Last Epoch: How Does The Rune Of Shaping Work?

There's nothing worse than finally finding that chase unique you've been searching for in Last Epoch, only to discover that it's got bad intrinsic stats. For some items, bad implicit stats aren't the end of the world, but for others, it can be the difference between feeling like you're wielding a weapon of the gods or feeling like you're attacking demons with a dead fish.

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Luckily, Last Epoch gives you the tools to avoid the cruelty of RNG. The Rune of Shaping can help turn your wilted Exalted weapons into vigorous tools capable of rending time itself.

What Are Implicit Stats?

Before we can explain how the Rune of Shaping works, first we’ll need to give you a crash course on implicit stats.

All weapons, armor, and accessories (like rings, amulets, and relics) have implicit stats—that is, stats that each of those specific weapons, armor, and accessories will always have. For example, a Gladius will always provide you with +10 melee damage, while a Hide Gloves will always provide +8 armor.

Some implicit stats are set values that never change, but some implicit stats can vary. For example, Leather Gloves always provide +10 armor but can provide anywhere from +5 to +10 mana. Likewise, a Glaive will always provide +49 melee damage but can provide anywhere from +3 percent to +6 percent melee critical strike chance.

For the Glaive example, that's a large range. The maximum value is literally double that of the minimum value and can make a huge difference in your overall damage output.

As you get higher-level items, the differences in implicit stats can range even wider. An Obsidian Bow, for example, can provide a 40 percent increase in physical damage, or it can provide a 100 percent increase in physical damage, depending on the implicit stat it rolls with.

Getting the right affixes is certainly important, but as you can see, the right implicit stats can be just as important in getting a truly powerful item.

How Does The Rune Of Shaping Work?

The Rune of Shaping takes an item’s implicit stats and re-rolls them. Any fixed implicit stats will remain the same, but implicit stats with a range will return with an entirely new value.

Unique, set, and other named items can also have implicit stats that can be re-rolled at the forge by using a Rune of Shaping.

Runes of Shaping are used the same way you would any other Rune. Bring up the Forge menu, slot the Rune of Shaping in where you’d normally put an affix shard, and then press the ‘Shape’ button. Your item will then return with entirely new implicit stats but will retain the same affixes it started with.

The implicit stats your item returns with after using a Rune of Shaping arestill random, so don't use one unless your item has low implicit stats.

It’s generally not worth using a Rune of Shaping on low-level items, since you’re likely to toss them away once you find something better. Keep your Runes of Shaping to use on high-level gear you can build end-game strategies around.

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How Do You Get Runes Of Shaping?

Runes of Shaping are very rare. You’re not likely to find more than one or two Runes of Shaping while playing through the campaign via regular item drops. Runes of Shaping become slightly more common as you reach higher levels and as you improve your drop chances through the Circle of Fortune faction.

Perhaps the best way of finding Runes of Shaping is through the Monolith of Fate. Certain Monolith nodes will reward Runes upon completion, and a few of these Runes could be Runes of Shaping.

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