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 about the Gear, Gear Progression, Empowered Blessings and Idols for the Ignite Shield Rush Forge Guard Build.
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 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 - 4000+ Health
- 500 - 900+ Endurance Threshold
- 40% - 60%+ Armour
- 600% - 1500%+ Increased Damage
- 40% - 70%+ 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 Bardiche as soon as possible.
Milestone 2
Make sure your Critical Strike Avoidance 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
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.
Milestone 4
Get a source of Life Leech. Use Avarice (obtained by completing Erza's Ledger Quest in the Campaign) for the Elemental Leech it provides until you find a Bleeding Heart, a very common Amulet.
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.
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:
- Flames of the Black Sun
- Bastion of Divinity
- Survival of Might
- Persistance of Will
- Vigor of Jormun
- Patience of Herkir
- Breath of Cinders
- 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:
- If you are lacking Critical Strike Avoidance, start with Grand Survival of Might. A high roll on this Empowered Blessing can be combined with a single high rolled T5 Critical Strike Avoidance to cap it.
- Continue with Grand Bastion of Divinity for the Lightning Resistance.
- Grand Vigor of Jormun grants a good amount of Endurance Threshold.
- Once your core Defenses are sorted, grab Grand Flames of the Black Sun for the DPS boost.
- Finish up by farming the best rolled Grand Patience of Herkir you can get. It grants an insane amount of Flat Armour while channeling Shield Rush and has great synergy with Throne of Ambition and all the Strength the build has. Grand Breath of Cinders can also be good but the additional DPS is not really needed.
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 Rahyeh Idol with Chance To Ignite On Hit or Chance To Cast Void Rift On Kill Prefixes and Fire Damage Over Time or Health Suffixes. Once you find all your Idols, you can switch to the Grand Winds of Fortune and focus on Uniques instead.
- Grab Grand Grip of the Lance to help you find more Maehlin's Hubris Gloves or Grand Vision of the Aurora to help you find more Bleeding Heart Amulets.
- Lastly take Grand Favor of the Wengari to find more Two-Handed Axes.
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 3 Large Rahyeh Idol with Chance To Ignite On Hit or Chance To Cast Void Rift On Kill Prefixes and Fire Damage Over Time or Health Suffixes. Chance To Cast Void Rift On Kill is useful to proc Chance To Slow With Void Skills and extra Ailment stacks
- Get a Throne of Ambition. You can farm it in The Stolen Lance Empowered Monolith Timeline. It's a rare drop from God Hunter Argentus.
- Get 1 Humble Eterran Idol with Vitality and Void Resistance and 1 Stout Lagonian Idol with %Health and Health.
- You might also want 1 Grand Solar Idol with Damage Over Time Prefix and Chance To Slow With Void Skills Suffix, but this slot is flexible.
Other useful Idol Affixes
- Health
- %Health
- Vitality
- Armour
- Elemental Resistance
- Fire Resistance
- Lightning Resistance
- Void Resistance
- Physical Resistance
- Poison Resistance
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.
