Marksman Frozen Puncture Endgame Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.1)
Welcome to our Last Epoch Marksman Frozen Puncture build guide for the Rogue class. Here you will learn everything about the Marksman play style, passives, skills, strengths, and weaknesses to conquer the world of Eterra.
Build Introduction
If revenge is a dish best served cold, then put on your Sunday finest. It's time to feast! Freeze your enemies before they even have a chance to touch you with this Frozen Puncture build. Chill, Frostbite, Freeze; all are at your disposal to shatter foes and stop them in their tracks. The iceman cometh!
- Many defensive layers for survivability
- High Freeze Rate, most enemies will never touch you
- Multiple ways to completely avoid damage
- Puncture has a high Mana cost, reliant on using Flurry to maintain resources
- Less effective against bosses that can't be Frozen
- No automation; you must use your entire hotbar
Skill Selection
Frozen Puncture creates a smooth ebb and flow of Mana between using Puncture, our main damage skill, and Flurry, used as a resource generator and proc for Icicle. Through Puncture usage, clones are summoned that mimic our every action, boosting damage and increasing the clear rate of the build significantly. We'll deal the majority of our damage through cold-aspected ailments, abusing the synergy of Chill, Frostbite, and Ward-generating Freeze Rate.
While Marksman may not be known for high survivability, this build does an above average job of staying alive through a combination of Ward-generating interactions, Dodge Rating, and a slight bit of guile with Decoy and Smoke Bomb. That's if enemies can reach you in the first place; they may just remain frozen until they die.
Class and Skill Passive Trees
Our base class is Rogue, which fills the role of a stealthy melee or ranged user 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 Rogue, you can choose between Passive Trees for Bladedancer and Marksman. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Rogue Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.
Marksman is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Marksman Tree will focus around picking nodes that increase our Dexterity, Damage Over Time, and our survivability through both Dodge and Ward. A lesser amount of Passive Points will come from Bladedancer and Falconer, focusing entirely on further enhancements to Dodge, Glancing Blows, and Mana economy. Each Passive Tree and their points are broken down below.
Rogue Passive Points
- 8 points into Steady Hand: Dexterity gain.
- 7 points into Guile: Rounds out our Resistances, saving us an affix on gear down the road.
- 1 point into Evasion: Pathing node.
- 5 points into Agility: Chance to gain Haste on Hit, and increased damage scaling off Movement Speed.
- 5 points into Dodge and Parry: As the name implies, provides Dodge Rating and minor damage reduction through Glancing Blows.
- 4 points into Sapping Strikes: Extremely important, used to ensure Flurry will regenerate Mana back swiftly.
- 3 points into Coated Blades: Feel free to move points around here. Personally, at 3 points the build felt comfortable, but you may experiment here and see what suits you best. Ensure Puncture isn't obliterating your Mana, but this node ramps damage up fast, and it's worth having.
Our base class is Rogue, which fills the role of a stealthy melee or ranged user 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 Rogue, you can choose between Passive Trees for Bladedancer and Marksman. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Rogue Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.
Marksman is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Marksman Tree will focus around picking nodes that increase our Dexterity, Damage Over Time, and our survivability through both Dodge and Ward. A lesser amount of Passive Points will come from Bladedancer and Falconer, focusing entirely on further enhancements to Dodge, Glancing Blows, and Mana economy. Each Passive Tree and their points are broken down below.
Marksman Passive Points
- 8 points into Draining Arrows: Taken for Attack Speed to inflict ailments quickly.
- 8 points into Focus Fire: Provides a bump in Dexterity, but also makes enemies easier to hit.
- 10 points into Prolonged Demise: Boosts DoT damage with Frostbite.
- 8 points into Arrow Storm: While this is used to traverse to the next node, it comes with a nifty increase to Attack Speed that we can't pass up.
- 10 points into Covering Fire: One of the most important nodes in the build; Silver Shroud stacks force a Dodge the next time we're hit, and for each point into this node, the Dodge grants us 100 Ward, totaling 1000 Ward gain. If used properly, this can be used to bully boss mechanics to keep uptime and sustain damage.
- 10 points into Ethereal Arrows: Used in conjunction with the Puncture skill tree, this provides a massive boost in damage to the build by increasing Mana cost on bow attacks.
- 5 points into Mana Warp: On the other side of the spectrum, this is used with Flurry as a way to regenerate Mana on the fly.
- 1 point into Master Archer: Increases the area Hail of Arrows covers.
Our base class is Rogue, which fills the role of a stealthy melee or ranged user 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 Rogue, you can choose between Passive Trees for Bladedancer and Marksman. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Rogue Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.
Marksman is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Marksman Tree will focus around picking nodes that increase our Dexterity, Damage Over Time, and our survivability through both Dodge and Ward. A lesser amount of Passive Points will come from Bladedancer and Falconer, focusing entirely on further enhancements to Dodge, Glancing Blows, and Mana economy. Each Passive Tree and their points are broken down below.
Falconer Passive Points
- 5 points into Wilderness Scout: Health and Dodge Rating.
- 5 points into Outlander's Tenacity: Boosts Endurance Threshold by 15% of max Health, and additional Dodge Rating.
- 4 points into Stamina of the Rover: Increased Dodge Rating and a you now gain Mana when you Dodge an attack.
Our base class is Rogue, which fills the role of a stealthy melee or ranged user 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 Rogue, you can choose between Passive Trees for Bladedancer and Marksman. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Rogue Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.
Marksman is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Marksman Tree will focus around picking nodes that increase our Dexterity, Damage Over Time, and our survivability through both Dodge and Ward. A lesser amount of Passive Points will come from Bladedancer and Falconer, focusing entirely on further enhancements to Dodge, Glancing Blows, and Mana economy. Each Passive Tree and their points are broken down below.
Bladedancer Passive Points
- 8 points into Cloak of Shadows: Dexterity gain and additional chance to receive a Glancing Blow.
In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.
Puncture
Puncture is mostly used for mapping and multi-target fights. Through uniques and multiple skill trees, Puncture becomes a menace. All Bleed and Poison chance is converted to Frostbite with Troaka's Teeth. The skill is also forced to consume Mana through Penumbral Ambush which synergizes with other passives to provide a substantial boost in damage. This is our main avenue for inflicting a wide array of ailments onto enemies, and it does a fantastic job of doing just that.
In order to make Puncture a feasible option with how we've built it, Flurry is used alongside it in order to restore Mana quickly.
Order of Skill Points
- 5 points into Perforate: Bleed Chance, which is converted to Frostbite.
- 2 points into Press The Attack: Grants Frenzy, which can be maintained at 100% uptime.
- 1 point into Cadence of Death: Synergizes well with Lethal Cadence if you are able to track your stacks.
- 3 points into Toxic Delivery: Poison Chance, which is converted to Frostbite.
- 2 points into Efficacious Toxin. Efficacious Toxin can only be applied at a single stack, thus we will not be maxing this node out. It is just enough points to ensure we can reliably keep the debuff up on boss fights.
- 4 points into Bloodthirst: At maximum stacks, grants another 180% Frostbite Chance.
- 2 points into Timing: Pathing node, but does come with a minor drawback of reduced Attack Speed.
- 1 point into Penumbral Ambush: Summons two Mirages to mimic your attacks for the price of adding a Mana cost to Puncture. This is required, as multiple other nodes will not work if this is not taken.
In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.
Flurry
This build is a classic builder/spender, with Flurry being the resource generator for the build. It's scaled to fire extremely fast, meaning it will apply Frostbite fast enough to be able to keep up with Puncture (only on a single target) and will regain our depleted Mana pool swiftly. Due to the high rate of fire, Flurry becomes a reliable source to proc Icicle off our Unique Bow, Reign of Winter. Icicle has an above average Freeze Rate on its own, helping to Freeze high Health enemies.
Order of Skill Points
- 3 points into Alacrity: Increases Attack Speed by 15%.
- 2 points into Blood Revelry: Forced for pathing, but does add Leech to the skill.
- 2 points into Second Wind: Flurry grants 8 Health on Hit.
- 2 points into Sap Willpower: Gain 2 Mana on Hit.
- 2 points into Relentless: Successive hits of Flurry boost Attack Speed.
- 5 points into Adrenaline Rush: Each hit of Flurry will now grant a stack of Adrenaline Rush; used for the Attack Speed increase.
- 4 points into Inexhaustible: Doubles the duration that Adrenaline Rush stacks last.
In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.
Hail of Arrows
Hail of Arrows has multiple uses in this setup. The first is building stacks of Dusk Shroud, helping to max out our Dodge and Glancing Blows chance. This should be the priority usage for the skill, and it is the reason we increase the area it covers; we need to be able to stand in it. Hail of Arrows will apply Chill for us, which is quite useful for slowing enemies down. On top of this, it comes with its own Freeze Rate once we've converted it to Cold, assisting to stop enemies in their tracks. While you should be using this to zone areas and kill of low Health enemies, always make sure you're able to stand in this when it's active. The duration is quite long, which is good because the Mana cost is high.
Order of Skill Points
- 4 points into Volley: Doubles the size of Hail of Arrows.
- 5 points into Blot Out the Sun: Generates stacks of Dusk Shroud when standing in the radius of Hail of Arrows.
- 3 points into Steady: Hail of Arrows last 30% longer.
- 2 points into Pin Down: This will be converted to Chill.
- 1 point into Crystal Arrows: Converts the skill from Physical into Cold.
- 5 points into Frost Shots: Doubles Chill Duration and adds a Freeze Rate Multiplier of 200%.
In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.
Smoke Bomb
Smoke Bomb will have you feel like you're cheating death. Simlarly to the Marksman Skill Tree, Smoke Bomb comes with the ability to generate stacks of Silver Shroud, forcing a dodge on the next instance of damage you take. This can be used a few ways, but most importantly it can save you from taking lethal damage on the fly, or allow you to greed extra damage during single hit boss mechanics, effectively deleting the next instance of damage you take. This works hand in hand with the Silver Shroud in the class tree, as this is forcing a dodge instance, and potentially popping 13 stacks of Silver Shroud instead of 10, increasing the Ward generated to 1300.
This skill will be used as the Traversal Skill in the build, which cuts the cooldown in half, and makes it possible to keep Dusk Shroud up constantly on our character. Combined with Hail of Arrows, this will generate around 15 stacks of Dusk Shroud, providing a significant boost to the defensive layers of the build.
As an added bonus, Smoke Bomb will give you a stack of Crimson Shroud when you kill an enemy from within the smoke. This will add Frostbite chance to Puncture and significantly decrease the damage we take from DoTs.
Order of Skill Points
- 2 points into Generosity: Mostly pathing, but 40% extra area for Smoke Bomb definitely is not a bad thing.
- 1 points into Enfeeblement: Defensive node, reducing enemy damage with Frailty.
- 3 points into Moonlight Bomb: Forces a dodge on the next damage instance, generating 300 Ward.
- 1 point into Cleansing Steam: Ailment cleanse, good for getting rid of DoTs.
- 1 point into Shrouded in Darkness: Generates Dusk Shroud, providing Glancing Blow Chance and Dodge Rating, for standing in the Smoke Cloud.
- 4 points into Rapid Concealment: Increases the rate at which we gain Dusk Shroud.
- 4 points into Lingering Fumes: Duration increased by 40%.
- 1 point into Concealed in Carnage: Getting kills inside Smoke Bomb grant Crimson Shroud.
- 1 point into Escape Tactics: While traversing with Smoke Bomb, we are now immune.
- 1 point into Cloaked Incursion: Point and click traversal skill, and cuts the cooldown in half.
In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.
Decoy
Decoy is our trump card, providing an emergency exit for when we find ourselves in a bad situation. The skill gets converted to deal Cold Damage, and also inflicts Cold Resistance Shred stacks. While it deals a decent amount of damage, it does something more important and draws threat off of us while its active. Not only is this good for giving us some breathing room, it also does a great job of clumping enemies together, making them easy prey for the wide girth of Puncture and Hail of Arrows.
Order of Skill Points
- 2 points into Boom: Mostly pathing, but does provide area and damage to the explosion of Decoy.
- 1 point into Frostfire Powder: Cold conversion! Adds Freeze Rate to the explosion.
- 3 points into Efficient Construction: Reduces Mana cost.
- 3 points into Sonic Detonation: Frailty and Cold Resistance Shred (once converted) stacks.
- 5 points into Ear Shatter: Ands more Cold Resistance Shred once converted.
- 1 point into Sound of Flames: Adds Cold Shred to the initial Sonic Wave that is emit when we drop Decoy.
- 4 points into Embedded Spikes: Pathing node.
- 1 point into Backup Buddy: Decoy now has two charges.
Build Mechanics and Playstyle
The main gimmick for this build is Mana control. Puncture, Decoy, and Hail of Arrows will all consume a generous amount of Mana in order to deal more damage, while Flurry is used to regain all of it back, and it will do so fairly quickly. The Mana-draining skills are all required in order to clear maps efficiently, however Flurry can be used for damage on single targets. You will want to use everything, as there are still benefits to the other skills (such as Puncture's Efficacious Toxin, and Decoy's Cold Resistance Shred), however Flurry does a great job of getting Icicle to proc off Reign of Winter. Between this and the quick application of Frostbite from Flurry, it turns into a reliable source of damage all on its own.
This build does a surpisingly well job of zoning enemies. Decoy alone can herd entire groups of enemies together when you get overwhelmed, resulting in the perfect chance for you to lay down Hail of Arrows and begin using Puncture. Large groups of enemies, when Frozen, can see this build reach up to 4,000 Ward. This creates a situation where a non-low life Marksman build is capable of sitting around 12,000 Effective Health Pool while reliably Freezing any and all enemies, depending on the Corruption you're playing in. The hgiher Corruption you get to, the higher Health enemies have, and the less effective Freeze Rate becomes, so keep that in mind. We have tested this build around 300 Corruption and it still performed well.
Mobility and Defensive Layering
Smoke Bomb is the way we will move around the map, but it the most important aspect to our survival. Smoke Bomb supplies the build with all three types of Shroud; Dusk Shroud, Silver Shroud, and Crimson Shroud. Marksman can never facetank, so having alternative ways to protect ourselves is always a good idea.
Chill, Freeze, Frostbite
This build inflicts several ailments, all working in tandem to increase our damage, while also keeping us out of harms way. Frostbite and Freeze Rate work hand in hand, with Frostbite increasing the chances of enemies becoming Frozen. While typically Marksmen are known for being squishy, most mobs won't even be able to reach you because of how much this build scales Freeze Rate. Chill is a welcome addition, as it will slow enemies down, resulting in less damage taken.
Equipment and Gear Affixes
For this build, we will be focusing on several main affixes for each piece of non-unique gear, as well as working towards acquiring the specific Uniques needed to make this build operate correctly. Our equipment will focus on these specific affixes for the Implicits and Modifier stats. Freeze Rate is the most important affix on our gear, but efforts should be made to increase the damage Frostbite deals outside of this through either Increased Elemental modifiers, or Cold Damage.
Gear Slot | Implicits | Modifiers |
---|---|---|
Bow | Reign of Winter | Legendary Potential Increased Bow Attack Speed Increased Cold Damage |
Quiver | Troaka's Teeth | Legendary Potential Increased Cold Damage |
Head | Armor Damage Leeched as Health |
Prefixes Increased Hail of Arrows Duration Increased Damage while wielding a bow SuffixesIncreased Health Needed Resistance |
Amulet | Freeze Rate Multiplier Cold Resistance |
Prefixes Freeze Rate Multiplier, Cold Resistance Increased Elemental Damage Over Time Suffixes Chance to apply Frailty on Hit Needed Resistances |
Chest | Armor Increased Dodge Rating Increased Damage Over Time |
Prefixes Increased Damage while wielding a Bow Dexterity Suffixes Increased Health Health |
Belt | Ward Decay Threshold | Prefixes Freeze Rate Multiplier, Cast Freezing Concoction on Potion Use Increased Elemental Damage Over Time Suffixes Cold Resistance Hybrid Health |
Gloves | Frostbite Shackles | Legendary Potential Dexterity Increased Damage Over Time |
Ring | Necrotic Resistance Ward Decay Threshold |
Prefixes Freeze Rate Multiplier, Cold Resistance Increased Elemental Damage Over Time Suffixes Needed Resistances |
Ring | Necrotic Resistance Ward Decay Threshold |
Prefixes Freeze Rate Multiplier, Cold Resistance Increased Elemental Damage Over Time Suffixes Critical Strike Avoidance Needed Resistances |
Feet | Snowdrift | Legendary Potential Dexterity |
Relic | Poison Resistance Increased Leech Rate |
Prefixes Freeze Rate Multiplier, Cold Resistance Increased Elemental Damage Over Time Suffixes Health Needed Resistances |
A loot filter made specifically for the gear table above may be copied by pressing the button below. Once in the Loot Filter portion of the in-game menu, choose the "Paste Clipboard Contents" option to import the code.
Copy Loot Filter to Clipboard
Uniques
This build will require several uniques to function. Keep in mind, before you have them, it may be wise to swap to a different build, as this one will fall apart. Three of the four uniques provide irreplaceable Freeze Rate, so keep that in mind.
Troaka's Teeth
Troaka's Teeth: This can be target farmed on the Monolith Timeline "Fall of the Outcasts", but can also be found as a random drop. This quiver converts all of the Bleed and Poison from Puncture into Frostbite while also supplying the build with a heaping amount of Freeze Rate, Frostbite, and Cold Damage, which scales Frostbite damage.
Snowdrift
Snowdrift: This can be target farmed on the Monolith Timeline "Spirits of Fire". The most important affix here is the Cold Penetration. These boots are how we manage to get Frostbite's damage scaled.
Frostbite Shackles
Frostbite Shackles: This can be target farmed on the Monolith Timeline "Blood, Frost and Death". While these add a substantial amount of Frostbite and Freeze Rate, this is also the source of our Ward Retention. All Cold Resistance is converted into Ward Retention. These gloves also generate Ward every time we Freeze an enemy, which happens quite frequently.
Reign of Winter
Reign of Winter: This can be target farmed on the Monolith Timeline "Blood, Frost and Death". This bow supplies more Cold Penetration to our damage, and allows the build access to Icicle, a hard hitting Cold Spell that has a high Freeze Rate.
Idols
Idol slots are gained through the campaign, unlocking small bonuses and unique affixes for the player to discover and augment their builds with. The Idol screen consists of a grid system for the player to fill out with different sized Idols, eventually filling in every part of the grid. As the Idol shape increases (1x1, 1x2, 1x3, 1x4, etc.) the stronger an affix you might find for your build.
There are no mandatory Idols for this build. Focus on getting Idols that increase your Health or cap off your Resistances. Check the planner linked above for an example layout of how this was done.
Blessing
Blessings are permanent buffs that are applied to your character. These come in two different powers, Standard and Grand. Grand blessings are significantly stronger than the Standard Blessings. In total, there are 10 Blessing Slots, one for each Monolith Timeline. When you complete a Monolith and defeat the final boss you will be awarded a choice of three blessing with a random value.
Blessing Name | Affix | Timeline |
---|---|---|
Grand Thirst of the Sun | Increased Leech Rate | The Black Sun |
Grand Weight of the Abyss | Freeze Rate Multiplier | Ending the Storm |
Grand Survival of Might | Critical Strike Avoidance | Reign of Dragons |
Grand Maw of Artor | Chance to Apply Frostbite on Hit | The Age of Winter |
Grand Body of Obsidian | Armor | Spirits of Fire |
Changelog
- 28 Mar. 2024: Updated for 1.0.
- 12 Jan. 2024: Loot Filter added.
- 30 Nov. 2023: Guide added.
GhazzyTV is a professional content creator that knows all about theory crafting builds in Path of Exile and Last Epoch and has been teaching players how to build their characters for over 9 years. He is a huge Blizzard fan with thousands of hours invested into Diablo 3 and 4 and is a frequent World of Warcraft Classic player. His builds will be helpful content for new players and veterans alike. You can find his PoE Vault Guide Hub here and his LE Guide Hub here. You can follow him on Twitch, YouTube or Twitter.
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