Build Summary before wall of text: Werebear Lightning Meteors (insert I am the Storm that is Approaching meme)
Gameplay, T4 Arena wave 20-25(I don’t have 300 corruption): https://imgur.com/a/9QcAG6M
Pros:
-Single skill viable(Rampage) can play with only mouse to move left/rampage right
-Great clearing echoes
-Pretty Tanky
-Very Flashy and Fun!
Cons:
-Dependent on uniques
-Rage gen and Damage can be RNG (usually not a problem and fairly tanky even if you lose form)
-Bosses can be weird(more on this below)
-Need to keep Spriggan alive
Current Build: Druid, Level 97 (LE Beta 0.9.0i) - Last Epoch Build Planner
I do have LP on all the uniques(actually what prompted me to do this build) but haven’t forged them yet as I wanted to see how well the build could do without legends(Ucenui is legendary, but Fraility can be put on gloves instead of the overcap fire res)
Potential upgrades:
-Ancestral garb is more armor, health and the cooldown gives better uptime on warcry buffs, high roll necrotic or poison res roll from dragon timeline should help.
-Endurance on gloves suffix as current fire res is just overcap
-Grand lightning shred blessing more reliable
-Max impervious and more points in hideskin
-LP uniques for more HP or resists and then HP in other slots
-Armor shred/crit multi on LP amulet for nice dmg boost
Werebear has tons of spell damage and crit synergy thanks to its tree, Warcry and Spriggan companion. However, the main spell proc of Werebear Maelstrom cannot crit though there are a variety of other spells we can proc that can crit. Capped(or close to) Spell Crit also has great Rage generation from rageborn and easy leech thanks to bushstalker so makes for a fun build with strength stacking, I was personally using a setup like Druid, Level 93 (LE Beta 0.9.0d) - Last Epoch Build Planner pre 0.9.0
It was alright, could do some Empowered bosses, T4 Arena too but DPS definitely hits a ceiling.
However, with 0.9.0 Crit spellbear got some really cool new toys that I absolutely wanted to mess with.
Firstly the zero cooldown rampage with global damage while rampaging, while at first glance(and even second and third) this seems like just a general QoL for clearing, But both this and the (new?)crit chance while rampaging mod made me think someone at EHG tryna make Rampage the next Warpath(Its not quite there yet but its getting there).
Secondly, the Harbinger of Stars belt this is unique amongst all of the Werebear spell procs IMO as it is the only one that is not linked to a cooldown(aside from maelstrom ofc).
Testing these new uniques and interactions, I was able to make a true one button build (as many have asked for in forums and reddit) and thought to share it. While the usual answer for a One-button build is Warpath, that skill generally uses buffs/movement skills like Anomaly, Sigils, VR, Lunge, Void cleave, etc. However this build is just pure RAMPAGE and can be played with mouse only as everything else is automated. Automated Warcry seems to have less start frames than a manual war cry. (note: sadly you will still need to use the special ability skill in dungeons such as time travel/shield change though this build is probably not great for dungeons)
So How Build Work:
Harbinger of Stars, the main thing we working around, great proc that benefits heavily from all the flat damage we get as werebear str stacking and crit, Two major caveats:
- You need to crit a lot to proc it
- You need to sustain the mana(rage) to cast it.
Solving problem 1 is easy, Werebear has naturally easy access to crit with base crit to Rampage from the tree and global crit chance, Warcry further buffing crit chance and Spriggan companion providing amazing global base crit (also flat spell dmg, healing and crit avoid). For the actual hits to crit, we have maelstrom which at 3 stacks procs a very frequent lightning bolt, rampage and additional lightning bolts(Ucenui’s bolts and Warcry also hit/crit)
Solving problem 2 is partially done since we got bush stalker which generates rage on crit, however given the cost of warcry, maelstrom, meteor(especially) and eterra’s blessing it might not be enough in all situations. Hence we also do what every other non 100% crit werebear does and grab Tears of the forest and Eterra’s Path for some passive rage regen. Since the only skill used is Rampage we are always moving and hence always proccing vines.
Now THE ACTUAL PROBLEM is keeping Spriggan alive, while this is no issue during echoes and most regular content and he can also tank certain oneshot attacks. The main issue is degens and the braindead minion AI walking into attacks and degen zones this becomes really problematic especially in boss fights where you try to move the minion to a safe zone but it refuses to cooperate as it is already shooting the enemy. Luckily the buff stays active when the companion is fallen and needs to be revived so you just need to keep running over its corpse so it doesn’t fully disappear. Eterra’s blessing also helps out here with the revive % of downed minion and always prioritizing low minion(I am just testing different setups with it).
Vilatria’s set is mage specific, However the staff that does the meteor conversion can be used by any class. Staff also gives some very handy reducing mana/rage cost and giving flat mana/rage to keep you from deleting all your rage from a lucky/unlucky casts. Staying fire is also an option, but I think making it lightning to benefit from all the lightning penetration,% and more damage as well as shock/shred is better.
Ucenui’s sphere is also a key item to touch on. It is a massive single target boost(since it has 300% added dmg effectiveness) and helps a lot for bosses/rares despite being a full cold skill. It also crits and procs meteors while also boosting global lightning damage. Definitely a must have IMO.
Anyway after all this is the build actually good? Well… Yes and No.
It is great for clear and feels really fun to play constantly rampaging thru enemies and proccing meteors and lightning bolts.
However, it has quite a few issues with bosses. Not damage issues as you can see in the videos below, that is manageable but more basic issues. Unlike warpath, you cannot Rampage in place, it is a one direction movement rather than warpath which can move as needed. This makes it problematic to use in say Julra fight where spinning degen beams will kill you faster than you can blink (and ignore basic defenses like armor, dodge, block, etc.).
But this ain’t even the least of the boss problems, I don’t even know what happens in the Lagon fight, Maelstrom bolts can’t hit him, not sure if Lightning bolts and meteors are even proccing, trying to hit him with Rampage feels glitchy as you keep falling over the ledge.
Rampage also pushes enemies on every hit, this makes fights like the Emperor of Corpses Dragon annoying as you can push him onto the blood pools at the edges of the arena or even into the Soul storm that happens each phase.
Zero cooldown Rampage playstyle is fun and definitely viable, but needs a bit more attention and bugfixing from devs IMO (EHG pls fix!)
Also note: there is a bug currently with automated warcry as if you remove it from the skillbar the game considers it to have no cooldown and you can spam it. 0 Cooldown Roar(Warcry) Bug (Potentially big for Maelstrom stacking)
There is also a bug where going to a new arena zone causes your companion to fully despawn.
Achievements/Videos:
Build handles T4 Arena pretty easily even with the max dmg/health though not the fastest boss dps
https://imgur.com/a/DhAdz39
T4 Arena Wave 30-40 + boss fight(basically continuation of the gameplay vid above)
T4 Cremorus probably the only dungeon boss I would try with this build, Companion surviving is impossible…
