Multiplayer Support Build Theorycrafting

General
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EDIT (Work in progress): Shaman, Level 100 (LE Beta 0.8.1b) - Last Epoch Build Planner

I realize it’s a little early for this but why not? My second HC Beastmaster died prematurely so I thought I’d experiment with him in SC.

I generally think of Support classes in 4 main categories: Heals, Crowd Control, Buffs and Debuffs. ARPGs don’t traditionally put a lot of effort into Support, but EHG has clearly put in a lot of the hooks to make support viable and fun to solo as well.

Unfortunately either other mastery would have been a better base class to get , but no big deal for this first attempt. Unless things change significantly, I think my choice would be Shaman. In fact, I have another shaman sitting around so maybe I’ll try converting him over to this build and see how it stacks up.

SKILLS

Eterra’s Blessing - pretty much a given since Healing Wind doesn’t have nodes yet. This is a fantastic support skill though as it heals and buffs, and can be spammed once you’ve got enough mana and efficiency. I’m using the nodes that boost spell damage and resistances.

Warcry - this is another perfect support skill, what’s not to love? Crowd control, instaheal and buffs all in one. Only negative is the 10s cooldown. I went with the Stun->Freeze as part of my build. Geared up Freeze Rate Multiplier (FRM) and maxxed the area so this freezes almost everything for a second. Not the best CC in the world, but still pretty nice.

Ice Thorns - the bread and butter offense for this build when soloing. Originally I was going to use it primarily for CC and let pets do the damage, but the damage seemed to scale so well I couldn’t resist. With the high FRM I get a lot of freezes off of it as well. In a group I imagine I’d swap out spell/cold damage for healing effectiveness or Attunement but keep FRM high.

Frenzy Totem - I’ve been back and forth on what to do with the last two slots. I like that Frenzy gives a great boost to cast/attack speed, so I think as a group buff it would be great. But I’m not sure if there might be something even better.

Summon Primal Bear - Hard to say if pets will be useful in a group setting, but having an extra tank/off-tank who can taunt stuff seems like it makes sense. The single bear with passives, etc seems like a beast to kill, particularly when you can heal it so easily with Eterra. Any time I get into too much trouble I run off and try to have the bear taunt everything, then I stay on the side and just keep him heal/buffed.

PASSIVES

I’m approaching level 60, I think I have 28 points in Primalist (a lot of good stuff) and the rest in Beastmaster, starting to put some points in Shaman. Mostly invested into defensive nodes for dodge, resistance, health, armor, etc. and anywhere I can get attunement to boost dmg for Ice Thorns and healing/mana effectiveness for Eterra.

GEAR

Currently I’m using a couple of uniques and 2 pieces of a set.

Snowblind - I may swap this out eventually but OK FRM and chance to chill/blind is a nice combo with Ice Thorns

Halvar’s Stand and Last Gift - again, they may outlive their usefulness, but combined they give Ice Thorns a big punch of dmg and some nice bonuses that aren’t readily available. I did try the third item (weapon) but it didn’t give enough bang for the buck compared to the unique 1H

Frozen Ire - really love this one for this build. A lot of extra dmg plus FRM, and it scales with level. Bonus is Necrotic resistance which essentially allows you to ignore it on your other items

Remaining gear is pretty mediocre stuff. I’m trying to get +Level to Ice Thorn for soloing, or Warcry or Eterra for grouping, but not much luck yet.

For idols, I have a mishmash of junk that really needs to be improved. Some mana, FRM, resistances; nothing special.

All in all the build plays very soundly as a solo class. I made it to Arena 62 on my first try starting at level 55ish. For grouping, I’d likely swap some stuff out to get some added cooldown and maybe more healing effectiveness, but for the most part I’d probably use the build as is. Being able to provide added damage and a lot of freeze on top of heals seems like it could be a good way to go.

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I wanted to include this quote from the recent Q&A so it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. It’s interesting to hear the perspective since it seemed to me like there was plenty of support stuff available already. I played a Paladin build that works pretty well solo too, I just never got around to posting the details.

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When i think of a support build in LE, the first thing that coems to my mind would be a mage (Sorcerer)

Just lightning Blasts Closed Circuit Node and Focus Frienldy Focus Node are enough already for me to make this playstyle viable.

Stuff like Flame Ward and Snap Freeze are nice bonuses on top of that.

But i just imagine some1 playign a build that does not have enough mana sustain to deal mixmum dps all the time and a mage standing behind him pumping mana into him and also buffing allies with glibal damage and crit.

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I’ve been thinking about this as well and sort of conclude that the scaling of group DPS is going to be absolutely bonkers, plus tanking and healing roles are viable. Not sure how the solo vs group play is going to work out, because usually with this level of difference content is split (group dungeons and such).

Anyway, since armor works against everything, I’d go for an armor shredding bladedancer with critical strike vulnerability talents and depending on the group go with poison stacking or shocks.

The idea that poison and shock reduce the target’s resistance makes me wonder wth they are going to do against a group of rogues - probably cap how low resistance can go?

And if I work the crit vuln up to say 6 points (5% inc chance to receive a crit) did I just give the group 30%?

I expect quite an overhaul before the multiplayer goes live or that group play is going to be a completely different thing in its own context.

5

Spin to win and suck in enemys = trash np.

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Dusting off this build for the new patch…

I traded out Frenzy Totem for Storm Crow - what’s not to love? A pocket healer minion that also does damage? Sign me up stat! I’m pretty sure the Crow has saved my butt numerous times already. I’m not 100% sure because the action is so fast but I’m pretty sure it does a better job of emergency healing than I do. It makes me feel like less of a healer lol but I love the thought that I may be able to count on him to save me or my allies.

The new patch seems a lot more difficult to me, it may just be an adjustment period. I had to really focus on getting my defenses shored up as I was getting smacked around a ton. The good news is I haven’t died, and I’ve only lost my bear once. Raven has gone down a few times. But in general my healing/support has been pretty effective, it’s just I seem to be scrambling a lot more than I remember needing to before. I feel like my DPS using Ice Thorns has dropped, but again, I haven’t played in a while so it could just be I need some time to adjust. Or maybe Frenzy was helping a lot more than I realized.

If I were playing in a group and we had some sort of “tank” I’d likely dump the Bear and bring back Frenzy. I think Crow is a fantastic add for support since it adds another healer, and without Bear I’d have another 2 (or even more with gear) pet healers. I might even try this out to see how 2 or 3 ravens work with each other…

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