Shaman Leveling Guide
Last Updated:April 11, 2025|Changelog
This Shaman leveling build floods foes with endless totems, melting their health in the process. By taking advantage of Spriggan Form, we cast multiple Summon Thorn Totem at the same time while getting healed in the process, resulting in constant waves of spells.
This Shaman build plays in melee range, summoning his totems close to his foes for maximum effectiveness. His totems are a reliable way to recover health thanks to their Butterfly Heal that you can further scale with Attunement. Additionally, Spriggan Form and Summon Spriggan provide a great defensive boost, making you really tanky during leveling.
Overall, the Thorn Totem Shaman is an amazing leveling build, as it provides insane damage, defense and recovery. It also scales really well into the end-game with powerful skill tree and passive tree nodes. This combination makes Shaman leveling look easy.
Check out the Campaign Guide for an in depth breakdown of the campaign.
Gameplay
As we level the power of skills evolve, with some becoming stronger while others get weaker. To account for this, we transition from a setup that is optimized for early game to one that is more suited to tackling endgame content.
Early Setup
Use this setup until you have 6 points in Spriggan Form.
- Swipe is your main damage ability. It applies Bleeds and generates Mana once you have Duality of Nature specialized.
- For extra single target and clear, use Summon Thorn Totem and summon your Summon Wolf..
- In dangerous situations, use Eterra's Blessing to heal yourself and your minions.
- Use Fury Leap to move quickly through the chapters.
Final Setup
- Try to always be in Spriggan Form.
- For single target and clear, spam Summon Healing Totem.
- Summon your Summon Spriggan and Summon Storm Crows to buff your Summon Thorn Totem.
- Use Thorn Shield to revive Summon Spriggan and to Cleanse yourself.
Key Leveling Notes
- Keep your character at the area level by killing monsters.
- To use this guide, you need to maintain at most a 5 level difference with the area.
- Press C to open the character sheet to find your level and TAB to find the area level.
- Only collect loot that serves as an upgrade.
- The loot filter reveals many items that might not be an upgrade for your character.
- If your inventory is full, stick gear with high value affixes in your stash and sell the rest.
- Don't sell gear that has high value affixes to a vendor.
- Instead, keep it to use later or destroy it with a Rune of Shattering or Rune of Removal.
- Always get the best weapon you can.
- Weapons are a core part of your power and getting a higher level base boosts your damage significantly.
- Early on, you can buy them at the
Gambler NPC in the Council Chamber town and in the End of Time town. - After level 40, they don't sell you higher item bases.
- If you want to enter the Monolith of Fate early, unlock all the passive points and idol slots from quests first.
- By the time you complete chapter 7, you will be ready to tackle the Monolith of Fate content.
- Crafting is powerful and important for enhancing your gear.
- Press F and place your item in the crafting interface to level up its affixes and craft new ones!
- Adding health or vitality on a few empty affix slots can increase your HP by a significant amount!
If you need help with crafting, check the Beginner Crafting Guide.
Skills and Passives
Passives and Skills provide powerful effects that dictate the playstyle of a Class and its Masteries. Remember that you can allocate Passives in the first half of any Mastery regardless of the one you chose.
Click on the Arrows at the top and on the Bar at the bottom to see Passive and Skill Trees Progression
Gearing and Side Quests Step by Step
Itemization is a vital aspect of your journey in Last Epoch. While prefixes and suffixes matter, what sets Last Epoch apart is the power of item bases. Many items have potent implicit attributes that can rival or even surpass modifiers.
Level 1 to 10
Items
- Warrior's Bastard Sword of Wounds prioritize Chance to Bleed on Hit and Chance to Ignite on Hit. DoT damage in the early game is really high.
- Blighted Silver Ring of Life is the best source of movement speed early on.
- Warrior's Sage Antler of Life provides a decent attack damage boost early on.
- On Mighty Leather Boots of Lucidity, prioritize Movement Speed and Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed to enhance your mobility.
Side Quests
- Storeroom Sabotuers for 1
Passive point. - Evacuation Quest for 1 Passive point.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Level 11 to 25
Items
- Start equipping Idols with Vitality, any type of resistance, Health, Health on Kill, Chance To Bleed On Hit, Chance To Poison On Hit and Chance To Ignite On Hit.
- Equip Bearded Axe of Brutality to boost your Summon Thorn Totem damage substantially.
- Commander's Gold Ring of Life provides significant elemental resistances, outshining other options at this level.
- Avarice gives you a decent chunk of elemental resistances.
Side Quests
- Erza's Ledger Quest for 1 Passive point and Avarice.
- Don't talk to the Gambler NPC before completing this quest, otherwise you can't get Avarice.
- The Upper District Quest for 1 Passive point.
- An Ancient Hunt for extra
Idol slots. - The Lesser Refuge Quest for 2 Passive point.
- The Corrupted Lake Quest for 1 Passive point and extra Idol slots.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Level 26 to 40
Items
- Primalist's Raptor Helm of Life and Manafused Turquoise Amulet of Deflection helps you cap your Summon Thorn Totem's crit chance.
- Commander's Turquoise Ring of Life and Attuned Shamanic Garb of Life are great damage bases for the build.
Side Quests
- Hidden Gems Quest for 1 Passive point.
- The Sapphire Tablet Quest for 1 Passive point and extra Idol slots.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Level 41 to 58
Items
- Manafused Bone Amulet of Remedy is the best amulet base in the game as it gives a lot of resistances, which gives you more space for suffixes on your gear.
- Attuned Spriggan Seed of Life makes your companions easier to revive.
- Commander's Plated Gauntlets of the Giant is a great defensive base for this build as we stack Health.
- Cleansing Spidersilk Sash of Lucidity is a powerful base that will help you fix your cold res when combined with Vital Heoborean Boots of the Giant.
Side Quests
- A Heoborean Cure Quest for extra Idol slots.
- Liberating the Nomads Quest for extra Idol slots.
- After defeating the Frostroot Warden boss and completing chapter 7 quests, you have reached the cap of 15 Passive points and 8 Idol slots. You can dive into the Monolith of Fate or you can choose to finish the campaign for a reward of +1 to all attributes.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Early Monolith
Items
Important At this point, you have access to most of the best item bases in the game. Your upgrades come from prefixes and suffixes on items instead of the implicits.
Here is a recap of the best item bases :
- Weapon : Obsidian Axe, Shamanic Staff and Horned Staff
- Helmet : Darkwolf Pelt or Raptor Helm
- Body Armour : Shamanic Garb or Kolheim Armor
- Belt : Spidersilk Sash or Praetorian Belt
- Boots : Heoborean Boots or Solarum Greaves
- Gloves : Engraved Gauntlets
- Amulet : Bone Amulet
- Rings : Turquoise Ring, Gold Ring or Ivory Ring
- Relic : Ochre Antler, Spirit Catcher or Spriggan Seed
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Monolith Progression
After beating the Abomination timeline boss and completing your first timeline, you have the choice to go between The Stolen Lance timeline and The Black Sun timeline. Go for The Black Sun timeline.
You want to do timelines on the right-hand-side of the Monolith progression as they provides more relevant Blessings for your character progression.
Level progression includes 1-10, 11-25, 26-40, 41-58 and Early Monolith, scroll to find the correct tab.
Shaman Uniques
If you are lucky you might get a Rune of Ascendance while leveling. Use this first on belts to get unique belts such as Legacy of the Quiet Forest, Thorn Slinger or Isadora's Tomb Binding.
Keep an eye out for useful Uniques / Set Items such as Ferebor's Chisel, Ferebor's Persistence, Legacy of the Quiet Forest, Tears of the Forest and Silvafrond.
Gear Stats Priorities
Best Prefixes
- Level of Summon Thorn Totem, Level of Spriggan Form, Level of Summon Storm Crow, Level of Eterra's Blessing and Level of Summon Spriggan
- Level of Swipe until 6 points in Spriggan Form
- Spell Damage for Totems
- Cast Speed
- Totem Critical Strike Chance
- Minion Spell Critical Strike Chance
- Cast Speed for Totems
- Totem Damage
- Shared Increased Spell Damage
- Vitality
Best Suffixes
- Chance to Bleed on Hit and Chance to Ignite on Hit until 6 points in Spriggan Form
- Minion Melee and Spell Damage and Minion Spell and Bow Damage
- Physical Penetration and Minion Physical Penetration
- Health
- Hybrid Health
- Fire Resistance, Lightning Resistance, Cold Resistance, Elemental Resistance, Physical Resistance, Necrotic Resistance and Void Resistance
- Health
- Armour
- Dodge Rating
- Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed
Idols
- Chance to Bleed on Hit, Chance to Ignite on Hit, Chance to Poison on Hit until 6 points in Spriggan Form.
- Critical Strike Chance for Totems
- Minion Critical Strike Chance
- Totem Damage
- Cast Speed for Totems
- Spell Damage For You And Your Minions
- Shared Physical Damage
- Health
- Health
- Vitality
- Minion Increased Healing Effectiveness
- Chance to gain Haste for 3 seconds when you Summon a Totem
Loot Filter
Loot Filters are critical in Last Epoch. Highlighting all the related valuable Item Bases, Affixes, Uniques and Idols is crucial to your character's progression. As your gear gets better, remember to hide the rules that are no longer useful to avoid screen clutter.
Link : Download Lootfilter
Learn how to load and make Filters with our Loot Filter Guide.
Summary
This Shaman leveling build shines in its offensive and defensive capabilities. It destroys everything in its path, establishing it as one of the smoothest mastery to level during the campaign.
- Before respeccing Swipe, use it as your main damage ability in combination with Summon Thorn Totem.
- Use Summon Thorn Totem in Spriggan Form as your main damage skill once you have 6 points in Spriggan Form.
- Use Thorn Shield to proc Eterra's Blessing.
- Summon Spriggan and Summon Storm Crows are here to boost your damage.
- Once you switch to Summon Thorn Totem as your main damage skill, search for a good Bearded Axe.
- Cap your Physical Resistance early to make the campaign look easy.
What's Next?
Congratulations, you completed the campaign and your first 3 Monoliths Timelines! What awaits you is unlocking Empowered Monolith after pushing through The Reign of Dragons, Spirits of Fire, The Age of Winter and The Last Ruin Timelines and activating the beacon in the middle of them. Then you can dive into dungeons, empower your character further and test your limits at the Arena leaderboard.
Check out our Shaman Guides and find the perfect Shaman Endgame build for you.
Explore the Monolith of Fate with our Beginner Guide and learn how to farm Dungeons.
Credits
Written by Terek.
Reviewed by Tenkiei.