How Player Builds Play A Huge Role In Last Epoch’s Future

Last Epoch has been performing relatively well in the realm of ARPGs. However, there have been reports of specific broken builds running amok and turning players into Gods of the realms. This is kind of a warning siren for some of the beta players who are well aware of what comes next.

Eleventh Hour Games has always been highly in touch with its community members, which has played a massive role in their success. Although not always the politest of discussions, their comment boards, and Reddit threads are paramount to how their game progresses.

What Are Player Builds?

The player builds are character guides that players of any game cook up after several weeks and sometimes months of testing, building, and perfecting. It is a helping tool for those new to the game and provides a guide on how to capitalize on the strengths of game mechanics in titles like Last Epoch.

Last Epoch has several platforms where players publish their build journals or complete guides, some of the more notable ones being the official Last Epoch Tools site or r/LastEpoch on Reddit. The player builds are a feature that the game developers do not develop but instead by the players. It brings a very strong sense of community into an otherwise single-player game.

Player Builds’ Impact On Last Epoch

As I mentioned, the trend of OP builds being on the rise may trigger bad memories for some beta players. During the beta, Eleventh Hour Games regularly pushed patches that sometimes gutted a specific mastery of a class so much that enthusiasts of the build ultimately left the game. One example is a user named BigMagicBanana from the Last Epoch Forum in March 2023.

This wave of nerfs is practically a definite now, as Last Epoch’s Team recently surveyed some players on their opinions on the current OP builds in version 1.0 of Last Epoch. Looking at the past, we can assume that some major nerfs and reworks may be on the horizon, especially for the Acolyte and Warlock.

A particularly important section from that announcement is,

To be clear, this small survey only focuses on bug fixes or balance changes that apply to overperforming skills or items. We will continue to fix bugs that result in skills and items receiving a buff. Things like server stability, Item Factions, or similar issues are not a part of this survey.” 

This cemented that the next few major updates will be focused on balancing the game and possibly nerfing many popular items and skills for the next Last Epoch Cycle.

What Did The Players Think?

This survey immediately caught traction when an EHG team member, u/EHG_Kain, posted it on Reddit on r/LastEpoch. It is characteristic of Eleventh Hour Games to stay in touch with their community and be transparent about their games’ future.

As for the reaction itself, an overwhelming amount of players let out a sigh of relief after seeing the studio acknowledge some of the more annoying bugs in Last Epoch. A particular comment by u/Succre1987 caught my eye, which sparked a critical discussion between community members.

The user brings up some great points that, if executed poorly, can potentially destroy Last Epoch. The most important point in the entire thread is the concept of version-based ladders/leaderboards that are either reset with each cycle or have the build game versions so players can keep up with good builds.

Similarly, more competitive players in the community believe that pure skill should be accounted for in each cycle to prevent the leaderboards from being dominated by players abusing the highly overpowered items/skills in their respective versions.

My Take On Ladder Resets

As far as my opinion goes on the future state of the game around the player build nerfs and Ladders, I believe the team behind Last Epoch will not disappoint. Eleventh Hour Games has built a reputation from the beta of Last Epoch for doing what most players love. Though granted, you can’t please everyone, primarily when it covers an audience as diverse as this.

Ultimately, it’s not out of the norm for ARPGs to comprise broken builds, so that’s completely fine. I’m also guilty of abusing the Necromancer builds because they can sometimes be fun. However, I’m also of the opinion that players who put in the hours and are genuinely skilled should receive credit accordingly.