Last Epoch’s latest 1.0.2 patch addressed two game-breaking issues, alongside a slew of other bugfixes and small balance changes. However, developer Eleventh Hour Games shared their stance on another extremely overperforming build—the Profane Veil Bleed Warlock, as it’s called—that has caused a stir in the Last Epoch community.
“Our current stance is that we won’t issue mid-cycle changes for balance, such as with Profane Veil’s Vampiric Blood node,” EHG writes as part of a small Q&A at the end of the patch notes. “While the node is much stronger than intended, it’s not causing performance issues and so it will instead be changed with the next cycle patch.”
While the node in question is actually called ‘Vampiric Pool’ in-game rather than ‘Vampiric Blood’, the fact of the matter is that players are receiving 10x the benefits compared to what the skill node tooltip states. Rather than 4% of Minion Health being converted to Ward Health, the value is currently at 40%—which seems like an unintended oversight on the part of the devs. This has resulted in the Bleed Warlock trivializing higher Corruption Monoliths and Arena, performing way above any other average or even meta builds.
EHG’s stance on keeping balance issues aside until the end of a cycle, while reasonable in any other instance, comes with several caveats in this case. It includes the Last Epoch leaderboards being utterly dominated by players utilizing the broken skill node, which is not a good look for the recently launched ARPG. There is also the matter of the player-driven market—the Merchant’s Guild— flooded by users of the said build since they can farm swathes of loot without breaking a sweat.
However, EHG has not completely closed the door on a potential reconsideration. They are open to adjusting if “there’s high demand to fix bugs or make changes that affect balance mid-cycle.” Rest assured, we will be keeping an eye out for the future Last Epoch patches in the coming days.
