Best Rogue leveling build in Last Epoch Season 3

If you wish to move quickly, attack enemies swiftly, and then vanish into the shadows in Last Epoch, then the Rogue class might be right up your alley. Adept with all manners of melee and especially with bows, this nimble class has a diverse toolkit for every situation, be it downing bosses in a blink or blowing up packs of mobs.

Given that Rogues in Last Epoch rely on lighter armour and evasion to save them from incoming attacks, it's very common for them to keel over from massive attacks, especially during leveling when gear is scarce.

Fortunately, this guide will outline the best possible mastery, passives, gear affixes, and skill specializations for your Rogue adventures in Season 3.

Best skills to level Rogue in Last Epoch Season 3

The first thing to do once you load into the game is to switch out your Default Attack for Flurry. Keep progressing through the starter zones until you unlock Shift at Level 3, Acid Flask at Level 4, and Puncture at Level 5.

These three skills will see you through the first act until you can unlock your Mastery Specialization and the Umbral Blades skill at Level 15.

Progression of Puncture Skill Specialization (Image via Eleventh Hour Games)

In fact, with proper setup, Puncture and Umbral Blades can help you complete the entire Last Epoch campaign, and we'll try exactly that.

By the time we reach the End of Time after Act 1, our skill setup should be something like this:

Shift - Movement Skill
Decoy - Utility
Smoke Bomb - Utility
Umbral Blades - Burst/Secondary
Puncture - Spammable/Primary
Shuriken - Triggered via Shift

Possibly the most important scaling factor for Umbral Blades (Image via Eleventh Hour Games)

Your Skill Specializations should be as follows:

Puncture - Take 2 ranks of Perforate to access Bloodthirst and Hunger. Take all 4 ranks of Bloodthirst and 3 ranks of Hunger. Move on to take 1 rank of Timing and 3 ranks of Rapid Strikes.
Umbral Blades - Take 1 rank of Dawnfall, Precision Cuts, and Explosive Blades to access Burst of Agony. Invest 4 ranks into it and move on to taking 1 rank each of Sword Thrower and Cacophony of Steel. Next, take 2 ranks of Steel Torrent to unlock Loathing. Finish off by taking all 4 ranks of Steel Torrent.
Shift - Start with 2 ranks of Shadow Recuperation and 3 ranks of Swift Recovery to unlock Shadowslip. Then, take all 3 ranks of Velocity and Momentum. Finally, finish the progression with all 5 ranks of Sleight of Hand.
Shuriken - Shurikens will be used every time you use Shift, and the skill will inherit bonuses from the specialization. Start with 3 ranks of Alacrity to unlock Fan of Blades and Blade Shield. Take 3 ranks of Bladed Armor and Floating Blades. Afterward, invest your remaining points into 4 ranks of Ethereal Blades and Weighted Projectiles.

Also read: Last Epoch: All Champion Item Affixes

Last Epoch Season 3 Rogue gearing guide: Notable affixes to prioritize

Considering the Physical Damage and DoT (Damage Over Time) -oriented nature of the setup, our gearing will invest moderately into both these options. Your Physical Damage will help you deal with packs more easily, while Bleeding stacks from Puncture will decimate bosses. We're not suggesting any uniques as these are entirely luck-based acquisitions.

Try getting one affix and craft another to make yourself strong (Image via Eleventh Hour Games)

Look for the following affixes on your gear:

Increased Physical Damage
Increased Damage Over Time
Increased Bow Damage
Health
Chance to Shred Armor on Hit
Increased Movement Speed
Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed

Secondary affixes you should be looking for are Resistances to make yourself tankier as you progress through the Last Epoch campaign and normal Monoliths. Preferred Item bases to look for are Silver Rings, Nagasa Quivers, Salvaged Bows, Obsidian Bows, Shrine Boots, Blood Visage, and more.

What's the best leveling mastery for Rogue in Last Epoch Season 3?

Your ideal Marksman tree for leveling purposes (Image via Eleventh Hour Games)

For Season 3, we suggest choosing the Marksman as the Mastery Specialization for Rogues. You will start with your starter Rogue tree, by investing 8 points into Swift Assassin, 1 point each into Guile and Evasion, 3 in Lethal Cadence, 5 in Agility, 2 in Steady Hand, and finally 5 points in Disembowel.

At this stage, you will be ready to invest in the Marksman tree, so start with 8 points of Draining Arrows and 5 points into Focus Fire. Next, put 1 point into Concentration to access Meditation and Reflection. Invest 5 points each into both nodes and move on to investing 5 points into Barbed Arrows. From that point on, try to move into more damage scaling with 5 points of Sniper's Gambit.

This is an impasse, as you can scale generic bow damage through Arrow Storm and Missile Mastery or move into more mana-related nodes, such as Ethereal Arrows, Mana Wrap, and Master Archer. Personally, I'd go down the latter route, as it scales better for every Marksman build, such as the Acid Flask/Explosive Trap setup or a Bleed Falconer setup in the endgame.

About the author

Arnab Chakrabarti is an MMO writer at Sportskeeda. After getting his first console and playing Oni, he knew that playing games and writing about them was all he ever wanted. To that end, he gave up his bioscience studies to take the leap into video game coverage - a move that saw him work for such publications as TechARX, XRIG, eSportsportal, and Game Rant, to name a few.

Arnab looks up to popular video game journalists and commentators like John Peter Bain aka TotalBiscuit, Jason Schreier, and SkillUp, and tries to bring the same level of commitment and accuracy to his work.

He was also a part of the team that created the event Nerdmeet, which garnered over 5000 attendees in its final run.

In his spare time, Arnab takes care of animals, learns new languages, and plays his guitar. He is eyeing amateur astronomy soon as his next hobby.

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Edited by Ritoban "Veloxi" Paul