McFluffin has been playing and making content for Last Epoch since Alpha. He has also been a Community Tester since the implementation of the program, which has allowed him the opportunity to provide feedback to Eleventh Hour Games on pre release builds since 2020. With degrees in both science and philosophy, McFluffin enjoys applying the analytical processees he's learned to build making, efficiency, and a better understanding of the inner workings of the games he plays. Despite all of that, his favorite thing to do is be weird on Twitch while hanging out with his friendly and welcoming community. Learn how to scale your Damage and Defense with the Shatter Strike Spellblade Build to reach the different Endgame Activities like the Monolith, Dungeons and Arena.
Build Scaling
The build uses Shatter Strike to deal massive damage and build huge amounts of Ward. The setup takes full advantage of Lost Knowledge by scaling high amounts of Mana to build insane amounts of Ward.
- Flat Melee Damage: This build gets great Flat Damage support from both the dual Wield setup and Spellblade passives. Dexterity also provides Flat Damage.
- Melee Attack Speed: The faster you attack the higher your DPS is and faster you build Ward. Enchant Weapon grants a whopping 50% Melee Attack Speed while it's active thanks to the Celerity Node and the Shatter Strike node Iceblink adds another 75%.
- Cooldown Reduction: You can have permanent Enchant Weapon uptime with enough Cooldown Reduction. We don't explicitly build for it in this setup, but finding it on gear is a bonus if you can fit it.
- Crystal Sword: Its Implicits are insane for the build. Get a good rolled one!
- Intelligence: Shatter Strike gains 4% Damage per point of Intelligence. Additionally it grants 4% Ward Retention per point, which is a very important stat for this build.
- Dexterity: Shatter Strike gains 4% Damage and 1 Flat Damage per point of Dexterity.
- Throne of Ambition: Provides an insane DPS boost against Bosses.
- % Increased Damage: Any extra source of % Increased Cold Damage is welcomed.
- Critical Strike Chance: This build has a ton of Crit Damage, so scaling your Crit Chance as high as possible is a priority.
- Critical Strike Multiplier: Increases the Damage your Crits deal. This build gets a tremendous amount from the Shatter Strike node Cold Steel
- 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 16.5% increased Cold Damage, while at -4000 Armour it takes 40%. With the amount of hits the build has, it's very reasonable to get to -10000 (54%) and can realistically get to -20000 (58%)!.
- Grand Rage of Winter: This provides a 20% increase in damage to bosses. Getting to the cap of 10 stacks is trivial for this build.
- Throne of Ambition: This Idol is a 40% damage multiplier against bosses is they manage to survive long enough to reach max stacks.
- Cooldown Reduction: Cast Flame Ward and Teleport more often.
- Flame Ward: The Damage Reduction is insane. While this Skill is active you are almost immortal! Get all the charges you can (3 max) and lower its Cooldown as much as possible.
- Arcane Shielding: Combined with Shattered Aegis it provides 12% Damage Reduction and 80% increased Armour at 4 stacks.
- Armour Mitigation: This build can get high levels of Armour. Just with the implicit Armour from your gear, Grand Body of Obsidian Blessing, Flat Armour from Teleport and Shattered Aegis you reach 50%+ Mitigation. Throne of Ambition boosts this Mitigation to 60%+ while Bossing. This is huge on top of all the other defensive layers the build has.
- Ward: A shield above your Health that is generated by certain effects, rapidly decays over time and is protected by Armour Mitigation. This build is one of the best Ward generators in the game, capable of reaching 20K+ Ward with great gear.
- Mana: Thanks to Lost Knowledge, stacking Mana provides a huge defensive buff by allowing us to stack Ward with Shatter Strike.
- Health: This is one of the few builds where Health stacking isn't optimal. Get some before you have Vessel of Strife, then drop it for Health Regen
- Vessel of Strife: This Unique allows us to convert Health Regen into Ward gen. It's a powerful tool that allows us to overcome the limitations created by using Peak of the Mountain and also synergizes very well with our Ward based setup. It also provides a buffer from damage at the start of fights before we've used Shatter Strike.
- Chill: An Ailment that greatly reduces the Action and Movement Speed of your enemies. It's a must have on most builds, especially once you reach hard content with insane speed modifiers.
- 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.
- Stun: Thanks to its Damage output the build is able to Stun most enemies.
- Freeze: Even though we don't build for it, this build can still freeze many enemies, providing an additional CC layer beyond Stun.
- Stun Immunity: Provided by the Rock Phase Node from Teleport. The buff is sustainable thanks to Tunnel Finder and Time Dilation. This is recommended while doing hard content.
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 Spellblade is an excellent Monolith of Faith farmer. Its tankiness and DPS make both Echoes and Bosses easy. Shard of the Shattered Lance is a huge boost to Echo clear speed. For even more speed, take Flame Runner in Flame Ward
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.
- Farm your first Drop Rate Empowered Blessing in The Stolen Lance Empowered Monolith Timeline. Here you should also farm Throne of Ambition until you get it.
- Finish up the rest of 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 Chance (Once you have 100% Critical Strike Avoidance).
- Enemies heal if they have not been damaged recently.
- Rare enemies have high speed and crit chance until approached.
- Rare enemies regenerate health.
Avoid these Modifiers
- Enemy chance to receive a Glancing Blow.
- Enemy Critical Strike Avoidance.
- Enemy chance to Dodge.
- High health enemies take less damage.
- High health enemies deal increased damage.
- Enemies are Deadly if not damaged recently.
- 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 Spellblade is a very good Dungeon farmer once you have Vessel of Strife. It does require basic Boss knowledge to know when to use Flame Ward and Teleport. 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 Spellblade, as many of her telegraphed attacks can be tanked with Flame Ward or juked with Teleport. The high levels of Ward from this build make it even easier. Time your damage phases with Unraveling Decay to ensure you're building Ward when she's dealing the most damage.
- 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 and, thanks to Flame Ward, his most dangerous attacks can be trivialized. The Stone Titan's Heart is also easy, just make sure to use Teleport to go over 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 save Flame Ward to tank the big telegraphed attacks. Everything but the floor can be tanked with this build as long as you're in a damage phase or have Flame Ward up. Overall 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 Spellblade setup is good in the Endless Arena but can struggle in high waves due to its vulnerability when not dealing damage and generating Ward. It can push high but requires an efficient rotation and some tweaks to the build.
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!
- Manipulate the enemy pathing with your positioning and fight on your terms.
- 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 if fired at you while your Teleport is down. Use Flame Ward or hide behind terrain.
- Make sure you use the big AoE from Shatter Strike to full effect, line it up perfectly to hit everything that is a priority target.
- Hold one charge of Flame Ward for emergency situations.
- Use Teleport consistently to keep your Stun Immunity up.
- Use Focus over Mana Strike. It gives you the ability to regen Mana away from enemies, which is huge in Arena. Be careful to not over use Shatter Strike and end up without Mana while Focus is still on cooldown.
- Remember, you don't need to hit enemies to generate Ward with Shatter Strike. If you find yourself low, use it a few times before jumping back into the fight!
Eager to get competitive? Check our Arena Guide!
