Are you a fan of swinging swords and wearing slick plate armor in Last Epoch? While the Sentinel class fills the traditional melee role in Last Epoch, its masteries take it in greatly different directions that you’ll likely find it hard to choose between.
Sentinel Masteries in Last Epoch
The Sentinel in Last Epoch features three masteries: Void Knight, Forge Guard, and Paladin. Once you choose one at around level 20, you will not be able to switch to a different mastery, though you can respec the skills and passives within your base class and mastery. Therefore, the most important choice you make with your character build is choosing the mastery that suits you.
The first half of each passive tree is also available to any mastery up, including all skills found within that threshold, meaning you can mix and match to create powerful builds. For instance, the healing-focused Paladin can grab the Volatile Reversal skill from the Void Knight by investing a little bit into the latter’s passive tree. However, each mastery has powerful passive bonuses and skills unique only to them.
All classes and masteries are viable for reaching the end game. That said, prior to the 1.0 patch of Last Epoch, the Paladin is the most versatile and strongest mastery for the Sentinel. Let’s take a look at each:
Void Knight Bonuses, Best Skills in Last Epoch
The Void Knight focuses on high-damage void-based attacks. This is primarily achieved through the mastery’s passive bonuses of 75% increased melee void damage and a 10% chance to spawn an echo that repeats the attack. Plenty of passives buff this echo effect, and almost all of the Sentinel’s base skills can deal void damage by specializing the skill and placing points into it. This is a great mastery to choose if you want to stick to dealing lots of physical and void damage. Furthermore, the Volatile Reversal skill gives the Void Knight some maneuverability by manipulating time.
The Void Knight pairs very well with specialization in the Warpath skill to create a fun, dizzying build that sends you spinning all around the battlefield. In fact, with points allocated to Echo Knight and Apocalypse Whirl, you don’t need to use many other skills, as Warpath will also trigger echoes that spin along with you. Also invest in Volatile Reversal to ensure you have a get-out-of-jail-free card when you need to recover some mana or dodge a big attack.
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Forge Guard Bonuses, Best Skills in Last Epoch
The most unique of the Sentinel’s masteries, the Forge Guard animates weapons and armor to fight for him, making him a tankier choice. This mastery has +35% physical and fire resistance and a 3% increased armor for each time he takes a hit for passive bonuses. If you’re looking to play a tanky melee class with a focus on fire and minion utility, the Forge Guard is for you. Its Ring of Shields skill, for example, summons shields that block incoming ranged attacks and draw enemy aggression. The Forge Guard has great damage over time through plenty of fire damage options.
A great base Sentinel skill to specialize in with the Forge Guard is Hammer Throw. In fact, it’s a great skill all around for leveling a Sentinel in Last Epoch. However, for the Forge Guard specifically, allocating a point into Iron Spiral gives him a great damage over time option to pair with your Manifest Armor minion, which you should also definitely specialize in.
Paladin Bonuses, Best Skills in Last Epoch
While maybe not the most exciting, the Paladin is more versatile than the other two Sentinel masteries in Last Epoch, especially if you want to play with friends. This is because of the mastery’s passive bonuses, which raise healing effectiveness based on attunement level but also increase fire, lightning, and physical damage equal to the percent of health the Paladin has. This means that the Paladin can keep itself and its allies alive while dishing out massive elemental and physical damage. As most of Sentinel’s base skills can also deal fire damage, the build options are nearly endless.
When combined with Holy Trail in the specialization tree, the Javelin becomes a great tool for the Paladin as it deals both lightning and fire damage while also healing him and his allies. While this gives it a cooldown, using Sigils of Hope gives the Paladin survivability along with a little damage boost. With how the Paladin’s skills work, these skills work great both alone and with friends.
Truly, there’s no wrong option when it comes to the Sentinel’s masteries. Developer Eleventh Hour Games has and will continue to nerf and buff as needed, so go with whichever class and mastery looks like it fits your playstyle the best, and enjoy swinging those big swords and axes around in the world of Eterra.
And those are the best Sentinel mastery and builds in Last Epoch.
Last Epoch is available on PC.
