Best Last Epoch class and mastery tier list
Every Last Epoch class and mastery ranked in a tier list
What is the best Last Epoch class? Before you step foot in Eterra, you must select one of five classes: Acolyte, Mage, Primalist, Rogue, and Sentinel. To make your decision even harder, later down the line you'll also need to choose between three masteries depending on which class you picked, though this decision isn't presented until you reach the end of Chapter 2. No further spoilers, but if you're keen to choose your mastery as soon as possible, just keep playing through the story and it'll show up soon.
So what is the best class and mastery in the game? Every single class is viable, as explained in our guide to the best Last Epoch builds, but some require more investment than others into making them strong, and some are also much easier to play than others. So where one mastery may be well suited for beginners, another will need a much deeper understanding of the skills, nodes, and playstyle. Here's our tier list of all the Last Epoch classes and masteries to determine which are the best.
Last Epoch class tier list
- S Tier: Mage, Acolyte
- A Tier: Sentinel, Rogue
- B Tier: Primalist
As mentioned above, there are no bad classes in Last Epoch, so don't be dissuaded if you have your heart set on playing as a Primalist. However, the Mage excels in DPS and has lots of variety available, and the Acolyte is a difficult class to play but has almost unlimited potential once you master it. The Sentinel - especially the Paladin mastery, more on that below - is fantastic for beginners and is a solid all-rounder, while the Rogue again is slightly trickier to get to grips with but uses traps and fast movement effectively. Finally, the Primalist has lots of support options but struggles a little with direct DPS.
Best Last Epoch Mage mastery
At its very core, you can't beat dealing immense DPS in an ARPG. And, as explained in our guide to the best Last Epoch Mage builds, the Runemaster mastery has the highest potential for damage because it's so versatile. This is done by generating elemental runes as you attack, as long as you spec into the right Runic Invocation nodes. As a result, it isn't the simplest class to play, but once you fully understand how to play as a Runemaster, the sky's the limit.
The Mage also has the Sorcerer and Spellblade masteries, both of which are very strong. However, neither of them quite has the unlimited potential of the Runemaster, especially the Sorcerer which specializes in area-of-effect spells. This means it excels at crowd control, whereas the Spellblade requires a little more work and effort to make a competent build that still doesn't quite compare.
Best Last Epoch Acolyte mastery
The Acolyte is arguably the hardest class to get to grips with in Last Epoch, but much like the Mage, it also has a lot of potential. The Necromancer is undoubtedly the best mastery because you can summon hordes of the undead, as found in our guide to the best Last Epoch Acolyte builds with our Skeletal Mage Necromancer. This lets you sit back and let your minions do the work for you, essentially.
However, the Lich mastery is not to be ignored either, as you can literally turn into the Grim Reaper. This drains your health constantly but with some nifty tricks, you can prolong your reaping existence by leeching health from your foes. This build has ridiculous DPS potential while teleporting around with Transplant, and is especially good against bosses. However, the Warlock Acolyte mastery is significantly below the other two, as it struggles to output quite as much DPS, instead preferring to slowly sap health away from lots of foes simultaneously.
Best Last Epoch Sentinel mastery
While the best Sentinel builds are a small step down from the Mage and Acolyte, the Sentinel excels in being extremely accessible and easy to understand. The Paladin is the best of the three, as it can pretty much do everything to a decent standard: direct DPS, AoE attacks, support, and heal. It's especially useful when playing with friends.
The Void Knight mastery is a little more complex to play, but you do get much better movement and AoE attacks than the Paladin. You're much more fragile though, so if you fancy being a glass cannon, this is the one to choose. On the flip side, the Forge Guard is way slower but has much more health, making it the de facto tank choice.
Best Last Epoch Rogue mastery
Interestingly, the best Rogue builds are the class where there isn't one mastery that stands head and shoulders above the rest. All three are equally viable for different reasons. The Bladedancer is another glass cannon-esque mastery where you can deal very impressive damage thanks to its Umbral Blades ability, but you must keep moving at all times, dipping in and out of the shadows and smoke.
However, if you want to bring in some feathered friends, look to the Falconer mastery. This is very jack-of-all-trades as you can send in your flying companion to dive bomb enemies while also setting up traps and ballistas. Finally, the Marksman is as you'd expect: a ranged specialist. You can get lots of different types of arrows, some infused with elemental abilities, but again you need to stay agile as you're not the beefiest with this mastery.
Best Last Epoch Primalist mastery
Last but not least, we have the Primalist. Despite being at the bottom of the list, the best Primalist builds are still worth using if they take your fancy, but their potential is simply much less than the masteries higher in this tier list. However, of the Primalist masteries, the Druid is the best thanks to the shapeshifting abilities it possesses. Turn into a Swarmblade if you want to get up close and personal with plenty of melee damage, a Spriggan to act as support for your allies, or a Werebear if you want to tank as much damage as possible.
Below that, you have the Shaman and the Beastmaster. The Shaman is almost on par with the Druid, except it has a little less versatility. You can also turn into a Spriggan as a Shaman, alongside summoning plenty of totems to deal damage, heal allies, cause status effects, and more. Meanwhile the Beastmaster is certainly a lot of fun, as you can summon wolves or squirrels as companions depending on your preference, and it's not too tricky to learn either.