Best Early Game Mage Build

The Mage class in Last Epoch is the quintessential spellslinger who uses elemental magic to devastate hordes of enemies. There are many different ways to play this class, and such variety can make things confusing for new players.

The following is a Lightning-focused build that’s weak at the start but gets progressively stronger as players gain levels. It’s not as powerful as some other Last Epoch leveling builds, but it doesn’t take long before all of its essential components come together to create a character with top-tier damage and mobility.

Last Epoch Mage Leveling Build Skills

Before diving into the abilities, keep in mind that this build will feel very slow up until around the level 25 mark. Lightning Blast, one of the build’s main damage dealers, requires at least seven points in its specialization tree before it starts to feel impactful, which is why players will have to rely on Disintegrate up until level 15, which is where Static and mastery classes come into play. From this point onward, the build will start clearing maps as quickly as the lightning it spews.

Lightning Blast

• Arcing Power: Lightning Blast chains an additional time for each Lightning Blast you have directly cast recently, up to a cap.
• Storm Razor: Lightning Blast gains extra base crit chance and base damage.
• Overcharge: Lightning Blast has a chance to cast twice.
• Hypercharge: Lightning Blast has a chance to cast four times instead of two when Overcharge procs.

Early on, this ability isn’t as strong as other basic offensive skills like Fireball and Mana Strike. However, with its ability to double and quadruple cast while chaining to targets, Lightning Blast makes for an excellent AoE spell that costs no mana to use. It’s also good for stutter stepping (moving and pausing to attack before repositioning again). Get Overcharge and Hypercharge as soon as possible.

Lightning Blast’s reliance on specialization points is exactly the reason why it’s used this early on in the game. Players will get more than enough XP to get this skill to where it needs to be by the time they reach the Emperor’s Remains boss in Ruined Era.

Teleport

• Comet Rush: Increases cooldown recovery speed and refreshes Haste if teleport is used while the buff is active.
• Resonant Plasma: Gain bonus Fire and Lightning Resistance as well as Stun Avoidance after teleporting within the past 4 seconds.
• Elemental Affinity: Gain bonus Elemental Damage after using Teleport within the past 4 seconds.

Teleport is an extremely useful skill for general mobility. Use it to dodge attacks and fly through maps while gaining a number of offensive and defensive bonuses. With enough cooldown reduction, you can keep the bonuses from Resonant Plasma and Elemental Affinity active almost indefinitely.

Invest in the upper-right branch to get Mirror Images if you find yourself dying often. Otherwise, go down the bottom-right path to make Teleport cast Elemental Nova when used.

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Static

• High Voltage: Increases movement charge rate.
• Stormchaser: Doubles movement charge rate, but charges decay after not moving for at least 1 second.
• Empower: Discharge deals more Lightning damage; bonus is doubled if you have at least 80 charges.

This is the build’s anti-elite nuke. With full stacks, it can one-shot most enemies outside of bosses, making it great for clearing maps. However, Static does have a short cooldown timer, and the fact that you need to keep moving to build stacks means it won’t always be at full potential when you need it.

The playstyle of this build revolves around keeping Static fully charged as often as possible. Keep moving, use Lightning Blast in between steps, and teleport away whenever big attacks are coming. When Static reaches at least 80 charges, use it to delete up to five enemies near your position.

Flame Ward

• Dilation: Extends Flame Ward’s duration and increases mana efficiency.
• Lightning Ward: Converts Flame Ward and all its Fire bonuses to Lightning.
• Infusion: Increases Fire damage when Flame Ward is active.
• Through Flames: Grants extra flat Fire Damage when Flame Ward is active.

Flame Ward is the Mage’s go-to survivability skill. Use it to gain a ton of Ward and buffs. You won’t be able to specialize in this skill until you unlock your fourth specialization slot, but it’s fine since you won’t need survivability as much while you’re still doing the campaign. Focus on buffing up your damage first, and only spec into Flame Ward once you feel the need for it.

Passive Skills

• Elementalist (8/8): Increases Fire, Lightning and Cold damage.
• Arcane Current (5/6): Every 5 seconds, casting your Lightning skills also fires Arcane Lightning.
• Preparation (4/10): Every 3 seconds, your next elemental spell deals more damage and has a chance to slow enemies.
• Mage Flurry (3/5): Gain increased attack and cast speed. Also increases cooldown recovery speed for Teleport and Snap Freeze.

Arcane Current is a nice skill to have early on for better AOE, especially since it will always crit if you have five points on it. You can swap this for Arcanist later on if you prefer having more Intelligence and resistance to Fire and Lightning damage.

Preparation works well with Static, especially if you cast the skill with maximum stacks. You can easily reach 5k+ damage with this combo even at low level, making it great against bosses if used properly.

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Gear and Stat Priorities

Damage-wise, stack as much Lightning Damage and Spell Damage on your weapons as possible to significantly increase Lightning Blast’s damage. Among the available weapon types in Last Epoch, staves are good early on, but once you find good Birch Wand or any other one-handed weapon with high Spell Damage, switch to that plus an off-hand catalyst (preferably a skull or tome).

Avarice is a great pair of gloves for Mages. It grants life leech for elemental damage types as well as resistance against all elements. Use this until you get a reliable source of Ward such as the Temple Veil helmet or the Unsealed Mana and Arcane Focus skills from the Runemaster passive tree.

Which Mastery Class Should You Choose?

This Mage leveling build transitions best into either the Sorcerer or Runemaster subclasses. The former is perfect if you want to go all-in on damage, while the latter has a more well-rounded focus with multiple avenues for dealing and absorbing damage. Among the three mastery classes for the Mage, going down the Spellblade route with this build is not advised, since this subclass does not have as many synergies with Lightning damage by default, and many of its passives rely on melee attacks, which this leveling build does not have.

Last Epoch

Released

February 21, 2024

Developer(s)

Eleventh Hour Games

Genre(s)

Action RPG