Last Epoch Paladin Build Guide - Last Epoch Guide - IGN (2024)

The Paladin is one of the tankiest Mastery Classes in Last Epoch, wielding powerful auras and buffs that boost survivability without compromising offense. Our Paladin build takes advantage of this using the Hammer Throw skill to create a spiral of hammers that can cover whole screens with damage. ARPG veterans will enjoy a familiar playstyle similar to the famous Diablo 2 Hammerdin or Path of Exile's Spectral Helix, while newcomers will benefit from Paladin's elite innate defenses. This Last Epoch Hammerdin guide will walk you through all the skill trees, passives, and gear needed to tackle difficult endgame Dungeons and Empowered Monoliths.

On this page:

• Hammer Throw Paladin playstyle, pros, and cons
• Hammer Throw Paladin Skill Trees and Specializations
  • Hammer Throw
  • Smite
  • Holy Aura
  • Sigils of Hope
  • Volatile Reversal
• Hammer Throw Paladin Passive Trees
  • Hammer Throw Paladin passive skill order
• Hammer Throw Paladin gear
  • Weapon
  • Shield
  • Rings
  • Amulet
  • Belt
  • Relic
  • Helmet, Gloves, Boots, and Body Armour
  • Idols
• Hammer Throw Paladin Blessings

Hammer Throw Paladin Playstyle, Pros, and Cons

This version of Hammer Throw Paladin uses orbiting hammers to easily clear monster packs on the move. It can also exploit overlapping hammers to achieve excellent single-target DPS. However, doing so requires smart positioning and well-timed buff management. You must stay close to bosses for maximum DPS and try to dodge attacks in a way that maintains overlap from your orbiting hammers.

Hammer Throw Paladin Skill Trees and Specializations

As you level up your Paladin you will unlock five specialization slots, each allowing you to level up a skill through a unique skill tree. You can earn a maximum of 20 points per skill and gain bonus points from your items. We will walk through each skill and where to allocate your points below.

Hammer Throw

Your main damage-dealing skill is Hammer Throw, which launches a single projectile that returns to the user. However, the Iron Spiral and Hammer Vortex nodes on the Hammer Throw skill tree fundamentally change this behavior, causing the hammers to spiral outward around you. The Catapult node then increases the number of hammers thrown per cast, allowing you to hit enemies with many hammers at once. The rest of your points will go towards increasing damage and offsetting the steep mana cost incurred by Catapult, Iron Spiral, and Hammer Vortex.

Smite

Smite damages enemies and heals players in a small area around the target. With the point investment below, it also provides mana regeneration, blinds enemies, and buffs your attack speed for four seconds. You can manually cast Smite as needed or use Adorned Idols with the "Chance to cast Smite when you hit an enemy with throwing attacks" affix to automate it.

Holy Aura

Holy Aura provides passive bonuses to resistances and damage and can be activated to double those bonuses for a short duration. Vital Boon adds health regeneration to the mix, and Purification lets you cleanse all ailments by activating Holy Aura. Invest the rest of your points into amping Holy Aura’s damage bonuses and adding additional boosts to attack speed, critical strike chance, and critical strike multiplier.

Sigils of Hope

Sigils of Hope creates Sigils, a stacking buff that provides added fire damage and healing for 15 seconds. While this build doesn't get much out of extra fire damage, the powerful defensive buffs from the top right section of the Sigils of Hope skill tree are too good to pass up. Your other points reduce Sigils of Hope's mana cost, increase the maximum stacks to four, and provide a bit of extra damage.

Volatile Reversal

Volatile Reversal is perhaps the best defensive skill in Last Epoch, rewinding you two seconds in time to your previous position, health, and mana. You can forgo the mana restoration by speccing into Timelost Wisdom, massively reducing Volatile Reversal’s cooldown. This tree will also provide an attack speed boost and create Void Rifts that cause enemies to take increased damage from all sources.

Hammer Throw Paladin Passive Trees

Last Epoch's unique Mastery Class system allows you to invest passive points into your base class passive tree, your chosen Mastery Class passive tree, and the left half of your unchosen Mastery Class passive trees. You can even unlock skills from other Masteries by investing points into their trees, which is how you'll access Volatile Reversal. Our build invests in all four of Sentinel's passive trees, borrowing Volatile Reversal from Void Knight and valuable flat added Throwing Damage from Forge Guard.

Hammer Throw Paladin Passive Skill Order

In the Sentinel tree:

• 5 points into Juggernaut
• 5 points into Relentless
• 5 points into Armour Clad
• 5 points into Valiant Charge

In the Paladin tree:

• 8 points into Conviction
• 5 points into Honour
• 2 points into Valor

In the Void Knight tree:

• 5 points into Abyssal Endurance

In the Paladin tree:

• 5 points into Valor
• 5 points into Prayer
• 5 points into Faith Armor
• 10 points into Holy Precision
• 5 points into Sanctuary Guardian

In the Forge Guard tree:

• 5 points into Weapons Master
• 10 points into Peltast
• 8 points into Siege Captain
• 1 point into Steel Aegis

In the Sentinel tree:

• 5 points into Fearless
• 5 points into Blademaster

In the Paladin tree:

• 6 points into Reverance of Duality

Hammer Throw Paladin Gear

Hammer Throw builds don't need any uniques to function, making the gearing process very smooth. Holy Aura also provides a sizable bonus to your resistances, freeing up many suffix slots on your gear. Below, we'll break down the best base types for the build and the most important affixes to target on each gear slot.

Weapon

Throwing attacks also don't benefit from the base melee damage of your weapon, so only certain weapon base types should be used. While leveling, use Iron Hammer and Morning Star one-handed maces for their increased Physical Damage implicit modifiers. Once you reach Monoliths, keep an eye out for Eagle Wing one-handed axes and Katana one-handed swords, which have implicit bonuses to crit chance and crit multiplier, respectively. Your stat priorities are:

• Global Physical Damage (melee Physical Damage does not benefit Hammer Throw)
• Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier
• Chance to shred Armour on hit

Shield

Your Shield will provide loads of juicy defensive stats. Any shield base will do while leveling. In Monoliths, look for an Ironglass Shield, which has the highest base block chance of any shield type. Your shield stat priorities are:

• Block Chance and Effectiveness
• Reduced Damage Taken on Block
• Health
• Armor

Rings

Rings are key for this build, as they are the only items that can roll the +Throwing Damage, -Throwing Attack Mana Cost modifier. This affix will keep you from constantly running out of mana and should be a top priority to find. Most ring base types work well with Hammer Throw, including Copper Rings, Coral Rings, Opal rings, and any ring with an implicit Resistance. Your stat priorities on rings are:

• Mandatory: +Throwing Damage, -Throwing Attack Mana Cost
• Throwing Attack Speed
• Critical Strike Chance
• Physical Damage
• Health, Resistances, and Critical Strike Avoidance

Amulet

Amulets are another source of coveted flat added Throwing Damage. They also have several useful base types. Jade and Silver Amulets are great for extra damage, while Astrology and Oracle Amulets provide defense through the exceedingly rare Less Damage Over Time Taken stat. Your amulet stat priorities are:

• Throwing Damage
• Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier
• Chance to Shred Armor on Hit
• Health and Resistances

Belt

Your belt slot is largely defensive, but can also provide a little extra Throwing Damage and Physical Damage. Look out for Plated Belts, Coinmail Belts, and Praetorian Belts with high armor rolls. Your belt stat priorities are:

• Throwing Damage
• Critical Strike Avoidance and Reduced Bonus Damage Taken
• Health
• Armor
• Physical Damage

Relic

Relics are the only slot where you can find one very important stat; +X levels of Hammer Throw. A Relic with a high tier of this affix will provide a significant power boost. The Heretical Script and Mournful Pennant base types are great early on, while the Solarum Banner and Argent Crest are best later in the game. Your stat priorities are:

• +Levels of Hammer Throw
• Throwing Damage
• Health and Resistances
• Physical Damage

Helmet, Gloves, Boots, and Body Armour

Your armor slots all have similar stat priorities, albeit with a few slot-specific differences noted below. The best base types for each slot are:

• Helmets - Myrmidon Helm, Augury Helm, Leonine Greathelm
• Gloves - Solarum Bracers, Eternal Gauntlets
• Boots - Solarum Greaves, Vanguard Boots, Citadel Boots
• Body Armour - Myrmidon Plate, Champion Regalia

Your stat priorities for armor are:

• Throwing Attack Critical Strike Chance (helmet and body armour only)
• Throwing Attack Speed (gloves only)
• Movement Speed (boots only)
• Armor, Health, and Resistances.

Idols

Idols in Last Epoch cannot be modified in the forge like gear, so there is a lot of luck involved in achieving the ideal setup. In general, look for stats like Throwing Damage, Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier, Health, and Armor. You can also use Adorned Idols with "Chance to cast Smite when you hit an enemy with throwing attacks" to automate Smite casting. Use what you have available and keep a stash tab full of idols with good modifiers that you can't currently fit. You never know when they'll fit into a new configuration.

Hammer Throw Paladin Blessings

Blessings are a set of endgame upgrades in Last Epoch acquired by completing Monolith Timelines. Each Timeline has a unique pool of Blessings and will offer you a selection to choose from when you defeat that Timeline's boss. Each Blessing also has a Grand version you can earn from the Empowered Version of each Timeline. You can view your active blessings in your inventory once you have unlocked one. The best Blessings from each Timeline for this build are:

• Fall of the Outcasts: Mark of Agony, Sign of Torment, Winds of Fortune
• The Stolen Lance: Slumber of Morditas, Talon of Grandeur
• The Black Sun: Wrath of Rahyeh, Winds of Oblivion
• Blood, Frost, and Death: Enmity of the Clans, Scars of Blood
• Ending the Storm: Bastion of Divinity, Rhythm of the Tide
• Fall of the Empire: Hope of the Beginning, Remnants of the Living
• Reign of Dragons: Resolve of Humanity, Survival of Might, Cruelty of Strength
• The Last Ruin: Memory of Masters, Knowledge of Skill
• The Age of Winter: Fury of the North, Bones of Eternity
• Spirits of Fire: Body of Obsidian, Curse of Sulphur