Last Epoch: Best Rogue builds and skills
Learn the best builds and skills for the Rogue class in Last Epoch
Wondering what the best Rogue builds and skills are in Last Epoch? The Rogue class in Last Epoch is well practiced at the traditional roguish art of slicing and dicing everything in close proximity with a dagger and bow. There's more, though! If you also like setting traps, tossing smoke bombs like a shinobi, or even charging into combat alongside your trusty falcon, the Rogue can do all that as well.
There's a lot to discover with Rogue builds, especially as you reach level 20 and need to narrow your focus down to the class' three Masteries: the Bladedancer, the Falconer, and the Marksman. Below, we've outlined our favourite builds for each of these Masteries, along with the right Skills, Specialization Tree nodes, and Passives to select for each. Read on, and we guarantee that your Last Epoch Rogue will light up the battlefield with plenty of high damage numbers.
In this guide:- Last Epoch Best Rogue Bladedancer build
- Last Epoch Best Rogue Falconer build
- Last Epoch Best Rogue Marksman build
Last Epoch Best Rogue Bladedancer build
The Bladedancer Mastery's for all those Rogues who love to dual wield and move at the speed of light. Want to be the equivalent of a ninja, with kunai in both hands as you get your shadow to attack on your behalf? This is the Mastery for you, and the following Shadow Daggers Bladedancer Rogue build is what you're looking for. Get started by Specializing in the following Skills and Passives.
Shadow Cascade
Shadow Cascade is the bread and butter of this Bladedancer build. You'll need two melee weapons in both hands to use it, but once you're equipped, you'll swing out a circular strike that decimates everything in your path. You can enable this Skill to activate after using Shift (described below), which means that you don't need to keep it equipped in your hotbar and can equip another skill, like Decoy (which is very fitting with the ninja theme).
When selecting nodes on the Shadow Cascade Specialization Tree, go for Dagger Dance to toss piercing daggers at enemies whenever you unleash your circular strike. Fight in the Shadows will replenish your mana, while Dismantle and Incapacitate confer a debuff to every enemy that you hit.
Shift
An absolutely critical Skill for the Bladedancer, Shift lets you blink your body forward at lighting speed. This will be your main method of traversal, and the right nodes will also let you inflict damage and activate other Skills as you zoom past foes.
Unlock the Dancing Shadows node as soon as you can for the fantastic ability to activate Shadow Cascade immediately after using Shift. Following that, take the Swift Recovery and Velocity nodes to restore mana and decrease Shift's cooldown. Last but not least, Unseen Strike and Consumed By Shadow are excellent for allowing you to essentially decapitate opponents after Shifting past them.
Smoke Bomb
Maybe it's the old Naruto fan in me, but I love Smoke Bomb. Not only does your smokescreen grant you haste as you stand in it, but progression in this Skill also augments your weapon damage. Who knew that daggers did extra damage when covered in explosive mist?
To get that damage buff, take the Lingering Fumes node to make the smoke last longer and then Smoke Blades to get additional melee and throwing damage for you and all your allies. On the other side of the Specialization Tree, taking Shrouded in Darkness and Rapid Concealment will ensure that any hits you endure while obscured in smoke are glancing blows.
Synchronized Strike
Synchronized Strike makes your Rogue leap forward and strike, with attacking shadows appearing on either side of them when they land. It's a very cool looking ability that offers up a ton of attack potential.
The node you want to get to here is Umbral Assassination, which shoots out Shadow Daggers with every successful hit. These Shadow Daggers are stackable and inflict sizable damage upon reaching four stacks. Combine this with Perfect Coordination to have your shadows jump inwards at an enemy rather than outwards, and boom, you'll off opponents in an instant.
Umbral Blades
Umbral Blades is a combo ability that tosses out blades and recalls them, hitting enemies along the way. You can hit foes multiple times, and this Skill combines well with Synchronized Strike, since your attacking shadows will also throw their blades forwards!
Take Umbral Remnant to ensure that your attacking shadows always leave behind an Umbral Blade when they expire. If you want an additional chilly touch, go for Subzero Intrusion, followed by Coldsnap Strike to freeze everyone hit by your blades.
Passives
To maximise your potential with the Shadow Daggers Bladedancer build, we recommend the following Passives:
- Rogue Passives: Twin Blade is a necessity here, since most of the Bladedancer's skills don't work unless you dual wield. A Bladedancer also needs to be speedy and evasive on the battlefield, so be sure that you've got Agility, Dodge and Parry and Evasion.
- Bladedancer Passives: Cloak of Shadows and Shroud of Dusk are necessary choices to grant additional health and increase your dodge and glancing blow likelihoods. You'll also want Blood Dance, to leech a portion of melee damage into health, and Critical Eye and All In to boost critical strike chances.
- Falconer Passives: There are a few Falconer Passives that can come in handy, namely Raptor's Wings and Wilderness Scout, which respectively give you a chance to gain haste after hitting an enemy as well as increased health and dodge rating. Outlander's Tenacity also isn't bad for even more dodge potential.
- Marksman Passives: The only Marksman Passive you need is Focus Fire, since everything else is specific to using a bow.
Last Epoch Best Rogue Falconer build
Instead of focusing on melee weaponry or ranged attacks, the Falconer is a jack-of-all-trades ranger with trapping capabilities and a flying animal companion. The Explosive Ballista Falconer Rogue build is my personal favourite for this Mastery, since it lets you toss weaponry across the ground to barrage the stuffing out of enemies while your falcon rains down death from above. If this sounds appealing, you'll want to Specialize in the following Skills and Passives as you level up.
Ballista
Ballista lets you lay down missile launchers to destroy foes from afar and will be your primary means of dealing damage. By default, you can have two ballistae active at once, though this number can be upped by acquiring the right gear. Once you've outfitted Explosive Trap to summon ballistas (described below), you also don't need to equip this Skill to your hotbar, and can replace it with an attack of your choice or a well-placed Decoy.
On the Ballista Skill Specialization Tree, you should take the Armed Construction node, which makes your ballistae explode when they expire. Perfect Aim and Shared Enhancements are excellent choices for giving your ballistae your critical strike chance, critical strike multipliers, and overall damage multiplers, while Efficient Construction will lower the mana needed to summon a ballista.
Dive Bomb
Dive Bomb sends your falcon soaring upwards before it crashes down with a thud, dealing AoE damage to everything around it. This, along with Falconry, is a pivotal support DPS Skill to give you backup as you focus on your traps and ballistae.
On the Dive Bomb Skill Specialization Tree, prioritise nodes like Devastating Dive, Rushing Wings, and Focused Hunter to amplify the damage dealt by your bird's dives. Rush of the Hunt is another good option to reduce the cooldown of Dive Bomb and ensure that your falcon is dishing out the hurt.
Explosive Trap
Explosive Trap gives your Rogue the ability to throw traps across the field, dealing fire damage upon detonation. It's a great damage dealer in its own right, but this Skill's true strength lies in its synergy with other Skills.
After Specializing in Explosive Trap, take the Sky Signal node, which gives your falcon a physical and elemental penetration buff after a trap explodes. Then you'll want to focus on Siege Engineering and all of the trap-related nodes attached to it, like Minefield, Trap Sprinkler, and Trapuchet. These let you spawn more traps - and even ballista - at increasingly wider distances whenever your existing traps detonate.
Falconry
If we're going with the Falconer Mastery, obviously the Falconry Skill is a must. Your falcon buddy is the DPS support you need, and this Skill is all about ensuring that they're a true bird of prey.
My personal favourite Falconry nodes include the wonderfully-named Go For The Eyes!, Trained To Hunt, and Is It A Bird?, all of which boost your Falcon's damage potential or chances to launch a critical hit. Hunter's Spoils is also good for regaining health after your falcon lands a kill.
Shift
Shift is just as handy for the Falconer as it was for the Bladedancer, since you're going to be dashing around in madcap fashion, placing ballistae and traps all the while.
Max out the Velocity node to get rid of Shift's annoying cooldown as soon as you can. Momentum and Swift Recovery are superb for ensuring that you move faster after Shifting and recover mana on use. If you'd like to replenish your health as well, take Shadow Recuperation.
Passives
To maximise your potential with the Explosive Ballista Falconer build, we recommend the following Passives:
- Rogue Passives: Go for movement buffs here to supplement your Shift Skill. Agility and Evasion are natural picks. Steady Hand and Swift Assassin are also useful for amplifying attack speed and your dexterity stat.
- Bladedancer Passives: The only Bladedancer Passive worth taking is Cloak of Shadows for additional dexterity and the chance to receive a glancing blow after being hit.
- Falconer Passives: As you might've guessed, the bulk of our Passives will be selected here. Handler, Needle Like Precision and Tactician are superb for giving your falcon and ballistae increased damage and chances to crit. Meanwhile, Evasion Tactics and Stymphalian Feathers will ensure that you stay alive long enough to keep your traps flowing.
- Marksman Passives: Focus Fire is the best Passive to choose out of your limited options, for the dexterity increase and the chance to debuff an enemy's dodge for eight seconds.
Best Rogue Marksman builds and skills
If you want to be Legolas from The Lord of the Rings, go with the Marksman Mastery. If you want to make uncanny displays of projectiles erupt from your bow in absurdly large arcs, go with the Multishot Marksman Rogue build below. This build is for the DPS lovers who don't mind standing stationary as they proceed to shoot arrows out all around them in a bullet hell aura. Go ahead and choose the following Skills and Passives to get started.
Flurry
Flurry is one of the Rogue's earliest starting Skills, but it remains a good one throughout the game and is particularly vital for the Marksman.
Blood Revelry, which lets you leech off Flurry damage into health, is a useful node, while Sap Willpowerprovides a similar function by giving you mana as long as you hit one enemy. If you care more about killing enemies before your health or mana can be depleted, Adrenaline Rush gives Flurry stackable damage and increased attack speed.
Multishot
You'll rely on Multishot the most out of all of your Skills. Its synergy with Flurry is astounding, and by the time you enter Last Epoch's endgame, your arrow explosion is going to take up a quarter of the screen.
We're going for a big impact here, so take nodes like Large Quiver, which gives you additional arrows. Piercing Shots, Pinning Shots, Sniping, and Stand My Ground, all of which are focused on elevating your multishot damage, are also perfect choices.
Shift
Guess what - it's Shift again! This go-to Rogue skill is, once again, perfect for movement. The Marksman will often be unable to DPS while they move, so it's more important than ever to use Shift to get into a good position.
Shadowslip helps the Marksman Rogue do just that, by conferring invulnerability whenever they Shift. Sleight of Hand is another awesome node that allows for whipping out Shurikens upon a successful Shift, and Shadow Recuperation heals you whenever you Shift. All great abilities to show us that Shifting never gets old.
Shurikens
Technically, the Bladedancer received our ninja build. But who says that Shurikens need to solely be used by shinobi? The Marksman can make excellent use of these deadly serrated projectiles, which technically can be left off the hotbar thanks to the fact that Shift activates them with the right nodes (as described above). Once again, a Decoy can take up the open hotbar slot to draw enemy aggro.
On the Shurikens Specialization Tree, take Alacrity for increased attack speed and Ethereal Blades to enable your Shurikens to pierce enemies and continue through them. I'm also fond of Behind The Veil, which lets your Shurikens blind foes, and Bladed Armor, which gives you increased armor depending on how many Shurikens are encircling you.
Smoke Bomb
Smoke Bomb makes a triumphant return! The Marksman will use this handy smoke deterrent in much the same way as the Bladedancer.
Once again, take the Lingering Fumes node to make the smoke last longer. Since you don't really need Smoke Blade with this build, consider Moonlight Bomb, Rapid Concealment or Thick Smoke to ward off enemies and keep them away from you as you find the perfect spot to unleash your DPS barrages.
Passives
To maximise your potential with the Multishot Marksman build, we recommend the following Passives:
- Rogue Passives: As with the other builds listed here, Agility and Evasion are go-to Passives. Swift Assassin should be maximised to ensure that your bow damage hits hard and fast.
- Bladedancer Passives: Cloak of Shadows will aid a Marksman nicely, granting additional dexterity and the chance to receive a glancing blow when hit. Pumping a few points into Pursuit is also useful.
- Falconer Passives: There's not much in the Falconer Passive Tree that works well with this build except for Raptor's Wings, which gives us that extra haste whenever we hit an enemy.
- Marksman Passives: You'll want to max out Draining Arrows first and foremost. Following this, put points into Focus Fire and Assassin's Quiver, which will eventually let you unlock Heightened Senses, which lets you avoid critical strikes. Arrow Storm, an awesome Passive that increases your bow attack speed for three seconds, should be your next priority. Once you've got that, build up to Death From Afar, Perfect Aim, and Master Archer.
That finishes our look at the best builds available for the backstabbing, fast-moving, falcon-loving Rogue. For more on all the class options available to you in Last Epoch, keep an eye on Rock Paper Shotgun in the coming days as we proceed to delve into the gothic Acolyte, the spell-slinging Mage, the brutal Primalist, and the noble Sentinel.