Warlock Mastery Leveling Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.0)

20 points are mandatory in the Acolyte tree to proceed onto Mastery Passive Trees, and we will be taking the minimum amount in order to quickly move on and grab  Chaos Bolts as an accessible skill.

Start the Acolyte Tree by immediately taking Forbidden Knowledge. This provides an ample amount of Intelligence and Necrotic Resistance off the rip, perfect for scaling the build and prepping our defensive layers for later on. Blood Aura is taken for the Increased Damage it provides, ignoring the Minion Damage on the node. A single point goes into Mania of Mortality in order to place points into the linked node Unnatural Preservation. This nearly caps our Necrotic Resistance, adds Poison Resistance, and provides a bit of Ward Retention that will likely be wanted towards the end of the leveling process as you make your way into the Empowered Monoliths.

The vast majority of our points will be placed into the Warlock Tree, scaling Intelligence, Mana and Mana Regen, and providing a significant boost to our defensive layers through damage mitigation. Prioritize nodes with Intelligence and Mana, as you will want as much Intelligence as possible in order to proc  Rip Blood at a consistent rate.

The defensive scaling in the Warlock passives relies heavily on applying Curses. Dark Protections and Harrowing Armor are good examples of this, as both scale off the number of Curses placed on the enemy dealing damage to us. The available Curses for this build consist of Marked For Death, Torment,  Bone Curse, and Acid Skin. To add onto this and make the build even safer, Wither is taken and is applied by every hit we deal.

As a final note, Fleeting Crone should be prioritized when you are able to put points into it. This provides a huge boost to Haste from all sources, including  Transplant, as well as a 25% chance to grant Haste on kill, or by hitting a Boss or Elite enemy. This is a good way to scale our Movement Speed and lessen the time spent working through the main story.

The Lich Passive Tree is used very minimally, and it is only to provide a bit of extra Intelligence and some Mana Regen, that way the build has an easier time sustaining resources as you clear maps. Only take 5 points in Apocrypha and throw the rest into Warlock. More can, and should, be allocated into Lich depending on the build you are playing for endgame.

 Chaos Bolts are the main way we'll be doing damage, whether they are manually casted or automated through  Chthonic Fissure. Chaos Bolts are a double-edged sword, mainly when automated through Fissure, because of their Mana cost. However, there are ways we can mitigate this.

Your first priority should be to make your way down to Devour the Damned. This will refund 2 Mana when a Chaos Bolt hits a Cursed enemy. Which means prior to hitting enemies, we will need to apply  Bone Curse to them. If Mana is not an issue because of a small pack mob, don't worry about this. For larger groups of mobs, or continuous casting, make sure to apply a Curse first or you will run dry on Mana quickly.

Once the previous node has been grabbed, focus on automating both  Bone Curse, followed by Exult in Misery. This will provide more damage for Chaos Bolts for having at least one stack of either Ignite, Frostbite, Bleed or Damned on an enemy. This will supply a 48% damage boost for having all of them on a target. Automating  Rip Blood can wait until level 50 when we unlock our fifth Specialization Slot.

 Chthonic Fissure can be thought of as the bomb, while  Chaos Bolts are the shrapnel. Fissure deals a massive amount of damage, dealing Fire Damage Over Time along the fault line, as well as releasing Spirits that deal Hit Necrotic Damage and apply Torment to enemies.

This spell can easily take out an entire screen of enemies by itself, but comes with a reasonably high Mana cost, which is only made higher by automating  Chaos Bolts off it. For that reason, be careful when taking Chaotic Rupture. If Chaos Bolts are automated, it will continually convert Spirits to Chaos Bolts even after enemies have died, and continue to drain your Mana bar. If you are in a situation with either low Mana or Mana Regen, opt to take this later. The Spirits will do damage on their own and you will have better control over your Mana by manually casting Chaos Bolts only. As a side note, since we are speaking about Mana, due to Fragile Crust requiring a Curse for the Mana reduction, just like Chaos Bolts, you may want to manually apply  Bone Curse first and then lay your Fissure down.

On the far right side of the passive tree is Forbidden Chasm, which applies Acid Skin to enemies struck by the initial Fissure hit. This boosts your Critical Strike Chance by a flat 20% on enemies afflicted by the Curse, making it an easy way to scale into Critical Hit Damage early in the game.

Ultimately, the pathing on this is up to you and how you prefer to play the build. The main consideration here is how comfortable you are with Mana consumption. Waiting around for Mana to come back will be the bane of your existence if you spec into automated  Chaos Bolts too early.

As a way to force an applied Curse,  Bone Curse is taken early in the leveling process. You can opt to take this later on and instead take  Transplant, however Bone Curse is likely to offer you greater damage output, and Transplant can also be ran without specializing in it.

Priority here should be on getting access to Marked For Death in the node Sigil of Mortality. This will greatly increase the damage we deal to targets. Follow this up by extending the duration of Marked for Death, and then converting Bone Curse into a Necrotic Spell by taking Misery. Brittle Bones should be taken next, as the Kill Threshold will be quite useful for bosses. Back track from here to grab full points in other nodes.

 Bone Curse should be applied before anything else while leveling! Once you reach level 35 and unlock  Transplant specialization, you can automate Bone Curse through the traversal skill, but before then, in an effort to conserve Mana, applying it manually is going to be the play. If you are only dealing with low Health trash mobs, you can skip Bone Curse and just opt for  Chaos Bolts spam to take care of it.

 Transplant should be placed on your hotbar immediately upon unlocking it, however we will not be specializing it until Level 35. Once this happens, focus on the bottom right-hand side of the passive tree. These nodes will convert Transplant into a Necrotic Spell and allow it to scale alongside the rest of the build and, more importantly, allow us to automate  Bone Curse on arrival after using the teleport.

The top left-hand side of the passive tree is focused on cooldown reduction and applying Bone Armor to ourselves. Defensive layers are nice, but not needed early on in the campaign.

Once you unlock  Transplant as a specialized action and automate  Bone Curse, you now have a viable option to apply Curses to targets without wasting time casting a spell and standing still. Utilize this as long as teleporting into mobs will not get you killed.

 Rip Blood is taken almost entirely as a way to sustain our Health pool. It will also never be manually casted, so you do not even need it on your hotbar. Rip Blood is automated off  Chaos Bolts, but requires Intelligence to make it consistent. One point of Intelligence is equal to 1% chance to cast Rip Blood from Chaos Bolts. For these reasons, we have opted to take Rip Blood as the final Specialization in the build.

If you are using a Wand, or any other weapon that reduces Mana Cost by 3, you can opt to entirely skip Thirst and remove one point from Hemomancer, taking instead more points in Splatter and Gushing Wound. Remember, active Bleed stacks on a target will provide 12% more damage through  Chaos Bolts.

Focus your initial point spread into reducing Mana costs if needed, followed by the nodes leading into Hematology. From here, focus on Splatter. Necrotic Conversion (Rip Spirit) can come last, since we are not relying on Rip Blood to deal damage. As a final note, in the event you are close to the end point of the leveling process and you have gotten lucky with gear drops, Arcane Fortress is an option. This converts the Health gains to Ward for Rip Blood. Prior to having Ward Retention, this node is useless and should be avoided.