PoE Arrow Dancing — Path of Exile

Arrow Dancing is a keystone passive skill in Path of Exile that dramatically alters how your character interacts with different types of attacks by modifying their evasion rating. Specifically, Arrow Dancing doubles your evasion rating against projectile attacks but reduces your evasion rating against melee attacks by 25%. This keystone is particularly useful for characters that frequently face projectile-based enemies and need to bolster their defense against ranged threats.

PoE Arrow Dancing

Specifics

Evasion Rating Doubling: When you have Arrow Dancing, your character’s evasion rating against projectile attacks is doubled. This means that the likelihood of evading attacks such as arrows, spines, or spikes is significantly increased. This effect is especially useful in situations where your character is being targeted by multiple ranged enemies or bosses that rely heavily on projectile-based attacks.
Reduced Evasion Against Melee Attacks: The trade-off for this increased protection against projectiles is a reduction in evasion against melee attacks. Arrow Dancing reduces your evasion rating against melee attacks by 25%. This makes your character more vulnerable to close-range enemies, as your ability to dodge melee hits is diminished.
Projectile Attacks: Arrow Dancing specifically targets evasion against projectile attacks, which include almost all arrows, spines, or spikes that are launched by enemies. It’s important to note that this keystone does not affect spell projectiles. Spells cannot be evaded and thus are not influenced by the increased evasion rating provided by Arrow Dancing.

Optimal Use Cases

Ranged Builds: Characters that rely on ranged attacks and generally keep their distance from enemies benefit greatly from Arrow Dancing. By maintaining distance, they can maximize the effectiveness of their doubled evasion rating against projectiles while minimizing exposure to melee threats.
Projectile-Heavy Encounters: Arrow Dancing is particularly effective in scenarios where the majority of incoming damage is from projectiles, such as when facing archer mobs, ranged bosses, or in areas where traps or environmental hazards use projectile attacks.
Dodging Focused Builds: Builds that prioritize evasion and focus on avoiding damage through dodging can use Arrow Dancing to further enhance their defense against projectiles, making them nearly untouchable by ranged enemies.

Considerations

Spell Projectiles: Since Arrow Dancing does not affect spell projectiles, builds that frequently face spellcasting enemies should consider additional defenses against spells, such as spell suppression or block chance.
Melee Vulnerability: The reduced evasion rating against melee attacks makes your character more vulnerable to close-range combat. It’s crucial to pair Arrow Dancing with strategies that mitigate melee damage, such as using movement skills to maintain distance, investing in other forms of damage reduction, or relying on crowd control abilities to keep melee enemies at bay.
Combination with Other Keystones: Arrow Dancing can be combined with other keystone passive skills that influence defense, such as Acrobatics or Phase Acrobatics, to create a well-rounded evasion-based defense strategy.

PoE Arrow Dancing Build

Classes:

Warden: 42%
Deadeye: 21%
Slayer: 12%
Pathfinder: 4%
Berserker: 4%
Trickster: 4%
Elementalist: 3%
Champion: 3%
Ascendant: 1%
Necromancer: 1%
Hierophant: 1%
Assassin: 1%
Juggernaut: 0%
Inquisitor: 0%
Occultist: 0%
Gladiator: 0%
Chieftain: 0%
Saboteur: 0%
Guardian: 0%
Shadow: 0%

Main Skills:

Elemental Hit of the Spectrum: 44%
Artillery Ballista: 21%
Vaal Lightning Strike: 10%
Lightning Strike: 10%
Storm Rain: 8%
Tornado Shot: 7%
Flicker Strike: 7%
Lightning Arrow: 5%
Ice Crash of Cadence: 5%
Ethereal Knives of the Massacre: 3%
Vaal Lightning Arrow: 3%
Artillery Ballista of Cross Strafe: 3%
Molten Strike of the Zenith: 1%

Masteries:

10% of Leech is Instant: 75%
12% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills: 62%
15% increased maximum Life if there are no Life Modifiers on Equipped Body Armour: 51%
Increases and Reductions to Projectile Speed also apply to Damage with Bows: 47%
Hits have 25% chance to treat Enemy Monster Elemental Resistance values as inverted: 44%
+15% chance to Suppress Spell Damage if Equipped Helmet, Body Armour, Gloves, and Boots all have Evasion Rating: 41%
8% increased Damage for each of your Aura or Herald Skills affecting you: 41%
Enemies permanently take 5% increased Damage for each second they’ve ever been Frozen by you, up to a maximum of 50%: 34%
Chance to Suppress Spell Damage is Lucky: 26%
+30 to maximum Life: 26%
+500 to Accuracy Rating, -2 to Accuracy Rating per Level: 22%
Auras from your Skills have 10% increased Effect on you: 21%
+25% to Critical Strike Multiplier against Unique Enemies: 21%

Summary

Effect: Doubles your evasion rating against projectile attacks, but reduces your evasion rating against melee attacks by 25%.
Ideal For: Ranged builds, characters in projectile-heavy encounters, and dodging-focused builds.
Projectile Focus: Effective against nearly all physical projectiles but has no impact on spell projectiles.
Trade-Off: Increased vulnerability to melee attacks, requiring additional strategies to mitigate close-range threats.

Arrow Dancing is a valuable keystone for characters who frequently engage in ranged combat or face a significant number of projectile-based enemies. By doubling evasion against projectiles, it offers a strong defensive boost, though players must be mindful of the reduced effectiveness against melee attacks.

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