Hi there,
I’m a relatively new player to Last Epoch, and I recently stumbled across the unique Vial of Volatile Ice, which converts the Acid Flask skill from poison damage to cold damage. I enjoy creative and unusual build paths, so I immediately rerolled into Rogue just to try this interaction — and I wanted to share some feedback on the experience.
What Worked Really Well
First off, I was incredibly impressed that the visual effects of Acid Flask actually change when used with the unique. Instead of the usual green, toxic visuals, the skill becomes a blue-and-white cold ability — and it does this without requiring any microtransaction skins. This kind of visual coherence is rare in ARPGs and goes a long way in making unique items feel truly special. It was a great surprise and made me even more excited to try out the build.
I also appreciated the line on the unique that reads:
That made it clear the item was meant to work fully with cold/frostbite mechanics, not just superficially.
Where It Gets Confusing
However, once I started investing in the Acid Flask skill tree, I ran into some confusion. Several nodes — like “Increased Poison Duration” and “Poison Resistance Penetration/Shred” — appeared to no longer make sense with the skill being converted to cold. Because the unique only mentions converting poison chance, I wasn’t sure if those nodes would be entirely wasted.
Eventually, I allocated a node that causes Acid Flask to leave “poison pools” on the ground. I assumed this would literally mean poison — perhaps making the skill a hybrid that applies frostbite on impact and poison over time through the pool.
But to my surprise (and delight), the pool left behind was a white icy pool, and it was applying additional frostbite stacks, not poison. This was really cool — not only did the visuals match the new damage type again, but it showed the devs put real effort into making the conversion feel complete, not tacked on.
My Suggestion
Since Last Epoch already does such a great job visually adapting the skill to match the converted damage type, I think the next step would be to have the skill tree update its language dynamically when the unique is equipped.
For example:
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Nodes that say “poison” could instead say “frostbite” or “cold DoT” where appropriate.
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Or, at the very least, a tooltip note could appear when Vial of Volatile Ice is equipped, explaining how those interactions are being modified.
This would really help players — especially newer ones like me — feel more confident in experimenting with off-meta setups, without second-guessing whether half the tree is being wasted.
Thanks for the awesome work — I’m having a blast with the game so far, and this kind of interaction is a big reason why.