Unleash Hail of Arrows (HoA) to cover the screen with a deadly Cold DoT rain and watch enemies die inside of it! This tactical Marksman build controls the battlefield with its huge AoE while staying out of range of enemies. The gameplay is slower and not as flashy as other builds from this Mastery, but it's extremely rewarding when executed properly. The build was conceived in the early stages of the Last Epoch Beta by an experienced Marksman player named Tunk and remains one of the best Marksman builds.
This is one of the only Marksman builds that utilizes the Rogue's Shadows as a core element. It has a clear Skill rotation that you need to learn and execute. Create Shadows with Smoke Bomb to consume them with Dark Quiver's Umbral Resolution Node and buff the Damage of your next Hail of Arrows.
This Marksman has incredible survivability, control and utility thanks to Smoke Bomb and Decoy. While the build does not require any Unique to function, it greatly benefits from items like Reign of Winter and Arrowguard.
Overall Hail of Arrows Marksman shines as one of the best builds for defeating the Monolith of Fate Bosses and pushing in the Endless Arena, even in Hardcore. If you are looking for a ranged build with a tactical, safe and rotation based playstyle, this build is perfect for you!
Smoke Bomb
Dark Quiver
Shift
Decoy
Hail of Arrows
This article assumes you have a Level 70 Character. Reach Level 70 with our Marksman Leveling Guide.
If you are looking for a different playstyle, check all our Build Guides!
Insane DoT DPS ✔
Amazing Boss Killer ✔
Massive Control & AoE ✔
Multiple Defensive Layers ✔
❌ Tedious Skill Rotation
❌ Requires Enemy Knowledge
❌ No Room for Positional Errors
❌ Has To Track Enemy Pathing to DPS
Skills
Hail of Arrows
Hail of Arrows is your Damage Skill. The deadly Cold DoT rain it leaves on the ground does insane Damage, has a huge AoE and long Duration. Be sure you buff it with your other abilities and aim to force enemies into it while they chase you.
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 all the Glancing Blow, Dexterity, Dodge and Health related Nodes.
- Thief's Quiver is crucial for sustain; grab it as soon as possible.
- Elemental Arrows and Elemental Barrage fit the playstyle of the build perfectly. Combining both Nodes with Coated Blades is crucial for scaling the Damage of the build. Coated Blades increases the Mana cost of your Hail of Arrows substantially, don't allocate points in it if you can't sustain Mana early on.
- Grab Master Archer to increase your Hail of Arrows area.
- Invest 5 points into Pursuit and Reflection for the Movement Speed.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
This Marksman wants to position itself far away from its enemies while setting up its deadly combo. Make sure you are familiar with enemy mechanics to know when to use your Support Skills to stay alive. Pay attention to the telegraphs of your enemies and stay out of their range.
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Start the rotation with Smoke Bomb and let it create Shadows.
- Immediately follow with Dark Quiver to start summoning Black Arrows.
- Grab a Black Arrow from the ground when Smoke Bomb has created at least 2 Shadows.
- Use Shift to generate a 3rd Shadow (3 max) and to buff your next Hail of Arrows.
- Aim and fire Hail of Arrows. Thanks to Umbral Resolution, it consumes all 3 existing Shadows, granting it insane Damage multipliers.
- Repeat the rotation once Hail of Arrows expires and your Mana has recovered.
- Be careful and patient when performing the combo. Enemies can punish you hard if you screw up.
Mapping
- You might not need the full combo to clear trash mobs while mapping. Performing the rotation with less than 3 Shadows is faster, figure out how much damage you need and don't wait for unnecessary Shadows.
- When enemy density is high, use Decoy and redirect their aggro. Wait for them to group while you run towards the objective then fire Hail of Arrows. Place it on choke points to funnel enemies into the deadly rain.
Bossing
- Take advantage of Hail of Arrows's duration and focus on avoiding Boss mechanics while it's active.
- Use Decoy to distract the Boss. Take advantage of this window to reposition and perform the DPS rotation.
- Shift can save you from incoming damage. Time it against dangerous telegraphed Boss attacks.
Advanced Skill Tips
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
- Capped Critical Strike Avoidance
- Capped Endurance
- 2000 - 3500 Health
- 30% - 60%+ Dodge Chance
- 50+ Dexterity
- 80% - 100% Glancing Blow
- 300% - 600%+ Elemental Damage Over Time
- 50% - 100%+ Movement Speed
- 200 - 300 Mana
Gear Progression
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. Ward and Ailment Cleansing on Potion Use is a must have for Belts.
Milestone 2
Farm Arrowguard and Reign of Winter with Legendary Potential. Aim for the indicated Affixes in the Planner for each slot.
Milestone 3
Aurora's Time Glass is a great addition to this build for survivability. If you manage to get Necrotic and Physical Resistances on your Quiver, the transition to this item from a Bone Amulet is way easier.
Milestone 4
Focus on finishing your Large Shadow Idol set up. Prioritize well rolled Increased duration with Hail of Arrows Prefixes. Your ultimate goal is to pair this Idols with Exalted Level of Hail of Arrows on your Body Armour and Increased Hail of Arrows Duration on your Helmet.
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.
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:
- Look for Large Shadow Idols with Increased duration with Hail of Arrows Prefix. These Idols are a crucial part for scaling the potential of this build. Prioritize high rolled ones even if their Suffixes are not desirable.
- These Large Shadow Idols can roll Increased damage while wielding a bow, Bow Damage and Elemental Resistance. Your goal is to eventually find four of them with Increased duration with Hail of Arrows plus one of these Suffixes.
- You also want four Stout Lagonian Idols with %Health. Look for flat Health Suffix or Resistances if needed.
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
This entire build is designed around buffing Hail of Arrows as much as possible. This is achieved through numerous buffs and sources of Flat Damage, Damage Increases and Multipliers. The Nodes inside its Skill Tree and the interactions with other Skills, Shadows and Passives provide this build with insane and reliable base damage, even without good gear. For that reason, this Marksman can focus on gearing defensively without giving up much of her offensive capabilities.
- Shadows & Dark Quiver: The Umbral Resolution Node is the core interaction that causes Hail of Arrows to deal massive Damage when following the DPS rotation described in this guide. Consume up to 3 Shadows for More Damage.
- Flat Bow Damage: With the amount of Multipliers this build has access to, you want to stack as much Flat Damage as possible. Luckily, this Marksman has multiple sources of Flat Bow Damage easily available. Since Hail of Arrows is the only Damage Skill used, you can ensure the full benefit of things like Heavy Arrows or the Elemental Arrows and Elemental Barrage combo. Reign of Winter has perfect stats for us, even if we can't proc the Icicles.
- Cold Penetration: Mainly provided by Reign of Winter. This Bow has the highest Flat Bow Damage available on any bow and has other stats that are perfect for the build. It can be farmed easily and gets even better with Legendary Potential. Even if we can't proc the Icicles it's still an insane weapon for this Marksman.
- Elemental Damage Over Time: This powerful Prefix has some of the highest numerical values of any offensive Affix in the game. This is a priority when it comes to scaling this build and its main source of Increased Damage.
- Dexterity: Hail of Arrows gains 4% Damage per point or Dexterity. Additionally it grants 4 flat Dodge per point, which adds a nice defensive layer for the build.
- Shift: This setup buffs your next Hail of Arrows Damage with Deadly Ambush and Braskula's Hesitation.
- Coated Blades: Increases the Mana cost of Hail of Arrows but grants it another huge Damage Multiplier Source. Don't allocate all points in it if you can't sustain Mana early on.
- Increased duration with Hail of Arrows: The longer Hail of Arrows lasts, the more Damage it deals. Additionally, the extra duration helps with the Mana sustain of the build as you don't need to perform the DPS rotation as often.
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.
Recommended End Game Activities
Last Epoch has multiple end game activities with completely different roles and rewards. All the builds in Maxroll.gg have been tested and are designed to complete all available content. However, not all builds excel at doing the same activities. Make sure you are familiar with the end game strengths and weaknesses of your character.
The Monolith of Fate is the main end game system. Most of your character gear upgrades are found here. Once you get all of your desired Empowered Blessings, you can start pushing Corruption to increase your chances at finding incredible Exalted Items. The Monolith of Fate rewards speedy builds that are able to target farm Echo Reward Nodes or stack Timeline Stability as fast as possible.
This Marksman is a great Monolith of Fate farmer. It's very safe and has great AoE, perfect for rushing objectives. Its single target makes it great for defeating Bosses to earn their Unique drops and Blessings.
Monolith Goals
Your goals in the Monolith of Fate differ greatly depending on what build you play and what stage your character progression is at. Here are the objectives you should aim at when playing this build:
- Reach Empowered Monolith as fast as possible.
- Farm your Combat Empowered Blessings. Prioritize gaining Timeline Stability and fight the Timeline Bosses as often as possible. Once you are done with one Timeline, move to the next one. Reach 200 Corruption to farm your desired Blessings faster, as it unlocks a 5th option to choose from after you defeat a Timeline Boss. Defeat the Shade of Orobyss to gain and transfer Corruption between Timelines.
- Get your Drop Rate Empowered Blessings.
- Farm for key Uniques.
- As you farm for Uniques, stack Corruption as high as your gear can handle. The higher Corruption you do, the more Items you find. Get your character ready for the other end game activities.
Monolith Modifiers
Every time you choose an Echo a Modifier comes attached with it, adding difficulty and changing how enemies behave. These Modifiers stay active for a maximum of 6 Echoes and stack with each other. Some Modifiers can handicap your build immensely while others can almost be ignored. Monolith Modifiers scale with Corruption and increase the Item Rarity of Echoes. Ideally you want to do the hardest content possible, without delaying your clear times. Keep up Item Rarity as high as you can without it slowing you down.
Easy Modifiers
- Enemy Critical Strike Avoidance.
- Enemy Critical Strike Chance (Once you have 100% Critical Strike Avoidance).
- Enemy chance to Dodge.
- Enemy chance to receive a Glancing Blow.
Avoid these Modifiers
- High health enemies take less damage.
- High health enemies deal increased damage.
- Increased enemy Movement Speed.
- While bossing: enemies Enrage at half health and enemies gain Frenzy and Haste when hit.
Learn more about the Monolith of Fate with our Empowered Monolith Guide.
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
COMING SOON!
Summary
Overall the Hail of Arrows Marksman is a very complete build that can deal with all the content in the game. It rewards tactical, rotation based gameplay and it's super safe!
- Create Shadows with Smoke Bomb and Shift to consume them with the Umbral Resolution Node inside Dark Quiver and buff the Damage from your next Hail of Arrows.
- Be careful and patient when performing the DPS combo. Enemies can punish you hard if you screw up.
- Stay far away from your enemies!
- Use Decoy to distract and group your enemies. Take advantage of this to reposition and DPS.
- Stack the defensive buffs that Smoke Bomb and Shurikens provide.
- Shift can save you from incoming Damage. Time it perfectly for the Damage Immunity!
Credits
Written by Lizard_IRL.
Reviewed by Facefoot, McFluffin.
