Last Epoch Patch 1.1: Harbingers of Ruin, Features and Trailer

Last Epoch Patch 1.1: Harbingers of Ruin releases on July 9th. Eleventh Hour Games made an announcement today, giving us more information about what is to come with Patch 1.1, as well as a trailer. Read more from the official announcement below!

Key Takeaways

Here are the Key Takeaways from the Harbingers of Ruin announcement post.

• Patch 1.1 releases on July 9th.
• Evade is being added, Last Epoch's take on the Dodge Roll.
• The Nemesis System - A new random encounter system that is found throughout the Campaign and Monolith of Fate. This system allows you to fight a powerful enemy in exchange for a set of rewards, or empower the enemy for your next encounter to find the same rewards, but with improvements.
• Harbingers and Pinnacle Boss - The Harbingers are new bosses found deep within the Monolith of Fate, defeating the Harbinger in each of the 10 Timelines allows you to challenge the Pinnacle Boss.
• Forgotten Knight Faction - The Forgotten Knight Faction is being introduced, this faction helps keep track of your progress toward the Pinnacle Boss, as well as offering Rank Rewards with benefits like lucky blessing rolls, increased Harbinger Unique drop chance, etc.
• Boss Defenses Rework - Dynamic Damage Reduction is gone, in its place bosses now gain a burst of ward at certain health thresholds, you can see these thresholds on the enemy's health bar.
• Glyph of Envy - A new crafting material being added, which destabilizes all but the selected affix in exchange for more stability in your last completed Monolith Echo. This serves as a catch up mechanic for alt characters.
• New Uniques - 30 new Uniques are being added, most are random drops, but some are exclusive to bosses.

Evade

Evade is being added, Last Epoch's version of the "dodge roll". This new mechanic will be available from Level 1, with two charges and a four-second cooldown.

The cooldown recovery speed of Evade increases with character level.

Evade does not grant immunity frames, and doesn't mitigate damage if you are still within the area of an attack.

Evade has no connection to Last Epoch's Dodge stat, it is a separate mechanic. This mechanic gives a basic level of mobility for all characters, which opens up increased difficulty in fights and more diverse build opportunities.

Evade is not part of a skill tree or skill bar, but can be keybound.

Unique items can modify Evade, with some options replacing it with different mechanics.

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Nemesis

The Nemesis System introduces new random encounters for players during both the Campaign and Monolith of Fate, similar to Exiled Mages. When encountering a Nemesis, you will be offered a set of four item rewards along with the option to Banish, Challenge, or Empower the Nemesis.

• Banish - Dismiss the Nemesis and its items, allowing a new selection with the next encounter.
• Challenge - Fight and defeat the Nemesis to obtain the displayed items.
• Empower - Fight a stronger Nemesis which retains and improves its items for future encounters, including potentially adding new affixes.

Empowering Nemesis can upgrade items' Affix Tiers, Forging Potential, or Legendary Potential, and even add non-experimental Sealed affixes up to ranks 6 and 7.

Nemesis can be empowered twice, increasing reward quality and Nemesis difficulty. After defeating or banishing an empowered Nemesis, the next one resets.

One of the special rewards which can be offered by a Nemesis encounter is Egg of the Forgotten, which provides a random Unique if the Nemesis is challenged immediately.

The player can also choose to exchange the Egg of the Forgotten with their own Unique without Legendary Potential to enhance it through the Nemesis system, potentially turning it into a Legendary item.

Harbingers and Forgotten Knight

The Harbingers and Forgotten Knight Faction are new key features that revolve around challenging the Pinnacle Boss.

Harbingers

The Harbingers are new bosses introduced into deep Monolith of Fate, and defeating them is a required step in challenging the Pinnacle Boss in Patch 1.1.

They can be found in each of the 10 Empowered Timelines. There are two variants of Harbinger: Agile and Brute, each with distinct combat styles and abilities influenced by the Timeline's Boss.

Defeating Harbingers can yield an Eye, used as currency for Pinnacle Boss attempts. The first 10 unique Harbingers guarantee an Eye.

Forgotten Knight Faction

The Forgotten Knight Faction helps keep track of which Harbingers still need to be defeated when attempting to challenge the Pinnacle Boss. Progressing through different Timelines increases ranks within the Forgotten Knights faction.

After defeating the first Harbinger, players join the Forgotten Knights Faction. Progressing in this faction offers unique rewards like increased Harbinger Unique drop chances, lucky Blessing rolls, and new crafting material: Glyph of Envy.

The Forgotten Knights faction is available to both Merchant’s Guild and Circle of Fortune players.

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Pinnacle Boss

The new Pinnacle Boss can be accessed after defeating all 10 Harbingers and obtaining Harbinger Eyes. Players can then access the portal beyond the Shattered Road. Place an Eye on the altar to enter the Harbinger’s Domain.

The Pinnacle Boss is the leader of the Harbingers, Aberroth, a servant of Orobyss. The fight spans four Eras, each with unique arena mechanics and new abilities for Aberroth.

Release Mechanics

Aberroth can initially only be challenged in the Online Cycle with Patch 1.1 to encourage natural progression.

Once defeated in the Online Cycle, Aberroth becomes available in Legacy and Offline modes the next business day.

If Aberroth is not defeated within the first week, the encounter will automatically be released to all environments.

Boss Defenses

Dyamic Damage Reduction on bosses is being replaced with a new system due to its lack of clarity and negative player experience. The new system includes visual representation.

Bosses now gain a burst of ward at predetermined health breakpoints, which decays over time at an accelerating rate. This system allows bosses to fight back effectively without overly penalizing lower DPS builds.

The Boss Ward system provides a clear visual representation of boss health progression, unlike DDR. Higher DPS builds will still kill bosses faster, but the ward system avoids making bosses feel like damage sponges.

Bosses will have some additional Defensive Changes:

• Bosses have 50% increased resistance to stun and freeze to prevent easy stuns with higher DPS.
• The effectiveness of Slow and Chill against bosses is reduced to 50%, matching their effect on players.
• Maximum stun/freeze duration caps are introduced for powerful endgame bosses to prevent "CC Locking" strategies.

Glyph of Envy

Glyph of Envy is a new crafting material with the purpose of speeding up progress through Monolith of Fate for alt characters. The goal is to improve speed without allowing players to skip Monoliths entirely.

Glyph of Envy upgrades an affix on the item while randomizing other properties except the item type. This process grants stability to the most recently accessed Timeline.

Normal Timelines not yet completed receive full stability, allowing immediate completion of quest objectives. Empowered or completed Timelines receive a moderate stability boost.

Glyph of Envy is found only in level 100 zones, dropping most commonly from rare enemies and Harbingers.

Harbinger's Needle

The Harbinger's Needle is a new item used to assist with pushing Corruption. This is the first consumable equipped item introduced to Last Epoch.

To use a Harbinger's Needle, equip it in the idol inventory. This item allows the player to gain three additional Gaze of Orobyss for any Timeline boss killed above 90 Corruption. The Needle is destroyed after granting the bonus.

There are enhancements to the Gaze of Orobyss mechanic to be detailed in a future Quality of Life (QoL) post.

New Uniques

Last Epoch Patch 1.1 introduces 30 new Unique Items. Most of these new Uniques are random drops, though some are exclusive to new bosses.

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Stay Tuned for Our Patch 1.1 Guides and Resources

We are hard at work preparing new Build Guides and Resources for Last Epoch Patch 1.1: Harbingers of Ruin. You can expect to find those in our Last Epoch Section leading up to Patch Day. We are preparing to give you an edge in all of the new content. Stay tuned for deeper dives into all of the new information and mechanics coming with Patch 1.1.

If you haven't already, head over to our Discord to stay up to date with our content development.

Written by: VisionGL

Reviewed by: Dredscythe