The Druid Mastery, available to Primalists at the end of Chapter 2 inLast Epoch,is a Mastery that focuses on shapeshifting and using the powers available to their new form to their advantage. Their initial transformation, the Werebear, has strong melee combat capabilities along with damage reduction abilities. They later gain access to a Spriggan form that enhances their spell damage and spellcasting, and a Swarmblade form that specializes in melee combat and summoned allies.
Since the Druid Mastery is quite versatile, there are a lot of elements to consider when picking your weapon(s) of choice inLast Epoch.For example, weapons that work well for the Swarmblade form and its physical damage are unlikely to be as suitable for the Spriggan form. This guide will break down the things to look for in a weapon when playing a Druid, offering some examples wherever possible.
Werebear Weapons and Important Stats
When looking for weapons for a Druid focusing on the Werebear form, players should prioritize weapons that provide Melee Physical Damage, Improved Physical Damage, Melee Damage, and Strength. All of the Werebear form’s attacks rely on melee attacks and benefit from increasing Strength, and it is possible to maintain Werebear form indefinitely by grabbing enough Rage generation on hit/on stun buffs from the Werebear skill tree. Building for high Critical Chance and Critical Damage can also be very effective here.
Werebear-focused Druids can also make great use of Lightning Damagevia the “Bringer of Storms” and “Relentless Thunder” nodes in the Werebear Skill Tree and the “Storm Claw” node in the Swipe skill tree (along with the nodes connected to Storm Claw.) When using a lightning build, players should look out for weapons that provide bonuses to Lightning Damage, Melee Lightning Damage, Spell Damage (if using the Wisened Claws node), and Attunement.
Werebear Druids often prefer dual wielding over Two-Handed Weapons due to the improved attack speed. Of the One-Handed Weapons, Physical Damage builds can get a lot out of Axes (Raider Axes being a fantastic pick here) and Swords. Lightning Damage builds should consider Sceptres for a mix of Physical and Spell Damage. Players looking for a Two-Handed Weapon to focus on should consider Spears for better Critical Damage.
Spriggan Weapons and Important Stats
As the most magically inclined of the Druid’s forms, the Spriggan benefits from Spell Damage weapons.Using a staff is often the best choice here, due to having the highest amount of base Spell Damage. All the skills typically used in a Spriggan build scale with Attunement and Spell Damage, so these stats should be prioritized. To make the most of the Spriggan’s offensive skill “Spirit Thorns” players should also look for casting speed buffs, allowing this attack to fire with tremendous speed.
By Improving Spirit Thorns with Ancestral Call, Spiritwhisperer, and Valetide, it becomes possible to dish out tremendous damage while regaining rage. The Entangling Thorns from Valetide will deal extra damage and generate even more rage, helping to stack damage. Meanwhile, the Spriggan form’s other skills provide healing, additional damage, and even some defensive utility. This pairs well with Casting Speed buffs, allowing the Spriggan to fire a constant barrage of Spirit Thorns.
Swarmblade Weapons and Important Stats
The Swarmblade form is a Physical Melee form with the ability to summon Locust Hives. By default the Locust’s damage scales off the character’s damage, making Melee Physical Damage and Strength particularly valuable, though players using minions can pick up a skill node that makes them scale off Minion damage instead. Generally speaking, the Swarmblade benefits from weapons that provide Melee Physical Damage, Improved Physical Damage, Melee Damage, Strength, and Attunement.
Much like the Werebear,the Swarmblade benefits from dual-wielding axes or swordsfor improved attack speed. Alternatively, Spears can perform excellently in Swarmblade builds, especially if you unlock the node that applies all nodes from the Serpent Strike skill tree to Swarmblade Slash.
Hybrid Build Weapons
Builds hoping to make use of multiple forms should pick two forms that use similar statssince this makes it easier to find suitable gear. The Werebear form can work well with Spriggan or Swarmblade, with Spriggan/Werebear benefiting from Wisened Claws and equipment that improves Spell Damage, Casting Times, Strength, and Attunement. Meanwhile, a Swarmblade/Werebear mix benefits from Critical Chance, Critical Damage, Melee Physical Damage, Improved Physical Damage, Melee Damage, and Strength.
Building for Spriggan/Swarmblade is trickier, but entirely possible by combining the “Frost Bites” node from Swarmblade with the “Branches of Winter” node from Spriggan. This allows both to benefit from boosts to Cold Damage. Additionally, players can utilize scepters to get a mix of Melee and Spell Damage, making this build much more manageable. Look for Melee Damage, Spell Damage, Cold Damage, Strength, and Attunement. Building for Critical Rate and Critical Damage can also be very effective here, but it’s important to invest in Casting Time reduction to make the most of Spriggan’s Spirit Thorns.
