Paladin Holy Explosion Warpath Endgame Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.1)
Welcome to our Last Epoch Paladin Holy Explosion Warpath 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
Ever wanted to turn your character into a bomb? Now you can! This
build pulses periodically with holy fire explosions, dealing a tremendous amount of damage
to anything nearby. As you spin and hit enemies, you'll rain down fire in the form of
Smite and Fire-converted 
Tornado, ripping apart Resistances and burning
enemies to a crisp.
Strengths
Fully automated. Just spin and things die. - Low level Uniques, easy to acquire and start playing.
- Built in sustain through Spell Damage Leech.
- Highly mobile. Always moving with
Warpath, access to 
Lunge.
Weaknesses
Absolutely requires Mana Regen and Mana cost reduction. Build is Mana hungry. - While Uniques are easy to find, they require Legendary Potential to excel into Corruption.
- Forced to be within melee range to deal damage.
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, 
Sigils Of Hope will be changed to be a damage spell using
Divine Flare and automating the casts of Sigils through the Unique ring 
Orian's Sun Seal.
Lunge is purely for mobility and the invicibility that comes with Unstoppable.
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 Fire Damage, provide increases in Strength, and give us access to 
Divine Bolt,
a Fire projectile used to apply Spreading Flames while mapping. Forge Guard is only specialized into to grab the small
Strength bonus and bonus to Attack Speed.
Sentinel Passive Points
- 8 points in Juggernaut: Strength base and Resistance gains.
- 7 points in Fearless: Survivability with Vitality and Health Regen.
- 5 points in Armour Clad: Reduces the damage you take from nearby enemies by 10%.
- 5 points in Relentless: Small increase in damage, but also grants Stun Immunity if you've been stunned recently.
- 1 point in Gladiator: Allows you to dual wield.
- 5 points in Blademaster: Huge boost in Attack Speed for using a sword.
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 Fire Damage, provide increases in Strength, and give us access to Divine Bolt,
a Fire projectile used to apply Spreading Flames while mapping. Forge Guard is only specialized into to grab the small
Strength bonus and bonus to Attack Speed.
Forge Guard Passive Points
- 5 points in Weapons Master: Strength base and a bonus to Attack Speed if using a sword.
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 Fire Damage, provide increases in Strength, and give us access to Divine Bolt,
a Fire projectile used to apply Spreading Flames while mapping. Forge Guard is only specialized into to grab the small
Strength bonus and bonus to Attack Speed.
Paladin Passive Points
- 8 points in Defiance: Attunement and Elemental Resistance.
- 8 points in Conviction: Increased Fire Damage and Fire Penetration.
- 1 point in Divine Bolt: Melee attacks will now trigger
Divine Bolts, which apply On-Hit effects. - 5 points in Shared Divinity: You now cast more Divine Bolts, but have a reduced chance of activating them.
- 1 point in Phoenix Strike: Pathing node.
- 8 points in Rahyeh's Strength: Strength base and increased Fire Damage if you hit with a melee attack recently.
- 7 points in Holy Icon: Necrotic Resistance and Health.
- 10 points in Dedication: Attunement and Mana Regen. The Mana Regen is extra important for this build.
- 10 points in Prayer: Increased damage if you've healed yourself recently. This will remain active constantly due to
Smite. - 12 points in Reverence of Duality: Increased Health, Damage, and Mana.
- 7 points in Light of Rahyeh: Increased Movement Speed and Fire Damage.
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.
Warpath
Warpath is the conduit for everything this build is capable of. It's the only melee attack in the build, but it attacks
extremely fast, which is perfect for getting procs of Smite, Divine Bolt, and Flame Burst. Of equal importance
is the fact channeling Warpath will bolster our character with a global 50 Spell Damage, 10% base Critical Hit Chance and 75% Fire Penetration.
Keep in mind, Warpath is extremely Mana hungry. We solve this through specific nodes and the Weaver's Will Relic, but if you're leveling
with this build concept in mind be aware that Mana consumption needs to be your main priority.
Order of Skill Points
- 4 points in Unchained: Reduction in channel cost.
- 1 point in Reckless Spin: Further Mana cost reduction, but chips off 30% of your Elemental Resistance.
- 3 points in Quicksilver Wind: Normally Warpath is pretty slow. This fixes that.
- 1 point in Gorebringer: Pathing node.
- 1 point in Earthscorcher: Converts Warpath into a Fire Skill.
- 5 points in Path of Heavens: +50 global Spell Damage.
- 1 point in Iron Reach: 15% Increased Area for Warpath.
- 2 points in Whirling Steel: Pathing node.
- 5 points in Cyclone of War: This build uses a Sceptre and a Sword, meaning we gain, globally, 10% Critical Hit Chance and 75% Fire Penetration from this.
If you're missing the 2 Skill Points on your Body Armor, take points out of Quicksilver Wind. You will move slower, but it won't effect your damage potential.
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 used for one main purpose, and that is to force Flame Burst to proc off hits with Warpath.
This is why Attack Speed is so important. Each hit with a melee attack will place stacks on enemies, and when they reach 60 stacks, the
enemy will explode in AoE Fire Damage. When playing in a party, all players can activate this, however Flame Burst will scale off
the stats of the player that activates it, so we do not want other people setting this off unless they're also scaling Fire Spell Damage.
Activating Holy Aura will enable you to generate twice as many stacks until the effect ends.
Order of Skill Points
- 2 points in Rahyeh's Devotion: Pathing node.
- 5 points in Burning Blows: Global Increased Fire Damage.
- 1 point in Flame Burst: Allows stacks of Fiery Inquisition to build on targets hit by melee attacks.
- 4 points in Improved Flame Burst:
Flame Burst now deals 200% more damage. - 2 points in Inner Flame: Melee hits now apply two extra stacks of Fiery Inquisition, and Flame Burst has 50% increased area.
- 2 points in Rahyeh's Fury: Provides global Fire Penetration.
- 3 points in Fanaticism: Increased Attack Speed.
- 2 points in Vital Boon: Additional Health Regen.
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 hits like a truck and activates fairly often, using Palarus's Sacred Light's effect to proc.
You will need melee hits to activate Smite, Divine Bolt will not set it off. Other than just dealing a ton of
damage, Smite also increases our Attack Speed even further when it goes off for a short period of time.
Order of Skill Points
- 1 point in Holy Wave: Pathing node, but does help us receive healing if Smite hits are slightly further away when using Lunge.
- 3 points in Righteous Fury: Pathing node.
- 4 points in Righteous Flurry: When Smite activates, you gain a 20% Attack Speed buff for 4 seconds.
- 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.
- 4 points in Atonement: Cuts the Health cost down from the previous node.
- 2 points in Deep Impact: 50% Critical Hit Multiplier.
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.
Sigils of Hope
Sigils Of Hope is turned into an atomic bomb in this build. And even better, it's fully automated through using double
Orian's Sun Seal rings and the node Renewed Hope. This will, at minimum, force Divine Flare to go off once
every 10 seconds without any input from the player. If the 40% node goes off, there's a chance for two of these to go off at once
annihilating all but the biggest of enemies near you. But wait, there's more! Divine Flare can cascade for a slightly higher Mana cost, evaporating
enemies in a chain away from you. The goal here is to kill the Mana cost as much as possible while still outputting massive amounts of damage.
Order of Skill Points
- 2 points in Iron Sigils: Pathing node. We only have a single Sigil, so this doesn't do much for us.
- 1 point in Soliloquy: It's hard to rely on this node for any Resistances since it's a 50/50 on if we have a Sigil active or not due to the loop we create with the Unique rings. Consider this purely a pathing node, and the Resistances as a bonus.
- 1 point in Divine Flare: This is what turns your Sigil into a bomb.
- 6 points in Consecrating Flare: Divine Flare deals 300% more damage.
- 2 points in Waves of Light: Divine Flare will now cascade up to two times for a higher Mana cost.
- 2 points in Invigorate: Pathing node.
- 5 points in Quiet Mind: 50% Mana Efficiency.
- 1 point in Faith: If Sigil is active and you dip below 25% Health, the Sigil will be consumed to restore Health.
- 4 points in Renewed Hope: There is now a 40% chance for a consumed Sigil to resummon on its own.
- 1 point in Energized Flare: This is a bonus node, and requires max rolls on your rings to reach, but if able, it's a boost in base damage for Divine Flare based on how long the Sigil has been active. Since Sigils pop after 10 seconds, this results in a bonus of 20 Spell Damage. Considering Divine Flare starts with a base of 25, this is pretty large.
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
In order to add mobility to the build, Lunge is taken. While spinning everywhere is how we buff ourselves and deliver damage,
being able to move around maps quickly is equally important. The most useful thing Lunge does is make us invincible while dashing, specifically
for things like Lagon's eye beam attack; you can dash through it without worrying about being disintegrated. However, as an engagement tool, Lunge will
also activate Smite for us, usually killing lower Health mobs.
Order of Skill Points
- 5 points in Dawn Charge: You can allocate the full 5 points in this much later, the more important thing is gaining access to the next nodes after this. This does provide significant healing though.
- 4 points in Juggernaut Dash: Pathing node.
- 1 point in Unstoppable: While dashing you are invincible.
- 1 point in Blade Stream: This is used to activate Divine Bolt as we move around, with the aim of applying Spreading Flames
to enemies immediately upon engaging.
- 1 point in Warrior's Renewal: Pathing node, but does slightly reduce the cooldown on Lunge.
- 2 points in Initiate's Onslaught: Pathing node.
- 1 point in Cull the Weak: Pathing node.
- 4 points in Holy Incursion: Activates up to 3 casts of Smite upon usage of Lunge, based on distance traveled.
- 2 points in Broadside: Extra girth for Lunge, helping to activate Divine Bolt.
Build Mechanics and Playstyle
At it's core, the playstyle for this build is your basic Warpath gameplay. You spin, enemies die. We've added
several automated effects to the build to bolster the AoE damage it can deal and also to make a build that's visually pleasing.
While channeling Warpath and hitting enemies, your character will also be casting Divine Bolt (Paladin Passive Tree),
Tornado (Unique Gloves, 
Rule of the Simoon), Flame Burst ( Holy Aura), and Smite (Unique Sword, Palarus's Sacred Light), all creating
a light show as enemies fall over. To top off the automation, Divine Flare will be cast periodically, automated completely off
our Unique Rings, Orian's Sun Seal. This spell acts as an atomic bomb, obliterating nearby enemies. While the goal was to create a build with minimal
inputs, if in need of immediate damage Sigils Of Hope can be manually pressed. Keep keep in mind when doing this, it's a manual cast and forces you to stop
channeling Warpath which results in a massive damage potential loss. It will almost always be better to channel Warpath and rely on the procs from your melee
hits instead of forcing Divine Flare to go off.
This build is extremely Mana hungry. We've gone and done what we can to mitigate the Mana cost, but the Tornado casts and automation of Divine Flare
will continue to drain you of resources as long as you're hitting enemies. Since Warpath is free to channel, the only way to combat this if you're having problems
is to either replace to Gloves or to add more Mana Regen to the build. The build is incredibly dependent on specific affixes, so until you have the proper gear, using a pair
of Exalted Gloves and swapping your Blessings to Shred Fire Resistance (
Grand Breath of Cinders) may be the play. This will come at the cost of Endurance, so keep that in mind.
Defensively, this build is mostly relying on Spell Leech (
Grand Hunger of the Void) and Strength scaling to tank hits. With an average Effective HP of over 18,000
and a repertoire of hard hitting spells at our disposal, you should be finding yourself healthy as you climb Corruption. If you find yourself unable to keep
up with damage, or you're missing the Spell Leech blessing, Smite can be changed into a more heal-focused spell (which will also grant Mana Regen), but this will
come at the cost of a significant amount of damage. Once you enter Empowered Monoliths, this will likely become an issue due to enemies living too long.
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.
| Gear Slot | Implicits | Modifiers |
|---|---|---|
| Sceptre |  Firestarter's Torch |
Legendary Potential Increased Spell Critical Strike Chance Increased Fire Damage Fire Penetration |
| One-handed Sword | Palarus's Sacred Light |
Legendary Potential Spell Damage Increased Critical Strike Chance Fire Penetration |
| Head | Reduced Bonus Damage Taken from Critical Strikes | Prefixes Strength % Poison Damage Taken as Physical Suffixes Health Increased Health |
| Amulet | Less Damage Over Time Taken | Prefixes Increased Fire Damage Increased Spell Critical Strike Chance Suffixes Chance to apply Frailty Health, Stun Avoidance |
| Chest | Armor Armor Mitigation also applies to Damage Over Time |
Prefixes Strength +2 Levels to Warpath, Increased Melee Damage Suffixes Health Increased Health |
| Belt | Armor | Prefixes Increased Fire Damage Increased Mana Regen Suffixes Health, Stun Avoidance Increased Health |
| Gloves | Rule of the Simoon |
Legendary Potential Strength Increased Attack Speed |
| Ring | Orian's Sun Seal |
Legendary Potential Increased Fire Damage Strength |
| Ring | Orian's Sun Seal |
Legendary Potential Increased Fire Damage Strength |
| Feet | Armor Increased Movement Speed Reduced Bonus Damage Taken from Critical Strikes |
Prefixes Strength Increased Movement Speed Suffixes Needed Resistances Hybrid Health |
| Relic |  Code of an Erased Sentinel |
Weaver's Will Increased Damage while Channeling Increased Mana Regen Health |
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 requires several Uniques to even function, but then has a few that were included simply to boost performance. Explanations for each item have been included below.
Firestarter's Torch
Firestarter's Torch: Weird to see a Level 1 item in an endgame build? Surprisingly enough, this weapon is
just as important, if not more, than the other Uniques in this build. This Sceptre cuts down the Mana cost on nearly
every action in the kit, but also provides a massive "more" multiplier for damage on anything suffering from the ailment of
Spreading Flames. Legendary Potential is a non-issue for this as well, as LP3 has a 4% drop rate associated with it.
Palarus's Sacred Light
Palarus's Sacred Light: Yet another low level item, however this is how we add Smite into the usable spells
this build has access to. Not only that, it allows us to scale Strength. This Sword will convert Strength into Spell Damage,
but is also how we scale our Armor. Similar to Firestarter's Torch, this Sword has a fairly high rate for dropping
Legendary Potential, with LP3 being around 3%.
Orian's Sun Seal
Orian's Sun Seal: The unique effect on these rings will stack, meaning every 10 seconds we summon two Sigils. This forces the
interaction with Divine Flare to pop, resulting in an explosion every time. Not only that, but the added SKill Points
we gain from equipping these rings are priceless. LP2 should be fairly accessible. In the event you miss the suggested affixes
when turning this Unique into a Legendary item, Increased Mana Regen or Increased Critical Strike Chance are also usable affixes.
Code of an Erased Sentinel
Code of an Erased Sentinel: Typical Weaver's Will addition, but the main thing we want from this is the reduced Mana cost
on Melee attacks. This saves us a Skill Point in Warpath and enables us to add more damage to the build, on top of also adding a Skill
Point to every skill we use. The most important modifier here is Increased Mana Regen.
Rule of the Simoon
Rule of the Simoon: While not absolutely mandatory, these Gloves will Shred Fire Resistance for us when the Tornado cast is activated.
It was touched upon above in the Build Mechanics, but Tornado costs a ton of Mana. If you're unable to sustain Mana due to missing gear/affixes, removing these
from the build and instead applying Fire Shred through Grand Breath of Cinders is a feasible option.
Throne of Ambition
Throne of Ambition: This is extremely useful for boss fights. You'll very often get use while mapping, but it may not be consistent. On bosses, this
equates to another 40% More Damage so long as you maintain upon with Warpath. This won't make or break the build, but it does make boss fights much faster.
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.
Nearly all Idols in this build, minus Throne of Ambition, will be used to gain Health. If needed, they can also be used to fix Resistances that may be lacking.
A single Grand Solar Idol can and should be used to increase the area of Warpath.
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 Hunger of the Void |
Spell Leech | The Black Sun |
 Grand Resolve of Humanity |
All Resistances | Reign of Dragons |
 Grand Embers of Immortality |
Endurance | Spirits of Fire |
 Grand Vigor of Jormun |
Endurance Threshold | The Age of Winter |
 Grand Rhythm of the Tide |
Increased Health Regen, Health Regen | Ending the Storm |
Changelog
- 08 Jul. 2024: 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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