Forge Guard Crit Javelin Endgame Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.2)

Our base class is Sentinel, which fills the role of a knight in Last Epoch. Upon finishing Act 1 in the campaign, your character will be offered an opportunity to select an Advanced Mastery. Each base class has three possible Masteries to choose from. For Sentinel, you can choose between Passive Trees for Paladin, Forge Guard, and Void Knight. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive points in the Sentinel Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive points in the Mastery Trees.

Forge Guard is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Forge Guard Tree will focus around picking nodes that bolster our throwing capabilities, enable us to use a two-handed weapon and shield at the same time, and provide a strong defensive layering through percentage based mitigation. Paladin and Void Knight are both used to a degree, but only very selective points are used from these trees.

• 8 points in Juggernaut: Strength and Resistances.
• 5 points in Armour Clad: 10% damage reduction if within melee range.
• 1 point in Fearless: Pathing node.
• 1 point in Stalwart: Easy 3% Block Chance.
• 5 points in Relentless: Increased damage and provides a bit of defense against stuns.

Our base class is Sentinel, which fills the role of a knight in Last Epoch. Upon finishing Act 1 in the campaign, your character will be offered an opportunity to select an Advanced Mastery. Each base class has three possible Masteries to choose from. For Sentinel, you can choose between Passive Trees for Paladin, Forge Guard, and Void Knight. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive points in the Sentinel Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive points in the Mastery Trees.

Forge Guard is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Forge Guard Tree will focus around picking nodes that bolster our throwing capabilities, enable us to use a two-handed weapon and shield at the same time, and provide a strong defensive layering through percentage based mitigation. Paladin and Void Knight are both used to a degree, but only very selective points are used from these trees.

• 5 points in Weapons Master: This build uses a spear, so this node provides 5% flat crit rate alongside usable Strength.
• 3 points in Steel Aegis: 3% Block Chance.
• 1 point in Fresh from the Forge: Taken for pathing. This is a good node, as it adds flat throwing damage to the build, but unfortunately we are limited on what we can take. If you find yourself overly tanky, you may opt to pull points out of some of the more defensive nodes and place them here.
• 1 point in Peltast: Again, not a bad node. But points are scarce, so we only use this for pathing further into the tree.
• 5 points in Guardian: A large amount of Health. The Stun Chance is also useful, especially against Harbingers.
• 8 points in Champion of the Forge: Critical Chance alongside Multiplier, scaling off Strength.
• 8 points in Siege Captain: Flat Throwing Damage for wielding a shield, and a ton of Block Effectiveness.
• 10 points in Iron Reflexes: A staple in Forge Guard throwing builds, this converts the Dodge you gain from the scaling of this build into Armor while also providing substantial Dexterity.
• 4 points in Crusader: 60% Critical Strike Chance for Throwing.
• 3 point in Infinite Bulwark: Not great by itself, but the attached node beyond this is what's worth taking.
• 5 points in Liquid Iron: With how this build plays, DoT mitigation is of the utmost importance. We need to be able to survive standing in bad things in order to maximize damage. If the bad thing you're standing in is super strong, using a potion will double your DoT defenses from this node.
• 6 points in Javelineer: Flat crit scaling off Dexterity, and 60% Crit Multiplier.
• 1 point in Flawless Defender: Some bonus Armor while holding a shield.
• 4 points in Walls of Solarum: We're one point off from being able to cap this, but this is still a decent bit of mitigation just for existing. Hitting 50% Block Chance is relatively easy with this build, without Legendary Potential.
• 1 point in Forgemaster's Might: This node enables us to wield a two-handed weapon and shield at the same time. While it does reduce our damage a bit, it's worth it for the interactions the items we choose and the tankiness it provides.
• 8 points in Master of Arms: We get to double dip a bit here. This node grants us Strength, Frailty Chance and reduced damage taken from crits.

Our base class is Sentinel, which fills the role of a knight in Last Epoch. Upon finishing Act 1 in the campaign, your character will be offered an opportunity to select an Advanced Mastery. Each base class has three possible Masteries to choose from. For Sentinel, you can choose between Passive Trees for Paladin, Forge Guard, and Void Knight. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive points in the Sentinel Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive points in the Mastery Trees.

Forge Guard is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Forge Guard Tree will focus around picking nodes that bolster our throwing capabilities, enable us to use a two-handed weapon and shield at the same time, and provide a strong defensive layering through percentage based mitigation. Paladin and Void Knight are both used to a degree, but only very selective points are used from these trees.

• 8 points in Conviction: Physical Penetration and Increased Damage.
• 3 points in Honor: Taken for the 3% Block Chance.
• 4 points in Valor: Needed for the ability to use  Symbols of Hope, but does provide some basic defenses like Endurance and Health.

Our base class is Sentinel, which fills the role of a knight in Last Epoch. Upon finishing Act 1 in the campaign, your character will be offered an opportunity to select an Advanced Mastery. Each base class has three possible Masteries to choose from. For Sentinel, you can choose between Passive Trees for Paladin, Forge Guard, and Void Knight. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive points in the Sentinel Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive points in the Mastery Trees.

Forge Guard is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Forge Guard Tree will focus around picking nodes that bolster our throwing capabilities, enable us to use a two-handed weapon and shield at the same time, and provide a strong defensive layering through percentage based mitigation. Paladin and Void Knight are both used to a degree, but only very selective points are used from these trees.

• 5 points in Abyssal Endurance: Health, some bonus resistance, but also flat mitigation against Void and Physical damage types.

 Javelin is the button you'll be using the most. It's an all-in-one package, dealing fantastic single target damage, but also great AoE damage. Javelin does normally come with a high mana requirement, however this is solved with Tier 7 Throwing Damage and Reduced Throwing Mana Cost affixes on our rings, and from the Unique boots Foot of the Mountain, which lowers the Mana cost even further when standing still. You can still walk around and use Javelin without running dry on resources, but constant casting will result in mana starvation without the proper gear. Nodes in this tree can be adjusted to facilitate lower mana cost as well in the event you're still gearing your character and missing important pieces. Your damage will take small hits, but it won't be so detrimental that the build will no longer function.

• 3 points in Mighty Delivery: Multiplicative damage scaling and Attack Speed. This is very necessary, as Forgemaster's Might slows us down a bit.
• 1 point in Warrior's Mark: All that's needed for both effects to take place. Easily caps both Frailty and Physical Resistance Shred on targets.
• 1 point in Siege Barrage: You no longer throw Javelin in a straight line; instead, it rains down from above and hits targets multiple times.
• 2 points in Spiked Bombardment: Siege Barrage now hits an additional two times, but at the cost of more mana.
• 1 point in Excellent Balance: Mana reduction. If you're having problems with mana still, feel free to take more points in this until it's fixed.
• 1 point in Beast Ender: Some bonus flat Critical Strike Chance and Crit Multiplier.
• 4 points in Monster Piercer: Multiplicative damage node, but doubles effectiveness against enemies with high health. This is great for mapping, where you may not have a chance to apply debuffs to ramp damage; instead, enemies will just be killed in a single hit.
• 1 point in Go for the Legs: Pathing node.
• 5 points in Forceful Hurl: This is a massive 150% Physical Penetration for standing still, syngerizing with the rest of the build.
• 1 point in Strategic Patience: Massive multiplicative damage modifier, at the cost of Attack Speed reduction. The trade off is worth it here.

While most uses of  Shield Throw will be automated off Sigeon's Reprisal retaliation, this skill can still be used to kill enemies that may be spread out, or that you simply dont want to stop moving to throw  Javelin. I like to think of this as the "lazy" option when mapping. It's nice to have as an option.

However, that isn't all there is to this skill. With the rework in Patch 1.2, Shield Throw now provides us with substantial buffs when it is used, and when it ricochets off enemies. This is important to keep in mind, as when fighting many bosses, they won't all hit a bunch, and you may be forced to manually cast this skill in order to pump your damage. While it's obvious that more damage equals less time fighting a boss, it's important to note that fully buffed Javelin has a decently high rate of stun, even on Harbingers. The higher your damage, the more likely you are to stun, and the more likely you are to just avoid dealing with mechanics at all, depending on the Corruption you're at.

• 1 point in Siege Breaker: Adds a 6 second cooldown to Shield Throw, but Shield Throw now deals 100% more damage. This isn't our main damage skill, and the retaliation from Sigeon's Reprisal bypasses this anyway.
• 1 point in Throwing Arm: Allows Shield Throw to ricochet an additional four times, and it can now ricochet off you! This is super important, as you will need the ricochet off yourself for single target fights.
• 4 points in Colossus: This is the most important node in the tree. Easily capped at 20 stacks, this provides 100% increased Armor and 40% global Physical Penetration while the buff is active.
• 2 points in Defender's Rage: Buffs us with Frenzy, increasing our Throwing Attack Speed for 4 seconds.
• 3 points in Sleek Buckler: Increased Throwing Attack speed, but more importantly Shield Throw travels 60% faster.
• 2 points in Ricochet: Adds another potential two ricochets, but increases mana cost. Mana cost here is negligible and can be ignored.
• 5 points in Heavy Shield: 15% multiplicative damage scaling, and 30 flat Throwing Damage added to Shield Throw.
• 3 points in Sharpened Rim: Adds base 6% Crit Chance.
• 1 point in Avenger's Wrath: 1% Critical Multiplier per 40 Block Effectiveness.
• 1 point in Spiked Plates: 50% of your Block Chance is added as a more damage modifier. For this build, this equates to around 30% more damage at baseline, but can be higher depending on your gear.

 Smite is taken for two very important reasons. For starters, it's the main sustain source for our health. Especially early on before getting the ultra-endgame gear, being in range of at least a portion of your Smite casts is crucial. With Titan Heart being a great option before Null Portent, it kills our health regeneration, so it's important to be mindful of the range on the healing. Secondly, Smite hits will boost our Throwing Attack Speed, something we are in dire need of due to Forgemaster's Might. There's a small chance Smite cleanses us, which may not seem too important most of the time, however in fights like Aberroth (or even Uber Aberroth), being able to cleanse is imperative.

You won't be actively casting  Smite. Rather, this build forces specific Idols (Adorned Rahyeh Idols, 2x2) in order to proc Smite off throwing hits. Basically, as we'll have four of these Idols, if we hit an enemy, it procs a Smite cast.

• 4 points in Holy Wave: Smite heals in a much larger area.
• 3 points in Righteous Fury: This node is purely for pathing.
• 4 points in Righteous Flurry: Essentially a permanent 20% Attack Speed boost.
• 3 points in Soothing Balm: Increased Health Regen and Mana Regen when healed by Smite.
• 5 points in Grace: Smite heals for 200% more.
• 1 point in Panacea: Small chance to cleanse ailments on heal.

This build has very low movement speed. It's easily the worst part of the set up.  Lunge is going to be your best friend here.  Smite traversal is an option, which would mean not taking Lunge at all and instead opting for another skill (potentially  Ring Of Shields as a nice passive boost), however you lose the ability to automate  Javelin. This is purely player preference. When testing, Evade was more than enough to avoid telegraphed attacks from bosses if needed.

• 2 points in Dawn Charge: Pathing node.
• 2 points in Juggernaut Dash: Grants 100% Block Chance while dashing.
• 1 point in Unstoppable: You are invincibile while dashing. This is great for getting through things like Lagon's eye laser in the event you have positioned poorly.
• 1 point in Warrior's Renewal: Pathing node.
• 2 points in Initiate's Onslaught: Pathing node.
• 1 point in Art of the Spear: Some cool changes with Lunge itself, but we don't really get to do anything with them.
• 1 point in Deadly Stab: Improved Crit Chance, but basically worthless to us.
• 1 point in Pilum Assault: The whole reason for the previous points. Lunge now automates Javelin on arrival. This is great for initiating dangerous enemies because it may just outright kill them.
• 1 point in Blade Stream: Lunge now strikes all enemies along it's path.
• 3 points in Broadside: Lunge has a wider range of where it can hit.
• 5 points in Crusader's Fury: Each enemy you Lunge through, you gain 10% Physical Penetration for a short period of time. Use this to your advantage while running maps.

With the changes in Patch 1.2,  Symbols of Hope (previously Sigils of Hope) now automatically propogate on your character without inputs. This is a welcome change, and allows us to use the Symbols as a passive bonus to our character without forcing clunky casting or forced Uniques to enable functionality. We'll focus on capping out maximum Symbols, Endurance Threshold, and Block Chance.

There is an active effect on the Symbols, however the use case for this build is very niche. When activated, you gain global damage mitigation for a period of time. However, bonuses from specific portions of the tree scaling off number of Symbols will disappear until they regenerate. Only use Symbols in the event you're taking lethal damage from a DoT effect and need to move.

• 5 points in Iron Symbols: Endurance Threshold per Symbol.
• 2 points in Enduring Hope: Pathing node.
• 1 point in Tetragram: +1 Symbol count.
• 1 point in Meditation: Symbols give increased Health Regen. Be mindful in group play, you no longer grant benefits to allies now.
• 3 points in Sign of the Guardian: This grants a massive boost to blocking, increasing Block Chance and Block Effectiveness per Symbol.
• 2 points in Quiet Mind: Pathing node.
• 3 points in Invigorate: Increases your healing, boosting  Smite healing.
• 1 point in Polygram: +1 Symbol count.
• 2 points in Empowering Symbols: Increased damage per Symbol.