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Druid Leveling Guide

Last Updated: February 25th 2024

Patch 1.0

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This Druid leveling build dissolves foes in a massive locust swarm. It uses Swarmblade Form to summon locusts and then Swarm Strike to create a huge Locust Swarm, destroying everything in its way.

This Druid build plays in melee range as it needs as many Bleed stacks on enemies as possible to scale its damage. It relies on Leech for recovery once it unlocks Swarmblade Form. Before that you play with Summon Thorn Totem in Spriggan Form. The Druid is also really tanky with 20% increased health and a massive defense boost when shapeshifting, plus Warcry giving you a short damage immunity.

Overall, the Swarmblade Druid is an amazing leveling build, as it provides insane damage from Swarmblade Form's skill tree alone, which allows you to focus on defense and recovery. It also scales really well into the end-game by boosting the defense of your locust so you can apply bleeds and scale your damage more reliably. This combination makes Druid leveling look easy.

Campaign Gear Planner
Specialized Skills

Check out the Campaign Guide for an in depth breakdown of the campaign.

Pros
  • Easy to Gear
  • Visually Pleasing
  • Very Good Damage
  • Circle AoE Playstyle
Cons
  • Lots of Skill Respecs
  • Weak Early Campaign
  • Need to Setup Damage
  • Low Mobility in Swarmblade Form

Gameplay

As we level the power of skills evolve, with some becoming stronger while others get weaker. To account for this, we transition from a setup that is optimized for early game to one that is more suited to tackling endgame content.

Early Setup

Use this setup until you have 6 points in Spriggan Form.

  • Swipe is your main damage ability. It applies Bleeds and generates Mana once you have Duality of Nature specialized.
  • For extra single target and clear, use Summon Thorn Totem and summon your Summon Wolf..
  • In dangerous situations, use Eterra's Blessing to heal yourself and your minions.
  • Use Fury Leap to move quickly through the chapters.
Skills to put in your Hotbar

Mid Campaign Setup

Use this setup until you have 5 points in Swarmblade Form.

  • Try to always be in Spriggan Form.
  • For single target and clear, spam Summon Healing Totem.
  • Summon your Summon Storm Crows to buff your Summon Thorn Totem.
Skills to put in your Hotbar

Final Setup

  • First, apply Bleeds to enemies in Swarmblade Form with melee attacks and Locust through Summon Hive.
  • Then use Swarm Strike to create a huge Locust Swarm.
  • Go into Werebear Form to extend Locust Swarm duration.
  • Use Roar in Werebear Form to be able to swap back to Swarmblade Form.
  • Summon your Summon Spriggan to buff your defenses.
Skills to put in your Hotbar

Key Leveling Notes

  • Keep your character at the area level by killing monsters.
    • To use this guide, you need to maintain at most a 5 level difference with the area.
    • Press C to open the character sheet to find your level and TAB to find the area level.
  • Only collect loot that serves as an upgrade.
    • The loot filter reveals many items that might not be an upgrade for your character.
  • If your inventory is full, stick gear with high value affixes in your stash and sell the rest.
    • Don't sell gear that has high value affixes to a vendor.
    • Instead, keep it to use later or destroy it with a Rune of Shattering or Rune of Removal.
  • Always get the best weapon you can.
    • Weapons are a core part of your power and getting a higher level base boosts your damage significantly.
    • Early on, you can buy them at the Gambler NPC in the Council Chamber town and in the End of Time town.
    • After level 40, they don't sell you higher item bases.
  • If you want to enter the Monolith of Fate early, unlock all the passive points and idol slots from quests first.
    • By the time you complete chapter 7, you will be ready to tackle the Monolith of Fate content.
  • Crafting is powerful and important for enhancing your gear.
    • Press F and place your item in the crafting interface to level up its affixes and craft new ones!
    • Adding health or vitality on a few empty affix slots can increase your HP by a significant amount!

If you need help with crafting, check the Beginner Crafting Guide.

Skills and Passives

Passives and Skills provide powerful effects that dictate the playstyle of a Class and its Masteries. Remember that you can allocate Passives in the first half of any Mastery regardless of the one you chose.

Click on the Arrows at the top and on the Bar at the bottom to see Passive and Skill Trees Progression

Gearing and Side Quests Step by Step

Itemization is a vital aspect of your journey in Last Epoch. While prefixes and suffixes matter, what sets Last Epoch apart is the power of item bases. Many items have potent implicit attributes that can rival or even surpass modifiers.

Level 1 to 10
Level 11 to 25
Level 26 to 40
Level 41 to 58
Early Monolith

Level 1 to 10

Items

  • On the Warrior's Bastard Sword of Wounds prioritize Chance to Bleed on Hit and Chance to Ignite on Hit. DoT damage in the early game is really high.
  • Blighted Silver Ring of Life is the best source of movement speed early on.
  • Warrior's Sage Antler of Life provides a decent attack damage boost early on.
  • On Mighty Leather Boots of Lucidity, prioritize Movement Speed and Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed to enhance your mobility.

Side Quests

  • Storeroom Sabotuers for 1 Passive point.
  • Evacuation Quest for 1 Passive point.
Items at Level 10
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.

Level 11 to 25

Items

  • Start equipping Idols with Vitality, any type of resistance, Health, Health on Kill, Chance To Bleed On Hit, Chance To Poison On Hit and Chance To Ignite On Hit.
  • Equip Manaforged Bearded Axe of the Coven to boost your Summon Thorn Totem damage substantially.
  • Attuned Gold Ring of Life provides significant elemental resistances, outshining other options at this level.
  • Avarice gives you a decent chunk of elemental resistances.

Side Quests

  • Erza's Ledger Quest for 1 Passive point and Avarice.
    • Don't talk to the Gambler NPC before completing this quest, otherwise you can't get Avarice.
  • The Upper District Quest for 1 Passive point.
  • An Ancient Hunt for extra Idol slots.
  • The Lesser Refuge Quest for 2 Passive point.
  • The Corrupted Lake Quest for 1 Passive point and extra Idol slots.
Items at Level 25
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.

Level 26 to 40

Items

  • Attuned Raptor Helm of Life and Warrior's Turquoise Amulet of Life helps you cap your Summon Thorn Totem's crit chance.
  • Attuned Turquoise Ring of Life and Attuned Shamanic Garb of Life are great damage bases for the build.

Side Quests

  • Hidden Gems Quest for 1 Passive point.
  • The Sapphire Tablet Quest for 1 Passive point and extra Idol slots.
Items at Level 40
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.

Level 41 to 58

Items

  • Piercing Bone Amulet of Life is the best amulet base in the game as it gives a lot of resistances, which gives you more space for suffixes on your gear.
  • As we transition to Swarmblade Form, try to get Blighted Great Axe of Legions and Mighty Blood Catcher of Life.
  • Deft Plated Gauntlets of Life and Primalist's Kolheim Armor of Life are great defensive bases for this build.
  • Warrior's Spidersilk Sash of Lucidity is a powerful base that helps you fix your cold res when combined with Mighty Heoborean Boots of Lucidity.

Side Quests

  • A Heoborean Cure Quest for extra Idol slots.
  • Liberating the Nomads Quest for extra Idol slots.
  • After defeating the Frostroot Warden boss and completing chapter 7 quests, you have reached the cap of 15 Passive points and 8 Idol slots. You can dive into the Monolith of Fate or you can choose to finish the campaign for a reward of +1 to all attributes.
Items at Level 58
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.

Early Monolith

Items

Important At this point, you have access to most of the best item bases in the game. Your upgrades come from prefixes and suffixes on items instead of the implicits.

Here is a recap of the best item bases :

  • Weapon : Bardiche, Imperial Halberd or Great Axe
  • Helmet : Darkwolf Pelt or Icewolf Pelt
  • Body Armour : Beastmail or Kolheim Armor
  • Belt : Spidersilk Sash or Praetorian Belt
  • Boots : Heoborean Boots or Solarum Greaves
  • Gloves : Engraved Gauntlets
  • Amulet : Bone Amulet
  • Rings : Gold Ring or Ivory Ring
  • Relic : Ochre Antler, Spirit Catcher or Blood Catcher
Items in Early Monolith
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.

Monolith Progression

After beating the Abomination timeline boss and completing your first timeline, you have the choice to go between The Stolen Lance timeline and The Black Sun timeline. Go for The Black Sun timeline.

You want to do timelines on the right-hand-side of the Monolith progression as they provides more relevant Blessings for your character progression.

Level progression includes 1-10, 11-25, 26-40, 41-58 and Early Monolith, scroll to find the correct tab.

Druid Uniques

If you are lucky you might get a Rune of Ascendance while leveling. Use this first on boots to get unique boots such as Eterra's Path.

Keep an eye out for useful Uniques such as Beast King.

Gear Stats Priorities

Best Prefixes

Damage
Defense
  1. Level of Swipe until 6 points in Spriggan Form
  2. Level of Summon Thorn Totem and Level of Spriggan Form until 5 points in Swarmblade Form
  3. Level of Serpent Strike, Level of Werebear Form, Level of Swarmblade Form, Level of Warcry and Level of Summon Spriggan after 5 points in Swarmblade Form
  4. Melee Attack Speed
  5. Physical Penetration and Poison Penetration
  6. Damage Over Time and Melee Damage
  7. Damage Over Time While Transformed and Melee Damage While Transformed
  8. Physical Damage and Poison Damage
  9. Shared Increased Melee Damage
  1. Vitality
  2. Melee Damage Leeched as Health

Best Suffixes

Damage
Defense
Utility
  1. Chance to Bleed on Hit and Chance to Ignite on Hit until 6 points in Spriggan Form
  2. Chance to Bleed on Hit after 5 points in Swarmblade Form
  3. Physical Penetration and Minion Physical Penetration and Poison Penetration and Minion Poison Penetration
  1. Health
  2. Hybrid Health
  3. Fire Resistance, Lightning Resistance, Cold Resistance, Elemental Resistance, Physical Resistance, Necrotic Resistance and Void Resistance
  4. Health
  5. Chance to Chill on Hit
  6. Chance to apply Frailty on Hit and Chance to apply Frailty on Melee Hit
  7. Chance to Slow on Hit
  8. Armour
  9. Dodge Rating
  1. Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed

Idols

Damage
Defense
Utility
  1. Chance to Bleed on Hit, Chance to Ignite on Hit, Chance to Poison on Hit until 6 points in Spriggan Form
  2. Bleed Duration For You And Your Minions
  3. Minion Chance To Bleed On Hit and Chance To Bleed on Melee Hit for You and Your Minions
  4. Chance to Bleed on Hit after 5 points in Swarmblade Form
  5. Minion Melee Attack Speed
  6. Damage Over Time For You And Your Minions, Melee Damage For You And Your Minions, Damage Over Time While Transformed, Melee Damage While Transformed and Physical And Poison Damage
  7. Shared Physical Damage
  1. Health
  2. Health
  3. Vitality
  1. Chance on Melee Kill to heal a Random Minion to Full Health

Loot Filter

Loot Filters are critical in Last Epoch. Highlighting all the related valuable Item Bases, Affixes, Uniques and Idols is crucial to your character's progression. As your gear gets better, remember to hide the rules that are no longer useful to avoid screen clutter.

Learn how to load and make Filters with our Loot Filter Guide.

Summary

This Druid leveling build shines in its offensive and defensive capabilities. It destroys everything in its path, establishing it as one of the smoothest mastery to level during the campaign.

  • Before respeccing Swipe, use it as your main damage ability in combination with Summon Thorn Totem.
  • Use Summon Thorn Totem in Spriggan Form as your main damage skill once you have 6 points in Spriggan Form.
  • Once you get 5 points in Swarmblade Form, use it as your main damage skill.
  • First, apply Bleeds to enemies with melee attacks and Locust through Summon Hive.
  • Then use Swarm Strike to create a huge Locust Swarm.
  • Go into Werebear Form to extend Locust Swarm duration.
  • Use Roar in Werebear Form to swap back to Swarmblade Form.
  • Once you respec to Swarmblade Form, search for good Battle Axe, then Wengari Axe at level 46.
  • Cap your Physical Resistance early to make the campaign look easy.

What's Next?

Congratulations, you completed the campaign and your first 3 Monoliths Timelines! What awaits you is unlocking Empowered Monolith after pushing through The Reign of Dragons, Spirits of Fire, The Age of Winter and The Last Ruin Timelines and activating the beacon in the middle of them. Then you can dive into dungeons, empower your character further and test your limits at the Arena leaderboard.

Check out our Druid Guides and find the perfect Druid Endgame build for you.

Explore the Monolith of Fate with our Beginner Guide and learn how to farm Dungeons.

Credits

Written by Terek.
Reviewed by Tenkiei.

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