In Last Epoch, Mages have the potential to be extraordinary damage dealers. Within that, the Runemaster Mastery adds exciting depth and a wide range of builds to suit differing playstyles.
Ranged spellcasting is arguably one of the more complex class positions to adopt. Where Paladins can steamroll into battle, classes like the Mage must be considerably more careful. That caveat aside, there are a lot of reasons to pick the class, and more specifically, the Runemaster Mastery.
The Runemaster can call on a wide variety of abilities, making them useful against enemies with specific resistances. Their burst damage is matched only by their AoE clear, and it’s a remarkably polished Mastery if played correctly.
Read on for our complete guide on building an effective Runemaster in Last Epoch.
Complete Last Epoch Runemaster guide
Our build is designed to allow the mastery to output as much damage as possible. To do this, it draws upon multiple elements that will enable Runic Invocation to completely decimate the battlefield on active use.
Supported by a range of damage-focused abilities, players must be aware of incoming damage. That said, there are some mitigations for survivability, and the incredibly short time-to-kill makes this a build well worth playing in high-level content.
Runemaster Passive choices
Our Passive choices chiefly draw on the Runemaster and Mage trees to maximize damage and elemental effectiveness. It also dips into the Sorcerer tree for an additional boost to Intelligence, for the extra Ward retention it offers.
The Mage Passive Tree is relatively straightforward. We’ve maxed out Elementalist as our Runemaster will use as many elements as possible, as regularly as possible. We are going with Lightning Blast as one of our flagship skills, so Arcane Current is a logical choice here.
In the second half of the tree, we went with further elemental damage buffs, completing the nodes for Ice and Fire and Sun and Storms. Our choices in the bottom tree add a freeze rate to our Lightning Blast, while Arcane Wind gives us a chance to Chill enemies.
In the Runemaster tree, we have maxed out Sphere of Protection, which reduces incoming damage to enemies who are Ignited, Shocked, or Chilled (which should be most of them). We have done the same with Quintessence of Triumph to take advantage of the substantial overall spell damage increase it offers.
We have 10 points in the Circle of Elements to ensure that Sphere of Protection procs. Decree of the Eternal Tundra is essential for survivability and works well with our chosen Glyph of Dominion Skill. The build has also taken the 10 Intelligence points from Ancient Inscriptions for the Ward improvement.
Brand of Deception allows the Paladin to brand enemies before Order’s Imposition provides a sizeable damage buff. Celestial Doom builds into this further and turns the class into a wrecking ball against branded rare or boss enemies.
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Lastly, we have assigned the remaining points to the Sorcerer tree. Specifically, those seven points went to Calculated Destruction to further boost Intelligence and Spell Critical Strike chance.
Last Epoch Runemaster Skills and tree breakdown
This Runemaster build picks Skills that take advantage of the multi-element passives we built into earlier. Glyph of Dominion and Elemental Nova make up some of the best AoE in the game, and the other abilities in the toolkit are buffed heavily by the elemental and ward boosts in this build.
Lightning Blast
All of the nodes in the Lightning Blast tree directly boost the spell’s effectiveness. Building into Closed Circuit allows for more chains that move between enemies. Maxing out Frontloaded provides a 100% damage boost, while Storm Rage provides a nice increase in damage and crit chance.
Elemental Nova
This guide builds in all three Elemental directions for Elemental Nova, picking up a point in Lightning Nova, Ice Nova, and Fire Nova. Maxing out Arcana Elementorum is a massive buff to both damage and area at 40%. From there, the nodes are selected to provide a balanced increase in effectiveness to each elemental type.
Flame Ward
Flame Ward is one of the most essential Mage Skills in the game at the time of writing. For Runemaster, we have Dilation, Through Flames, and Flamerunner, which increase duration and damage and grant the player haste. Otherwise, this tree provides important survivability, thanks to Barrier’s 40% hit damage reduction and Mental Aegis’ Damage absorption.
Glyph of Dominion
The Glyph of Dominion relies on fewer nodes increased to their greatest extent. Amplified Expanse increases the area of effect by 60%, and Vaporizing Realm buffs the Damage-over-Time by 100%. Astromage adds to the damage further, while Astral Extension allows the player to deploy a second glyph. Lastly, Sanctuary Threshold is a hugely valuable Ailment cleanse.
Runic Invocation
Runic Invocation is the ability to have expertise in each element that really comes to the fore. Inscribed Patterns provides a Rune-dependent buff, and other skills in the tree increase Ward Gain and Elemental Penetration. We’ve built out the rest of the tree to take advantage of the triple Runic Energy capacity.
Runemaster gear and stat priority guide
There are so many armor items in Last Epoch that it’s challenging to recommend specifics beyond an effective Unique at this stage. With regard to the latter, our two top recommendations would be the Box of Hydrae and the Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros. Hydrae provides buffs to Hydrahedron that this build doesn’t need, but it’s still worth having for the Ward Retention and Runic Invocation level increase.
The Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros 5%-8% of current health to Ward when the player casts an Elemental spell. It also adds +1 to all Elemental spell levels, with an excellent reduction in cast time as well.
Stat priorities for this build are as follows:
- Increase Critical Strike to Elemental Nova cap.
- Intelligence is vital for Ward-related aspects of the build.
- Spell Damage and Elemental Damage are the most directly effective.
- Max out as many Elemental resistances as possible.
That’s our complete guide to building the ultimate Mage Runemaster in Last Epoch. It can be adjusted to suit playstyle, whether that be for more survivability, range, or maneuverability.
