Sorcerer Black Hole Ignite Endgame Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.0)

Last updated on Mar 13, 2024 at 02:30 by GhazzyTV and Lavender

Welcome to our Last Epoch Sorcerer Black Hole Ignite build guide for the Mage class. Here you will learn everything about the Sorcerer play style, passives, skills, strengths, and weaknesses to conquer the world of Eterra.

1.

Build Introduction

Ever wanted to drop the sun on an enemy? Now you can! Wield the cosmic power of the stars, igniting any nearby enemy, leaving nothing behind. This build is red hot, focusing on the fiery damage from Black Hole Icon Black Hole, further amplified by capped Fire Resistance Shred and hundreds of stacks of Ignite.

Strengths icon Strengths
  • +Highly effective burst windows
  • +Does not need full uptime to deal damage
Weaknesses icon Weaknesses
  • -Requires enemies to stand in damage instances
  • -If you're unlucky with procs, the build can feel Mana-starved in prolonged encounters
2.

Skill Selection

This build focuses around Black Hole Icon Black Hole, which abuses Fire Resistance to stack an obnoxious amount of Ignite stacks on enemies. This effectively turns Black Hole Icon Black Hole into a nuke that will instantly kill the majority of mobs you come across. Frost Claw Icon Frost Claw is the filler spell, dealing Fire Damage to enemies and replenishing our Health pool and increasing Ward generation between Black Hole usage. Frost Wall Icon Frost Wall is converted to deal Fire Damage, near-instantly applying 10 stacks of Fire Shred on any enemy that's foolish enough to walk close to it, and will help boost the damage we deal with Flame Rush Icon Flame Rush and we zip around maps. Flame Ward Icon Flame Ward is taken to add on-demand Ward generation to the build while also serving to add a burst phase for dealing damage.

Flame Ward Icon
Black Hole Icon
Frost Claw Icon
Flame Rush Icon
Frost Wall Icon
Skill row background
3.

Class and Skill Passive Trees

Class Passives Skill Passives
Mage Sorcerer Runemaster
Black Hole Frost Claw Frost Wall Flame Ward Flame Rush

Our base class is Mage, which fills the role of spell caster and magic user in Last Epoch. Upon finishing Act 1 in the campaign, your character will be offered an opportunity to select an Advanced Mastery. Each base class has three possible Masteries to choose from. For Mage, you can choose between Passive Trees for Sorcerer, Spellsword, and Runemaster. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Mage Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

Sorcerer is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Sorcerer Tree will focus around picking nodes that increase our Fire Damage, Fire Penetration, and Chance to Ignite. A lesser amount of Passive Points will come from Runemaster, focusing on Ignite interactions, but also unlocking Frost Wall Icon Frost Wall and Flame Rush Icon Flame Rush as usable spells. Spellsword is not used in this build. Each Passive Tree and their points are broken down below.

3.1.

Mage Passive Points

Mage Passive Tree
  • 8 points into Elementalist: Increases Fire Damage.
  • 8 points into Arcanist: Intelligence and Resistances.
  • 5 points into Arcane Flames: Using a Fire Skill Ignites nearby enemies.
  • 5 points into Ice and Fire: Increased Cold Damage, Fire Damage, and chance to Ignite with Fire Skills.

Our base class is Mage, which fills the role of spell caster and magic user in Last Epoch. Upon finishing Act 1 in the campaign, your character will be offered an opportunity to select an Advanced Mastery. Each base class has three possible Masteries to choose from. For Mage, you can choose between Passive Trees for Sorcerer, Spellsword, and Runemaster. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Mage Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

Sorcerer is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Sorcerer Tree will focus around picking nodes that increase our Fire Damage, Fire Penetration, and Chance to Ignite. A lesser amount of Passive Points will come from Runemaster, focusing on Ignite interactions, but also unlocking Frost Wall Icon Frost Wall and Flame Rush Icon Flame Rush as usable spells. Spellsword is not used in this build. Each Passive Tree and their points are broken down below.

3.2.

Sorcerer Passive Points

Sorcerer Passive Tree
  • 6 points into Mana Shell: Increased Armor, and required for pathing.
  • 5 points into Arcane Momentum: Increased Cast Speed, increasing over each cast to a maximum.
  • 8 points into Essence of Celerity: Arcane Momentum stacks now increase Spell Damage.
  • 8 points into Pyromancer: Fire Damage and Ignite Chance.
  • 5 points into Lavamancer: Invaluable Fire Penetration and Fire Damage Leech. Helps generate Ward with Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros Icon Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros.
  • 8 points into Inferno: Ignite Chance duration and Damage increase.
  • 5 points into Arcane Insight: Extra Intelligence and a 25% chance on cast to gain Insight, which increases Elemental Damage and Ward Retention.
  • 3 points into Elixir of Knowledge: Potions will now grant you around 350 Ward on use if you have the gear listed in this guide.
  • 4 points into Recollection: Lowers cooldown for Black Hole Icon Black Hole.

Our base class is Mage, which fills the role of spell caster and magic user in Last Epoch. Upon finishing Act 1 in the campaign, your character will be offered an opportunity to select an Advanced Mastery. Each base class has three possible Masteries to choose from. For Mage, you can choose between Passive Trees for Sorcerer, Spellsword, and Runemaster. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Mage Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

Sorcerer is the Advanced Class used for this build, and also where the majority of our Passive Points will come from. The Sorcerer Tree will focus around picking nodes that increase our Fire Damage, Fire Penetration, and Chance to Ignite. A lesser amount of Passive Points will come from Runemaster, focusing on Ignite interactions, but also unlocking Frost Wall Icon Frost Wall and Flame Rush Icon Flame Rush as usable spells. Spellsword is not used in this build. Each Passive Tree and their points are broken down below.

3.3.

Runemaster Passive Points

Runemaster Passive Tree
  • 8 points into Sphere of Protection: Since everything we do causes Ignite stacks, this effectively becomes a permanent Damage Reduction.
  • 2 points into Unsealed Mana: Bonus to Cast Speed.
  • 10 points into Circle of Elements: 100% Ignite Chance for all Fire Skills.
  • 8 points into Arcane Focus: Ward gain on cast, and extra Intelligence.
  • 2 points into Mental Catalysis This is taken to round out the reduced bonus damage from crits, functioning with our Unique Boots, Fiery Dragon Shoes Icon Fiery Dragon Shoes. Depending on your roll on these, you can opt to remove or add points into this node, using Unsealed Mana to do so.
  • 6 points into Transcendence: Health and Ward per Second.

In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.

3.4.

Black Hole

Black Hole Passive Tree

Black Hole Icon Black Hole acts as a giant nuke for the build. Looking at the stats on your character page, it looks like our actual Ignite Chance is low, however through the node Heat Wave this spell will generate Ignite stacks off of the uncapped Fire Resistance we have. This will make for very potent Ignite stacks at once on enemies within its range, dealing hundreds of thousands in the form of DoT Fire Damage.

3.4.1.

Order of Skill Points

  • 4 points into Catalyst: 60% increase in damage. Black Hole will not pull in this build, so that is irrelevant.
  • 1 point into Red Giant: Turns Black Hole into a star, converting the damage dealt into Fire and increasing the duration.
  • 3 points into Flaming: 30% increase in Fire Damage.
  • 5 points into Heat Wave: Increases Ignite Chance by increases to Fire Resistance.
  • 1 point into Binary System: This node creates an awesome visual with a Cold and Fire star both orbiting each other, but this is taken for the 100% more damage.
  • 3 points into Stability: Increase to the duration of Black Hole.
  • 3 points into Umbral Core: Black Hole deals 30% more damage.
  • 4 points into Event Horizon: Black Hole deals 60% more damage.
  • 1 point into Pulsar: Black Hole explodes once a second. This deals Hit Damage.

In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.

3.5.

Frost Claw

Frost Claw Passive Tree

Frost Claw Icon Frost Claw is what we use in between casts of Black Hole Icon Black Hole in order to maintain damage output. While Black Hole is a nuke meant for a single target or for taking care of clustered mobs, it doesn't do a great job of taking out mobs that are spread out, or coming from multiple directions. This is where Frost Claw comes in. There is a moderate Mana cost associated with this skill, but that is handled through extra Mana Regen on our gear and by taking several Mana nodes within the tree.

3.5.1.

Order of Skill Points

  • 3 points into Gift of Winter: Massive Mana cost reduction, with a chance to regain 12 Mana on cast.
  • 1 point into Fen of the Frozen: Pathing node mostly, a bit of extra Ignite Chance.
  • 1 point into Lava Talon: Converts the skill from Cold to Fire.
  • 5 points into Spark of Celerity: Taken almost entirely for the Mana Efficiency, the Projectile Speed is a bonus.
  • 1 point into Brightfrost: Cleanses ailments on cast.
  • 1 point into Hand of Morditas: Increases Mana cost, but adds more projectiles.
  • 1 point into Volley of Glass: Projectiles no longer burst, but all projectiles have their own instance of damage.
  • 2 point into Rending Cascade: Increased base Critical Strike Chance.
  • 1 point into Frozen Reign: Reduced Mana cost.
  • 1 point into Glamdring: Pathing node.
  • 1 point into Cold Star: Since we remove the burst on Frost Claw, half this node does nothing. We do gain the extra damage from it, though.
  • 1 point into On Through The Snow: Frost Claw's initial hit continues on for a second jump.
  • 1 point into Frozen Malice: The previous node, that hit is now directed at a nearby enemy.
  • 1 point into A Crack in the Ice: The second hit from the previous nodes now creates a third jump, which directs back to the player.

If missing points from gear, remove them from Adept.

In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.

3.6.

Frost Wall

Frost Wall Passive Tree

Frost Wall Icon Frost Wall is converted into a Fire Wall for the purpose of this build, used to quickly apply Fire Resistance Shred stacks to enemies within its range. Walking through Frost Wall will cause it to explode, and also significantly buff our character and the damage potential for Flame Rush Icon Flame Rush if Flame Rush was used to move through Frost Wall.

3.6.1.

Order of Skill Points

  • 5 points into Marching Winter: Frost Wall is now larger and has the potential to last longer.
  • 1 point into Pyroglass: Converts Frost Wall into Fire Wall.
  • 1 point into Brand the Invaders: Applies a heavy Fire DoT to enemies that pass through the wall.
  • 4 points into Crystals of Protection: Ward generation and Mana refund when passing through the wall.
  • 3 points into Boosted Kickoff: Provides Haste and Frenzy when the player passes through the wall.
  • 1 point into Runic Conclusion: Frost Wall will now detonate when you walk through it.
  • 1 point into Glyph of Direfrost: Increases the damage and area of the detonation.
  • 1 point into Shattered to Pieces: Significant increases to the damage and area of the detonation, but also destroys Frost Wall in the process.
  • 2 points into Biting Limit: Applies Fire Shred stacks at an incredibly fast rate; 4 stacks per second.

In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.

3.7.

Flame Ward

Flame Ward Passive Tree

Flame Ward Icon Flame Ward has two purposes in this build. The main purpose is survival, as using this skill will enhance us with extra Ward and mitigation a large amount of damage dealt to us. It may also be used as an offensive skill, as this adds an extra 250% Increased Fire Damage to attacks while Flame Ward is active.

3.8.

Order of Skill Points

  • 3 points into Stalwart Defense: Bonus 120 Ward on activation.
  • 3 points into Dilation: Increases the duration Flame Ward persists.
  • 5 points into Infusion: Bonus 250% Fire Damage while Flame Ward is active.
  • 1 point into Desperate Defense: Pathing node.
  • 1 point into Astonish: When you are stunned, Flame Ward is automatically cast so long as you have positive Mana and Flame Ward is not on cooldown.
  • 3 points into Fuel The Flames: All Ward generated by Flame Ward is boosted by 20%.
  • 1 point into Dual Aegis: Flame Ward now has a second charge.
  • 5 points into Barrier: When Flame Ward is active, you take 40% less Hit Damage.
3.8.1.

Alternative Nodes

If you're looking to pump higher amounts of damage with this build, forego selecting Concentrated Shielding, Fortification, and Fuel The Flames and instead place these extra 8 points into Dilation and Infusion. This will subtract a bit of Ward generation from the build, but Black Hole Icon Black Hole will deal a lot more damage.

In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.

3.9.

Flame Rush

Flame Rush Passive Tree

Flame Rush Icon Flame Rush is the Traversal Skill in the build and has been amplified to go fast on a short cooldown. Flame Rush will function best when used together with Frost Wall Icon Frost Wall, as doing this will apply Haste and Frenzy, cleanse us, force the Frost Wall to explode, and increase the damage and area of Flame Rush's final explosion.

3.9.1.

Order of Skill Points

  • 3 points into Solar Rush: Increases the speed and range.
  • 4 points into Blazeborn: Flame Rush deals more damage in a larger area.
  • 1 point into Gas Powered: As long as you pass through Frost Wall Icon Frost Wall when using Flame Rush, the skill will deal damage in a much larger area, and has a much higher chance to deal critical damage.
  • 5 points into Smolder and Burn: Applies 5 stacks of Fire Resistance Shred upon passing through an enemy.
  • 3 points into Blazing Flux: Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed and Mana Efficiency. These bonuses are doubled with this build.
  • 3 points into Runic Eclipse: Reduces damage taken when channeling Flame Rush.
  • 2 points into Celestial Guidance: The mitigation from the previous node persists for a set amount of time after you stop channeling.
Image courtesy of Last Epoch Tools
4.

Build Mechanics and Playstyle

Damage for this build is split between Black Hole Icon Black Hole, which is mostly used to take care of Rare and Boss enemies, or occasionally to help zone maps to avoid being over-ran, and Fire-based Frost Claw Icon Frost Claw, which will be used as a spam skill in order to take care of smaller mobs and maintain uptime when Black Hole is on cooldown. While the build is mostly scaled to deal Hit Damage, it takes advantage of Heat Wave, a Passive Node in the Black Hole skill. This allows us to scale our damage through both Prefixes and Suffixes (Fire Resistance) and boost the overall damage of the build through means not usually available.

There's further synergy in the build with Fire Resistance through Flame Rush Icon Flame Rush. Blazing Flux gains Increased Cooldown Recovery and Mana Efficiency when you have at least 150% Fire Resistance, something this build bypasses by a mile. This allows us to maintain Fire Resistance Shred on enemies consistantly and provides great mobility when clearing maps. Using this skill in tandem with Frost Wall Icon Frost Wall will boost our damage output and ensure we stay ailment-free, so long as we're using Flame Rush to blast through the pillars of Frost Wall.

Flame Ward Icon Flame Ward is the defensive layer for the build, but can also be used offensively in order to deal immense amounts of damage. If using it this way, pop Flame Ward prior to throwing down Black Hole Icon Black Hole. This ensures the death of just about any enemy that isn't an actual Boss. Flame Ward will come on a charge, and this was done mainly for safety reasons. It allows you to use the skill for damage, but also keep an extra in your back pocket in case you need to extra Ward / mitigation on the fly. For additional protection, Flame Ward will automatically pop if you're Stunned, further emphasizing the need to have two charges of Flame Ward.

5.

Equipment and Gear Affixes

For this build, we will be focusing on several main affixes for each piece of non-unique gear, as well as working towards acquiring the specific Uniques needed to make this build operate correctly. Our equipment will focus on these specific affixes for the Implicits and Modifier stats.

Gear Slot Implicits Modifiers
Wand Spell Damage
Increased Cast Speed
-3 Mana Cost for Spell Skills
Prefixes
Increased Fire Damage
Increased Cast Speed

Suffixes
Chance to apply Ignite
Chance to apply Slow
Off-hand Catalyst Intelligence
Ward per Second
Ward Retention
Prefixes
Increased Fire Damage
Increased Cast Speed

Suffixes
Fire Resistance
Ward per Second
Head Armor
Mana Spent Gained as Ward
Increased Mana Regen
Prefixes
Intelligence
Increased Fire Damage Over Time

Suffixes
Increased Armor
Needed Resistances
Amulet Less Damage Over Time Taken Prefixes
Increased Mana Regen
Increased Fire Damage

Suffixes
Health
Needed Resistances
Chest Armor
Mana Spent Gained as Ward
Ward Decay Threshold
Prefixes
Intelligence
Increased Fire Damage Over Time

Suffixes
Health
Increased Health
Belt Poison Resistance
Cold Resistance
Prefixes
Increased Fire Damage
Increased Mana Regen

Suffixes
Fire Resistance
Hybrid Health
Ring Fire Resistance
Increased Fire Damage
Prefixes
Increased Fire Damage
Intelligence

Suffixes
Health
Fire Resistance
Ring Fire Resistance
Increased Fire Damage
Prefixes
Increased Fire Damage
Intelligence

Suffixes
Needed Resistances
Gloves Armor
Armor Mitigation Applies to Damage Over Time
Prefixes
Intelligence
Increased Cast Speed

Suffixes
Hybrid Health
Fire Resistance
Feet Fiery Dragon Shoes Icon Fiery Dragon Shoes Legendary Potential
Intelligence
Relic Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros Icon Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros Legendary Potential
+4 Levels to Black Hole

A loot filter made specifically for the gear table above may be copied by pressing the button below. Once in the Loot Filter portion of the in-game menu, choose the "Paste Clipboard Contents" option to import the code.

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Press the Copy 📋 button to copy the following text to your clipboard
6.

Uniques

Below we have the required uniques to make the build work. While the idea behind the build will work decently in either Normal Monoliths or low Corruption, it is suggested to have these drops to effectively play the build.

6.1.

Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros

Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros Icon Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros: This relic is by far the most important part of ensuring your survivability. It converts current Health into Ward any time you cast an Elemental Spell. Combined with the Blessing Grand Hunger of the Void Icon Grand Hunger of the Void, you'll be able to continually generate Ward while also refilling your Health on each cast. This Relic can be target farmed in Monolith Timeline "Reign of Dragons".

6.2.

Fiery Dragon Shoes

Fiery Dragon Shoes Icon Fiery Dragon Shoes: These shoes, in conjunction with the Mage node Mental Catalysis, will reduce Critical Strike damage 100% down to a normal hits' damage. This means we do not need Critical Strike Avoidance at all. These boots will suffer from it anyway, since Fire Trail will activate from being hit with a critical strike. Overall a fantastic gear piece for this build, as it scales Fire Penetration, Fire Damage, and Fire Resistance. Target farm on the Monolith Timeline "Spirits of Fire".

7.

Idols

Idol slots are gained through the campaign, unlocking small bonuses and unique affixes for the player to discover and augment their builds with. The Idol screen consists of a grid system for the player to fill out with different sized Idols, eventually filling in every part of the grid. As the Idol shape increases (1x1, 1x2, 1x3, 1x4, etc.) the stronger an affix you might find for your build.

To optimize the Idols in this build, aim to collect four Large Arcane Idols with Fire Penetration with Ignire and Health. This build will utilize a Throne of Ambition Icon Throne of Ambition, but any empty slots can be used for Health, Ward Retention, or missing Resistances.

8.

Blessing

Blessings are permanent buffs that are applied to your character. These come in two different powers, Standard and Grand. Grand blessings are significantly stronger than the Standard Blessings. In total, there are 10 Blessing Slots, one for each Monolith Timeline. When you complete a Monolith and defeat the final boss you will be awarded a choice of three blessing with a random value.

Blessing Name Affix Timeline
Grand Hunger of the Void Icon Grand Hunger of the Void Spell Damage Leeched as Health The Black Sun
Grand Heart of the Caldera Icon Grand Heart of the Caldera Fire Resistance Spirits of Fire
Grand Resolve of Humanity Icon Grand Resolve of Humanity All Resistances Reign of Dragons
Grand Bulwark of the Tundra Icon Grand Bulwark of the Tundra Increased Armor The Age of Winter
Grand Resonance of the Sea Icon Grand Resonance of the Sea Ward per Second Ending the Storm

The Blessings listed above cover the most important slots, with the remaining Blessing Slots being filled with whatever the player may be lacking for stats.

9.

Changelog

  • 13 Feb. 2024: Updated for Patch 1.0.
  • 21 Jan. 2024: Updated Flame Ward and Fireball to increase damage output of build. Added Legendary affix suggestions.
  • 12 Jan. 2024: Loot Filter added.
  • 26 Dec. 2023: Guide added.
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