The Sentinel’s holy guardian Mastery class in Last Epoch, the Paladin, places a strong emphasis on magic and defense. By use of its Mastery Skill, Holy Aura, the Paladin protects and amplifies personal and allied qualities, such as protection and damage.
Without the right build, leveling up as a Paladin can be difficult because of the build’s concentration on defensive, which makes switching to offensive strategies more difficult, especially when playing alone. However, there are a few strong builds that provide workarounds, like the one below that focuses on Healing Hands. Please bring enough Last Epoch Gold to find out with us!
An Overview Of Healing Hands Paladin Build
This Paladin build revolves around the Healing Hands skill, which at its core provides healing to nearby allies along with a heal-over-time effect. However, by specializing in Healing Hands, you can enhance it with the Searing Light node, introducing a damaging aspect to the skill.
Following this, there are two paths to take with Healing Hands - melee or ranged. In this particular build, we’ll focus on the melee version, although the ranged option is equally viable, albeit with a distinct skill setup.
The pivotal nodes essential for making Healing Hands your primary damage-dealing skill are Cleric’s Hammer and Seraph Blade. At four points, Cleric’s Hammer grants a 100 percent chance for Healing Hands to activate upon using a melee attack, while Seraph Blade transforms Healing Hands into a melee attack, allowing it to scale based on melee damage rather than spell damage.
Considering this, the general gameplay of this build leans towards tankiness and melee combat, utilizing Void Cleave to maneuver between enemy groups and dispatch them with Rive and Healing Hands. Overall, this build offers straightforward gameplay, requiring only one button for attacking and another for traversal.
Skills
As previously mentioned, the central skill of this build is Healing Hands.
When enhancing this skill, prioritize maxing out Cleric’s Hammer initially to ensure Healing Hands triggers with a 100% chance upon executing a melee attack. Subsequently, progress towards the Seraph Blade node. Following this, acquire Divine Barrier, Synthesis of Light, and Guardian’s Heart to generate Ward on the left side of the skill tree.
Next in focus is Rive, which serves the purpose of activating Healing Hands while inflicting damage. Within this skill tree, promptly unlock the Foe Cleaver node, then shift attention to the right side to obtain Challenge, subsequently progressing towards the Double Slash node.
For mobility, Void Cleave is employed. While Lunge is an alternative, Void Cleave enables movement without requiring a target and serves to trigger Abyssal Echoes for supplementary damage.
Within Void Cleave’s skill node, prioritize unlocking Gravity’s Edge promptly to enable Void Cleave to operate as a proper traversal skill, followed by acquiring the Hellish Chasm node to convert it into fire damage. Subsequently, focus on unlocking Resonating Cleave to ensure Void Cleave triggers Abyssal Echoes efficiently.
Abyssal Echoes serves solely for additional damage when utilizing Void Cleave and is not cast independently. Start by using the Void Purifier node to transform Abyssal Echoes into fire damage. Then, use the Embrace the Darkness and Vorpal Reverberation nodes on the left side of the talent tree to increase the damage.
Lastly, Holy Aura is addressed. Progressively enhance the Shelter from the Storm node for substantial Elemental Resistance, then bolster the skill’s damage buffs by investing in the Flame Burst, Fanaticism, and True Strike nodes.
While our primary focus in this build is on Rive, it’s worth noting that Vengeance offers alternative effects. Rive boasts higher attack speed, allowing more frequent triggering of Healing Hands, whereas Vengeance becomes preferable when seeking additional defense.
Passives
In this build, we’ll allocate passive points across the Sentinel, Void Knight, and Paladin skill trees.
Before unlocking your Mastery, prioritize investing points into nodes such as Juggernaut, Armour Clad, Valiant Charge, and Time and Faith in the Sentinel tree. Additionally, allocating points into Blademaster proves beneficial.
Within the Paladin tree, initial emphasis should be on upgrading Defiance, Valor, Conviction, and Holy Icon, offering a balance of defensive and offensive stats. Subsequently, prioritize enhancing nodes like Blinding Light, Divine Essence, Reverence of Duality, and Light of Rahyeh for increased damage output.
Lastly, in the Void Knight tree, consider acquiring the Abyssal Endurance node for supplementary Void Resistance, World Eater for lifesteal, and Void Corruption for a notable boost to critical damage.
Crucial Attributes
The paramount statistic for the Healing Hands Paladin build is Healing Effectiveness. Through the Bane of Evil node within the Healing Hands skill tree, this skill scales its damage in proportion to Healing Effectiveness, doubling its original healing augmentation function. Consequently, every percentage point of Healing Effectiveness significantly bolsters both survivability and damage output.
Considering this, here are the primary statistics to prioritize when upgrading your gear as you progress:
- Healing Effectiveness
- Levels of Healing Hands
- Fire Damage
- Attunement
- Elemental Resistances of any kind
It's advisable to leverage crafting opportunities as you advance and acquire new gear. Utilizing shards imbued with any of these statistics, alongside more general defensive or utility attributes like health, mana, and armor, can enhance your gear for added potency.
Noteworthy Unique Items
Fortunately, this build doesn't heavily rely on specific Unique items, making gearing relatively straightforward.
Nonetheless, several Unique items offer notable power increases and should be integrated if you chance upon them while leveling:
- Volcanus: With a ton of extra Fire Damage, this two-handed sword is the greatest weapon in its slot for this build.
- Valeroot: This Chest Armor offers good defensive stats and the crucial Healing Effectiveness stat, even though Spriggan Form isn't applicable in this situation.
- Calamity: By adding additional fire damage, this helmet amplifies the healing power of Healing Hands.
- Advent of the Erased: Serving as a generally beneficial pair of boots, these boots expedite leveling through increased Movement Speed and Haste upon enemy demise.