Forge Guard Mastery Leveling Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.1)

Sentinel is used primarily to provide a defensive boost to our character. Early Fire and Void Resistance (Juggernaut) is extremely helpful, as most enemies in starting zones will use these types of attacks. Armour Clad is great for this build considering we will want to be up close and personal with mobs while in combat. Overwhelm is taken in order to add an early base to our Melee Damage, however the Stun Chance will help more than you think later on for late main story bosses.

Plan to only invest 20 points in this tree, as that's the minimum requirement needed to unlock the mastery passive trees.

This build will not utilize Void Knight passives at all. Instead, we prioritize almost every point into Forge Guard, with a couple points into Paladin for the Attunement gain and Penetration.

Forge Guard now has access to Point Bounses in its Passive Tree. We will be taking advantage of most of these in order to bolster our own melee damage as well as the capabilities of our Forged Weapons.

• Start with 5 points into Weapons Master. This build will want to use a Mace, but if you have been unable to find one that scales the affixes you need, a two-handed sword would also work.
• Follow this will 10 points into Fresh from the Forge. The Point Bonus won't do anything for us, however this adds 10 Fire and Physical Melee Damage to  Rive.
• 5 points should then be placed into Champion of the Forge. This build uses a two-handed weapon, so we gain Critical Chance and Multiplier with this.
• Stop here and begin to place points into Paladin!
• At this point, the decision is up to you on where to place points. If you feel squishy, place 8 points into Iron Attunement. If your defensives are fine, instead place 5 points into Hammer and Anvil. Whichever node you avoided, just do that one next. The Point Bonus off Hammer and Anvil will be possible to proc at Level 50 when we gain access to  Sigils Of Hope.
• 10 points should be placed into Folded Steel. A single point will add two extra Forged Weapons to our summons, but this node increases their damage considerably.
• Finish this build off with 5 points into Might. This will add some much needed Health to the build to provide a bit of tankiness for your Monolith journey.

At the point of reaching level 70, and you've finished all quests, you should have a total of 20 points into Sentinel 48 points into Forge Guard, and 15 points into Paladin.

This build will not utilize Void Knight passives at all. Instead, we prioritize almost every point into Forge Guard, with a couple points into Paladin for the Attunement gain and Penetration.

Paladin is used for three reasons:

1. We need access to both  Healing Hands and  Sigils Of Hope, which means we need at minimum 15 points in this Passive Tree.
2. To facilitate this, start by placing 8 points into Defiance. This gives us Attunement and adds to our base Fire Damage with  Rive.
3. Finish off Paladin with 7 points in Conviction. This provides a ton of Physical and Fire Penetration for our  Rive damage.

Once you've placed all your points into Paladin head back to Forge Guard to finish out.

 Rive is our main source of damage in this build. The scaling nodes chosen for Rive specifically aim to abuse the leveling system and provide massive damage bumps that may or may not scale as well into the endgame. This will require a two-handed weapon, and preferably a Mace. Point allocation is as follows:

• Start with a single point into Champion. We will come back to this shortly.
• Proceed with 4 points into Bound Weapon. This will facilitate Forged Minion creation when killing mobs or hitting bosses.
• A single point (the max) should be placed into Foe Cleaver. This is a huge node, doubling any modifier on your weapon that adds or increases damage from your two-handed weapon, as well as any and all ailments.
• Head back to Champion and add two more points into it, stopping at 3/5.
• Add a point into Weapon Specialist. This will provide Rive one Fire Melee Damage per Attunement. Attunement is also the stat that scales Forged Weapons, creating synergy within the build.
• We will turn our attention to the right side of the tree from here by placing 5 points into Flurry. More Attack Speed on bosses means more chances to summon Forged Weapons.
• 1 point into Iron Reach. While this is definitely useful, this is mostly used as a way to path to the next node.
• Take the point in Challenge as this will help you group mobs together to assist AoE damage. This isn't just a benefit for you; it will also help your Forged Weapons cleave.
• Finish Rive off with 4 points into Concentration. This provides a huge flat boost to Critical Strike Chance with Rive.

 Lunge is our main mobility skill for the build, enabling us to move across the map, using mobs as leap stones. Aside from mobility, Lunging through enemies will provide us with extra Fire Penetration for a short period of time.

• Start the Lunge tree by taking 3 points in Warrior's Renewal. This is taken in order to minimize cooldown time between killing mobs.
• 2 points should then be placed into Ambuscade. This is purely to reach Double Strike, which should then get the singular point placed into it. This adds a charge to Lunge, allowing you to use it twice without waiting for the cooldown to come back.
• 2 points into Dawn Charge. Purely pathing, albeit useful for sustain when mapping.
• 1 point into Blade Stream. This is important (also unavoidable) in order to pull the Penetration off the skill.
• 2 points in both Visceral Path and Rough Cuts are purely for pathing.
• Torchbearer should have a point placed into it. This will convert Lunge into a Fire-based skill and add a neat animation to it when used.
• 1 point into Broadside, however this is purely for pathing.
• The final 5 points should be placed into Crusader's Fury. For every enemy you pass through, you will gain 10% Fire (converted) Penetration.

 Forge Strike is a bit of a weird skill; you will never actually use it. However, this is the main way we will scale Forged Weapons, making it an obvious gain for the build. The pathing for this is almost set in stone, since there are limited nodes to take for Forged Weapons in this tree.

• A high priority should be placed on starting on the right side of the tree. Immediately place 4 points into Forged by Fire in order to add a hefty base to your Weapons.
• 4 points into Well Forged Weapons should then be prioritized, as this adds 4 Forged Minions to your summon limit while significantly increasing their duration.
• Place the singular point into Forgemaster in order to add Forged Axes to your summon pool. These summons are far more powerful than the normal swords you'll summon.
• Next taken should be 4 points into Lightforge. While the Forged Weapons will deal a decent amount of damage on their own, we mostly want them in order to apply ailments. Thus, Attack Speed is a high priority.
• 5 points should be allocated into Heavy Strike. This provides a massive damage boost and increased chance to Stun enemies.
• With only 2 points left, place them into Engines of War in order to assist in map clear speed.

While  Healing Hands was taken purposely for self-sustain, Seraph Blade will deal a decent amount of damage on its own. Don't be surprised if  Lunge starts one-shotting enemies due to the proc of Healing Hands.

• Prioritise 4 points into Cleric's Hammer. This will proc Healing Hands off both  Rive and  Lunge.
• The single point into Searing Light will turn Healing Hands into a healing and damage spell, dealing Fire Damage to enemies that are hit.
• Both Cleric's Wrath and Virtue of Patience should get maxed out with 2 points each. This provides a large damage boost for the next node we'll be taking.
• Seraph Blade is how we properly weaponize this skill. This forces Healing Hands to scale with Melee Damage.
• The next two nodes, Purity of Thought and Blessed Parish, are taken at max in order to reduce Healing Hands to zero Mana cost.
• 2 points are taken in Prayer of the Fallen and is mainly for pathing into the final node, Urgent Healing. This adds 80 Health to the heal provided by each hit on Healing Hands.

 Sigils Of Hope is mainly used to provide Endurance Threshold and Fire Damage to ourselves and every Forged Minion we have summoned. With a max summon count of 12 and 4 max Sigils active, this adds a large amount of base damage to our minions.

• Since this is the last skill we will grab at level 50, the start of your pathing is majorly up to you. Pathing to the left towards Empowering Sigils (4 points) and into the next node, Decree of Flame (3 points), will give this build a substantial boost to damage. Likewise, pathing to the right into Iron Sigils (5 points) and Enduring Hope (5 points) will provide mostly a defensive boost to the build. Make the call yourself depending on how maps are feeling for you at the time of allocation.
• Regardless of your initial pathing, the next node you want is Tetragram. This increases the Sigil limit to 4.
• The last two points should be spent on Faith and Fervor in order to provide some emergency healing and Haste to the build.