Explosive Ballista Falconer
Last Updated:July 7, 2024|Changelog
The Explosive Ballista Falconer spreads havoc on the battlefield, filling it with explosions so humongous, some believe they compete with the Big Bang. It unleashes a constant flow of Explosive Traps which proc explosive Ballistae and decimate any opposition.
Explosive Trap serves as your source of Mana sustain once you get the cost to cost 0 Mana. Dive Bomb serves as a source of additional burst damage. The Explosive Ballista Falconer has mobility and utility tools thanks to Smoke Bomb, Falconry and Decoy.
This setup needs a total of -8 to Throwing Attack Mana Cost to function. You need two Exalted Tier 6 Rings with Throwing Damage and Reduced Mana Cost, or Bo's Anarchy. Without this reduced Mana cost, Explosive Trap costs Mana and therefore does not generate any Mana from Sapping Strikes.
This setup shines with Uniques. Melvern's Writ and Peak of the Mountain, Death Rattle, Woven Flesh and Apogee of Frozen Light provide Damage, while Foot of the Mountain and Cradle of the Erased raise tankiness.
The Explosive Ballista Falconer is truly a one-of-a-kind build in Last Epoch. Due to its incredible AoE, Damage, and multiple layers of Defense, it excels in all content, including high Corruption. Welcome to the blast zone!
This article assumes you have a Level 70 Character.
Reach Level 70 with our Falconer Leveling Guide.
This build needs -8 Throwing Attack Mana Cost. Check our Unique Item Farming Guide for tips if going for Bo's Anarchy setup!
If you are looking for a different playstyle, check all our Build Guides!
- Insane Damage
- Fast Clear Speed
- Screen-Wide AoE
- Great Scalability With Gear
- Screen Clutter
- Can't Facetank
- Requires Specific Items
- Low Sustain on Single Target
Skills
Ballista
Ballista is your main damage dealing ability. Armed Construction transforms it into an explosive. With Perfect Aim and Shared Enhancements, your own stats also apply to your Ballista. Efficient Construction is essential to lower the Mana Cost. Because this skill is triggered, you do not need Ballista to be on your Action Bar. Instead, use an unspecialized Decoy.
Alternate 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.
- Sapping Strikes is essential to sustain your Mana.
- Grab the Dexterity and Dexterity scaling Nodes for the many stats and multipliers you are scaling with Dexterity.
- Finesse Them provides a great way to further scale your Damage.
- Tailwind and Evasion provide great Damage Reduction when moving.
- Needle Like Precision provides a lot of Crit Chance and Critical Strike Multiplier.
- Tactician provides a high amount of Flat Damage for Ballista.
- Fencing Grace and Deflect and Weave are great ways to scale Block Chance and Effectiveness.
- Allocate Coordinated Fade to activate when you use your Explosive Trap. In this setup, 2 points are allocated. This means Explosive Trap should be the second Skill on your Action Bar, from left to right.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
Use Explosive Trap to proc Ballista from a safe distance. Make sure you are familiar with enemy mechanics to know when to use your Support Skills to stay alive. Pay attention to their telegraphed attacks!
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Use Explosive Trap to proc explosive Ballista.
- Use Dive Bomb and Falcon Strikes against priority targets.
- Employ Falcon Strikes to Cull or Fear enemies when needed.
- Throw Decoy when in danger to give yourself some breathing room.
Mapping
- Move quickly with Smoke Bomb and lay down Explosive Trap while moving to the objective.
- Use Dive Bomb and Falcon Strikes against priority targets.
- Use Decoy at the objective to ensure a safe disposal of any threat.
Bossing
- Take advantage of all your Defensive Buffs and keep them active.
- Use Decoy to distract the Boss. Take advantage of this window to reposition or deal damage.
- Smoke Bomb can save you from incoming damage. Time it against dangerous telegraphed Boss attacks.
- Use Falcon Strikes to Cull when it is low enough.
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 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
- Capped Endurance
- 200%+ Critical Strike Avoidance
- 2500 - 3000+ Health
- 30% - 40%+ Armour
- 100 -120+ Dexterity
- 100% Ballista Critical Strike Chance
- 150%+ Ballista Critical Strike Multiplier
- -8 Throwing Attack Mana Cost
- 50% - 100%+ Movement Speed
Gear Progression
Milestone 1
This build requires -8 Throwing Attack Mana Cost to function. Use Bo's Anarchy alongside 2 Rings with Throwing Damage and Reduced Mana Cost until you obtain Exalted Rings. Bo's Anarchy is target farmable in The Stolen Lance Timeline by targeting Unique Staff Echo Rewards or using Rune of Ascendance.
Milestone 2
Aim for good Item Bases with two 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 3
Make sure your Critical Strike Avoidance is capped. Especially on this build, it also provides Damage from Finesse Them Falconer Passive. 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 4
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 5
While you look for this basic set of gear, start farming your Empowered Blessings and look for any Idols which help you cap all your Resistances or increase your Damage output. Keep an eye out for Large Shadow Idol with Health and Elemental Resistance. Also lookout for Adorned Majasan Idol with Bow Physical Damage for Ballistae or Shared Critical Strike Multiplier.
Milestone 1
Aim for T5 Level of Ballista on your Relic to invest extra Points into its Tree. It provides a significant damage increase.
Milestone 2
When all your core Defenses are covered, start working on your Damage. Get Throwing Attack Speed and Dexterity to increase your DPS drastically.
Milestone 3
Look for Peak of the Mountain and Foot of the Mountain in the Lightless Arbor Dungeon. These are common drops from The Mountain Beneath Boss. Farm it on the highest Tier you can, at minimum farm Tier 2. Foot of the Mountain only drops in Tier 2+.
Milestone 4
Farm a Death Rattle in the Age of Winter Monolith Timeline. The Amulet is quite common and easy to get just by targeting Unique Amulet Echo Rewards or using Rune of Ascendance.
Milestone 5
As you finish up your Empowered Blessings keep a decent Health pool, capped Resistances, Endurance and Critical Strike Avoidance. Your goal is to have items with 4 valuable T5 Affixes, also known as T20.
Milestone 1
Upgrade your T20 set up with Exalted items, high value Sealed Affixes or ideally both. Make sure to have at least -8 Throwing Attack Mana Cost. 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.
Milestone 2
Keep farming Peak of the Mountain and Foot of the Mountain until you get them with Legendary Potential. These are common to get and easily target farmable.
Milestone 3
Look for Apogee of Frozen Light in the Reign of Dragons Timeline by targeting Unique Sword Echo Rewards or using Rune of Ascendance. Prioritize a well rolled Damage Multiplier to Chilled enemies. This Sword is powerful even without Legendary Potential. To benefit from the + Levels to Cold Minion Skills, make sure to change the Ballista Tree according to the planner.
Milestone 4
Look for Cradle of the Erased in The Black Sun Timeline by targeting Unique Shield Echo Rewards or using Rune of Ascendance. Prioritize high Block Chance.
Milestone 5
Farm Woven Flesh from Abomination in the Fall of the Outcasts Timeline. Its Critical Strike Avoidance is great at boosting your Damage. Only use it if you manage to get at least Dexterity on it as a Legendary.
Milestone 6
Look for Melvern's Writ in The Last Ruin Timeline by targeting Unique Relic Echo Rewards or using Rune of Ascendance. Only use it if you manage to get at least Level of Ballista on it as a Legendary.
Milestone 7
Keep farming for a Death Rattle with Legendary Potential in the Age of Winter Monolith Timeline. Target Unique Amulet Echo Rewards or use Rune of Ascendance.
Milestone 1
Keep upgrading your gear with Exalted Items with Sealed Affixes. Get every stat in the right place and on 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 get all your Large Shadow Idols with Health and Elemental Resistance. Find a Adorned Majasan Idol with Bow Physical Damage for Ballistae and Bow Critical Strike Chance.
Milestone 3
Keep farming until you get the maximum Legendary Potential you can find on all of your Uniques.
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! Good luck with the chase!
This variant is all about Damage, strictly relying on Silver Shrouds for Defense. As long as you have one up, the next hit you take is Dodged instead. The addition of Smoke Bomb gives you a second source of Silver Shrouds, alongside Coordinated Fade.
It also involves manually casting Ballista instead of spamming Explosive Trap. This results in less delayed damage and more control over your explosions.
The Gear, Skills, and Passives are slightly changed from the Regular Variants. Click on the paperdoll to the right to open it in the Planner and change your Skills and Passives accordingly.
This Variant is meant for a very specific playstyle which requires very careful gameplay. In the proper hand, it is used to push very high levels of Corruption in Softcore. If you get hit, you will die. Use at your own risk.
Milestone 1
You need to get a lot of Mana Regeneration to be able to spam Ballista comfortably. Get as much as you can and use Urzil's Pride with as much Lightning Resistance as possible on gear.
Milestone 2
Get as much Critical Strike Avoidance to increase your Ballistae's Critical Strike Multiplier via the Falconer PassiveFinesse Them. Apogee of Frozen Light are the Weapons of choice, granting extra More Multipliers to Chilled enemies and also synergizing with Mourningfrost's added Cold Damage.
Milestone 3
Stack as much Dexterity as possible, mainly to get the biggest Damage Multiplier from Armed Construction.
Bow Variant
Flight of the First is also a good option, since using Ballista grants you Ancient Flight, therefore 100% Critical Strike Avoidance. If you can't get a hold of Apogee of Frozen Light Swords, use Flight of the First instead.
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
- Resolve of Humanity
- 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:
- Start with Grand Resolve of Grael for the Physical Resistance.
- Grab Grand Echo of Solarum for the Void Resistance.
- Farm Grand Resolve of Humanity for the All Resistances.
- Pick Grand Body of Obsidian for the Armor it provides.
- Finish up by getting Grand Light of the Moon to increase your Mana pool and have less risk of running out if you are unlucky with procs from Explosive Trap.
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 us valuable to help you find Large Shadow Idol with Health and Elemental Resistance.
- Once you find all your Idols, you can switch to the Grand Winds of Fortune and focus on Uniques, or Grand Scales of Greed for Gold.
- Grand Talon of Granduer helps you find more Rings for the important Throwing Damage and Reduced Mana Cost.
- Grand Enmity of the Clans helps you find more One-Handed Swords for Apogee of Frozen Light.
Learn how to farm Blessings fast with our Advanced Monolith Strategies.
Idols
Idols grant your Explosive Ballista Falconer 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 4 Large Shadow Idol with Health and Elemental Resistance.
- Equip 1 Adorned Majasan Idol with Bow Physical Damage for Ballistae and Bow Critical Strike Chance to get up to 100% Critical Strike Chance on Ballista.
- Finish with 2 Stout Lagonian Idol with Health and Health to further increase your survivability.
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 Explosive Ballista Falconer uses Throwing Attack Speed to unleash Explosive Traps as fast as possible. It primarily uses Dexterity for lots of its scaling. The build mainly deals Cold Minion Damage and aims to reach 100% Critical Strike Chance with Ballista. This build also has great survivability thanks to the defensive layers it can take advantage of.
- Minion Flat Damage: You want to get as much Flat Damage as possible. Tactician and Bow Physical Damage for Ballistae are your main sources.
- Bow Flat Damage: Any amount you can get will apply partially to Ballista thanks to Shared Enhancements.
- % Minion Damage: Any increase to Minion Damage is welcomed.
- % Increased Damage: Ballista benefits from this stat, thanks to Shared Enhancements.
- Throwing Attack Speed: The faster you attack with Explosive Trap, the more Ballistae you will proc.
- Penetration: Penetration subtracts from resistances, causing a source of damage to deal more damage. You can easily get it on your Weapon with Cold Penetration and Minion Cold Penetration.
- Dexterity: Armed Construction is the main reason it is so important to stack it. The numerical value of the Damage and Area Multiplier are just too big to ignore.
- (Minion) Critical Strike Chance: Perfect Aim makes your Ballistae scale with your own Crit stats. Added Critical Strike Chance from Melvern's Writ, Sharpened Tips and Handler, in combination with Peak of the Mountain, Needle Like Precision and Bow Critical Strike Chance provide the bulk of the stats needed to reach 100% Critical Strike Chance.
- (Minion) Critical Strike Multiplier: Increases the Damage your Minion's Crits deal. Death Rattle, Critical Strike Multiplier and Needle Like Precision provide a lot of it.
- Critical Strike Avoidance: Thanks to Finesse Them, you can convert it into Critical Strike Multiplier. Build as much as you can on your gear.
- Level of Ballista: Get this Affix on your Relic to invest more points into its Tree.
- Cold/Fire Shred: Ash Compartment and Coldsnap Mines provides an easy way to apply this ailment. At the maximum amount of 10 stacks, it reduces enemies Cold/Fire Resistance by 50%, but is 60% less effective against Bosses.
- Movement Speed: Reduces the reaction time needed to react from attacks. The faster you move, the faster you can get out of danger!
- Glancing Blows: Thanks to Smoke Traps, you can easily get 100% Glancing Blow chance. You take 35% less damage from Hits with Glancing Blows.
- Dusk Shrouds: Each grants 5% Glancing Blow Chance and 50 Dodge Rating.
- 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. Allocate points into Coordinated Fade to activate when you use your Explosive Trap for an easy way to get uptime on Silver Shrouds.
- Dodge: Dexterity, Dodge, %Dodge and the extra Dodge provided by Dusk Shrouds, allow you to reach very high Dodge Chance, on top of Silver Shrouds. The Elusive Node on Shift provides a massive Dodge boost for 1 second and can provide up to 80%+ Dodge for the duration.
- Smoke Bomb: This Skill gives immunity frames while it's used thanks to the Escape Tactics node. Time this Skill properly to avoid incoming damage or potential 1 shots. It also provides stacks of Silver Shroud via Moonlight Bomb.
- Armour Mitigation: Just with the implicit Armour from your gear, the Grand Body of Obsidian Blessing and Stymphalian Feathers your Armour easily reaches 30%+ Mitigation.
- Decoy: This Skill Taunts enemies. While Taunted, enemies focus the Decoy instead of attacking you. It is an extremely powerful tool to give you some breathing room.
- Health: Rogue has access to Large Shadow Idols with %Health. Not all classes have access to this amazing Idols, so take advantage of it.
- Endurance: A defensive mechanic that allows you to take up to 60% less Damage while below a certain Health threshold. Your base Endurance Threshold is 20% of your total Health. Foot of the Mountain and Dusk Shrouds can bring this threshold up to cover your entire Health pool!
- Health on Crit: Finesse Them is your main way of sustaining your Health pool. With the size of its AoE, Ballista can deal an absurd amount of Hits per detonation, each giving you the Health gain.
- Evasion & Tailwind: The Damage Reduction while moving is great while escaping from threats.
- Crimson Shroud: Stacks up to 3 times, providing less Damage Over Time Taken. Gained from Crimson Skies.
- Chill: Greatly reduce the Action and Movement Speed of your enemies. Flash Frozen provides a way to apply it without using gear Affixes.
- Frailty: This Ailment reduces the Damage dealt by enemies by 6% for 4 seconds. Stacks 3 times.
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:
Circle Of Fortune Filter
Merchant's Guild Filter
Learn how to load and make Filters with our Loot Filter Guide.
Video Guide
Summary
The Explosive Ballista Falconer throws Explosive Trap which proc explosive Ballistae in a massive AoE. This Falconer is amazing at completing all the content in the game.
- This build needs a total of -8 Throwing Attack Mana Cost to function.
- Use Explosive Trap to proc Ballista.
- Use Dive Bomb and Falcon Strikes against priority targets.
- Stack as much Dexterity as you can to increase your Damage and AoE via Armed Construction.
- Your Crit stats apply to Ballista.
- Your Damage stats also apply to Ballista, but at a reduced % effectiveness.
- Peak of the Mountain is incredible to cap your Critical Strike Chance, and is easily target farmable in The Lightless Arbor Dungeon.
- While they are not mandatory, Uniques Items like Apogee of Frozen Light, Woven Flesh, Peak of the Mountain, Death Rattle, Cradle of the Erased, Melvern's Writ and Foot of the Mountain are great for unleashing this build's potential.
Credits
Written by BinaQc
Reviewed by Lizard_IRL, Tenkiei