Acolyte Leveling Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.2)

Without access to the core Warlock spells, leveling to start will be a bit different than it will be later on. The combination of  Wandering Spirits and  Rip Blood will serve it's purpose all the way until you hit The End of Time, which is where you can select your Mastery. While Wandering Spirits won't be retained for the entire campaign, Rip Blood will be, so there is no reason to spec out of it even when unlocking Warlock.

Starting out, and before Level 4, just spam  Rip Blood. Upon gaining access to  Summon Skeleton, summon up to the limit of three to help clear out the first few maps.  Marrow Shards unlocks at Level 3, offering a better option to AoE, but does come at the cost of health. Alternate between Rip Blood and Marrow Shards, making sure your health doesn't drop too low. Rip Blood will heal you on every cast that hits an enemy, so there's a decent flow between these two skills early on.

At Level 4 you'll be able to specialize in your first skill, which should be the newly unlocked  Wandering Spirits. Immediately start by placing two points in Lingering Souls, which will then path into Familiar Souls. Decreasing the reveal range of these ghostly ghouls is of utmost importance, as it concentrates them into a more condensed location and allows for higher damage to be dealt to single boss enemies. Wandering Spirits does come with a cooldown though, so keep in mind you will still want to use your  Rip Blood and  Marrow Shards combo to deal with enemies when you don't have access to Spirits.

 Bone Curse becomes available at Level 7, and this allows you to use  Bone Curse. It's really only useful for killing boss enemies faster, but should be kept on the bar for that purpose. Hitting enemies afflicted by Bone Curse will cause them to take damage when dealt a hit.

Level 8 comes with a second skill specialization, and this will ramp up our damage and provide somewhat of a rotation until we unlock Warlock.  Rip Blood should be specialized in, and four points should be placed into Arcane Absorption. Every cast of Rip Blood will grant us flat Spell Damage, something casters in general crave early in the leveling process. This is a global buff, meaning the Spell Damage added per cast of Rip Blood will apply to your  Wandering Spirits, ramping their damage by a considerable amount. Keep in mind, there is no buff icon for this, so there isn't a feasible way to track your stacks. Just cast Rip Blood as much as you can and cast Wandering Spirits as you walk through maps. Enemies will follow you and fall over to the ghosts spawning in your tracks. Eventually you'll also gain access to  Transplant, which should be taken to gain better mobility and cross over maps faster. With extra points, move into Hemomancer next.

At this point, you really don't need much else until unlocking Warlock. Don't feel you need to specialize in a skill to use it! Especially for things like  Transplant, where the base skill serves a purpose without actually empowering it.

Below is the list for Passive Point allocation for the Acolyte Passive Tree. Don't bother spending more than the necessary 20 here, you'll want as many in Warlock as you can get beyond this.

• (Acolyte) 8 points in Forbidden Knowledge: Intelligence will be the main scaler for the build, and Necrotic Resistance is very useful around the mid-point of the campaign.
• (Acolyte) 6 points in Blood Aura: General damage increase for everything you do.
• (Acolyte) 1 point in Mania of Mortality: Pathing node.
• (Acolyte) 5 points in Unnatural Preservation: Ward Retention, Necrotic Resistance, and Poison Resistance.

Unlocking Warlock, which usually happens around Level 16, allows you to specialize into  Chthonic Fissure. De-specialize in  Wandering Spirits here. Chthonic Fissure is a very powerful spell that will rip a line in the earth and spew spirits out of it which will target nearby enemies, dealing tons of Spell and DoT damage to them. This skill has a bit more uptime on it than Wandering Spirits did, and makes it more useful as you start moving through maps faster and faster. Immediately path into Fragile Crust to drop the mana cost, then start moving your way towards Mantle of Flames after taking a single point in Death from Below.

Reaching Level 20, you should have just enough points to place the following Passive Points into the Warlock Tree.

• (Warlock) 5 points in Chaos Flames: All of the damage we deal going forward will be a mix of Necrotic and Fire, which fully takes advantage of this node. Eventually you'll gain access to an ailment called Witchfire, which scales heavily off your chance to inflict Damned and Ignite as well.

This is just enough points in Warlock to give you access to  Chaos Bolts! Specialize in this skill and immediately begin pathing towards Another Affliction. This skill will be replacing  Rip Blood, and in its place you should instead specialize  Bone Curse. There's a fat 25% damage boost through Sigil of Mortality that should be grabbed as soon as possible, enabling you to apply Mark for Death onto enemies.

Having swapped your skills around, moving through maps should get much faster. Simply drop  Chthonic Fissure down on enemies and spam  Chaos Bolts until they're dead.

It's imperative that you use a wand for this build. You absolutely need the mana cost reduction in order to sustain the resource cost of both  Chaos Bolts and  Chthonic Fissure early on. A staff might look enticing due to the high stats on it, but it may result in your character running dry on Mana until later on when there are other ways to mitigate Mana cost, or before you're able to find better gear.

As far as actual stats are concerned, Increased Necrotic Damage should be prioritized over Increased Fire Damage, however both are good to have. This is due to the Spirits that come off  Chthonic Fissure; these deal a ton of damage, and only scale off Necrotic, while the fissure portion of the skill scales off Fire. Chance to inflict Ignite or Damned will also be useful, and will have different amounts of value depending on what level your character is. Intelligence is useful, but will not make or break the build. As with most every leveling build, Movement Speed is a highly sought after skill. Faster character means faster campaign.

Node allocation to Level 35 should be as follows. This assumes you have 12 points in the skill. If you happen to have more due to additional skill levels on gear, just look ahead on this page to see where the next points are spent!

• 1 point in Abrupt Chaos: Extra Cast Speed.
• 2 points in Doom's Vindication: Small multiplicative damage boost to Chaos Bolts, that also effect on-hit effects.
• 1 point in Devour the Damned: If an enemy is Cursed, you'll gain health and mana back when you hit them.
• 1 point into Cursed Blood: Chaos Bolt hits now refresh Curse timers. This includes things like  Bone Curse, Penance, and Mark for Death.
• 1 point in Another Affliction: This allows you to automate  Bone Curse so long as a Curse exists on the target you're hitting with Chaos Bolts.
• 3 points in Mania in Flames: Chance to inflict Ignite.
• 3 points in Condemned to Chaos: Chance to inflict Damned.

• 3 points in Fragile Crust: Huge mana reduction cost.
• 1 point in Death from Below: Small damage bonus to damage dealt by Fissure.
• 4 points in Mantle of Flames: The fissure portion of the spell has a much higher chance to Ignite enemies that stand on it.
• 2 points in Fell Fire: Ignite stacks will now spread when hit by a Spirit.
• 2 points in Stygian Current: Spirits are released more frequently.

• 5 points in Conflation: Drastically increases the size of Bone Curse.
• 1 point in Sigil of Mortality: Bone Curse applies Mark for Death, reducing enemy resistances by 25%.
• 2 points in Reaper's Mark: Doubles the active time for Mark for Death to 4 seconds.
• 2 points in Defile Defenses: We're dealing mostly ailment damage, this node doesn't do much for us.
• 2 points in Marrow Thief: Chance to kill (if the killed had an active Bone Curse on them) to activate Bone Armor on us, mitigating the damage we take.

At minimum, upon reaching Level 35, you should have another 15 Passive Points to spend since the previous level tier. However, it's likely you have more due to quest rewards. Thus, the following list will assume you have access to 20 extra points. If you have less, it isn't a big deal. You can always go back and finish optional quests after the campaign is finished.

• (Warlock) 5 points in Soul Stealer: Increased Mana Regen, and a chance to gain mana when hitting a Cursed enemy.
• (Warlock) 5 points in Spiteful Decay: Health, increased DoT, and a multiplicative bonus to DoT when an enemy is Cursed.
• (Warlock) 5 points in Occultist's Mind: Intelligence and a healthy mana pool increase scaling off how much total Intelligence you have.
• (Warlock) 5 points in Harrowing Armor: Armor, Health, and more Armor based on how many Curses the target has on them.

 Transplant is something that, by Level 35, you should be very accustomed to using. It's a great mobility tool that we can now start using for even more value.  Bone Curse will automate itself off this, and casting Transplant will also grant us Bone Armor. Yes, it's the same as the one off Marrow Thief. They won't stack, but this does ensure you will have it up far more often. Additionally, Transplant usage will give us Haste and Frenzy, making us move faster and cast faster and boosting the speed at which we can move through the campaign.

While  Transplant will start out at a lower level than your other skills, we'll still list out the first 12 points to place into the skill.

• 2 points in Acolyte's Fervor: Provides Haste and Frenzy on Transplant use.
• 1 point in Reign of Blood: You now detonate the area you arrive in, as well as where you left from.
• 1 point in Doom Bringer:  Bone Curse is cast on arrival.
• 1 point in Fleeting Form: Cooldown reduction for Transplant.
• 2 points in Anemia: Transplant now costs us less health to use.
• 2 points in Bone Armor: Using Transplant will grant us Bone Armor, mitigating the damage we take for a short period of time.
• 3 points in Apostasy: Bone Armor now lasts much longer, from 4 seconds to 7 seconds.

This part of the campaign should feel incredibly smooth as we move into more powerful passive nodes being taken within the Warlock tree. At this point in the campaing, if you have not yet, it is highly encouraged you craft on the gear that you have found. Lucky Nemesis drops can easily carry you through the story portion of the game, however for pieces that weren't dropped from a Nemesis you'll want to cover certain things that may not be covered naturally. These things include Movement Speed, all Resistances, and any increase to Necrotic, Fire, or Damage Over Time that you can fit in. This is especially important around the time you go to fight Lagon, as this boss hits extremely hard. Prioritize Cold, Physical, and Lightning Resistance for this fight.

Upon reaching Majelka on your first character, you'll have the opportunity to to join a trade faction; either Merchant's Guild and Circle of Fortune, both providing a unique way to obtain loot and customizing your gameplay experience. Both have their pros and cons, and it's entirely up to the player to make the decision on which to choose.

Node allocation to Level 50 should be as follows. This assumes you have 16 points in the skill. If you happen to have more due to additional skill levels on gear, just look ahead on this page to see where the next points are spent!

• 1 point in Abrupt Chaos: Extra Cast Speed.
• 2 points in Doom's Vindication: Small multiplicative damage boost to Chaos Bolts, that also effect on-hit effects.
• 1 point in Devour the Damned: If an enemy is Cursed, you'll gain health and mana back when you hit them.
• 1 point into Cursed Blood: Chaos Bolt hits now refresh Curse timers. This includes things like  Bone Curse, Penance, and Mark for Death.
• 1 point in Another Affliction: This allows you to automate  Bone Curse so long as a Curse exists on the target you're hitting with Chaos Bolts.
• 5 points in Mania in Flames: Chance to inflict Ignite.
• 5 points in Condemned to Chaos: Chance to inflict Damned.

• 3 points in Fragile Crust: Huge mana reduction cost.
• 1 point in Death from Below: Small damage bonus to damage dealt by Fissure.
• 4 points in Mantle of Flames: The fissure portion of the spell has a much higher chance to Ignite enemies that stand on it.
• 2 points in Fell Fire: Ignite stacks will now spread when hit by a Spirit.
• 4 points in Stygian Current: Spirits are released more frequently.
• 1 point in Severed Wards: Spirits will now shred Necrotic Resistance on hit.
• 1 point in Singed by Terror: Spirits will now shred Fire Resistance on hit.

• 5 points in Conflation: Drastically increases the size of Bone Curse.
• 1 point in Sigil of Mortality: Bone Curse applies Mark for Death, reducing enemy resistances by 25%.
• 2 points in Reaper's Mark: Doubles the active time for Mark for Death to 4 seconds.
• 2 points in Defile Defenses: We're dealing mostly ailment damage, this node doesn't do much for us.
• 3 points in Marrow Thief: Chance to kill (if the killed had an active Bone Curse on them) to activate Bone Armor on us, mitigating the damage we take.
• 2 points in Bone Feast: When Bone Armor activates, you'll be healed by it.
• 1 point in Iron Maiden: Pathing node.

• 3 points in Acolyte's Fervor: Provides Haste and Frenzy on Transplant use.
• 1 point in Reign of Blood: You now detonate the area you arrive in, as well as where you left from.
• 1 point in Doom Bringer:  Bone Curse is cast on arrival.
• 3 points in Fleeting Form: Cooldown reduction for Transplant.
• 2 points in Anemia: Transplant now costs us less health to use.
• 2 points in Bone Armor: Using Transplant will grant us Bone Armor, mitigating the damage we take for a short period of time.
• 3 points in Apostasy: Bone Armor now lasts much longer, from 4 seconds to 7 seconds.
• 1 point in Scarlet Rain: Pathing node for future levels.

At minimum, upon reaching Level 50, you should have another 15 Passive Points to spend in since the previous level tier. However, it's likely you have more due to quest rewards. Thus, the following list will assume you have access to 20 extra points. If you have less, it isn't a big deal. You can always go back and finish optional quests after the campaign is finished.

• (Acolyte) 5 points in Dark Protections: You take less damage per Curse on the target.
• (Acolyte) 5 points in Chains of Ruin: Grants a global chance to inflict Damned on hit, but also allows us the ability to activate Damned Overload when we reach 25 total stacks of Damned on all enemies and cast a Necrotic spell.
• (Acolyte) 5 points in Infernal Lash: Grants a global chance to inflict Ignite on hit, but also allows us the ability to activate Ignite Overload when we reach 25 total stacks of Ignite on all enemies and cast a Necrotic spell.
• (Acolyte) 5 points in The Ashen One: Increased Necrotic and Elemental Damage. The bonus node here causes our Overloads to inflict Witchfire, a powerful Fire and Necrotic Damage Over Time ailment. This will only activate upon gaining an Overload, and spreads to nearby enemies once.

At Level 50, you will specialize  Profane Veil, giving you a moment of near immunity as you sink into a puddle of fire. The only thing that can damage you while in form will be DoTs. Sinking into the puddle will cleanse you of all ailments, set foes ablaze with a ton of Ignite stacks, and also cast  Bone Curse when we enter and exit the puddle. You won't move very fast while in this state, so it should mainly be used to ignore hard hitting attacks from bosses, or to deal with a lot of enemies at once without fear of death.

While  Profane Veil will start out at a lower level than your other skills, we'll still list out the first 16 points to place into the skill.

• 3 points in Loose Tongue: Reduces the mana cost of using the skill.
• 1 point in Penitent Tangent: Inflicts targets touched by the puddle with Penance, a Curse that will scale our offenses and defenses.
• 3 points in Hell Fire: The puddle will inflict Ignite stacks at an increased rate based on our Damned, Bleed, Poison, Slow, and Ignite chance.
• 3 points in Eternal Blasphemy: You now move faster and deal more damage while inside of Profane Veil.
• 1 point in Unholy Renewal: Sinking into the puddle cleanses all ailments on us.
• 2 points in Harsh Words: Mana cost reduced, and more damage dealt.
• 1 point in Forked Tongue: Creates a secondary puddle that acts on its own, moving towards nearby enemies.
• 1 point in Desecrated Graves:  Bone Curse is used on entry and exit of the puddle.

Entering the Monolith using this is going to feel like you're cheating. While just killing normal enemies, it won't be uncommon that you don't even get your Overloads up, because enemies just die too quickly for the stacks to build up. Your rotation going forward will be to lay down  Chthonic Fissure near enemies,  Transplant into the group, immediately  Profane Veil, and once the channel finishes spam  Chaos Bolts until everything is dead, or refresh  Chthonic Fissure if it runs out and things are still alive. This will be very rare, don't plan on encountering this problem very much. This build can easily bypass Level 70. In the event you're unsure about what to do for endgame, but you're enjoying this, feel free to flesh the build out further. In fact, there's a new unique for Patch 1.2 called Downfall of the Righteous that empowers Witchfire, and could be used to enable an even stronger version of this build if found. If you do have an endgame build in mind, it's around this time that you'd want to set up a loot filter to start finding the gear you need on the different build.

This build was tested without twink gear, and was capable of entering and completing Empowered Echoes at level 70. For your first character, you may not even be able to get through the normal Monolith at this level, simply because there's forced Monolith Islands you must complete.

Congratulations on getting this far. Below, you'll find the remainder of the skill point and node allocations that you will need through to Character Level 70 and Skill Level 20.

• (Acolyte) 8 points in Forbidden Knowledge: Intelligence will be the main scaler for the build, and Necrotic Resistance is very useful around the mid-point of the campaign.
• (Acolyte) 6 points in Blood Aura: General damage increase for everything you do.
• (Acolyte) 1 point in Mania of Mortality: Pathing node.
• (Acolyte) 5 points in Unnatural Preservation: Ward Retention, Necrotic Resistance, and Poison Resistance.
• (Warlock) 5 points in Soul Stealer: Increased Mana Regen, and a chance to gain mana when hitting a Cursed enemy.
• (Warlock) 5 points in Spiteful Decay: Health, increased DoT, and a multiplicative bonus to DoT when an enemy is Cursed.
• (Warlock) 5 points in Occultist's Mind: Intelligence and a healthy mana pool increase scaling off how much total Intelligence you have.
• (Warlock) 5 points in Harrowing Armor: Armor, Health, and more Armor based on how many Curses the target has on them.
• (Warlock) 5 points in Dark Protections: You take less damage per Curse on the target.
• (Warlock) 5 points in Chains of Ruin: Grants a global chance to inflict Damned on hit, but also allows us the ability to activate Damned Overload when we reach 25 total stacks of Damned on all enemies and cast a Necrotic spell.
• (Warlock) 5 points in Infernal Lash: Grants a global chance to inflict Ignite on hit, but also allows us the ability to activate Ignite Overload when we reach 25 total stacks of Ignite on all enemies and cast a Necrotic spell.
• (Warlock) 5 points in The Ashen One: Increased Necrotic and Elemental Damage. The bonus node here causes our Overloads to inflict Witchfire, a powerful Fire and Necrotic Damage Over Time ailment. This will only activate upon gaining an Overload.
• (Warlock) 5 points in Grimhilde's Domain: A massive multiplier for Witchfire, scaling off global chance to Ignite and Damned. Witchfire now also spreads to nearby enemies during Overloads when the afflicted are hit.
• (Warlock) 5 points in Grasping Damnation: Significant boost to Damned and the chains off Damned Overload. The bonus portion of the node is great for a defensive layer, especially on mobile enemies like Exiled Mages.
• (Warlock) 5 points in Wither: Applies Wither on hit, negating damage enemies afflicted by this can deal.
• (Warlock) 2 points in Fleeting Crone: Chance to apply Haste to our character when an enemy dies or you hit a boss.
• (Warlock) 1 point in Encroaching Darkness: Allows us to apply Anguish to enemies, an extra Curse.

• 3 point in Abrupt Chaos: Extra Cast Speed.
• 2 points in Doom's Vindication: Small multiplicative damage boost to Chaos Bolts, that also effect on-hit effects.
• 2 point in Devour the Damned: If an enemy is Cursed, you'll gain health and mana back when you hit them.
• 1 point into Cursed Blood: Chaos Bolt hits now refresh Curse timers. This includes things like  Bone Curse, Penance, and Mark for Death.
• 1 point in Another Affliction: This allows you to automate  Bone Curse so long as a Curse exists on the target you're hitting with Chaos Bolts.
• 5 points in Mania in Flames: Chance to inflict Ignite.
• 5 points in Condemned to Chaos: Chance to inflict Damned.
• 1 point in Seed of Chaos : Small chance for Chaos Bolts to double cast.

• 3 points in Fragile Crust: Huge mana reduction cost.
• 1 point in Death from Below: Small damage bonus to damage dealt by Fissure.
• 4 points in Mantle of Flames: The fissure portion of the spell has a much higher chance to Ignite enemies that stand on it.
• 4 points in Fell Fire: Ignite stacks will now spread when hit by a Spirit.
• 5 points in Stygian Current: Spirits are released more frequently.
• 1 point in Severed Wards: Spirits will now shred Necrotic Resistance on hit.
• 1 point in Singed by Terror: Spirits will now shred Fire Resistance on hit.
• 1 point in Of Gloom and Flames: This doubles the size of the fissure, and doubles the amount of Spirits released.

• 5 points in Conflation: Drastically increases the size of Bone Curse.
• 1 point in Sigil of Mortality: Bone Curse applies Mark for Death, reducing enemy resistances by 25%.
• 2 points in Reaper's Mark: Doubles the active time for Mark for Death to 4 seconds.
• 2 points in Defile Defenses: We're dealing mostly ailment damage, this node doesn't do much for us.
• 3 points in Marrow Thief: Chance to kill (if the killed had an active Bone Curse on them) to activate Bone Armor on us, mitigating the damage we take.
• 2 points in Bone Feast: When Bone Armor activates, you'll be healed by it.
• 2 point in Iron Maiden: Pathing node.
• 3 points in Brittle Bones: Adds a kill threshold of 12% to any enemy afflicted with Bone Curse.

• 3 points in Acolyte's Fervor: Provides Haste and Frenzy on Transplant use.
• 1 point in Reign of Blood: You now detonate the area you arrive in, as well as where you left from.
• 1 point in Doom Bringer:  Bone Curse is cast on arrival.
• 3 points in Fleeting Form: Cooldown reduction for Transplant.
• 4 points in Anemia: Transplant now costs us less health to use.
• 2 points in Bone Armor: Using Transplant will grant us Bone Armor, mitigating the damage we take for a short period of time.
• 3 points in Apostasy: Bone Armor now lasts much longer, from 4 seconds to 7 seconds.
• 1 point in Scarlet Rain: Pathing node for future levels.
• 1 point in Ethereal Body: Converts Transplant into a Necrotic skill, helping to apply Damned.
• 1 point in Squeamish: Casts Fear on departure. This is great for when you're overwhelmed and need space.

• 3 points in Loose Tongue: Reduces the mana cost of using the skill.
• 1 point in Penitent Tangent: Inflicts targets touched by the puddle with Penance, a Curse that will scale our offenses and defenses.
• 3 points in Hell Fire: The puddle will inflict Ignite stacks at an increased rate based on our Damned, Bleed, Poison, Slow, and Ignite chance.
• 3 points in Eternal Blasphemy: You now move faster and deal more damage while inside of Profane Veil.
• 1 point in Unholy Renewal: Sinking into the puddle cleanses all ailments on us.
• 3 points in Harsh Words: Mana cost reduced, and more damage dealt.
• 1 point in Forked Tongue: Creates a secondary puddle that acts on its own, moving towards nearby enemies.
• 1 point in Desecrated Graves:  Bone Curse is used on entry and exit of the puddle.
• 1 point in Spirit Plate: Armor mitigation applies to DoT while in the puddle.
• 1 point in Profane Orbs: Adds a hit component while we're in the puddle, inflicting more ailments.
• 1 point in Hex Flurry: Orbs generate faster based on Cast Speed, but also deal more damage per Curse on the target.