Path of Exile 2: Evasion gets massive buff ahead of patch 0.3 launch

GGG has made yet another round of last-minute changes before the release of patch 0.3, and Evasion in Path of Exile 2 is way stronger now. The gist is that Evasion now works on everything except for red-flash boss skills (the ones that play the stinger cue). In other words, every character with any Evasion Rating will now have what the old Acrobatics Keystone Passive used to offer.

That being said, GGG has also nerfed the Evasion formula, but the exact numbers of this haven't been revealed.

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Evasion classes are even stronger than before in Path of Exile 2

The old Acrobatics Keystone (Image via GGG)

Evasion is now busted enough to rival Energy Shield from the 0.1 days. With The Third Edict, Path of Exile 2 introduced the Deflection mechanic to make endgame DEX/Evasion builds essentially 40% more durable. And now, Evasion Rating itself is much more useful at keeping you alive.

Before, Evasion would only work against regular melee swings and projecile hits. Now, it will defend you against area attacks, area spells, projectiles and effects that cover a wide area, and almost any Hits, i.e. singular damage instances. The only things excluded from this protection is damage-over-time effects (such as Ailments and environmental hazards), and as mentioned earlier, specific boss moves.

With the base 0.3 patch, Path of Exile 2 also gave Blocking a similar treatment. Like the old Warbringer Turtle Charm passive, Blocking now works against all Hits. But to offset that, GGG nerfed base maximum block chance to 50% down from 75%. Evasion, by comparison, still has a maximum cap of 95%.

The nerf with Evasion is that you'll basically need more Evasion Rating than you'd need before. This is calculated relative to Monster Accuracy, which tends to go up with Monster levels and only becomes particularly problematic if Rares or Waystones have Accuracy affixes.

But how much more Evasion Rating will you need to be safe after patch 0.3? That's where we are kept in the dark. For reference, the now-removed Acrobatics node used to lower your Evasion Rating by 75%.

In other news, today's pre-patch changes also target-nerfed Deadeye. The Thrilling Chase is now only 50% likely to double your Frenzy-consumption effects, but the more menaingful nerf is on Bullseye. It's now 5 stacks of Critical Weakness per Mark consumed, down from 10 (originally introduced as 20 stacks). Regardless, Deadeye is still the clear outlier as the S-tier Ascendancy in The Third Edict.

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Check out our other guides on the game:

• Path of Exile 2 tier list for all Ascendancies
• 5 biggest changes in patch 0.3, The Third Edict
• 5 Deadeye builds to try in Path of Exile 2 The Third Edict (0.3)
• 6 strongest league starter builds for 0.3
• The Third Edict Twitch drops