Is acrobatics worth getting?

[Schneckenkönig Xoron]

I am playing a ranger at lv 45 on hardcore. She use a mixture of armor and evasion gear and has almost no energy shield. Should i take the keystone even if it cuts my armor to half or should i spare the nodes for something better?

[Lagwin1980]

I'd only use it if it was for a char that was pure evasion, i doubt this could work unless you can get 50% or more chance to evade regardless of armour. at which point the armour(even halfed) is a bonus

[Prince-Nyan]

You've speced into armour I would assume, it is a bit too late to dive into Acrobatics as you'd half the value of any/all armour (or dual Armour/eva) nodes. Arcobatics mostly relies on pure evasion with flat % damage reduction spells, Flasks and buffs to make up for the lost armour.

[jbridso]

As a ranger you'll either go Iron Reflexes (armor) or Pure Evasion/Acrobatics. No matter which way you choose to go, you will need to use pure % damage reduction flasks/endurance charges/fortify/resists to avoid one-shots late game along with high hps.

[Man Bong]

For what it's worth, Acrobatics and nodes behind it can give you really good defensive value if your gear isn't excatly up to par. Idk how much armour you have invested in but if you don't plan on getting super high armour values it may be worth it to get acrobatics and use artic armour, endurance charges, enfeeble, etc. to make sure you don't end up getting 1-shoted by the heavy hitters in this game.

[Schneckenkönig Xoron]

I think i go iron reflexes and be the more heavy archer. Acrobatics may be a good node but the fear of getting oneshoted is to high. Thanks for the useful answers ;)

[Haas]

Depends on how many points you'd have to invest to pick it up and how many points you have already invested into armor.

Dodge, from Acrobatics, is a very strong defensive pickup because it is an -additional- roll. It isn't just +30% to evasion or anything of the sorts (a common misconception). It essentially gives a 30% that any attack that hits you (after evasion rolled) misses you anyway.

Generally, it's definitely worth picking up if your main focus has been life or evasion.

[davidb11]

Evasion and Acrobatics go hand in hand. Iron Reflexes and Acrobatics do not. :P
I'd recommend trying for the Acrobatics only on an Evasion build.
And yeah, with about 4.5 to 5K life on tier 6 and lower maps, you should be fine as long as your DPS is good as well.

Above Teir 6 maps, I'd recommend a little bit more life and flasks.
A granite flask of iron skin is a good choice even for an acrobatics build. You'd be surprised how that much armor, even reduced by acrobatics is helpful.

[GoorolinaPumpkin.TTV]

I tried an evasion build on a level 60 scion when she had the full respec from an update.

worse mistake I could ever make.

not only did I have very poor damage but I was still getting hit anyway.

[davidb11]

Originally posted by PumpkinMusic:

I tried an evasion build on a level 60 scion when she had the full respec from an update.

worse mistake I could ever make.

not only did I have very poor damage but I was still getting hit anyway.

Er, well, Evasion works when you're not melee better than melee. :P
Also, Evasion does have diminishing returns, and has a coding check to make it not as effective after so many misses, although that changes to being full effectiveness after the hit.

THey coded it that way to make sure the game doesn't get broken by an insane streak of luck where your 55% evasion applies to every attack ever, and you never get hit ever. :P

Also, Pure Evasion is bad. That's why people recommend Acrobatics, or even granite flasks for surprise Xandros :)

[Snakejuice]

Originally posted by davidb11:

Also, Evasion does have diminishing returns, and has a coding check to make it not as effective after so many misses, although that changes to being full effectiveness after the hit.

That's not exactly right, evasion has predictable returns, not diminishing returns.
Example:
A player is fighting three monsters, one(A) with a 70% chance to hit and two(B,C) with a 45% chance to hit.
A attacks. The player's entropy is a random number between 0-99, in this case 37.
A adds 70 to the counter, raising it to 100 or greater, and hits. 100 is subtracted and the counter is now 7.
B attacks, adding 45. 52
C attacks, adding 45. 97
A attacks, adding 70. This hits and the counter becomes 67.

[davidb11]

Oh. Okay. I must have misunderstood the people in chat then. THey mentioned how it was coded, but I done goofed. :P

[K0rkki]

@Snakejuice interesting. Had to go and look it up on the wiki for extra info on the mechanics. Sooo, in other words increasing evasion increases the amount of hits you can take before the entropy number reaches the 100 (you take a hit) and reduces the chance of a hit being a critical hit. Acrobatics adds the dodge chance and dodged attacks do not affect the entropy value. Fair enough. So all you have to do is make sure that whenever something goes through it isn't enough to take you down.

Btw, for anyone running Acrobatics it's a good idea to have atleast a tiny amount of energy shield because as long as you have any you have a hidden 50% chance to ignore being stunned even if the hit taken is greater than your energy shield.

[jbridso]

The biggest issue you need to watch out for as an evasion build is actually physical spell damage which completely bypasses it. Thus, why you still need some alternative methods to reduce physical damage ie) endurance charges, pots, fortify.

Evasion really sucks when you run into that exile that drops Etheral Knives totems and Bear Traps.

[davidb11]

Oh, yeah, I forgot about him.
Yeah, you need armor flasks for certain. Or something to nullify that.