If you are a beginner, the best Last Epoch build for every class or Mastery is not readily apparent. There are a total of 15 Masteries (the term for subclasses in this title), and all of them are viable for the endgame grind. That being said, some builds are better than others.
In this article, we will go over what is considered the best Last Epoch build for every Class and Mastery. Each Mastery comes with a vast repertoire of skills that pay dividends if you specialize in them. However, for this list, we will look at the most overpowered builds available for each Master.
Note: There are no objective 'best' Last Epoch builds for a specific Mastery. Most skills maintain some form of scalability to compete in high Corruption levels, and your personal preference should ultimately dictate what the 'best' build for each Mastery is.
Best Last Epoch build for every Class and Mastery, ranked (March 2024)
Best Last Epoch Sentinel builds
Here are the best Sentinel Last Epoch builds for each Mastery, ranked in order of endgame power ceiling:
- Best Paladin build (Smite and Healing Hands): Paladin builds are the most cookie-cutter league-starters in this game, specifically due to auto-casting Healing Hands on melee swings. You can pair it up with many melee skills, such as the Healing Hands and Rive build, but Smite is believed to have the highest DPS potential.
- Best Void Knight build (Erasing Strike variants): Void Knight builds are not the best way to spec out Sentinels in this Cycle. That being said, if you want a simple melee build to clear Monolith up to Corruption level 400, Erasing Strike and Rive can do the job without much hassle.
- Best Forge Guard build (Manifest Armor and Summon Forged Weapon): While not the best at dishing out damage, this is an easy in-your-face brawling spec that can scale well into Corruption level 300s but falls off afterward.
Best Last Epoch Acolyte builds
Here are the best Acolyte Last Epoch builds for each Mastery, ranked in order of endgame power ceiling:
- Best Warlock build (Explosive Ignite Shade and Profane Veil): While Profane Veil is itself a useful skill, what pushes it at the center of every meta Last Epoch build for Warlock right now is a buggy interaction with the Vampiric Pool passive, granting much more Ward than intended.
- Best Necromancer build (Wraith Lord): This requires uniques like Wraithlord's Harbour to fully min-max damage potential, but it is easily the most hands-off minion build to shoot down enemies with Necrotic beams.
- Best Lich build (Ghostflame and Aura of Decay): There are some niche Lich builds centering Summon Volatile Zombie interaction with potion-related experimental affixes, but Ghostflame and Aura of Decay builds are the easiest if you want less reliance on crafting the right gear.
Best Last Epoch Mage builds
Due to the benefits of Frost Claw, all of these builds make use of this skill to go about their own ways. Here are the best Mage Last Epoch builds for each Mastery, ranked in order of endgame power ceiling:
- Best Runemaster build (Frost Claw variants): There are many homebrew builds you can make off a Frost Claw + Lightning or Frost Claw + Frost Wall build archetype. However, the gist is that Frost Claw gives you unbeatable Ward generation and KPM as long as you can find a way to address the mana sustain.
- Best Sorcerer build (Mana Strike Spark Charges): Like with the best Runemaster build in the last entry, Spark Charge builds tend to make use of Frost Claw for its defensive crutch and then abuse the Spark Charge damage amplification mechanic to get a simpler one-button build.
- Best Spellblade build (Frostbite and Shatter Strike): This focuses on applying maximum Frostbite stacks and then watching the boss health tick down from the DoT.
Best Last Epoch Primalist builds
Here are the best Primalist Last Epoch builds for each Mastery, ranked in order of endgame power ceiling:
- Best Beastmaster build (Storm Crow and Tempest Strike): Several Beastmaster summons are on the same level of power in the current meta, but if you manage to stack some Minion Health, Storm Crows are arguably the best outside of bossing.
- Best Druid build (Elemental Swarmblade): The Swarmblade form is the most popular among Driud players at the moment, and you can stack this with permanent Tornade uptime for easy farming.
- Best Shaman build (Storm Totem and Tempest Strike): While Thorn Totems are still as good as pre-1.0 days, Storm Totem and Tempest Strike give you the quirky flavor you have always wanted for a Thor Shaman character.
Best Last Epoch Rogue builds
Here are the best Last Epoch Rogue builds for each Mastery, ranked in order of endgame power ceiling:
- Best Falconer build (Dive Bomb Shadow Daggers): This build mostly thrives from an interaction between Dive Bombs and Smoke Bombs. It causes a chain reaction of Dive Bombs, generating a high amount of Wards as well as high damage output.
- Best Marksman build (Detonating Arrow and Explosive Trap): The Detonating Arrow - Explosive Trap duo is the core for any meta Marksman build right now, and so is the Jelkhor's Blast Knife unique, which gives Detonating Arrow the properties of a melee skill.
- Best Bladedancer build (Lowlife Spark Charge): Uncharacteristically, the best Bladedancer build out there right now makes use of Intelligence-stacking to amp up spell damage and uses the unique catalyst Fragment of The Enigma to proc Spark Charges.
Check out our other guides on the game:
Last Epoch tier list all classes || Last Epoch bossing tier list || Last Epoch farming tier list || All Monolith of Fate blessings