Last Epoch: ARPG somewhere between Path of Exile and Diablo.

I tried my best to find a thread for this but neither forum search or Google turned up anything, which surprised me.

My intention was to bump the thread as Multiplayer and version 0.9 is launching tomorrow, Mar 9 2023. But maybe some introduction is appropriate.

Thus far, Last Epoch has been single player only. However, multiplayer and online play is set to launch on March 9, 2023. It comes along with patch 0.9, which contains lots of goodies for those who have already been playing.

What is the character build mechanic in this one? Is it like POE where you really need to have a planned build before you start playing and stick to that throughout, or more like Diablo where you can really just switch your build as you go depending on what you find?

I apparently have a couple of hours in this and recall none of it. I’ll have to revisit once that patch drops.

Good example of the game being somewhere in-between! No, you don’t have to have a build planned out at the start but everything is not as easily swappable as Diablo 3.

These choices are permanent and cannot be respecced:

  • Main class, chosen at character creation. Examples are Sentinel, Mage, Primalist, etc.
  • Mastery, chosen around L25-30. Each class has three subclasses (there are a few not yet released. Mage has a Runemaster mastery which is still coming)

The choice of Mastery grants a new ability and powerful bonuses. Class and Mastery have individual mastery trees. I think the closest analog is Grim Dawn with it’s mastery tree for each of the two classes you pick. You invest points into various passives in the tree and it unlocks more options, including new abilities (shown at the bottom):

You can respec points out of these trees and shuffle them around, but you’re stuck with your choice of class/mastery.

Then comes another thick layer of specialization. Out of your arsenal of class + mastery abilities, you can choose to specialize 5 of them. Those abilities you can level up and customize their behavior. You can respec within with a skill tree or you can dump the skill entirely for a different one, but each skill levels up as you use it (which grants you points to customize it) and if you choose a new one, you’ll have it level it up. That level has a floor that increases as the game goes on, so it’s a small bump but nothing too onerous. Example: once you progress a bit in the game, choosing a new skill might start it out at L5 instead of L1.

Let’s say I choose to play a mage and choose Sorcerer as my mastery. That grants me the Meteor ability. I can use it regardless, but if I spec into it I can get access to this tree (oops, the screenshot I grabbed is for Fireball, but you get the idea!):

Think of these trees as the replacement for support gems in Path of Exile. They can make the abilities more powerful, but they can also change the behavior of the ability (sometimes drastically!). I believe you get a maximum of 20 points to invest into each skill, once they’re leveled up.

I’ve been following this at a distance for a while. What’s left on their roadmap before release? Are all the areas/acts/chapters complete I guess is my big concern. It looks great but I’d rather not be playing through and suddenly hit the end of content waiting for 1.0 to finish up.

I think the content is largely finished. Maybe they add a new dungeon or something for 1.0, but the campaign is in place as is the endgame system. I think the only notable missing content is 3 of the 15 mastery classes: Runemaster, Falconer, and Warlock.

Thanks! I’ve been itching for an ARPG to play… this might be the ticket.

I was about to ask “Which PoE?”

I debated between spelling it out and increasing the length of the title or hoping ARPG was a cue for Path of Exile vs. Pillars of Eternity, but maybe I should opt for clarity. Thanks. :)

This looks really good. Seems like more of a cross between Grim Dawn and D3 to me vs. POE. My only wish was this thing came out last year instead of now. With D4 coming out in June, I’ll be hesitant to pick this up when it hits 1.0

I think that’s a fair description! I was speaking in terms of complexity, where the spectrum would look something like this in my head:

[POE-----------LE-----GD---------------------D3]

I think with each skill also having its own skill tree, there are more levers and dials to think about than Grim Dawn, but it’s not as complex as something like Path of Exiles character builds.

The combat looks a lot crunchier than the last time I watched a video of it, where it lacked much weight.

It’s too bad it’s not F2P. I’d probably give it a shot if it wasn’t $40, but with the D3 last hurrah & D4 on the way, my ARPG dance card is pretty full.

Quick question as this has me interested as well, I have to admit (it’s been on my wishlist for ages, but hearing it’s almost at .9 and most of the content is in makes me think this would be a good time to jump in and start getting into it).

Anyway, does this have controller support and how IS the controller support and how does this play on Steam Deck, assuming it has controller support?

It has controller support, but I haven’t tried it on the Deck.

Controller is the way I play the game but it’s not 100% yet, you may need to swap to the mouse on certain interface screens. It’s the kind of thing I already use the mouse for in this kind of game anyway, so it hasn’t impacted me. I’ve run into a couple bugs while using it as well, such as a waypoint not being interactable with the gamepad every now and then.

Overall, though, playing on a controller feels great.

That’s great news - I probably wouldn’t play this on Steam Deck, but it’s nice to have as an option. Plus playing on my desktop with a controller would be fun to try.

I’ve been waiting patiently for the 0.9 patch before I try Last Epoch again. I liked what I saw when I tried it over a year ago, but it was one of those things I knew should go back in the oven for awhile before I gave it serious time. Since returning to Wolcen didn’t do it for me(and crashed my GPU) I think I’ll give this one a try again this weekend.

Just lost over an hour to this thing, rolled an acolyte with some skelly friends, and am having a great time. Story is bananas but that’s always just the thread to more murder, and the murder in this game feels pretty good. Not Inquisitor good – nothing so far is Inquisitor good – but satisfying.

Why even bother with a story in an ARPG? But I guess if you’re going to insist on having one you might as well make it about time travel.

Wolcen definitely annoyed me with how many freaking cutscenes it has within the first 15 minutes. I think Grim Dawn understood this. Sure, it had an opening cutscene that was extremely easy to skip, and then it was down to quest givers giving the story via a bunch of text you could breeze right past and just go do whatever was now in your quest log without worrying about story.