Survivability in Path of Exile 2 is about building layered defenses, not just stacking one stat. Based on thousands of hours of gameplay, this guide breaks down the true priority of defenses, explaining how resistances, mitigation, and your effective health pool (EHP) work together to keep you alive in Wraeclast’s deadliest encounters.
Table of Contents
Defense Layer 1: Cap Your Elemental Resistances
This is your absolute first priority. Resistances are a multiplier to all other defenses because they reduce damage before any other calculation.
- Fire, Cold, Lightning Resistance: Always cap these at 75% as soon as possible. This means a 1000 damage hit becomes a 250 damage hit before anything else is applied.
- Chaos Resistance: Unlike PoE 1, chaos damage no longer bypasses Energy Shield, but it deals double damage to it. While less critical early on, you should aim for positive chaos res in the endgame, especially if you’re using Energy Shield.
Defense Layer 2: Choose Your Mitigation
After resistances, you need a way to reduce or avoid the damage that gets through. Your choice should synergize with your build’s primary attribute.
- Armor (Strength Builds):
- Best Against: Many small physical hits.
- Weakness: Less effective against massive, one-shot physical strikes.
- How it Works: Damage reduction scales with the hit size. The formula is
Armour / (Armour + 25 × Damage). Small hits are reduced significantly; big ones punch through.
- Evasion & Deflection (Dexterity Builds):
- Evasion: Chance to completely avoid attacks (but not spells). Excellent against slow, hard-hitting enemies.
- Deflection (New in PoE 2): A revolutionary dexterity-based layer. It provides a flat percentage reduction to all hit damage (including spells and AoEs), starting at a minimum of 40%. It has no cap and scales with your Evasion rating, making it an incredibly powerful dual layer for dex characters.
- Block:
- A hybrid layer that gives a chance to completely negate an attack or spell. Requires significant investment in shields or passive nodes but can be combined with other mitigation for extreme durability.
Defense Layer 3: Build Your Effective Health Pool (EHP)
Your Life or Energy Shield is the final buffer. But EHP isn’t just a number—it’s your health after mitigation.
- Life: The straightforward health pool. Always have a sufficient amount to survive a large hit after your mitigation layers are applied.
- Energy Shield (Intelligence Builds):
- Pros: Can be built very high and recharges automatically.
- Cons: Has a 2-second recharge delay after taking damage, leaving you vulnerable. Chaos damage deals double damage to ES. Damage over Time (DoT) effects are extremely dangerous.
Numeric Example: 2,000 Life with 50% Deflection is effectively ~3,333 EHP against a large hit, as each hit is halved before damaging your life pool.
The Golden Rule: Match Defense to Your Main Stat
The most efficient way to build defenses is to follow your build’s natural scaling:
- Strength → Armor & Life
- Dexterity → Evasion, Deflection & Life
- Intelligence → Energy Shield
Trying to build high Armor on a pure Intelligence character is much harder and less effective than leveraging ES and supplementing it with other layers.
Essential Checklist for Survivability
- ✅ Cap Elemental Resistances (75%+): Non-negotiable.
- ✅ Choose a Primary Mitigation Layer: Armor, Evasion/Deflection, or Block.
- ✅ Build Sufficient EHP: Enough Life or ES to survive what gets through your mitigation.
- ✅ Include Recovery: Life/ES Leech, Regeneration, or reliable Flask usage.
- ✅ Plan for DoTs and Chaos Damage: These bypass many defenses and require specific solutions like flask modifiers or passive skills.
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