While familiar in many respects, the Rogue class in Last Epoch plays a bit differently than you’d expect a sneaky assassin-like character to because when you select one of its three masteries – Bladedancer, Falconer, and Marksman – the class dramatically changes.
Rogue Masteries in Last Epoch
The Rogue, like the other classes in Last Epoch, features three masteries: Bladedancer, Falconer, and Marksman. Once you choose one at around level 20, you will not be able to switch to a different mastery, though you can respect the skills and passives within your base class and mastery. Therefore, the most important choice you make with your character build is choosing the master that suits you.
The first half of each passive tree is also available to any mastery, including all skills found within that threshold, meaning you can mix and match to create powerful builds. For example, the Falconer mastery can nab the Rapid Shot skill from the Marksmen passive tree with a little investment into it. However, each mastery has powerful passive bonuses and skills unique only to them.
All classes and masteries are viable for reaching the end game. That said, prior to the 1.0 patch of Last Epoch, the Bladedancer is the most potent mastery for the Sentinel. Let’s take a look at each:
Bladedancer Bonuses, Best Skills in Last Epoch
If you prefer your Rogues stealthy, dealing melee damage, and summoning shadow clones, the Bladedancer is for you. They gain +1 max shadow clones summoned – available investing specializing into certain Rogue skills to summon them – +15 melee physical damage and a 15% higher dodge rating. As a result, they’re a class that benefits from base Rogue skills like Shift to keep them maneuverable as they dash in and out, dealing massive damage. Weapons that raise a Bladedancer’s attack speed will have an even bigger effect with their mastery skill, Dancing Strikes, which reads attack speed as damage increase instead.
Investing heavily into Dancing Strikes is the way to go with a Bladedancer build. The Rhythm node and the nodes that buff it up within the Dancing Strikes specialization make Dancing Strikes one of the highest damage-dealing attacks in the game. Just make sure not to neglect Shift for a free get-out-of-jail card, as the Bladedancer doesn’t have a lot of defensive tools.
Related: How to Fix Online Play Unavailable in Last Epoch
Falconer Bonuses, Best Skills in Last Epoch
The Falconer is the latest and most unique mastery for the Rogue in Last Epoch, releasing alongside the 1.0 launch. Her skills are, as you’d expect, based entirely around summoning a falcon minion to help deal even more damage; this is seen in the mastery bonus of +12 base dexterity and +1 melee damage from your falcon per 4 points of total dexterity. Thus, stacking dexterity on armor becomes a must for the Falconer, and so too does investing in passive nodes that raise dexterity further, such as Steady Hand from the base Rogue passive tree.
As the Falconer is one of two fresh masteries added with the 1.0 launch, the best skills currently aren’t worked out yet. However, you can either invest a little bit into the Bladedancer or Marksman tree to make your Falconer melee-focused or ranged. Nabbing Piercing Shot from the Marksman tree and combining it with the Falconer’s Explosive Trap creates a potent one-two punch that compliments the Falconry skill. It’s important to invest in the Ranger’s Mark passive to increase ranged damage further.
Marksman Bonuses, Best Skills in Last Epoch
Unlike the Bladedancer, the Marksman goes all-in, wielding a bow. This is the safest of the three Rogue classes as, with the Shift skill, she can keep out reach and kite enemies rather than getting in range of melee attacks. The Marksman’s passive bonuses give 5% increased attack speed stacks every time a bow is used, along with a staggering 50% damage increase with a bow. As you can imagine, skills such as Multishot and Hail of Arrows can get a little silly with their damage output.
The current reigning best skill for a Marksman is Flurry, which can be used for both bows and melee weapons. Specializing in Flurry and unlocking the Fusillade node will make a Multishot trigger with every sixth attack. Investing in the Multishot skill itself, in turn, will increase the power of that sixth trigger of Multishot. As Flurry doesn’t cost any mana, you can imagine how powerful this build is. Just remember to invest in the likes of Shift to keep away from dangerous foes.
Like the other four classes in the game, developer Eleventh Hour Games has frequently adjusted and reworked the Rogue’s skills and masteries; therefore, you shouldn’t worry about picking the wrong mastery, and instead, pick the one that seems the most fun to shred mobs with as you explore the different timelines of Eterra.
And those are the best Rogue mastery and builds in Last Epoch.
Last Epoch is available on PC.
