Do folks avoid the class? Is it underpowered or not performing well?
Really old passive tree, and a theme that is all over.
Forge guard cant really decide if its a jack of all trades, a throwing guy, a melee guy, or a summon focused guy. He has bits and pieces of everything.
FG is probably one of the least popular classes because the thing it does better then other sentinels is minions, and minions are a niche/specific theme that not everyone is into.
FG isnt strictly weak however, there is some funky builds that are played on FG that do really good, like %reflect minions/rebuke or manifest armor.
But yeah, like shaman, FG is on the list for a glow up. Might come with 1.0, but we will just have to see.
Just about anything Forge Guard would want to do, Paladin does better. I’ve wanted to put together some FG builds, focused around 1h+Shield… but Paladin was just the better choice — every time.
Outside of minions, that is. And minions, especially for Sentinel, are niche.
Kinda what everyone has already said here. Old tree. Needs more synergy.
Someone about a month ago posted a Build Guide for a Forge Guard. It was simpatico because I was actually working on one as well and they had some similarities.
This was theirs: Manifest Armor / Forged Weapon Forge Guard Build Guide (Beta 0.9.2) - Last Epoch Build Guides
Mine is a bit different. Haven’t finished the build guide yet but it’s a lot of fun and really, really tanky. This is where it currently is: Forge Guard, Level 98 (LE Beta 0.9.2f) - Last Epoch Build Planner
Paladin is pretty solid so I can see folks gravitating that way.
Forgemaster looked interesting, I thought maybe it would be kinda like a necromancer but with more sustain.
That said, FG minion builds are very very strong. Invincible Minions that fly and do high damage.