With 5 Classes and 3 Masteries each, we are looking at 15 classes to pick from in Last Epoch. Since Masteries can not be changed once selected, you need to know which class and mastery combination better suits your playstyle before you delve into the game. Luckily, we are here to make your life a tad bit easier with a ranking list of all the classes and masteries in Last Epoch.
Just keep in mind that we will be ranking the class/mastery mix so if you are following the guide make sure to choose the class first and then work towards the mastery stated.
15. Mage – Spellblade
The Spellblade is your battle mage Mastery for players who want to use spells to punch enemies in the face and be able to take a ton of damage themselves.
The passive bonus you get is gaining 4 Ward points for every melee hit that lands and mana spent on melee attacks is converted to Ward. The skill you get is Shatter Strike. This is a cold melee skill that instantly kills frozen enemies below a certain health threshold. The skill can also be used to generate a ton of Ward.
The Spellblade does have some busted builds you can curate, overall this class is a bit underwhelming in so many regards. It tries to be a jack of all but master of none and thus other specialized classes will likely be a better choice.
14. Mage – Sorcerer
The Sorcerer is your typical caster class. The Mastery bonus for this class is an additional 50 mana and spells deal increased damage equal to their mana cost. Thus you want to cast spells that cost more mana to do more damage.
The Mastery skill is Meteor. This is a spammable skill that does a huge amount of damage but has a high mana cost so you can’t spam it too much. You can make this skill even more devastating by adding shrapnel to its impact and increasing the number of meteors.
This was a really good class up until the Runemaster class was added to the roster.
13. Rogue – Marksman
The Marksman is your typical archery-based class. When you pick this, you gain a 5% increased attack speed when you use a bow (this will stack up to five times so that’s an additional 25% increased attack speed) and also 50% increased damage while using a bow.
The first Mastery skill you unlock is Detonating Arrow. This skill fires an arrow that embeds itself in an enemy and then explodes after a short delay. You can specialize in this and there are quite a lot of different damage types you can have it do like poison, fire, ice, and lightning (which is very popular).
Marksman isn’t in the greatest of spots at the moment. It suffers from a lack of build variety. Even though I have a soft spot for ranged characters, I can’t recommend this class for now.
12. Acolyte – Lich
The Lich Mastery is all about sacrificing your health to do additional damage. When you spec into this you’ll gain 1% of the damage dealt will replenish HP. Also, your spells and melee attacks will deal increased damage equal to your missing health. This build is all about high risk and high rewards.
The Mastery Skill here comes in the Reaper Form. In this form, you deal a ton more damage but your health constantly decays. This makes for a very hectic play style and almost the exact opposite of The Necromancer. The class is very complex and not made for beginners.
One of the best things about this form is when your health runs while transformed, you won’t die but you will instead return to your normal form. It is like having an additional life to save yourself from dying.
11. Rogue – Bladedancer
The Bladedancer Mastery is your standard melee Rogue setup. Making use of daggers, dodging, and also high mobility. This class does have a unique mechanic where certain skills will generate shadows and then you can cast an eligible skill and your shadows will repeat the skill.
When you choose this Mastery, you gain +1 to your max shadows, a +15 melee physical damage, and a 15% more dodge rating.
The first skill we unlock is Dancing Strikes. This is a channeled movement-based skill that requires you to be dual-wielding. It doesn’t do a ton of damage but it can be used to proc other skills and it’s great for building up a unique ability later on called Shadow Daggers.
The Bladedancer nails that feeling of zipping all over the screen and darting in and out of the shadows. Perfect for fast-paced melee players although it is on the weaker side.
10. Primalist – Beastmaster
The Beastmaster is another mastery that uses minions to do their dirty work. However, the unique bit about these minions is that they are tagged as companions and thus can be buffed with companion buffing skills/passives.
When you choose to spec into this master, you’ll gain +1 companion summon limit and you and your minions will deal an additional 50% increased damage.
The first Mastery skill is Summon Raptor. All pet companions will use another skill if you press the kill button again after they are summoned. For the Raptor you get the Rampage. This gives it an additional 40% increased damage attack speed, movement, and even size. You’ll see it turn into a giant dinosaur and devour anything caught in its wake.
9. Primalist – Shaman
The Shaman Mastery makes use of natural disaster skills and there’s also a strong emphasis on totem builds. When you select this Mastery you gain a reduced 5 totem mana cost, +10 Attunement, and +50% Elemental resistance when you control a totem.
The Mastery skill you unlock first is Summon Storm Totem. This summons a totem that casts lightning at nearby enemies. You can also have this cast blizzard around the totem and this will chill enemies and deal cold damage to them. On top of that, you can upgrade it with a 25% chance to summon a super buffed version of the totem that would do an additional 100% damage with a 100% crit chance as well.
This class has been reworked a bit in a recent patch which made it a tad bit more relevant. If you are looking for a class that unleashes the natural phenomena to crush your enemies then look no further.
8. Acolyte – Warlock
The Warlock is probably the most complex class in the game but it has incredible potential for a ton of really powerful builds. This class is all about applying damage over time with their unique mechanic being able to apply five different curses onto enemies and you gain various bonuses depending on how many curses are active at any time.
The Mastery bonus is 5% more damage per curse on the Target and 35% increased fire and necrotic resistance. The class comes with the Chthonic Fissure skill. With this, you rip open a hole to hell that will deal damage over time as well as release minions that will attack nearby enemies. The damage can be fire or necrotic depending on how you spec it.
If you’re someone who loves to get into the nitty-gritty of build crafting and have a good understanding of how skills can synergize and how DoTs work then you’ll love this class. For noobs, it is a bit of a handful.
7. Sentinel – Forge Guard
The Forge Guard class is all about hard-hitting attacks that either need to be charged up or have a longer cooldown on them. The cool bit about this class is that you can summon weapons and living armor to fight beside you.
When you spec into this you gain 35% increased physical and fire resistance and 3% increased armor for each hit you have taken in the last 10 seconds. Therefore, this class can absorb a boatload of damage.
The first Mastery skill you get is the Forge Strike. This is a melee attack where we call in a huge hammer from the sky. This skill will do a lot of damage but you’ll primarily use this to summon and buff your forged weapons which is a unique minion type specific to this class. You can also transform this into a spear, sword, or an anvil for different damage effects.
6. Sentinel – Void Knight
The Void Knight is a mastery that deals void damage through spells or melee. This build has a special mechanic where skills can cast themselves again using echoes. There are some OP builds players have come up with using this unique feature.
Picking Passives include 75% increased melee void damage and your melee attacks, throwing attacks, and void spells have a chance to be repeated by an echo half a second later.
The first Mastery skill you unlock is Erasing Strike. This can be an exceptionally hard-hitting melee attack however it has a 5-second cooldown. Any enemies killed by this will be replaced by Void Rifts that do void damage to any enemies they hit. You can also spec into this and let it summon void beams when you kill enemies with it.
It is quite a fun and effective class even for beginners and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
5. Rogue – Falconer
The Falconer is your classic trapper-style setup and it makes use of nets, traps, and of course, the trusty falcon that will fight alongside you. Of all the classes added with the 1.0 release, this one is one of the most unique and fun mastery.
The Mastery bonus here is +12 Dexterity and the falcon gains +1 flat melee damage per every four dexterity levels.
The Mastery skill is Falconry. This summons a falcon which can tank incoming damage for you which is an amazing thing for minion builds. The bird also has a few nodes where she can inherit your general damage stats which will boost her damage output.
On top of that, you’ve got some control over her too. She will either stick close to you and protect you or take out farther foes. Activating the skill/summon will send the falcon toward a group of enemies and apply a debuff. When the rebuffed enemy gets hit, they receive 150% more damage.
4. Primalist – Druid
The Druid Mastery offers a mix of different animals you can transform into, pets you can summon, and also nature-based skills that you can cast. It’s a very versatile Mastery and it’s one of my favorites in the game.
For the Mastery passives, you will gain a 70% damage reduction for 2 seconds after transforming and also 20% increased health and mana.
The Mastery skill is an awesome Werebear Form. When you’re in this form, you’ll gain access to a whole new set of skills that can be affected by the base skills that you specialize in. This applies to all the transformations of this class. As for the bear, you can have it casting lightning when it runs, cause earthquakes when it jumps, and it can even cast one of the other later game Mastery skills within its tree that we won’t spoil.
Other than the bear, there are two more transformations with completely different playstyles. This class will keep things fresh for a very long time if you are not thinking of making other characters.
3. Mage – Runemaster
The Runemaster is potentially the strongest class in the game. The passive bonus for choosing this Mastery is 30% increased elemental damage and 10% increased cast speed with elemental spells.
The thing that makes this class stand out is its Runic Invocation skill. With this particular skill, whenever you cast an elemental skill you gain a rune of that particular element. When you cast Runic Invocation you then cast an invocation based on the runes consumed. You can have up to three runes at a time meaning the class can cast a whopping 40 different invocations.
The Runemaster is a fantastic pick for anyone looking for a caster class. It’s got a ton of different build options available and even has some support options available for anyone looking to play multiplayer and buff their teammates as well. A no-brainer pick for players who are struggling to choose a class.
2. Acolyte – Necromancer
The Necromancer class is for players who want to summon a horde of undead minions. When you spec into this mastery, you’ll gain Summon Wraith. Alongside the skill, you also gain +1 max number of skeletons, +1 max number of skeleton mages, and 50% increased minion damage.
Other than the core skills you get in this Mastery, some base Acolyte skills synergize well with this class. These come in the form of summoning skeletons, summoning Bone Golems, and also summoning volatile zombies. The rest of the skills will either buff your minions further or summon giant minions to tank everything in the way.
This class is perfect for players who want to sit back and let their minions do all the work. However, there are some options if you want to be a bit more hands-on with your minions as well.
1. Sentinel – Paladin
From humble beginnings pre-1.0 to becoming a powerhouse of a mastery after the release, the Paladin class has only gotten better in Last Epoch.
Specializing in this class lets you deal increased fire, lightning, and physical damage based on your percentage of health remaining and you get 1% increased healing effectiveness per point of Attunement.
The first skill you unlock is Healing Hands. This heals allies in a target area and adds a heal over time for 3 seconds. You can specialize into this to have it apply Ward and even become a channeled heal that will also apply fire damage to enemies it hits. You can also automate it to activate as you get hit thereby never running low on health.
The Paladin was a great Mastery that could dish out a ton of damage and also offer some nice support options for group play. And now with the changes in 1.0, this class has aged like fine wine and one that I must highly recommend.
As with most ARPGs, the developers are constantly listening to the community and buffing and nerfing the classes regularly. For this reason, the list above is subject to change. For now, this is the way I would rank the current classes in Last Epoch. Hopefully, it helps you make the difficult decision of choosing one.