This stalwart Aftershock Werebear Druid shapeshifts into its Werebear Form to brutally charge across the battlefield and brush off heavy incoming damage thanks to its huge recovery and defensives. Quickly move around the map with Rampage and slash enemies with Swipe.
This build is able to proc Aftershocks while in Werebear Form from Chance To Create An Aftershock Under A Nearby Enemy On Melee Attack to deal powerful ground based Physical AoE Damage over time. Use Roar to benefit from Warcry's Tree. This build stacks Health Regeneration for some of the best recovery in the game which feeds a Vessel of Strife for massive Ward per Second. This is an incredibly tanky build that has access to tons of Health, Ward, Health Regen, Armour, Dodge, and Damage Reduction.
This setup doesn't require any Uniques to function or perform. However, Items like Vessel of Strife and Cleaver Solution greatly enhance your defensives along with idols that have Chance To Create An Aftershock Under A Nearby Enemy On Melee Attack make up the bulk of your damage source.
Overall the Aftershock Werebear is a powerful build capable of completing all the content in the game. It's extremely tanky, which makes it perfect for Hardcore. If you are looking for a pure immortal melee brawler that slays its enemies in close-quarters, this setup is perfect for you!
This article assumes you have a Level 70 Character.
Reach Level 70 with our Druid Leveling Guide.
If you are looking for a different playstyle, check all our Build Guides!
- Insane Recovery
- Perfect For Hardcode
- Amazing Arena Pusher
- Great Scaling With Powerful Gear
- Small AoE
- Average Single Target DPS
- Melee Suffers Against Certain Enemies
- Unlikely to have existing Gear from other Characters
Skills
Werebear Form
This is a permanent Werebear Form build. You gain a new set of Skills and Mana is replaced by Rage while Transformed. Invigoration is a must to sustain Rage. Use Ursine Storm to stack Maelstroms, Territorial for the Warcry AoE and Ursine Heart for defence.
Alternative Skills & Tips
Passives
Passives provide powerful effects that dictate the playstyle of a Class and its Masteries. Remember that you can allocate Passives on the first half of all Masteries regardless of the one you chose.
- Harmony of Blades is necessary to Dual Wield.
- Take all the Strength, Health, Melee Attack Speed and Health Regeneration.
- Grab Overgrowth and Natural Fortitude for powerful flat Health Regeneration.
- Rancour helps to avoid running out of Rage while in Werebear Form.
- Berserker, Ursine Strength, and Boar Heart provide insane Damage Reduction.
- Hideskin can turn any Druid into a tanky juggernaut.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
This Druid wants to Rampage into its enemies and pull them close with Roar while gaining the Berserker buff. Start swinging with Swipe while building up your DPS and tankiness. Make sure you are familiar with enemy mechanics to know when to use your Support Skills to stay alive. Pay extra attention to their telegraphed attacks!
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Rampage towards enemy packs.
- Cast Roar for its Berserker buff and to proc 4 Maelstroms.
- Spam Swipe and destroy your enemies.
- Maintain 6 stacks of Maelstrom to get Haste from Windswept and Frenzy from Windfury.
Mapping
- Rush to the objective fast with Rampage.
- Pull ranged enemies into you with the pull from Roar.
- Spam Swipe.
Bossing
- Spam Swipe while you wait for Cooldowns to proc additional Maelstroms with Ursine Storm.
- Fully stack the Berserker buff from Roar to gain high Attack Speed.
- Take advantage of all your defensive buffs and keep them active.
- Roar can save you from incoming Damage. Time it against dangerous telegraphed Boss attacks.
Advanced Skill Tips
Learn more about how to maximize your gameplay in the Build Scaling section of this guide.
Gear
Gearing in Last Epoch revolves around finding Items and then using the powerful Crafting System to enhance them. As long as an Item has Forging Potential left, players can upgrade or modify their Affixes up to Tier 5. However, the powerful Exalted Tier Affixes are drop only and can't be modified by players.
Using the correct Item Bases allows you to make use of their amazing Implicits, this is fundamental for gearing efficiently. Combine Implicits, Passives, Idols and Blessings to cap your Resistances and other defensive layers, while fitting as much Health related Affixes or Health Regen Per Second/Health Regeneration into your gear as possible. Plan ahead for your next upgrades and consider the final Blessings of your build while gearing. Finish up by farming Uniques with Legendary Potential and Sealing Affixes into Exalted Items to unleash all of your build's power!
Here are the Stat Goals for this build:
- Capped Resistances
- 2000-5000+ Health Regenerated per Second
- Capped Endurance
- 2000 - 3000+ Health
- 50% - 70%+ Armour
- 30% - 60%+ Dodge
- 80+ Strength
- 50% - 80%+ Movement Speed
Gear Progression
Milestone 1
Aim for good Item Bases with four valuable T5 Affixes. The defensive rolls on T5 Suffixes are very important at this stage as they can easily cap all your Resistances when combined with Item Implicits, Idols, Blessings or Passives.
Milestone 2
Make sure your Critical Strike Avoidance is capped. Remember that Woven Flesh is always an option early on. It can be farmed by killing the Abomination in the Fall of the Outcast Monolith Timeline.
Milestone 3
Fit as much Health into your gear as possible. Hybrid Health and %Health are extremely valuable, but can be hard to find early on. Use regular flat Health until you find them.
Milestone 4
Aim for T5 Health Regen Per Second on your Helmet, Gloves, and Amulet. Focus on getting Idols with Chance To Create An Aftershock Under A Nearby Enemy On Melee Attack to get the bulk of your damage online.
Milestone 5
Work on getting Empowered Blessings with resistances to help your early gearing. Keep a decent Health pool and capped Resistances. A Vessel of Strife can be tricky to get for a starter build as it requires killing T4 Julra, but they can be found for cheap in the bazaar if you are Merchant's Guild. If you don't have access to one, use a Spirit Catcher instead.
Milestone 1
When all your core Defenses are covered, start working on your Damage. Get Physical Damage, Strength, and Melee Attack Speed to increase your DPS drastically.
Milestone 2
Get Chance to Apply Frailty on Hit to decrease the Damage enemies deal to you. This Ailment is extremely important and should always be kept in mind.
Milestone 3
Go for Exalted Health Regen Per Second pieces to see your recovery and effective HP scale drastically. Maintain a sizable Health pool to protect against incoming burst damage from enemies and bosses alike.
Milestone 4
Farm for a Azurral's Fury with high Legendary Potential. At the same time, be on the lookout for good Eternal Gauntlets with Experimental Armour applies to Damage over Time.
Milestone 5
As you finish up your Empowered Blessings keep a decent Health pool and capped Resistances. Start working on capping 60% Endurance and getting extra armour where you can. Your goal is to have items with 4 valuable T5 Affixes, also known as T20. If you don't have access to a Vessel of Strife, use a Spirit Catcher instead.
Milestone 1
Upgrade your T20 setup with Exalted items, high value Sealed Affixes or ideally both. Obtain the Affixes included in the Planner, but prioritize the indicated Item Bases for their Implicits. Make sure to Seal highly efficient low tier Affixes. Ward and Ailment Cleansing on Potion Use is a must have for Belts.
Milestone 2
Farm a Smoke Weaver with Legendary Potential to get a huge amount of flat Dodge Rating. Other options include a Exalted Nagasa Scymitar, Naal's Tooth, and Palarus's Sacred Light if you have access to one with high Legendary Potential.
Milestone 3
Aim to get a Wing Guards with Legendary Potential to further increase your Dodge Rating and Melee Attack Speed. Gearing at this point can be tricky and you may need to weigh up all the options on what you are currently wearing versus your target items. You can always check how the build is performing in monoliths as to whether you should go for more damage or defence.
Milestone 4
Farm for your Idols with Chance To Create An Aftershock Under A Nearby Enemy On Melee Attack and Health Regen While Transformed. Keep stacking as much Health, Strength, and Health Regeneration on your gear as you can while having capped resistances.
Milestone 1
Keep upgrading your gear with Exalted Items with Sealed Affixes. Get every stat in the right place and in the correct Item Base. Min/Maxing your gear in Last Epoch can be pushed to the extreme as Items with multiple Exalted Affixes are technically possible.
Milestone 2
Get as close to perfect rolls for all your Empowered Blessings and find all your desired Idols with the best in slot Prefixes and Suffixes.
Milestone 3
Farm Call of the Tundra, Kermode's Cage and Blood of the Exile with the maximum Legendary Potential you can find. Remember that some Unique Items are extremely hard to get with multiple Legendary Potential. Good luck with the chase!
Milestone 4
Red Ring of Atlaria is an extremely rare item, let alone one with Legendary Potential. You can use Quicksilver Coil or Exalted Coral Ring instead.
Milestone 5
Feel free to experiment with any crazy Unique, Legendary or Experimental Items that you might craft, trade or find! The possibilities are endless!
Learn the basics for crafting gear with our Beginner Crafting Guide.
Check our Unique Item & Set Farming Guide and learn how to get them!
Want to know more about Legendary Items? Check our Legendary Guide!
Blessings
Completing a Timeline in the Monolith of Fate lets you choose one of several randomized Blessings from its unique pool. Their benefits are permanent and persist even outside of the Monolith of Fate.
Empowered Blessings are a fundamental part of all builds, so getting the correct ones for each is key.
The sooner you reach Empowered Monolith, the faster you can start farming your desired Blessings!
Normal Blessings are not very important as they are eventually replaced by Empowered Blessings. However, they can still be a great source of Resistances, Critical Strike Avoidance or Life Leech for your build early on.
Pick up these Normal Blessings on your way to Empowered:
- Echo of Solarum
- Thirst of the Sun
- Mysteries of the Deep
- Bastion of Divinity
- Survival of Might
- Persistance of Will
- Protection of Heorot
- Resolve of Grael
- Bulwark of the Tundra
- Heart of the Caldera
- Embers of Immortality
- Body of Obsidian
Note: Don't target farm Normal Blessings. Get to Empowered Monolith as fast as you can.
Reaching Empowered Monolith unlocks all the level 100 Timelines and the ability to farm Empowered Blessings. Unlike Normal Blessings, these need to be farmed until you get the desired ones for your build. It is extremely important to get this set up as quickly as possible to free up affix slots on your gear. Remember, the more value you get from your Blessings, the easier it is to craft efficient gear!
These are the core Combat Empowered Blessings for this build:
- Start with Grand Survival of Might. This can be swapped out later once you have enough HP, Armour, and Health Regeneration for Grand Resolve of Humanity
- Grab Grand Echo of Solarum initially and swap to Grand Greed of Darkness when appropriate.
- Farm Grand Rhythm of the Tide for the amazing health regeneration.
- Pick Grand Bulwark of the Tundra and Grand Body of Obsidian for additional survivability.
These Empowered Blessings are flexible and depend on your current needs and goals.
These are valuable Empowered Drop Rate Blessings for this build:
- Grand Mark of Agony can help you find your Idols. Once you find all your Idols, you can switch to Grand Scales of Greed for gold or Grand Winds of Fortune and focus on Uniques instead.
- Grand Scars of Blood helps you find more Axes. A good Cleaver Solution is essential for the build and can sell for a lot with Merchant's Guild players.
- Use drop blessing to help you find your missing pieces and change as needed.
Learn how to farm Blessings fast with our Advanced Monolith Strategies.
Idols
Idols grant your character bonuses when equipped in the dedicated Idol Container. Unlock all the slots of your Idol Container by completing the Campaign and some of its Side Quests. Remember that some Idols are Class specific and you won't be able to equip them with other non-compatible Classes.
These are the Idols recommended for this build:
- Find 4 Adorned Heorot Idol with Chance To Create An Aftershock Under A Nearby Enemy On Melee Attack and Health Regen While Transformed.
- Get 4 Small Eterran Idol with Health Regeneration and a resistance suffix such as Void Resistance, Poison Resistance, Physical Resistance, or Necrotic Resistance.
- You might need extra Resistances out of your Idols early on, so keep an eye for anything useful until you get your final setup.
Other useful Idol Affixes
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Idol Slots.
Learn how to be efficient with Idols with our Advanced Idols Setups Guide.
Build Scaling
This Druid uses permanent Werebear Form and stacks Melee Attack Speed related buffs to proc as many Aftershock's as possible. This build also has great survivability thanks to the multiple defensive layers it can take advantage of as well as possibly the best recovery in the game due to the extremely high Health Regeneration and Ward per Second thanks to Vessel of Strife.
- %Physical Damage and Added Physical Melee Damage: Anything that increases Melee Physical Damage is welcomed.
- Melee Attack Speed: The faster you attack with Swipe the more Damage you deal and Ailments you apply. Roar's Berserker buff grants up to 60% Melee Attack Speed thanks to Warcry's Fury Strikes Node and Fury Leap's Rage Node provides a 30% Melee Attack Speed buff.
- Strength: Swipe and Maul gain 4% Damage per point of Strength. Additionally it grants 4% Armour per point, which adds a nice defensive layer for the build.
- Physical Resistance Shred and Physical Penetration: Lower enemy resistances and give a multiplicative damage boost.
- Cull: 2 Points into Swipe´s Culling Node provide a 14% kill threshold. This is not recommended in this version of this build but may be good for certain encounters.
- Health Regeneration Per Second: The bulk of your recovery and a hearty Ward pool thanks to Vessel of Strife.
- Roar: Grants a brief Damage Immunity thanks to Warcry's Juggernaut Node.
- Berserker: Provides 25% Damage Reduction when you are below 35% of your total Health. This Passive has insane synergy with Hideskin and Endurance.
- Endurance: A defensive mechanic that allows you to take up to 60% less Damage while below a certain Health threshold. Thanks to Hideskin your base Endurance Threshold is 30% of your total Health.
- Ursine Strength: Grants 16% Damage Reduction against Nearby enemies.
- Aspect of the Boar: Boar Heart grants 15% Damage Reduction when hit.
- Dodge: Maelstrom's Sleet-Footed Node allows you to reach between 40% and 60% Dodge, depending on the total amount of active Maelstrom stacks and added Dodge Rating on your gear.
- Melee Attack Speed: The faster you attack with Swipe the more Maelstroms you proc with Ursine Storm for additional Dodge.
- Armour Mitigation: This setup can get insanely high Armour. Combine the Armour from your Item Implicits, Grand Body of Obsidian Blessing, Grand Bulwark of the Tundra Blessing and all the Strength this build has to reach 50% to 70%+ Mitigation. This is huge on top of all the other defensive layers the build has.
- Reduced Bonus Damage from Crits: This stat is desirable and may be swapped out for Health to reduce the frequency of spiked damage. However, due to your large health pool and recovery, it is very unlikely that this build can be burst down.
- Health: This build still gets a sufficient amount of health to allow your other defensive layers and recovery to do work.
- Chill and Slow: Ailments that greatly reduce the Action and Movement Speed of your enemies. They are must haves on most builds, especially once you reach hard content with insane speed modifiers.
- Frailty: This Ailment reduces the Damage dealt by enemies by 6% for 4 seconds. Stacks 3 times.
- Ward and Ailment Cleansing on Potion Use: Cleanse all Ailments on Potion use.
Our Damage Explained Article covers all you need to know to scale Damage.
Learn all you need to know to scale Defense with our Defense Explained Article.
Loot Filter
Loot Filters are critical in Last Epoch. Making sure you highlight all the related valuable Item Bases, Affixes, Uniques and Idols is crucial to ensure your character's progression. As your gear gets better, remember to hide the rules that are no longer useful to avoid screen clutter.
Here is the Endgame Loot Filter for this build:
Learn how to load and make Filters with our Loot Filter Guide.
Video Guide
COMING SOON!
Summary
This unstoppable Werebear Form build brutally charges across the battlefield with Rampage and unleashes Swipe against its enemies. Overall this Druid is an incredibly tanky setup capable of completing all the content in the game.
- Spam Swipe and destroy your enemies.
- Tank hard hitting boss mechanics with your insane effective Health pool and recover it in seconds thanks to Vessel of Strife.
- Cast Roar and attack with Swipe to cast additional Maelstroms while in Werebear Form.
- Maintain 6 stacks of Maelstrom to get Haste from Windswept and Frenzy from Windfury.
- Berserker, Ursine Strength, and Boar Heart provide insane Damage Reduction.
Credits
Written by Amarathy.
Reviewed by Lizard_IRL.