Necromancer Skeletal Frost Mage Endgame Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.0)

Our base class is Acolyte, which fills the role of mixed spell caster and minion summoner 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 Acolyte, you can choose between Passive Trees for Lich, Necromancer, and Warlock. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Mage Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

Necromancer is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Necromancer Tree will focus around picking nodes that increase our minion's Health, Cast Speed, Cold Damage, and it's ability to Leech Health. A lesser amount of Passive Points will come from Lich, focusing purely on Intelligence gains. Each Passive Tree and their points are broken down below.

• 8 points into Forbidden Knowledge: Boost to Necrotic Resistance and Intelligence, which scales our kit.
• 5 points into Dark Rituals: Taken specifically for Minion Cast Speed.
• 8 points into Stolen Vitality: Increased Minion Health, but also boosts Vitality which results in higher Ward generation.
• 1 point into Mania of Mortality: Traversal node.
• 5 points into Unnatural Preservation: Taken for Ward Retention, but also supplies important Resistances.

Our base class is Acolyte, which fills the role of mixed spell caster and minion summoner 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 Acolyte, you can choose between Passive Trees for Lich, Necromancer, and Warlock. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Mage Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

Necromancer is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Necromancer Tree will focus around picking nodes that increase our minion's Health, Cast Speed, Cold Damage, and it's ability to Leech Health. A lesser amount of Passive Points will come from Lich, focusing purely on Intelligence gains. Each Passive Tree and their points are broken down below.

• 10 points into Apocrypha: Taken for the Intelligence gains.

Our base class is Acolyte, which fills the role of mixed spell caster and minion summoner 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 Acolyte, you can choose between Passive Trees for Lich, Necromancer, and Warlock. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Mage Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

Necromancer is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Necromancer Tree will focus around picking nodes that increase our minion's Health, Cast Speed, Cold Damage, and it's ability to Leech Health. A lesser amount of Passive Points will come from Lich, focusing purely on Intelligence gains. Each Passive Tree and their points are broken down below.

• 1 point into Elixir of Hunger: Traversal node.
• 8 points into Risen Army: Minion Damage and Cast Speed.
• 5 points into Grave Thorns: Huge boost to minion survivability.
• 1 point into Blood Armour: Traversal node.
• 5 points into Reclamation of Souls: Taken specifically for Ward Retention.
• 10 points into Mortal Tether: Significant boost to the Cryomancer's Health.
• 5 points into Frantic Summons: Minion Cast Speed boost.
• 8 points into Tyrant: 24% increased Health, converted into Ward.
• 8 points into Cling To Life: Vitality, used for Ward, and extra Resistances for the Cryomancer.
• 3 points into Moonlight Pyre: Traversal node.
• 2 points into River of Bones: Very useful for Minion Leech Rate, but Critical Chance is unnecessary due to nodes in skill trees.
• 10 points into Rite of Undeath: Major increases to Resistances and Cold Damage for minions.
• 10 points into Blades of the Forlorn: Crit Multipler and Cold Damage increases for the Cryomancer.

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.

 Summon Skeletal Mage is the main skill in the build, and everything that we do is focused around it. The tree in particular will focus around the initial boosts to the Skeletal Mage, as well as converting it into a Frost Mage, or rather Cryomancer. Dread Shade will not drain the Health of Cryomancer (due to nodes we take in the skill tree), however any node that would otherwise drain Health will instead increase the damage Cryomancer takes.

• 5 points into Gravetide: Increases base Spell Damage for the Skeletal Mage.
• 1 point into Cryomancers: Converts all Skeletal Mages into Cryomancers, and changes their skill used into  Ice Shard.
• 1 point into Frost Lich: Removes other types of Mages from the summon pool, but significantly boosts the damage the Cryomancer does.
• 4 points into Splintered Dominion: Adds two projectiles to  Ice Shard.
• 1 point into Archmage: Doubles  Ice Shard projectiles and significantly boosts your Cryomancer, but only allows for a single Cryomancer to be summoned.
• 4 points into Argonautic Speed: Cast Speed increase.
• 3 points into Ossein Frenzy: 30% Chance for the Cryomancer to gain Frenzy on hit.
• 4 points into Leech Life: Huge boost in Health, and decent gain to Health Leech.

If you lack the extra 2 points this build requires, remove them from Ossein Frenzy.

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.

 Dread Shade is one of two boosts we'll place onto our Cryomancer to increase its damage. Dread Shade is the more important buff, as this provides a 100% Critical Hit Chance to the Cryomancer when under its effect. It is important to note, the Necrotic Damage gained from this skill tree is converted to Cold Damage by the gear we chose, namely the  Lich's Scorn we use in the off-hand slot.

• 3 points into Lingering Doom: Spell Damage gain.
• 1 point into All For One: We do not need an aura as there is only one Cryomancer. 60% boost without a drawback.
• 1 point into Egoism: Forces a 100% Critical Hit Rate.
• 1 point into Blind Fury: Blind normally halves Critical Hit Rate, however this does not apply due to the previous node. Simply an increase in Cast Speed.
• 2 points into Spectral Presence: Traversal node.
• 1 point into Lone Watcher: Again, we only want to buff a single minion, so this node does not have a drawback. Removes Health drain and doubles the duration of Dread Shade.
• 3 points into Dying Coven: Cast Speed.
• 1 point into Grim Fate: Area does not matter, however this does provide a nice boost to overall damage.
• 1 points into Duskheart: Chance to apply Damned.
• 3 point into Flesh Harvest: This will ramp Cryomancer's damage based upon the amount of health it is missing. This synergizes well with the next skill tree,  Infernal Shade.

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.

The other Shade,  Infernal Shade, drains Cryomancer's Health in return for boosting stats. Unlike  Dread Shade, Infernal Shade will deal a chunk of damage to the Cryomancer every second. This is amplified by the fact that Dread Shade increases the amount of damage Cryomancer takes.

• 3 points into Influence: Traversal node.
• 1 point into Devour in Flames: Infernal Shade only attaches to our minions, so no need to worry about misclicks. However, the Infernal Shade will damage the minion it is attached to.
• 1 point into Burn Trail: Increases Cryomancer's Movement Speed.
• 1 point into Subjugation: Traversal node, but does ramp the damage Infernal Shade deals to Cryomancer. This means that if kept on long enough, Cryomancer will die. This can be resolved by refreshing Infernal Shade on Cryomancer, resetting the ramp damage.
• 1 points into  Soulfire: Infernal Shade will no longer disappear, its duration infinite. The only thing limiting the duration of this spell now is the Health and Health Leech of Cryomancer, and its ability to maintain uptime on a target.
• 3 point into Manic Pyre: Movement Speed and Cast Speed.
• 2 points into Torment Beacon: Traversal node.
• 2 point into Baneful: Traversal node.
• 1 points into Blood Shade: Traversal node.
• 4 points into Corrosion: Nearby enemies will be afflicted with stacks of Shred Armor
• 2 points into Ignition: Reduces the Mana cost of Infernal Shade.

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.

 Bone Curse boosts the damage Cryomancer does by afflicting enemies hit with Shred Armor and Marked For Death. While it would be wise to reapply it manually if needed, this build automates Bone Curse with  Transplant, allowing for more aggressive and mobile gameplay and avoiding the cast time associated with Bone Curse itself. On top of this, Bone Curse comes with a Kill Threshold of 12%, which becomes increasingly more valuable the higher in Corruption you go.

• 5 points into Conflation: Forced for pathing, but increases the size of Bone Curse, making it beneficial.
• 1 point into Sigil of Mortality: Marks enemies for death for 2 seconds.
• 4 points into Reaper's Mark: Doubles the duration for Mark for Death to 4 seconds.
• 5 points into Defile Defenses: Applies Shred Armor stacks on application of Bone Curse.
• 2 points into Iron Maiden: Traversal node.
• 3 points into Brittle Bones: 12% Kill Threshold.

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.

 Transplant is more than just a mobility skill; it automates  Bone Curse, applies Bone Armor, activates Haste and Frenzy and Fears enemies at both the departure and arrival points of the teleport. Since this build is played at near 0 Health anyway, Transplant costs next to nothing to use.

• 1 point into Scarlet Rain: Traversal node.
• 1 point into Reign of Blood: Traversal node.
• 1 point into Doom Bringer: Automates  Bone Curse, which allows us to apply Marked For Death when using Transplant.
• 1 point into Ethereal Body: Traversal node.
• 1 point into Squeamish: Fear on departure.
• 1 point into Thanatophobia: Fear on arrival.
• 2 points into Acolyte's Fervor: Grants Haste and Frenzy for a short period of time.
• 3 points into Fleeting Form: Reduced cooldown.
• 2 points into Anemia: Traversal node.
• 3 points into  Bone Armor: Allows for safety when playing a bit more risky by adding Armor and Damage Reduction when Transplant is used.
• 2 points into Apostasy: Increases Bone Armor's duration by 50%.
• 2 points into Plated Bone: Bone Armor effects are increased by 20%. (This was removed, points will be redistributed when the build is updated.)