Druid Mastery Leveling Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.1)

Our base class is the Primalist, which acts as a hybrid melee/caster, with the option to summon companions to help as well. Our character will be offered an opportunity to select an Advanced Mastery once we have completed the first act of the campaign. Each base class has three possible masteries to choose from. For the Primalist, we have access to the Mastery Tree Passives for Beastmaster, Druid and Shaman. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing at least 20 Passive Points into the Primalist, you'll then have the option to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

To start off, you will want to spend 5 points in Primal Strength, though Natural Attunement is a viable alternative. For pure damage purposes, all 5 in Primal Strength would be better, as our Swipe scales off Strength and it is our primary damage dealer, with  Maelstrom coming in second. However, during the campaign and early leveling, if you are lacking in lightning/cold resists you could move any/all points over. The attunement will still buff Maelstrom's damage at least, while providing some more survivability if you can't get enough resists on gear while leveling, so either way should be fine.

After that you want to put:

• 1 point into Harmony of Blades allowing you to dual wield, which gives better stat options
• 5 points into Hunter's Restoration Giving some nice sustain early on, and a 10% bonus to your health pool.
• 5 points into Survival of the Pack Another source of health sustain, very helpful for survivability while leveing, as well as some increased melee damage.
• 4 points into Tempest Bond Bonus damage for both of our main sources of damage, physical and cold, that is doubled later on when you pickup  Summon Spriggan.

Which will get us to the 20 points in Primalist, unlocking the mastery trees that we will spend more points in. We will start off putting most points into the Druid tree, followed by Beastmaster and a few in Shaman. You will generally finish the quest in game to choose your mastery, before you even get to 20 points in Primalist. However, if you like to full clear each zone before moving on, you might be a few levels over by the time you do the quest. In that case, you can either just not spend the points and wait, or put them wherever and simply respec them when you do the quest.

Our base class is the Primalist, which acts as a hybrid melee/caster, with the option to summon companions to help as well. Our character will be offered an opportunity to select an Advanced Mastery once we have completed the first act of the campaign. Each base class has three possible masteries to choose from. For the Primalist, we have access to the Mastery Tree Passives for Beastmaster, Druid and Shaman. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing at least 20 Passive Points into the Primalist tree, you'll then have the option to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

The Beastmaster tree contains some strong passives early on in the tree, that provide some very nice survivability bonuses for us. As we are a melee build, this is a welcome addition. While there are some exceptions, we get most of our damage from the Druid tree and more of our survivability from Beastmaster. The order in which you place points in each tree will depend on whether you feel your damage or survivability is currently lacking. This will largely depend on what gear drops you have found along the way.

Assign your points in the following order:

• 8 points into Ursine Strength : This gives an amazing -16% damage reduction from nearby enemies, as well as 8 Strength.
• 5 points into Boar Heart : This provides us a buff that reduces damage taken by 15% for 5 seconds after being hit.
• 1 point into Savagery : Shared Increased Melee Damage, but we are taking this mostly to unlock the passives behind it.
• 1 point into Ambush : Gives Aspect of the Shark Aura, buffing our Melee Damage and Attack Speed. Don't put more than 1 point, as it will only improve the 'next attack' part and not the buff itself.
• 5 points into Rending Maw : Adds an Armor Shred effect to Aspect of the Shark.

The first 13 points are the most important for survivability. The other points are mostly for damage, so you could swap back to the Druid tree at this point, and finish the rest of these points later.

Our base class is the Primalist, which acts as a hybrid melee/caster, with the option to summon companions to help as well. Our character will be offered an opportunity to select an Advanced Mastery once we have completed the first act of the campaign. Each base class has three possible masteries to choose from. For the Primalist, we have access to the Mastery Tree Passives for Beastmaster, Druid and Shaman. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing at least 20 Passive Points into the Primalist tree, you'll then have the option to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

Our chosen mastery, and where we will spend the majority of our points, is the Druid. We are focused on choosing passives that will improve our damage, especially while transformed into a Werebear, as well as some survivability for us and our companion. Additionally, as  Werebear Form is a transformation skill, that means it has a separate resource called Rage. Rage will decay over time, forcing us back into Human form when it runs out. We will be taking passives that help reduce or remove this decay rate, allowing us to spend more time in Werebear form.

Assign your passive points in the following order:

• 5 points into Primordial Resonance : Increased damage and elemental penetration while transformed with the 5pt bonus.
• 5 points into Druidic Prowess : Gives Strength and Attunement, as well as +1 to all attributes.
• 5 points into Focused Wrath : Increased damage while transformed and reduced Rage decay.
• 5 points into Wind in the Leaves : Shared attack and cast speed, and a bonus to our  Summon Spriggan's movement speed.
• 1 point into Rancour : Will prevent Rage from decaying outside of combat, massively increasing the time you can spend in Werebear form.
• 4 points into Bush Stalker : Increased Critical Chance and leeches health on a Critical.
• 8 points into Aspects of Might : Flat Strength, increased melee damage in werebear and increased armor in Human form.
• 8 points into Primal Shifter : Every time you transform, gain the Shapeshifte buff, which gives a damage and armor bonus. If you don't mind tracking the buff, and manually transforming slightly more often, you could trim upto 3 points from this. The max points make the buff last 16 seconds, compared to 10 seconds with 5 points, which is a nice quality of life improvement, but not strictly necessary.
• 5 points into Tiger Spirit : Adds increased Critical Chance and Critical Multiplier to the Shapeshifter buff.
• 1 point into Woodland Beings : Increased minion damage and healing, but we take this mostly to unlock the next node.
• 1 point into Natural Duality : Limits you to one companion, but gives the companion 75% more health, as well as giving you 30% increased damage and 75 armour when you have a companion. As we only use the Spriggan, this node has no drawback for us.
• 8 points into Rageborn : Increased Critical Chance, and rage gained on Criticals. Very strong later on, as you will be critting quite often and maintaining Rage for a long time.
• 5 points into Impervious : Gives stacks of Impervious when you hit enemies, reducing the damage of the next hit you take by 4% per stack, with a max of 20% at 5 stacks.
• 4 points into Hideskin : Additional Health and adds Endurance Threshold based on our total Health.

If you chose to trim the 3 points from Primal Shifter, we recommend putting them into Force of Nature, Hideskin, Rageborn, or Chitinous Plating. Roughly in that order, though it depends on if you feel you need more flat damage, Health, Critical Chance or armor based on your current gear.

Our base class is the Primalist, which acts as a hybrid melee/caster, with the option to summon companions to help as well. Our character will be offered an opportunity to select an Advanced Mastery once we have completed the first act of the campaign. Each base class has three possible masteries to choose from. For the Primalist, we have access to the Mastery Tree Passives for Beastmaster, Druid and Shaman. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing at least 20 Passive Points into the Primalist tree, you'll then have the option to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

We are only putting 8 points into the Shaman tree, for the passive Shamanic Infusion, giving us 8 Attunement and 8% Physical/Cold/Lightning penetration, increasing our damage with those damage types. We would recommend waiting until you are level 40+ before assigning these points, most of the early Druid and Beastmaster ones are higher priority.

The bread and butter skill for this build. You will specialize into it first, and it will be your main damage dealer. It has a wide attack hitbox, that can be further increased, capable of hitting many enemies in one  Swipe. It is useable both in and out of Werebear form.

This is the suggested order that you allocate points into Swipe:

• 2 points into Way of the Hunt : More hit damage and health leech.
• 1 point into Wengarian Reach : More damage and a larger area of effect for Swipe. We will put more points into this node later.
• 2 points into Culling: Gives Swipe a kill threshold, so it will instantly kill anything at, or below, 14% life.
• 2 points into Aspect of the Panther : Gives Aspect of the Panther, which gives 5% more global damage per stack. We will put more points into this node later.
• 1 point into Feline Hunter : Gives 12% attack and cast speed while you have Aspect of the Panther.
• 2 points into Lion's Strength : Adds max stacks to Aspect of the Panther, as well as adding flat melee damage per stack.
• 4 more points into Wengarian Reach.
• 3 more points into Aspect of the Panther.
• 3 points into Trapper : We go back to the top left for this node, which gives Swipe 20% more damage per point against slowed enemies. We wait to grab this node till later, when our Maelstrom automation has come online, we've converted it to physical (with Slow chance) and you have had a chance to pickup mods on your weapons that will help you Slow targets, as well.

Our secondary damage dealer, Maelstrom, helps us clear the campaign and, later, monoliths much faster. We hardly need to cast the skill ourselves, as it will proc automatically off our  Swipe and  Warcry. That said, whenever you are forced to transform back to Human form, you will want to manually cast it once or twice to build up some extra stacks while you wait on  Werebear Form's cooldown to come back up.

Also, early on, before we've put many points into  Werebear Form or our passive trees, you will spend more time in Human form and  Maelstrom is great for clearing at that point. You will simply cast  Maelstrom every 3-5 seconds, causing an extra 3 stacks (4 total) due to Lagon's Slumber stacks from the Beneath The Waves node, and then using  Swipe to help kill tougher enemies in between.  Maelstrom should mostly take care of any weaker enemies that appear, if you are maintaining a decent number of stacks.

You should allocate your points into the skill tree as follows:

• 2 points into Turmoil : Increases the size of the Maelstrom, but more importantly this is needed to unlock the next node.
• 3 points into Beneath The Waves : Every second you do not cast Maelstrom, you will gain a stack of Lagon's Slumber. When you do cast Maelstrom, each stack will be consumed for another stack of Maelstrom. This is a great quality of life node, as it cuts down on how often you have to cast Maelstrom to maintain the stacks.
• 1 point into Whirlpool: Increases the duration of Maelstrom stacks, requiring less recasts or letting you reach a higher total stack count. We will put some more points in here later.
• 4 points into Turbulence : Increases the damage of Maelstrom, and this bonus is doubled if you have 60+ attunement. However, we are ignoring that part as it is not realistic during the leveling process for this build.
• 5 points into Growing Storm : This node helps in automating the casting of Maelstrom by giving us a 20% chance on kill or a 10% chance on hitting a rare/boss enemy to cast a stack of Maelstrom. Combined with a similar node, Ursine Storm, in the Werebear Form tree, we are able to keep up a decent sized stack of Maelstrom without casting it ourselves.
• 2 more points into Whirlpool for a total of 3.
• 2 points into Sleet-Footed : Increased Dodge rating per stack of Maelstrom, which is nice, but since we aren't focused on getting much dodge we are mostly taking this to unlock the next node.
• 1 point into Cyclone : Convert Maelstrom to physical damage, changes chill chance to slow chance (important for Trapper in the Swipe tree), and adds a global 1% More physical damage per stack of Maelstrom, which also buffs  Swipe damage.

The Druid's Mastery Skill, available immediately upon selecting Druid as your mastery. Before we explain the passives we'll be taking, we wanted to make a note about your skillbar when using transformation skills. Werebear form will change your ability bar to include 4 abilities;  Rampage,  Maul,  Roar, and  Swipe. Your transformation ability (to transform back to Human) will be on whichever button you had Werebear form on to begin with, and the others will go from left to right in the order listed, skipping whichever slot Werebear was assigned to. While you can assign your hotbar however you wish, we've found it's easiest to put Werebear on R and Warcry on E. You put Warcry on E so its in the same spot as Roar, which inherits the skilltree and is functionally the same skill.

Being in Werebear Form provides a ton of neat bonuses for us, especially through the Druid tree, as well as the new abilities.  Rampage is a channelled ability that will charge in a straight line and deal damage to any enemies in the way. You can use this to help travel faster, especially when you see a long straight section, as it has no limit to how long you can channel it.  Maul is a very short range dash that damages enemies at the end, and  Roar is the same as  Warcry (and benefits from the entire skill tree). You also automatically cast Roar when entering  Werebear Form. Finally, Swipe is the same as the base skill, and thus benefits from the entire skill tree as well.

We will be taking passives that help automate Maelstrom for us, as well as reducing the rage decay or generating more rage for us, allowing us to stay in Werebear as long as we have enemies to hit. Assign your passives in the following order:

• 1 point into Ursine Heart : Endurance and Endurance threshold. We will put more points into this later.
• 1 point into Frenzied Strikes : Rage gained on hit. We will put more points into this later.
• 1 point into Wisened Claws : Adds Flat Spell Damage per Strength while in Werebear Form, helps to boost our Maelstrom damage.
• 4 points into Ursine Storm : Gives us a 32% chance to cast Maelstrom when we hit with Swipe or Maul.
• 4 points into Ruthless : Reduces our Rage decay rate by 48%.
• 3 more points into Frenzied Strikes for a total of 4.
• 4 points into Invigoration : Health and Rage gained on kill or when hitting a rare/boss enemy.
• 2 more points into Ursine Heart for a total of 3.

 Warcry is a natural fit for any Werebear build, as it buffs the Roar ability that you autocast when you transform and that also appears on your bar in  Werebear Form. We are taking the nodes that allow it to cast  Maelstrom for us, as well buffing our damage, cleansing ailments off us, healing us for a bit and maximizing how many casts of  Warcry we can get.

To that end, this is how we suggest you allocate your points:

• 1 point into Juggernaut : Makes us invulnerable for one second after casting  Warcry. This can be nice to avoid damage from a big ability you can't dodge, but requires decent timing.
• 1 point into Breath of Eterra : Warcry now heals you for 100 health when cast, doubled if cast on Low Health and increased by your healing effectiveness.
• 4 points into Whirlpool : This is the first big node for us, causing Warcry to cast 4 stacks of  Maelstrom at the same time. We want to cast Warcry on cooldown due to this node, to maintain Maelstrom stacks.
• 1 point into Purging Shout: Removes negative ailments when we cast Warcry.
• 2 points into Deep Roar : Increases the area of effect.
• 3 points into Battle Cry : Increases our Critical Chance for 4 seconds after casting Warcry.
• 1 point into Ferocity : This will give us more Warcry casts, as it will cast when we get a critical if  Warcry was already on cooldown. This can only happen once per direct cast, but it can almost double the number of casts we get, once our Critical Chance and Attack Speed is high enough.
• - 1 point into Berserker : Grants us the Berserk buff for 1 second, which adds 4 flat melee damage per stack. Every time we hit an enemy we gain a stack, max of 10, and the old stacks are refreshed. If you can keep hitting enemies consistently, this is a huge damge increase.
• 3 points into Brutality : Increase the duration of the Berserk stacks, making it a bit easier to maintain the stacks, and adds 4 more max stacks for a total of 14.
• 3 points into Fury Strikes : Berserk now also grants 12% attack speed per stack, up to a maximum of 48%.

The Spriggan is a great companion to add in most non-companion focused builds, as it has a few passive auras that are just great all around. The only tricky part is giving it enough survivability that you aren't constantly trying to revive it, which is exactly what we are planning to do with our passives.

Take the following passives, in this order:

• 3 points into Aura of Life : Increases the passive and active heals of the Spriggan.
• 3 points into Aura of Kinship : Adds flat Spell Damage, buffing our Maelstrom damage.
• 4 points into Aura of Retribution : Adds 8% base Critical Chance, a very valuable stat that is hard to come by, as well as 72% critical strike avoidance.
• 4 points into Arboreal Vitality : Increases our Spriggan's health pool, to help keep it from dying.
• 4 points into Warding Bark : Adds Armor and Physical Resistance to our Spriggan, reducing the damage it takes.
• 1 point into Aura of Loyalty : Increases the amount of regen the Spriggan gets from it's own healing aura.
• 1 point into Aura of Evasion : Adds 4 flat Dodge Rating per point of Attunement you have.