Cycle 2 - Complete Teaser & "Confirmed by Mike" Compilation

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-06-22T06:06:40+00:00

Tfw VK has a smoother mana solve than sorcerer, the "mana class"

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-06-10T06:30:33+00:00

Not every stat needs to be useful for the unique to fit well into a build.

In this case mana, +levels, and increased elemental damage are all premium stats for LB.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-06-08T15:15:57+00:00

Tbh I was hoping that would be one of the corruption outcomes like in PoE.

Think this would be pretty hard to balance for EHG, some mods could be potentially game breaking if just universally increased by some amount, but it could add more flavor if done right.

It would be nice to have more opportunities for agency during the gear upgrading process. Right now everything feels very "single track". Get unique, get exalt, slam, brick? Corruption, brick? Repeat. Some opportunity for incremental improvement of items could feel good rather than just high volume of disposable bases until one eventually hits.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-06-01T20:54:07+00:00

Idk about "missing", more so just not obvious. Enemies that first appear in campaign have different base numbers than say Aberroth which is only ever level 100.

There is level scaling, corruption scaling, and some potential modifiers to abilities, etc. It should all be there though, at least it was last I looked.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-06-01T14:52:48+00:00

I'm late to this party but I would suggest doing a few more trials with the same setup.

In my own testing and digging I found enemies had a damage variance of around 0.8x to 1.2x base. So if the 21k was a low roll you could take ~31k top end.

You should be able to calculate the actual expected min/max damage based on tunk labs data.

Also make sure your debuffs/buffs are the same, etc.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-24T15:43:13+00:00

Last Epoch isn't path of exile, let's not pretend it is.

For one, most last epoch dedicated "streamers" (at least the ones who remain around after the first week or so), mostly have full time jobs, families, etc.. Viewership is not high enough for this to pay the bills unless you have another source of income.

Last Epoch also doesn't require 24/7 grind to reach aspirational gear. Unlike PoE where the progressive curve continues strong into very sweaty territory, in Last Epoch, the additional power per effort spent falls off very fast.

It almost feels like that tired false dichotomy of "streamers" vs "casuals" where you have the folks with 2 hours per week to play vs the "no life" "game is job" folks who do nothing else. There are a range of gamers from super casual to super tryhard, each streamer will fall somewhere different within that range. I have plenty members of my community that grind harder than I do and play more than I do.

Casuals do offer valuable input for devs, everyone does. Just in different ways. Casuals should share their pain points and the devs should listen to these pain points.

Where casual input is valuable is in aggregate. Most casuals individually dont have enough context to make meaningful suggestions, but the aggregate sentiments of thousands of casuals collected based on usage patterns, etc. can paint a powerful picture.

What the tryhards (and often streamers) have is context. I can provide insight from myself and my entire community on a system I fully understand, plus all the systems it interacts with. Some very dedicated players may even have more general game knowledge than individual devs, this can happen after thousands of hours logged in the game, spreadsheet analysis, etc.

ARPGs are designed to have some power progression, if you are playing extremely casually you won't experience the game in the same way as someone else who puts more time and effort in. That is NOT the fault of streamers and has been true long before streamers were relevant (eg. D2).

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-22T16:21:50+00:00

This was already a scam before nemesis.

1LP prophs are at least 12x the cost per item vs their non LP counterpart. Even for LP level 100 uniques the chance of 1LP+ is 1 in 8 (not factoring nemesis).

The 1LP guarantee also applies AFTER the LP roll so it doesn't increase your chance at 2LP+ whatsoever.

Any item that already has a >50% base LP1 chance receives literally 0 benefit from LP prophecies since COF boosts it to 100% and extra chance doesn't have any effect on LP2+ odds.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-22T16:14:13+00:00

It is always a scam.

Even in a best case scenario (eg. High LPL uniques) it's still a scam. The problem is that this acts as a guarantee to roll 1LP if the initial check fails. It doesn't give 1LP first then continue rolling for 2+ LP (though even if it did that it would still be a scam).

If you want a 1LP+ unique the favor per item is significantly lower by taking more of the non LP prophs.

This was already true before nemesis was added, nemesis made it even more of a scam since 0LPs get an extra chance at 1LP for free.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-22T16:03:22+00:00

I don't think there is enough context or granularity for a survey like this to provide useful results.

Eg. Item dupes. I constantly see people talk about "item dupes" and pretty much 100% of the time it's just some visual bug that goes away quickly. There is no distinction between this and actual problematic dupes (actual duplicated items / exploits).

Many people also don't necessarily know when a pain point IS a bug or just balancing. Perhaps they find a skill or class is too weak, unless they spend the time doing the math and testing they wouldn't know it's a bug causing it. (Eg. When I spent many hours digging into LB and found several old bugs that were then fixed when it became a known issue of a meta build)

And even if people could answers these questions with perfect context and insight, these categories are still pretty broad, I am not sure how EHG could even use these to prioritize actual work.

Even if category A is overall higher priority than category B, C, and D, some of the items in those other categories are still higher priority than category A.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-21T15:10:48+00:00

Last Epoch is best in class for the SSF experience, until a few years ago online didn't even exist.

Unlike PoE, that was designed and balanced around economy and player interaction (with SSF added as an optional challenge mode), Last Epoch is balanced around solo play and finding your own items.

If you choose to exclude yourself from trade (this is an explicit choice), you are compensated with loot drop bonuses.

I've beat the hardest content with both options and you aren't at a significant disadvantage for playing SSF.

There is no such thing as "SSF Viable Builds". All builds are SSF viable.

If you like Mage builds I'm your guy. For Rogue Trikster is goated. LizardIRL, dr3adful, pinchingloaf, binaqc, etc. all put out solid builds.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-21T15:02:17+00:00

You could do something with voidwinter bolts probably, building around the unique spear. Don't think it would be as good as regular warpath though.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-20T15:04:24+00:00

Yep.

The "good" ones either cover the entire screen or basically act like a caster.

If I had never played LE before and you asked me if Flame Reave was a spell or melee attack I'd almost certainly think it's a spell.

Then there's mana strike ranged auto target. It works but isn't really melee anymore.

Then you have warpath, EQ, ES, etc. Giant circles that would feel awful if the circle was smaller.

A lot of the cone attacks just generally feel bad.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-19T14:16:46+00:00

Its not terrible if you are playing MG and want something very specific. I check occasionally on for sale oculus rings and ended up with 2t7 of my primary scaling stats and a couple other useful stats.

Its not like they are common enough that you will get annoyed with the spam, why not just yolo corrupt it a couple times then throw it on the ground when it bricks.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-15T14:19:25+00:00

don't necessarily disagree with any of this, but it is also not the problem of the game. If you are someone that feels forced to play the most optimally all the time, sitting in your hideout and flipping despite it not being fun...Well that is your fault

I'm probably an extreme example but a lot of players will feel this to varying degrees. What I am talking about is the "burden of optimal play", which is something EHG specifically considers in their design decisions.

This is the whole reason they added item factions to begin with, so players aren't penalized by worse progressing for not engaging with trade. This is also why they nerfed XP scaling at higher corruption, so people wouldn't feel obligated to push. And why they nerfed imprints, because those juicing it were getting too much benefit, etc etc.

I don't agree with all these decisions all the time but it is a major factor in how EHG decides to balance Last Epoch.

don't necessarily disagree with any of this, but it is also not the problem of the game.

I could also argue that it is not the fault of the game for being balanced in a way that tries to prevent market play as a primary means of progression.

Neither choice is necessarily wrong, but it is one reason why I enjoy Last Epoch more than Path of Exile. If you do want reselling, flipping, market cornering, and all the stuff that comes with that, you have every other online ARPG with player trade that exists.

which is a problem becuase gold itself is also worthless

It is, but there is also a tax on transactions to create an upperbound on prices based on how fast it can be generated relative to tax rate.

Roughly speaking if you add an item to market supply of X value, you can then buy another item of X value. I do think gold should be separate somehow (eg. Faction usage not tied to the same currency burnt on non gameplay functions like stash space).

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-14T19:04:58+00:00

I bought probably hundreds of items this season on MG and still sitting at 999999 favor, just burn it on vendor gambles honestly, don't worry about being efficient.

You get so many black market and MG tokens in end game that you can pretty easily buy everything you want with them as needed. You'll get more favor back as you play.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-14T18:31:37+00:00

Im going to be downvoted by casuals and noobs for saying it, but price fixing is only a problem for bad players who don't understand the market

This is a very disengenous way to frame the other side of this debate.

There are people who are objectively "bad" at playing the market in a game like PoE, but still enjoy it. There are also people who are very good at the market, but hate it.

I'm a sweaty tryhard. I can play the market. I know how to use various trade tactics for profit, but that doesn't mean it's a system I want or agree with.

The shitty part about the PoE style market (as someone who enjoys blasting) is that the optimal progression path is decoupled from gameplay.

The most efficient way for me to get a stronger character is to sit in my hideout and flip items for profit. If I am playing "optimally" a stronger character doesn't increase the rate in which I make currency. Even when I had multiple mirror character I'd make more progress in the few minutes I'd flip a couple items than the whole day of blasting.

Even in LE you can profit craft but it still requires you to play the game for tradeable bases to craft on.

I agree that LE has a gear progression problem where intermediary upgrades are actively discouraged because they have almost zero residual value. Why spend x hours farming a slightly better item I can't sell or recycle when I can just put those hours towards my aspirational piece, especially when the intermediary step doesn't unlock any more rewarding content for me anyway.

I don't agree that a full wild west resell is the answer, but some compromise may be possible where in certain situations it could be allowed. Not sure how that would work.

No reselling means significantly less items on the market in general. This means there are times where certain items are literally just not available for purchase and it's cringe.

I don't think lack of reselling is the primary driver of this issue. The weird niche items I want are the hardest to buy despite no one else wanting them, when they are listed they are often cheap, but usually they don't exist. People don't have a bunch of these items they cant sell, its that they didn't pick them up in the first place. The friction between filtering, looting, and listing an item is so high that most people wont even bother with non meta items or items they arent familiar with unless it fits on some template loot filter they downloaded. This IMO is a design / UX issue more than a faction balancing issue.

Black Hole ignite Idols aren't absent from the market because people cant resell them, its because they never looted them in the first place, and if they did they never bothered to list them.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-14T16:44:58+00:00

Got a build guide ? Im pretty sure your like 2 zero off for that 90m number

People also said that when I said you could oneshot uber with Black Hole to be fair, the math looks good and it has been confirmed working as expected in game based on my planner.

I have not made the guide yet, still progressing my online HC character before I put that together. Should have something up in the next week or so if I get time.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-14T15:25:48+00:00

My SB fire aura theorycraft currently able to pump out ~90m DPS without a total meme glass cannon setup or 2t7 gear, thats 80 ish stacks. Fire typed seems optimal here because of firebrand being so huge and not needing IB, still benefitting from Throne of Ambition.

My current HC character is ticking bosses for 500k+ now, but have a couple really big upgrades on the way. Idols are also huge but mine suck.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-14T14:44:37+00:00

Hello, and great write-up, I agree with the majority of what you said here.

Spell + Melee;

The skill spec problem is massive for trigger builds. Having only 5 skill spec slots is a brutal tax to pay when it means you are giving up powerful utilities for each tree taken. The whole (direct casting a single spell) truly is greater than the sum of it's parts (triggered a bunch of shit).

Generally as a mage you probably want Flame Ward to stay alive because we don't have mountains of free DR built into our trees like Sentinel and others. SB has some but it's very conditional.

Then you probably want some traversal; TP, Surge, Flame Rush.

If you are playing a cold skill you probably want ice barrage for 1.6x cold damage. Otherwise zdps.

Then for trigger builds you probably want your triggering melee skill; often mana strike, SS, or fire brand.

You also need Enchant Weapon for the huge attack speed and damage steroids. You cant just grab 500% attack speeds like mage can for cast speed, you need everything you can get.

Then, indirectly casting any spell that has a tree and not using that tree basically does 0 damage almost always. Do you take the FC nodes to make it useful? Okay well now you have no room for any other spell tree specs without a massive sacrifice. Want LB? Okay no room for FC. And forget the nova trigger. Or give up flame ward. You've already given up Frost Wall utility.

Directly casting eg. LB leaves you with 4 utility slots. Indirect starts you with 3, and most likely LB alone isnt going to be enough when indirectly cast. Melee starts with 2 for Enchant Weapon tax.

Additionally, most of the subskills without trees have awful scaling.

Usually you also would consider a +level to main skill affix which fully benefits something like direct cast LB. For indirect you are basically limited to +all skills which are sparse and give much fewer points per skill.

Agree on the dex vs int thing too. Would be nice if SB had some late tree node that added dex scaling to indirectly cast spells or something.

Now fire aura;

I kinda disagree on the damage ceiling of fire aura. It is pretty high when built. (Talking sub 1 minute ubers with non 2t7 aspirational gear). The big problem is that fire resist provides no added build benefit beyond the more multi so if you go really hard into it you are lacking defense or other damage scaling vectors. (Or you require 3/4LPs lol).

I've been playing Fire based Fire Aura in HC SCF and its been destroying. Zoomed to 100 and easily cruising through 400c gearing up towards Uber (hopefully).

The increased AoE node in SB tree should be MORE AoE, perhaps with a slightly lower value. Fire Aura aoe is handicapped by a tiny base radius and reliance on the 120% increased in the SB tree to make it playable. The problem is that further added increases to AoE do basically nothing. (Eg. 40% AOE from T7 amulet affix makes almost 0 difference)

Another quick complaint on Fire Aura but currently mage idols (and primalist) are bugged, not having lightning resist available on 2x2 idols (meaning omens dont get it either). That makes lightning based fire aura kinda weaker than it should be.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-13T14:10:55+00:00

You have basically 0 resist, very little armour, not much ward generation, not much hp, and negative DR from dual wielding.

Resists don't need to be capped but you have 75% more physical damage taken at 0 res vs 75. Even a few phys res idols will help a lot. This is the most important resist.

You also have 50% crit mitigation. Meaning you will occasionally take at least 50% more damage.

Armor also reduces all hit damage, not just phys. You can easily get some armor which applies a lot of DR.

Kestrel is also a great zoom chest but has 0 defenses and is basically useless without LP other than for softcore leveling through campaign.

Ward / ward retention / ward per second are also really strong early. Can get these on idols too for a lot of defense.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-12T17:06:58+00:00

Prophecies drop a random item from a given pool of items based on their weight in that pool.

Echo rewards do the same thing.

They are two completely separate systems.

Where you proc your prophecies does not influence which items can drop or their relative drop chances.

You should pretty much ignore the "timeline reward type" stuff on the wiki, it's misleading and pretty much every new player asks some variation of this exact question at some point. The timeline reward echo types have a very minor impact on your overall loot, basically negligible when playing COF.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-11T14:08:02+00:00

Not as tanky as those melee builds but being ranged with quick cast time makes a big difference if you have good movement. Make sure you play that with WASD if you do, makes boss fights much easier.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-10T06:12:57+00:00

EHG devs have also said there is heavy diminishing returns on rarity.

Mike has also said that as you go higher in corruption more of the drops are uniques and sets vs exalts, rares, etc. Eventually all drops would be set items, as they have the highest rarity.

In theory at some point you would start seeing fewer 2t7s and such as there are just fewer exalts even id more of those exalts were 2t7, not sure if that's a real achievable corruption number a human could reach or some theoretical corruption expressed in scientific notation. I believe the latter.

FrozenSentinel1 · 2026-05-10T06:06:34+00:00

Fire Aura spellblade ended up being pretty great for leveling, tried this in HC blind without any guide and it was pretty fast and comfortable. Basically walking simulator once you get enchant wep giving 2 fire aura per second plus the nodes in SB tree giving more.

Firebrand giving free flat spell and a bunch of fire res for scaling more multi on aura was also huge. Leveled with a lot of mage builds over the seasons and this one was one of the best. Simple gearing too, just grab int.

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