Last Epoch Class Balance Changes: Skills & Passives

Assemble Abomination

• Engorgement now grants 2% more damage per minion consumed (from 3%).

Bone Golem

• Bone Hail grants 12% more Bone Shatter damage (from 15%).
• Amalgam of Mages grants 12% more spell damage (from 15%) and 18% increased stun chance (from 15%).
• Cold Vengeance now also grants +10% cold resistance.

Drain Life

• Improved the positioning of the start of the beam to better match the Acolyte’s current size
• Fixed Lay Waste saying that it disabled all leech, when it only disables base leech and leech from the Drain Life tree.
• Necrotic Feast adds 15% base leech (from increasing base leech by 50%). This is equal in power.
• Ravenous adds 2% health leech (from increased base leech by 7% - equivalent to adding 2.1% health leech)
• Insatiable adds 4% health leech (from increased base leech by 12% - equivalent to adding 3.6% health leech)
• Death’s Barrier grants 18 ward on kill (from 15)

Dread Shade

• All For One grants 40% more damage to the one minion (from 60%).

Infernal Shade

• Subjugation now scales up to a maximum damage bonus of 180%.
• Updated Subjugation’s description to accurately state that it causes the skill to deal more direct damage

Soul Feast

• Wrest grants 85% more ward against bosses and rares (from 50%)
• Deals 25% more damage
• Each Soul fragment grants 3 ward (from 5)
• Added a new node, Bones of the Accursed, which grants 3% more hit damage and 5% more ward gained per curse on the target. It requires 1 point in Soul Seeker or 1 point in Grim Affliction, and can have up to 5 points allocated.
• Added a new node, Original Sin, which, if the number of cursed enemies within 20 metres is below a threshold shortly after you cast Soul Feast, causes a number of enemies within that range to be Marked for Death to reach that threshold of cursed enemies. It is attached to the root node.
• Added a new node, Queen of Flies, which spreads all your stacks of poison from the target hit to other nearby enemies. It requires one point in Diseased Soul.
• Added a new node, Another Strife, which spreads the curses, Spirit Plague, Decrepify, Marked for Death, and Penance from the target hit to other nearby enemies. It only spreads curses that the target is actually afflicted by. It requires 2 points in Soul Seeker.
• Replaced Gravetouch (Chill on Hit) with a new node, Withering Maw, which applies 1 stack of Withering per point, and can have up to 3 points allocated. Withering is a stacking ailment which increases curse damage taken by 5% (2% against players and bosses).
• Removed the Soul Bastion node (increased ward gained, less damage) - this is unrelated to the Soul Bastion unique shield and the Soulfire Bastion dungeon.
• Engorged now occupies Soul Bastion’s old position, can have 3 points allocated (from 1), and grants -3 mana cost per point, 30% increased ward gained from Greater Soul Fragments per point, and a non-scaling 1% chance for Greater Soul Fragments per 10 current mana (from giving a 10% chance per point for Greater Soul Fragments that always gave 100% more ward).
• Removed the A New Master node (chance to summon a Soul Wisp on kill) - This will be turned into a unique instead with a more generic trigger
• Wrest now requires one point in Engorged (from two points in Soul Seeker)
• The ward granted by Usurp is now affected by modifiers to ward gained from this tree.
• Soul Seeker now also grants 1 additional ward per 25 intelligence
• Diseased Soul now grants 15% global poison chance per point (from 10%), but no longer stacks
• Poisoned Husks now requires 1 point in Hunger (from being attached to the root node)
• Thought Corrosion now requires 2 points in Diseased Soul (from 3 points in Poisoned Husks). It now grants 40% increased armor shred effect (from 30%) causes Diseased Soul to apply a stack of Armor Shred to you on cast instead of a stack of Poison.
• Toxic Craving grants 1% more armor per stack (from 6% increased armor) and 6% poison resistance (from 15%) you can now only have up to 60 stacks at a time.
• Hell Mind requires 1 point in Poisoned Husks (from 3 points in Hunger)
• Sharpened Influence can now also be accessed by putting 3 points in Bones of the Accursed
• Renewed Feast requires 1 point in Grim Affliction (from 3)
• No Rest for the Wicked requires 1 point in Waning Life (from 1 point in Hellmind)
• Waning Life requires 1 point in Hellmind (from 2)
• Grim Affliction grants 35% more damage (from 30%), but reduces ward gained by 35% (from 20%) it can now have 1 point allocated (from 4) and requires 2 points in Original Sin or 1 point in Bones of the Accursed
• Blood Feast requires 1 point in Soul Seeker (from 2)
• Incision now also grants 1% more physical ailment damage per 100 missing health
• Replaced Renewed Feast (random recasts and higher mana cost) with Infernal Hunger, which if you go one second without directly casting Soul Feast, grants you a stack of Infernal Hunger, up to a maximum of 1 per point. When you next cast Soul Feast directly, all stacks of Infernal Hunger are consumed to cast Soul Feast an additional time per stack. It can have 3 points allocated.
• No Rest for the Wicked grants 13% Frenzy Chance (from 8%), but can have 2 points allocated (from 3).
• Fixed a bug where Rest for the Wicked did not require the enemy to be Damned.
• Blood Tethers, buffed chance to create a Blood Tether to 7% (from 5%) but reduced max points to 3 (from 4)
• Blood from Souls, buffed Blood Splatter chance to 12% (from 5%), but reduced max points to 2 (from 4)
• Poisoned Husks, buffed poison chance to 25% (from 15%)
• Diseased Soul, buffed global poison chance to 15% (from 10%)
• Acolytes with Soul Feast specialised will receive a free automatic respec for its tree

Summon Skeletal Mage

• The nodes that previously allowed Skeletal Mages to cast Sacrifice, now allow them to cast Profane Oblation, a similar skill that deals 75% more damage and deals necrotic damage rather than physical.

Summon Skeleton

• Marrow Tap now also grants +10% physical resistance.
• Dread Phalanx now also grants +40% more health.
• Unbound Necromancy now grants +1% added crit chance (from 20% increased).
• Multishot now also grants 8% more bow damage per point to Skeletons.
• Skeleton Rogue’s Shift can be used from 25% further away
• Skeleton Rogue’s Shift now puts them closer to their target, so they do not need to walk into melee range after using it
• Skeleton Rogue’s Acid Flask now deals 30 base damage (from 20) and has 150% added damage effectiveness (from 100%)
• Skeleton Rogue’s Acid Flask cast time reduced by 33%
• Skeleton Rogue’s Shurikens now deal 30 base damage (from 16) and have 150% added damage effectiveness (from 100%)
• Skeleton Rogue’s Shurikens now have a 20 degree angle between projectiles (from 15), and pierce all targets
• Summon Skeleton Rogues melee attack changed to be a double hit, matching their animation. This means they get 2 hits off in the same time they got 1 hit off previously.
• Summon Skeleton Rogue’s melee hits now have 15 base damage (from 18) and 75% added damage effectiveness (from 100%)
• Sequel of Avarice grants 30% melee area (from 25%), 60% more damage (from 40%) and now also grants 30% more health.

Summon Volatile Zombie

• Dreadful Horde and Giant Zombie now only have a 10% chance to trigger their effects on indirect casts (from always triggering), such as via Awakening Presence
• Giant Zombie gives 120% increased mana cost (from 300%)

Summon Wraith

• Flame Wraith - The projectile they cast last 1.05 seconds (from 1.25) resulting in it traveling a shorter distance (can no longer off-screen as much).
• Flame Wraiths now have 20% less cast speed

Other Changes

• Adjusted mechanics for Curses and new curses
  • Decrepify is a curse that causes enemies to take more damage over time (multiplicative with other modifiers) and deals physical damage over time based on your flat missing health
  • Torment is a curse that deals necrotic damage over time, and reduces movement speed by 12%
  • Acid Skin is a curse that deals poison damage over time and adds a +25% chance to be critically hit
  • Penance is a curse which causes enemies to take fire damage when they hit a target. Additionally, Penance deals more damage per 1% of Damage Reflected (multiplicative with other modifiers)
  • Anguish is a curse that reduces damage over time dealt by enemies. When you kill any enemy, enemies cursed by Anguish take necrotic damage
• Curses have a new visual indicator on top of enemies to help improve moment to moment gameplay

Arcane Ascendance

• Shocking Expanse grants 40% shock chance (from 30%)
• Slow Breathing grants 12% reduced mana drain (from 10%)
• Cosmic Insight grants 15% increased cooldown recovery speed (from 10%), but is no longer multiplicative with other sources of increased cooldown recovery speed (this is a buff unless you had more than 50% increased cooldown recovery speed from other sources)
• Mana Surge grants 6 mana on kill (from 5)

Black Hole

• Infusion grants 18 ward per second (from 10) and can have 5 points allocated (from 3)
• Massive grants 15% increased area (from 10%) and can have 4 points allocated (from 5)
• Deep Space grants 90% freeze rate multiplier (from 75%) but can have 5 points allocated (from 6)
• Gravity’s Guile grants 35 physical damage per point (from 5)
• Scorching can have 5 points allocated (from 6)
• Flaming can have 5 points allocated (from 6)
• Supermassive can have 4 points allocated (from 3)
• Heat Wave requires 3 points in Flaming (from 5)
• Drifting Singularity requires 1 point in Absolute Zero (from 2)

Disintegrate

• Disintegrate has a 15% longer beam

Elemental Nova

• Previously, the hitbox for all Elemental Nova versions were slightly plus shaped. This has been fixed so they are spherical. This results in a slight buff as the novas will more reliably hit.
• Adjusted the vfx of the default and lightning novas to more closely match their hitboxes.

Fireball

• Fireball is 30% faster and its duration is shorter, resulting in the same distance covered.
• Fireball’s ignite chance increased to 40% from 25%

Frost Claw

• Shiver Shell grants 4 ward on cast (from 6)
• Fen of the Frozen now grants 20% chance to slow and chill (from 15%)
• Gift of Winter now grants 12% chance to regain 12 mana (from 4% chance)
• Reowyn’s Veil now grants 1 ward on cast per 40% freeze rate multi (from per 20%)
• On Through The Snow now adds 6 mana cost (from 8)
• Ever Onward now adds 6 mana cost (from 8 )

Frost Wall

• Crystals of Protection now grants 20 ward on passthrough (from 30)
• Protection of the Apostate now grants 5 ward on enemy passthrough (from 10)
• Chilled Touch now has up to 2 points (from 1) and it grants 7% more damage to chilled enemies while you have a Frost Wall per point (from 5%)
• The Prepared Wards node on the Frost Wall tree no longer causes 250% of Flame Ward’s mana to be consumed, but now gives Frost Wall a 12 second cooldown which is shared with Flame Ward.

Glyph of Dominion

• Charged Reflection now grants 1 ward per second per 5% total uncapped resistances (from per 4%)
• Arcane Mirror now grants +15% to all resistances (from +25%)

Meteor

• Cycle of Fire causes you to gain 10 ward from casting Fireball with Craterborn (from 8)
• Infernal Column increases mana cost by 15% (from 25%)
• Aftermath restores 16% of mana (from 15%)
• Force of Impact grants 50% increased stun chance (from 40%) and 25% increased stun duration (from 20%)
• Shattering Star grants 50% chance for Shrapnel (from 34%) and can have 2 points allocated (from 3)
• Rapid Break Up grants 40% increased shrapnel speed and range (from 30%) but can have 3 points allocated (from 4)

Rune Bolt

• Pyromantic now grants 10% more fire damage (from 6%)
• Fulminating now grants 10% more lightning damage (from 6%)
• Cryomantic Bolt now grants 10% more cold damage (from 6%)
• Runebolt’s Efficient Experiment node now correctly states that it requires Glyph of Chaos and not Rune of Chaos
• Increased responsiveness of casting Runebolt
• Runebolt now has 20% more cast speed

Runic Invocations

• Plasma Orb - The Orb part deals 40% more damage when it hits an enemy
• Igneous Rain now has +50% ignite chance and ignites it inflicts have 20% increased duration
• Realms of Mayhem now costs 38 mana (from 44)
• Rune Gale deals 20% more damage for both parts of the ability
• Aergon’s Greater Fireball’s explosion deals 40% more damage and Spreading Flames it inflicts deals 100% more damage
• Aergon’s Mirror Bolt’s deals 25% less damage
• Ball Lightning deals 25% more damage
• Reowyn’s Frostguard Invocation Grants 14 ward + 1 ward per 2 intelligence every 0.4 seconds
• Hydrahedron
  • Deals 25% less damage
  • Increase mana cost to 60 (from 55)
  • Change max targeting range to 13 (from 15)

Snap Freeze

• Its cooldown is now 18 seconds.
• Now 20% of its remaining cooldown is recovered whenever you freeze an enemy, including with Snap Freeze itself. This effect can occur a maximum of two times each second.
• Changed the Flash Freeze node to now have 1 point allocable (from 3 points)

Earthquake

• Fury of the Elements has new functionality: no longer creates a lightning storm. Now expends 5 Storm Stacks per point over 0.5 seconds. Storm Bolts triggered this way deal 15% more damage per point.

Eterra’s Blessing

• Ancestral Renewal now shows the Summon Healing Totems tooltip.
• Caustic Renewal now shows the Summon Scorpion tooltip.
• Soul Bond now shows the Summon Spriggan tooltip.

Fury Leap

• The Summon Vines from Rise now show more info such as duration and base health of Vines.
• Violent Upheaval now properly shows ability tooltip for Upheaval when holding alt.
• Lagon’s Wrath, Storm Bringer, and Rejuvenating Storms now mention and use Storm Bolt instead of a lightning subskill exclusive to Fury Leap
• Storm Bringer has been clarified to state it modifies the frequency of Storm Bolt, not the projectile speed
• Rejuvenating Storms no longer gives lightning penetration. Instead, it gives added spell damage per 2 Attunement while leaping.
• Fury Leap has a slightly lower delay before jumping. Reduced from 0.2 seconds to 0.1 seconds. This should help it feel more responsive in combination with the new animations

Maelstorm

• Grip of Chaos now correctly say that Twisters deal physical damage and not cold damage
• Grip of Chaos now shows the Twister ability tooltip when holding alt
• Twisters deal 50% more damage per second
• Tsunami now shows the Tsunami ability tooltip when holding alt
• The Power of the Storm, Strong Tides, and Energized nodes now use Storm Bolt

Summon Bear

• Retaliatory Thorns now has a 1 second cooldown
• Tearing Thorns now also grants the Thorn Burst 10% more damage
• Thick Hide grants 40% more health (from 30%)

Summon Raptor

• Razor Wings grants 5 melee physical damage (from 3)
• Sharp Claws now grants 20% more damage over time (from 20% increased)

Summon Wolf

• Howl grants 25% more melee damage (from 50% increased damage)
• Legendary Bite now has 1 points (from 5) but grants +40% more melee damage, 40% more stun chance, +5% added crit chance but also 10% less attack speed (from +15% more melee damage, +15% more stun chance and 15% more crit chance).
• On the Hunt grants 8% increased attack speed per point (from 10%) and 12% increased movement speed per point (from 10%)
• Wolfen Recovery now grants 80% increased health regen and +4 flat health regen
• Storm Caller’s Reprisal now mentions it triggers your Storm Bolt instead of its own lightning ability
• Stormborn now mentions it triggers your Storm Bolt instead of its own lightning ability
• Stormborn also has a chance to trigger when the wolf hits an enemy
• Wolves and Squirrels deal 10% more damage
• Removed an unintentional 15% more melee damage modifier on Squirrels
• Squirrels from Herald of the Scurry now have a 35% less damage dealt modifier (from 45% stated on Herald of the Scurry’s tooltip, 0% in reality)
• As a result of these three changes, Wolves deal 10% more melee damage than they did in 0.9.2, while Squirrels deal 38% less melee damage than they did in 0.9.2.

Summon Scorpion

• Its tail attack has 200% chance to poison on hit (from 100%) with 200% increased duration (from 100%)
• The tail attack now has 40 base damage and 200% added damage effectiveness (from 28 and 100%)

Thorn Totem

• Oaken Protection also grants +10% physical resistance
• Pillars of Heorot also grants +25% cold resistance
• Titan’s Bane now grants 100% increased cast speed (from 150%)
• Nightshade Briar now has a maximum damage bonus of 80% (from 120%)

Tornado

• The Charged Storm, Frequent Lightning, and Overcast Skies nodes now use Storm Bolt

Upheaval

• Adjusted the ability timing to better match the animation
• Use duration changed to 0.8 (from 0.75) - this corresponds to around 6% less attack speed
• Added damage effectiveness changed to 135% (from 120%) - this corresponds to around 12% more hit damage
• This change is expected to be a slight buff to most upheaval builds.
• The attack speed change does not apply to Upheaval Totems, so they benefit more from this change.
• Shockwaves from the Sundering Strike node on the Upheaval tree are also affected by the added damage effectiveness change in order to maintain damage parity with Upheaval

Warcry

• Toxic Companions now shows the Summon Wolf tooltip.
• Whirlpool now shows the Maelstrom tooltip.

Acid Flask

• The hit portion of the skill now has 100% added damage effectiveness (from 60%)
• Poison Pools from the Poison Pools node are now limited to a maximum of 4 active at once.
• Acid Flask’s Caustic Concoction grants +25% poison chance (from +15%) and has 4 points (from 3)
• Acid Flask has a new a node called Alchemist’s Gift that turns it into a trap

Ballista

• Deals 50% more damage
• Has 20% increased attack speed
• Shared Enhancement, buffed to 25% damage sharing (from 15%)
• Contaminating Shots, buffed to 25% ailment sharing (from 15%)
• Its turn speed now scales with increases to minion attack speed, making it feel better in combat
• Added a new node, Agile Engineering, which grants 1% increased placement speed per Dexterity and 1% increased attack speed per 5 Dexterity. It is attached to the root node, and the Efficient Construction and Rapid Fire nodes now require 1 point in it instead of being attached to the root node themselves.
• Flaming Shots now requires 1 point in Agile Engineering (from 1 point in Rapid Fire).
• Rapid Fire can have 4 points allocated (from 5)
• Shields Up requires 1 point in Shared Enhancements (from 1 point in Heavy Bolts)
• Sturdy Foundation grants 15% increased duration (from 10%)
• Quickload requires 2 points in Sturdy Foundation (from 3)
• Rogues with Ballista specialized will receive an automatic free respec for its skill tree

Cinder Strike

• The first bow attack is 20% slower.
• Cinder Strike’s first attack now has 200% added damage effectiveness (from 150%)

Dancing Strikes

• Windmill Ballet now has 2 points and grants 50% chance to use Shurikens (from 30%).

Shadow Daggers

• Now has 68 base damage (from 90) and 340% added damage effectiveness (from 450%)

Shift

• Gave Shift a fixed 0.1 second Use Delay. Also edited the animation to make it smoother.

Smoke Bomb

• Smoke Blades grants +4 Melee and Throwing Damage (from 10% inc Melee and Throwing Damage listed, 20% actual)

Erasing Strike

• Now has 550% added damage effectiveness (from 450%)
• Mark of the End has a 100% chance to shred enemy Void Resistance (from 25%)
• Void Beams cast by Erasing Strike deal 20% more damage per second
• The Void Beams in the tree now have clearer descriptions

Forge Strike

• Now has 500% added damage effectiveness (from 400%)
• Now provides a subskill tooltip for Summon Weapon
• Clarified Spear Forge to say it deals damage in a smaller area

Hammer Throw

• Fixed Iron Spiral not showing the added mana cost as a downside

Judgement

• Pious Offering grants 3% more damage per 2 mana consumed (from 2% more damage per 1 mana consumed)
• Sacred Sword grants 50% ignite chance on hit (from 25%)

Lunge

• Fixed spelling mistake in Ambuscade.
• Lead the Charge explains the effect happens at the end
• Voidbringer shows the correct Time Rot info
• Rough Cuts clarifies that it only affects the hits along the path, not the final hit

Multistrike

• Armaments is highlighted in the main description
• Armament stacks now show more info such as max default stacks and duration
• Echoed Warfare now clarifies what Echoes are

Rebuke

• Now has an 8 second cooldown (from 5)
• Protective Legacy (buffs persist after channeling) is changed to be half the channel duration (from the full channel duration)
• Burst of Speed grants Haste for half the channel duration (from increased movement speed for the full channel duration)
• Solemn Vow grants 15% increased duration (from 20%) and have a maximum of 2 points allocable (from 5)
• Added a new node behind Retaliation called Reclaimed Refuge that recovers some of Rebuke’s remaining cooldown on melee hits with other attacks
• Added a new node behind Mystic Aegis called Stoic Challenge that adds an additional charge to Rebuke
• Inner Focus now has 3 points allocable
• Battle Meditation grants 30% increased mana regen (from 25%)
• Augmented Plating grants 15% more armor (from 25% increased)
• Redemption grants 25 healing per second (from 15)
• Accelerated Healing grants 20% increased healing from Redemption (from 15%)
• Wildfire Shell has more info about Spreading Flames
• Spreading Flames Deals 43% more damage over its duration and its tooltip has more clear info about its effect

Ring of Shields

• Collateral Damage now provides a subskill tooltip for Shrapnel
• Clarified Displacement wording to say “target location”

Rive

• Removed the Opportunist node (more crit chance against ignited enemies)
• Added a new node, Scrap Metal: whenever you would summon a Forged Weapon, causes you to gain a stack of a Scrap Metal buff instead. Each stack grants 3% more armor and 3% more Rive Damage, and lasts 10 seconds. The duration can be modified by modifiers to Forged Weapon duration. It requires 1 point Foe Cleaver.
• Rive hitbox shape optimized. (this is a very slight buff)

Shield Rush

• Void Beams cast by Shield Rush deal 25% more damage per second
• The Void Beams in the tree now have clearer descriptions

Shield Throw

• Forgeborn adds 4 fire damage (from 2)
• Heavy Shield now adds 5 throwing damage (from 3 throwing physical damage)
• Armoring Aegis grants 20 armor on ricochet (from 25)

Smelter’s Wrath

• Your armor is doubled while channeling Smelter’s Wrath

Smite

• Nodes related to Fissure now provide the correct subskill tooltip, and Fissure itself is better explained

Vengeance

• Iron Blades are now affected by nodes on the tree.
• Double Riposte mitigates 18% less damage (from 16%)
• Dark Duellist is now 4% more global damage while preparing (from 20% increased)

Warpath

• Juggernaut Stance explains in the alt text that you can block without needing a shield
• Reckless Spin explains that you can mitigate the elemental resistance reduction with gear and passives
• Forgemaster’s Stance now provides a subskill tooltip for Forged Weapons

• Berserker grants 15% more melee damage (from 20%) and 4% less damage taken (from 5%) at low health.
• Lagonian Wrath now grants +1 Melee Damage and Spell Damage per point. With 4 points allocated, you have a 25% chance to cast Storm Bolt when hit
• Lagon’s Answer now grants 8% chance to cast Storm Bolt on Spell Cast and a 20% chance to cast Storm Bolt while channeling per point
• Thunder Strike now grants 10% chance to cast Storm Bolt on hit. With 4 points allocated, you gain an additional 10% Attack Speed
• Conflux now grants 3% increased area for area skills and 1% less damage taken from shocked enemies per point. With 5 points allocated, your indirect Storm Bolt casts have a 20% cast again after 0.25 seconds

• Runemaster
  • Arcane Focus, reduced ward gained on cast to 4 (from 5)
  • Edict of the Scion, reduced ward gained on area skill use to 4 (from 6)
  • Jagged Veil, reduced ward gained on critical strikes to 1 (from 2)
  • Buffed the 3 Runeword buffs (Avalanche, Hurricane and Inferno) to grant +10 spell damage of their respective element (from +6)
  • Runic Fortress, reduced the burst of ward from a portion of your armor to 20% of armor (from 25%)
• Sorcerer
  • Chronomancy grants 5% ignite, chill, and shock duration (from 4%)
  • Distant Spark grants 8% chance to proc Spark Nova (from 6%)
  • Warder requires grants 15 ward on fire, cold, and lightning hits (from 10)

• Evasion grants 4% less damage taken while moving (from 5%).

• Juggernaut grants 4% fire and void resistance per point (from 3%)