Paladin Lightning Smite Meteor Endgame Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.1)

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 Lightning Damage, enhance our Critical Multiplier, provide bonuses to our Healing effectiveness, and boost our Movement Speed. Forge Guard and Void Knight will not be used at all.

• 5 points into Juggernaut: Taken for a bit of extra Resistances.
• 5 points into Armour Clad: This is huge for our defensive aspect, as it provides a flat 10% reduction in damage taken for being in melee range.
• 5 points into Valiant Charge: Cooldown reduction for  Lunge.
• 5 points into Time and Faith:  Smite will not replenish Mana on manual cast.

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 Lightning Damage, enhance our Critical Multiplier, provide bonuses to our Healing effectiveness, and boost our Movement Speed. Forge Guard and Void Knight will not be used at all.

• 5 points into Defiance: 15% Resistance for Cold, Fire, and Lightning. This is taken to unlock access to  Healing Hands.
• 10 points into Valor: Huge boost to Health, and increases the effectiveness of  Healing Hands.

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 is the main spam skill used for this build. This is how we will automate  Healing Hands and also proc casts of  Meteor to fall on groups of enemies. Smite will be converted to Lightning in order to take advantage of damage modifiers on gear and the Paladin Passive Tree.

• 3 points into Pillars of Light: 36% chance to double cast. This allows for more chances to crit, which means more Meteors.
• 5 points into Sacrifice: Smite deals 250% more damage, but consumes a portion of our Health on each use.
• 1 points into Atonement: This cuts the Health drain down a bit, but it still exists. It is nullified through  Healing Hands and the innate healing on Smite.
• 2 points into Conviction: Adds 4% to your base Critical Hit Rate for Smite.
• 4 points into Deep Impact: Adds 100% extra Critical Multiplier.
• 5 points into Blinding Flash: Smite now has a 50% chance to Blind, which is used as a way to bump the damage by 50%.
• 2 points into Piety: Pathing node.
• 1 point into Order of Lagon: Converts Smite into a Lightning skill, as well as all Ignite is now converted to Electrify.
• 1 point into Unbalanced Scale: Increases Mana cost, but Smite now deals damage to multiple targets.

In the event you do not have the extra 4 Skill Points from the Relic, drop 4 points from Blinding Flash. This will lose you damage, but the build will still function as intended.

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.

 Healing Hands is how we sustain our Health this with build, as  Smite will constantly be draining our Health as we use it. The amount we heal with Healing Hands is much higher than the life drain on Smite, so this will also cover damage taken by enemies. While you will almost never need to manually use Healing Hands, it should still be on your bar for emergencies, such as DoT ailments and there are no enemies to attack.

• 4 points into Hand of Aurelus: Directly casting Smite will now trigger an instance of Healing Hands.
• 1 point into Divine Barrier: Taking for pathing.
• 1 point into Homeward: This node is required! If you alter this tree, do not remove this. This will force Healing Hands to center on your character rather than where Smite lands. This is important, as you no longer need to be in melee range to make sure you're healing, but on larger bosses (Reign of Dragons) it is impossible to make Healing Hands hit you consistently due to the hitbox of the boss.
• 4 points into Prayer of the Fallen: 100% Increased Healing Effectiveness.
• 3 points into Blessed Parish: Drops the Mana cost for Healing Hands by 6.
• 1 point into Purity of Thought: Reduces the Mana cost by 5.
• 4 points into Urgent Healing: Adds an initial 140 Health to the heal.
• 2 points into Vow of Restoration: Healing Hands heals more over time.

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 will be used as our main way of getting around maps, allowing us to drop extra casts of  Smite as we do so. Using Lunge will grant you Frenzy for a short period of time as well. Lunge for this build will come on a charge system, allowing you to Lunge twice if needed without needing to wait for the cooldown to recharge.

• 1 point into Dawn Charge: Pathing node.
• 4 points into Juggernaut Dash: You have a 100% Block Chance while Lunging.
• 1 point into Unstoppable: You are invulnerable while Lunging. This is necessary for dashing through things like Lagon's eye beam. While good gameplay avoids this anyway, its always nice to have a back-up option.
• 1 point into Warrior's Renewal: Pathing node.
• 2 points into Initiate's Onslaught: Pathing node.
• 1 point into Cull the Weak: Pathing node.
• 4 points into Holy Incursion: Will now cast  Smite up to three times, with the chance scaling off the distance traveled with Lunge.
• 3 points into Reckless Skirmish: Applies Frenzy on Lunge usage for three seconds.
• 2 points into Ambuscade: Pathing node.
• 1 point into Double Strike: Lunge now has an additional charge.

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.

 Javelin only has one real purpose here, and that is to automate more casts of  Smite, which can then be used to proc more casts of  Meteor. This does mean that Javelin is a great tool for map zoning; place Javelin down in one direction, and focus your own efforts elsewhere.

• 1 point into Mighty Delivery: Pathing node.
• 1 point into Burning Strength: Pathing node.
• 1 point into Siege Barrage: Increases the Mana cost significantly.
• 1 point into Battle Standard: Turns Javelin into a Battle Standard.
• 4 points into Ardent Symbol: Increases the duration Javelin is active by 8 seconds.
• 1 point into Capture the Flag: If an enemy touches Javelin, it will latch onto that enemy and move with it.
• 1 point into Divine Intervention: Javelin will now automate Smite, casted at nearby enemies while it is active.
• 5 points into Righteous Descend: Increases Smite frequency. This does add base Crit Chance as well, but it is mostly overkill if you have the proper gear.
• 2 points into Serrated Javelin: Pathing node.
• 3 points into Excellent Balance: Reduces the Mana cost on Javelin.

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 exists mostly to provide us with Resistances and take the burden off suffixes in our gear. It will also provide us with a nice boost to Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Multiplier. In most cases, the extra Ignite chance will be converted to Electrify. All benefits from Holy Aura double for a short period of time if the skill is pressed.

• 2 points into Rahyeh's Devotion: Adds Ignite Chance to all of our actions.
• 3 points into Fanaticism: Increased Cast Speed.
• 4 points into True Strike: Increased Critical Strike Chance.
• 3 points into Extreme Zeal: Increased Critical Multiplier.
• 2 points into Vital Boon: Pathing node.
• 1 point into Purification: Increased Poison Resistance, and Holy Aura now becomes a cleanse when activated.
• 3 points into Shelter from the Storm: Increased Elemental Resistance and additional Endurance.
• 1 point into Demoralizing Aura: Provides a chance to Slow enemies while active.