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 Swipe Werebear Druid Build to reach the different Endgame Activities like the Monolith, Dungeons and Arena.
Build Scaling
This Druid uses permanent Werebear Form and stacks Melee Attack Speed related buffs to unleash Swipe against its enemies. It deals Lightning Damage and aims to reach 100% Melee Critical Strike Chance. This build also has great survivability thanks to the multiple defensive layers it can take advantage of.
- Melee Flat Damage: You want to get as much Flat Damage on your Swords as possible. Additionally, Roar's Berserker buff grants 4 Melee Damage per stack.
- Crystal Sword: A powerful base with amazing Implicits.
- % Lightning Damage: Anything that increases Melee Lightning Damage is welcomed.
- Melee Attack Speed: The faster you attack with Swipe the more Damage you deal and Ailments you apply. Roar's Berserker buff grants up to 60% Melee Attack Speed thanks to Warcry's Fury Strikes Node and Fury Leap's Rage Node provides a 30% Melee Attack Speed buff.
- 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 Lightning Damage, while at -4000 Armour it takes 40%. With the amount of hits the build has, the stacks ramp up quickly.
- Strength: Swipe and Maul gain 4% Damage per point of Strength. Additionally it grants 4% Armour per point, which adds a nice defensive layer for the build.
- Attunement: Swipe gains 2% Lightning Penetration per point of Attunement thanks to the Storm Scour Node.
- Shock: This Ailment reduces Lightning Resistance by 5% per stack. Stacks up to 10 times, increasing the Lightning Damage enemies take by 50%. Additionally, it activates the Wrath of the Wild Node inside Swipe's Tree.
- Critical Strike Chance: Bush Stalker, Rageborn and Insatiable give this tons of increased Critical Strike Chance. It's easy to cap it if you get Melee Critical Strike Chance on your Axes.
- Critical Strike Multiplier: Increases the Damage your Crits deal. Build as much as you can on your gear.
- Slow: Necessary to proc Swipe´s Trapper Node.
- Doom: Granted by Siphon of Anguish this Ailment greatly increases the Melee Damage Taken by enemies. 4% per stack, maximum 4 stacks.
- Level of Werebear Form: Get this Prefix on your Helmet for the Increased Damage it provides and to invest extra Points into its Tree.
- Level of Swipe: Allows you to invest Points into its Tree for more Damage.
- Grand Mysteries of the Deep: Use Swipe to apply 10 stacks of Lightning Resistance Shred to your targets. 10 stacks increase the Lightning Damage enemies take by 50%(20% for Bosses). This Blessing plays a big part on your sinlge target DPS, so make sure you roll it nicely (45%+) and as early as possible.
- Cull: 2 Points into Swipe´s Culling Node provide a 14% kill threshold.
- Stun: Thanks to its Damage output, the Shock Ailment and the huge buff provided by Maelstrom's Essence of Debris Node the build is able to Stun most enemies after a few hits.
- Roar: Grants a brief Damage Immunity thanks to Warcry's Juggernaut Node.
- Berserker: Provides 25% Damage Reduction when you are below 35% of your total Health. This Passive has insane synergy with Hideskin and Endurance.
- Endurance: A defensive mechanic that allows you to take up to 60% less Damage while below a certain Health threshold. Thanks to Hideskin your base Endurance Threshold is 30% of your total Health.
- Ursine Strength: Grants 16% Damage Reduction against Nearby enemies.
- Aspect of the Boar: Combining Boar Heart with Porcine Constitution grants it 30% Damage Reduction. Proc it with Swipe and Maul thanks to Primal Strength.
- Impervious: This setup can afford 5 points in this powerful Passive. The Damage Reduction its stacks provide are really handy, especially when fighting isolated Bosses. The stacks can easily be sustained by spamming Swipe.
- Harmony of Blades: This Passive is necessary to Dual Wield. It comes with the drawback of making you take increased Damage from enemies. While pretty bad on its onw, it's compensated by the multiple defensive layers and Damage Reduction sources this build has.
- Dodge: Maelstrom's Sleet-Footed Node allows you to reach between 40% and 60% Dodge, depending on the total amount of active Maelstrom stacks and %Dodge Rating on your gear. It's very useful to keep stacks of Impervious up.
- Melee Attack Speed: The faster you attack with Swipe the more Maelstroms you proc with Ursine Storm for additional Dodge.
- Armour Mitigation: This setup can get insanely high Armour. Combine the Armour from your Item Implicits, Grand Body of Obsidian Blessing, Grand Bulwark of the Tundra Blessing and all the Strength this build has to reach 50% to 70%+ 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 5000 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!
- Leech: Survival of the Pack and Bush Stalker provide decent Melee Leech. Swipe has some built in Leech thanks to the Way of the Hunt Node. Grand Thirst of the Sun and Siphon of Anguish grant extra Leech Rate.
- 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.
- Aurora's Time Glass: This powerful Unique can save you from dangerous situations. Make sure its internal CD is ready before you engage your enemies.
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 Druid is a decent Monolith of Faith farmer. It's very safe and fast but lacks AoE. Since it's also a super tanky build, it's an amazing setup for farming difficult 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. Kill the Shade of Orobyss to get your Siphon of Anguish and to gain/transfer Corruption between Timelines.
- Finish up 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.
- Increased enemy Movement Speed.
- 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 Druid is a safe Dungeon farmer due to its survivability when facing T4 Bosses. It can facetank most of their mechanics so 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:
- Solarum Sanctum: You only 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 Druid, as many of her telegraphed attacks can be ignored by timing Roar's Immunity or straight up face tanked with ease. It's hard to die here with this build.
- Lightless Arbour: While the gold sink in the Vault of Uncertain Faith is not necessary for this build to progress, it has a good time dealing with The Mountain Beneath and, thanks to Roar's Immunity, his most dangerous attacks can be trivialized. The Stone Titan's Heart is easier, just make sure to use Roar for 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 Roar to immune the big telegraphed attacks. 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 Druid build is amazing for competing in the Endless Arena, especially because it's very tanky and has tools for any situation. However, it requires great player skill and gear to defeat high Waves and climb to the top of the Ladder.
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:
- 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.
- Stay in combat to keep all your buffs active.
- 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 Roar's Immunity or hide behind terrain.
- Make sure you use the pulls from Roar and Maul to pull enemies into your range.
- Hold Rampage to disengage for emergency situations.
Eager to get competitive? Check our Arena Guide!
