104 articlesLast Epoch might not be as much of a DPS race as some other ARPGs, but it will always be important to know how to do more damage.
You should learn how the damage-increasing effects affect your hit Damage Scaling, how Critical Strikes work, and what effects are key for extra damage.
In this guide, we’ll tell you everything you need to know to boost your damage in Last Epoch.
How to Do More Damage | Scaling, Critical Hit, and More
Understanding Damage Increase Types
When you’re looking at your skills and gear, it’s important to pay attention to the wording to understand the three distinct types of effects that increase your damage. They don’t all work the same!
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- Additional Damage – Always a flat addition to your base damage. Very simple, but also extremely desirable. Make sure to have a lot of Additional Damage, as it will be multiplied by the two next effects.
- Increased Damage – Usually found with text like “increases your damage”, it’s a percentage-based increase. The least desirable of the three types, but it’s solid if it doesn’t interfere with other aspects of your build.
- More Damage – A multiplicative damage increase, making it the best of the effects. Multiplies damage from the other two types of effects. Multiple “More Damage” effects will multiply each other, too.
To truly maximize your damage, you will want to boost your Base Damage as much as possible via Additional Damage effects. Then, get as many More Damage effects as possible to boost it heavily!
If you can fit Increased Damage into your build too, it’s a good idea to have it. That said, More Damage, Attack Speed, and Critical Strike modifiers are more desirable overall.
Other Important Factors – Critical Strike and Attack Speed
Dealing with high damage in the Last Epoch isn’t just about having high raw Damage numbers. Critical Strike and Attack Speed are two valuable modifiers you should also keep an eye out for.
Critical Strikes, by default, have a 5% chance to happen for any skill and will deal double damage. You can increase your Critical Strike Chance as well as Critical Strike Damage via certain item modifiers.
You can potentially increase your Critical Strike Chance to 100%, guaranteeing that you get a Critical Strike with every single hit you land. It might require a lot of intensive crafting and whatnot, though!
It’s a good idea to make sure you boost your Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage as much as possible. In tandem, these two effects might be your best source of damage increases possible.
Besides that, though, it’s also a good idea to look for Attack Speed and Cast Speed. Not all of the skills can scale off of these stats, but they are still important for the vast majority of builds.
The logic for them is as simple as can be: faster attacks and spells mean higher damage per second!
Know Boss Damage Reduction Mechanics
Lastly, one of the most important things to know about Last Epoch is that its bosses have a pretty unique Adaptive Damage Reduction mechanic.
The mechanic isn’t fully explained to players and is somewhat obfuscated by design. After all, the developers don’t want us to abuse it to kill bosses instantly!
Nonetheless, the basis of the boss’ Adaptive Damage Reduction mechanic is that they will start to mitigate damage received based on your DPS.
In essence, this means that the higher your damage, the higher their defenses will be.
This is why fights against bosses can end up feeling like they always take the same amount of time, even when you buff your damage.
Sadly, the only way to work around this mechanic is to simply stop attacking for a moment. The Adaptive Damage Reduction decays over time.
In short, give bosses a little breather so that their defenses lower again, then go back on the offensive to maximize your damage!
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