Forged Weapons Forge Guard Guide
Last Updated:April 16, 2025|Changelog
Temper your anvil because the Forged Weapons Forge Guard guide is here. Craft your legion of steel and watch as they quench themselves in the blood of enemies. This build uses the might of Forged Weapons, perfect for those who crave the strength and certainty of steel.
Forged Weapons are a Minion that deal high Fire damage crits. Summon them from Forge Strike and the newly reworked Vengeance skill tree. Send your Forged Weapons into overdrive with Void Cleave's Molten Blades and the persistant buffs from Symbols of Hope. For mobility, this guide elects to use Volatile Reversal as the main traversal skill, but both Lunge and Healing Hands work well, as long as you can get Experimental Minions Transported with Traversal Skills on your boots.
This setup doesn't require any Uniques to function. However, we strongly recommend playing this build once you get the new Weavers Will Unique Clotho's Needle to improve your Damage output dramatically. Additionally, Items like Phantom Grip in conjunction with Falcon Fists are amazing for the build.
Overall this legionnaire army is a strong minion build that performs well in endgame. If you are looking for a the blacksmithing warrior that lets his creations do the work then this guide is perfect for you!
Clotho's Needle is recommended to play this build. Check our Unique Item Farming Guide for tips!
This build guide assumes you have a Level 70 Character.
Reach Level 70 with our Sentinel Leveling Guide.
Check our Tier Lists to know how this build performs in the current patch.
If you are looking for a different playstyle, check all our Build Guides!
Skills
Forge Strike
Hitting enemies with Forge Strike creates Forged Weapons, a Minion that inherits the stats of your equipped weapon and attack nearby enemies. Start with Forged by Fire to make their attacks deal primarily Fire damage. Well Forged Weapons grows your army size while Forgemaster, Lightforge, and Heavy Strike all increase their damage. Lastly, pick up Shrapnel as you can afford the steep Duration penalty to benefit from the massive damage modifier.
- The choice of mobility skill is completely optional and you may prefer Healing Hands or Lunge instead.
- Healing Hands can be quickly reset by healing your minions and activating the node Cloud Voyager.
- Lunge is great for not needing to be specialised if you wish to include a 5th skill that could be cast indirectly such as Ring Of Shields or Abyssal Echoes.
- Void Cleave needs to cleave your minions to apply the buff. The best time to do this is shortly after using a movement skill and having all minions teleported on top of you thanks to Experimental Minions Transported with Traversal Skills .
Skills showcase extra Skill Points in case you find +Level of Skills that may not be included in the Planners.
Passives
- The last 15 passive points are fairly optional and can be swapped around to meet your circumstances.
- Take points in Holy Icon if you are lacking Necrotic Resistance.
- Take points in Abyssal Endurance if you are lacking Physical Resistance or Void Resistance.
- Avatar of War is a great passive to improve your Forged Weapon's % Increased Damage if you are lacking in that damage bucket.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Spam Forge Strike to summon your 12 Forged Weapons.
- Buff your Forged Weapons by hitting them with Void Cleave.
- Use Vengeance to maintain buffs, generate Mana and create new Forged Weapons.
- Use your mobility skill to transport your Forged Weapons on top of you, allowing them to focus a nearby target and be easily hit by Void Cleave.
Bossing
- Take advantage of all your buffs and keep them active.
- Avoid over-summoning your Forged Weapons as you want to get the full value out of the Void Cleave buff.
- On difficult fights like Aberroth, command your Forged Weapons to attack from behind the boss to avoid incidental damage.
- Symbols of Hope can be used in an emergency to give you Ward and Damage Reduction.
Gear, Idols & Blessings
- Your Forged Weapons inherit the stats of your equipped weapon, so this is by far your top priority to farm. A Clotho's Needle offers the most potential damage with a gigantic stat budget, however getting the rights stats from Weavers Will can be difficult so consider other options such as a Volcanus, Sword Catcher, or a well itemised Exalted. Fire Penetration and Minion Fire Penetration is an extremely potent stat as your Forged Weapons benefit from both modifiers. Melee Attack Speed is also a top priority.
- The next most important item is to get dual Phantom Grips. This allows your Forged Weapons to benefit from up to 200% of the stats on your equipped gloves. Falcon Fists are a clear winner here for the Melee Attack Speed and shared Added Fire Damage to You and Your Minions. Critical Strike Chance is your highest priority for your Forged Weapons to reach crit cap, and Melee Damage Leeched as Health allows them to survive in very high corruption. Melee Attack Speed is also an acceptable choice.
- The Sunforged Set offers a hybrid Player and Minion damage option, but damage potential is currently lower than the set up provided in this guide. The Sunforged Greathelm Reforged however is still a great addition for the defensive bonuses and provids a large amount of flat Health Regeneration. As seen in the aspirational planner, Health Regeneration assists with our recovery and buffers our health with ward through Vessel of Strife.
Learn the basics for crafting gear with our Beginner Crafting Guide.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Idol Slots.
Build Scaling
Offensive Stats
- Flat Fire Melee Damage (Weapon only)
- % Increased Fire Damage (Weapon only)
- % Increased Melee Damage (Weapon only)
- % Increased Melee Attack Speed (Weapon and Gloves only)
- % Increased Crit Chance (Weapon and Gloves only)
- Added Melee Crit Chance (Weapon only)
- % Increased Crit Multiplier (Weapon only)
- % Increased Minion Damage
- Attunement
- Fire Resistance Shred
- Shared Fire Penetration
Defensive Stats
- Health
- Armor
- Endurance
- Block Chance
- Health Regen
- Leech
Scaling Tips
- Your Forged Weapons benefit from the stats of your equipped Weapon, and equipped Gloves via Phantom Grips. The benefit of Phantom Grips can exceed 100%.
- Void Cleave: Hitting your Forged Weapons with this skill infuses them with Molten Infusion from Molten Blades and Scorching Path. Using both charges of Void Cleave after teleporting all your minions thanks to Experimental Minions Transported with Traversal Skills is an easy way to hit all 12.
- Forged Weapons by default were difficult to keep alive, but with some investment into Minion Health and the defensive stat lines of your Falcon Fists including the implicit Endurance and Hybrid Health, you can get them to survive big damage events in high corruption monoliths.
- Likewise, have them quickly recover by getting Melee Damage Leeched as Health on your Falcon Fists and watch them sustain deadly damage over time effects or repeated unavoidable damage from bosses.
- Vengeance: This skill provides Damage Reduction against riposted hits, as well as 2 seconds after use from the Bolster node.
- Armour and Armour applies to Damage Over Time: The Sentinel has access to Armour from a plethora of sources, but is now also well equipped to deal with damage over time effects from Volatile Reversal's Phased Reality node, and the passive Iron Attunement which synergises with already wanting Attunement in the build.
- Armour Clad: Damage Reduction against nearby enemies.
- Walls of Solarum: Additional source of Damage Reduction.
- Sunforged Greathelm Reforged: Gain Heath Regeneration per Forged Weapon.
- Bladewall: Gain Parry Chance per Forged Weapon for 4 seconds after using Vengeance.
- Clotho's Needle: Converts your Block Chance to Parry Chance.
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 necessary to ensure your character's progression. Click on the Generate Loot Filter button down below then use the Paste Clipboard Contents button in-game to import it!
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
Overall the Forged Weapons Forge Guard is a strong endgame build that meets the fantasy of that blacksmithing warrior. It has high single target DPS and can survive deep into the endgame.
- Spam Forge Strike to build your legion of Forged Weapons.
- Infuse your Forged Weapons by hitting them with Void Cleave to send them into overdrive.
- Move across the map with Volatile Reversal and bring your army with you thanks to Experimental Minions Transported with Traversal Skills .
- Clotho's Needle is a terrific weapon for the build and a fun one to farm with Weavers Will potential. Grab your Phantom Grips and Falcon Fists scale the build to its full potential.
If you have further question on the guide, don't hesitate to reach out to the team through our socials.
Credits
Written by Amarathy.
Content Reviewed by Lizard_IRL.
Language Reviewed by Tenkiei.