Shaman build question

[lopschi93]

So I started late into 1.1 and atm I am playing an avalanche shaman since the Storm totem minion did dissapoint me too much

My question is about the defensive layers I am building.
I am combining the passives
Fist of stone + cornered beast + spirit warden + swirling maelstrom + ironbark
Additionally I am going for health and health regen

The idea is to have a high enough health pool so that the endurance threshhold and cornered beast work at the same time. This combined with super high health regen and spirit warden should sustain me "on low life"

But I am not sure this will be enough for the dmg of higher corruptions.
Should I try to get a good Font of the erased? But I got zero ward in my build

[battl3hamm3r]

I would suggest getting a 2nd defense with endurance, either armor or block... armor is best because its only 1 stat that you have to invest in

[Tyyne]

HP + armor + resistances + dodge + maybe block/ward. If you are going for +hp regen, I'd say aim for 1k+

[Ravenkid9266]

Maelstrom https://www.lastepochtools.com/skills/maelstrom/sources

Maelstrom really is an all in type of skill, there are a lot of options and cross skill synergy the problem is coming up with the EHP to take advantage of all of the benefits. So your idea of using Maelstrom as sustain and the low life DR is just the start but also the problem.

https://lastepoch.tunklab.com/ehp

Use that, and plug your numbers in and play around with your options to see how they effect your EHP. The long and short of it is not if you can do it, but is it worth it? Is maintaining a HP less then 35% worth the trade to get 20% DR? Using that calculator you can find out.

If it were me? I would go a ward low life setup, yes even after the ward changes, and rather then relying on endurance, lean more into the ward+ DR from cornered beast, and spec Maelstrom to pick up the slack. See the first link for Maelstrom and all the options under the "skill tree nodes" and "skill sources" tabs.

As for general defensive layers, look at how each of those layers are "defeated" to make your choices.

Napkin math I would start with: Exsanguinous, Eye of Storms, Branch of Hallows, and Tempestuous large Idols. Although druid might end up being a better option then shaman due to the transformation options. As you point out your build has no ward, and the interaction of low life ward and low life conditional DR is pretty hard to pass up.

Basically being able to maintain the DR from Cornered is substantial being comparable to Wings when moving, or a stacked null portent.