Squirrel Beastmaster Guide
Last Updated:July 13, 2024|Changelog
Welcome to the Squirrel Beastmaster Guide. What's scarier than a pack of wolves? A scurry of rage infused squirrels! This Beastmaster takes command of his ferocious animals and leads them with strength and power. He charges forward, the ferocity of his body infusing his companions, and fury leads his way into battle.
Thanks to Herald of the Scurry, this build is able to convert Summon Wolfs into Summon Squirrels, doubling their numbers. The build is played and built the same with or without this Unique, but the Helmet is best in slot. Fury Leap into battle along with your beasts and proc Spirit Wolves attacking with Swipe. Use Summon Frenzy Totem and cast Warcry to gain powerful buffs for yourself and your allies.
Aside from Herald of the Scurry, this setup shines with Uniques like Phantom Grip, Julra's Obsession, Cycle of Putrescence, Apogee of Frozen Light, Bastion of Honour and Omnis.
Overall the Summon Squirrel Beastmaster is one of the strongest minion builds and is capable of completing all the content in the game with ease. It's fun to play, has extremely high single target DPS and great gear progression. Looking to fulfill the minion pack fantasy with a powerful build? This setup is perfect for you!
This build guide assumes you have a Level 70 Character.
Reach Level 70 with our Beastmaster Leveling Guide.
If you are looking for a different playstyle, check all our Build Guides!
- Amazing DPS
- Great Burst Potential
- Fast Clear For Minions
- Great Scaling With Uniques
- Melee Range
- Buff Micromanaging
- Needs Uniques To Shine
- Minion AI Can Be Frustrating
Skills
Summon Wolf
Summon Squirrel uses the Summon Wolf Tree. The Pack Hunters Node is crucial to increase the pack or scurry size. Grab Savage Hunters, Legendary Bite and Howl of Might for the Damage Multipliers they provide. Without the The Fang, you need a Point in Safety In Numbers.
Alternative Skills & Tips
Passives
Passives provide powerful effects that dictate the playstyle of a Class and its Masteries. Remember that you can allocate Passives on the first half of all Masteries regardless of the one you chose.
- Grab Strength related nodes.
- Force of Nature is crucial to summon extra friends!
- The Chase is a big part of the build's DPS.
- Ursine Strength and Porcine Constitution provide insane Damage Reduction.
- The Circle Of Life and The Circle Of Life increase the uptime of Aspect of the Shark.
- Cry of the Lynx and Serrated Claws grant a powerful Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier buff.
- If you play Hardcore, grab Berserker.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
This Beastmaster and his furry friends want to surround their prey in close ranged combat, overwhelming them with their numbers. Make sure you are familiar with enemy mechanics to know when to use your Support Skills to stay alive. Pay attention to their telegraphed attacks!
Skill Usage/Rotation
- First of all, use Summon Wolf to summon your wolves or squirrels.
- Approach enemies and cast your companion ability. Howl for wolves and Sciurine Rage for squirrels.
- Summon Frenzy Totem for its buffs. This refreshes your companion ability's Cooldown.
- Fury Leap into combat alongside your companions.
- Warcry to freeze the enemies and for the Berserker buff.
- Spam Swipe. Stack Berserker and proc Spirit Wolves.
- if you have the Cycle of Putrescence, Experimental Volatile Zombie on Potion Use and Apogee of Frozen Light combo, keep an eye on your Zombie loop for the Damage buff from the Unique Sword.
- Whenever your companion ability buff runs out, cast it again and refresh the buff!
Mapping
- Rush to the objective fast with Fury Leap every time it's off Cooldown.
- Direct your companions with the "A" key if they fall too behind.
- Freeze scary enemies with Warcry to skip them.
- Let your wolves or squirrels kill enemies while you focus on moving fast.
Bossing
- Direct your companions with the "A" key if they don't target the Boss or stand in a dangerous spot.
- Freeze Bosses with Warcry to boost your DPS against them.
- Fully stack the Berserker buff from Warcry to gain high Attack Speed and proc more Spirit Wolves.
- Take advantage of all your defensive buffs and keep them active.
- Warcry and Fury Leap can save you from incoming Damage. Time them against dangerous telegraphed Boss attacks.
Advanced Skill Tips
Learn more about how to maximize your gameplay in the Build Scaling section of this guide.
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 stack as many other defensive layers 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 Less Damage Taken From Crits
- Capped Endurance
- 2000 - 4000+ Health
- 40% - 65%+ Armour
- 50% - 100% Block Chance
- 1000 - 2000+ Block Effectiveness
- 50 - 90+ Strength
- 100% Crit Chance With Summon Wolf
- 30% - 60%+ Movement Speed
Gear Progression
Milestone 1
Aim for good Item Bases with four 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 any Weapon with valuable Affixes until you are high enough level to equip a Dragonbone Axe.
Milestone 2
Make sure your Critical Strike Avoidance or Less Damage Taken From Crits 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 Phantom Grip. This build can be very Unique heavy, so it's good to include the ones that shine even without Legendary Potential as soon as possible.
Milestone 5
Get T5 Added Minion Melee Crit Chance on your Body Armour as soon as possible. Aim for T5 Level of Summon Wolf on your Helmet and Level of Summon Frenzy Totem on your Relic to invest extra Points on their Skill Trees.
Milestone 6
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, provide utility or increase your Damage output. Get Chance to Apply Frailty on Hit to decrease the Damage enemies deal to you. This Ailment is really important and should always be kept in mind.
Milestone 1
Upgrade your T20 set up with Exalted items, high value Sealed Affixes or ideally both. Obtain the Affixes included in the Planner, but prioritize the indicated Item Bases for their Implicits. Make sure to Seal highly efficient low tier Affixes.
Milestone 2
When all your core Defenses are covered, start working on your Damage. Get Minion Damage, Strength and Chance To Shred Armour on Hit to increase your DPS drastically. Additionally, Melee Attack Speed is also very valuable as it helps you proc more Spirit Wolves.
Milestone 3
Look for the Cycle of Putrescence, Experimental Volatile Zombie on Potion Use and Apogee of Frozen Light combo, keep an eye on your Zombie loop for the Damage buff from the Unique Sword.
Milestone 4
Look for an Omnis that complements the Resistances you are struggling with. If you prefer a more offensive approach, itemize around Death Rattle instead.
Milestone 5
The moment you get Herald of the Scurry, your Summon Wolfs convert into Summon Squirrels, doubling their numbers and enabling the builds full potential. You can farm it on The Black Sun Monolith Timeline completing Unique Helmet reward Echoes.
Milestone 6
Julra's Obsession is a great addition to this build for its properties. This item can be farmed by killing Chronomancer Julra in T3 Temporal Sanctum Dungeon. It always drops with 1 Legendary Potential. Try to get Exalted Melee Attack Speed on them to boost your single target DPS significantly.
Milestone 7
Look for a Bastion of Honour. This Item is not mandatory for the build, but its defensive power is hard to pass on as we can cap our block chance easily by stacking Strength. This Item it's really rare, so don't expect to get one easily. Use an Exalted Shield with as much Block Chance until you find one.
Milestone 8
As you finish up your Empowered Blessings keep a decent Health pool, capped Resistances and other defensive layers. Keep an eye for all your desired Idols.
Milestone 1
Upgrade you set up with T7 Exalted items, high value Sealed Affixes or ideally both. Obtain the Affixes included in the Planner and keep prioritizing the indicated Item Bases for their Implicits.
Milestone 2
Get Herald of the Scurry, Phantom Grip, Julra's Obsession, Cycle of Putrescence, Apogee of Frozen Light, Bastion of Honour and Omnis with the maximum Legendary Potential you can find.
Milestone 3
Look for Nemesis encounters in Echoes to add Legendary Potential or Affixes to any Unique with the Egg of the Forgotten.
Milestone 4
Get Large Nomad Idols with %Health Prefix and Minion Dodge Rating and Grand Heorot Idols with Chance To Gain Haste For 3 Seconds When You Summon A Totem Prefix and Minion Melee Attack Speed Suffix.
Milestone 1
Keep upgrading your gear with Exalted Items with Sealed Affixes. Get every stat in the right place and in the correct Item Base. Min/Maxing your gear in Last Epoch can be pushed to the extreme as Items with multiple Exalted Affixes are technically possible.
Milestone 2
Get as close to perfect rolls for all your Empowered Blessings and find all your desired Idols with the best in slot Prefixes and Suffixes.
Milestone 3
Farm Herald of the Scurry, Phantom Grip, Julra's Obsession, Cycle of Putrescence, Apogee of Frozen Light, Bastion of Honour and Omnis with the maximum Legendary Potential you can find. Remember that some Unique Items are extremely hard to get with multiple Legendary Potential.
Milestone 4
Feel free to experiment with any crazy Unique, Legendary or Experimental Items that you might craft, trade or find! The possibilities are endless. Good luck with the chase!
This variant is relies on Ward as a core defanse layer. It's designed to take full advantage of Cornered Beast.
Milestone 1
You need at least one Item that converts Health into Ward to play Low Life. Farm Exsanguinous and Last Steps of the Living.
Milestone 2
Farm Boulderfists to disable all your Life Leech. If you get Legendary Potential get Exalted Experimental Ward per Missing Health on them.
Milestone 3
Get Cleaver Solution. Build Strength to get more value out of this amazing Unique.
Milestone 4
Combine Death Rattle, Apogee of Frozen Light, Cycle of Putrescence and a Belt with Experimental Volatile Zombie on Potion Use to drastically increase your DPS.
Milestone 5
Farm Ribbons of Blood, Exsanguinous, Last Steps of the Living, Herald of the Scurry, Death Rattle, Boulderfists, Apogee of Frozen Light, Cycle of Putrescence and Cleaver Solution with the maximum Legendary Potential you can find. Remember that some Unique Items are extremely hard to get with multiple Legendary Potential.
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 very 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:
- Echo of Solarum
- Bastion of Divinity
- Survival of Might
- Persistance of Will
- Protection of Heorot
- Resolve of Grael
- Bones of Eternity
- Heart of the Caldera
- 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 quickly 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:
- Get Grand Resolve of Humanity for the Resistances it provides.
- Grab Grand Rhythm of the Tide for the Health sustain.
- Continue with Grand Bones of Eternity for the extra Block Effectiveness.
- Farm Grand Bulwark of the Tundra and Grand Body of Obsidian for a huge survivability boost.
- Finish up by farming Grand Memory of Light for additional Health.
These Empowered Blessings are flexible and depend on your current needs and goals.
These are valuable Empowered Drop Rate Blessings for this build:
- Grand Pride of Rebellion helps you find more Grand Heorot Idols with Chance To Gain Haste For 3 Seconds When You Summon A Totem Prefix and Minion Melee Attack Speed Suffix.
- Grand Sight of the Outcasts on the other hand, is valuable to help you find Large Nomad Idols with %Health Prefix and Critical Strike Avoidance for You and Your Minions Suffix.
- Once you find all your Idols, switch to Grand Winds of Fortune and focus on Uniques instead.
- Take Grand Enmity of the Clans to find more Exalted and Unique Swords or Grand Scars of Blood to find more Exalted and Unique Axes.
- Lastly take Grand Arrogance of Argentus to increase your chance of finding Helmets with Exalted Level of Summon Wolf. You can also farm Grand Binds of Sanctuary if you still need a Bastion of Honour.
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:
- Get 4 Grand Heorot Idols with Chance To Gain Haste For 3 Seconds When You Summon A Totem Prefix and Minion Melee Attack Speed Suffix. You might also need 1 with Poison Resistance Suffix, depending on your current gear and needs.
- Find 2 Large Nomad Idol with %Health Prefix. For the Suffixes aim for Minion Dodge Rating.
- You might need extra Resistances out of your Idols early on, so keep an eye for anything useful until you get your final setup.
Other useful Idol Affixes
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.
Build Scaling
This Beastmaster takes command of his ferocious animals and leads them against its enemies. The Summon Wolfs or Summon Squirrels deal Physical Damage and your goal is to reach 100% Melee Critical Strike Chance with them. This build also has great survivability thanks to the multiple defensive layers it can take advantage of.
- 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: You want to get as much Flat Damage for your Summon Wolfs or Summon Squirrels as possible, since Summon Wolf has tons of Damage Multipliers on its Tree.
- Minion Melee Attack Speed: The faster your Summon Wolfs or Summon Squirrels attack, the more Damage they deal and Ailments they apply. The The Chase provides 32% and Grand Heorot Idols with Minion Melee Attack Speed allow to to scale it further.
- Melee Attack Speed: The faster you attack with Swipe the more Spirit Wolves proc from your Summon Wolfs or Summon Squirrels. Berserker buff grants up to 60% Melee Attack Speed thanks to Warcry's Fury Strikes Node and Fury Leap's Rage Node provides Frenzy, a 20% Melee Attack Speed buff.
- Minion % Physical Melee Damage: Anything that increases Minion Melee Physical Damage is welcomed.
- Strength: Summon Wolf gains 4% Damage and 8 flat Health per point of Strength. Additionally, it provides 4% Armour per point to the player, a nice defensive layer for the build.
- Minion Melee Critical Strike Chance: Make sure you get T5 or Exalted Added Minion Melee Crit Chance on your Body Armour, it's easy to cap it with it thanks to all the Crit Chance related buffs this build has.
- Minion Critical Strike Multiplier: Increases the Damage your minions Crits deal. Get as much as you can!
- Level of Summon Wolf: Get this Prefix on your Helmet for the Increased Damage it provides and to invest extra Points into its Tree.
- Herald of the Scurry: Thanks to this Unique, the build is able to convert Summon Wolfs into Summon Squirrels, doubling their numbers.
- Physical Resistance Shred: Thanks to Herald of the Scurry your minions can apply 10 stacks of Physical Resistance Shred to your targets. 10 stacks increase the Physical Damage enemies take by 50%. This is a big part of your single target DPS, so make sure to roll it nicely.
- 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. Use Julra's Obsession with Chance To Shred Armour on Hit to ensure your minions apply stacks themselves.
- Warcry: Grants a brief Damage Immunity thanks to the Juggernaut Node.
- Berserker: Provides 25% Damage Reduction when you are below 35% of your total Health. This Passive has insane synergy with Endurance.
- Endurance: A defensive mechanic that 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.
- Ursine Strength: Grants 16% Damage Reduction against Nearby enemies.
- Aspect of the Boar: With Porcine Constitution it grants 30% Damage Reduction. Proc it with Swipe.
- Armour Mitigation: This setup can get insanely high Armour. Combine the Armour from your Item Implicits, Blessings and all the Strength this build has to reach 40% to 65%+ Mitigation. This is huge on top of all the other defensive layers the build has.
- Health: This build can stack a huge Health pool and surpass the 4000 mark. Health is very effective when combined with all the other defensive layers the Druid has access to. Primalist has access to Large Nomad Idols with %Health; not all Classes have access to these amazing Idols!
- Block Chance: Block is a defensive mechanic that grants a chance to reduce the Damage taken from Hits. Whenever you take a Hit, your Block Chance is rolled to determine if you Block the Hit. On a successful Block, a percentage of the Damage is mitigated. This build can have anywhere between 50% and 100% block. Bastion of Honour is an incredible Shield for the setup.
- Block Effectiveness: The percentage of Damage reduced on Block depends on how much Block Effectiveness you have. The percentage cannot exceed 85%. The Grand Bones of Eternity blessing is an exceptional source of Block Effectiveness.
- Leech: Survival of the Pack and Lamprey Teeth provide decent Melee Leech. Swipe has some built in Leech thanks to the Way of the Hunt Node.
- Chill and Slow: Are Ailments that greatly reduce the Action and Movement Speed of your enemies. They are must haves 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.
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.
Loot Filter
Loot Filters are critical in Last Epoch. Making sure you highlight all the related valuable Item Bases, Affixes, Uniques and Idols is crucial to ensure your character's progression. Click on the Generate Loot Filter button down below then use the Paste Clipboard Contents button in-game to import it!
Here is the Endgame Loot Filter for this build:
Learn how to load and make Filters with our Loot Filter Guide.
Video Guide
COMING SOON!
Summary
This Beastmaster and his furry friends want to surround their prey in close ranged combat, overwhelming them with their numbers. Overall this Beastmaster is an incredible setup capable of completing all the content in the game.
- Thanks to Herald of the Scurry, this build is able to convert Summon Wolfs into Summon Squirrels, doubling their numbers. Summon Squirrel uses the Summon Wolf Tree.
- The Savage Hunters, Legendary Bite and Howl of Might Nodes provide insane Damage Multipliers for your Summon Wolfs or Summon Squirrels.
- Fury Leap into combat alongside your companions.
- Spam Swipe. Stack Berserker and proc Spirit Wolves.
- Survival of the Pack and Lamprey Teeth provide minion Melee Leech crucial for your minions survival.
- While they are not mandatory, Phantom Grip, Julra's Obsession, Cycle of Putrescence, Apogee of Frozen Light, Bastion of Honour and Omnis are great Uniques that you want to get to scale the build to its full potential.
Credits
Written by Lizard_IRL.
Reviewed by Aristotelian, McFluffin.