In the treacherous world of Last Epoch, building a strong defense is the key to survival. With hordes of enemies and deadly challenges awaiting at every turn, understanding the intricacies of defense is crucial to ensure your character’s longevity. In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the various aspects of Last Epoch defense, from the basics of HP and ward to resistances, armor, dodge, endurance, block, critical strike avoidance, glancing blow, and more. So grab your weapons and let’s dive into the realm of survivability!
In the realm of Last Epoch, Hit Points, or HP, serve as the foundation of your defense. HP represents your character’s health pool and determines how much damage you can withstand before meeting your demise. The more HP you have, the more hits you can sustain and the longer you can stay in battle.
It is important to note that HP is effective against all types of damage, making it a versatile defense mechanism. Unlike other defenses, there are no sources of damage that can negate or diminish the value of HP. Thus, stacking HP is generally a sound strategy for building a strong defense.
However, it is crucial to strike a balance between HP and sustain, such as leech, regeneration, and healing. Having excessively high HP without adequate sustain can hinder your ability to recover health efficiently. Therefore, it is advisable to consider both HP and sustain when optimizing your defense.
In Last Epoch, there are three primary types of stats that contribute to building HP: added, increased, and hybrid.
By carefully balancing these different sources of HP, you can maximize your character’s survivability in Last Epoch.
In addition to HP, ward serves as an additional layer of defense in Last Epoch. Ward acts as a protective shield that absorbs damage before it affects your HP. It is particularly effective against hits and provides an extra buffer against incoming attacks.
Ward can be generated through various sources, each offering unique ways to replenish this protective shield. Some common examples include:
While these examples represent some common methods of generating ward, Last Epoch offers a multitude of unique ways to bolster your protective shield. Each character class has its own natural support for ward, with classes like the Mage and Acolyte offering particularly intuitive options for building ward-focused builds.
It is important to note that ward decays over time, even when you are not taking damage. Additionally, the more ward you have, the faster it will decay. This introduces a limit to how much ward you can accumulate at any given time. However, it is possible to slow down ward decay through a stat called ward retention.
Ward retention can be acquired through various means, including passives, gear, skills, and the intelligence attribute. By investing in ward retention, you can maintain a sufficient level of ward and ensure its longevity during combat.
While ward provides a formidable layer of defense, there is one exception to its invulnerability. Certain damage-over-time (DoT) ground effects can bypass ward and directly affect your HP. However, the damage inflicted by these effects is a percentage of your current health, ensuring that you cannot die directly from the damage. This exception does not invalidate ward builds, even for characters with low HP, as it poses no immediate threat to their survival.
With a solid understanding of ward generation, decay, and its limitations, you can effectively incorporate this protective shield into your Last Epoch defense strategies.
In the dangerous world of Last Epoch, sustaining your character’s health is paramount to survival. Sustain encompasses various mechanics that replenish your HP after taking damage. There are four primary types of sustain in Last Epoch: leech, regeneration, healing, and on-action effects.
Leech is a powerful sustain mechanic that allows you to regain a percentage of damage dealt to enemies as health. For example, suppose you have 5% leech and deal 100 damage to an enemy. Your leech amount would be 100 * 0.05 = 5. The amount of leech you receive is not instant but is restored over a 3-second period.
Leech serves as a potent source of sustain, especially for high-damage builds or those focused on leech percentage. It is available for all damage types, including damage-over-time effects. However, it is crucial to note that not all sources of leech work for all damage types. Many leech sources are “On Hit,” rendering them ineffective for damage-over-time effects. Additionally, some leech sources may be exclusive to melee attacks, making them unsuitable for spellcasters and ranged builds.
Various sources provide leech for different build types, such as the unique amulet Bleeding Heart for non-spell builds, melee health leech shards on melee weapons and gloves, and passives and skills available to all classes. Additionally, blessings like Hunger of the Void and Wrath of Rahyeh from The Black Sun Timeline can enhance your leech capabilities.
It is worth mentioning that overkill damage, which occurs when your damage exceeds the enemy’s remaining HP, does not count for leech purposes unless you have a specific item like Woven Flesh, which provides overkill damage. This unique item allows overkill damage to contribute to leech sustain.
Regeneration is another form of sustain in Last Epoch, providing a flat amount of HP restoration per second. All characters start with a base regeneration rate of 6, which can be enhanced through two stats: added health regeneration and increased health regeneration.
Added health regeneration refers to a specific numerical value that is added to your base regeneration rate. Various sources, such as gear, passives, and skills, can contribute to added regeneration. Increased health regeneration, on the other hand, scales the overall regeneration rate by a percentage. The combination of added and increased regeneration determines your total health regeneration.
Healing in Last Epoch functions similarly to healing mechanics in other games. Skills, subskills, or other events trigger healing, which restores a specific amount of HP to the player. Healing can occur instantly or over time, commonly referred to as a heal over time (HoT). Skills play a crucial role in providing healing, making them a primary source of sustain for many builds. Healing can be scaled through a stat called healing effectiveness. All sources of healing effectiveness are added together and multiplied against the base healing amount to determine the total healing received.
It is important to note that there are currently no stats that increase the base healing of a source. Therefore, the value of healing largely depends on the source itself. Some sources may significantly outperform others due to their inherently superior base healing.
On-action effects represent sustain mechanics that trigger when specific actions are performed. These effects are similar to healing but are not considered actual heals and are not scaled with healing effectiveness. Instead, they provide direct health restoration or other beneficial effects when certain conditions are met. Certain unique items, skills or passives and shards, like the Health On Melee Hit Shard and Health On Kill Shard, can enhance sustain through on-action effects.
By understanding the different sustain mechanics in Last Epoch and synergizing them with your chosen build, you can ensure your character’s survival in the face of formidable challenges.
In the world of Last Epoch, various elemental forces pose a significant threat to your character’s survival. Resistances serve as a crucial defense mechanism, providing protection against specific damage types. By bolstering your resistances, you can mitigate the impact of elemental attacks and enhance your overall survivability.
Last Epoch features seven primary resistance types: physical, cold, fire, lightning, poison, necrotic, and void. Each resistance corresponds to a specific damage type and offers protection against both hits and damage-over-time effects, including damaging ailments.
Capping Resistances
All resistances in Last Epoch have a cap of 75%. It is crucial to aim for capping your resistances, as this ensures maximum damage reduction against their respective damage types. However, it is worth noting that increasing resistances beyond the cap does not provide additional mitigation. Instead, exceeding the cap can help prevent Shred from reducing your resistances below the cap.
When deciding which resistances to prioritize, it is advisable to consider the most common damage types in the content you are facing. For example, Chapter 1 focuses heavily on void and physical damage, while Chapter 9 predominantly features poison damage. By tailoring your resistances to the specific challenges you anticipate, you can optimize your defensive capabilities.
Enemy Resistance Penetration
In Last Epoch, enemies possess natural resistance penetration that starts at level 1 and increases by 1% per level. This penetration applies to all resistance types, eventually capping at 75% at level 75 (enemy level, not your character level). Resistance penetration subtracts from your resistances, meaning that in a level 75 area with 75% resistances, your effective resistances would be reduced to 0%. Moreover, resistances can even go into negative values, resulting in increased damage taken. Therefore, it is crucial to consider enemy resistance penetration when strategizing your defense.
By prioritizing the appropriate resistances and understanding the impact of enemy resistance penetration, you can fortify your character against the elemental forces that seek to bring about your demise.
In the realm of Last Epoch, physical damage poses a significant threat to your character’s well-being. Armour, also known as armor, serves as a primary defense against physical attacks, reducing the impact of incoming hits. By investing in armor, you can enhance your character’s survivability in the face of physical damage.
Armor provides damage reduction specifically for hits and does not offer any benefits against damage-over-time effects. Additionally, armor provides more significant reduction for physical damage compared to other damage types. Physical damage reduction caps at 85%, while damage reduction for all other damage types reaches a maximum of 59.5%. The exact amount of reduction you receive is determined by two factors: the amount of armor you have and the enemy’s level.
Scaling Armor
Armor can be scaled through various sources, including gear, blessings, skills, and passives. Each character class has its own natural support for armor, allowing you to find synergistic options based on your chosen path. While the Sentinel class offers the most natural support for armor, every class has at least some degree of armor-related capabilities.
Understanding the scaling of armor and its interaction with other defenses allows you to craft a robust defense strategy that mitigates the impact of physical damage, enhancing your character’s survivability.
In the dangerous world of Last Epoch, agility and finesse can be as vital to survival as raw strength. Dodge represents your character’s ability to evade incoming attacks, providing a chance to completely avoid damage. By investing in dodge, you can enhance your character’s evasive capabilities and minimize the impact of enemy assaults.
Dodge Mechanics
Dodge functions by providing a chance to avoid a hit, effectively negating any damage that would have been inflicted. DoTs cannot be dodged, as dodge only applies to hits. The chance to dodge caps at 85%, although reaching the cap is challenging due to diminishing returns. However, certain effects, such as the Silver Shroud, can briefly surpass the cap, providing temporary dodge chance beyond 85%. To calculate the actual amount of reduction you receive from dodge, you need to consider two factors: the amount of dodge you have and the enemy’s level. Both dodge chance and dodge effectiveness can be scaled through various sources, including gear, blessings, skills, and passives.
Dodge Scaling
Each character class has its own natural support for dodge, with the Rogue class offering the most extensive array of dodge-related passives and skills. Additionally, the Primalist class provides significant support for dodge, allowing you to create agile and evasive characters. Understanding the scaling of dodge and its limitations empowers you to build nimble characters that can gracefully evade danger and emerge unscathed from perilous encounters.
Dodge and Armor: A Synergistic Defense
It is worth noting that armor and dodge can work together synergistically to enhance your character’s overall defense. While armor reduces the impact of hits, dodge provides a chance to completely avoid a hit, negating any damage and ailments that would have been inflicted. By combining these two defenses, you can create a formidable layer of protection against physical attacks.
In Last Epoch, survival often demands resilience and the ability to endure even the most devastating blows. Endurance represents a unique defensive layer that provides substantial protection when your character’s HP falls below a certain threshold. By investing in endurance, you can bolster your character’s survivability and weather the storm of battle.
Endurance Mechanics
Endurance triggers when your character’s HP drops below a specific threshold, activating damage reduction that applies to all damage types, including DoTs. Two primary stats contribute to scaling endurance: endurance and endurance threshold.
Understanding how endurance functions and synergizing it with your character’s HP pool empowers you to withstand even the most devastating blows and emerge victorious from challenging encounters.
In the realm of Last Epoch, the shield becomes a formidable tool for defense. Block represents your character’s ability to deflect incoming attacks with a shield, reducing the damage taken. By investing in block, you can enhance your character’s shield-based defenses and protect yourself from harm.
Block Mechanics
Block offers a chance to reduce a portion of hit damage, effectively mitigating the impact of incoming attacks. It is important to note that block does not require the use of a shield, but it is significantly less effective without one. Block consists of two primary components: block chance and block effectiveness.
Less Damage Taken From Block: In addition to block effectiveness, there is a stat called “less damage taken from block.” This stat provides additional damage reduction on successful blocks and is multiplicative with block effectiveness, further enhancing your shield-based defenses.
Critical strikes from enemies can deliver devastating damage, making critical strike avoidance a crucial defense in Last Epoch. By investing in critical strike avoidance, you can reduce the likelihood of being critically hit, minimizing the impact of these deadly blows.
Critical Strike Avoidance Mechanics
Critical strikes inflict double damage compared to normal attacks, making them especially lethal. Critical strike avoidance lowers the chance that enemies will land a critical hit against you. Having 100% critical strike avoidance ensures that you can never be critically hit.
Critical strike avoidance can be obtained through various sources, including gear, blessings and class passives. By investing in critical strike avoidance, you can significantly reduce the frequency of critical hits and enhance your character’s survivability. Capping critical strike avoidance is highly recommended, especially in hardcore mode, where every hit can mean the difference between life and death.
An alternative to critical strike avoidance is “less bonus damage taken from critical strikes.” This stat reduces the additional damage inflicted by critical strikes. At 100%, critical strikes do no additional damage.
By prioritizing critical strike avoidance and less bonus damage taken from critical strikes, you can create a character that can withstand the deadliest blows and emerge victorious from the most challenging encounters.
In the realm of Last Epoch, glancing blow represents a unique defensive layer that reduces the damage taken from hits. By investing in glancing blow, you can diminish the impact of incoming attacks and enhance your character’s survivability.
Glancing Blow Mechanics
Glancing blows reduce the damage taken from hits by 35%. This reduction applies to all types of hits and offers a consistent reduction in damage across the board. It is important to note that glancing blow does not apply to damage-over-time effects, as it only affects hits. Similar to critical strike avoidance, glancing blow chance caps at 100%. However, achieving the cap is challenging due to diminishing returns. Certain passives and skills, provide significant support for glancing blow chance.
By investing in glancing blow, you can effectively reduce the damage taken from hits, enhancing your character’s survivability in the face of relentless assaults.
Stun represents a debilitating crowd control effect that renders your character unable to move or use skills. While stun avoidance can help reduce the chance of being stunned, it is crucial to note that investing in other defensive measures, such as HP and other defenses, can also reduce the likelihood of being stunned. By carefully choosing your defensive priorities, you can minimize the impact of stun and enhance your character’s survivability.
Stun Avoidance Mechanics
Stun avoidance directly lowers the chance of being stunned from hits. It is important to note that stun avoidance does not affect damage taken; instead, it reduces the chance of being affected by the stun effect. Stun avoidance can be obtained through various sources, including gear, skills, and passives. While stun avoidance can be beneficial, it is worth considering other defensive measures that indirectly reduce the chance of being stunned. By investing in HP, resistances, armor, dodge, endurance, and other defenses, you can enhance your character’s overall survivability and decrease the likelihood of being stunned.
Understanding the mechanics of stun avoidance and its limitations allows you to make informed decisions when optimizing your character’s defense.
In Last Epoch, combining multiple sources of damage reduction is key to achieving robust and effective defenses. By synergizing different defensive layers, such as HP, ward, resistances, armor, dodge, endurance, block, critical strike avoidance, glancing blow, and stun avoidance, you can create a comprehensive defense strategy that maximizes your character’s survivability.
Understanding the Multiplicative Nature of Damage Reduction
When combining multiple layers of damage reduction, it is important to note that they are multiplicative, not additive. This means that the overall reduction is calculated by multiplying the individual reduction percentages together. This multiplicative nature ensures that each layer of defense contributes to your overall survivability without diminishing the effectiveness of other layers.
By carefully considering each defensive layer, optimizing their scaling, and understanding their synergy, you can create a character that can withstand the most formidable challenges Last Epoch has to offer.
Surviving in Last Epoch requires more than just powerful offensive abilities; a robust defense is equally important. By understanding the intricacies of Last Epoch defense, including HP, ward, sustain, resistances, armor, dodge, endurance, block, critical strike avoidance, glancing blow, and stun avoidance, you can construct a character that is prepared for any adversity.
Remember to balance your defensive layers and consider the specific challenges you face in each area of the game. By synergizing different sources of damage reduction and optimizing their scaling, you can enhance your character’s survivability and conquer the dangers of Last Epoch. So, equip your armor, wield your shield, and venture forth with the knowledge and determination to overcome any obstacle that stands in your way. The realm of Last Epoch awaits your heroic defense!
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