Last Epoch is finally coming out of early access with the 1.0 patch, and there are a lot of changes to be excited about.
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The patch will drop on Feb. 21, so let’s take a look at the major changes and bug fixes coming to Last Epoch with Patch 1.0. Make sure to head over to the official Last Epoch forum to read the patch notes in full for a more detailed overview of the patch.
Two new masteries
There will be two additional masteries added to Last Epoch in the 1.0 patch: the Falconer mastery for the Rogue class and the Acolyte mastery for the Warlock class.
The Falconer is described as a tactician who can set up intricate traps, while also using their falcon ally as a fearsome attacker. There are several new skills available with this mastery class, including a passive skill (Summon) and an active skill (Falcon Strikes) related to your falcon companion, along with an Explosive Trap skill, a net skill that ensnares enemies, and two other falcon abilities (Aerial Assault and Dive Bomb).
The Warlock is a class that uses forbidden magic and curses to inflict fire and necrotic damage on their enemies. Their main mastery skill is Chthonic Fissure, which deals fire damage while also releasing deadly spirits from the ground. The other skills of the Warlock include Soul Feast, Profane Veil, Ghostflame, and Chaos Bolts.
New skills
Three new skills are coming with the 1.0 patch: Healing Hands, Gathering Storm, and Tempest Strike.
Healing Hands is a Sentinel skill that will be added to the Paladin mastery tree, and it offers the ability to heal 100 health to your allies within a certain area. The skill also offers a lingering warmth that can heal 80 health over the next three seconds.
Gathering Storm is a Primalist skill that is replacing the Ice Thorns skills. This will be unlocked when you reach level two of the Primalist class and allows you to summon a lightning storm to attack your enemies.
Tempest Strike is a revised skill for the Primalist class that will be unlocked at level 10. The attack is a melee combo that will cycle between a lightning strike, a cold strike, and a physical melee attack. These attacks can trigger elemental Tempest spells that have the same damage type, as long as the ability strikes at least one enemy.
Active and passive skill changes
The following classes will be getting changes to their active skills with the new patch:
- Acolyte: Changes to Assemble Abomination, Bone Golem, Drain Life, Dread Shade, Infernal Shade, Soul Feast, Summon Skeletal Mage, Summon Skeleton, Summon Volatile Zombie, and Summon Wraith.
- Mage: Changes to Arcane Ascendance, Black Hole, Disintegrate, Elemental Nova, Fireball, Frost Claw, Frost Wall, Glyph of Dominion, Meteor, Rune Bolt, Runic Invocations, and Snap Freeze.
- Primalist: Changes to Earthquake, Eterra’s Blessing, Fury Leap, Maelstrom, Summon Bear, Summon Raptor, Summon Wolf, Summon Scorpion, Thorn Totem, Tornado, Upheaval, and Warcry.
- Rogue: Changes to Acid Flask, Ballista, Cinder Strike, Dancing Strikes, Shadow Daggers, Shift, and Smoke Bomb.
- Sentinel: Changes to Erasing Strike, Forge Strike, Hammer Throw, Judgement, Lunge, Multistrike, Rebuke, Ring of Shields, Rive, Shield Rush, Shield Throw, Smelter’s Wrath, Smite, Vengeance, and Warpath.
The following classes are also getting changes to their passive skills:
- Primalist
- Mage (Runemaster and Sorcerer)
- Rogue
- Sentinel
Item factions
The Merchant’s Guild and Circle of Fortune are factions you can join, though you can leave or join any of them at any time without sacrificing your reputation with either one.
Any items you get as a bonus from your chosen faction can’t be traded with other players, but they can be gifted. You also won’t have any restrictions on who you play with, no matter what faction they are a part of.
The base item drop rate will be reduced in the new patch as item factions will be able to boost your abilities significantly.
Merchant’s Guild
You’ll be able to buy and sell items in the Merchant’s Guild with the new patch. You’ll also be able to join the guild directly, which will then allow you to trade with fellow players. You can do this from player to player or via the Bazaar.
If you want to trade with the Bazaar, you’ll find it as a standalone town in the Divine Era area.As you rank up and build a reputation with the Merchant’s Guild, you’ll gain access to better items through trades.
Make sure to check out the patch notes for a breakdown of exactly how to go about buying and selling in the Merchant’s Guild in Last Epoch. You can also look at the Merchant’s Guild guide for more information.
Circle of Fortune
The Circle of Fortune is another trading opportunity in Last Epoch, though they are not as focused on commerce as a means to gaining the best items. Instead, the Circle of Fortune relies on Prophecies that allow them to see into the future and catch a glimpse of treasures coming their way.
You can purchase Prophecies in the Observatory—the base of operations for the Circle of Fortune— as they are pseudo-items. Prophecies can be acquired by spending Favor via one of four Telescopes, with each Telescope offering Prophecies for certain item types.
Lenses are also an item you can use with the Circle of Fortune as they can be used to modify your Telescopes and change the value or type of reward you get from Prophecies. Lenses can also change the requirements needed to complete a Prophecy Event. Check out the full Circle of Fortune guide on the Last Epoch blog for more.
Resonances
Resonances are special items in Last Epoch that can expand the Item Gifting mechanic and allow players to gift certain items to players they have joined in the game for long periods.
You can make progress toward Resonance drops via experience that can be gained by defeating enemies.
Cycles
Cycles are the same as the standard seasons in video games, and they will start with each significant update the game gets. Players can make new characters at the beginning of a Cycle. It’s recommended that you create a character per Cycle as only characters made for that particular Cycle will be able to compete on the leaderboards for the current Cycle.
Fully offline mode
The latest patch will also include a completely offline mode, which can be accessed via the Steam UI. The main differences between the offline and online modes include chat item linking being disabled, the online character tab being hidden, and support tickets and bug report buttons being removed, to name a few.
Visual upgrades
There are various new upgrades to the visuals of Last Epoch with the 1.0 patch, including new lighting, 2.5D cinematics, a scene variant system, updated character class models, and terrain shader improvements.
System changes
A range of system changes will be implemented in Last Epoch’s 1.0 patch too, including endgame rebalance, campaign, dungeon, and arena changes. Make sure to read over the patch notes in full for all the specifics.
The endgame feature—The Monolith of Fate—is going to have a wide range of changes, including tweaks to scaling, rewards, and mob density as well as corruption scaling and blessings. There will also be new echo modifier values applied to the Monolith of Fate.
Game mechanics
The Parry ability will be added as a new Affix and defense type, with the mechanic offering the chance to negate any damage that is taken from hits. But Parrying does still count as the player being hit, so ailments can still be applied.
The way that stun avoidance works is also being changed, with features within the mechanic being reworked, such as 100 stun avoidance adding one percent to the player’s stun threshold.
There are also several other mechanics being altered with the patch, such as additional cooldowns to stop the player from opening portals too quickly, improved experience for special requirement skills, and optimized skill tree VFX, to name a few of the upcoming changes.
Item changes
Changes will be coming for a range of items in Last Epoch with Patch 1.0, including unique and set items, affixes, class items, and base items.
Enemy changes
There will also be changes to enemies, including new enemies, replaced enemies, and alterations to the behavior of ranged enemies. Enemies will even be getting some visual updates.
Cosmetic changes
There are a wealth of changes to the cosmetic aspects of Last Epoch as well, including various UI updates—such as the HUD, the map, panels, sprite updates, and menus—and sound changes, including music and voice acting alterations.
Bug fixes
Last but not least are the bug fixes, and there are plenty to be found in the update. As well as various general bug fixes—such as a fix to an overarching issue with the use of skills in online play and visual bugs—there are also fixes related to sound, UI, localization, systems, and specific classes and skills.
Let’s take a quick look at the classes and skills that have had bug fixes:
- Acolyte: Bug fixes for Bone Curse, Dread Shade, Harvest, Infernal Shade, Hungering Souls, Rip Blood, Summon Skeleton, and Summon Volatile Zombie.
- Mage: Bug fixes for Black Hole, Elemental Nova, Frost Claw, Meteor, Rune Bolt, Runic Invocation, and Runic Invocations.
- Primalist: Bug fixes for Avalanche, Eterra’s Blessing, Fury Leap, Maelstrom, Spriggan Form, Thorn Totem, Swipe, Upheaval, and Warcry.
- Rogue: Bug fixes for Detonating Arrow & Flurry, Acid Flask, Dancing Strikes, Puncture, and Shurikens.
- Sentinel: Bug fixes for Devouring Orb, Erasing Strike, Forge Strike, Holy Aura, Hammer Throw, Javelin, Judgment, Lunge, Manifest Armor, Multistrike, Rebuke, Ring of Shields, Rive, Sigils of Hope, Shield Bash, Shield Rush, Shield Throw, Smelter’s Wrath, Smite, and Warpath.
So there is everything you need to know about the 1.0 patch notes for Last Epoch. Remember to head over to the blog to check out the patch notes in more detail.
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