Paladin Bleed Hammers Endgame Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.2)
Welcome to our Last Epoch Paladin Bleed Hammers build guide for the Sentinel class. Here you will learn everything about the Paladin play style, passives, skills, strengths, and weaknesses to conquer the world of Eterra.
Build Introduction
Beat enemies to a pulp with a whirlwind of metal. This build feasts on the bleeding stacks applied to enemies, draining their life force to to replenish our own. This is the classic Hammerdin setup that ARPG gamers have always loved, taken to the next level for Patch 1.2.
Strengths
Surrounded by Hammers, which provides its own layer of defense
- Health Leech is insanely high
- Mobile gameplay
Weaknesses
Hammers are not permanent, you have to stay casting them in order to maximize Bleed stacks
- Requires many Unique items, some of them rare, to get it to work properly
Skill Selection
While it doesn't do much damage on its own, 
Warpath is the vessel used to
automate many of the functions in this build. Hitting enemies with Warpath will proc two
important things; 
Smite and 
Flame Burst. Smite is generated off the Unique
sword, Palarus's Sacred Light, while Flame Burst comes from a node within 
Holy Aura.
In order to add more burst damage, 
Symbols of Hope will be changed to be a damage spell using
Divine Flare and automating the casts of Symbols through the Unique ring Orian's Sun Seal.
Healing Hands is our mobility skill, allowing us a moment of invincibility and healing us to full
upon reaching our destination.
Class and Skill Passive Trees
Our base class is Sentinel, which fills the role of a knight in
Last Epoch. Upon finishing Act 1in 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 into the Sentinel Tree,
you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.
Paladin is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Paladin Tree will focus around picking nodes that increase Physical Damage, boost Bleed capability, a round out a lot of our defenses. Forge Guard is taken for a fat 75% Bleed Chance, while Void Knight is used for defenses.
Sentinel Passive Points
- 8 points in Juggernaut: Strength base and Resistance gains.
- 1 point in Fearless: Pathing node.
- 1 point in Stalwart: 3% Block Chance.
- 5 points in Relentless: Increased damage and Stun defenses.
- 5 points in Armour Clad: Damage mitigation for enemies within melee range.
- 5 point in Axe Thrower: Throws an axe an an enemy on hit, cooldown of 1 second.
- 5 points in Blademaster: 30% Attack Speed boost for using an axe.
Our base class is Sentinel, which fills the role of a knight in
Last Epoch. Upon finishing Act 1in 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 into the Sentinel Tree,
you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.
Paladin is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Paladin Tree will focus around picking nodes that increase Physical Damage, boost Bleed capability, a round out a lot of our defenses. Forge Guard is taken for a fat 75% Bleed Chance, while Void Knight is used for defenses.
Forge Guard Passive Points
- 5 points in Weapons Master: Strength base and a bonus 75% Bleed Chance if using a axe.
Our base class is Sentinel, which fills the role of a knight in
Last Epoch. Upon finishing Act 1in 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 into the Sentinel Tree,
you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.
Paladin is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Paladin Tree will focus around picking nodes that increase Physical Damage, boost Bleed capability, a round out a lot of our defenses. Forge Guard is taken for a fat 75% Bleed Chance, while Void Knight is used for defenses.
Paladin Passive Points
- 5 points in Defiance: Attunement and Elemental Resistance, bolstering Endurance Threshold.
- 8 points in Conviction: Increased Physical Damage and Physical Penetration.
- 3 points in Honor: 3% Block Chance.
- 10 points in Valor: Endurance, Health, and Healing Effectiveness.
- 5 points in Holy Icon: Health, Health Regen, and Necrotic Resistance.
- 6 points in Sanctuary Guardian: Extra Armor while using a shield, and all Resistances gain 15%.
- 4 points in Shield Wall: Taken for the 8% Block Chance.
- 8 points in Penance: 120% Bleed Chance for Throwing.
- 7 points in Redemption: 49% Bleed Penetration, and a chance to gain Increased Damage if you receive a stack of Penance from the previous node.
- 12 points in Reverence of Duality: Increased Health, Damage, Healing Effectiveness, and Mana.
- 5 points in Covenant of Light:
Holy Aura and 
Symbols of Hope scaling.
Our base class is Sentinel, which fills the role of a knight in
Last Epoch. Upon finishing Act 1in 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 into the Sentinel Tree,
you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.
Paladin is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Paladin Tree will focus around picking nodes that increase Physical Damage, boost Bleed capability, a round out a lot of our defenses. Forge Guard is taken for a fat 75% Bleed Chance, while Void Knight is used for defenses.
Forge Guard Passive Points
- 5 points in Abyssal Endurance: Health, Resistances, and less damage taken from Physical and Void type attacks.
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.
Hammer Throw
The main source of damage for Bleeding in the build will come from 
Hammer Throw. Hammers will be
converted to create a whirlwind around us as we cast them, hitting any enemy within mid-range. While the hammers
themselves don't hit very hard, they are a fantastic applicator of Bleed. Not much to say about this skill; just throw
hammers and walk around as things die.
Order of Skill Points
- 1 point in Winged Hammers: Pathing node.
- 1 point in Steadfast Path: Pathing node.
- 1 point in Iron Spiral: Hammers thrown will now spiral in place where they were thrown.
- 1 point in Hammer Vortex: The tornado of hammers now follows us.
- 2 points in Catapult: Instead of throwing a singular hammer, we now throw three each cast. Hammers cost more to throw.
- 5 points in Ballista: More Damage mod, and a huge reduction in mana cost.
- 5 points in Rapid Throw: 20% increased Throwing Speed.
- 5 points in Weighted Hammers: Massive reduction in projectile speed, massive more damage mod.
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.
Holy Aura
Holy Aura is acts in a defensive and offensive way for the build. For starters, Elemental Resistances
gain 25% passively, taking a ton of heat off our gearing. Our throwing capabilities are boosted by adding
a ton of attack speed and increased Physical Damage. Pressing Holy Aura will double all the buffs applied in the tree.
Order of Skill Points
- 5 points in Shelter from the Storm: 25% Elemental Resistance and 15% Endurance.
- 5 points in Call To Arms: 50% Increased Physical Damage.
- 3 point in Fanaticism: Increased Attack Speed.
- 2 points in Strength From Afar: Pathing node. This won't increase the damage of our Bleed.
- 3 points in Expedite: Extra Throwing Speed, and a chance to gain Haste on hit.
- 2 points in Vital Boon: Bonus Health Regen, however these are free. Place them where you want.
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.
Smite
Smite is only used as an applicator of Bleed, and will never be manually casted in this build.
Instead, we rely on Adorned Rahyeh Idols with Chance to cast Smite on throwing hits as an affix
in order to automate Smite off Hammer Throw. Smite has a major more damage node at 250%, and will
boost our Attack Speed by 20% when it hits an enemy.
Order of Skill Points
- 2 points in Blinding Flash: Adds a chance to Blind enemies, and Blinded enemies will take more damage from Smite.
- 5 points in Sacrifice: Significantly increases the damage Smite deals, at the cost of our own Health.
- 5 points in Atonement: Cuts the Health cost down from the previous node.
- 1 point in Holy Wave: Smite heals for a bit more.
- 3 points in Righteous Fury: Pathing node.
- 4 points in Righteous Flurry: 20% increase to throwing speed when Smite hits an enemy.
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.
Symbols of Hope
Symbols of Hope is used entirely as a passive buff to the build. These boost our damage,
Endurance Threshold, and Health Regen without a single input from the player.
Order of Skill Points
- 5 points in Iron Symbols: Adds a ton of Endurance Threshold to our character per Symbol.
- 2 points in Enduring Hope: Pathing node.
- 1 point in Tetragram: +1 Symbol.
- 2 points in Quiet Mind: Pathing node.
- 3 points in Invigorate: Increased Healing per Symbol.
- 1 point in Polygram: +1 Symbol.
- 5 points in Empowering Symbols: Increased Damage per Symbol.
- 1 point in Meditation: Doubles our Health Regen gained from each Symbol.
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.
Lunge
Lunge is our mobility tool. You're free to use anything else, if it makes you more comfortable
or you have more fun with it, however Lunge comes with some nice bonuses and has immediate movement
attached to it, alongside invincibility, so it's why we chose it. If you'd rather use 
Shield Rush
or 
Volatile Reversal, you're more than welcome to. In the case of this build, Lunge feels as
though it is slamming our hammers directly into mobs, which gave the build that feeling of power
we felt it was missing from a playstyle point of view.
Order of Skill Points
- 3 points in Dawn Charge: Regain some health on use.
- 2 points in Juggernaut Dash: Pathing node.
- 1 point in Unstoppable: You are now invincible while using Lunge.
- 1 point in Blade Stream: You now hit all enemies within the path of Lunge.
- 2 points in Broadside: Lunge is now 30% wider along it's path.
- 5 points in Crusader's Fury: Each enemy passed through grants the player 10% Physical Penetration for a short period of time. This is great for ramping damage immediately when engaging.
- 4 points in Visceral Path: Lunge deals 60% more damage. This effects on-hit effects, such as Bleed.
- 4 points in Rough Cuts: Lunge applies 400% Bleed on hit.
Build Mechanics and Playstyle
For those of you who played Diablo 2, this is just a reskinned Hammerdin build. It has it's own Last Epoch flair, of course. But for die-hard ARPG fans, this may be a welcome trip down memory lane.
Casting Hammer Throw will toss our three hammers which circle around you for about 6 seconds. This means
the faster our Throwing Speed, the more active hammers we can have spiraling around our character. On average, once
gear has been collected, expect to be running about 150% Throwing Speed while Holy Aura is active. This
combination will create a whirlwind of tornados, enveloping your character and providing protection with the best defense; offense.
Enemies who come into contact with these hammers are going to be struck with several Bleed stacks from a single hit. With how many hammers you'll be dishing out, the Bleed stacks can easily climb above the visible cap of 999. Don't worry, they go higher, the debuff bar on enemies simply won't show it.
Once you have an acceptable amount of metal in your tornado, just start walking around, using Lunge to close the gap and
quickly engage with enemies around the map. While mapping will be extremely effective, the build isn't limited to just that.
This build also makes an excellent boss killer. We tested this set up, with less than desirable gear, at 550 Corruption at level 80 and
had zero issues aside from the occasional one-shot simply from being too low of a level and missing some crucial defensive nodes
within the Paladin Mastery tree alongside some optimization with gear affixes. These problems disappear as you gain levels and gear
closer to what's listed in the build planner.
Defensive Layering
The majority of our survivability, outside of standard Sentinel defenses like high Armor and Endurance, comes from the UNique relic Valdyr's Chalice. This item allows us to leech health off of 2% of our Physical Damage Over Time. Dealing 100,000 damage per tick? You'll get 2,000 health back per tick, granting us nearly a full health bar. On top of this, you gain 20 Health per stack of Bleed on the target when they die. This can easily regain multiple lengths of your health. The only thing you need to be concerned about is one-shots; can't heal through instant death. We didn't include it, because of the rarity, but Aurora's Time Glass is the perfect counter to this. If you manage to get your hands on one, feel free to replace the suggested amulet in our planner.
Equipment and Gear Affixes
For all suggested gear pieces, please see the planner provided below. Specific Unique item interactions will be listed further down the page.
Uniques
Every item listed below is required to make the build perform to expectation. You can run it with only a portion of the required items below, however running it without any will result is less than desirable damage.
- Flayer's Pride – Abomination, Fall of the Outcasts
- Bolsters our Bleed damage through Physical Penetration and Chance to Bleed, and creates a fantastic layer of defense against all Physical Damage dealt to our character.
- Thorn Slinger – Fall of the Empire (Echo Reward)
- By far the easiest piece to get, this belt gives us exactly the affixes we need, and has a high chance to drop with Legendary Potential.
- Blood of the Exile – Spirits of Fire (Echo Reward)
- Provides a substantial amount of movement speed and a multiplicative modifier to our Bleed damage that is hard to come by. Bleed Duration is also something that is really useful when paired with Valdyr's Chalice, due to Bleed Stacks returning health to us when enemies die. More stacks equals more health returned.
- Valdyr's Chalice – The Last Ruin (Echo Reward)
- An extremely strong defensive layer, granting us a ton of leech and health gain through our Bleed stacks. If you had to pick any item as a first priority to move into this build, this would be the one.
- Salt the Wound – Ending the Storm (Echo Reward)
- These gloves allow us to use another stat to scale our Bleed; Crit Multiplier. This is a massive boost to damage, as increasing Bleed Damage, when only limited to Bleed Chance, Bleed Duration, and Increased Physical Damage isn't great. These gloves are fairly rare, and rightfully so.
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.
Idols are spoken for with this build, and they are mandatory. You will need them, or at least a portion of them, before entering Empowered Monolith in the event you don't wanna deal with enemies living too long. The four Idols you want will be Adorned Rahyeh Idols with Chance to cast Smite when you hit with throwing attacks. The second affix is up to you, however we suggest either Health or Increased Physical Damage Over Time.
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 Emptiness of Ash | Crit Multiplier | The Black Sun |
| Grand Hemmorage of Marrow | Bleed Chance | Reign of Dragons |
| Grand Body of Obsidian | Armor | Spirits of Fire |
| Grand Fury of the North | Chance to Shred Physical Resistance | The Age of Winter |
| Grand Rhythm of the Tide | Health Regen | Ending the Storm |
Changelog
- 11 Apr. 2025: 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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