Last night, having gotten right into my new Warlock's playstyle, I reached the Monoliths!
The Monoliths are part of Last Epoch's endgame. There are three dungeons, an arena, and the monoliths. Last cycle I didn't really get far enough into the monoliths to find out what they're all about and how to corrupt them and make them stronger and whatnot, so this time around it should be an interesting endeavour.
First of all, though. I'd like to talk about two things I struggled with last cycle. A giant sea monster/god boss called Lagon and a giant snake monster/goddess called Majasa.
This time around with my new little Warlock lady, I absolutely smashed these bosses. Lagon had me worried right at the end of his fight when I accidentally walked in the same direction as his eye-laser-beam mechanic, but thankfully I got out of it in just the nick of time, dodge-rolled onto a health potion, and used it before death could take me.
With Majasa... absolutely annihilated her, with potions to spare!
A few months ago, when this game first launched and my partner and I played in the first cycle, Lagon killed me about 20 times before I found victory, and Majasa!!!! I actually needed my partner's help to take her down because I just could not do it alone.
This time around?
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
I don't know if the developers nerfed these fights, or if my warlock is just that much better than my necromancer? Either way! Smashed 'em!
I should also note that once again I've joined the Circle of Fortune faction. There are two factions: Circle of Fortune and the Merchant's Guild.
The Merchant's Guild opens up the trading system, auction house, etc, whereas the Circle of Fortune enhances your own personal luck and drops. I like the idea of choosing my own personal luck, and truth be told, if Path of Exile had a thing like this I'd probably choose to try my luck in that too instead of trading.
I haven't unlocked the new faction yet — the one related to this new Harbingers mechanic — but after investigation, I need to defeat the level 90 Monolith first, where the first "real" harbinger will spawn. So I have a ways to go!
So, I started going through the first monolith's time-line.
I really like the monolith system in this game. You choose which way you want to go, you can see what the main reward will be for finishing the moment in time, and each one has different objectives.
You could be hunting down two imperial watchers, or you could survive 12 waves of an arena-style area, or you could find and destroy a gateway unleashing monsters upon the area.
Just a bit of variation in the maps; it's nice.
I quickly discovered/realised that I really needed to set up a loot filter though.
The loot filter in Last Epoch is fantastic. You can make rules to hide or show certain things: maybe you only want to see specific armour pieces with these four exact traits on them. Your maps will become empty of loot until at last, one enemy has the decency to drop exactly what you're after.
I still need to fiddle around with it a bit more. I like setting a rule for each individual piece, and also rules for things for deconstructing so I can better craft.
Last cycle I had about 50 rules set up out of the 75 you can do... it's just time consuming sorting it out. So that's a job for today! xD
Finishing up - here's my little warlock lady.
Currently level 61, with what I think is a decent amount of health and shield for my level. During combat, that shield number can reach around 2000 which is very nice.
I'm not really focused on gearing or anything just yet. Once I hit about level 70-75ish I'll start looking for specific pieces. More importantly, I feel anyway, at the moment it's more important to get crafting resources for when I do start looking for specific items.
Anyway. Time to get crackin' on some more Monolithing! 😁 I'll let you know how I go as I progress a bit further!
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 
