Hi, builders! In this brief Last Epoch 1.0 build guide, I am going to unleash the power of the Explosive Ballista, reveal the intricacies of this insane prowess, offering a detailed explanation of its inner workings and construction.

Gear Setup

When it comes to the gear of this build, the Peak of the Mountain becomes a key part of this build. You might want to have a smooth transition into it. Ideally, I recommend using Apogee of Frozen Light with Cradle of the Erased. So a sword and shield setup to be more tanky and still get quite a bit of damage from the sword. It has +3 to cold skills, and it also has a more multiplier, which can cause more cold damage to chill enemies easily.

If you spec into the Frigid Barrage because your Ignite is transferred to the Chill Chance for your Ballista. And so you get a ignite chance from Flaming Shots. So if you do so with the sword, you get 3 extra points. That means that you get 2 free points that you can invest even more into its tree to get even more damage out of it. Besides, you may need to get some Last Epoch Gold to improve your gear.

Skills & Specializations

Next, let's discuss the skills in this Last Epoch 1.0 Explosive Ballista Falconer build:

Ballista

The Ballista serves as our primary source of damage. For the Ballista skill, there has a node in it - Armed Construction, that gives it more damage per dexterity and an increased area per dexterity. So we’re trying to stack dexterity as much as possible. You can get this on your rings, on your gloves, you can get this on your helmet, on your boots.

Dive Bomb

We are using Dive Bomb as extra damage, basically extra DPS, and burst damage against priority targets and especially bosses. The Dive Bomb now is extremely powerful. We're working on more damage nodes, doing some cooldowns, and restoring some mana and bringing it down to zero mana cost. If you get your mana cost down to zero, it will be easier for you to spend your mana. The Dive Bomb scales off of your Falcon, so you can give it some of your stats as well.

Falconry

So with the nodes and then your Ballista do as well, giving you’re giving 75% of your damage stats your Ballista and 100% of your crit. They both scale with more Falcon damage per dexterity. They both scale all in the same way, making for a good synergy. You get a kill threshold on the Falcon, which is really nice against bosses, especially the dynamic boss DR, which really helps.

In our setup, we utilize Shift as a versatile movement tool, granting temporary invulnerability and a significant boost to Dodge after each use. This allows us to effectively mitigate damage, especially when coupled with cleansing abilities and accelerated cooldowns.

Explosive Trap

A crucial aspect of maximizing the effectiveness of our Explosive Trap is to invest in the Sky Signal and Free Lofting Bird nodes. This not only reduces the cooldown of the trap but also capitalizes on its zero mana cost, effectively turning it into a mana generator. As we spam traps, we gain elemental and physical penetration with each stack of Sky Signal, amplifying our damage output considerably.

By accumulating stacks of Dust Shroud, we augment our Dodge and Glancing Glow chances, bolstering our survivability even further. With over 50% Dodge and a guaranteed Glancing Glow chance exceeding 100%, we significantly reduce incoming damage, ensuring our resilience in combat.

Idols & Blessings

It's worth noting a few key points. Certain gear components such as idols and blessings are absent due to prioritizing reaching Level 100 quickly. Despite its screen-wide area of effect prowess, the build's speed in clearing echoes may not be the fastest, although updates have been made to enhance its efficiency.

Conclusion

Transitioning to single-target encounters, the build demonstrates its prowess against bosses, even those of significant corruption levels. Utilizing Dive Bomb and Falconry for additional damage, coupled with Explosive Trap, the build effectively manages boss encounters. Defensive mechanisms such as Coordinated Fade, in conjunction with a shield, provide a robust defense, with the option to switch to a sword and shield setup for enhanced tankiness.

Regarding gear choices, the flight of the first bow is utilized primarily due to crit avoidance considerations, despite potential benefits from a sword and shield setup. While lacking in some aspects such as Legendary items. The build still performs admirably in both clearing and single-target damage scenarios, albeit with a slight deficiency in mobility that can be addressed with further upgrades.