YouTube Guide with Gameplay :
https://youtu.be/ppZMy7cX6Dk
Intro :
So I was told that people actually read written guides? For the longest of times I stopped making them because it seemed nobody read them or cared, so my time was better spend making the video associated with the build. Prove me wrong and read the post, and I will probably make more written guides in the future 
Storm Crows are actually cool, and Iāve enjoyed them immensely here. Hopefully with some more gear I can finally say I made non snapshot crows t4 jurla viable.
Swarmblade Finally has rage generation that doesnt involve crit or Eterraās Path :
Thanks to the mini rework of Swarmblade in patch 8.5c, we now can gain rage on Locust summon, meaning we do not need to run Eterraās Path or a large amount of critical strike chance support to allow us to stay inside Swarmblade form while farming monoliths. This reduces how much investment we need to remain in form.
How Crowstorm works
Crowstorm is a companion ability, that when used will create a large lightning aoe that scales with Storm Crowās minion lightning spell damage, and it also gains 50% more damage per contributing crow. I thought this was the case before I played with it extensively, but Crowstorm is one single hit, not multiple. Hard to tell because the animation but that is the case. One big hit!
How normal Crowstorm works vs how we set it up with Swarmstrike
So the normal version of Crowstorm (that barely anybody plays for a reason), you need stuff like Eterraās blessing to bypass the Crowstorm Cooldown (which is like 6 seconds with some investment),
but it costs an insane amount of mana to do so. Thats why we are Swarmblade, as it allows us to use a Crowstorm every 3 seconds instead of 6, and it also costs no mana to proc, allowing us to actually be able to spam it. Now since we are forced down to only 3 crows (4 if you use the summon wolf bug, yes it is a bug), it means we do significantly less damage than the Beastmaster versionā¦but we pretty much get to spam Crowstorm like twice as much, so its great QoL and we have access to entangling roots which is like 40 adaptive spell damage, which helps us catch up to Beastmasterās damage output.
Pros of the build :
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crow damage scales hard
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being able to spam big AoE solves minion AI problems
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Mobility of Swarmblade
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Almost can do T4 Jurla
Cons of the build :
- lots of investment (can be a good or bad thing)
1a. crows are naturally squishy and need investment not to die constantly
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has a buy in of at least Artorās legacy and Ribbons of Blood
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Healing from Maelstrom isnāt a good sustain source but is our best choice sadly, canāt
build health regen because slots are too tight and too expensive
- Dual wield is required to pump out good damage
Crows are normally squishy and how to fix it and how to ignore snapshotting :
Well Crows have some of the lowest base HP in the entire game, so they require a bit more investment than your normal build to function. Attribute stacking (strength and attunement in this case) which Druid is good at doing, is the best way to keep your crows alive. It gives them a large amount of base HP to work with, which then if we get close to like 700%-ish increased minion health, I think youād be happy then. We also use a ribbons of blood so they wonāt be crit, a reach from the grave so that they have leech from their attacks, and a Jurlaās obsession with some resistances which are normally hard to get, it means the setup I have for crows are a lot more durable than most peopleās setups. Right now I have like 400% inc minion HP, but if I got minion HP on the chest id be at 700% easily.
How we fix our sustain and defenses :
Maelstrom healing is our main sustain source. Since with stuff like Aspect of the Boar and Impervious, along with Serpent Strike armor stacking, it means we become pretty tanky for a minion build. Sadly Maelstrom healing is our only out, as all the other sources of sustain for a minion build are locked away with really really good gear (like HP regen on an Artors and Jurlas obsession)
Skill rotation for single target :
So thanks to the nature of transformations, they allow you to constantly spam Swarmstrike and Crowstorm, as cooldowns are reset when you enter and leave form, so we leave Swarmblade form, use Entangling Roots, use a Crowstorm, use Entangling Roots again, then swap into Swarmblade Form (which will proc a Crowstorm so be ready to place it), then Swarmstrike again, then of course Swarmstrike again, rinse and repeat. Really fun to do, feels like you are rewarded for form swapping.
How we solve our minion crit :
Storm Crows are nice enough to give a lot of their own base crit inside their own tree, as we can easily get close to 40% base crit with the nodes in the lower left of the tree. Its a 20% chance on melee hit to gain a bunch of base crit for 10 seconds, which stacks to 3 times, so as long as we are meleeāing enemies (which we are thanks to serpent strike and swarmstrike) it means we are close to capping our crit chance with a few idols or a Jurlas Obsession with crit on it.
Important Nodes in Passive Tree :
Focused Wrathās 30% reduced rage decay is very important, as it allows us to sustain with only Locusts while in Swarmblade while monolith farming, while on single target it doesnt matter because we are constantly leaving and entering Swarmblade form as it fills us up to full every time.
Impervious is insane for us, as since we are constantly attacking, the DR is up all the time.
Aspect of the Boar is of course Best Boar.
Attribute stacking and healing effect on the tree are very valuable, as its stacks we need to make the build feel good.
What legendaries/uniques you want and need :
Artorās Legacy, Reach from the Grave and Ribbons of Blood are mandatory in my opinion, while Jurlaās Obsession is a flex spot. You donāt technically need Deathrattle, and when you get minion crit multi on chest and helm you wonāt need this.
Body Armour is the most important slot for the build :
We can get +1 to storm crows sealed, Minion crit multi and Minion Health %, which are absolutely insane for us. We donāt need +3 to crows, more like +1 to feel comfy, so weāre completely fine only having a T1 on our chest. Didnāt get one so I used the one in the video.
Idols
Minion Crit Chance on prefix with Healing Effect on suffix is our most important setup. a throne of ambition goes a long way on single target.
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If you enjoyed the post, go to the video linked above or below, leave a like, as thatās the best way to support my efforts here making posts or of course making videos and these builds.
YT video with gameplay of the build :
Last Epoch Build Planner With Current Gear :
- Dr3ad from Epoch Builds
