Last Epoch 1.0 arrives today, marking a substantial moment for the ARPG that’s been positioning itself as the perfect midpoint between Blizzard’s Diablo 4 and Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile. To celebrate the launch, developer Eleventh Hour Games has hosted a Reddit AMA to answer questions about server stability, potential new content, more of its excellent endgame dungeons, the seasonal cycles, and much more.
Our Last Epoch review (written by yours truly) calls it one of the most welcoming RPG games around, and a “worthy challenger to the ARPG throne” arriving at a perfect spot during a period of relative Diablo 4 Season 3 downtime, and several months ahead of the first beta for Path of Exile 2. A large group of developers from Eleventh Hour joined in on this new Last Epoch Reddit AMA, answering all manner of questions from community members and potential players.
First on the table is, of course, servers. Following the launch of Helldivers 2, which has seen many unable to play as instability of the Helldivers 2 server status caused developer Arrowhead to cap its server limits. EHG CEO Judd Cobler says the team is “excited, nervous, optimistic” but notes, “we’ve scale tested our services immensely.”
He adds, “If we do have issues I promise that we’ll stay very communicative and you can be 100% certain we’ll be all hands on deck working to resolve anything that comes up. We understand what’s on the line.” The good news if you’re planning to play is that Last Epoch does offer a completely offline mode, so in the worst case you can use that – it does keep a separate character list from online play, but you’ll be able to experience the campaign and find out what the best Last Epoch classes have to offer.
As for potential future content, Cobbler says, “Post launch we’ll be adding substantial new content for free in regular intervals” with its ‘cycles’ – Last Epoch’s name for its seasonal rotation. “Cycles will include things like endgame system expansions, new bosses and enemies, new chapter content, skill and class updates, quality of life features, and anything we and the community believe will improve the game.”
The length of those cycles isn’t currently set in stone yet; art producer Derek Martinho explains, “I can’t give you an exact cadence of cycles but we can guess it is three to four months.” He also adds, “We can’t spoil too much, but I can say that we already have multiple patches planned out and a bucket of ideas. You can 100% expect Last Epoch to return with new and interesting things every cycle.
New masteries and skills are already planned to be among the additions in the future. “That’s one of the things I think I’m most excited for,” lead combat designer Sam Corbridge says. “We consider themes that may be missing from the game and consider what class could be the most fitting.” Asked whether we’ll see a samurai, he responds, “I don’t think a samurai would make its own subclass, since the theming is a little more visual and you can get that idea across with different armor sets and weapons. But that could change if there’s good enough ideas and desire for it.”
Another addition I’m personally very eager to hear about is additional dungeons; just one of several components of the endgame, Last Epoch dungeons are a set of three unique challenge levels that each boast a special reward that’ll keep you coming back to get some of the best items and gear in the game. Principal designer ‘Trasochi’ says more are being considered, but that “they take a lot of work to produce, so we need to have a very solid candidate before we commit to making one, including the reward mechanic, dungeon ability, and setting.”
Having played Last Epoch extensively in the run-up to its full launch and the release of the Last Epoch 1.0 patch notes, I can say it’s only made me excited to try out even more classes and masteries. You can read more about what’s to come and the team’s excitement for the launch response in the full AMA.
In the meantime, if you’re playing be sure to set up the best Last Epoch settings for max FPS, and learn how to use Last Epoch loot filters to find the best items with ease. We’ve even rounded up the best games like Diablo to keep you plenty busy.
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