Last Epoch - Cycle Two - Stepping into the Empowered Monoliths

So, when I last wrote about Last Epoch, I had the three level 90 monoliths before me.

At first I thought that I would try to reach at least level 88 before attempting them, simply to be closer in level. After all, when I reached them, I was a mere level 82. In the end though, I decided to just jump in and see if I could handle it, despite being underlevelled, and whaddaya know! I completed all three level 90 monoliths and the end boss and the first real Harbinger at the lowly level of 85.

As such, I unlocked the new Forgotten Knights faction that is directly linked to the Nemesis and Harbingers for this cycle. And I unlocked the ability to visit the level 100 Monoliths and started empowering them.

Despite being a lowly level 85, I jumped straight into the level 100 monoliths and got to work! And by work, I mean, fighting all the things, finding gear, and trying to level and gear up ready for my next harbinger fight. xD

In the screenshot above is a list of all the harbingers that are available to fight, with a nice little tick on the one I completed to even get to this window.

When you fight the Shade of Orobos in these empowered monoliths, you can choose if you'd like a Harbinger to spawn after the shade has been defeated, and away you go!

I do think that the Harbinger fights shouldn't be directly connected to the boss fights though. That first one really took me by surprise. I had just defeated the boss and was ready to revel in my glory when BAM! The Harbinger spawns and one-shots me because I wasn't expecting it. Sooo I had to defeat the boss all over again and then the Harbinger, this time knowing it was actually there.

As of writing this, I'm level 91! And I'm re-adjusting my build a little.

Before, my little lady warlock was focusing on cursing everything and then bashing everything down with a melee scythe ability called 'Harvest.' Which does more damage against cursed enemies. So it seemed like a wise choice.

But then I decided to give this other ability a try, called Spirit Feast. Which expels a bunch of spirits out of my person, doing damage against cursed enemies, and giving me Ward in return. My Ward has zoomed up to over 7000 using this ability so it's nice and tanky.

I've also specc'd into two things - one that self-inflicts my curses onto myself as well, and then one that clears all the curses and grants me health and ward if I suddenly go below 35% health. It's a nice combination!

I'm still trying to find some uniques that'll go nicely with my build. Most of them have a set drop from a specific boss in a certain monolith timeline, and, admittedly, I've only browsed the first monolith timeline in its empowered state so far.

I decided not to use the two-handed unique that I had found in my last post, despite the many benefits it gave. It was just too slow, and after re-equipping a one-hand/off-hand it was evident how much more damage I was doing and how better my build seemed to flow.

Sadly most of the warlock uniques are to do with minions, but there are one or two good things for me. For the most part though, I'll be trying to min-max some purple pieces. Which means I need a lottttt of "Glyphs of Despair," and a lot of luck. 😅

I guess I'd better get hunting them so I can gain MOAR POWAH! xD

 

Until next time! 😊🎮🐲

 

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_{All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, @kaelci and are from the game: Last Epoch.}