Last Epoch's new mage class is out now, with 1.0 release planned for December
Hope you like skill trees
Early access action RPG Last Epoch has just received update 0.9.2, which adds a new class of mage called the Runemaster. The Runemaster has five new spells they can use to tear through the game's monsters, and each spell can be customised via its own skill tree.
The update, called "Runes Of Power", also adds eight new languages, and a new type of event called Rune Prisons. Developers Eleventh Hour also announced that Last Epoch's 1.0 release would happen in December this year.
Every ability in Last Epoch has its own skill tree of 30ish nodes that allow you to customise its behaviour (and respec whenever you want for free). Mages by default have eight spells, with a further four unlockable, but there are then Mastery classes for the Mage which add still five more spells. Runemaster is a new Mastery class, and one designed to be highly flexible, even in the context of an already customisable game.
One of the Runemasters skills is called Runic Invocation, which "generates one elemental rune each time a player casts an elemental spell (among more than 15 fire, lightning, and cold spells available in the Mage class). The order and types of runes generated determine which of 40 different spells will be unleashed upon activation." This translates to 40 spells being castable from a single button press.
The new languages added in the update are Chinese, French, German, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. The Rune Prison event, however, involves freeing and fighting an imprisoned mage in order to unlock "experimental" items and buffs.
Katharine spoke to Eleventh Hour about the Runes Of Power update last month, and learned more about its time-travelling campaign and the inspiration they've taken from Chrono Trigger.