Forge Guard Multistrike Phantom Axes 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 increase our Blocking ability, our Melee Damage, and give us a large amount of support for  Ring Of Shields. Paladin and Void Knight are both used to a degree, but only very selective points are used from these trees. 15 points in Paladin are mandatory in order to unlock  Symbols of Hope.

• 5 points in Overwhelm: Adds 5 Melee Damage to the build.
• 3 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 Time and Faith: This is a must have. You will not sustain Mana without it.

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 increase our Blocking ability, our Melee Damage, and give us a large amount of support for  Ring Of Shields. Paladin and Void Knight are both used to a degree, but only very selective points are used from these trees. 15 points in Paladin are mandatory in order to unlock  Symbols of Hope.

• 5 points in Weapons Master: This build uses a sword, so this node provides 10% Attack Speed alongside usable Strength.
• 5 points in Steel Aegis: 3% Block Chance and Block Effectiveness.
• 1 point in Fresh from the Forge: Taken for pathing.
• 4 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.
• 2 points in Smelter's Might: Adds just enough Bleed Chance in order to make the damage boost within Multistrike (Guillotine) consistent.
• 6 points in Might: Strength and a load of Health
• 8 points in Duelist: 120% Increased Chance to Critically Strike.
• 4 points in Flawless Defender: Additional Armor when wearing a shield.
• 5 points in Walls of Solarum: Amounts to 10% less damage taken due to high Block Chance.
• 6 points in Lethal Strikes: Melee Critical Multiplier and additional Physical Penetration for having Strength.
• 5 points in Osprixbane: Taken for the large amount of Elemental Resistance it provides, but also makes Fire the least lethal form of damage we can take.
• 5 points in Shield Crafter: This allows us to automate  Ring Of Shields of blocking attacks. Massively important to the build.
• 1 point in Forgemaster's Might: The singular most important point in the build. This enables us to use a two-hander and a shield at the same time.
• 8 points in Master of Arms: Strength, Frailty Chance on Hit, and Reduced Damage taken from Critical Hits for the weapon/shield combo we're using. This receives a big boost because we took Forgemaster's Might.

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 increase our Blocking ability, our Melee Damage, and give us a large amount of support for  Ring Of Shields. Paladin and Void Knight are both used to a degree, but only very selective points are used from these trees. 15 points in Paladin are mandatory in order to unlock  Symbols of Hope.

• 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 increase our Blocking ability, our Melee Damage, and give us a large amount of support for  Ring Of Shields. Paladin and Void Knight are both used to a degree, but only very selective points are used from these trees. 15 points in Paladin are mandatory in order to unlock  Symbols of Hope.

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

 Multistrike is the powerhouse of the build. This skill is very much a ramping ability, as in the more you hit an enemy, the more damage it will deal, to a cap. This depends on Armament stacks generated from using the skill itself and Bleed stacks on the individual enemy. All that's needed is 10 stacks for full damage. By the time you're on the third hit from Multistrike within a short period of time, you'll be hitting even Bosses for huge chunks of their life.

This attack is very slow! There's nothing that can really be done about this due to the fact the massive slowdown doubles the amount of phantom axes that generate when we attack. It may cross your mind to remove the axes and go with swords instead; be warned, doing so may end up chunking your Mana extremely hard. This build has a very specific setup that allows it to keep resources, and one of those things is the slower attack speed, partially forced by Hack and Slash and also partially from the slow attack speed of our weapon of choice, Leviathan Carver.

Outside of some support actions, this is really the only button that's required to be pressed when going from pack to pack. So if you're tired of long button combos, full rotations, and require something more simple to enjoy your time, this is the perfect set up for you.

• 2 points in Relentless Advance: Needed for pathing, but also boosts Attack Speed.
• 2 points in Initiate: Your physical hit will deal more damage, however this will not effect the phantom axes.
• 1 point in Alpha Cuts: Adds a small bit of Critical Chance, but overall beneficial as it takes some pressure off gearing.
• 1 point in Bladestorm: Significantly enhances the single-target capabilities of this skill, but fair warning, if you're not prepared for this node with the gear we've suggested, this can easily destroy your Mana very fast.
• 5 points in Path of the Knight: Scales Multistrike damage off your own Armor. Don't worry about hitting the cap; this build surpasses it by a mile.
• 1 point in Hack and Slash: This severely slows the attack animation on Multistrike, effectively reducing Attack Speed, but in return the phantom hits off Multistrike hit twice. This is overall a pretty big damage gain. This is also what converts the swords to axes.
• 1 point in Perfect Steel: +1 Armament stack.
• 1 point in Aggressive Cadence: This gives an additional phantom axe at max Armament stacks. This is better than adding an extra stack, as it takes less time to get to the maximum count this way.
• 4 points in Determination: 60% more damage at maximum Armament stacks.
• 2 points in Blitz: 20% Physical Penetration.
• 1 point in Decimate: 5% chance to Bleed per Armament stack. Don't worry, this isn't our only Bleed source.
• 3 points in Guillotine: A massive 90% multiplicative scaling off Bleed stacks. Cap is 10 stacks.

 Healing Hands serves it's traditional purpose for this build; it heals us on every melee hit. The area is scaled up, the Mana cost is scaled down, and we gain added protections versus undead and void-based enemies. Overall, a great addition to the build, but it's entirely passive and not something you need to think about when playing the build.

• 4 points in Cleric's Hammer: Fully automates Healing Hands off direct melee attacks.
• 1 point in Searing Light: Pathing node; however, this does allow Healing hands to deal damage.
• 1 point in Purity of Thought: Huge reduction in Mana cost.
• 3 points in Blessed Parish: Smaller reductions in Mana cost, but a decent increase to area as well.
• 1 point in Bane of Evil: Pathing node.
• 1 point in Halted Scourge: Hitting void-based enemies results in dealing more and taking less damage to them for a short period of time.
• 1 point in Turn Undead: Hitting undead-based enemies results in dealing more and taking less damage to them for a short period of time.
• 2 points in Cleric's Wrath: Small damage boost for Healing Hands.
• 2 points in Virtue of Patience: Forced pathing, but also an increase to hit area.
• 1 point in Seraph Blade: Turns Healing Hands into a melee attack, scaled off Melee Damage and changing the shape of the attack.

 Ring Of Shields is a massive enabler for this build. A substantial amount of our defenses are generated from these shields spawning. While they do heal us, the actual heal is pretty negligible. What's more important, is the heal increases our Armor and Block Effectiveness for a short period of time. On top of this, spawning a shield through any means boosts Block Chance by 15%, which is necessary for us to hit 100% Block Chance.

You're free to press this manually, and you may need to for certain boss fights, but while mapping this will trigger automatically off attacks you block. It's important to keep in mind, your mitigation against Damage Over Time is reliant on your Armor Rating and your Block Effectiveness, so keeping this up at all times will provide a massive safety net for your survival.

• 1 point in Reinforcement: +1 Shields.
• 2 points in Healing Shields: The shields now heal you.
• 2 points in Phalanx: Being healing by the shields increases our Armor.
• 5 points in Sturdy Shields: Being healed by the shields increases our Block Effectiveness.
• 2 points in Tempered Steel: Mana cost reduction with the penalty of less shield health.
• 5 points in Defensive Shields: Generating shields, either through manually clicking the button or automation, will provide us with 15% Block Chance.
• 2 points in Banding: Restores a bit of the Health lost from previous nodes and adds Physical Resistance to them.
• 1 point in Enduring Defense: Shields now last an extra 2 seconds.

Newly reworked in Patch 1.2,  Volatile Reversal has been turned upside down. It is no longer a way to infinitely sustain Mana or to gain absurds amount of Attack Speed. Instead, it's our main mobility tool, but it also adds some important utility to the build in the form of Frenzy and extra DoT mitigation. If you spam it (abiding by the cooldown) and hit enemies with it each time, you can stack up to three Void Essences as well, which add another multiplicative damage increase to our Melee Damage. This is a very nice thing to remember during Boss encounters. Being in melee range, using Volatile Reversal into the same spot your're standing, getting a few swings off with Frenzy, reverting back in time (zero movement, since you haven't moved since you used it), and then pressing Volatile again once it's off cooldown will provide just enough time to benefit from three stacks and leave you with Frenzy again, on top of adding a chunk of DoT mitigation for a short bit of time.

• 4 points in Swift Echoes: 20% Cooldown Reduction. Important for mobility and Void Essences.
• 2 points in Temporal Dilation: The ability to revert to your last location is extended by 2 seconds.
• 1 point in Catching Up: Mostly a pathing node. You won't get much use out of this.
• 1 point in Warped Time: While you have the ability to revert backwards, you gain Frenzy.
• 4 points in Phased Reality: 20% of your Armor applies to DoT. This equates to around a 16% mitigation, which is huge when combined with the shield we suggest, Countenance of Majasa.
• 2 points in Termination: Pathing node, but adds extra damage to the attack.
• 1 point in Dissipation: Chance for Volatile Reversal to Slow.
• 1 point in Dark Expanse: 20% area increase.
• 3 points in Eldritch Infusion: 100% Void Essence chance when Volatile Reversal lands a hit on an enemy.
• 1 point in Hellfire Rifts: Converts Volatile Reversal into a Fire skill. Extra point, place it where ever you want. It's placed here for aesthetics.

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.

The active effect from  Symbols of Hope should never be used! We need the Block Chance.

• 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  Healing Hands healing.
• 1 point in Polygram: +1 Symbol count.
• 2 points in Empowering Symbols: Increased damage per Symbol.