This is a really fun build, it was my 2nd (the 1st really struggled), and so it really opened my eyes to how fun the game can be, the first few levels arent wonderful (better if you have uniques to use), but it gets better fast with teleport and disintegrate.
There are certain breakpoints (some may be resist related) where your cruising and then suddenly the incoming damage ramps up… but with some leech I barely used a healing potion through many of the levels, but as the story campaign is drawing closer, I found the damage was beyond me, so I ended up keeping 2 fingers on ‘Flame Ward’ & ’ Arcane Ascendance’, I just group a few up and hit both skills at once, which makes me basically invincible for a few second, and hit hard too… I could do that on almost every pack, it was enough to get me thru, and tbh I still use these skills every time they are up… its part of the build I find…
I dont really like the feel of ‘Arcane Ascendance’ as a skill, trying to toggle it off if things dont go to plan, in the heat of battle, when you cant move, not sure if you could be stunned, it doesnt feel wonderful! I do wish it would turn off when you move or something similar… but ive sort of got into a groove with it now, teleport > burn a pack > remove aegis > teleport… occasionally get into trouble in boss mechanics… you need to pre-empt a little I find, or just take it off earlier rather than later.
Be very careful with your Disintegrate levelling… unfortunately all the major nodes are right near the end… Laser Focus wasnt as bad as I had feared, Mana Usage had become a real problem, so when I finally got this, it was worth any dps loss to not have to focus after every pack. Escalation is not necessary… but its really nice on bosses (I left Amplification till last), note that the damage only kicks in when you can stand in 1 spot for quite a while. Twinbeam is a feel good ability also (fixes the narrowness caused by laser focus), id ideally love have gotten it earlier, but its very hard because some of the other abilities are not optional… ie Tendrils (to proc LB) & Laser Focus (to sustain your mana).
Anyway ill check back later in endgame, so far so good with monoliths and arenas, improving the gear. as I go. gearing is tricky since its a spell procced off a spell, and weighing up crit vs straight damage… but its sort of fun experimenting too!
I completed all the base Monoliths & my first ascended Monolith, sometimes it goes very smoothly, but some echos you can get destroyed quite quickly. (virtual 1 shot) and lose your reward. though tbf my gear is nothing like boardmans, my crits are 35k, not 150k…
Still face-tanking almost everything (max resists are important here), infact the safest way to fight bosses is to stand still and keep channeling… the times you will die are when you arent leeching due to movement being required, such as Lagon intermission or chasing adds, or one of the echo spires triple bombing you.
I guess this is generic advice… but focus on resists first over maxxing DPS (especially as it takes more items to reach 75% with lower base level items), I think I followed the guide a bit too literally at first. Later on when I found a nice rare or exalted base, I crafted around whatever its strengths were instead… note I’m not even sure what the most efficient way to get your damage actually is, or if it matters for example if you have more spell vs adaptive spell vs lightning vs elemental vs damage while channeling etc etc…
Set up Loot filter early for some of the channeling affixes (these are the bottle neck), but even more so Lightning Bolt & Disintegrate (the rarest), now I just run a filter for every classes spell since I figure this is the universal crafting bottleneck,.
I still use Flame Ward (FW) & Arcane Ascendancy every pull they are up, it means you can stand and deliver punishment, almost invincible…
I also die sometimes due to Arcane Ascendacy locking me in a bad situation, I think its off, but its on, or I think its on and its off (turns itself off sometimes too after 12s), and im toggling it while under fire… and teleport doesnt work until you stop disintegrating too, its a mismatch of things… getting surrounded isnt good for this build.
I feel like its best to avoid a Sorcery Staff, its too much of a mana drain (despite the high adaptive damage), and it stops you from being able to face tank on bosses, as you will run out of mana regularly, have to run around, and lose all your defensive buffs etc, all the other staffs are fine.
Has anyone got suggestions for the most effective defensive mage gear affixes, life vs armour, vs dodge vs reduced crit… affixes for survival when not able to cast & leech off a target?
L100 Empowered echos (and boss add phases) are feeling like too much luck is involved… which doesnt feel good! The build is bulletproof ‘when’ hitting a target however.
sorry about this but can you upload new images of updated sorcerer and mage to the last patch i am kind of lost on those
just starting playing last epoch and having a blast
loved your videos and everything very well explained you helped a lot really thank you!
I’m trying to figure out – why does the filter want things below Tier 2? I figured it’d want higher tier stuff? Or am I not understanding this properly?
Heya, there is a little tickbox for Advanced, click it and you can set that filter rule to only work if say… there is 1 affix or maybe 2 affixes >= T2.
You can do more things too, but thats what I use… at lower level I go with 2 affixes T2 or more… and then at later level I set it to 2 items at T4 or more… when you only want sort of genuine high level crafting options.
My Rule List which I love & use for all my characters now, is something like:
Show all Unique/Set/Exalted
Recolour all the rly rare affixes (across all classes) for shattering purposes
Recolour Items that r rly good (so 2xT4 as above) for Character 1
Recolour Items that r rly good (so 2xT4 as above) for Character 2
Recolour Items that r rly good (so 2xT4 as above) for Character 3
Recolour The Rly Good Idols (for all classes)
Recolour any Base Items if you rly need something to craft (might need a few of these)
Hide all Normal/Magic/rare
Hide all Idols
Remember the rules get applied from top down and any given item will not be looked at again once its met any of the rules.
Any changes that need to be made in order to run this in the current build? I know the Idol area has been redesigned somewhat and we can’t do four 2x2s anymore, but aside from that?
pls help me i am newbee and not good english (espicially use translator)
have any update for this build ?
i am good until 100 corrupt map
now my char too much die
what can i do ?
dps good but some maps 2-3 times finish
Cap Endurance to 60%
Cap Resistances (75%)
Do not auto cast Flame ward, Use it when Expecting damage (Experience needed)
If you can, aim for 2000+ Health with lots of Leech on Hit (For the lightning blast Hits)
Armor is more powerful now in 8.2. Try to get 40-50% Armor if you Can (Hard to do while stacking life and resistances properly)
Increased Armor on Boots/Chest Can Be very helpful to get there.
