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The Falconer is one of the Rogue’s Mastery options inLast Epoch. With her trusty falcon companion, the Falconer wields a variety of traps and tools to overcome any situation. The Falconer is a fast-paced pet class that plays very differently from any other class in the game.
Creating a build for your Falconer as you progress through the game can be difficult. However, with a class as strong as this, you almost can’t go wrong. Below, we’ll take a look at an example build to help you make your way through Last Epoch as a Falconer.
The focus of this build is your Falcon.Falcon Strikes,Dive Bomb, andExploding Trapmake up most of the build’s damage, whileShiftis used for mobility andCinder Strikefor Mana and health restoration. This build is veryversatile, and you’re able to easilyswap out skills or alter skill treesdepending on your preference.
This build hasvery fast clear timesandhigh damage, but requireshigh actions-per-minutedue to its four damage skills, two of which have relatively low cooldowns. This means you’ll be pressing your skill buttons a lot, which can be a downside.
Skills And Passives
The core of this build are the Falcon-based skills Falcon Strikes and Dive Bomb, and theBlast Rain modifierforExplosive Trap. Each of these skills costs a decent chunk of Mana to use, so one of ourpriorities is lowering their cost, while slotting inCinder StrikeandShiftforMana regeneration support.
Falcon Strikesdelivers a fast sequence of strikes over a large area, dealing melee damage thatscales with your Minion Damage. This attack hasvery little cast timeandno cast animation, making it great to usewhile running through packsof enemies withShift.
TheSide By SideSpecialization node reduces Falcon Strikes' cooldown every time you hit with a bow attack, andshould be prioritizedas you upgrade the skill.
Similarly,Dive Bombhas your Falcon deal tons of damage in a large area. With theFeatherfallandTo Shredsnodes, you’re able to easilyshred armor, making therest of your attacks deal more damage.Rush of the Huntis also a great node to stack points into, as it willreduce the cooldown of Dive Bombby up to48 percent.
Finally,Explosive Trapis the last of our main damaging skills. With theBlast Rainnode, Explosive Trap will insteadscale based on Bow parameters, and has a different attack animation that makes it much easier to use. You can also unlock theSiege Engineeringnode to give Explosive Trap achance to summon a Ballistaon use, which synergizes well with passives likeHandler.
Explosive Trap can be cumbersome to use before investing into Blast Rain, so prioritize getting this node as soon as possible.
Shiftis a great utility skill that grantshigh mobilityand a bounty of other useful effects likeMana and Health restoration, increasedmovement speedanddodge chance, andinvulnerability. The main nodes to pick up here areVelocityto shorten Shift’s cooldown,Shadowslip, andBreathing Technique, which will heal you for more the higher your Dexterity is.
Cinder Strikeis mainly used forMana regeneration, but can pack a bit of damage against lower-health groups of enemies. At later stages when you have solved Mana Regeneration through equipment stats, Idols, and Passives, you can swap out Cinder Strike for something likeSmoke BomborDecoy.
Cinder Strike restores Health and Mana through the Rogue Passive Sapping Strikes, as well as the skill modifier Fire Eater.
Smoke Bombis a great utility skill that can apply the unique buffDusk Shroud. This stacking buff will greatly increase yourDodge Ratingand increase your chance of receivingGlancing Blows. Additionally, Smoke Bomb canshred enemy armor,slow enemies, andapply Frailty, reducing their damage dealt.
Switching Cinder Strike for Smoke Bomb can be risky if you don’t have enoughMana gain to upkeep Explosive Trap’s mana cost. Be sure you’ve solved this issuebefore despecializing in Cinder Strike.
Alternatively,Decoyis a great option with similar utility. Through its skill Specialization, you can turn Decoy into adamaging bomb, make it grant you useful buffs likeHaste, ordebuff enemieswithFrailty and armor shred.
Passive Trees
For your Passives, you’ll want to get20 points into the Rogue tree, then swap to the Falconer tree as soon as possible. For the Rogue tree,Swift AssassinandGuileare great offensive and defensive starting points, respectively. Later down the line,Dodge and Parryis a great node for some added defense, whileSapping Strikesis good forrestoring Manafor your spenders.
Once you unlock the Falconer Mastery, your build will really start to come together. In this tree, we have important early nodes likeHandler,Raptor’s Wings, andStamina of the Rover.Relentless Talonsis a greatlater-game pickupthat drastically increases the damage of your Falcon’s auto attacks, Falcon Strikes, and Dive Bomb.
Important Stats And Uniques
As you level up, you’ll be frequently changing your gear as new pieces of equipment drop. Listed below are a few of the most important stats to look out for.
Basically, you’ll know it when you see it if a stat will be beneficial for you.Bow and Minion damageare the two main ones to look out for, while anything related to Mana can be helpful if you’re having trouble keeping upExplosive Trap.
Of course, gainingextra points in your used skillsis extremely valuable, so any piece of gear with these stats should be prioritized.
Also, be sure to slowlyincrease your Resistancesas you get new gear. Upgrading your Elemental Resistances is one of thebest ways to stay alivelater in the campaign, providinghigh damage reductionfor little investment.
Uniques To Look Out For
As you level up, you may get lucky and have a powerful Unique item drop. While not all are useful for this build, some can be extremely good and make the leveling process much faster. Keep an eye out for any of the following Uniques as you play.
Additionally, you canutilize craftingtostrengthen pieces of equipmentwith good stats, if you have the correct Shards. This is a great way to get a bit of extra power out of an item before you eventually replace it with a stronger piece.
