PoE 2: Evasion Explained

Evasion is one of the standard Defence stats in Path of Exile 2. You'll typically find Evasion related stats on Dexterity-aligned gear and on the right side of the passive skill tree.

Tip: check out our guides on the other standard Defence stats: Armour and Energy Shield!

What is Evasion?

Evasion is a defensive stat that grants a chance to Evade all incoming Hits except unavoidable telegraphed Boss abilities by default. When a Hit is Evaded, the Hit is fully discarded and does not process through the normal order of operations.

Note: though similar, Avoiding a Hit via the Dodge Roll is not considered Evading.

The chance to Evade a Hit is determined by weighing the attacker's Accuracy Rating against the defender's Evasion Rating. However, Evasion is not a purely chance-based system due to its inherent Entropy mechanic, detailed below.

Evasion only works against Hits and does not interact with Damage over time in any way, for example you cannot Evade a Damage over time Ground Effect.

Note: a Hit must connect with its target to inflict a Damaging Ailment such as Bleeding, thus Evasion can prevent the application of certain Damage over time effects.

Deflection

The Deflection stat is typically obtained alongside Evasion due to the nature of modifiers that provide this stat. Deflection is rolled in addition to Evasion, using a similar calculation, and provides Damage reduction upon a successful roll. See our full guide on Deflection here for more information.

The formula below is used to calculate the chance to Evade provided by Evasion, where DE is the total Evasion Rating of the defender and AA is the total Accuracy Rating of the attacker.

Chance to Evade = ( 1 - ( AA * 1.25) / ( AA + DE * 0.3 ) ) * 100

The chance to Evade a Hit is hard-capped at 95% and therefore an attacker's chance to Hit cannot be lower than 5%, regardless of the above formula.

Entropy is a system that's used to ensure that there can be no lucky or unlucky streaks of Hits or Evades by chance.

When an entity intercepts a Hit that can be Evaded for the first time in 100 server ticks, or approximately 3.333 seconds, an Entropy value is randomly rolled between 0 and 99. The attacker's chance to Hit is added to the Entropy value. If the Entropy value is 100 or greater, the Hit connects and 100 is subtracted from the Entropy value. If the Entropy value is less than 100 after the attacker's chance to Hit has been added, then the Hit is Evaded and nothing is subtracted.

Note: Entropy is a character stat and is therefore shared between all entities Hitting the character.

The following is an example of Entropy in action:

1. A Monster casts a Fireball directed at the Player Character.
2. This is the first intercepting Hit for the Player Character in at least 100 server ticks and therefore Entropy is rolled randomly between 0 and 99, landing on 68.
3. Weighing the Monster's Accuracy Rating against the Player's Evasion Rating, the Fireball has a 23% chance to Hit.
4. The chance to Hit is added to the Entropy value, bringing it up to 91.
5. The Entropy value is less than 100, thus the Hit is Evaded.
6. A different Monster also casted a Fireball directed at the Player Character which is intercepted immediately after the first.
7. This Monster also has the same Accuracy Rating, resulting in the same 23% chance to Hit.
8. The chance to Hit is added to the Entropy value, bringing it up to 114.
9. The Entropy value is equal to or greater than 100, thus the Hit connects and 100 is subtracted from the Entropy value, bringing it down to 14.

Note: an existing Entropy value is discarded if the entity does not intercept a Hit that can be Evaded in more than 100 server ticks.

Evasion also provides an inherent chance to prevent an incoming Hit that can be Evaded from being a Critical Hit.

If a Hit that would be a Critical Hit passes the initial Hit check and is confirmed to not be Evaded by the defender, it will need to pass a secondary check to confirm the Critical Hit. At this stage, a random number is rolled between 1 and 100. This number is entirely separate from Entropy and does not interact with the Entropy mechanic in any way. The randomly rolled number is then compared to the attacker's chance to Hit. If the chance to Hit is higher than the roll, the Critical Hit is confirmed. However, if the chance to Hit is equal to or less than the roll, the Hit is downgraded from a Critical Hit to instead be a normal Hit.

Note: even if the Hit fails the secondary Critical Hit check, it will still connect as it already passed the initial Hit check.

There are some modifiers that will cause a Hit to fully bypass the chance to Hit calculation and proceed with the order of operations.

Hits can't be Evaded

Modifiers such as 'Your Hits can't be Evaded' will force any attacks that normally require an Accuracy check to fully ignore the chance to Hit calculation, essentially making both the attacker's Accuracy Rating and the defender's Evasion Rating useless outside of secondary mechanics. There are also some Skills that cannot be Evaded by default as they contain a Skill fact stating so, for example Hammer of the Gods.

Cannot Evade

Another modifier also exists which essentially results in the same outcome, fully bypassing the chance to Hit calculation. However, this modifier instead exists on the defender. For example a character wearing Bramblejack will have the 'Cannot Evade Enemy Attacks' modifier, preventing them from Evading incoming Attack Hits from Monsters.

Evasion Base Types

Evasion is primarily gained from gear: Helmets, Body Armours, Gloves, Boots and Shields. The majority of the Dexterity-aligned base types have inherent Evasion present as the Defence stat that's tied to the item. This portion of Evasion can be scaled by local modifiers, for example 'X% increased Evasion Rating' or '+X to Evasion Rating'. These local modifiers scale the Evasion gained from the piece of gear directly and do not apply globally to your character. The Quality stat is a multiplier on the final amount of Evasion on a piece of gear.

Local vs Global Modifiers

A local modifier is one that only applies to a stat on the item it's present on, whilst a global modifier will apply to the total stat on the character. Local modifiers are found on items with inherent stats, for example Boots with inherent Evasion will be able to roll local modifiers that improve the inherent Evasion on the item. However on items where there is no inherent stat such as Jewels, or on items that can roll modifiers that do not apply to the inherent stat, such modifiers are typically global modifiers.

For example the Amulet below has a modifier that grants '25% Increased Evasion Rating' which is applied globally to the character's flat Evasion, as it cannot apply locally to any stat on the item.

The Helmet below has '+167 to Evasion Rating' in addition to '24% increased Evasion Rating'. However, as this item has inherent Evasion, these modifiers are applied locally to increase the total flat Evasion gained from the item.

Scaling Evasion

Flat Evasion gained from equipment or other sources is added together and scaled by any global Evasion Rating modifiers you have, such as 'X% increased Evasion Rating' from the passive skill tree.

Note: modifiers to Global Defences will also scale Evasion.

Blind

Blind is a Debuff that lessens the target's Accuracy Rating and Evasion Rating by 20% by default. Blind lasts for 4 seconds and the strength of its effect can be scaled by modifiers to Blind Effect.

An Evasion based character can benefit greatly from applying Blind to Monsters, lowering their Accuracy Rating and thus improving the efficiency of Evasion in the chance to Hit calculation.

Iron Reflexes

The Iron Reflexes Keystone converts all of your character's Evasion Rating into Armour. Only modifiers that scale Armour will apply to the converted portion of Armour; modifiers that scale Evasion Rating will no longer apply to this stat.