LizardIRL has been playing Last Epoch at a high level for years. He has invested a huge amount of time learning the game, theory crafting builds and making educational content. By the time LE Multiplayer launched, he already had thousands of hours driven by his competitive nature and desire to improve. His builds and min/maxing rules have shaped the meta, establishing him as a top build maker and theory crafter. LizardIRL livestreams his Rank 1 Arena pushes and has dominated both SC and HC ladders. Learn how to scale your Damage and Defense in the Hail of Arrows Marksman Build to reach the different Endgame Activities like the Monolith, Dungeons and Arena.
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 60% 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.
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.
Dungeons are another important end game activity. All of them have an unique reward system attached that can only be accessed by defatting the Boss guarding it. They are divided by 4 Tiers of difficulty; it might take you some time to have a character strong enough to defeat Tier 4. Remember, Dungeons require specific Keys to enter them.
This Marksman is a great Dungeon farmer and Boss killer but it requires Boss knowledge and can't facetank all of their mechanics. Just do your DPS rotation with Hail of Arrows and focus on avoiding their attacks. Overall It has an easy time with all the Dungeons.
Dungeon Tips
When it comes to Dungeons, each build has different needs and should focus on the ones that fulfill them. Remember, each Dungeon comes with an unique Dungeon Skill. Make sure you are familiar with the different Dungeon Skills, Boss fights and Rewards before you attempt them.
Recommended Dungeons for this build:
- Temporal Sanctum: Since its a Unique heavy build, it requires to interact with the Eternity Cache often in order to upgrade any desirable Uniques you find with Legendary Potential. The Boss fight against Chronomancer Julra is very easy for any Marksman, as many of her telegraphed attacks can be dodged with Silver Shrouds.
- Lightless Arbour: While the gold sink in the Vault of Uncertain Fate is not necessary for this build to progress, it has a great time dealing with The Mountain Beneath; thanks to Silver Shrouds, his most dangerous attacks can be trivialized. The Stone Titan's Heart is also easy, just make sure to use Shift to go through its moving lasers. Run this Dungeon when you have some excess Gold, be careful as it gets expensive really fast!
- Soulfire Bastion: This is one of the Marksman builds that does better against Fire Lich Cremorus. Just do your DPS rotation with Hail of Arrows and focus on juking his attacks. Save Shift to immune the big telegraphed attacks. This Dungeon and the Soul Gambler are low priority as nothing attached to them is relevant for the build.
Remember, if you struggle to do a particular Dungeon you can always dedicate a different character that shines against it to earn its reward. This is not possible if you play in any of the Solo Game Modes.
Check all of our Dungeon Guides if you want to learn more about their Bosses and rewards systems.
Use everything explained in the Gameplay and Build Scaling sections of this Build Guide to defeat them.
The Endless Arena is the main competitive game mode. It's all about the Ladder! While you might get some upgrades, the other end game activities are far superior for gearing up. The Endless Arena is not for everyone and only the best builds and players can reach the top. You need an Arena Key or an Arena Key of Memory to enter.
This is one of the best Marksman setups for competing in the Endless Arena. The massive AoE and control provided by Hail of Arrows combined with the multiple defensive layers protect this build even against the most dangerous threats.
Endless Arena Tips
Adjusting your playstyle to the build you are playing is mandatory to reach high waves. Use the easy early waves as a practice tool; learning about wave management, developing good habits and limit testing your build are very important things to become a better Endless Arena player.
Tips for playing this build in Arena:
- Make sure you always keep track of all 4 enemy packs. New waves do not spawn as long as there are two enemies of the current wave alive. Finish them up at the right time!
- Group the packs and manipulate the enemy pathing with your positioning and engage on your terms.
- Once you group all enemies, perform your DPS rotation and unleash Hail of Arrows on top of them.
- As a ranged build it is crucial to be far away from the spawns and the enemies. Find a safe spot!
- Enemy homing projectiles are really dangerous for this build. Use Decoy or hide behind terrain before enemies fire at you. You can also juke them with your movement or time Shift for its Immunity Frames.
- Use Shift and Smoke Bomb to protect yourself from enemies. Make sure to always keep one of them off cooldown in case you spawn enemies with leaps or dashes.
- Always hold one Decoy charge for emergency situations. You never know what enemy types are coming next.
- Time Smoke Bomb and Covering Fire to make sure you always have one Silver Shroud active.
Eager to get competitive? Check our Arena Guide!
