Last Epoch – How to Survive / General Guide for Building Defenses

Dying to Lagon? Majasa? Feeling squishy? This guide will help you with the defensive layers.

Building Defenses Guide

Сrеdit gоеs to Psojed!

Welcome

Welcome to the guide!

In this guide I’ll teach you about the defensive mechanics Last Epoch offers.

The Basics

About the defenses

First, let’s learn about the defensive mechanics we have available at our disposal. You won’t be able to fit all these into a single build, but your build should use at minimum three of these mechanics.

These mechanics are:

• Ailments (Debuffs)
• Armor
• Block
• Damage Dealt to Mana Before Health
• Damage Reduction
• Dodge
• Endurance
• Glancing Blows
• Health
• Health Regen
• Resistances
• Ward

Out of the 5 classes and 25 masteries, different classes gravitate towards different mechanics. For example the Mage class (Sorcerer, Spellblade and Runemaster) has a lot of passives built around Ward. Look around in your Mastery passives tree to find out which ones your class can support.

Player skill

There’s another thing that’s not a mechanic, but it plays a BIG role in your survivability, and that is what’s usually called player skill. In our case, it’s the ability to see a dangerous attack coming and the ability to avoid it successfully.

This is something you can learn by carefully observing the monsters, remembering what types of attack they use against you and remembering what does the monster do before the attack happens. The better you get at avoiding damage completely, the better your survivability. Players who enjoy playing “Glass Cannon” builds – builds with relatively low defenses that often focus on dealing high amounts of damage – often memorize the dangerous enemy attacks and use their quick reactions to avoid getting hit.

You can get better at this by adjusting your graphics settings properly. Usually in ARPGs there’s a lot going on the screen, and using lower graphics settings can help you see the important attacks or effects more clearly. However, lowering your graphics may also completely disable some effects, this is different from game to game, so emphasis on properly.

It is up to you, the player, to decide if you want to learn about the enemy attacks, tweak the settings, or if you can’t be bothered, and instead you’ll choose more defensive layers so you can sit in damage abilities.

Common knowledge

Players that make builds, as well as the game developers often consider these two pieces of information as a sort of “common knowledge” in ARPGs, so builds often neglect to tell you, and there also isn’t any tutorial in the game for this. But new or casual players coming into the ARPG genre have no way of knowing, so let me say it here:

As you progress through the game, you are expected to upgrade your Health and Resistances. This is a mandatory thing. If you skip this, you will inevitably start dying at some point. Let’s cover these two attributes in the next two sections.

Health, the most important part

You are supposed to keep gradually upgrading your Health as you progress through the campaign. The natural bonus health you get isn’t nearly enough, and this is true for most ARPGs. Health is the measure of how much punishment you can take before you die, and in vast majority of games, the damage from enemies keeps increasing as you progress through the game, so your Health needs to also increase accordingly.

You should add +100 Health for every campaign Chapter.

There are 9 Chapters in Last Epoch campaign, so with the bonus Health you get for level ups, you should end up above 1000 Health at the end of the campaign/story. This is the minimum value you should have before you go into the Monolith, higher is better.

There are exceptions, for example you can substitute Health with Ward in a 1:2 ratio, so for example if you only have 600 Health, you should have at least 800 Ward as a substitute.

Health sustain

Simply raising your Health alone won’t be enough, because big hits will still eat big portions of your HP pool, so you also need a way to restore that Health. There are three ways to do so:

• Healing Potions
• Damage Leech
• Health Regen

The ideal goal of sustain is to replenish your Health fast enough so that after you take a big hit, your Health will be back to full, so you can tank another big hit. Having high Health therefore gives you more breathing room, but ultimately won’t make you survive.

Potions

If you choose to use Potions, you have to be quick to react. Damage from bosses can come in quick succession (think of the Lagon Water Beam attack), and not everyone would be able to survive that just by pressing the potion hotkey.

Last Epoch offers you belts with increasing amounts of Potion slots, affixes to drop more potions, and finally Uniques that increase the total amount of Potions you can carry.

Damage Leech

Leech is one of the preferred methods of sustain in many ARPGs. You replenish Health by dealing damage, and you’re almost always dealing damage in ARPGs, so this goes hand in hand. Since damage is dealt in huge amounts, usually multiple times per second, and to multiple targets at once, Damage Leech is the most powerful form of sustain.

However, be aware that if you stop dealing damage (for example, when you are evading a boss mechanic), your sustain disappears.

Last Epoch offers various sources of Leech tailored to different builds, for example there is Melee Damage Leech, Spell Damage Leech, Lightning Damage Leech, etc.

Health Regen

Regeneration is the other preferred method of sustain in many ARPGs. Builds that rely on regeneration are less prone to deaths from player mistakes, because the regen is always active and doesn’t rely on player dealing damage or pressing the Potion hotkey when needed. Stacking Health Regen is the sustain method I would recommend as sustain method to new players.

But keep in mind that Health Regeneration lacks the “burst of healing” that is present with mashing the Potion hotkey or with Damage Leech from big damage, therefore big hits in quick succession may still kill you, so it’s good to keep that potion hotkey in mind.

Ward Generation

If you chose to substitute Health with Ward, you can also sustain yourself by generating enough Ward. Classes that focus on Ward like Mage or Acolyte have Skills and Mastery passives that allow you to generate Ward with each spellcast or by sacrificing minions, so reaching above 2000 Ward is pretty common for these classes.

Since Ward doesn’t have a top limit, the more Ward you’re able to generate, the better your sustain. Check the Ward section for more information about the Ward mechanics.

Resistances, the other must-have

You are also supposed to get your Resistances as close to the 75% cap. In most ARPGs, Resistances are a must-have to reduce the incoming damage to acceptable levels, so raising resistances as fast as you can is very important.

In Last Epoch, the damage already starts on an acceptable level, so having Resistances early makes your life WAY EASIER, but with Area Level going up, your Resistances are getting more and more Penetrated. However, it doesn’t mean that Resistances are useless, because this Penetration goes into negatives. So if you don’t have Resistances, you’re taking extra damage. There is nothing you can do to stop this Penetration mechanic.

This is why you need to choose other defensive layers AND still upgrade your Resistances to 75% cap.

You should max out your Physical Resistance first. It’s the most common damage type.

Resistance sources should mainly come from your items. Apart from using Resistance affixes, there are items with Implicit bonuses to Resistances, for example:

• Gold Rings (5-18% Elemental Resistances)
• Copper Amulets (6-20% Lightning Resistances)
• Orchirian’s Petals (Unique item from an optional area in the Ancient Era) (+5% All Resistances)

Idols with bonuses to Resistances are perfect to fill in any Resistances you may be missing up to the cap.

Around Chapter 8, your Resistances should be close to capped.

Store any extra Idols with Resistances you don’t need right now in your stash. Once you start to specialize your equipment, you won’t always have the same Resistance affix that you had on the previous item, and when that happens, you can swap around the Idols to fix your Resistances.

Damage Reduction, the bread and butter

Damage Reduction is the general term for all effects and mechanics that reduce damage received. Armor, Block, Damage Dealt to Mana Before Health, Endurance and Glancing Blows are all such Damage Reduction effects.

Damage Reduction is also found on several Skills and Mastery passives. Most common examples include:

• Bone Armor (Acolyte)
• Flame Ward (Mage)
• Ursine Strength (Primalist)
• Vengeance (Sentinel)
• Evasion (Rogue)

There is no known cap to how many reductions you can stack, but they are all multiplicative, so there are diminishing returns. For example, let’s have 60% reduction from Block, 30% reduction from Armor and another 25% reduction from another source, these three would total to 79% damage reduction. With 100 incoming damage, I would take:

• 100 * (1 – 0.6) * (1 – 0.3) * (1 – 0.25) = 21 damage

Should you use Skills and Mastery passives with Damage Reduction?

Absolutely! This is the bread and butter that will save you from oneshots in the late campaign and in the Endgame. The more % reduction total you have, the more effective HP you have, which means you can take bigger hits or take more attacks. Finding a good combination of damage reduction and sustain is the key to making a working build.

Example combinations of Defensive layers:

When you’re entering your first Monolith, your defenses might look something like this:

Primalist

• Basics: 1200 Health + 75% All Resistances
• Sustain: 80 Health Regen (gear and passives) + Potions
• Extra layers: 30% Armor + 50% Endurance (gear and passives)

Mage

• Basics: 800 Health + 1000 Ward (not permanent, but it goes that high regularly when you play) + 75% All Resistances
• Sustain: 20 Health Regen + 80 Ward per Second (gear and passives) + Potions
• Extra layers: 20% Armor + 20% Endurance (basic) + Flame Ward (400 burst Ward, 30% Damage Reduction)

Rogue

• Basics: 1200 Health + 75% All Resistances
• Sustain: 20 Health Regen + 5% Melee Damage Leech (gear and passives) + Potions
• Extra layers: 20% Armor + 20% Endurance (basic) + 100% Glancing Blow (35% DR) (mainly passives) + 40% Dodge Chance (gear and passives)

Sentinel

• Basics: 1400 Health + 75% All Resistances
• Sustain: 40 Health Regen (gear and passives) + 3% Melee Damage Leech + Potions
• Extra layers: 30% Armor (gear and passives) + 20% Endurance (basic) + 50% Block Chance (with 30% DR) (gear and passives)

List of Defensive Mechanics

Aliments (Debuffs)

Ailments refers to various effects that can be applied to enemies, which affects how dangerous these enemies are. There are many ailments, and these are the ones that help with survival:

• Blind
• Chill
• Frailty
• Freeze
• Immobilize
• Shock
• Slow
• Stun

All classes can use all of these Ailments.

Blind

Halves critical strike chance and reduces targeting accuracy for enemies. This helps you survive by making enemies critically hit less, and by making archer-type enemies miss their shots.

Effect

• 50% less Critical Strike Chance
• Lasts 4 seconds

Blind sources

• Chance to Blind on Hit
• Chance to Blind with Spells
• Several class skill passives
• Unique items

Chill

Reduces movement speed, attack speed, and cast speed. This slows down enemy movement and attack speed, so you take hits at a slower rate, giving you a little more time to react, heal/regen.

Effect

• 12% less Attack Speed
• 12% less Cast Speed
• 12% less Movement Speed
• Lasts 4 seconds
• Stacks up to 3 times

Chill sources

• Chance to Chill on Hit
• Chance to Chill Attackers
• Many class skill passives
• Some class-specific affixes
• Unique items
• Set items
• Blessing

Frailty

You deal 6% less damage. This helps you survive by making enemies deal less damage.

Effect

• 6% less Damage
• Lasts 4 seconds
• Stacks up to 3 times

Frailty sources

• Chance to apply Frailty on Hit
• Chance to apply Frailty on Melee Hit
• Several class skill passives
• Unique items
• Blessing

Freeze

Enemies and players that are frozen cannot move or use skills. To have a chance to freeze, the skill needs to have Freeze Rate. Most Cold skills have Freeze Rate listed in their tooltip.

Effect

• Enemy cannot move or use skills
• Lasts 1.2 seconds
• Some Cold skills freeze for a different duration, refer to the skill description and any modifiers to Freeze Duration from skill passives

Freeze sources

• Cold skills
• Several non-Cold skills that were converted to Cold

Immobilize

Locks you in place. Prevents enemies from moving. This can help you stay away from monsters.

Effect

• Immobilizes target
• Lasts 1 second

Immobilize sources

• Several class skill passives

Shock

Reduces lightning resistance Increases chance to be stunned. 60% less effect against bosses. Makes enemies more susceptible to Stun (all Hits can stun by default). See Stun below for more info.

Effect

• +20% Increased Chance To Be Stunned
• -5% Lightning Resistance
• Lasts 4 seconds
• Stacks up to 10 times

Shock sources

• Chance to Shock on Hit
• Chance to Shock Attackers
• Many class skill passives
• Some class-specific affixes
• Unique items
• Set items
• Blessing

Slow

Reduces movement speed. Slows down enemy movement speed. No effect on attack speeds, so be careful about ranged attacks.

Effect

• 20% less Movement Speed
• Lasts 4 seconds
• Stacks up to 3 times

Slow sources

• Chance to Slow on Hit
• Chance to Slow Attackers
• Few class skills (base effect)
• Many class skill passives
• Some class-specific affixes
• Unique items
• Blessing

Stun

Stunned enemies and players cannot move or use skills. All hits have a chance to stun if they deal enough damage. Hits that deal more damage are more likely to stun, but enemies that have higher maximum health are harder to stun. Melee attacks are more likely to stun than ranged attacks.

Effect

• Enemy cannot move or use skills
• Lasts 0.4 seconds
• Some skills stun for a different duration, refer to the skill description and any modifiers to Stun Duration from skill passives

Stun sources

• Dealing enough damage
• Using skills that apply stun

Armor

Armor mitigates the damage you take from all Hits, but has no effect against Damage over Time (unless you have the affix “+X% of Armor Mitigation also applies to Damage over Time”).

Armor reduction caps at 85%.

Armor is only 70% effective against non-physical damage.

All classes can use Armor.

Armor sources

• +X to Armor – affix on Helmet, Body Armor, Boots, Gloves, Shield, Idols
• +X% to Armor – affix on Helmet, Body Armor, Boots, Shield, Idols
• +X to Armor – “Experimental Armour applies to Damage over Time” affix on Gloves
• Several Unique and Set items that provide armor
• Class skills
• Class skill passives
• Class mastery passives
• Blessing

Should you use Armor?

Absolutely! Find a good base item with high Armor, add the correct affixes with crafting, and with a good craft you will only need 1-2 items to reach 20-30% Armor mitigation.

Armor has diminishing returns, so pushing it higher is only a good idea on classes that have bonuses to Armor from their Mastery passives.

Block

Block mitigates the damage you take from all Hits, but has no effect against Damage over Time. Blocking does count as being Hit (this is important for affixes that do something “when hit”).

There are three stats related to Blocking:

• Block Chance – this determines if Block happens
• Block Effectiveness – this determines the % damage reduction when Block happens
• Damage Taken on Block – another % damage reduction when Block happens, this one works regardless of area level and only appears on Shields

Block effectiveness caps at 85%.

All classes can use Block.

Block sources:

• +X to Block Chance – affix on Shields
• +X% Block Effectiveness – affix on Shields, Idols
• +X% Block Chance and Effectiveness – affix on Gloves, Rings
• Few Two-Handed Unique Weapons that provide Block Chance
• Several Unique and Set items
• Class skill passives
• Class mastery passives
• Blessing

Should you use Block?

Yes, but it depends on your build. Some builds require the use of a two-handed weapon, an off-hand or dual-wielding. While there are ways to add Block even without a Shield, they are limited, so usually if you decide to use Block, you will need to equip a Shield. Without high enough % Block Chance, too many Hits would go through and the Block wouldn’t do its job as a defensive layer.

However, if you do spec into Block, in terms of the number of affixes required and the amount of % damage reduction, it ends up way better than Armor.

Damage Dealt to Mana Before Health

Damage Dealt to Mana Before Health reduces damage from Hits and Damage over Time. The amount of damage reduced is then applied to your Mana.

Each point of Mana shields 5 health.

Damage Dealt to Mana Before Health is only available to the Mage class.

Damage Dealt to Mana Before Health sources:

• +X% Damage Dealt to Mana Before Health – affix on Mage Body Armor, Mage Helmets
• Fractured Crown, an Unique Helmet
• Knowledge of an Erased Mage, an Unique Relic

Should you use Damage Dealt to Mana Before Health?

If you are a Mage, it depends.

How does it work?

If I have 50% Damage Dealt to Mana, and I take 1000 damage, 500 damage goes to Mana. But because 1 Mana shields 5 Health:

500 / 5 = 100 damage to Mana

So I will lose 500 Health and 100 Mana.

Dodge

Dodge grants you a chance to completely avoid taking Hits, but has no effect against Damage over Time. Dodging doesn’t count as being Hit (this is important for affixes that do something “when hit”).

Dodge Chance is calculated from Dodge Rating, which is the only stat related to Dodge.

Dodge Chance caps at 85%.

All classes can use Dodge.

Dodge sources:

• +X to Dodge Rating – affix on Helmet, Body Armor, Belt, Boots, Gloves, Amulet, Ring, Catalyst, Idols
• +X% to Dodge Rating – affix on Body Armor, Belt, Boots, One-Handed Sword, Amulet
• Several Unique and Set items that provide Dodge Rating
• Class skills
• Class skill passives
• Class mastery passives
• Blessing

Should you use Dodge?

It depends. Dodge beats all other defensive layers, since not taking the hit is technically a 100% damage reduction.

However, even with high Dodge Chance, sometimes a hit will go through, and what goes through will hit hard. Dodge Chance also has diminishing returns, so pushing it higher might require considerable investment, and there might not be enough affix slots to add another defensive layer in case a big hit goes through. Compared to other defensive layers that are always active, you may find Dodge a bit unreliable, which is why I personally don’t like to play Dodge builds.

Endurance

Endurance reduces damage taken when you are below a certain Health value. Endurance works against both Hits and Damage over Time. Endurance doesn’t apply to Ward.

There are two stats related to Endurance:

• Endurance Threshold – this determines the Health value. If your Health goes below this value, Endurance activates.
• Endurance % – this determines the % damage reduction from Endurance

Endurance Threshold base is equal to 20% of your maximum Health. So by having more Health, you automatically have more Endurance Threshold.

For example, let’s say I have 1000 Health, 200 Endurance Threshold and 20% reduction from Endurance (the default Endurance values). If I take 1000 damage, 800 of that damage goes to Health, now Endurance activates, and the remaining 200 of that damage gets reduced, so I will barely survive:

• 200 * (1 – 0.2) = 160 damage

Endurance damage reduction caps at 60%.

All classes can use Endurance.

Endurance sources:

• +X to Endurance Threshold – affix on Gloves, Helmet, Belt, Ring, Relic
• +X% Endurance – affix on Gloves, Helmet, Shield, Belt, Ring, Relic
• Several Unique and Set items that provide Endurance
• Class skills
• Class skill passives
• Class mastery passives
• Blessing

Should you use Endurance?

Yes! Exceptions apply. Endurance is always active, and helps to prevent oneshots. Even if you only raise the % Endurance closer to 60%, it might save you from dying. Raising your Health total also raises the Threshold, so even if you don’t get extra Endurance Threshold, you automatically raise it by having more Health.

So what are the exceptions?

Builds that generate lots of Ward. Endurance does nothing for damage taken into Ward, which is why Ward builds should avoid Endurance. However, if you only generate a little Ward, Endurance may still be useful to you. Check if you frequently take Health damage / chug potions, and if yes, Endurance will be helpful to you too.

Glancing Blows

Glancing Blow reduces damage taken from Hits by 35%, but has no effect against Damage over Time.

Glancing Blow is technically available to all classes via the Arrowguard Unique item, however only the Rogue class is able to reach 100% Chance to receive a Glancing Blow.

Having more than 100% Chance to receive a Glancing Blow has no effect.

Glancing Blow sources:

• +X% Chance to receive a Glancing Blow when hit – affix on Rogue-only Body Armor
• Arrowguard, an Unique Quiver
• Rogue class skill passives
• Rogue mastery passives

Should you use Glancing Blow?

If you are a Rogue, yes. Otherwise, no.

Ward

Ward is a shield above your health that is generated by certain effects and rapidly decays over time. Ward has no maximum value, but will always decay towards 0.

There are three stats related to Ward:

• Ward per Second – this is like Health Regeneration, but for Ward. The more Ward per Second you have, the more Ward you’ll be able to get. This affix is mostly only available to Mage and Acolyte classes.
• Ward Retention – this determines the rate at which your Ward decays. The more Retention you have, the longer you’ll be able to stay at high Ward amounts.
• Ward Decay Threshold – this raises the number towards which your Ward decays.

Ward is available to all classes.

However, the vast majority of Ward generation happens from class passives.

For example, the Mage passive mastery Reactive Ward activates when you drop down below 70% of your Max Health, and gives you up to 6 Ward per 10 Max Health you have. With 1000 Max Health, you would instantly gain 600 Ward. Now you saw your Health go down, so you activate Flame Ward, that’s another 400 Ward, before bonuses from Skill passives.

Another example, from the Runemaster left side, you can grab +32 Ward per Cast passive, and another +24 Ward per Area skill use. Let’s say you cast 3 spells per second, that’s 168 Ward per second.

There is no cap on the amount of Ward you can have.

Ward sources:

• +X Ward per Second – affix on Helmet, Body Armor, Catalyst, Mage Idols
• +X% Ward Retention – affix on Body Armor, Belt, Boots, One-Handed Sword, Amulet
• +X% Potion Health converted to Ward – affix on Belt, Gloves, Relic, Ring, Mage Idols, Acolyte Idols
• +X Ward Decay Threshold – experimental affix on Belt and Gloves
• +X Ward per missing % Health – experimental affix on Gloves
• +X Ward when you use a Traversal skill – experimental affix on Boots
• +X Ward per 10 missing Mana when you use a Traversal skill – experimental affix on Boots
• +X Ward when Hit (weak, don’t use this)
• +X Ward on Kill (weak, don’t use this)
• +X Ward gained on Potion use (weak, don’t use this)
• Several other class-specific affixes
• Several Unique and Set items
• Class skills
• Class skill passives
• Class mastery passives
• Blessing

Should you use Ward?

If you have a way of generating a lot of Ward, absolutely! Ward per Second alone won’t be enough, so you need to make use of the Mage and Acolyte class passives that generate large amounts of Ward, use Unique items to generate Ward, or both.

If you don’t have these passives or you play a different class, you can still generate Ward from certain items and with potions, but it’ll be more of a temporary shield rather than a permanent Health extension.

Examples of how Ward works

Example 1:

• 0 Ward per Second
• 0% Ward Retention
• 0 Ward Decay Threshold
• I cast Flame Ward (Mage skill) to gain 400 Ward. This will start decaying (think negative Ward Regen) down to 0 Ward.

Example 2:

• 0 Ward per Second
• 0% Ward Retention
• 100 Ward Decay Threshold
• I cast Flame Ward (Mage skill) to gain 400 Ward. This will start decaying down to 100 Ward, where it will stop. Now I have a permanent 100 Ward acting as an addition to my Health. If I get hit and lose this Ward, I need to cast Flame Ward again to get it back.

Example 3:

• 30 Ward per Second
• 0% Ward Retention
• 0 Ward Decay Threshold
• The moment I equip this item with 30 Ward per Second, my Ward starts to regenerate until it reaches 75 Ward. It will generate fast in the beginning, but slow down once it gets closer to 75, because as my Ward goes higher, the Ward Decay also goes higher until it becomes equal to my Ward per Second, and the equilibrium is at 75 Ward. If I get hit and lose this Ward, it will regenerate back to 75 Ward again.

Example 4:

• 30 Ward per Second
• 300% Ward Retention
• 0 Ward Decay Threshold
• Same as Example 2, but now the Ward Decay is slower thanks to my 300% Ward Retention, so even though my Ward per Second is the same, I will regenerate up to 187 Ward.

For more specific examples, you can use this Ward calculator.

Video Showcase

Bossfight example – facetanking Majasa

Lagon and Majasa are the two most often mentioned bosses from the Campaign that players have trouble dealing with, so I went back from the Monolith and killed her one more time, without avoiding her abilities, to showcase it’s not difficult if you utilize your defensive layers.

Minor spoiler warning if you haven’t seen the fight yet.

At the end of the video I show my character screen. I have:

• 734 Health
• 37 Health Regen
• Resistances close to 70% (except Poison and Void res)
• 28% Armor
• Up to ~1000 Ward

I think I had 32 Ward per Cast and like 50 Ward per Second

Closing Word

Hopefully this guide will help you understand the ways how you can improve your builds. Last Epoch is a great game for creating your own builds from scratch, and if you wanted to make your own build but just needed to look up bits and pieces of advice like me, I hope this guide will help you with that.