This opinion applies mostly to Wizard PvE builds, but I’m curious to know how it is for other classes.
As a Wizard, I find that any build working off the Shock debuff are vastly superior to any other build you can come up with. For context, the shock effect makes enemies take 50% more lightning damage, which synergizes extremely well with many wizard lightning skills as well as the electrocute primary attack.
By building around one of the two helm aspects that give shock (Electric Orbs or Static Field), you can make easy to use builds that have both great AoE damage and single target DPS, without the clunky gameplay mechanics of building around say, Terminus Est or the new Mask of Many charge helmet. Sometimes I try to go back to older builds that used to be fine, but without Shock it’s like playing with a handicap.
I don’t know how it is for other classes. I don’t think that it’s a major issue in PvP because it’s harder to apply shock to opponents consistently, unless you’re a whale stomping much lower reso players. But my point is that the last batch of new essences have proven that it doesn’t matter what you release in the future. Shock rules all and it will make any future new essences irrelevant unless these essences enable even better shock builds. Something needs to change…