Leap into Last Epoch gold a pack of enemies – your wolves follow and land alongside you.

Drop Warcry and Frenzy Totem to buff your companions and debuff foes.

Use the Howl command for additional boosts.

Attack once every few seconds with Gathering Storm to keep the synergy rolling.

Watch as your wolves disintegrate everything on screen.

Despite not being a zoomy mapper (due to missing ideal boots or movement speed), it absolutely dominates in terms of damage and corruption pushing.

Skill Setup

Gathering Storm

This is the central melee attack you use to "transfer" storm power to your wolves.

Nodes like Jolting Strikes and Tempest Weapon empower both you and your companions, scaling lightning damage effectively.

Provides attack speed, mana efficiency, lightning penetration, and storm stack generation.

Because wolves attack so rapidly, they keep proccing storm effects, turning the battlefield into a lightning storm.

Frenzy Totem

Essential for companion synergy.

Grants +45 base damage to companions, refreshes the Howl ability, and provides 250% crit chance.

Adds Haste and Frenzy, making your wolves attack and move at blistering speed.

Some players swap it for Maelstrom, but Frenzy Totem offers superior consistency for this build.

Summon Wolf (Lightning Retaliation Wolves)

The heart of the build.

Critical nodes:

Safety in Numbers – unlocks wolf pack playstyle.

Tundra Stalkers – adds the cold tag, which synergizes with Warcry buffs.

Storm Callers – converts them into lightning retaliation wolves.

Wolves scale with attunement, giving them massive health and spell damage as your attributes rise.

Warcry

Converted into a totem, benefiting from companion-focused passives.

Key node: Bringer of Winter, which grants wolves 100% chill and 100% crit chance.

Combined with Frenzy Totem, this means your wolves sit at 450% extra crit chance, pushing their DPS through the roof.

Also offers cleanse, haste, frenzy, and crowd control by pulling enemies inward.

Leap

Not mandatory, but a huge quality-of-life skill.

Wolves leap with you, ensuring they're always in position.

Grants invulnerability frames, Frenzy, and extra spell/melee base damage.

Gear Choices

Required Unique

Howl of the West Wind (helmet) – core of the build, converting wolves into lightning retaliation companions. Without this, the build doesn't function.

Other Recommended Items

Evolution's End (weapon)

Tempest Maw (dual wield) – boosts storm damage.

Mantle of the Pale Aegis (chest)

Phantom Grips (gloves)

Brewmaster's Buckle (belt)

Foot of the Mountain (boots)

Jeweler's Obsession (amulet)

Tyrant Skull (relic)

Stat Priorities

Attunement (damage + survivability for wolves).

Strength/Dexterity – hitting 100 in each grants you an additional wolf through passives.

Resistances & Crit Avoidance to stay alive at high corruption.

Blessings & Idols

Blessings should patch defensive gaps first (max resists, crit avoidance, health regen).

If resistances are covered via gear, swap for armor % and base armor to increase mitigation.

Idols: prioritize health% % + Aspect of the Shark idols. Fill the rest with buy Last Epoch gold resistances or Frailty on hit.