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Earth, wind, lightning, and ice: these are the elements a Shaman calls upon inLast Epoch. The Shaman is the Primalist’s version of a magic user, enhancing their already potent physique with the power of the storm. Shamans tear through enemies like a tornado, striking like lightning and with the crushing weight of a landslide.
You’re not quite as elementally attuned as a Mage, but you’ll still benefit from buffs that enhance elemental-based damage (specifically cold and lightning damage). But if you’re worried that the Shaman doesn’t offer the same hands-on brutality as the Beastmaster or Druid, then don’t worry: you’ll still wield a big stick to do most of your damage.
Shaman Strategy
The biggest difference between a Shaman and aBeastmasterisyour primary attribute, which switches from Strength toAttunement. You’ll also be stacking external sources of damage rather than stacking buffs when encountering a boss.
Attacks withTempest Strike will be more than sufficient to deal with most enemies. Once you encounter a boss, throw down Storm Totem and a Tornado to stack damage over time. ‘
What makes the Shaman a fun class is just how mobile it can be. Tornado can offer a movement speed buff, while your Storm Crow’s Crowstorm ability will turn it into a teleport that deals lightning damage in a wide area. The two combined allow you to flip around the map leaving lighting and tornados wherever you go.
Shaman Skills And Passives
Unlike the Beastmaster, aShaman will have to do some skill respeccingbefore settling on your final five skills. Gathering Storm can be a useful stop-gap skill, but this build will instead focus on Tempest Strike as your primary attack.
Summon Storm Crows will eventually become your traversal skill, whileSummon Storm Totem and Tornado are your stacking damagesources. Finally,Warcry provides you with the same consistent buffsas always, but with a little added mana efficiency thanks to it scaling with your Attunement stat.
Don’t be afraid to despecialize a skillonce a better one becomes available. Although you’ll lose some skill points, you’ll quickly gain them back thanks to the catch-up experience gain mechanic.
A lot of the skills this build will be using don’t unlock before you have to start choosing skills to specialize. For that reason, you canspecialize in Gathering Storm and Summon Thorn Totem in the very early game. Both of these skills scale with Attunement, and although this build won’t use them forever, they’ll certainly get you to level 10 without issue.
This build is intended for leveling onlyand will only discuss skills, passives, and items until level 60 (about when most people will beat the main campaign). Although each skill is described to level 20, you almost certainly won’t get all of them that high before the end of the campaign.
Tempest Strike
Tempest Strike can betricky to use in the early game, but once you’ve placed a few skill points into reducing its mana cost, it can outpace any other melee ability the Primalist gets.
To make Tempest Strike into our main attack, we’re going to dump the first four skill points intoAncestral Swiftness. This will cut Tempest Strike’s mana cost in half, which we’ll further reduce withWarm Shelter. This removes the cold spell attack from Tempest Strike but also increases its attack speed. Picking upResurgence of the Landfinally makes Tempest Strike into a net gain of mana every time you use it.
After that, focus on improving your damage withWindfury ForceandFirm Grip, and then wind your way down the right side of the tree until you get toDevastating Whirlwind. The previous skill node,Ceaseless Typhoon, causes your Tempest Strike to cast Tornado and improves that Tornado’s damage. This will synergize with your Tornado skills, too!
Summon Storm Crow
Your next skill will be your permanent minion companions (an important thing to pair with your Primalist passive skill Tempest Bond) and willeventually become a potent traversal ability.
Start withShocking Display, then two points intoThundering Strike, and then unlockSky Passage. Now your Storm Crow’s Crowstorm ability will teleport you wherever you activate it. You’ll then want to grabExpansive Pulseand then two points intoThunderous Blastto improve Crowstorm’s damage and cooldown.
After that, fill out the rest of Expansive Pulse and Thundering Strike before redirecting to unlockStorm BreathandShatterboltfor even more damage.
Warcry
Warcry starts out merely stunning and knocking back enemies, but it eventually becomesa damage buff,an enemy debuff, and a hugemovement speed buff. Start off unlockingJuggernaut, thenBerserker,Brutality, andFury Strikes. Once those are all accounted for, redirect toStaggering Roarfor a little extra knockback, thenKinetic ScreamandHastily Advancefor that all-important haste buff.
Energized Chargekeeps that haste around longer and makes Warcry cost less mana. If you don’t feel the need for speed, you can put fewer points into Energized Charge to put more intoFrailtyto keep enemies from being so mean.
You’ll be casting this spell on cooldownto keep your haste up and to keep enemies stunned.
Tornado
Tornado offers stacking damage over time, crowd control, and best of all, yet more movement speed. Start withAspect of the Storm, thenStorm Dervish, and finally,Swift Wingsto keep Aspect of the Storm for as long as possible. We don’t really need anymore attack speed, so just one point into Storm Dervish should be sufficient. Finish the right side off withGust of Renewalbefore we move onto the left side.
Lasting Stormimproves the duration of Tornado, butDebrisis what makes Tornado really kick. Following that,Churning ChaosandTrail of Stormsimprove the frequency of Storm Orbs created by Tornado, further improving this spell’s awesome power.
Summon Storm Totem
Alongside Tornado will be Storm Totem to improve this build’s stacking damage further. Cast this alongside Tornado toclear entire screens or to simply improve your DPSas you wail on a boss with Tempest Strike.
Start going down the left side withStatic Field, then once that’s maxed, unlockFulgurite Corefor additional lightning damage.Overstimulationwill also cause a slow debuff on everyone hit by lightning.Stormriderimproves your movement speed (a recurring theme with the Shaman) andExploit Weaknessimproves your other sources of damage so long as the enemy is shocked.
After that, head down the right side of the tree with two points intoLightning RiderandStorm’s Reach, then finish the skill with four points into Intensity and Thunder Totem.
Primalist Passives
You’ll actually spend a bit more time on the Primalist passive tree than other builds as there are a few important nodes that should be fully unlocked before moving to Shaman. To start,Natural Attunementimproves your most important stat,Wisdom of the Wildimproves your overall damage, andTempest Bondprovides an enormous damage boost so long as you have a minion summoned (ie. your Storm Crows).
Those three are the most important passives. Two points intoHunter’s Restorationprovide a bit of health but are mostly just necessary for unlocking the tier 10 skill nodes.Elder Branchcan be a huge boon to your Storm Totem’s damage, so put as many points as you’re able to here before moving to the Shaman tree.
Shaman Passives
There are relatively few nodes you’ll need to worry about in the Shaman Tree, but they all deserve to be maxed.Shamanic Infusionimproves your Attunement and also penetrates enemy resistance, so it gets a full eight points. DittoSky Warriorfor more damage overall and a 10 percent cooldown reduction on your Storm Crow’s Crowstorm (say that five times fast).
Lagonian Wrathgives you a flat increase to your base damage, whileEarthern Supremacyprovides yet more Attunement and protection from enemy stuns.Rune of Aweprovides a massive increase to your base damage, andElemental Shrinesonce again boosts Attunement.
You’ll likely have rolled credits by the time you’ve unlocked Elemental Shrines, but if you manage to gain more levels than average, you can start unlockingDervish Rhythm of Thunder,Thunder Strike, andConflux. Or you can put points into the Primalist tree nodes Elder Branch andAncestral Weaponry.
Shaman Items And Affixes
Now that you have an idea of what skills to unlock, it’s time to talk gear. When you’re out hunting for drops, here are theaffixes you should keep an eye out for.
For more on how to craft items in Last Epoch, check outour crafting guide here.
Attunement is your primary attributethat increases the damage dealt by all your skills and also increases your minion’s health. Most of your damage is physical and lightning, with your minions doing exclusively lightning damage, so look for modifiers that increase those damage types.
Spell damage will help out with everythingbut Tempest Strikes’ melee damage portion, but it will increase the damage of the tiny tornados and shock waves that Tempest Strike produces. It will also increase the damage of your regular Tornado ability.
The rest is pretty standard for a Primalist subclass.Movement speedis always nice,resistances,armor,health, andhealth regenwill keep you alive. Look out fordamage leeched as healthas Shamans have very few sources of life leech through skills.
Basic Items
If this is your first playthrough of Last Epoch, you’ll have to use whatever you can find. That said, you should especiallylook out for these basic itemsfor crafting purposes.
+10% to 16% increased Health Regen
+10% to 16% increased Mana Regen
The increase to mana regen is really helpful, especially early on when Tempest Strike is so expensive mana wise.
+32% to 64% increased Physical Damage
+32% to 64% increased Minion Physical Damage
This helm provides both damage and armor, but it only drops later in the campaign.
+38 Armor
+1 to 4 Attunement
Avian Garb can also roll with an Attunement bonus, providing you a double blast of your primary stat.
+2 to 6 Attunement
+36% to 60% increased Minion Damage
Same as Avian Garb, but with more armor and increased minion damage. Only drops later in the game.
+10 to 17 Spell Damage
+15% to 35% increased Minion Damage
Since you’ll be dealing about as much spell damage as melee damage, this scepter is a great fit.
+25 to 30 Spell Damage
+25% to 60% increased Elemental Damage
Same as Oak Sceptre, but you’re sacrificing minion damage for added elemental damage. Works with Tempest Strike.
+42 Melee Damage
24% to 50% increased Minion Damage
The minion damage bonus can really bring your Storm Crows' power up, but it takes both hands to wield.
+7 to 9 Spell Damage
-3 Mana Cost for Spell Skills
A good early weapon to pair with Tempest Strike since it reduces your mana consumption.
+215 to 275 Block Effectiveness
+25% to 60% increased Physical Damage
If you find a good one-handed weapon, the Bandit Shield can help provide some defense and offense at the same time.
+8% to 19% increased Physical Damage
+8% to 19% increased Minion Physical Damage
Increased your physical damage, but your minions only deal lightning damage. Best to use it early in the game when you haven’t unlocked Storm Totem yet.
Living Seed
+1% to 2.4% of Damage Leeched as Health on Hit
+1% to 2.4% of Minion Damage Leeched as Health on Hit
A better choice than Sage Antler, Living Seed provides much-needed life leech in a build that otherwise doesn’t have much.
Personal Items And Uniques
These items are exceedingly rare, but if you come across one of them, you should probably use it.
Description
Swaddling of the Erased
These gloves provide a big boost to all attributes, making them great for pretty much all classes.
Exceedingly rare, but a fantastic belt for almost any class.
Chains of Uleros
You’ll have to learn how to use potions after they’re converted to ward, but the damage boost is nice.
Advent of the Erased
Incredible movement speed and haste on top of it. Doesn’t provide stat boosts, but you’ll be so fast you won’t care.
Tempest Maw
You’re unlikely to find this unique until near the end of the campaign, but if you do, this is a very good one-handed axe.
Cleaver Solution
You won’t get much out of the Strength or Intelligence boost, but the damage and +1 to all skills more than makes up for it.
Hazelroot
The great thing about this oak sceptre is that it increases your spell damage per 3 Attunement. This lets it work well into the mid-game.
Culnivar’s Claim
Massive lightning damage makes this incredible to use with Tempest Strike. Just be aware that this doesn’t affect your Storm Totem or Storm Crow, and it doesn’t show up until much later in the campaign.
Cave Druid’s Root Staff
A great early-game staff to use while Tempest Strike is a bit expensive mana wise. Also provides +1 to skills. Found in Welryn Outskirts in the Imperial Era
Solar Deserter’s Renegade Shield
Another great early-game item, the melee damage is and movement speed buffs are both groovy. Found in Ulatri Highlands in the Divine Era
Idol Affixes
As with everything else, you’ll have to use what you can find if this is your first playthrough. But if it’s not, or if you’ve been lucky enough to find a lot of idols,these are the affixes you should look for.
How To Play Your Shaman
Your general strategy is pretty much the same as most Primalist builds:hit the bad guy until they die. When Tempest Strike isn’t enough, throw in Tornado, Warcry, and Storm Totem to out DPS your enemy. Use Crowstorm to traverse the map or to vaporize mobs.
