Welcome back to LOLTANK Keystone highlight series in Path of Exile! Today, we will be exploring the mechanics and applications of the Wind Dancer Keystone. Wind Dancer has an interesting history, previously being a Timeless Keystone attached to the Brutal Restraint Jewel. Although it can still be obtained from Legacy Brutal Restrain Jewels in the Standard League, in Patch 3.11 Harvest League, several Timeless keystones were moved to the core passive tree, including Wind Dancer. Let's dive into the details!

• Mechanics of Wind Dancer
• The Downsides of Wind Dancer
• The Upsides of Wind Dancer
• Understanding Evasion and Chance to Evade
• Optimizing Chance to Evade
• When to Use Wind Dancer

↖ Mechanics of Wind Dancer

Located in the middle-right section of the passive tree, just above the Ranger start area, Wind Dancer grants the following benefits and drawbacks:

• 20% less attack damage taken if you haven't been hit by an attack recently.
• 10% more chance to evade attacks if you have been hit by an attack recently.
• 20% more attack damage taken if you have been hit by an attack recently.

Before we delve deeper into the mechanics, let's briefly cover a few things.

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↖ The Downsides of Wind Dancer

The first downside of Wind Dancer is taking 20% more attack damage if you have been hit by an attack recently. It's crucial to note that these modifiers only affect attacks and have no impact on spells. When you're hit by an attack, any subsequent attacks that hit you within a four-second window will deal 20% more damage. This downside applies even if you avoid or block the damage from an attack. As long as you've been hit, the downside remains active.

However, evasion can help you avoid attacks entirely. When you evade an attack, it is fully avoided, and the attack doesn't hit you, thus bypassing Wind Dancer's downside. This doesn't mean that damage avoidance or block stats are ineffective when using Wind Dancer. Both damage avoidance and block are calculated after evasion in the damage calculation. So, while evasion remains your first line of defense, damage avoidance and block can provide additional layers of protection.

↖ The Upsides of Wind Dancer

Now, let's explore the benefits of Wind Dancer. If an attack hasn't hit you in the last four seconds, you gain 20% less attack damage taken. This modifier reduces the damage you receive from attacks that do hit you. Similar to the downside, damage avoidance and block can prevent the damage reduction from being active.

Additionally, if you have been hit by an attack recently, you gain 10% more chance to evade attacks. This modifier dynamically increases your chance to evade any specific attack. To understand how this works, we need to look at the evasion calculation.

↖ Understanding Evasion and Chance to Evade

Evasion determines your chance to evade attacks. The chance to evade is calculated based on the monster's accuracy and your evasion rating. There's also an entropy system in place to eliminate lucky or unlucky streaks. When you're attacked for the first time in a zone or after 3.33 seconds, a random entropy roll between 0 and 99 occurs. The attacker's chance to hit is added to the entropy value. If the entropy value reaches or exceeds 100, the attack hits, and 100 is subtracted from the value.

With the 10% more chance to evade from Wind Dancer, the chance to evade is applied dynamically to each attack. For example, if you have a 70.5% chance to evade an average monster's attack, it becomes 77.55% with the 10% more modifier. The monster's hit chance is reduced accordingly. The entropy system ensures that you have a consistent chance to be hit over time, regardless of initial entropy rolls.

↖ Optimizing Chance to Evade

To optimize the benefits of Wind Dancer, it's ideal to have around 87% chance to evade against average monsters. This ensures that when you do get hit, your chance to evade becomes 95% after the modifier from Wind Dancer kicks in. Against an average level 85 monster with 559 accuracy, you would need around 65,000 evasion rating to achieve the 87% chance to evade.

There are various ways to increase your evasion rating. The Grace aura provides flat evasion and increased evasion scaling. Passives on the tree and modifiers on items like Eldritch body armor can further boost your evasion. Dread Banner and blind mechanics can also enhance evasion efficiency by reducing the monster's accuracy rating.

Blind, which reduces accuracy and evasion, is particularly effective when combined with increased blind effect. This reduces the monster's accuracy, improving your chance to evade. Other modifiers, such as the Armor and Evasion Mastery and the Raider's Avatar of the Chase ascendancy notable, can also impact your chance to evade. Be aware of monsters with increased accuracy modifiers, as they will make it harder to evade their attacks.

↖ When to Use Wind Dancer

There are two main use cases for Wind Dancer.

Firstly, in boss encounters, you can utilize Wind Dancer solely for the less attack damage taken modifier. By actively avoiding the boss's normal attacks, you can leverage the Keystone's damage reduction to potentially tank powerful hits like the Shaper slam.

Secondly, Wind Dancer is commonly used on characters with high chance to evade attacks. To optimize its benefits, aim for around 87% chance to evade against average monsters. This can be achieved through various methods discussed earlier. Once you have reached this sweet spot, Wind Dancer becomes a valuable defensive option, mitigating damage from attacks that penetrate your evasion.

That's all for this guide on Wind Dancer in Path of Exile. We hope this information helps you make informed decisions regarding this Keystone and enhances your understanding of evasion mechanics. Stay tuned for more articles in our Keystone highlight series.