Games Marketplace - Odealo
0.00 25 (Click on the icon to view details)

Articles

Fire Shield Throw Paladin Build for Last Epoch

Fire Shield Throw Paladin Build for Last Epoch

A Paladin Build that is really hard to kill. It uses Shield Throw Attack with most of the damage dealt as Fire

Fire Shield Throw
Paladin/Sentinel Build

Updated for Patch 1.0
 

Build notes:
July 11, 2020
-Build created
February 26, 2024
-Updated for Patch 1.0

 

Build Overview

Shield Throw Paladin is a defensive-oriented specialization for Sentinel. It has a very good sustain, due to the low Mana cost of your main DPS skill, very high Block Chance, and resistances that come with the Passives from your tree. It's a Crit build that relies on Fire Damage from both - Throwing Damage and Spell Damage - Lava Burst. The build is capable of reaching maximum Critical Strike Chance during combat, while fighting you're buffed by Lunging Strike, Holy Aura, Sigils of Hope, and Ring of Shields. Shield Throw and Lunging Strike - the main offensive Skills that will be used the most often cost little to no Mana, While the other Skills have their Mana Cost reduced making this build really smooth to play. There are some powerful Idols that synergize really well with this build. Overall, it's a great build for players enjoying durable builds who don't mind fighting bosses for a few minutes.

You can also view the full build on the Last Epoch planner here: Fire Shield Throw Paladin build

For the defenses, this build utilizes:

  1. high Block Chance;
  2. high Armor;
  3. high Resistances;
  4. high Critical Strike Avoidance;
  5. high Health;
  6. constant Health gain from variable sources such as Sigils of Hope and Ring of Shields

You can also check our other Last Epoch builds and character guides

 

 Pros  Cons
 very tanky, can face tank every attack  bad single-target damage
 decent clear speed  

 

Passive Skill Trees

sentinel
Sentinel Skill Tree (21 Points)

Notable Passives:

  1. Fearless [8/8] - 8 Vitality and 80% Health Regen
  2. Armour Clad [5/5] - additional Armor and 10% less damage taken from nearby enemies
  3. Gladiator [5/5] - 150% to Block Effectiveness and 3% additional Block Chance

void knight
Void Knight Skill Tree (10 Points)

Notable Passives:

  1. Abyssal Endurance [10/10] - 40% to Void and Physical Resistances, and 80 Health, it's a lot of stats that the character needs

forge guard

Forge Guard Skill Tree (13 Points)

Notable Passives:

  1. Weapons Master [8/8] - 8 Strenght that scales with your Shield Throw and Lunge and 24% Throwing Attack Damage
  2. Steel Aegis [5/5] - additional Block Effectiveness and Block Chance

paladin

Paladin Skill Tree (69 Points)

Notable Passives:

  1. Conviction [8/8] - fire Damage and Fire Penetration, both are needed to have substantial damage
  2. Honour [5/5] - block Effectiveness, Block Chance, and Stun Avoidance
  3. Holy Symbol [7/7] - health, Healing Effectiveness, and Necrotic Resistance
  4. Shield Wall [1/1] - strips you of your ability to dodge, but you gain an additional 5% Chance to Block and Health on Block
  5. Holy Precision [10/10] - 300% Critical Strike Chance for your Spell and your Throws, surely the most important Passive to increase your damage
  6. Reverence of Duality [12/12] - 24% increased Health, Damage, Healing Effectiveness, and Mana
  7. Light of Rahyeh [12/12] - Fire Damage increased by 96% and Movespeed by 12%

Due to the fact that this build converts all the Physical Damage from the Shield Throw to Fire Damage, these Skill Trees have to be vastly different from the Physical variant of this Skill. The amount of Resistances you gain from the Skill tree alone is substantial, you won't need to worry about it when assembling gear. If you need more Damage you can go for Peltast on Forge Guard Skill Tree but that's pretty much it - a lot of passives offer Ignite Damage or Fire Damage on Melee Fire Damage which for this build is useless. Most of the Passives you take are defense-oriented, the majority of your damage increases will come from your Gear and Idols.

 

Skills

Note: Left-Clicking on any of the ability trees below will open the full-size version in a new window. 

Glacier

Shield Throw - Shield Throw Should be at 22 points, the increase can be found as a Prefix on a Helmet. Take Richohet so that you will be able to hit more than one target. Eruption is a valuable asset - a Fire Spell will be cast each time the Shield Throw Ricochet. Molten Shield and Molten Toss will make this Skill deal only Fire Damage. Note that only the Base Damage of Shield throw will be converted - further investing in Physical Damage is now pointless. Take Forgeborn for more damage and Projectile Speed. Polished Steel reduces the Mana cost by 20, Shield Barrage by 5, with these two Passives and Ricochet your Skill costs 3 Mana, it can be lowered down to 0 with -3 Throwing Mana Cost on Ring. If you lack Armor, Armoring Aegis is a good option. You could save four points by dislocating Eruption, Forceful Breaking, and Magma Rage, but you'd lose a lot of clear speed. If your Block Chance is really high, you can take 2 Points in Heavy Shield to travel to Spiked Plates or Sharpened Rim if you really need more single-target damage.

Shield Throw

holy aura

Holy Aura - It passively increases your damage by 30% and Elemental Resistances by 15%, activating the Skill doubles these base benefits. Immediately go for Expedite - it's an additional Attack Speed for your Shield Throw and Haste - which increases your Movespeed. Shelter from Storm grants you Elemental Resistances and Endurance, Mighty Shield - Block Effectiveness and Helth on Block, and Against the Odds - Ward on Block. Take Fanaticism for more Attack Speed and Rahyeh's Fury for Fire Penetration. You're free to swap around some points depending on what you need more - Resistances, Block Effectiveness, or Attack Speed. Two Points in Call to Arms grants you nothing, but you need to reach Expedite - you could also do it the other way around - by taking True Strike and Concentration. If you decide to take this Path be sure that you have a lot of Mana to constantly uphold the Skill - 40 Mana every 8 seconds.

Holy Aura

lunge

Lunge - it's a movement Attack and since the character won't need to dodge any attack, it's mainly used as a buff. Avenger's Charge and Initiative provides you with a 4-seconds Damage and Critical Strike Chance buff after you use this Skill. Forge on increases your Armor and Stun Avoidance by 100% for 2 seconds after you Lunge. Tactician is not only important so you can access other passives - it lowers the Mana Cost and decreases the cooldown of this Skill. Take Unstoppable to take no damage while Lunging, Double Strike - so you can use this skill more often, and Blood Rush - for some Health on use. This Attack is not used to deal damage so that's the only viable setup.

Lunge

sigils of hope

Sigils of Hope - A buff that summons Sigil which increases your Fire Damage and Healing Regeneration. The last 15 seconds and you can have up to three of them. Take Empowering Sigil to increase your damage by 24% and the Last Wish - you now have a 6% chance to summon a Sigil on kill - which is useful since they're expensive. You can try to lower the Mana Cost of this skill by taking some points in Quiet Mind. Decree of Flame will further increase your damage. Enduring Hope is quite important for when you struggle with Mana - it increases the duration of Sigils. Sign of the Guardian increases your Block Chance and Block Effectiveness. Most of these buffs are "per active Sigil", consider taking Tetragram and Polygram for up to 5 Maximum Sigils, it can be achieved by giving up some points in Damage - Decree of Flame or Defense - Sign of the Guardian.

Sigils of Hope

ring of shields

Ring of Shields - Summons three Shields that count as Minions for 10 seconds. These Shields have stats of your Shield and keep you safe from projectiles and enemies. Tempered Steel will lower the mana cost by half while also reducing the Shields Health by half. Defensive Shields will grant you Block Effectiveness and Block Chance if you've cast this Skill Recently. Take Reinforcement for two additional Shields. Heling Shields, Phalanx, and Sturdy Shields will drastically increase the survivability of the Shields you've summoned, these will also heal you every three seconds. You can alternatively go for more damage and take Banding, Molten Shields, and Touched By Fire.

Ring of Shields

 

Items

Stat priority:

As in most Crit builds, one of the most important stats are Crit Chance and Crit Multiplier. In this case, you're looking for increases in Throwing and Attack. Other stats to increase your damage are Fire Damage increases - Attack and Throw for the Shield Throw Itself and Spell Fire Damage for the Lava Burst your Shield Throw can cause. In terms of defense - aim to get as high Block Chance, Block Effectiveness, Armor, Endurance, and Health as it is possible. Critical Strike Avoidance and most of your Resistances should be capped. As for Attributes - try to get some Strength, Vitality, and Dexterity. There are also powerful Idols: 3x1 Grand Idol with "Chance To Deal 20 Fire Damage On Hit With Shield Throw" and 1x3 Large Idols with "Throwing Attack Critical Strike Multiplier".

  1. Attack/Throw Crit Chance and Crit Multiplier
  2. Spell Crit Chance and Crit Multiplier (if you invested in Lava Burst via Eruption)
  3. Attack/Throw Fire Damage
  4. Spell Fire Damage (if you invested in Lava Burst via Eruption)
  5. Fire Penetration
  6. Block Chance
  7. Block Effectiveness
  8. Strike Avoidance
  9. Armor
  10. Health
  11. Resistances
  12. Strength

Recommended Unique Items: 

none

 

END NOTE

This is the beta version of our Fire Shield Throw Paladin Build for Last Epoch. We didn't have much time for testing, but this build already shows a lot of promise and outperforms many other Sentinel setups. Obviously, as the game gets new content updates, we will be updating this guide regularly, though it may be impossible to be done after each Patch. 

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Eleventh Hour Games