Don't listen to Ondore's lies! Evasion really is worth building for
Over the years this game has been out (and the IZJS before it) there has been much discussion on the topic of evasion. Many players acknowledge its usefulness, while other players feel caring about evasion is mostly a meme. The evasion-apathetic crowd focuses mainly on the argument that many enemies, especially the toughest enemies in the game, ignore evasion entirely. This is definitely true.
However, there are maybe only 50 to 100 fights where evasion does nothing. This is a game with *tens of thousands* of fights. In nearly all of the actual fights that will take place in a playthrough, evasion works to mitigate incoming damage. If specifically built for (>!Main-Gauche + Demon Shield!< for example), the amount of damage mitigated can be significant.
Late game areas Evasion works:
- >!Necrohol of Nabudis!<
- >!Nabreus Deadlands!<
- >!Great Crystal "secret" area!<
- >!Pharos Subterra!<
- >!Henne Mines "secret" area!<
- >!Cerobi Steppe!<
Many of these areas have valuable loot in chests that makes a player want to linger in them a while, and the player will typically be harassed by regular enemies while they explore. Evasion makes that whole process easier.
Building for evasion is not difficult, so a player doesn't have to go out of their way or really sacrifice anything to build for it. For instance, the example given above >!only requires having a Shikari somewhere in the party!<. For this reason, I don't think a player needs to stress about evasion. However, having at least one high evasion character absolutely is worth it, and I want this post out there encouraging players to consider it, in light of there being some posts on the internet encouraging players to mostly ignore evasion.
Happy Hunting!