Buffs and Skill Enhancements in Last Epoch

Just like other ARPG's, Last Epoch has a vast array of buffs that a player may receive. These can vary from offensive, defensive, or utility, benefits to a character that will help improve one or more aspects of their gameplay. Buffs are the pivotal pieces to crafting a build and synergies. They may provide a simple stat increase, or they can completely alter the functionality of a skill. Understanding how Buffs work within Last Epoch will allow you to understand the complexities of the build you are playing and make the difference in your ability to clear end game content.

Buffs are temporary improvements to your character that may, or may not, be easily visible. Most often they will be temporary increases to player power through raw stat enhancements. These will be more difficult to see at times, but are noticeable through increases to your overall damage that you are dealing to enemies, or perhaps due to increased defensiveness.

Some Buffs may be applied to minions or allies. At times, you may receive a noticeable improvement to your build by playing with another player and they Buff you. Be mindful of this when trying to clear more difficult content.

Due to the nature of how Buffs derive, the number of available Buffs is massive. At times builds will have an overwhelming number that will perfectly synergize together which will ultimately be the reason why a build can perform well. Some Buffs will be easily managed and permanent, while other may have a chance to occur for a limited duration. These offensive, defensive, or utility, enhancements will not always need to be tracked in the present moment--but it can be beneficial to be aware of Buff triggers a nd durations so that you can effectively clear content in the endgame. The more aware of what Buffs you have available and when they are active can make the difference at the highest levels in Last Epoch.

There will be other buffs that that augment how a Skill functions. For example, a passive such as Jade Quiver will modify  Shift to provide a buff when it is used that gives you Jade Arrow. Now when you  Shift, you will receive a stat Buff through a Critical Strike Chance increase, and it will cause attacks to Poison enemies.

Shrines will randomly spawn within maps and can give an array of personal Buffs. These can vary from Experience Buffs to significant Critical Strike Chance enhancements, or ways to reduce incoming damage. Whenever you see a Shrine, simply interact with it and you will receive the effect. There is no way to control what Shrines you encounter.

Certain types of gear may have an effect that triggers a limited duration Buff. For example,  The Kestrel will provide a 15% increased movement speed Buff as long as an enemy is hit within the last 5 seconds.

Gear Buffs that are received from Unique items are often core pieces to build synergies and will result in large power gains.

As we previously mentioned there are a plethora of Buffs that you can obtain in Last Epoch, each of which will provide a form of character enhancement that will impact one or more aspects of your gameplay.

Offensive Buffs will strictly seek to improve your damage output. This can be a Buff that provides a limited duration increase to one or more of your offensive stats, such as Lethal Cadence which will provide a raw damage buff to every third attack.

These Buffs will provide momentary improvements to your survivability. Whether it is a flat Health increase, or a buff to your resistances. In general, these will allow you to take more damage or avoid death in some manner. Silver Shroud is a Buff that can be applied through a few different abilities. It will guarantee a dodge and gain Ward with every stack that is used.

Buffs that focus on Utility will typically help a build to flow better throughout combat, or aid with a non-combat specific element of the build. A great representation of this is Movement Speed Buffs. Movement Speed plays a pivotal role in speed clearing content, whether that be for farming purposes or competitive endgame clears.  Smoke Bomb is an ability that will provide a Haste Buff which will increase Movement Speed if they step into the smoke cloud. This can be advantageous when trying to do everything possible to quickly clear content and its Movement Speed Utility can sometimes be very impactful for traversing a map.