Hail of Arrows Marksman Guide
Last Updated:July 13, 2024|Changelog
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!
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!
- Great DoT DPS
- Safe Boss Killer
- Massive Control and AoE
- Multiple Defensive Layers
- Skill Rotation Based
- 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.
- 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.
- Take less points in Mana Warp if you can't sustain Mana.
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
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
- 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
Aim for good Item Bases with four 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 2
Make sure your Critical Strike Avoidance or Reduced Bonus Damage Taken from Critical Strikes is capped. 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 3
Get enough Mana Regeneration to sustain your DPS rotation.
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. Aim for at least T1 Level of Hail of Arrows for your Body Armour and Increased Hail of Arrows Duration for your Helmet.
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.
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
Keep working on your Mana Regeneration until you can sustain your DPS rotation while having Coated Blades fully specced.
Milestone 3
Start looking for Large Shadow Idols with Increased duration with Hail of Arrows.
Milestone 4
When all your core Defenses are covered, start working on your Damage. Get Elemental Damage Over Time on your Prefixes to increase your DPS drastically. Dexterity is also amazing for this build.
Milestone 5
Farm a Reign of Winter. It can easily be obtained by defeating Heorot in the Age of Winter Monolith Timeline. It has a 50% drop rate on both Normal and Empowered Monolith. Use any Longbow with offensive Bow related Affixes until you get it.
Milestone 6
As you finish up your Empowered Blessings keep an eye for any Arrowguard that drops. Remember, the Nemesis encounters in Echoes can give your regular Uniques Legendary Potential.
Milestone 1
Upgrade your setup with T7 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 Phase Point 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 great for survivability.
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.
Milestone 5
This build can make use of Ravenous Void. They are very rare but make the build even tankier. Consider them if you want to push the hardest content in the game.
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
This build can make use of Ravenous Void. They are very rare but make the build even tankier. Consider them if you want to push the hardest content in the game.
Milestone 4
Continue farming Phase Point, Reign of Winter, Aurora's Time Glass and Ravenous Void 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
- 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.
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 Humanity.
- Follow up with Grand Echo of Solarum.
- Farm Grand Light of the Moon for additional Mana.
- Finish up with Grand Bulwark of the Tundra and Grand Body of Obsidian for the Armour they provide. Grand Swiftness of Logi is also an option, depending on your gear.
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 is valuable to help you find Large Shadow Idol with Increased duration with Hail of Arrows. Once you find all your Idols, you can switch to the Grand Winds of Fortune and focus on Uniques instead.
- Take Grand Apex of Fortune or Grand Right of Conquest depending on what type of Unique you are looking for.
- Lastly Grand Vigilance of the Damned helps you find more Exalted Bows.
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.
- Glancing Blows: Thanks to Arrowguard and the Marksman Passive Tree, you can easily get 80% permanent Glancing Blow chance, and reach 100% chance when using Smoke Bomb thanks to the Dusk Shrouds it provides. You take 35% less damage from Hits with Glancing Blows.
- Dusk Shrouds: Each grants 5% Glancing Blow Chance and 50 flat Dodge.
- Dark Quiver: Thanks to Nightfall, every time you pick up a Dark Arrow you are granted 5 Dusk Shrouds. This is very useful while setting up your DPS rotation.
- Smoke Bomb: Provides Dusk Shrouds while standing on the smoke. Additionally it gives a Silver Shroud on use.
- 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. They last 10 seconds each, time Smoke Bomb and Covering Fire apart to make sure you always have one Silver Shroud active, or quickly recover them if they proc. If you do this properly you can always have this protection against hits that can be Dodged, including some major Boss mechanics!
- Dodge: Dexterity, Dodge, %Dodge and the extra Dodge provided by Dusk Shrouds, allow you to reasonably reach between 30% and 70% permanent Dodge, 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.
- Shift: This dash gives immunity frames while it's used thanks to the Shadowslip node. Time this Skill properly to avoid incoming damage or potential 1 shots. It also provides a massive boost of Dodge on use.
- Decoy: Crazy support skill. Aside from its multiple temporary buffs, it Taunts. While Taunted, enemies focus the Decoy instead of attacking you. Additionally you can grant yourself Haste if you are inside the Decoy's AoE on use, gaining 30% Movement Speed for 5 seconds.
- Health: This build can stack a lot of health for a range build. It's very effective when combined with all the other defensive layers this Marksman has access to.
- Bow Damage Leeched as Health: Thief's Quiver provides the build with insane sustain. With the amount of enemies that fit inside the Hail of Arrows AoE, the build can keep its HP topped off easily while waiting for the next DPS rotation.
- Chill and Slow: Gained from Smoke Bomb and Hail of Arrows respectively. These Ailments greatly reduce the Action and Movement Speed of your enemies. They are must haves on most builds, specially once you reach hard content with insane speed modifiers.
- Ward and Ailment Cleansing on Potion Use: Cleanse all Ailments on Potion use.
- Evasion: The Damage Reduction while moving is great while escaping from threats.
- Aurora's Time Glass: This powerful Unique can save you from dangerous situations. Make sure its internal CD is ready before you engage your enemies.
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. 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 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.
- Shift can save you from incoming Damage. Time it perfectly for the Damage Immunity!
Credits
Written by Lizard_IRL.
Reviewed by Facefoot, McFluffin.