Aaaand Last Epoch has taken over my life...
The 1.0 release of Last Epoch launched last week and I've been playing the hell out of it. You can check out my first basic impressions behind these blue words. 😊
I've since finished the campaign (which, apparently, is unfinished and a few more chapters are yet to be released) and have gotten into the endgame content. But first I'd like to talk about the crafting system.
I really like this crafting system!
So, if you find gear with interesting things like maybe Minion Damage, or more Intelligence, or Movement Speed or whatever... the gear isn't quite as good as what you're already wearing but they have things that you like on them. You can shatter them! And if you're lucky you'll get a shard with that perk on it.
Each piece of gear has a Forge Potential which enables you to reshape and upgrade your piece until the potential drops to zero.
The gear has poison resistance but you want something else? "Upgrade and Reroll" it and cross your fingers!
The gear has everything you want? You have shards of those perks? Upgrade them!
There are different runes and glyphs that help you achieve certain things whilst reforging. One rune will completely change the piece to a unique or set piece!
It's pretty spiffy. I like it!
When you get a unique or set piece, there is also a chance for it to drop with Legendary Potential. I haven't done this yet as it's in further endgame content, but you're able to get extra perks/stats on these pieces. Completely random, though, but it seems interesting and I'm looking forward to learning more about it.
Crafting aside.
There are two factions to join once you reach near the end of the campaign. One faction allows you to trade and use an auction house type thing whilst the other enables you to get more drops and fulfil prophecies to get certain types of items.
I chose the Circle of Fortune. Normally I'd choose to trade, but for my first character I'd like to play without obsessing about the Trade Game.
With the Circle of Fortune — as you kill things and just play the game, you'll increase your reputation with the faction and earn favour. With the favour, you can choose to buy things that can influence your prophecies; buy mysterious gear from a vendor; or roll your prophecies.
When you roll a prophecy, there'll be certain things to take note of. Where the prophecy takes place (Arena, Monolith, Dungeons), what condition the location requires (corruption level, tier level), and what reward you'll find.
At this point of my endgame experience I'm focusing on Monoliths so am trying to choose my prophecies based on monoliths with no corruption, as apparently there's no point corrupting them until you reach level 100 and the proper endgame Monoliths.
The Monoliths are basically the 'maps' of this game, in Path of Exile terminology.
Each one is based in a timeline of the game, since time travel is a major part of this game's story, and your purpose is to stabilise the timeline. You stabilise it by going to 'Echoes' of events, each one with a reward upon completion, and then completing a trio of quests - the third of which is the boss of the timeline.
You can find echoes that corrupt the timeline, making the enemies more difficult and increasing rewards, but it's recommended you don't do that til the later Monoliths.
When you defeat the boss at the end of the Monolith you get presented with a 'Blessing'. Each boss in each timeline have their own pool of blessings that can pop up so you can farm them until you get a blessing that you like.
The blessings offer your character a permanent perk that could give your more spell damage or even the chance for more of a certain weapon type or gear type to drop. More chance for certain shards to be found. It's a pretty spiffy system.
Another endgame activity are the dungeons. So far there are three dungeons — you find their keys as you play, and you can't access them without a key.
I haven't really gotten into them yet, but I've completed the first tier. I assume the last tier is for when you're Level 100 and will be substantially more difficult.
They have different mechanics in each dungeon: for example, in one of them you get given a flame shield and you need to activate it at certain times so you don't get set aflame. In another, you need to burn down branches and things to get to the boss and then burn the branches around the boss to deliver the damage.
The next endgame activity is the Endless Arena. There are tiers of difficulty for this, too, and then the Arena ends after defeating a boss. OR, you can do the actual Endless mode and try to get as far as you can and earn your place on the ladder.
That's something I'd like to get into once I actually hit 100. At the moment I'm 82! Still a ways to go. xD
Going back to the Prophecies of the Circle of Fortune.
I do have one criticism for this, and that's that yeah, sure, you'll get like three set helmets or something as a reward - but they're all the same helmet.
Multiple drops of the same item is good in one way, I guess, if you get something you really want and can choose which piece has the better stats on it. But... when I'm just trying to collect pieces and work out later what a good set to wear is, I'd rather have drops of multiple items, not the same item.
All in all, though, I'm really enjoying this.
It also has the best in-game loot filter I've ever seen. But I think I've babbled enough for the time being. 😅 I'll get into the Loot Filter in my next post, when I like to think I'll be further through the endgame!
Whee!
Until next time! 😊✨⚔️