Today, I'm diving into the third iteration of my Hail Hydra Rune Master for Last Epoch, and trust me, it's stronger than ever. If you've been following along with my earlier builds, you'll know that the goal is always to improve and refine. This guide will break down everything about this new version, from the skills and passives to gear and idols. Everything is time-stamped below for easy navigation, so feel free to jump to any section you need.
Let's not waste any time and jump right into the gameplay and build breakdown.
Gameplay Breakdown
The current build is running with close to 500 corruption, and it's performing beautifully. The primary skills I'm using for this iteration are:
• Flame Rush
• Frost Wall (spec'd into Fire Wall)
• Flame Ward
• Runic Invocation
• Rune Bolt (replacing Fireball)
Rune Bolt is a recent addition, and I have to say, it's been a game-changer. Fireball was the go-to skill in the past two iterations, but Rune Bolt is just more reliable for this build. The big advantage of Rune Bolt is its ability to pierce through enemies and its synergy with the build's mana system. It also means I don't have to worry about mana as much, which is a huge relief. I'll get into the skill setup later, but just know that this makes the build a lot more efficient.
How It Works:
• Flame Ward creates a defensive shield, triggering automatically when you're stunned, offering both offense and defense.
• You place Frost Wall to set up a fire-boosted rune environment for your Rune Bolt and Flame Rush.
• Flame Rush lets you zip through your enemies, casting your Rune Invocation and setting up your Hydra Boxes.
As you move through the enemies, you're constantly triggering your Hydra Boxes with each Flame Rush, filling the screen with deadly Hydras that melt through mobs. This is especially effective for both single-target and area damage.
Single Target and Boss Fights:
Take a look at the “Shade of Orabis” fight or any empowered Nemesis poison fight, and you'll see the power of these Hydras. You're able to stay mobile, dodge attacks, and let the Hydras do the heavy lifting while you manually cast your Rune Bolts for extra damage.
Skill Breakdown
Flame Ward
The defensive skill is crucial for survivability and damage mitigation. The first key nodes to grab are:
• Astonish: Flame Ward triggers when you're stunned. It's a must-have for this build.
• Additional Charge: Allows Flame Ward to trigger twice if you're stunned twice.
• 40% Less Hit Damage: When Flame Ward is active, you take significantly less damage.
• Dilation: Adds more duration to your Flame Ward.
• Infusion: A nice 250% bonus to fire damage while Flame Ward is up.
With these nodes, Flame Ward becomes not only a safety net but a crucial part of your offensive setup too.
Rune Bolt
This skill replaces Fireball from previous iterations. Here's why Rune Bolt is better for this build:
• Cast Speed: First, you'll want to grab nodes for faster cast speed and haste duration.
• Mana Generation: The key node here is 100% Mana on Hit—you'll generate mana each time you hit an enemy, which keeps your resources flowing.
• Rune Weaver: This node restores mana and gives your Rune Invocations some nice crit bonuses. If you don't have armor shred on your gear, you can focus these points here for extra damage.
• Extra Projectiles: More projectiles mean more chances to trigger Rune Invocations.
Rune Bolt, with its piercing projectiles and mana generation, ensures that you never have to worry about running out of resources, even in longer fights.
Frost Wall
This skill turns into a Fire Wall, which synergizes with your Rune Bolt and Flame Rush. Important nodes include:
• Multiplicative Damage to Chilled Enemies: Your enemies will frequently be chilled, which boosts your fire damage.
• Ward Haste and Cleanse: These nodes help you maintain your defense while casting.
• Fire Rune Conversion: This turns Frost Wall into a fire-based skill, making it synergize even better with your build.
Frost Wall helps create a zone that both boosts your fire damage and gives you an extra ward while enemies pass through.
Flame Rush
The movement skill for this build is key to setting up your Hydra Boxes. Here's what you need to do:
• Frenzy: Get Ward with every use of Flame Rush.
• Lightning Fire Fire: This is an important part of Flame Rush. It allows you to build Hydra Boxes by using this combo. You'll be able to manually trigger Rune Invocations as soon as you exit Flame Rush.
• Cooldown Reduction and Efficiency: Flame Rush has a cooldown of 2.9 seconds, but you'll want to reduce that as much as possible with these nodes.
With this movement skill, you're able to get in and out of fights quickly, stacking Hydras wherever you go.
Runic Invocation
Runic Invocation is the bread and butter of this build. Here's how to spec it:
• Mana Refund: Each time you cast, you'll get a chunk of your mana back.
• Rune Weaver: Increases base crit chance and adds more damage to Rune Invocations.
• Hydra Box Multiplicative Damage: This boosts your Hydra Box damage significantly, which is the cornerstone of your damage output.
• Cooldown Recovery: I've invested five points here, which reduces the cooldown of your Hydras, allowing you to trigger one every 8 seconds.
This setup creates powerful Hydras that are cast quickly and deal tons of damage.
Passive Skill Tree
This build requires a combination of survival, mana sustain, and high damage output. Here's how I've spec'd the Rune Master tree:
Mage Tree
• Scholar & Elementalist: Core for boosting elemental damage.
• Arcane Flames: Adds damage to ignited enemies, a key synergy with fire damage.
• Knowledge of Destruction: This gives some crit and crit multiplier bonuses to round out the Mage side.
Rune Master Tree
• Sphere of Protection: Reduces damage taken from ignited, shocked, and chilled enemies, which are nearly all enemies you encounter.
• Arcane Focus & Transcendence: Mana sustain and ward generation are essential for this build.
• Critical Strike on Next Spell: This node is crucial for maximizing damage on your next skill, particularly when triggering your Hydra Boxes.
• Rune of Dilation: A fantastic node for cooldown recovery, allowing faster Hydra casting.
Source Tree
• Arcane Momentum: Increases spell damage and movement speed, essential for keeping up the pace.
• Pyromancer & Lava Mancer: These nodes increase fire penetration and leech for better sustainability and damage.
Gear and Idols
Required Item
• Box of Hydra: This is the must-have item for this build. It's required for generating Hydras and is very easy to obtain.
Core Gear
• Foundation Body Armor: Grants up to 36% multiplicative damage when using a staff.
• Dragon Staff: For +1 skill level and increased spell damage.
• Intelligence and Attunement-based Gear: This boosts your mana and ward generation, which are critical for sustainability.
Blessings and Idols
• Mana: You'll want over 300 mana to make the most of your idols.
• Fire and Ward Retention: These idols increase your damage and survivability.
• Throne of Ambition: Increases your fire damage and armor when fighting bosses or rares.
Leveling Tips
Leveling this build is straightforward. I recommend starting with Fireball, Elemental Nova, and Teleport. These are all solid early-game skills, and Teleport is especially useful for its synergy with Elemental Nova.
Conclusion
That's a wrap on the Hail Hydra Rune Master build! This third iteration is faster, stronger, and more mana-efficient than ever before. Buying Last Epoch Gold from MMOexp.com, then build it quickly. If you're looking for a build that combines strong defense, powerful Hydras, and nearly effortless mana generation, this is the one for you.
MMOexp Last Epoch Team