Last Epoch - Defensive Affixes/Modifiers Explained

This will be a quick explanation of basic affixes you'll see on most items and passives. These affixes will be broken up into Offensive Affixes & Defensive Affixes. 

Credit: lastepoch.com

Defensive Affixes & Modifiers: from affixes, blessings/shrines, skills, and passives

Life/Health Modifiers: 

Health works to protect against all damage sources. 

Health can be recovered via health regeneration, health leech, health on hit, healing potions, health gain on kill, & health gain on dodge. 

Ward: 

Ward is a shield on top of health, similar to energy shield from PoE but it's not always up and will reduce over time. 

Ward can be scaled in size and duration, leeched, gained on hit, regenerated, gained on skill use, and gained on kill. 

Best classes to scale Ward are Mage, Acolyte, Rogue, and Sentinel. 

Resistance: 

Resistances provide damage reduction against specific damage types: cold, fire, lightning, physical, poison, necrotic, and void. 

Resistances cap at 75% and you will want them all positive in campaign and capped in the end game. 

Armor: 

Armor reduces physical damage taken and slightly reduces non-physical damage taken. 

Armor has no effect on DoTs/Ailments. 

Armor provides less defense vs higher level enemies. 

Dodge: 

Dodge provides a random chance to avoid all damage per hit taken. 

It caps at 85% and has diminishing returns above 75%. 

Scales from "chance to dodge" modifiers. 

Endurance: 

Endurance provides a percent of damage reduction when it triggers and only protects health, not ward. 

Endurance works for all damage taken, including DoTs, but only protects health levels below threshold. 

Endurance triggers when health threshold reaches less than 20% (by default). 

Endurance Threshold scales the likelihood of endurance triggering and caps at 60%. 

Threshold can scale via "added" (additive) & "increased" (multiplicative) modifiers. 

Endurance is used to protect against 1 shots as it'll ensure the last bit of health you have is protected. 

Block: 

Block provides a chance to reduce damage on hits. Block does nothing against DoTs/Ailments. 

Block Effectiveness scales how much damage is reduced. 

Chance to Block scales to provide likelihood of blocking attacks. 

Shields aren't required for blocking but provide the best block scaling. 

Critical Defense: 

Crit defense provides reduction to crit damage taken and can cap at 100% (crit immunity). 

Stun Avoidance: 

Stun avoidance reduces chances of being stunned and can cap at 100% (stun immunity). 

Damage Reduction: 

Reduced Damage Taken or Less Damage Taken gives a flat reduction to damage taken but doesn't work against DoTs/Ailments. 

Debuffs: 

Specific debuffs/curses on enemies can reduce the damage they output via lowering their attack/cast speed. 

Frailty - reduces enemy damage output by 6% per stack up to 3 stacks. 

Chill - reduces enemy speed by 12% per stack up to 3 stacks. 

Blind - reduces enemy crit chance by 100%. 

Stun - Prevents enemies from moving or attacking. 

Last Epoch - Offensive Affixes/Modifiers Explained

This will be a quick explanation of basic affixes you'll see on most items. These affixes will be broken up into Offensive Affixes & Defensive Affixes. 

Credit: lastepoch.com

Offensive Affixes & Modifiers 

Damage Modifiers: 

Added Damage. adds base # damage to attacks. Everything multiplies after added damage. 

Increased Damage. multiplies the base damage after all additive damage is calculated. 

Added damage sources multiply by increased damage's %. 

Example: (Added fire + added melee) * [(increased fire% + increased melee%)*100]. 

3 added fire damage

3 added melee damage

30% increased fire damage

30% increased melee damage

(3 + 3) * [(30% + 30%)*100] = 6 * 1.6 = 9.6 total fire melee damage

Using multiple damage types/sources makes it harder to stack increased damage. It's easier to scale damage using the same damage type. 

Critical Modifiers: 

Critical hits do double damage when a crit hit happens. 

Critical damage increases with added crit & increased crit (similar to added damage & increased damage). 

Crits do not increase Damage over Time or Ailments. 

Critical hit chance can be increased up to 100%. 

Enemies can avoid crits via a crit avoidance buff they have or a crit debuff on you. 

Rogue has a crit debuff skill they can apply to enemies. 

Buffs/Debuffs: 

Buffs and debuffs can be given to player and to enemies. They add to damage dealth/taken in a different way.

Shred: Stacks a 4 second debuff on specific stat when they get hit (such as armor shred). Does 2% boss or 5% regular enemy per stack up to 10 max stacks of shred. 

Penetrate: Penetrates specific resistance. Can’t go below -75% resist penetrated.

Increased Damage Taken: Simply increases the amount of damage type taken in an additive (not multiplicative) way. Can stack with penetration & shred. 

Damage over Time (DoTs): 

• DoT is damage that ticks per second over a period of time. 
• Base DoT duration + Increased DoT duration gives total damage over time. 
• DoT cannot be scaled by crit. 
• DoT can be inflicted via specific skills or ailments. DoTs via ailments will be triggered on hit. 
• DoT is scaled via duration, penetration, shred, and damage sources related to the DoT. 

Example: Physical damage over time (bleed ailment). 

Maximize attack speed and increased phys DoT chance to increase how likely a bleed will occur and to get more bleed stacks (no max stacks so higher bleed chance and higher attack speeds can stack 100+ times). 

Increasing bleed duration keeps those stacks on longer and increased DoT/physical DoT will increase bleed damage per tick. 

Physical penetration + phys resist shred will make enemies take more bleed damage. 

Ailments: 

Bleed, Poison, Ignite. Frostbite. Electrify. 

Chance to apply an ailment can be over 100% in case enemies have buffs or you have debuffs lowering the chances of applying an ailment. 

All major DoTs via ailments will be uncapped. A few specific ailments will be capped and will be stated in the skill's description (such as time rot). 

Attack & Cast Speed: 

These affixes are typically found on weapons. Dual wielders speed is based on average of both weapons equipped. 

Overall base attack/cast speed is based on average of skill speed + weapon speed. 

Attack/Cast speed scales via Increased Cast or Increased Attack Speed modifiers. 

Certain skills won't scale in speed (such as dancing strikes or channeled skills) unless the skill specifically states it. 

Convert Damage / Damage Conversion: 

These modifiers/affixes will convert the base damage of skills or all damage sources of skills to another damage type. 

3 Most Common Conversions: 

Convert base skill damage. 

Convert passive skill node. 

Convert all sources of X to Y. (i.e. fire to cold). 

Damage conversion can be used to convert a skill to match damage types that work with your build or to convert part of skill damage type to help with monster resists. 

Minions: 

Minions scale independently from player skills and affixes. Only ballistas share some passive nodes with player. 

Passive nodes & affixes related to minion scaling will have specific wording: 

Minion, Companion, Totem, Allies, Shared, You & Minions, etc...

Last Epoch - Crafting Starter Guide

This is a simple guide explaining each crafting mechanic at a high level. 

Players under level 15 will encounter a crafting tutorial during their first time progressing through the Osprix War Camp. This brief tutorial will walk you through upgrading an Old Silver Ring. You’ll learn how to add and upgrade affixes on items as well as using glyphs. The tutorial will only need to be cleared once per stash, so you shouldn’t have to see it too much during a season.

NOTE: SEASON 4 IS COMING WITH NEW CRAFTING CHANGES. 

The new corruption system will be similar to PoE's vaal orbs where you can use a Rune of Corruption on an item to get a random outcome. This outcome could be a big upgrade, downgrade, or brick the item, and this item can never be modified again, but can be shattered or vendored if you don't like the outcome. 

Credit: lastepoch.com

Start crafting once you can afford runes of shattering. 

Use runes of shattering in forge menu (press F) on items to gain crafting shards from them. This is a dismantling mechanic. 

During campaign you want to mostly vendor all unused items for gold, but in end game you want to start dismantling as many items as you can afford to (usually 50/50 on dismantle vs vendor).

Reforging/Forging Potential: 

You can craft/reforge items as long as they have forging potential. 

Different types or crafting/re-rolling spend different amounts of potential but can be modified via glyphs. Zero potential means you can no longer craft/re-roll an item. 

Exalted items are best forging potential items.

Item Rarity/Levels: 

Normal (white), Magic (blue), Rare (yellow), Exalted (purple), Unique (orange/golden brown), Legendary (dark red/crimson)

Legendary & Unique:

• Legendary potential on a unique item is required to make it a legendary.
• Combine a unique you like with an exalt of the same type (exalt must have 4 unsealed affixes and ensure they are high level good affixes you want), to create the legendary. 
• Legendaries must be created in the eternity cache at the end of the Temporal Sanctum dungeon. Higher dungeon tiers are required to craft higher level uniques. You can eventually skip to boss using tokens at the start of the dungeon. 
• You can also get random legendaries via upgrading a Nemesis boss which you'll encounter throughout the game.
• Save your exalted items that roll high tier affixes that you'd want on a future legendary.

Affixes: 

• Every item has 4 affixes (2 prefixes + 2 suffixes). 
• Crafting screen shows prefixes on left side and suffixes on right side. 
• Best of the Common Affixes: health, resists, primary stats, attack boosts for your skills, +skill levels
• Key Affixes on Specific Items:
• Belts - hybrid health, cleanse ailments (you should seal this one when 100% cleanse shows up on a T1/T2 ailment affix), elemental/spell resists, defensive stats
• Gloves - Attack or Cast speed
• Boots - Movement speed
• Weapon - Attack speed, spell or attack damage

Shards: 

• Shards are used to add new affixes or affix tiers to items. 
• Shards are affix specific.
• Each item can have 2 prefixes and 2 suffixes (4 affixes total). 
• Each affix can be Tier 1 – Tier 5 (tiers change the range of values). 
• Shards add a chance at critical success, adding a tier upgrade on top of the craft. Critical success doesn’t cost any extra materials or forging potential. 
• Shards are obtained via monster drops or via rune of shattering. Shards drop as items that will automatically go to your crafting wallet in your inventory when picked up.

Runes:

• Rune of Shattering: Destroys entire item creating shards. 
• Rune of Removal: removes a random affix from item and returns shards.
• Rune of Refinement: Rerolls all affix values within their same tiers. (PoE divine orb).
• Rune of Shaping: Rerolls all implicit modifiers. (these are the stat values between item name and affixes, PoE blessed orb).
• Rune of Ascendance: Upgrades an item into a unique or set item of the same type (i.e. turns rare chest into random unique or set chest, PoE ancient orb).
• Rune of Creation: Duplicates item and removes forging potential from both. (PoE mirror).

Glyphs:

• Glyph of Hope: Modifies craft to have a 25% chance of no forging cost. 
• Glyph of Chaos: Randomly modifies the outcome of an affix upgrade to another affix. 
• Glyph of Order: Guarantees the affix range when upgrading an affix to the next tier. (i.e. max T3 upgraded with GoO would guarantee a max T4 roll).
• Glyph of Despair: Has a chance to seal a random affix on the item forever and freeing up the affix slot for a new one. (low chance to seal T3+)

Reforging Sets into Affix Shards: 

A new echo was created from Season 2 onwards which allows you to break down your unwanted set items into affix shards so you can roll set bonuses onto other items. 

You can get these shards via choosing The Great Bridge Woven Echo, which you can get on your monolith when you complete a Woven Echo and use the Echo Chamber at the end of it to modify existing echoes in your current monolith timeline into specific woven echoes. 

Ensure you save all your unwanted set items and run this woven echo 1-2 times per timeline to break down all your set items into affix shards.

Last Epoch - Important Keybinds To Use Often

This is a simple guide providing all the most used keybinds. Memorize these because you'll use them. 

Credit: lastepoch.com

G = in game guide, description of everything in the game. Best in game wiki ever made.

J = show quests journal

H = social list (friends/guild/party)

Hold Alt + Mouse over item = shows details of item stats and tooltips 

Alt + Z = shows tooltips for items on ground

Shift + F = loot filter menu

X = toggle loot filter on/off

Shift + K = cosmetics/transmogs

K = MTX panel

P = passive skill tree 

(brain vendor in town is used for passive respec, and you can get specific or all points back immediately)

S = skill tree 

(Drag skills into active skill slots at top of screen and click these to open skill subtrees.)  

(You can respec in skill tree window but skill respec does not instantly give points back and you must re-earn them)

F = crafting/forge

A = command minions

Shift + right click = sell or move item to open window 

Last Epoch Corruption System Explained - Seasons 1-3

This is a brief summary of how to push your corruption once you get to the end end game in Last Epoch. To get to the starting point you must beat the campaign, as well as go through the entire monolith system once before you can start with corruption. 

NOTE: THIS SYSTEM MAY CHANGE IN SEASON 4, STAY TUNED!

Credit: lastepoch.com

In your corrupted monolith, complete echoes in one direction away from the center until you see a Shade of Orobyss (it will look like a dark crystal mountain on the echo).

On your way there, build up Stability by completing echos and killing the timeline boss. Each timeline boss kill grants 1 Gaze of Orobyss. Each Gaze gives 12 bonus corruption when you kill the shade, and you can consume up to 4 Gaze at a time.

The total corruption goes up by # of gaze (ideally 12x) + base corruption on the Shade of Orobyss echo map (shown on the bottom right of monolith UI). 

Ideally you want to get to 25+ corruption in a single run, which is what is required for continuing the Forgotten Knights Faction quests. 

Most likely you will kill 3 corrupted timeline bosses before you kill Shade of Orobyss.

Once you have +25 corruption in your current timeline then you should move to the next timeline. 

Complete 1 echo in the new timeline and a "free" pity Shade of Orobyss fight connects to your completed echo. Kill it to jump up ~90% of the max corruption. If you did consume 3x gazes, you should immediately bump up +30-40 corruption simply by doing the catch-up shade in the new timeline. 

Eventually you gain stability tokens to make spawning the timeline boss quicker and gaze idols that give you additional gaze credit. You still have to grind out echoes to the edge of each timeline to find the Orobyss for the timelines though so don't waste these tokens until you find the Orobyss.

Repeat all of the above steps until you are at +300 corruption and all Harbingers are dead. This will eventually unlock higher levels of corruption for each timeline and the ability to fight Aberoth/Uber Aberoth.

You can track your progress in the 2nd tab of the Forgotten Knights panel.

D2R Ladder Season 13 - Reign of the Warlock Review and Echoing Strike Build

D2R Ladder 13 is in full swing now and with it came some huge changes to the game that haven't been seen in 15 years. We got a new class, new ways to farm the end game, new items, and a fresh ladder. 

Credit: Activision/Blizzard

Let's start with the review of the paid DLC. RotW was shadow dropped out of nowhere. Several leaks predicted it, but nobody believed them (myself included). RotW was $25 USD/EUR. For this price you would expect substantial amount of content, akin to an expansion. Instead it was a new class, some much needed stash quality of life, and a re-work of the terror zone end game system. Overall it is not worth the full price, unless you have the time and money to spend on it. Personally I'd recommend waiting for a sale, but my hope is Blizzard uses the money to continue to update the game because they introduced a lot that needs fixing. 

1. The new class - warlock: 

Overall the warlock class feels out of place in D2. It feels more like a D3 and D4 class. It has very colorful spells, mostly purple, which conflict with the darker and more grim tones of D2. People complained that D3 was too colorful like WoW, so it's odd seeing Blizzard go so heavily into a purple themed class. 

As usual, Blizzard released the new class in a very over tuned state. This is common for them to do because they want to drive sales of the new content because everyone wants to play the most powerful class. That may work in modern ARPGs but in a game like D2, which is mostly played by older generations, this tactic backfired a bit. People are upset at how powerful it is and how easy the game is using this class. The class has no obvious flaws, every skill is good and powerful, and certain builds can clear the game without any good gear. This makes warlock feel pay to win because of how powerful it is. You can watch videos from Llama and Cooley to see just how over powered this class is currently. 

2. The Stash QoL

The quality of life to the stash is something players have wanted for a decade now. The game was so limited in what loot you could carry and forced people to create alternate characters to simply be mules. The stackable currencies and gems means people can horde to their heart's content and this alone makes the game much more approachable. It also comes with 5 shared stash tabs instead of 3 which further adds to the quality. 

3. The end game rework

With RotW we got a new end game system tied to terror zones. TZ's were introduced in an earlier D2R update and were very widely loved by the community. They increased the difficulty and loot for a specific area for an hour and could drop a new item called a Sunder Charm. These charms helped break the immunity of a specific element at the cost of a large negative for that same element. Unfortunately the new terror zones are now only 30 minutes instead of an hour, and sunder charm drop rates were nerfed into non-existence. 

The new system relies on a player to stay in the same game for hours (4-8 hours) without leaving. This is because there's a new end game monster that randomly spawns called a herald. The more unique/champ packs killed, the higher the odds are of a herald spawning, and the herald is the one who can drop the new sunder charm. Additionally, unique/champs/heralds can drop worldstone shards which can terrorize an entire Act at a time. 

Act bosses also drop an item called a statue and when all 5 statues are collected a new uber version of the ancients can be unlocked. Killing them drops a new jewel which is very powerful (more powerful than facets). 

Overall Blizzard needs to up the spawn rate of heralds because nobody has time to farm hours straight, and they need to increase the drop rates of sunders. Sunders were a balanced way of introducing more build variety to ladder start. Without them builds like fire and lightning require super expensive gear to work in hell difficulty, especially in terror zones which often have dual immune enemies.

4. Overall review of RotW

RotW isn't worth the $25 cost, the addition of warlock was weird and too overpowered, the new end game system needs a lot of work to be worthwhile, and the stash QoL was a huge win to the game. This puts the paid DLC as a mediocre rating to me. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone at this time, but maybe in a few months it'll be on sale and things will be better balanced.

ECHOING STRIKE BUILD

Now let's get into my warlock build for the season, the echoing strike build. I chose this build because initially I wanted to do a trapsin but with the changes to sunders I knew ladder start would be impossible on that build. My friend was going to do a fire warlock so I decided to go melee and chose echoing strike because it reminded me of spectral throw from path of exile. 

Let's be frank, echoing strike is beyond busted at this point. There are videos of people running around with no gear and clearing the hell difficulty. My experience has been similar once I got my points fully invested in it and got the demon I wanted. However, I think with the correct tuning this build can still be good but not completely busted so let's get into it. 

Leveling: You can level using echoing strike but you will be chugging mana potions non-stop, even with an insight. 

Your best bet for leveling is using ring of fire for normal and first half of NM, and demonic summons for nightmare, and swapping to echoing strike + demonic in hell. 

Demonic summons are extremely powerful and the ability to bind a demon can make the game much easier with a good demon (such as lister from baal's minions, hephaestus from the hell forge, or basically any unique monster who has an aura and is cursed). 

You can be creative with your bound demon, for instance fallen shamans also come with their fallen army, and vile mothers from act 4 also come with their spawn which work as great distractions for enemies.

Just note that demonic mastery affects how many demons you can have including your bound demon. It takes 10 points here to have 2 summons and 20+ points for 3 summons. Ensure you do not accidentally unsummon your bound demon by summoning another demon. 

Echoing Strike - Skill Points: 

Ok once you swap to echoing strike here are the skills to spec into... 

1 point - Sigil Lethargy 

This slows enemies and breaks their physical immunity when inside it so always have it down on your demon/merc to keep them alive. 

1 point into all Demon skills. 

Use Bind Demon, bound demons will be better than your summons with only 1 point into them. 

Use Engorge on corpses to heal your bound demon. 

Use Death Mark to teleport your bound demon into and out of battle. 

1 point into Hex Bane 

Hex: Bane will be something you occassionally cast to imbue your weapon which adds a little damage and survivability to fights and helps with physical immunes on top of the sigil. 

Hex: Purge is a slightly better skill for aoe damage. Pick one as a one point wonder.

Max points in this order - Echoing Strike, Blade Warp, Mirrored Blades, Levitation Mastery

1 point into all skills to get to Mirrored Blades. You won't use any of the pre-cursor skills but you want the synergy from mirrored blades. 

Echoing Strike will be your main attack skill. 

Blade Warp will be your teleport. Use Blade Warp to get out of trouble or to traverse annoying terrain. It won't go through walls like teleport but it can jump gaps and holes in walls. It also brings your demons and merc with you so that helps with keeping them alive. 

Remaining Points you can experiment with but I prefer up to 10 points in Demonic Mastery (with + skills from gear) and then Hex Bane.

At 10 Demonic Mastery you can summon a 2nd demon and Consume it for a buff. Goatman is the best to do this with.

Note: Echoing Strike changes the spread of the weapons you're throwing out based on where your cursor is when you cast it. The closer the cursor is to you, then bigger the spread. The further your cursor is from you then tighter the spread. In large packs it helps spreading the attack out because it shotguns an entire pack really well.

Typical game play cycle: 

• Cast Psychic Ward and Hex to refresh them occasionally. 
• Use Blade Warp to teleport the battlefield. 
• Use Death Mark to get your bound demon in and out of fights. 
• Use Sigil Lethargy under enemies that are surrounding your demon and merc to slow them. 
• Use Engorge to heal your demon(s). 
• Cast Echoing Strike near you in front of packs to shotgun the pack, and cast it far from you on single targets so all blades hit the boss. 

This is an action packed high APM build but most fights you can skip most of these steps to one shot everything with echoing strike since it's so powerful. 

Note: mana leech and mana on kill are huge for this build. You can self equip insight until you get those affixes on gear. 

Attribute Points: 

You will need plenty of dexterity and strength to equip your gear. Personally would recommend ~120-130 in each but ensure you keep some unallocated points handy in case you swap off an item that has attributes on it and you need to add some points to strength or dex. 

Rest of points into vitality. 

Note: warlock will get a passive that lowers requirements on gear which is super helpful and allows more points freed up for vitality. 

Leveling/Budget Gear: 

• Helmet: any rare or unique you can get your hands on, then any +1 or +2 skills helm you can get, or Rockstopper or Tal rasha's crest or Bulwark runeword or Peasant's Crown or Lore runeword. 

• Gloves: any rare, set or unique you can get then Magefists or Trang-Oul's Claws, or crafted Blood gloves (with leech and crushing blow). 

• Boots: any rare, set, or unique you can get then, Waterwalks or Infernostrides or Goblin Toes or Aldur's Advance or Wraithstep or Horazon's Legacy

• Belt: any rare, set, or unique you can get or crafted caster or blood belt. 

• Body Armor: any rare or unique you can get your hands on, then Stealth runeword, then Authority runeword. Spirit Shroud and Que-Hagans are also very good chest items to carry you to end game. 

• Weapon: warlocks can hold a 2H in one hand so target those for higher damage. 
• Insight runeword in a polearm will be best in slot for a while due to its meditation aura. Black runeword in a 3 socket mace will also work well until you get a 4 socket polearm. Even IK Maul, Tomb Reaver, Dreadfang Sword, or Arioc's Needle works.

• Offhand: Any rare or unique shield or book will do here. The rescue Anya quests for each difficulty will usually yield the best item you'll find for this slot while leveling. Other good options are runewords for Rhyme, Spirit, and Ancient's Pledge made in a socketed book. 

• Rings: Any rare or unique you find will suffice. A Ravenfrost could be helpful to prevent from being frozen if you don't have that affix on another gear item. Rings for this build aren't mandatory so they're a good spot to get life, resists, magic find, strength, and dexterity. Crafted Blood, Caster, Safety, and Hitpower rings will also do. 

• Amulets: Any magic, rare, or unique you find, especially with +skills. Amulet isn't mandatory so it's also a good slot to pickup +skills, resists, MF, and attributes. Crafted Blood, Caster, Safety, and Hitpower amulets will also do. 

End Game Gear: 

Gear Option 1: multiple great options in each slot

• Helmet: Guillaume's Face, Crown of Ages, Kira's Guardian, Harlequin Crest Shako, Hellwarden's Will, Horazon's Countenance, Coven runeword, or a well rolled 2/20 diadem. (well rolled 2/20 diadem or CoA will be best in slot here)

• Gloves: Steelrend, Magefists, Trang-Oul's Claws, dual leech crafted Blood gloves. (well crafted blood gloves will be best in slot because the dual leech and crushing blow will feel great in this build). 

• Boots: Sandstork Treks, War Travelers, Gore Riders (gore riders are bis for damage, treks for survival, war travs for mf). 

• Belt: Arachnid Mesh, String of Ears, Verdungo's Hearty Cord. (Arachnid is bis as always)

• Body Armor: Enigma, Fortitude (enigma is bis always but any of the budget chest pieces will work in this build, fortitude is best for damage)

• Weapon: Insight in elite polearm, breath of the dying, death, reaper's toll, last wish, fortitude (all are viable but BotD and Death should be bis). CTA and Spirit on swap.

• Offhand: Phoenix, Stormshield, Spirit, Ars Dul'Mephistos (mephistos is bis here)

• Rings: Stone of Jordan, well crafted dual leech ring, Bul-Kathos Wedding Band, Raven Frost, Sling ring, Opalvein (ravenfrost is mandatory if cannot be frozen is missing in your build)

• Amulets: Highlord's Wrath, well crafted +2 skills amulet (highlord's is bis)

Gear Option 2: full Horazon's set (Not as optimal as option 1 but option 2 looks cooler and is still end game viable). 

Merc: 

You can use an A2 (might) or A5 (frenzy) merc. Generally want to use A2 merc for leveling and swap to A5 merc around level 85 when he's high enough level to have the dex to equip phase blades. 

Ethereal items are always best for mercs because they can't lose durability and will come with higher stats. However, you can utilize non-eth until you find or afford better. Always itemize yourself first over your merc. 

A2 Merc: Holy Freeze (good survivability) or Might (good damage) are best mercenaries to use. 

A5 Merc: Frenzy is decent here, very fast, very survivable when geared, shouts taunt

A2 Merc Weapon - You want your merc to use insight (ral tir tal sol) but if you're self wielding insight then A2 merc can carry reaper's toll, breath of the dying, obedience, pride. 

A5 Merc Weapons - lightsabre (budget), lawbringer (in PB), last wish (in PB), grief (in PB)

A2 Merc Helm - start with Nadir (Nef Tir) or Bulwark (Shael Io Sol). 

Best uniques are Stealskull, Vampire Gaze, Crown of Thieves, and Andariel's Visage (andariel's is bis). 

A5 Merc Helm - Arreat's Face or Guillaume's Face

A2/A5 Merc Chest: use anything with good defensive stats until you find a good base to make Smoke (Nef Lum) or Hustle (Shael Ko Eld) or Lionheart (Hel Lum Fal). 

Duriel's shell or Shaftstop or Gladiator's Bane or Skin of the Flayed One are good budget unique options for mercs. 

Then use any of those until you find an elite ethereal base to make Treachery (Shael Thul Lem). 

Finally switch to a Fortitude (El Sol Dol Lo) or Chains of Honor (Dol Um Ber Ist). 

Note that once you get Fortitude you should still equip Treachery until fade procs then swap it out (only necessary for harder content like ubers). 

A2 Might Merc is bis but needs good gear to survive. Keeping your mercenary alive is key so use your teleport to get him away if he's about to get surrounded or is dying. Shift + belt slot will feed him potions.

Generic D2R Playthrough Guides: 

For playthrough, magic finding, and trading guides please look at my past blog posts. They are largely unchanged but I suggest you fine tune a few things that go with this build and this ladder theme. 

Overall this is an S-tier build with how broken it is and leveling with fire and transitioning to echoing strike is a very smooth and easy experience.

Seahawks 2025 - WORLD CHAMPIONS

Mike Macdonald's first season was promising. The team still won 10 games despite a complete coaching turn over and to start his second season a majority of the offensive coaching staff and players were sent packing. A lot of media outlets had the Seahawks finishing 3rd or 4th in the NFC West and missing the playoffs. "WE DID NOT CARE!" Coach Mac turned this team around in his second year. His approach to team unity, the process they go through every week, and the type of players and coaches he looks for drove this team to success. 

A lot of people questioned trading DK & Geno, letting go of Lockett, and replacing the entire offense despite their success last season. As a person who's been advocating for these moves, I feel vindicated. The style of offense you need to win in the league, with the defense this team has, is an offense that isn't prone to turnovers and can control the clock. I am very happy with the play of the offense the second half of the season when Darnold went from a gunslinger to a game manager. The run game took center stage and Darnold just had to keep the team ahead of the chains and get them into scoring position. Unfortunately this means the Seahawks have lost some coaches in the off-season and may lose some players too but that comes with the territory of winning. 

Credit: SI.com

Now, let's dip into the off-season and look at who's leaving, who should be replaced, and how to fill the gaps. 

Coaching: 

It's no surprise to see Klint Kubiak leave. Given his family name and his offensive success this season he was bound for a promotion to another team. I'm happy he went to an AFC team so I don't have to root against him. I have nothing but praise for him in putting together this offense in 1 season with a bunch of new starters. He did an amazing job and deserves the success.

Who would be a great OC going forward? The Seahawks have been flirting with promoting coaches within. Given the list of available OCs in the league, this may actually be the best move. This may also help keep more offensive assistants in the building so the team doesn't lose a step next season. 

Now let's look at players and see who's leaving and who should come back.

Free Agents: 

• WR Rashid Shaheed: (Let go) - he had a fantastic 2nd half of the year for the Hawks on special teams but wasn't a factor much on offense. Players returning from injury will fill his roles well and he's owed a big payday at ~$14M/yr.
• T Josh Jones: (re-sign 2 yrs $3.5M/yr) Josh was an incredible backup at tackle who played through injuries and put together amazing depth. At his price he could be re-signed easily to backup both tackles. 
• DE Boye Mafe: (let go) Boye has been a great defensive end but he hasn't fit well in Macdonald's scheme and his production has dropped, while DLaw and DHall have had great success. 
• RB Ken Walker: (Franchise tag) K9 was having a rough start to the season but when Kubiak changed the offensive scheme he took off and ended up being superbowl MVP. The Seahawks would have to sign him to a top 5 RB deal but long term he seems too banged up to last and John isn't the type to lock up RBs to long deals during his tenure. A franchise pays top 5 money for 1 season while Charbo heals and Holani potentially leaves.
• CB Josh Jobe: (re-sign 2 yrs $10M/yr) Jobe was key to the defensive success when other corners were hurt and struggling. He was consistent all year at being the unsung hero. He's due for a big payday. If the Seahawks can sign him to a 2-3 year deal at $9-10M per year then I'd take him over Woolen. 
• ILB Chazz Surratt: (let go) Chazz was great as a backup but honestly he didn't contribute much to the team and was mostly injured all year. 
• S Coby Bryant: (re-sign 2 yrs $10M/yr) Coby is an amazing safety. He fits Macdonald's scheme well. Unfortunately he may get higher offers elsewhere but no safety is worth the price he might go for, regardless of how good they are. 
• S Ty Okada: (re-sign 2 yrs $2M/yr) Ty is a great safety depth piece. He doesn't quite have the ball skills but he has the hitting power against the run and pass. He should be very affordable due to being a backup and under the radar across the league. He'll be needed if Coby takes more money elsewhere. 
• FB/ST Brady Russell: (re-sign 2 yrs $2M/yr) Brady is a key ST piece on this team. He plays hard and the locker room loves him. He should be available for cheap and is a great depth piece at FB. 
• WR Cody White: (let go) Cody is great. He can block, play ST, and gives you depth when players get hurt. Unfortunately he's now aging out at his position and hasn't contributed in a significant enough way to earn his role over potential draft picks or UDFA's. 
• CB Riq Woolen: (let go) I loved Tariq but Riq has been disappointing. He has great ball skills but his lack of physicality makes him a bad fit in Macdonald's scheme. He will make amazing plays followed up by complete blunders by blowing his coverage or making a dumb penalty. He will get his bag elsewhere so no love lost. I prefer to keep Jobe over him. 
• WR Dareke Young: (re-sign 2 yrs $1M/yr) Dareke is awesome as a depth WR. His play on ST and in run blocking are second to none. Injuries hurt him a couple years ago but he looks to be back in full force. He should be a cheap signing. 
• DT Brandon Pili: (re-sign 2 yrs $1M/yr) Pili is a great DT depth piece. There are several interior DTs ahead of him but he's proven he can be reliable when needed. He'll also be a very affordable signing as DT depth. Hopefully they keep him around on the active roster or as practice squad. 
• ILB Drake Thomas: (re-sign 3 yrs $3M/yr) Drake went from a nobody to a huge part of the team. He can run the defense as the green dot when EJ is out and he can be part of base defense in run/pass downs. He is fast, he is smart, and he's a hard tackler. He should be a very affordable ILB depth piece and he fits perfectly in this scheme. 
• WR Jake Bobo: (re-sign 2 yrs $2M/yr) much like Dareke, Bobo is a key WR depth piece for ST and run blockers. The fans and clubhouse love him. He should be a cheap short term signing. 
• LS Chris Stoll: (re-sign 3 yrs $2M/yr) Stoll had a very good season at long snapper and it would make sense to keep the kicking and punting game together for the next few years.
• S AJ Finley: (let go) Finley wasn't much of a factor on this superbowl run and is easily replaced via the draft or free agency as a depth piece. 
• RB George Holani: (re-sign 2 yrs $2M/yr) Holani is a great RB depth piece and with K9 potentially leaving, Charbo being injured most of next season, and KMac coming back from injury, the team will need Holani to come back. He should be an affordable short term signing. 

Non-FA's To Release or Trade: 

RG Bradford: Bradford has been awful at RG. His pass protection is horrible. He may be good in the run game but in passing situations he gets burned or commits a penalty far too often. He cannot be relied upon. Despite winning a superbowl with him, there's many plays that went wrong because of him in almost every big game during the season. Bradford can be replaced in free agency or the draft.

2026 NFL Draft: 

The unfortunate side of winning the last game of the year is the Seahawks dropping to the #32 overall pick. The Seahawks also may get some compensatory picks but those haven't been announced yet so they currently have 4 picks overall (R1 #32, R2 #64, R3 #96, R6 #tbd). 

Draft needs: The Seahawks don't have urgent needs but could use some competition and depth. They should target Oline, RB, S, CB, DE

Overall Expectations: 

For 2026 I'm expecting a tough NFC West again but the Seahawks will have the players and coaches with the ability to repeat as champions. It is very difficult to predict how things will go until players and coaches fall into place. After the draft I'll have a much clearer prediction but for now I say the Seahawks will win the NFC West and compete in the NFC Championship game again. There's no reason not to expect this after they did it previously a decade ago. 

Seattle Mariners 2025 Season was Bliss - 2026 Has High Expectations

At the end of the 2024 season I was upset at the Mariners. Not the players but the organization as a whole who yet again put out an inferior product and tried to sell the fans on a championship mindset. The fans weren't buying it after 24 years of said promise not coming to fruition. However, last season was the first the Mariners finally did what the fans asked, make big moves for big bats who could help carry the team to their goals. The Mariners finally put together a lineup to go with their pitching so they could compete and it worked just as the fans expected. The Mariners won the AL West and were a few innings away from the World Series. What a great season and expectations are high heading into 2026. Let's talk about where the Mariners are at and what they can do to repeat as AL West champions and make another deep playoff push.

Credit: Seattle Times

First let's give credit to Dan Wilson and this coaching staff. They heard the feedback after 2024, made the necessary changes to their coaching staff, and changed their approach and process to every practice and game. This paid dividends for building the championship culture they needed to compete. Also, credit to the front office, general managers, and ownership for going all in at the all-star break and getting 2 big bats from Arizona in Naylor and Suarez, while also grabbing a much needed bullpen depth piece (who unfortunately didn't work out but there was no way to know he wouldn't at the time). 

Naylor's presence was key. He was a clubhouse favorite and fan favorite. He provided clutch defense and offense that's been missing at 1B in Seattle for a very long time. Every fan is happy he was able to re-sign with the team in the off-season and hopefully he heals fully this off-season so he can take over where he left off last year.

Let's dig in to how the Mariners can shake off a bad ending to a great season and make a championship caliber team in 2026. 

1) Getting On Base and Moving Base Runners (again)

There needs to be more focused on small ball in Seattle. Yes they have the power to win every game but playing in Seattle, the best way to win is sometimes simply stringing together walks, hits, stolen bases, and sacrifices. This puts a lot of pressure on opposing pitchers and the threat of the home run is always there making it scarier for opposing teams to face. Last season the Mariners were 20th in batting average at .244 and were bottom of the league in strikeouts. They need to clean this up, strike out less, and get on base more. Overall the Mariners were #3 in home runs, #3 in stolen bases, and #10 in OBP which is a huge improvement over the previous season so they are trending in a good direction offensively. The challenge here will be filling holes of lost players at 2B and 3B where Suarez and Polanco were both offensive threats.

2) Coaching (again)

I was pleasantly surprised to see Dan and his staff mature last season after squandering the previous season. They really changed up their approach and the results spoke for themselves. However, there's still a lot of coaching decisions that I question throughout the season and playoffs. For instance, when to change pitchers and who to bring in from the pen. Dan has a tendency to let starters go too long who are not on their A-game or pull guys too soon who are dealing. He also has his go-to guys in situations which leads to overuse. This showed in the playoffs when certain arms were simply gassed. I also believe when bases are open to fill them with feared hitters. Springer should've never been able to bat when he hit his 3-run homer in game 7 of the ALCS. First base was open, put him on and pitch for a double play, or at least limit damage to 1-2 runs. Springer was the last person you wanted to face there with 1b open. Hopefully Dan learns from last year's mistakes (he's proven he can) so this season he makes better decisions. 

3) Roster Improvements (again)

Yet again, the Mariners need to replace a couple key positions and bolster their bullpen for next season. They have key decisions to make in the infield. They also have a couple RP spots to consider. 

I'm skeptical that the Mariners will make anymore big moves this off-season as they re-signed who they needed and still have to deal with arbitration. I would assume the trade deadline will yield any missing pieces of injuries or subpar play require it. 

What should the Mariners do to replace the few pieces that are leaving, as well as bolstering their lineup to be more successful and make another championship run? Here's a few areas they can look at: 

Weak or Missing Positions: 

• 2B/SS: The Mariners don't really have an all-star middle infielder. J.P. is awesome as the oldest Mariner on the active roster but his play has been so up and down that it's hard to rely on him. Additionally, Polanco has left at 2B leaving the middle infield very weak. I would not be against bringing in a 2B or moving J.P. to 2B and getting a good SS. Overall the remaining FA's are not great and using the farm system may be a potentially better option with Cole Young being close to ready for the big leagues and Leo Rivas being a great backup. 
• Some FA available at 2B: Adam Frazier, Luis Urias. Some SS available are Luis Rengifo, Ramon Urias, and Tim Anderson.

• 3B: The Mariners are also short a starting 3B with Suarez being gone. The only available FA's left also aren't that great so promoting Ben Williamson again may be the best option. 
• Some FA available at 3B: Ramon Urias and Jose Iglesias. 

• RP: The Mariners had one of the top bullpens in baseball last year but it was heavily reliant upon a handful of pitchers. The bullpen wasn't very deep and the playoffs showed it. The best RPs were gassed and the middle relievers were not up to the task. The Mariners need to bring in a lefty and righty to use in low leverage situations so the backend of the pen doesn't have to pitch multiple innings.
• Some FA available at RP: Paul Sewald, Andrew Chafin, Joey Lucchesi, Shelby Miller, Jose Leclerc, Rafael Montero, Jalen Beeks

• DH: The M's revolving door of below average hitters at DH needs to stop. They need to find a big bat in free agency who can hit in cleanup. No more experiments like Mitch Garver. I hope they can go grab a bat at some point or find a way to platoon guys to give people a day off from playing defense.

In a nutshell, the M's need a to figure out their infield and bullpen. If they do this then they have a high likelihood of repeating as AL West champions.