Hi everyone,
I would really appreciate some help with my character and build.
Here is my character:
https://www.lastepochtools.com/profile/gerbesh/character/lulukar
I am playing a fire-based Cinder Strike build, and my Cinder Strike is level 27. I tried to build around fire damage and survivability, and from my point of view I already picked gear that should support that. But in practice, even 100 Corruption feels very hard for me. I die a lot, and my damage also feels too low.
That is why I am confused. Are non-meta builds really this weak, or is my build just poorly optimized? I am not trying to push ladder or do anything extreme - I would just like to make this build feel solid and enjoyable, maybe even playable around 300 Corruption for fun.
Maybe I am missing some important item interactions, defensive layers, scaling priorities, or just a few key upgrades. I do not have much experience with deeper build optimization in Last Epoch, so it is very possible that I am overlooking something obvious.
If anyone could take a look and tell me what is wrong with the build, what should be changed first, or which items/stats would help the most, I would be very grateful.
Thank you.
I would have focused it down a little if it doesn’t work.
On the armor and weapon slots you have % damage while channeling, % physical and necrotic damage, throwing damage, chance to apply shock, plus to level of Bladestorm.
In the skill tree you also have physical damage, increased mana which seems unnecessary.
You could try putting these instead in dodge chance?
In the skills you inflict bleed, throws daggers.
And since you are using Gambit of an… you could try utilize the shadows for more protection? The new set that summons shadows upon travel could be nice with that.
Bladedancer also has some synergy with shadows.
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Hey,
First off, YES, you will not compete with meta with a cinder strike build. 300 / 500 corrupt was possible last season, I guess you can add 100 corrupt more with the season theme.
I’m not sure you understand the fundamentals of doing damage in this game. You need to take 1 side, then scale it as much as possible.
Example build that would work :
Cinder strike is used to get ‘oil coating’ stacks and burning daggers.
You send a lot of daggers everywhere, that do throwing damage.
The objective is to maximize the direct damage done by these daggers.
So you need flat throwing damage, crit, and as many daggers as possible.
more daggers can come from attack speed, but also from creating more shadows. Shadow bomb is a great skill for that (and potentially the doppelganger set).
Example form last season :
https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/BZ4pJ91A
https://www.lastepochtools.com/planner/ozLGrpvQ
The second link changes the damage focus a bit, instead of burning daggers doing the heavy lifting, it’s the proc from the bow (it has an insane damage scaling at 900%). The boots are insane for that, but won’t help with survavibility.
so, what is specifically wrong with your skills?
- Cinder strike uses Oil coating, but you took the node that caps it out.
- You specced Acid flask but don’t use it?
What is wrong with your gear
- The amulet is specifically for ignite builds. If you want it to be useful, you need to apply tons of ignites on the target (so have a lot of ignite change, and do a lot of hits). I won’t lie, you will struggle at 300 corrupt if you scale ignites with bow cinder strike.
- you have 10% crit chance. Aim for 100% ! (unless you play a dot build) you should get the peak of the mountain helmet ASAP, that’s going to be a huge damage boost
- Defenses are essential to understand in the game. With marksman, speed and avoiding most damage is going to be essential. But 2 more points also are :
- Smoke bomb ‘moonlight bomb’ node gives you a guaranteed dodge on next hit. (The same for the passive ‘covering fire’, but you already have that one)
- you build for a certain resistance type. Could be HP, ward, armor, or endurance. with marksman, you have pretty much 0 synergy with the 3 last. Ward is generally more expensive gear wise. I would suggest to focus on HP (the more HP you have, the more effect %HP has!)
Good Luck !
Feel free to get inspiration from the older planners, and add corruption to double the effects! ( or ruin the piece :D)
Thank you all very much for taking the time to help me, I truly appreciate it.
Your explanations clarified a lot of things for me, especially how damage scaling actually works. I realize now that I misunderstood several core mechanics, which explains why the build felt so weak despite my efforts.
At this point, it seems that fixing the character properly would require a full overhaul of both gear and skills. Unfortunately, I don’t really have the gold to respec everything right now.
Because of that, I think I’ll put this character on hold for the moment and start a new one instead. It feels like a better way to apply what I’ve learned from the beginning rather than trying to patch everything mid-way.
Hopefully, after a couple of iterations, I’ll have a much better understanding and be able to put together a more solid build.
Thanks again for all the help, it really made a difference.
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