Last Epoch boasts a robust selection of 15 Mastery classes, each offering unique ways to specialize your character. These Masteries, essentially subclasses, let you focus on specific aspects of your build, from traditional roles like the Sorcerer to more innovative options such as the Falconer, who leverages a bird companion for offense. With so many choices, it can be challenging to determine which Masteries are best, but this Last Epoch Mastery tier list aims to simplify that decision for Season 2.
It’s worth noting that you’re not confined to a single Mastery. Most optimized builds often borrow passive skills from the initial half of other Mastery trees. Should you wish to change your primary Mastery, this can be done at the Respec NPC located in the End of Time.
How We Ranked the Best and Worst Masteries in Last Epoch
Our ranking evaluates Masteries based on their ability to fulfill key build requirements across three main aspects: clear speed (for mapping), bossing potential (single-target damage), and overall defense. A strong Mastery excels in these areas or offers powerful synergies.
We prioritize “more” damage multipliers over “increased” damage, as the former provides a greater boost. Critical hit chance, critical hit multiplier, flat damage, and armor shred are also important damage scaling factors. Defensively, critical hit damage reduction or avoidance is crucial for mitigating sudden damage spikes. While resistances can be obtained from gear, having them on the Mastery passive tree offers valuable flexibility. Damage reduction is a premium defensive stat. Additionally, we consider recovery options (leech, health regeneration, ward/health on hit) and effective HP (eHP) provided by health or ward. Masteries offering these benefits efficiently are ranked higher.
Mastery skills are assessed on their numerical strength and their potential for both area clearing and single-target encounters, alongside their playability. A skill might be numerically strong, but if it feels awkward, it could slightly lower the Mastery’s overall ranking. However, players comfortable with advanced mechanics may find such Masteries more appealing.
Last Epoch Tier List: Best Season 2 Masteries
Last Epoch Tier List: Best Season 2 Masteries
Last Epoch Season 2 Masteries Tier List
Here’s a quick overview of how the Masteries stack up in Season 2:
- S-Tier: Paladin, Void Knight – Exceptional in all aspects: clear, bossing, and defense, with no major drawbacks.
- A-Tier: Falconer, Bladedancer, Beastmaster, Shaman, Druid – Strong in most areas, perhaps with a minor weakness in one.
- B-Tier: Lich, Marksman – Good overall but might show more significant gaps in certain performance areas.
- C-Tier: Necromancer, Runemaster, Forge Guard – Decent performance but noticeably lacking in one or more critical aspects.
- D-Tier: Spellblade, Warlock, Sorcerer – Can be viable but generally underperform or have significant weaknesses in multiple areas.
S-Tier Last Epoch Masteries
S-Tier: Void Knight
The Void Knight offers immense area-of-effect damage and exceptional survivability, making it a top choice for both clearing maps and confronting bosses. Its ability to deal damage while moving contributes to smooth gameplay and high effective DPS. Key skills like Erasing Strike and Warpath benefit from high added damage effectiveness (200-600%). The passive tree provides critical boosts such as physical and Void damage penetration, robust leech, damage reduction, and increased health, ensuring both offensive power and defensive resilience. Nodes like Sorrow & Steel, Void Corruption, and Mortal Cleave significantly amplify its capabilities, leaving it with virtually no notable weaknesses.
S-Tier: Paladin
The Paladin is a powerhouse, demonstrating superior damage output and almost unassailable defenses, as evidenced by its dominance in competitive races. Its Judgement skill is extraordinarily potent, featuring high damage effectiveness, critical multiplier, and a dual healing-damage effect. Other skills like Symbols of Hope, Holy Aura, and Healing Hands further bolster its versatility. The Paladin’s passive tree grants unparalleled access to resistances, generous recovery, and substantial damage reduction, complemented by mana, attack/cast speed, block, and armor. Standout passive nodes like Covenant of Light, Covenant of Protection, Reverence of Duality, and Covenant of Dominion provide immense offensive and defensive benefits, making the Paladin an exceptionally well-rounded and potent Mastery.
A-Tier Last Epoch Masteries
A-Tier: Falconer
The Falconer stands out with its unmatched movement speed and formidable damage, largely thanks to Dexterity scaling and easy access to critical hit multipliers. Aerial Assault allows for simultaneous movement and damage, making for a dynamic playstyle. Popular builds include Ballista Falconer and Umbral Blades. However, its defense presents a challenge, relying heavily on Dodge, Silver/Dusk Shrouds, and Glancing Blows for survival. The passive tree offers limited resistance options, requiring players to compensate through gear and idols. Despite its offensive prowess, its defensive fragility makes it a less ideal choice for hardcore players or those seeking maximum resilience.
A-Tier: Bladedancer
The Bladedancer is a robust and swift melee Mastery, providing a balanced experience across clear speed, single-target damage, and defense. Its arsenal of high-DPS skills, coupled with powerful passive support and crucial invulnerability frames from Lethal Mirage, makes it highly effective. The passive tree enhances dodge reliability with nodes like Argent Veil and offers significant damage reduction through Death’s Door for low-life builds. Combined with Glancing Blows and Dusk Shrouds, it forms a strong defensive layer. While not reaching the extreme numerical highs of S-tier masteries, Bladedancer remains an excellent choice for players seeking a fast, powerful, and well-protected melee character.
A-Tier: Beastmaster
The Beastmaster, a proven summoner Mastery, excels through its powerful companions and competitive damage output, notably demonstrated in events like the Uber Abberoth race with builds like Storm Crows. While its tankiness doesn’t match the S-tier Masteries, its summons provide a strong offensive and defensive front. Builds centered around Summon Wolf or Poison Nova Scorpion showcase its potential. The passive tree bolsters survivability with damage reduction, increased health, and healing, alongside companion endurance and critical support. Although direct personal damage amplification is less prominent, it can be sourced effectively from other gear and passive interactions, making Beastmaster a strong, if somewhat slower, choice.
A-Tier: Shaman
The Shaman offers a versatile elemental and/or melee playstyle, recognized for its strong Arena pushing capabilities. Its clear speed is fast, though not top-tier, with comparable defensive performance. Tornado is a standout skill, delivering significant damage and useful vacuum effects. Summon Storm Totem also provides reliable damage and acts as a decoy. The passive tree offers substantial penetration, cooldown reduction, mana solutions, and elemental damage alongside resistances. Key nodes such as Fist of Stone, Lagon’s Answer, Conflux, and Swirling Maelstrom boost stun, endurance, health regen, and auto-triggering skills, creating a dynamic and powerful character. Some skills like Earthquake can be clunky but overcome with specialized builds.
A-Tier: Druid
The shapeshifting Druid shines through its formidable Storm Werebear build, which combines excellent DPS with high eHP, making it viable for advanced content and deep Arena pushes. This engaging Mastery involves mauling enemies and unleashing tornadoes, offering a satisfying combo playstyle. While not the fastest for general farming, its power is undeniable. The Werebear form itself transforms skills into potent attacks like Rampage and Maul, providing movement, damage, and crowd control. The passive tree reinforces this with nodes like Spirit Warden for sustain, Focused Wrath for damage, and Impervious for melee damage reduction, ensuring both offensive might and defensive fortitude for a well-rounded experience.
B-Tier Last Epoch Masteries
B-Tier: Lich
The Lich embodies a risky “sacrifice your life for power” playstyle, capable of high performance through potent skills like Reaper Form and a comprehensive passive tree. Death Seal provides a significant damage boost and damage reduction, rewarding bold engagement. Reaper Form offers mobility, AoE damage, and health gain, making it a strong all-rounder despite its life-draining effect. While skills like Drain Life and Aura of Decay have weaknesses, the passive tree offers substantial intelligence stacking, mana, ward, and recovery options. Nodes such as Dance With Death, Hollow Lich, and Unclosing Wounds provide efficient damage buffs, ensuring the Lich remains a competitive, albeit high-stakes, Mastery.
B-Tier: Marksman
The Marksman delivers a classic archer experience, distinguished by its high HP on hit and robust damage output, making it effective for clearing. Popular builds include Hail of Arrows, which excels with bleed combos and doesn’t rely on critical strikes, and Heartseeker, known for its auto-targeting projectiles and versatile damage types. While Multishot has weak base stats, its damage scales significantly with passive multipliers and flat damage. The passive tree supports dodge, crit, movement speed, additional projectiles, and substantial recovery. Key nodes like Heightened Senses, Thief’s Quiver, and Death From Afar enhance survivability, crit avoidance, and armor shred. Although defense isn’t its strongest suit, Marksman ensures consistent damage and clear speed.
C-Tier Last Epoch Masteries
C-Tier: Necromancer
The Necromancer is a strong summoner Mastery focusing on undead minions, capable of pushing respectable Arena waves (200-400). It offers versatility across Poison, Necrotic, Cold, and Fire damage types. Summon Skeletal Mage reduces enemy health regeneration and can convert into a traversal skill. Dread Shade boosts damage significantly and can explode minions or enhance Infernal Shade. Assemble Abomination summons a powerful minion, though maximizing it often involves snapshotting. The passive tree provides health, resistances, minion support, armor/resistance shred, ward, and crit. Notables like Elixir of Hunger and Rite of Undeath offer great buffs. However, its personal damage is low, and defense primarily relies on minions, limiting its top-tier potential.
C-Tier: Runemaster
The Runemaster introduces a distinctive caster archetype, allowing players to combine spells via Rune of Invocation for versatile and powerful invocations. This skill is central to the Mastery, offering impressive damage numbers, with Hydrahedron builds proving viable for 1000 corruption. Flame Rush provides mobility, damage, and damage reduction, while Frost Wall boasts high damage effectiveness and strong crowd control. Runebolt offers critical strike multipliers and mana regeneration. The passive tree supports ward generation, mana, elemental debuffs, cast speed, and cooldown recovery. While strong, defense remains a concern, often requiring constant movement. Despite its unique and powerful mechanics, it doesn’t quite match the top-tier Masteries for overall robustness.
C-Tier: Forge Guard
The Forge Guard is a solid Mastery, offering some unique build paths, though it generally lags behind higher-tier options in overall efficiency. Skills like Manifest Armor reward Strength and armor stacking, acting as a valuable decoy. Shield Throw provides high added damage, and Ring of Shields offers strong defensive utility, particularly with the Shield Crafter passive. Smelter’s Wrath shows potential with high damage effectiveness and dual offense/defense scaling, but its channeling nature can be clunky. Forge Weapon summons scale off your weapon, providing both damage and defense. The passive tree includes Guardian for health, stun, and regen, and other nodes for efficient damage scaling, but lacks the truly outrageous benefits seen in top Masteries.
D-Tier Last Epoch Masteries
D-Tier: Spellblade
The Spellblade, though viable, often struggles with defense despite good DPS and mobility, making it prone to sudden deaths. Its unique magic-melee hybrid playstyle is engaging for those who enjoy combining both. Enchant Weapon provides a potent DPS boost and instant Ignites. Surge offers mobility, damage, critical strikes, and debuffs, while Shatter Strike excels with crit and provides cold debuffs, culling, and ward. Flame Reave and Firebrand can be fun for mid-game but hit a damage wall later. The passive tree offers ward support, damage reduction, and armor, but lacks strong defensive mechanisms like Parry, leaving it vulnerable compared to higher-tier options.
D-Tier: Warlock
Warlock builds excel in damage over time, making them relatively easy to gear and new-player friendly. Curses are central to its playstyle, debuffing enemies to amplify damage significantly. Key skills like Cthonic Fissure, Profane Veil, and Chaos Bolts are versatile for both Bleed and Witchfire archetypes. Profane Veil even offers temporary invincibility (excluding DoT) alongside its own damage. However, defense is a major weakness, relying mostly on eHP and recovery from nodes like Spiteful Decay and Spirit Leech. This limited defensive toolkit prevents Warlock from reaching the upper echelons of competitive play, despite its strong DoT mechanics and accessibility.
D-Tier: Sorcerer
The classic caster Sorcerer is viable but struggles to distinguish itself from other Masteries. Frostbite Frostclaw is a decent all-rounder but suffers from mana issues and slow speed. Static Orb and Black Hole provide strong damage and vacuum utility, with Static Orb offering situational damage reduction and stun. Ice Barrage delivers respectable numbers with auto-targeting and defensive crowd control. Arcane Ascendance is powerful but costly. Meteor boasts huge base stats but demands significant mana investment. The passive tree offers ward support, substantial damage buffs, and elemental debuffs, but the Mana Bulwark node, which deals damage to mana before health, proves ineffective in practice. Overall, the Sorcerer lacks unique standout features to compete with higher-tier Masteries effectively.
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