Forge Guard Mastery Leveling Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.0)

Sentinel is used primarily to provide a defensive boost to our character. Early Fire and Void Resistance (Juggernaut) is extremely helpful, as most enemies in starting zones will use these types of attacks. Armour Clad is great for this build considering we will want to be up close and personal with mobs while in combat. Valiant Charge will reduce the cooldown for both  Lunge and  Void Cleave.

Plan to only invest 20 points in this tree, as that's the minimum requirement needed to unlock the Void Knight passive tree.

This build will not utilize Void Knight passives at all. Instead, we prioritize almost every point into Forge Guard, with a couple points into Paladin for the Attunement gain and Penetration.

To begin, drop 10 points into Weapons Master to scale  Warpath and  Void Cleave. This is extremely important early on before our minions ramp up. Iron Attunement is great for scaling minions, but the big node you absolutely want to rush is Folded Steel. At a single point, we gain a maximum potential of two extra Forged Weapons. This node also boosts minion damage by quite a bit, and should be maxed at 10 points as soon as possible.

At the point of reaching level 70, and you've finished all quests, you should have a total of 20 points into Sentinel 49 points into Forge Guard, and 14 points into Paladin.

This build will not utilize Void Knight passives at all. Instead, we prioritize almost every point into Forge Guard, with a couple points into Paladin for the Attunement gain and Penetration.

The node here is pretty self explanatory. Defiance can be taken early as Attunement will scale both types of minions and the Resistance gain is always welcome.

At the point of reaching level 70, and you've finished all quests, you should have a total of 20 points into Sentinel 49 points into Forge Guard, and 14 points into Paladin.

Channeling  Warpath is how we will be moving through maps 99% of the time. The only time you should not be channeling Warpath is when you need to recoup Mana. Spinning is how we generate Forged Weapons, but getting close to enemies is also a good way of applying extra Armor Shred stacks.

Capping out Unchained is extremely important, otherwise the build absolutely bleeds Mana. Once this is done, path to and max out the node Moving Forge. The remainder of the points in Quicksilver Wind and Molten Path will be grabbed late in the leveling process.

 Void Cleave's main purpose in this build is to buff all 13 of the minions we have summoned. While it does decent damage on its own, the amount of extra damage it provides to the Forged Weapons and  Manifest Armor is huge.

For the sake of leveling, take every node in Dark Pathway first. This will lower the cooldown and allow us to deal burst damage prior to scaling our minion count. Once that's done, head towards Scorching Path. The nodes on Armor Sunderer can be taken last.

While  Lunge is our main way of moving from group to group, it also makes is invincible while moving and heals us when used.

Prioritize grabbing Double Strike in order to have two charges of the movement skill, followed by Unstoppable Lead the Charge can be taken once you become more reliant on minions, as this node provides Haste to nearby allies.

 Forge Strike is how we will scale our Forged Weapons count. This skill will never be used manually. In fact, we don't even keep it on the hotbar. It is purely scaled to allow  Warpath to automate summoning Forged Weapons.

Scaling Well Forged Weapons is the most important thing here, followed by Forged by Fire. Unfortunately, a lot of the nodes here are meant to scale the actual hit from manually using Forge Strike, so our options here are limited. Once the previous nodes are taken, cap out Heavy Strike followed by Forgemaster. The Attack Speed from Lightforge is more important than the increased Area from Engines of War

While we take this last, it certainly is not the worst skill in the build.  Manifest Armor can be scaled into being an absolute monster. For this build in particular, we will be scaling the summon's Health, Armor, Melee Fire Damage, and Chance to Shred Armor.

First things first, grabbing Titan Sword is a necessity. This mirrors your own weapon's stats onto the Manifest Armor. As far as nodes dealing with increased gear effects, prioritize Platemail into Force of Impact. Burning Armor will likely be the last thing you scale. It adds some base damage to the minion, which scales well once you have Increased Minion Damage affixes on gear.