Blast Rain Marksman Guide
Last Updated:July 6, 2024|Changelog
Welcome to the Blast Rain Marksman Guide. This Marksman launches Explosive Traps in the air with Blast Rain, triggering a spectacular display of Cold Projectiles that cover the entire screen, making it one of the most visually pleasing builds the game has to offer.
The build revolves around proccing an insane amount of Detonating Arrows with Explosive Trap through the Arrow Traps Node. In addition, Reign of Winter is used to get even more procs in the form of Icicles. This Marksman also has incredible mobility and utility thanks to Shift, Smoke Bomb, Shurikens and unspecced Decoy.
You need Reign of Winter to play this build! It can be easily obtained by defeating Heorot in the Age of Winter Monolith Timeline. It has a 50% drop rate in both Normal and Empowered Monolith.
In addition to Reign of Winter, this build shines with Uniques. Items like Mourningfrost and Peak of the Mountain provide tons of Damage, while Urzil's Pride is great for the Mana Regen.
Overall the Blast Rain Marksman is an amazing build capable of defeating all content in the game. It has extremely fast clear speed, good Damage and great mobility. If you are looking for a ranged build with a fast, active and rewarding playstyle, this setup is perfect for you!
This article assumes you have a Level 70 Character.
Reach Level 70 with our Marksman Leveling Guide.
This build needs Reign of Winter. Check our Unique Item Farming Guide for tips!
If you are looking for a different playstyle, check all our Build Guides!
- Massive Range and AoE
- Great Single Target DPS
- Deals Damage While Moving
- Insane Scaling With Gear and Uniques
- Can't AFK Facetank
- Mana Management
- Requires Uniques to Shine
- Requires Mana Sustain Investment
Skills
Explosive Trap
Explosive Trap procs Detonating Arrow through Arrow Traps. Take Blast Rain to convert it into a Bow attack. When specced into both Static Mines and Coldsnap Mines, you will get additional traps thrown with Trapas. Subtle Sabotage and Jelkhor's Blueprint are necessary to reduce the Mana cost. Grab Smoke Traps to get stacks of Dusk Shrouds.
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.
- Take the Dexterity, Bow Attack Speed, Glancing Blow and Critical Strike Multiplier Nodes.
- Spec 5 Points into Raptor's Wings to unlock Explosive Trap.
- Early on, if you don't have enough Mana Regen to sustain, take Sapping Strikes to regain your Mana by manually using Detonating Arrow.
- Draining Arrows and Perfect Aim are crucial for sustain, grab them as soon as possible.
- Sharpshooter and Death from Afar boost your Damage significantly.
- Place 1 Point in Covering Fire to get a stack of Silver Shroud when you proc Arrow Storm.
- Max out Ethereal Arrows for the maximum Mana and Mana Regen it provides.
- Investing 5 Points into Pursuit is great for the extra Movement Speed.
- Reflection provides a good amount of Movement Speed, as long as you have Concentration up.
- Ethereal Arrows is an option for additional Mana Regen.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
The Blast Rain Marksman wants to position itself far away from its enemies while raining down its deadly projectiles. Make sure you are familiar with enemy mechanics to know when to use your Support Skills to stay alive. Paying attention to the telegraphs of your enemies and staying out of their range is critical with this build.
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Use Explosive Trap to proc tons of Detonating Arrows and Icicles.
- Keep your Bladed Armor buff from Shurikens active by using Shift as often as possible when out of danger.
- Smoke Bomb with Escape Tactics can be used as an extra gap closer that leaves a persistent Slow on the ground for easier kiting.
- If you don't yet have enough Mana Regen, spec Sapping Strikes and manually use Detonating Arrow to regain Mana.
Mapping
- Move quickly with Shift and Smoke Bomb.
- When enemy density is high, use Decoy and redirect their aggro.
- Detonating Arrows and Icicles continue dealing Damage even after you stop attacking. Stay on the move to increase your clear speed.
Bossing
- Use Decoy to distract the Boss. Take advantage of this window to reposition or DPS.
- Shift can save you from incoming Damage. Time it against dangerous telegraphed Boss attacks.
- Hold Smoke Bomb to juke incoming attacks or until you need their defensive buffs.
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 stack as many other defensive layers as possible. Plan ahead for your next upgrades and consider the final Empowered 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
- Capped Critical Strike Avoidance
- Capped Endurance
- 2000 - 3000+ Health
- 35% - 50%+ Armor
- 100+ Dexterity
- 100% Glancing Blow (with Dusk Shrouds)
- 25+ Mana Regen
- 350%+ Critical Strike Multiplier
- 70% - 90%+ 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. Get Chance to Blind on Hit on your Quiver.
Milestone 2
Make sure your Critical Strike Avoidance is capped. You can easily get this from Blind, provided by Shadow Hunter and Chance to Blind on Hit on your Quiver. Remember that Woven Flesh is always an option early on. Farm this by killing the Abomination in the Fall of the Outcast Monolith Timeline.
Milestone 3
Get as much Mana Regeneration as you can to spam Explosive Trap. 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
Farm Throne of Ambition in The Stolen Lance Empowered Monolith Timeline. It's a rare drop from God Hunter Argentus. This item provides a multiplicative Damage and Armor buff.
Milestone 5
While you look for this basic set of gear, start farming your Empowered Blessings and look for any Idols that can help you cap all your Resistances or increase your Damage momentarily. Try to find a Large Shadow Idol with %Health Prefix and Elemental Resistance Suffix.
Milestone 1
When all your core Defenses are covered, start working on your Damage. Dexterity, Bow Attack Speed, Cold Penetration and Critical Strike Multiplier increase your DPS drastically.
Milestone 2
Get Urzil's Pride to increase your Mana Regen based on Lightning Resistance.
Milestone 3
Use the Unique Boots Echo rewards in the Spirits of Fire Monolith Timeline to farm Mourningfrost. Stack Dexterity to maximize the Damage you get from these Boots, while keeping your Cold and Physical Resistances Capped.
Milestone 4
Farm Peak of the Mountain by killing The Mountain Beneath in the Lightless Arbor Dungeon. This item is essential for scaling your Crit Chance. Kill the boss in T4 difficulty to maximize drop rate.
Milestone 5
Keep an eye for Large Shadow Idols with %Health Prefix and Elemental Resistance Suffix.
Milestone 1
Continue upgrading your gear with T7 Exalted items and begin farming all your Uniques with Legendary Potential. Look for Nemesis encounters in Echoes to add Legendary Potential or Legendary Affixes to any Unique with the Egg of the Forgotten.
Milestone 2
Omnis provides a convenient way to cap your Resistances, and valuable +1 All Skills. Farm it from the Shade of Orobyss in any Monolith of Fate Timeline at 200+ Corruption.
Milestone 3
Focus on finishing your Large Shadow Idols with %Health Prefix and Elemental Resistance Suffix. You also want Stout Lagonian Idols with %Health Prefix and Health Suffix. The Suffixes on these Idols can also have Resistances, use them as needed.
Milestone 1
Keep upgrading your gear with Exalted Items with high tier 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 and Legendary Potential are technically possible.
Milestone 2
Using two Red Ring of Atlaria is an option, if you get them with Legendary Potential and can reach the 180 attributes threshold.
Milestone 3
Continue farming all your Uniques with the maximum Legendary Potential you can find. Remember that some of these Items are extremely hard to get with multiple Legendary Potential. Good luck with the chase!
Milestone 4
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 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
- Bastion of Divinity
- Survival of Might
- Persistance of Will
- Protection of Heorot
- Resolve of Grael
- Heart of the Caldera
- Embers of Immortality
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 fast 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:
- Grand Resolve of Humanity helps cap Resistances and offsets the downside from Mourningfrost if your Dexterity gets very high.
- Grand Emptiness of Ash is good for the Damage. Grand Echo of Solarum is an option for Resistances.
- Get Grand Bastion of Divinity for Mana Regen withUrzil's Pride
- Grand Resolve of Grael provides valuable Resistances. If you are already capped, go for Grand Bulwark of the Tundra.
- Farm the best rolled Grand Body of Obsidian you can get. It grants a large amount of Flat Armor that helps increase the survivability of the build.
These Empowered Blessings are flexible and depend on your current needs and goals.
These are valuable Empowered Drop Rate Blessings for this build:
- Grand Sight of the Outcasts is valuable to help you find Large Shadow Idols with %Health Prefix and Elemental Resistance Suffix. Once you find all your Idols, you can switch to the Grand Winds of Fortune and focus on Uniques instead.
- Farm Grand Vision of the Aurora to find more Orian's Eye. If you'd rather find more Quivers, get Grand Apex of Fortune instead.
- Lastly, Grand Vigilance of the Damned helps you find more Exalted Bows.
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:
- Use as many Idols with Elemental Resistance and Cold Resistance as you need, depending on your total Dexterity while wearing Mourningfrost.
- Once Resistances are sorted, prioritize %Health. Stout Lagonian Idol and Large Shadow Idol can have both %Health and Resistance related Suffixes.
- Throne of Ambition provides a multiplicative Damage and Armour buff, which is great for Bossing.
- 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
The Blast Rain Marksman focuses on scaling Cold Damage. It uses Explosive Trap to proc Detonating Arrow and Icicle, scaling both Bow and Spell Damage. This Marksman also has good survivability thanks to the multiple defensive layers it can take advantage of.
- Reign of Winter: Provides an insane amount of Icicle procs.
- Dexterity: Each point of Dexterity grants 4% Damage per point. Detonating Arrow procced with Explosive Trap also gains Flat Damage per Dexterity when specced into Blasting Device. Additionally it grants +4 Dodge per point, which adds a nice defensive layer for the build.
- Mourningfrost: Since the build stacks Dexterity, it can make use of this amazing pair of Unique Boots. They grant 1 Flat Cold Damage to all Attacks and Spells per point of Dexterity, including Icicle! Mourningfrost comes with a downside of also reducing your Cold Resistance and Physical Resistance per point of Dexterity. A finished build can have over 100 Dexterity, so keep an eye on your Resistances as you gear up and make sure they stay capped.
- Bow Attack Speed: The faster you attack the more Detonating Arrows and Icicles you proc.
- Ash Compartment: This Node in Explosive Trap provides Resistance Shred. When specced into Coldsnap Mines, the Resistance Shred type is Cold. Since the build attacks so fast and has so many hits, it is extremely easy to apply 10 stacks of Cold Resistance Shred to your targets. 10 stacks increase the Damage enemies take by 50% (20% for Bosses).
- Chance To Shred Armour on Hit: Each stack of this Ailment reduces enemy Armour by 100 for 4 seconds and stacks infinitely. Enemies have 0 Armour by default and it can go into the negatives. At -1000 Armour a target takes 16.5% increased Cold Damage, while at -4000 Armour it takes 40%. With the amount of hits the build has, the stacks ramp up quickly. The Death from Afar Passive grants the build with enough of it.
- Throne of Ambition: Especially important while Bossing. The Cold Damage and Armour Multipliers are insanely powerful for the build.
- Critical Vulnerability: Unique to the Rogue, this Ailment adds 2% flat Critical Strike Chance to your targets per stack (max 10 stacks). Get it from Wound Maker and Weak Spot. Since Marksman lacks easy access to Flat Spell Critical Strike Chance, Critical Vulnerability is a great way to get some Crit early on.
- Peak of the Mountain: This item is great to scale your Crit Chance. Combine it with a Legendary Reign of Winter with Exalted Crit Chance and Bow Attack Speed.
- Critical Strike Multiplier: Increases the Damage your Crits deal. Fully stacked Perfect Aim provides 75% on its own. Build as much as you can on your gear.
- Mana Regen: Provides Mana sustain, allowing you to spam Explosive Trap, effectively increasing DPS.
- Glancing Blows: You take 35% less damage from Hits with Glancing Blows. Dusk Shrouds and your Passives provide a lot of it.
- Dusk Shrouds: Each stack grants 5% Glancing Blow Chance and 50 flat Dodge. You get these mainly from the Smoke Traps Node inside Explosive Trap. Smoke Bomb provides another source of them with the Shrouded in Darkness Node.
- Smoke Bomb: Can be used as an extra gap closer that leaves a persistent Slow on the ground for easier kiting. It provides Dusk Shrouds while standing on the fog. Additionally it has a Cleanse and gives Silver Shrouds on use.
- Silver Shrouds: As long as you have one up, the next hit you take is Dodged instead. You also gain 100 Ward per Silver Shroud once they proc to Dodge the incoming attack. Since they last 10 seconds each, you can time Smoke Bomb and Covering Fire apart to make sure you always have one Silver Shroud active, or quickly recover them if they proc. If you do this properly you can always have this protection against hits that can be Dodged, including some major Boss mechanics!
- Dodge: Dexterity, Flat Dodge, %Dodge and the extra Dodge provided by Dusk Shrouds allows you to reasonably reach between 20% and 40% permanent Dodge, on top of Silver Shrouds. The Elusive Node in Shift grants a massive Dodge boost for 1 second and can provide up to 80%+ Dodge for the duration.
- Shift: This dash gives immunity frames when used thanks to the Shadowslip Node. Time this Skill properly to avoid incoming Damage or potential 1 shots. It also provides a massive boost of Dodge and procs 5 Shurikens on use.
- Shurikens: They grant a ton of %Armour while active with Bladed Armor. They also Immobilize anything that gets close to you thanks to Stagger.
- Armor Mitigation: This build can get decent Armor. With the implicit Armor from your gear, the Grand Body of Obsidian Blessing and Shurikens you can easily reach 35%+ Mitigation with Armor. Thanks to Throne of Ambition, this Mitigation increases to 45%+ while Bossing.
- Decoy: Taunts enemies. While Taunted, enemies focus the Decoy instead of attacking you.
- Health: This build can stack a decent Health pool that is effective when combined with all the other defensive layers. Rogue has access to Large Shadow Idols with %Health.
- Health on Hit and Crit: Draining Arrows and Perfect Aim provide the build with high sustain. With the amount of hits the build has, it can recover all of its HP almost instantly.
- Evasion: The Damage Reduction while moving is great while escaping from threats.
- Chill and Slow: Ailments that greatly reduce the Action and Movement Speed of your enemies.
- Frailty: This Ailment reduces the Damage dealt by enemies by 6% for 4 seconds. Stacks 3 times.
- Cleanse: Shift removes all Ailments on use with Molting. In addition, Smoke Bomb does the same with Cleansing Steam.
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
Summary
Overall the Blast Rain Marksman is an amazing build capable of defeating all the content in the game. It rewards skillful gameplay, looks awesome and is super fun to play!
- Use Explosive Trap to proc tons of Detonating Arrows and Icicles.
- Stack as much Dexterity as you can handle with Mourningfrost, while keeping your Resistances capped.
- Use Decoy to distract your enemies. Take advantage of this to reposition and DPS.
- Stay far away from your enemies and stack the defensive Buffs that Smoke Bomb and Shurikens provide.
- Shift can save you from incoming Damage. Time it perfectly for the Damage Immunity!
- While they are not mandatory, Mourningfrost, Urzil's Pride and Peak of the Mountain are great Uniques that you want to get to scale the build to its full potential.
Credits
Written by Volca.
Reviewed by Lizard_IRL, Tenkiei.