection

This has been changed in AE/R. In TQIT, the damage absorption is flat so the aura disappears when the absorption dissipates. But in AE/R, the absorption is percentile and the aura lasts 100 seconds. One thing to note is the buff is absorption. So it's still good even if you already have high lightning and cold resists. One side note: I always recommend getting high resists even if you already have damage absorption. Reflection is the better skill of the 2 imo. It reflects all types of damage, not just lightning and cold. Imo late game when you've already maxed your core skills, reflection is a good choice to sink your loose skill points. It's only percent chance to proc but when it procs, the damage returned is more than doubled. And as I've said before, you will still get hit. One trick here is you can cast it on your pets and allies too giving them thorns. But if you have many pets/allies, casting this every 100 seconds will be painful :/

Some storm builds i can recommend:

Prophet
Tsunderer.. oh sorry i mean Thunderer. This class offers many possible playstyles
noogens’ thunderer
i haven't recorded a good video of my thunderer so I'll just use my naruto edition video
edit: now i have, thunderer spellcaster:
Sorcerer
Druid
noogens’ druid

You can play storm as a spellcaster, weapon user or a mix of both. Weapon users has the potential to deal higher single target damage but spellcasters can deal better AoE damage and is easier to use when kiting in my experience. Many people still think spellcasters fall off in legendary. It does not if you know what you are doing. Monsters just get resistances in higher difficulties that's why they get tougher. If you have items that reduce resistances, it's easier to debuff if you're a weapon user. Spellcasters on the other hand can equip Aphrodite's Favor and not be bothered by the mind control. You can still reduce resistances of bosses and they won't get mind-controlled by Aphrodite's Favor. Consider equipping a boreas staff or similar resistance reduction items on secondary. I specialize on caster builds. If you want to play storm as a weird melee hybrid, other veterans in this forum can give better help. Ask @gasconron    . If you want to play a ternion oracle, ask @Tauceti  . Other veterans in this forum can probably also help. Those 2 names are just what came to my mind when i wrote hybrid melee and ternion build.

I think i somehow made a reference to every class except hunting and earth. Hunting, i haven't paired it with storm yet but i think this could be good as a ranged attacker. Monster lure is just so good with high CDR. You can take my word on this. And with high CDR, you can have permanent call of the hunt (65% or above). It's up to you if you're ready to play hybrid though. I think you can also play it as an ice sharder. Abuse monster lure, squall and study prey-flush out. Elementalist, the only experience i had with this class was back in TQIT and i only made it good when i was able to stack very high CDR (>90%). It's not possible in AE/R anymore. You can visit @Firebrand 's earth guide here for more info on earth. @CrocMagnum  is another earth nut that can probably help.

credits:
special thanks to noogens (JTN gaming) for Druid and Thunderer videos
gasconron, Tauceti, Firebrand and CrocMagnum because i used their names (without permission) and redirected other members to them for advice/tips