The real reason Evasion isn't viable

Just wanted to add to those who suggested "Blind" as an option. Consider that a GGG dev stated that rares, bosses (and maybe blue) monsters are immune to blind, then going the Blind route is useless to you when you most need it... just like armor :P

Ive managed to blind rares myself, its uncommon, but happens, dunno if Ive ever blinded a boss. To note, ive seen the blind effect above thier heads, not sure if it actually blinded them, was busy killing them.

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BitterBiped wrote:

Just wanted to add to those who suggested "Blind" as an option. Consider that a GGG dev stated that rares, bosses (and maybe blue) monsters are immune to blind, then going the Blind route is useless to you when you most need it... just like armor :P

They're immune to Chance to Flee. Nothing is immune to blind. I've blinded bosses just fine.

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BitterBiped wrote:

Just wanted to add to those who suggested "Blind" as an option. Consider that a GGG dev stated that rares, bosses (and maybe blue) monsters are immune to blind, then going the Blind route is useless to you when you most need it... just like armor :P

'

i blinded almost every boss in my complete solo run . blind falls off pretty hard in maps though ( you cant blind 2 brutuses, blind does nothing vs pack of 8 alchemists)

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dark_madmax wrote:

you cant blind 2 brutuses

That's what Cleave is for.

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blind does nothing vs pack of 8 alchemists)

Does it? I know they have a projectile move that I assume is their basic ranged attack, and then they have the delayed explosion poison cloud. I'm pretty sure it helps against the projectile attack.

I still think Blind should be earlier in the Shadow reward list. That+Temporal Chains makes evasion seriously work, issues mentioned earlier i.e. fucking chaos snipers notwithstanding.

My favourite is using WB to blind a bunch of melee dudes at once, after slapping down a Hex Mastered TC. That's fun, that is.

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BitterBiped wrote:

Just wanted to add to those who suggested "Blind" as an option. Consider that a GGG dev stated that rares, bosses (and maybe blue) monsters are immune to blind, then going the Blind route is useless to you when you most need it... just like armor :P

Link?

Unless this is a recent change, something is amiss here. I've blinded brutus on a number of occasions.

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Charan wrote:

I still think Blind should be earlier in the Shadow reward list. That+Temporal Chains makes evasion seriously work, issues mentioned earlier i.e. fucking chaos snipers notwithstanding.

My favourite is using WB to blind a bunch of melee dudes at once, after slapping down a Hex Mastered TC. That's fun, that is.

Blind is amazing. I link it to my Skeleton Totem and it allows a single skeleton to facetank Cruel Piety in fire form. Clearly a very very underrated support gem that I think needs more exposure.

Which, funnily enough, I got blasted in chat yesterday for advocating a mix of AR/ER over Iron Reflexes.

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Strill wrote:

That's the conclusion I've made. I switched from 16,000 armour with Iron Reflexes to 8400 evasion 1200 armour with Arrow Dodging and I'm far, far more survivable than I was before. Negating ranged and elemental enemies is huge.

I think that hybrid evasion builds have the most potential, but only once you've got enough evasion to max out arrow dodging while still getting enough of your other defensive stat.

Probably depends a bit on context, but you nailed the practical application. There are two versions of hybrid that work:

- Both have 4-5 endurance charges, to amplify the value of your low armour rating values.

- Approach 1 builds west and grabs some combination of leather and steel / steelskin. Run determination and focus your effort toward finding gear that has high +armor affixes. Keep the mana globe, use Determination. With this approach you're giving up the very top of your armour budget for the very beginning of the evasion curve. The beginning of the evasion curve is worth many times more than the end of the armor curve, in almost all cases.

- Approach 2 builds east and grabs some combination of leather and steel / reflexes. Run grace and buy arrow dodging. Now we focus gear effort to +%defence/+evasion. In this approach we've lessened the diminishing return on evasion with arrow dodging, but then given up the very top of the evasion curve for some mitigation. Multiplying its benefit by number of endurance charges, of course. The reason this is practical is that the end of the evasion curve suffers from pretty terrible diminishing returns, and the only reason to go that high ever is arrow dodging+acrobatics.

These things all work. The key point is that you need far more than JUST life/defense rating/resist. These three basic things are just the very beginning of a defense. The interesting part is how you choose to complete that defense. In my hybrid duelist's case, I choose to link life on hit to my ice shot (and leech to BA), use that chill to the greatest possible effect, keep enfeeble on switch with my projectile weakness, and have rejuvenation totem on my hotbar for bad situations. See, all these things are defense. Can't complain about the rating system itself without explaining how you fill the holes in your defense.

Cheers

Arrow dodging is a little OP in default. I can pretty much go afk on some tail spike snakes in merciless lol