Last Epoch: Harbingers of Ruin – A Deep Dive into New Changes and Content
Eleventh Hour Games has launched the second cycle of Last Epoch, named “Harbingers of Ruin,” bringing a wealth of fresh content and mechanics. This update is largely influenced by player feedback, focusing on improving user experience and expanding existing systems. Let’s examine the key additions in detail.
At the heart of this cycle lies the emergence of Aberroth, a servant of Orobyss, and his loyal Harbingers. Their mission: to consume timelines within the Void and dismantle Eterra.
New Class-Agnostic Skill: Evade
Responding to the growing trend in ARPGs, Last Epoch introduces the Evade skill, providing a universal dodge mechanic. Available to all classes from level 1, it empowers players to swiftly sidestep enemy attacks. Evade comes with two initial charges, each recharging on a four-second cooldown.
Notably, Evade doesn’t grant invulnerability frames or damage mitigation, meaning players can still take hits while evading. This addition serves as a default mobility option, especially valuable for classes whose traversal skills unlock later. For classes that lack potent movement abilities, Evade’s cooldown decreases as the character levels up. While there’s no dedicated skill tree for Evade, new affixes will be introduced, allowing players to enhance it with various effects.
New Enemy Type: Nemesis
Previously, endgame content was limited to the Shade of Orobyss, a fight which only gave unique loot drops. “Harbingers of Ruin” expands this by introducing Nemesis enemies. These mini-bosses spawn randomly throughout levels, offering a challenge during progression. Defeating a Nemesis unlocks a deterministic loot system.
After a Nemesis falls, players can interact with its remains and choose from three options:
- Banish: Permanently removes the Nemesis without dropping its loot, allowing you to reroll for a different Nemesis.
- Challenge: Revives the Nemesis for another fight, rewarding the pre-displayed loot upon a second victory.
- Empower: Enhances the Nemesis, increasing its power but also improving its potential loot, including higher affix tiers and forging potential. Empowerment can be done twice, resetting with each new Nemesis.
The Forgotten Knight Faction, Harbingers, and Aberroth
The Forgotten Knight, a previously minor NPC, now spearheads her own faction connected to the new pinnacle boss, Aberroth. To join, players must complete a level 90 Monolith of Fate timeline. Following the boss’s defeat, a Harbinger will appear, initiating a new boss encounter. These Harbingers possess distinct abilities and skills, posing a significant challenge.
Slaying a Harbinger grants its Eye, which can be delivered to the Forgotten Knight to formally join her faction. Aberroth, the Harbingers’ leader, requires players to clear Empowered Timelines, defeating the Harbinger in each one. The first 10 Harbinger defeats guarantee an Eye drop, required to access Aberroth’s portal. Subsequent Eye drops occur randomly. Aberroth will have different boss mechanics depending on which timeline you find him.
Overhauls to the Dynamic Damage Resistance System
The Dynamic Damage Resistance system, which was negatively received for its hidden resistance scaling with player DPS, has been replaced by the Boss Ward system. This provides greater clarity and a more intuitive experience. Now, when a boss reaches certain health thresholds, they gain a visible Ward that absorbs damage.
This Ward, displayed as a blue highlight on the boss’s health bar, decays over time. High DPS builds are still encouraged, while lower DPS builds have an opportunity to break through. This new system aims to maintain engaging boss fights while providing players with better feedback regarding their damage output. The goal is that this change, bosses are now more resistant to stun and freeze effects.
New Glyph: Glyph of Envy
The Glyph of Envy brings a unique element of chance and transformation to crafting. It upgrades the chosen affix on an item while simultaneously rerolling all other affixes, implicits, subtypes, and stats, excluding the item type. For example, using it on a Broadsword to upgrade a Frost Damage affix could transform it into a Falchion with the same affix.
This process destabilizes the item, tethering it to the timeline you’re currently in. If applied to a Normal Timeline not yet fully stabilized, it instantly stabilizes it. The glyph drops from Elites and Harbingers in level 100 zones, maintaining power balance within the game.
New Idol: Harbinger’s Needle
The Harbinger’s Needle offers a way to accelerate the Gaze of Orobyss process. This system revolves around adding Corruption to timelines after defeating the Shade of Orobyss, which increases loot drops but makes enemies more powerful. The Gaze of Orobyss grants the Shade unique gear depending on the amount of stacks that are present.
This idol is consumed when a Timeline Boss is defeated with the Monolith above 90 Corruption. It grants 3 additional Gaze of Orobyss stacks to the timeline. This makes farming items such as Apathy’s Maw and Shattered Chains faster.
More Unique Gear
With any major update to an ARPG, there will always be new loot. There are about 30 new Unique items to obtain. Some of the items will be exclusive to certain Harbingers and bosses. Some items include the Phase Point Quiver, Event Horizon Two-Handed Mace, Aberroth’s Command Sceptre, Wall of Nothing Body Armour, and Nihilis Amulet.
These items introduce new build-enabling possibilities and stat combinations, adding to the game’s depth and replayability. Players can expect to farm various timelines in order to get all 30 new uniques.
Quality of Life Changes
Numerous quality-of-life improvements have been implemented to enhance the overall gameplay experience:
- Timeline Blessings can be stored in dedicated stashes.
- The level ladder has been revamped, and new ladders have been added.
- A search bar and filters are now available for Timelines.
- More filtering options have been added to loot filters.
- Merchant’s Guild and Circle of Fortune rank rewards have been updated.
- Gaze of Orobyss mechanics have been tweaked to reduce stack loss on death.
- Channeled skills no longer halt mana regeneration.
- The Runemaster’s Disintegrate skill now ramps up damage in stages.
- The Sentinel’s Shield Bash skill now receives cooldown reduction per enemy stunned.
- The Shaman’s Avalanche is no longer channeled.
- Passive changes have been made for the Forge Guard, Sorcerer, and Shaman.
- Ward generation and decay formulas have been updated.
With these changes, Last Epoch continues to evolve. Eleventh Hour Games remains dedicated to supporting and improving the game, ensuring it continues to be a modern ARPG.
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