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 Manifest Armor Forge Guard Build to reach the different Endgame Activities like the Monolith, Dungeons and Arena.
Build Scaling
This Forge Guard build uses Shield Throw against its own Manifest Armor to make it perform additional melee AoE attacks. Scale your Throwing Attack Speed to proc Manifest Inspiration as much as possible. This build also has decent survivability thanks to the multiple defensive layers it can take advantage of.
- Manifest Armor: This unique Minion scales with the stats in the player's Helmet, Body Armour, Gloves and Boots. Thanks to the Platemail, Steel Greaves and Great Helm Nodes this scaling property can be further amplified. With Titan Mace the construct also gets stats from your Weapon.
- Minion Power: Your minions gain Minion Power based on your Character Level. By level 100, they deal 45% More Damage and take 45% Less Damage (Multiplicative with other modifiers).
- Minion Melee Flat Damage: Get as much Flat Damage for your Manifest Armor as possible.
- Throwing Attack Speed: The faster you attack with Shield Throw the more Manifest Inspiration procs from your Manifest Armor.
- Attunement: Manifest Armor gains 4% Damage and 10 flat Health per point of Attunement.
- Javelin: Battle Standard is great for the offensive and defensive buffs it provides.
- Sigils Of Hope: They grant increased Damage and Flat Fire Damage with this setup.
- Void Cleave: Buff your Manifest Armor's DPS tremendously thanks to Molten Blades and Scorching Path.
- Minion % Melee Damage: Anything that increases Minion Melee Damage is welcomed.
- % Melee Damage: Any Class specific Sentinel Prefix that scales Melee Damage is extremely valuable as Manifest Armor gets additional stats from your Chest and Helmet thanks to its Skill Tree.
- Apathy's Maw: This Unique provides incredible DPS. Farm it with Legendary Potential!
- Minion Melee Critical Strike Chance: Make sure you get T5 or Exalted Melee Critical Strike Chance on your 2H Weapon. It's easy to cap the Manifest Armor's Crit Chance due to how it scales from player gear.
- Minion Critical Strike Multiplier: Increases the Damage your minions Crits deal. Due to how Manifest Armor scales with gear, Suloron's Step is impossible to ignore. Get the best one rolled possible!
- Level of Manifest Armor: Get this Prefix on your Helmet for the Increased Damage it provides and to invest extra Points into its Skill Tree.
- 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 23.7% increased Physical Damage, while at -4000 Armour it takes 57.2%. With the amount of hits the build has, the stacks ramp up quickly.
- Armour Clad: Grants Damage Reduction and is crucial for any Sentinel's survivability.
- Endurance: It allows you to take up to 60% less Damage while below a certain Health threshold. Your base Endurance Threshold is 20% of your total Health by default.
- Strength: Grants 4% Armour per point.
- Armour Mitigation: This setup can get insanely high Armour. Combining the Armour from your Item Implicits and all the %Armour this build has, it easily reaches 40% to 60%+ Mitigation. This is huge on top of all the other defensive layers the build has.
- Javelin: Battle Standard is great for the offensive and defensive buffs it provides.
- Health: This build can stack a decent Health pool that can surpass the 5000 mark. Health is very effective when combined with all the other defensive layers, but be careful more Health requires better sustain.
- Healing: Javelin can provide decent sustain thanks to the Divine Intervention and Righteous Descend Nodes, which cast Smite. Its AoE Heal provides sustain for the build that can be enhanced with Heling Effectiveness.
- Chill: Is an Ailment that greatly reduce the Action and Movement Speed of your enemies. Sadly, this build needs a Legendary Apathy's Maw in order to get it reliably.
- 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.
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.
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 Forge Guard is a good Monolith of Fate farmer. It's not super fast and lacks AoE, but can obliterate Bosses in seconds. Since it's also a fairly safe, it's a decent setup for farming content in high Corruption.
Monolith Goals
Your goals in the Monolith of Fate will 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 first Drop Rate Empowered Blessing in the Fall of the Outcast Monolith Timeline as you farm Ribbons of Blood for the amazing stats it provides.
- Finish up the rest of your Drop Rate Empowered Blessings.
- Farm for key Uniques.
- As you farm for Uniques and Apathy's Maw, 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 receive a Glancing Blow.
- Increased enemy Movement Speed.
Avoid these Modifiers
- High health enemies take less damage.
- High health enemies deal increased damage.
- Enemy chance to Dodge.
- 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 Forge Guard is one of the best Dungeon farmers due to its incredibly absurd single target DPS. It has an easy time with all the Dungeons and can obliterate T4 Bosses in seconds.
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: You need to interact with the Eternity Cache to upgrade any desirable Uniques you find with Legendary Potential. The Boss fight against Chronomancer Julra is fairly easy for any Sentinel, as they can get out of her telegraphed attacks with the multiple mobility Skills available to them. Additionally, you can place unspecced Rebuke on your Skill bar and use it before taking Damage.
- Lightless Arbour: While the gold sink in the Vault of Uncertain Fate is not necessary for this build to progress, it has a decent time dealing with The Mountain Beneath and, thanks to the Rebuke swap mentioned above, his most dangerous attacks can be trivialized. The Stone Titan's Heart is easier, just make sure to use avoid its moving lasers. Run this Dungeon when you have some excess Gold, be careful as it gets expensive really fast!
- Soulfire Bastion: Make sure you pay attention to the Damage type on the floor while fighting Fire Lich Cremorus and use the Rebuke swap to tank the big telegraphed attacks if you struggle. Overall this Dungeon and the Soul Gambler are low priority as nothing attached to them is relevant for the build.
Remember that T4 Dungeons are hard pinnacle content that can only be defeated with well geared characters. If your build struggles against a particular Dungeon you can always dedicate a different setup 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 Forge guard build is decent for competing in the Endless Arena, but struggles against high Waves. The Minion AI can be unpredictable and it's easy to make a positional mistake that gets punished by enemies.
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!
- As a melee build it's crucial to know when to go in. Find the perfect window to engage!
- Don't ever stand still! Always kite melee enemies so you can hit them but they can't hit you.
- Target ranged threats first. Deal with the rest of enemies once the ranged ones are taken care of.
- Enemy homing projectiles are really dangerous. Use Javelin to engage them quickly . You can also hide behind terrain or your Manifest Armor.
- Maintain 5 Sigils Of Hope up at all times for the powerful buffs they provide.
- Make sure you and your Manifest Armor stay under Javelin's AoE for its buffs.
- Direct Manifest Armor with the "A" key offensively and defensively.
- Use Abyssal Echoes and Volatile Reversal for extra Damage against dangerous threats.
- Hold Javelin to disengage or emergency situations.
Eager to get competitive? Check our Arena Guide!
