Notable Passives:

The start of this Tree is very defense-oriented. The Steady Hand grants you a decent amount of Health and Dexterity, which is your main Attribute. The Evasion is a very powerful Passive Skill that greatly reduces the Damage you take while moving. The Dodge and Parry give you plenty of Glancing Blows Chance, which significantly reduces the Damage you take from Hits. The Critical Precision is a useful Critical Strike Chance boost, but you should pick it up at later stages of the game, as Passives in other areas are more important. 

Falconer Skill Tree (74 Points)

Notable Passives:

The majority of your Points shall be spent in the Falconer Skill Tree. The Ranger's Mark grants all your Bow Attacks a chance to buff your Falcon. The Handler grants a 5% base Critical Strike Chance for your pet. The Coordinated Fate grants you Silver Shroud when you use a Skill, which guarantees the next Hit you take to be Dodged. You will recover a lot of Health passively due to the Relentless Talons Notable. The Finesse Them grants you a lot of Crit Avoidance and encourages you to stack that modifier as it will boost the Critical Strike Multiplier of your Falcon. The Tailwind further lowers the Damage you take while Moving, and improves your Movement Speed. The Strike Their Flank causes you to deal more Damage to Slowed Enemies, which you can achieve via Smoke Bomb Skill. 

Notable Passives:

You will gain a lot of Dodge and Glancing Blow Chance from your Passives, you shall also be always on the Move to reduce the Damage you take, or avoid it completely. Your Health and Mana sustain is also very good. All your Damage comes from your Falcon, but your playstyle is not passive, as you will have many tools at your disposal to boost his Damage. The Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier are the main ways to scale your Damage, but ailments such as Armour Shred or Critical Vulnerability should also be considered. 

Falconry - this ability allows you to summon your trusty Falcon. You can activate it to target the specific area you want your Falcon to attack. Thanks to the Avian Arsenal your Falcon will get a lot of added Damage. The Exposed Weakness and Passives leading to that Node transfer portion of your Damage and Critical Strike bonuses to your Falcon. The Hunter's Spoils further improve your Health and Mana sustain. You can choose the Sidekick or Watchful Eye Notables to alter the behaviors of your Falcon slightly. 

Dive Bomb - this is your main ability. It causes your Falcon to dive in a specific area, dealing high amounts of Damage. The On Wings of Shadow greatly improves your total Damage output by creating additional Shadow Falcons that attack the area, but you will have to create your own Shadows first. The Cloud Gatherer greatly helps with that, as it improves the duration of your Smoke Bomb. The Devastating Dive can be skipped at first if you don't have a reliable source for lowering the Cooldown, such as the United Assault. 

Explosive Trap - by default it is a Trap Skill, but you can convert it to a Bow Skill via Bombarding Rain Notable, which enables many other interactions with a Bow Skill usage.  
The Sky Signal notable is the key feature of this ability. It greatly increases the Damage of your Falcon each time your Trap explodes and lowers its Cooldown by 3%. The Trap Sprinkler and its upgrades cause even more Traps to explode, further boosting your Falcon. 

Aerial Assault - this is your main Movement Skill, but it can also deal plenty of Damage and has powerful bonuses attached to it.
Each use of Aerial Assault will restore a portion of your missing Health and Mana, as well as reduce the Cooldown of the Dive Bomb. The Aerial Prowess allows you to accumulate stacks that you can consume via Dive Bomb to deal more Damage. The Slayer of Big Prey and Ambush greatly improves the Damage of this Skill against Rare Enemies, although it is not that impactful compared to your other abilities. 

Smoke Bomb - this ability is used mostly to generate Shadows, but it also provides other utility benefits.
To create Shadows you will need the Umbral Assult Notable. The Smokescreen Arrow changes it to Bow Skill, allowing you to deploy Smoke Bomb at the targeted location. It also provides the Slow and Armor Shred application. You can distribute remaining points to increase its duration, AoE, or Armour Shred frequency to your liking. 

Stat priority:

The Gearing process is rather simple. You will want a lot of Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier, as well as Minion Damage and Dexterity. Your Falcon will inherit a big portion of your own bonuses for itself. You should also seek bonuses to your main abilities' levels. The Critical Strike Avoidance is even more important than usual, as it grants a decent amount of Critical Strike Multiplier for your Falcon too. To improve your survivability you should look for Health, Armour, and Resistance. The Talons of Valor is a very powerful Bow, but it's not required for the Build to function. The proper Item Bases are very important for this Build, as they offer many great bonuses for your Pet and you. 

1. Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier 
2. Dexterity
3. Minion Damage 
4. Critical Strike Avoidance 
5. Health 
6. Resistances 
7. Armor 
8. Movement Speed 

Recommended Unique Items: 

117% increased Bow Damage +(3% to 5%) Critical Strike Chance +(1 to 4) to Level of Falconry +(1 to 4) to Level of Dive Bomb +(1 to 4) to Level of Aerial Assault When you Critically Strike an enemy your Falcon gains +25 Melee Damage for 4 seconds and your Falcon Abilities recover 25% of their remaining cooldown (1 second cooldown)

Talons of Valor - a very good Bow for this Build. It has a great Critical Strike Chance, raises levels of all your main abilities, and lowers their Cooldown when you land a Critical Hit. You can often find it in the Fall of the Outcasts Timeline, as it often rewards you with Bows.  

Idols:

On your Idols, you should seek Armor, Health, and lacking Resistance. If you have those stats sorted out, you can try to get more Damage via Critical Strike Multiplier for your Minion or increase the effect of the Armor Shred. 

Recommended Blessings:

• The Black Sun: it can grant you a lot of Critical Strike Multiplier, but you should also consider Critical Strike Chance or Health.  
• The Age of Winter: here you can obtain the greatest source of Armor Shred on Hit, but defensive options such as Resistances, Endurance Threshold, or Armour are also useful. 
• Spirits of Fire: here you have many good choices to take. You can boost your Minion Damage, or lean towards defensive bonuses such as Endurance, flat Armor, or lacking Resistance. 
• Reign of Dragons: you should farm this Timeline until you get the Critical Strike Avoidance, it is a very important bonus to have. 
• Ending the Storm: it is the least useful one, it can grant you some Lightning Resistance, or improve your maximum Mana, which is slightly synergetic with the Coordinated Assault Passive of your Aerial Assault Skill.

END NOTE

This is the release version of our Dive Bomb Falconer Build for Last Epoch, which fully embraces the powerful combat abilities of this loyal companion. We had amazing results with the final form of this Build, and we can attest you won't be disappointed with it. If you enjoy high bursts of damage and don't like to worry about mana management, you have to try out this Build! Future Patches can change the performance of this Build, we will keep our eyes on it and update this guide accordingly to the game's growth.