Last Epoch’s Season 2 patch, Tombs of the Erased, went live on April 17, 2025, after a delay that Eleventh Hour Games openly attributed to a desire for a more substantial update. The patch notes run over 100 pages internally and represent what Game Director Judd Cobler has called the studio’s largest update to date. (Last Epoch Forums, Gamerant, Sportskeeda)
What changed at the system level
The Woven Factionfaction. An in-game group or nation players can align with or fight against, with its own goals and reputation system., anchored by the Titan called the Weaver, now runs through the Monolith of Fate. Tombs of the Erased are procedurally generated side zones that can spawn in any non-Quest, non-Arena Echo; Cemeteries of the Erased are a new Echo type that culminates in the Woven Firstborn boss. Completing a Cemetery unlocks the Haven of Silk, the Woven’s hub, and the Altar of the Weaver where Woven Echoes are placed into the timeline. There are 36 Woven Echoes at launch. (Last Epoch Forums)
The Weaver Tree is a 50-point passive-style board (roughly 70 nodes) that modifies the Monolith itself — imprints items for extra Echo rewards, converts Arena Echoes into Super Arena Echoes, lets the Shade of Orobyss ambush you for extra drops, increases Memory Amber yield, and similar. Thirteen points come from Woven faction ranks and 37 from first-clear Woven Echoes. (Last Epoch Forums)
The Woven Enchanter at the end of Tombs and Cemeteries adds Enchanted Affixes to class-specific Idols (Adorned, Grand, Huge, Large, Ornate) along with Weaver’s Touch, which upgrades the affix as you slay enemies. The Woven Enchanter has one use in a Tomb, two in a Cemetery, and more uses in higher-tier Woven Echoes.
Endgame itemization got rebuilt
The patch introduced a new crafting bench for Set items: the Forge of Shattering in the Great Bridge Woven Echo converts a Set piece into 1–4 Set Shards, which can then be crafted onto any base of the same item type. Each Set Shardshard. A separate copy of a game world running on its own server; players on one shard don't share the world with another. is unique to its source Set and grants the corresponding two-stat bonus when applied — this is how you build a “Reforged” Set item to fill out a Set bonus. (Last Epoch Forums)
Other major crafting additions: the Transmuting Gem in Farsight Turtle (reroll Legendary Potential on a Unique), the Sacrificial Altar in Gauntlet of Strife (reroll mod values by sacrificing a matching-tier item), the Relic of the Observer in Oerden’s Watch (swap Strength/Dexterity/Attunement/Intelligence on a non-sealed affix, with tier and roll range preserved), the Thaumaturgy Device in Rune Prison Complex (targeted Experimental affixes on Boots/Gloves/Belt — replaces the old Glyph of Insight and Rune of Research path), and three new Runes: Havoc (shuffles affix tiers on an Exalted item), Redemption (rerolls T6/T7 affixes), and Weaving (consumes Weaver’s Will/Touch for affix tiers). The Eternity Cache in Temporal Sanctum Tier 2 and above now lets you lock in one guaranteed affix on the resulting Legendary. (Last Epoch Forums)
Champions are a new enemy class: 20 named Champions are larger, orange-highlighted Rare-tier enemies with three random mods plus a Champion mod. They drop an item with a sealed Champion-specific affix (a Volcano Champion always drops a belt with the Volcano Champion affix) and have a small chance to drop a pile of Uniques. (Last Epoch Forums)
What happened to Monolith builds
The Shade of Orobyss now scales with area level. The compensation math: 42% less base health, 20% less base damage, which still works out to about 50% more health and 5% more damage at level 100 than before. Spire objectives now require a Spire Guardian mini-boss to be cleared before the Spire itself can be damaged. (Last Epoch Forums)
Arena Echoes have fewer waves and a random Champion spawns at the end of the final wave. Non-Empowered Timeline unlocks are now shared across characters on the same stash, which means alts no longer re-walk every Timeline just to reach Empowered Monoliths. (Last Epoch Forums)
The Corruption catchup system that arrived in patch 1.1.3 is now part of the broader Woven Echo reward set — completing certain Woven Echoes can boost a fresh Timeline to near the highest existing Corruption on the account.
Sentinel changes and what survived at the top
The patch explicitly targets Sentinel as the class with the largest overhaul. Forgeguard gets Forgemaster’s Might, a new node allowing a shield alongside a 2h weapon at the cost of 20% less damage and 10% less attack/cast speed, and Haste granting +10% Block Chance instead. Void Knight’s Temporal Corruption no longer converts Smite to void — that effect moved into Smite’s tree. The Volatile Reversal skill has been fully reworked into a combo traversal ability (first cast jumps forward, second cast within 3 seconds jumps back). Devouring Orb now deals void damage over time in an aura, and its skill tree has been replaced with new options including “All Consuming” (consume existing orbs for 100% more damage, 50% more area per orb) and an auto-cast trigger that fires the orb while you are moving. (Last Epoch Forums)
The new Marksman skill Heartseeker is a single-target arrow that can recurve back through the same enemy, scaling with recurve chance (base 100%, multiplied by 0.8 per recurve). It requires 30 points in Marksman, and Hail of Arrows has been moved to the 35-point slot. Heartseeker supports bleed, poison, cold (with frostbite conversion), and fire (with ignite conversion) builds, plus utility options for generating Mana, Crimson Shroud, and global added throwing/spell damage. (Last Epoch Forums, Sportskeeda)
Damage-effectiveness buffs landed on Black Hole (300% to 600% per second), Elemental Nova (100% to 120%), Ice Barrage (100% to 120%), Meteor (900% to 950%), Tornado (75% to 125% per second), Flurry (60% to 80%), Maelstrom (60% to 80% per second), Surge’s Tidal Wave node (90% to 400%), and Shurikens (100% to 125%), among others. The general direction is more viable builds at endgame — multiple previously mid-tier skills were buffed in flat damage numbers. (Last Epoch Forums)
The health-vs-ward balance was shifted: health gained per level is now 10 (from 8), Ward Retention from Intelligence is now 2% per point (from 4%), and a new Ward Per Second + Ward Decay Threshold suffix was added. The intended effect, per the patch notes, is to keep ward builds strong but rein in the outliers that were generating massive ward from rapid hits.
What it means for endgame players
The 36 Woven Echoes, the Woven Enchanter, and the full crafting bench spread mean a single character can now meaningfully interact with every endgame system without external trading — a sharp change from Cycle 1, where the highest-tier crafting required Sealed Affixes gated by Nemesis chains. The set bonus reforging system in particular lets players fill in missing Set slots on a budget that was not previously possible.
For build viability, the safe early-Cycle 2 calls based on the patch notes are: Tornado (huge damage buff), Heartseeker Marksman (new skill, deeply supported), Paladin with the Covenant of Light / Covenant of Dominion apex path (new aura scaling), and Void Knight Smite (Fissure conversion path no longer competes with Void Knight passives for Smite-void). Smiting Paladin remains the most likely “default” build for new players in Cycle 2.
What remains unconfirmed
Specific leaderboard numbers, the public ranking of cycle-launch power builds, and the post-launch balance patches that Eleventh Hour Games has applied to Cycle 2 in the months since April 2025 are not covered in the launch patch notes. The article is based solely on the Tombs of the Erased launch patch as published on the Last Epoch forums and confirmed by Sportskeeda’s and Gamerant’s reporting.