Armour, Evasion, Energy Shield and Runic Ward Explained

When an enemy attacks, the game resolves the hit through a fixed order of defence layers. Understanding this order explains why no single layer is enough on its own.

First, Evasion is checked: if you roll a successful evasion, the entire hit is avoided and nothing else happens. If the hit lands, Armour then reduces the physical portion of that hit based on its size.

After Armour, Energy Shield (if you have it) absorbs the remaining damage before any reaches your Life. Finally, Runic Ward is a separate last-layer barrier that only engages when your Life would otherwise drop to 0, catching the fatal blow so you survive at 1 Life.

• Evasion avoids the hit entirely; it does not reduce damage that lands.
• Armour only affects physical damage and scales with hit size.
• Energy Shield protects Life and recharges after a delay.
• Runic Ward is the final safety net, not a replacement for the others.

Armour is one of the three classic defence layers. It reduces the physical damage portion of hits that actually land on you.

Armour is NOT a fixed percentage reduction. Its effectiveness scales with the size of the hit: it mitigates a larger share of many small hits and a smaller share of one enormous hit. This is why a build that feels safe against trash can suddenly die to a single boss slam.

• Reduces physical damage only; elemental, chaos and damage-over-time are unaffected by Armour.
• More effective against frequent small hits than against one huge hit.
• Gains the most from Strength-aligned gear and flat Armour modifiers.
• Pair it with Life and resistances; Armour alone does not stop one-shots.

Evasion gives you a chance to avoid a hit completely. A successful roll means the hit never happens — and that also means you take no ailments (ignite, freeze, shock, bleed, poison) from that hit.

Because evasion is probabilistic, it can fail several times in a row. A hit that does get through lands at full damage: evasion does not reduce the damage of hits that connect. This is the classic 'evasion still gets hit' complaint.

• Chance to avoid hits entirely, including their ailments.
• Does not reduce damage of hits that land — all-or-nothing roll.
• Can fail repeatedly; combine with a buffer (Energy Shield, Block, or Runic Ward) for safety.
• Scales well with Dexterity gear and is the base for Deflect.

Energy Shield (ES) is an additional buffer that sits on top of your Life and absorbs damage before your Life is touched. It is associated with Intelligence and recharges over time once you avoid taking damage for a short delay.

ES interacts with damage types in specific ways. Chaos damage removes twice as much Energy Shield as other damage types, and damage from Bleeding and Poison bypasses Energy Shield entirely to damage Life directly. The exact recharge rate and delay are shown on the in-game tooltip and the PoE2 wiki, and should be confirmed against the live 0.5.4 client (pending-pc).

• Absorbs damage before Life; recharges after a delay of no damage taken.
• Chaos damage is doubled against Energy Shield.
• Bleeding and Poison bypass Energy Shield and hit Life directly.
• Strong with Intelligence builds, but watch chaos and damage-over-time.

Runic Ward is a separate defence layer introduced in Patch 0.5. It is NOT Armour, Evasion, or Energy Shield — it is its own distinct barrier sourced from Verisium through the Verisium Anvil (unlocked via Farrow's quests).

Runic Ward acts as a final safety net: when a hit would drop your Life to 0, you instead survive at 1 Life and Runic Ward absorbs the remaining damage. It regenerates independently of your Life. Adding Runic Ward to gear can convert a portion of existing Armour, Evasion, or Energy Shield into Ward, especially on higher-item-level pieces — always check the in-game preview before crafting (precise numbers pending-pc).

• A distinct layer, separate from Armour, Evasion, and Energy Shield.
• Engages only at 1 Life to catch a fatal blow.
• Sourced from Verisium via the Verisium Anvil.
• May trade some base defence for Ward on high-item-level gear; preview first.

Resistance, Block, Deflect, Sorcery Ward and similar systems are separate from the three base defences and interact with them rather than replace them.

Resistances reduce damage of specific types (fire, cold, lightning, chaos) and are cheap, essential defences — an uncapped resistance effectively doubles that damage type. Block and Deflect are chances to avoid or reduce hits, layering on top of Evasion. Sorcery Ward (and similar Ward variants) is a separate barrier akin to Runic Ward. None of these remove the need for a base layer.

• Resistances cut specific damage types; cap them before pushing content.
• Block and Deflect reduce or avoid hits and stack with Evasion.
• Sorcery Ward / Runic Ward are separate barriers, not replacements.
• Use these to complement, not substitute for, a base defence.