The Frost Claw Runemaster dives deep into the Cold fantasy, with a proc base playstyle that takes advantage of 3 damage dealing skills. This build is pure eye candy for those that enjoy Cold damage while delivering a well rounded build that can handle all content in the game.
This is a Ranged Spell based build that procs skills for both Clear and Single Target. The damage comes from Frost Claw, Elemental Nova and Ice Barrage. The build also boasts excellent tankiness and CC thanks to Flame Ward and Frost Wall plus the ability to Freeze enemies.
While this setup doesn't require any Uniques to function, Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros along with Bleeding Heart is highly desirable to push Empowered Monoliths. That being said, both of these Uniques are easily acquired, making the build a friendly starter option.
Overall this Runemaster build is a jack-of-all-trades with no obvious weaknesses and satisfying gameplay for Cold damage and proc based playstyle enjoyers.
This article assumes you have a Level 70 Character. Reach Level 70 with our Runemaster Leveling Guide.
If you are looking for a different playstyle check all our Build Guides.
- Strong CC
- Very Tanky
- Starter Friendly
- Solid Clear and Single Target Damage
- Mana Intensive
- Not The Fastest Farmer
- Not Top Tier At Anything
- Flame Ward Uptime Management
Skills
Frost Claw
Frost Claw is your main Damage Skill. It is used to proc Elemental Nova through Celestial Conflux and Ice Barrage through Power Word: Hail. Kolheim Ballista makes Ice Barrage even more powerful. Gift of Winter and Frozen Reign are used to manage the mana costs of the other skills.
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.
- Arcane Momentum and Essence of Celerity provide a ton of value through Cast Speed, Spell damage, and Movement Speed.
- Calculated Destruction is a tremendous amount of Critical Strike Chance at high Intelligence stacking.
- Sphere of Protection is a great defensive passive.
- Quintessence of Triumph is both an additive and multiplicative damage boost.
- Inscribed Instruments is great for Wands, which we use in this setup.
- Thanks to our high attack speed, we only need 1 point in Runeword: Avalanche to get the full benefit of this node.
- Rune of Dilation is a Movement Speed and Cast Speed buff that's easy to keep high uptime on with Teleport.
- Runeword: Cataclysm is a large source of Critical Strike Chance with some extra damage as a bonus.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
This caster Runemaster attacks enemies from mid range, ensuring that all of the skills at his disposal can hit the target. Make sure you are familiar with enemy mechanics to know when to use your Support Skills to stay alive. Pay attention to dangerous telegraphed attacks and be aware of ranged enemy threats.
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Start by casting Flame Ward.
- Use Frost Wall on tanky enemies
- Spam Frost Claw to deal damage to enemies. Aim for the middle of a large pack, or the farthest enemy in small packs.
- Keep track of your Mana. If your Mana Regeneration isn't high enough, you may need to take short breaks from Frost Claw spam to cast other skills. Once you have enough Mana Regeneration this will happen much less often.
- Recast Flame Ward before approaching high damage or tanky enemies.
- Use Teleport for positioning and to avoid telegraphed attacks
Mapping
- Group as many enemies as possible before attacking with Frost Claw to maximize its AoE.
- Use Teleport to leave dangerous enemies behind and traverse terrain gaps.
Bossing
- Take advantage of all your defensive buffs and keep them active.
- As long as you have mana, keep Frost Wall up for the damge bonus.
- Make sure you have some mana available at all times to use your 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 other defensive layers, while fitting as much Health related Affixes or Endurance Threshold into your gear 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
- 100% Reduced Bonus Damage Taken From Crits
- 80+ Intelligence
- 3000+ Health
- 30% - 40%+ Armour (Pre Buffs)
- 100% Critical Strike Chance
- 300%+ Critical Strike Multiplier
- 100%+ Cast Speed
- 400% - 800%+ Increased Damage
- 30% - 60%+ Movement Speed
Gear Progression
Milestone 1
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. Get a Weapon with double T5 offensive Affixes as soon as possible.
Milestone 2
Pick up an Avarice from the early Campaign quest Erza's Ledger. This provides you with Leech until you replace it with a Blessing. Start pushing your health as high as you can. Work to get over 2k before reaching Empowered Monoliths.
Milestone 3
Get a Crystal Skull or another Catalyst with +% Spell Critical Strike Chance and then Focus Intelligence and Increased Critical Strike on the rest of your gear (Calculated Destruction gives is Spell Critical Strike Chance with Intelligence). Try to get as close to 100% total Critical Strike chance as you can without sacrificing your survivability.
Milestone 4
Look for a Crystal Wand and combine it with an Arcane Visage and Arcane Regalia that have Increased Spell Crit (Doubled If You Have Over 300 Max Mana). These three combined will put you over 300 Mana and double the output from this affix as well as any Increased Cold Damage (Doubled If You Have Over 300 Max Mana) you have on your Idols.
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 momentarily or increase your Damage output. Keep an eye out for a Huge Arcane Idol with Seconds of Stun Immunity after using Teleport. The Stun Immunity significantly smoothes out your gameplay in challenging content.
Milestone 1
Farm a Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros from Emperor of Corpses in the Reign of Dragons Timeline. This is a massive boost to your survivability! It needs Leech to function properly, so make sure to pair this with Bleeding Heart and Grand Hunger of the Void. Bleeding Heart is a common drop that can most easily be farmed with Rune of Ascendance.
Milestone 2
Get a source of Chance to Shred Armour on Hit and Chance to apply Frailty on Hit. These are significant boost to your Offense and Defense, respectively.
Milestone 3
Get your Reduced Bonus Damage Taken From Critical Strikes at or near 100% to mitigate Critical Strike damage against you.
Milestone 4
Start to focus on finding three sources of Mana Regen to smooth out the build and prevent unlucky RNG from burning all of your mana. WE prefer to find it on rings and boots, but it can also go on your amulet.
Milestone 5
As you finish up your Empowered Blessings keep your Resistances capped. 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. 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
Farm Throne of Ambition in The Stolen Lance Empowered Monolith Timeline. It's a rare drop from God Hunter Argentus so it might take a few tries to drop. This Idol is great for increasing your Boss DPS and survivability.
Milestone 3
Farm Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros with Legendary Potential from Emperor of Corpses on Empowered difficulty. Aim for the indicated Affixes in the Planner for each slot.
Milestone 4
Push your health as high as you possibly can while also working towards 100% Critical Strike Chance, 1500+ Armor and 80+ Intelligence. These stats are what turn this build into a true powerhouse, so focus them hard!
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
Continue farming Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros 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!
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
- Crash of the Waves
- Survival of Might
- Persistance of Will
- Protection of Heorot
- Resolve of Grael
- 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 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 Hunger of the Void. This is your only means of sustain if damage cuts through your Ward into your Health.
- Grand Resolve of Humanity makes it much easier to reach Resistance Cap.
- Grab Grand Rage of Winter for a big boost to your damage. If you prefer defense pick up Grand Bulwark of the Tundra instead.
- Grand Might of the Sea TItan provides a very large amount of Increased Damage. Alternatively, go Grand Resonance of the Sea for added survivability.
- Finish up by farming the best rolled Grand Body of Obsidian you can get. It grants an insane amount of Flat Armour that helps increase the survivability of the build and synergises greatly with Throne of Ambition.
These Empowered Blessings are flexible and depend on your current needs and goals.
These are valuable Empowered Drop Rate Blessings for this build:
- Grand Winds of Fortune since this build can use many Unique Items.
- Grand Enmity of the Clans helps you find more Exalted Crystal Swords.
- Lastly, take Grand Talon of Granduer, Grand Vision of the Aurora or Grand Binds of Sanctuary depending on what type of Unique you are looking for.
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 a Huge Arcane Idol with Seconds of Stun Immunity after using Teleport and Increased Cold Damage (Doubled If You Have Over 300 Max Mana).
- Four Stout Lagonian Idols with double Health will considerably increase your survivability
- Complete your setup with a situational mix of Idols to cap your Resistances. For prefixes use Mana, Armour, Ward Retention or Increased Stun Chance.
- Use Throne of Ambition for Boss fights. You can farm it in The Stolen Lance Empowered Monolith Timeline. It's a rare drop from God Hunter Argentus.
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 build uses Frost Claw to proc Elemental Nova and Ice Barrage, dealing both AoE and Single Target damage and building huge amounts of Ward through Jagged Veil and Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros.
- Flat Spell Damage: Primarily gained from your Wand, so upgrade this quickly.
- Cast Speed: The faster you attack the higher your DPS is and faster you build Ward. Mage Flurry and Unsealed Mana provide some in the Passive tree, with the rest coming from your gear.
- Cooldown Reduction: Increases the uptime for both Flame Ward and Teleport. Not that important for this build since we can get perma Flame Ward uptime with Frost Wall, but manual cast is more mana efficient and more uptime on Teleport is nice to have.
- Flame Ward: In this setup we don't just use this skill for defense. It also provides 10 Spell Cold Damage and 250% Increased Cold Damage, which together are a tremendous buff to our damage output that we can keep up 100% of the time.
- Crystal Wand: Dragonhorn Wand is also nice, but the extra mana from Crystal Wand makes it easier to hit the 300 mana bonuses we need to get Crit capped.
- Crystal Skull: The flat Crit Chance on this Catalyst is a must to get Crit Capped. The Intelligence and Ward Retention make it even better.
- Intelligence: All of our damage skills gain 4% Damage per point of Intelligence. Additionally it grants 4% Ward Retention per point, which is a very important stat for this build. Calculated Destruction gives us another 3% Critical Strike Chance per Intelligence, making this an insane scaler for the build and a very high priority stat.
- % Increased Damage: Any extra source of % Increased Cold or Spell Damage is welcomed.
- Critical Strike Chance: This build has a ton of Crit Damage, so scaling your Crit Chance as high as possible is a priority.
- Critical Strike Multiplier: Increases the Damage your Crits deal. This build gets a tremendous amount from the Shatter Strike node Cold Steel
- 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, it's very reasonable to get to -10000 (54%) and can realistically get to -20000 (58%)!
- Grand Rage of Winter: This provides a 20% increase in damage to bosses. Getting to the cap of 10 stacks is trivial for this build.
- Throne of Ambition: This Idol is a 40% damage multiplier against bosses.
- Cooldown Reduction: Cast Flame Ward and Teleport more often.
- Flame Ward: The Damage Reduction is insane. While this Skill is active you are almost immortal!
- Armour Mitigation: This build can get a decent of Armour. With Throne of Ambition it's reasonable to get over 40% Physical Damage mitigation and ~30% for all other damage types.
- Ward: A shield above your Health that is generated by certain effects, rapidly decays over time and is protected by Armour Mitigation. This build is an excellent Ward generator thanks to Jagged Veil and Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros.
- Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros is a huge Ward builder that can easily keep you in the thousands of Ward. Because it builds Ward off of current Health, we need a way to consistently recover our HP, which is why we use Bleeding Heart and Grand Hunger of the Void. Bleeding Heart would not normally work in a Spell based build, but thanks to the Frost Claw node Brightfrost, we can continuously Cleanse the Bleeds we get from the Amulet.
- Health: Health stacking is very important to get the most out of Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros. We're shooting for a minimum of 3000 HP in the late endgame.
- Chill: An Ailment that greatly reduces the Action and Movement Speed of your enemies. It's a must have 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.
- Freeze: Even though we don't build for it, this build can still freeze many enemies, providing an nice CC layer.
- Stun: Elemental Nova and Ice Barrage output enough damage to Stun the most enemies.
- Stun Immunity: Provided by the Seconds of Stun Immunity after using Teleport affix on Huge Arcane Idols. The buff can be up nearly 100% of the time with some Cooldown Reduction on gear and an efficient rotation.
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 Frost Claw Runemaster is a well rounded Caster build that easily handles the content with enough investment. It's easy to play, has good damage, excellent survivability, CC, and mobility without any glaring weaknesses.
- Use Jagged Veil, plus Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros with a large Health pool to stack massive amounts of Ward.
- Deal large amounts of AoE and Single Target damage with Elemental Nova Ice Barrage by proccing them from Frost Claw.
- Teleport is a great Movement Skill that grants great defensive buffs on use.
- Flame Ward is an incredible Defensive Skill and Offensive skill
- The build is light on Uniques, making it a great starter option.
Credits
Written by McFluffin.
Reviewed by Lizard_IRL, Facefoot