I enjoy playing the Diablo 4 Necromancer, but its minion builds have always left a little to be desired. The reveal of the Last Epoch Falconer, then, feels like a breath of fresh air. The final class mastery to be shown ahead of the imminent release date for the latest ARPG challenger to D4 and Path of Exile, the Falconer is a nimble fighter that brings swords, bows, and traps to the battlefield alongside her faithful, fearsome airborne companion.
With the Last Epoch release date now just a couple of weeks away, it’s an exciting time to be a fan of games like Diablo. While I’ve followed its early access run closely, I’ve been holding off on fully diving into Last Epoch until launch to take advantage of its complete complement of classes. I thought perhaps I already had a first character picked out, but I might have just been swayed by the Falconer.
Revealed by Maxroll, the Last Epoch Falconer is the third and final mastery (think subclass) for the Rogue, and as you might expect it centers around its falcon companion, which can’t be killed, attacks nearby enemies, and has an active skill available on cooldown to deal additional burst damage. Depending on how you like to play, you can build the falcon to take advantage of your critical strike bonuses, or even have it toss out acid flasks at enemies as it attacks.
Using Aerial Assault, the falcon will literally pick your character up and zoom them across short distances, unleashing a feather burst as it drops you that can be enhanced with the likes of Umbral Blades to inflict the deadly Shadow Daggers effect on nearby enemies. Finally, Dive Bomb causes the falcon to deliver a powerful strike in a large area, and has options to reduce your other cooldowns or to target your deployed decoy to detonate it for delicious damage.
The Falconer has a few tricks up their own sleeves too. The Explosive Trap skill lets you toss out multiple ground traps that will explode when enemies walk over them. There are options to convert these to specific elemental damage types, set them to fire out replacement traps when they explode, or even apply buffs to your falcon when they detonate.
The final tool in the Falconer’s arsenal is Net, which immobilizes regular enemies and slows rares and bosses. Among the various customization options at your disposal are the ability to make nets cause bleed, have them drop caltrops on the ground when fired, place the nets down as traps rather than firing them as a projectile, or even gain the powerful Huntress Advantage buff that can be further amplified with additional passive nodes.
Last Epoch Falconer skills
Here are all the unique Last Epoch Falconer skills, courtesy of Maxroll:
- Passive: Falconry – You summon a fierce and invulnerable falcon, which fights at your side and heeds your commands.
- Falcon Strikes – On your orders, your falcon darts around the battlefield, attacking neraby enemies in a blur of savage strikes.
- Explosive Trap – Place a trap on the ground that, when triggered, devastates the area with explosive fire. The longer your trap is deployed, the more powerful the explosive.
- Net – You flip backwards, throwing a net to slow or immobilize your foes. Once netted, enemies are easy prey for your avian ally.
- Aerial Assault – As you leap forward, your falcon dives to catch you, carrying you further. After dropping you off, your falcon unleashes a storm of feathers, slicing and dicing enemies around you.
- Dive Bomb – Your falcon shoots high into the air then comes plummeting back down, smashing enemies in a large area.
It’s safe to say that the Falconer is one of the most unique and interesting takes on a minion build I’ve encountered in a while. It actually perhaps reminds me more of Mordecai, the Borderlands sniper who fights alongside his trusted companion Bloodwing, than anything I’ve seen in an ARPG. I’m very excited to try it out for myself when Last Epoch 1.0 arrives on Wednesday February 21.
Until then, take a look through more of the best RPG games for plenty of stat-crunching satisfaction, or try out some of the best free Steam games to keep yourself busy until Last Epoch’s launch.
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