Runemaster Mastery Leveling Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.1)

Our base class is the Mage, which acts as a generic spell caster. Our character will be offered an opportunity to select a Mastery class once we have completed the first act of the campaign. Each base class has three possible masteries to choose from. For the Mage, we have access to the Mastery Tree Passives for Sorcerer, Runemaster and Spellblade. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Mage Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

We will only be placing the minimum 20 points into the Mage tree, to gain some all around useful bonuses. This is the suggested passives to pick, and in the following order:

• 8 points into Elementalist: Increased Fire/Cold/Lightning damage.
• 6 points into Reactive Ward: A burst of Ward gained when you drop below 70% health.
• 3 points into Arcanist: Flat Intelligence and Fire/Lightning Resistance.
• 3 points into Mage Flurry: Increase attack/cast speed and, more importantly, the 3 points bonus gives us Cooldown Recovery Speed for Teleport.

Our base class is the Mage, which acts as a generic spell caster. Our character will be offered an opportunity to select a Mastery class once we have completed the first act of the campaign. Each base class has three possible masteries to choose from. For the Mage, we have access to the Mastery Tree Passives for Sorcerer, Runemaster and Spellblade. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Mage Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

The Runemaster is our chosen mastery class, and the tree that we will be spending the rest of our points in. There are many valuable bonuses for us in the Runemaster tree. Early on we mostly get defensive bonuses, but later in the tree we have some huge synergies that unlock between the passives.

This is the suggested order you allocate your points:

• 8 points into Sphere of Protection: Flat Health and reduced damage taken from Ignited/Shocked/Chilled enemies.
• 10 points into Quintessence of Triumph: Increased Spell Damage and 7% More Spell Damage from the 7 point bonus.
• 6 points into Rune of Renewal: Increased Health and Mana Regen.
• 1 point into Unsealed Mana: Flat Mana and Increased Cast Speed.
• 6 points into Decree of the Bountiful Ocean: Increased Mana Regen, doubled when we have an active Lightning Rune.
• 8 points into Decree of the Burning Wind: More damage to Rares and Boss enemies.
• 6 points into Brand of Deception: Elemental Penetration with Damage Over Time. Also, when we use  Runic Invocation this will trigger the bonus to brand enemies. This is important for some of the following nodes.
• 5 points into Runeword: Hurricane: Flat Spell Lightning damage after directly using a Lightning skill.
• 6 points into Order's Imposition: More damage over time to Branded enemies.
• 5 points into Runeword: Inferno: Flat Fire spell Damage and %Armor per stack of Shock on the enemy.
• 10 points into Celestial Doom: Flat Spell Damage as well as More Spell Damage and Ward gained against Branded enemies.

 Disintegrate is our primary damage ability and the first one you should specialize into. It is a channelled ability that shoots out a beam in a single direction. While we have to stand still to use it, this plays into our advantage with one of the other skills we take later,  Glyph of Dominion. Once you specialize into the skill and get a few points allotted, especially once you have the double beam from Twinbeam, the damage will really start to take off and you will be melting enemies very quickly.

By default,  Disintegrate is both a Lightning and Fire skill. Some variations of the build will convert it fully into one element, for easier damage scaling, but we are going to leave it as both as we have synergies that work off of both elements.

This is our recommended order for the passives to take:

• 2 points into Galvanized Defense: Less damage taken while channelling Disintegrate. We will put 2 more points here later, or if you ever feel squishy you could put 2 more points here at any point.
• 1 point into Stored Power: 50% more damage at the expense of a small delay before casting, which is barely noticeable and reduced by cast speed.
• 3 points into Searing Plasma: Disintegrate deals more damage. We'll put the other 2 points here after the next passive.
• 1 point into Twinbeam: This effectively adds 40% more damage for our Disintegrate, as long as you aim the beam decently, though it also increases the mana cost.
• 2 more points into Searing Plasma: For a total of 5 points.
• 3 points into Feedback: Gives a chance to Shock enemies, which is a very powerful debuff. Although, we only gain half the benefits as our  Disintegrate damage is split between fire and lightning.
• 1 point into Escalation: Adds a 2nd tier that does 150% more damage and 50% increased mana cost if we channel for more than 2 seconds.
• 1 point into Amplification: Adds a 3rd tier that does 300% more damage and 100% increased mana cost if we channel for more than 4 seconds. These last two nodes add a TON of damage, especially when combined with the next two.
• 1 point into Lucomancer: More damage to ignited/shocked enemies and reduced mana cost. A new node that really helps tie the build together with the next passive. We will put more points here after grabbing the next one.
• 1 point into Resurgence: Combined with the last couple passives, this is where you really turn up the damage. If you can keep the time between casts to less than 4 seconds, you'll start off at tier 3 immediately. If it's been 4-8 seconds, you'll still start at tier 2.
• 2 more points into Lucomancer: For a total of 3 points.
• 1 point into Unbridled Power: A chance to inflict Spark Charges and Spreading Flames to enemies each second while at tier 3.
• 2 more points into Galvanized Defense: For a total of 4. As noted above, if you ever feel too squishy while leveling, it's fine to put all 4 points in earlier.

One of the only drawbacks to our  Disintegrate is the mana consumption requirements at max damage. When clearing an echo, it won't be too big of a deal as you will naturally stop casting as you move between packs of monsters. On tough enemies, however, you will run out of mana somewhat quickly. We use  Focus to quickly refill our mana and continue blasting.
With that in mind, these are the suggested passives:

• 2 points into Mana Flooded: Increased Mana Regen during  Focus. We'll put more 2 more after the next passive.
• 1 point into Desperate Meditation: Increased Mana Regen based on our missing mana. i.e. the lower our mana pool, the faster  Focus refills it.
• 2 more points into Mana Flooded: For a total of 4 points.
• 4 points into Revelation: Gain a burst of Ward and extra Mana after one second of chanelling.
• 1 point into Energy Infusion: Hain Haste for 1 second per 20 mana gained while chanelling Focus.
• 3 points into Shocking Aura: 150% chance to Shock nearby enemies and 15% Less Damage Taken from shocked enemies during Focus.
• 2 points into Iron Stance: More %Armor and Flat Armor per Intelligence gained during Focus.
• 5 points into Chilling Aura: 250% chance to Chill and 25% Less Damage Taken from Chilled enemies.

Our traversal skill,  Teleport is how we get out of danger quickly or just to move around quickly during easier content. We are targeting passives that either let us cast it more often, or give us bonuses for casting it, such as Ward generation. These are the suggested passives to take:

• 4 points into Comet Rush: Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed for  Teleport. Additionally, if you have Haste when you cast, the duration on haste is reset to 4 seconds.
• 2 points into Crystaline Passage: Cold Resistance and Flat Armor for 4 seconds after cast.
• 4 points into Flicker: Increased Mana Effiency.
• 3 points into Ether Barrier: Flat Ward gained on cast. We'll put 1 more point here later.
• 3 points into Out of Body: Converts a portion of our health (9% at 3 points) into twice as much Ward. This scales nicely as we keep leveling and upgrading gear.
• 1 more point into Ether Barrier: For a total of 4 points.
• 1 point into Out of Mind: Gain flat Ward equal to your Intelligence.
• 2 points into Stable Bubble: Increased Ward Retention for 4 seconds after cast.

While  Runic Invocation is often a primary damage ability in many Runemaster builds, in ours we're using it more for utility and some supplemental damage. Our main goal is to buff the damage of  Disintegrate or provide defensive bonuses to help us survive.

If this is your first time playing a Runemaster, this spell (and the entire Rune system) may seem a bit confusing at first glance. However, in practice it's really not as complicated as it reads. As you cast a spell, you will either gain a Fire (Rah), Lightning (Gon), or Cold (Heo) rune, depending on that spell's tags. These appear over your character. Depending on the number and combination of runes, casting  Runic Invocation will cause a different spell effect. For a full list of all the possiblities, see our full list https://www.icy-veins.com/last-epoch/list-of-runic-invocations.

For our build, you have nothing that generates Cold (Heo) runes, so you will only see combinations of Lightning and Fire. Additionally, you will mainly see one of two combinations. Either Fire/Lightning/Fire (Plasma Orb) or Lightning/Fire/Lightning (Rune Gale). This is due to  Disintegrate being a fire and lightning skill, so it will alternate which rune it generates as you continue channelling it. Occasionally, you will cast a  Teleport or  Glyph of Dominion to add an extra lightning rune in, but it really doesn't matter too much. We aren't trying to generate a specific result off of  Runic Invocation. All of the results are fine, as the act of casting  Runic Invocation itself grants us bonuses. Here are the passives we suggest:

• 2 points into Attuned Approach: Flat Ward gained and 20% of the Mana Cost refunded. We mainly take this node for pathing purposes, as we will get the full mana cost refunded with a later node.
• 3 points into Inscribed Patterns: The type of Rune you currently have now generates an effect. 6% per Fire (Rah) rune or 12 Ward per second per Lightning (Gon) rune.
• 1 point into Author of Arcana: Full mana cost is refunded and 45% more damage, but it adds 12 seconds to the cooldown.
• 4 points into Adept Runescribing: 32% Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed.
• 1 point into Consolidator: When you gain Runes while you already have 3 Runes, the cooldown on  Runic Invocation is reduced by 6%.
• 3 points into Rune Slinger: Increased Cast Speed and 15% of Current Mana gained as Ward when you cast  Runic Invocation.
• 4 points into Transcriber of Power: Adds 8 Flat Spell Damage and 8% Cast Speed after cast. Buff lasts for 4 seconds per Rune consumed.
• 2 points into Word of Lagon: Invocations that include at least one Lightning (Gon) rune have a chance to Shock enemies and a higher Critical Strike Chance.

The last spell we specialize into, mainly because we won't unlock it till we've put a fair amount of points into the Runemaster tree.  Glyph of Dominion places a Glyph on the ground that deals damage to any enemy standing on it, but also grows over time until it reaches max size and explodes. We are using this mainly as buff spell to generate Ward and increase our damage as long as we are standing in the Glyph ourselves. These are the suggested passives:

• 2 points into Vaporizing Realm: Adds 40% more Damage over Time.
• 4 points into Runes of Disintegration: Adds 40% more damage and 160 Ward per second when channeling  Disintegrate if you started on the Glyph.
• 1 point into Wreak Havoc: More Damage over Time the longer the Glyph has been active.
• 2 points into Careful Drawings: The Glyph expands slower and lasts longer.
• 4 points into Doom Scribe: Adds a delay before the Glyph explodes, keeping it active longer.
• 2 points into Amplified Expanse: Increased Area of EFfect.
• 1 point into Charged Reflections: Gain Ward per second per 5% Resistance(s) you have, including those over the cap.
• 3 points into Arcane Mirror: You gain additional Resistances while standing on the glyph, which also increases the Ward generation per second from the previous node.
• 1 point into Atomization: Adds a More Damage multiplier to you while standing the Glyph per stack of Armor Shred on the target. Note: Only take this node if you have a source of armor shred from your gear, as we have no way to gain it from our passives. If you do not have this mod on your gear, you could put the point into Shocking Grasp to max it out.