Last Epoch Summon Tide Elemental Skill: How to Unlock and Use It

Last Epoch Summon Tide Elemental skill is the new Shaman mastery ability added with Season 5, giving the class a permanent minion built around cold spell damage, Geyser bursts and several ways to interact with existing Shaman tools. It is not available as soon as you choose Shaman, because you need to invest deeply enough into the mastery passive tree first.

The Last Epoch Summon Tide Elemental skill can become the centre of a minion build, but its tree also supports totems, Tornado, Maelstrom, Storm Crows and elemental conversions. That flexibility is the important part. You are not simply adding another creature to the screen. You can turn the Elemental into a stationary totem, use it as a support aura or push its own projectiles and Geyser toward direct damage.

How to unlock the Last Epoch Summon Tide Elemental skill

Image Eleventh Hour Games

To unlock the Last Epoch Summon Tide Elemental skill, spend 30 points in the Shaman passive tree. This is a mastery investment requirement, so putting points into the base Primalist tree does not replace the 30 points you need inside Shaman itself.

Once unlocked, the skill costs 15 mana and has a four second cooldown. You can only have one Elemental at a time. Summoning it immediately triggers Geyser, then the minion remains active permanently unless it dies or you replace it.

Shaman received this as its final mastery skill in Season 5 alongside the new Paladin and Bladedancer abilities. If you are comparing the three additions, our Last Epoch Radiant Lance guide covers the Paladin unlock and shield scaling, while the Bladedancer option is explained in the Last Epoch Dreamslash Bladedancer skill guide.

How the Tide Elemental attacks

The Last Epoch Summon Tide Elemental skill creates a permanent minion that normally deals cold spell damage. Its regular attack is a projectile spell with no cooldown. It also casts Geyser, an area spell with a four second cooldown, and Geyser is cast automatically when you summon the Elemental.

The base Elemental has 400 health. It gains 16 health and 4% increased damage for every point of Attunement on your character, plus another 16 health per character level. Added minion spell damage applies to the projectile at 200% effectiveness and to Geyser at 400% effectiveness, giving Geyser especially strong scaling from flat spell damage supplied to the minion.

If you use Assassinate minion mode, the Elemental teleports to its target when it casts Geyser. That makes the Last Epoch Summon Tide Elemental skill easier to keep relevant against moving enemies because the burst does not depend entirely on the minion slowly walking into position.

Best Last Epoch Summon Tide Elemental skill interactions to know

Several nodes substantially change how the skill fits into a build. Tidal Totem converts the Elemental into a totem. It can no longer move, but it benefits from totem modifiers and deals more damage. Seahenge then makes your existing totems move to surround the Elemental when it is summoned, while also extending the duration of the moved totems.

Water Spout creates a different interaction. When one of your Tornadoes hits the Tide Elemental, the minion redirects that Tornado toward an enemy and temporarily increases its damage and speed. Twin Twisters can create an additional Tornado at the Elemental when you cast one elsewhere, giving the interaction a much more active loop.

Whirlpools gives the Elemental a chance to cast Maelstrom whenever you cast Maelstrom. Those copies use the Elemental’s own stats but your Maelstrom tree. Wellspring instead turns the Last Epoch Summon Tide Elemental skill into a support option by adding an aura that grants cold spell damage and cast speed to nearby allies. Pools of Reverence can focus that aura on totems rather than players.

Can Summon Tide Elemental change damage type?

Yes. The Last Epoch Summon Tide Elemental skill is cold by default, but the specialization tree can convert it. Thunder Elemental converts the base cold spell damage to lightning and changes relevant cold effects, such as frostbite chance and cold resistance shred, into their lightning equivalents. Wind Elemental converts the base damage to physical and changes those effects toward physical support instead.

That means you should not assume every Tide Elemental build needs cold gear. The correct damage scaling depends on which conversion you choose. Wellspring also follows the Elemental’s damage conversion, so its additional spell damage can remain useful after changing element.

For projectile-focused versions, Wake adds extra Elemental Bolt projectiles. Backflow changes the firing pattern into a nova and adds more projectiles, while Elemental Fury and Unleashed Elements create a ramping cast-speed and projectile burst interaction. These are the kinds of nodes that let the minion move from utility into a more dedicated damage role.

Is Summon Tide Elemental worth using in Season 5?

The Last Epoch Summon Tide Elemental skill has enough separate hooks that it is more useful to think about what your Shaman already does than to look for one universal setup. Totem builds can lean into Tidal Totem and Wellspring. Tornado and Maelstrom builds have direct interaction nodes. Minion builds can scale Attunement, flat minion spell damage and the Elemental’s own projectile and Geyser output.

It also sits outside the seasonal Morditas progression, so you do not need to complete Last Epoch Rage of Morditas encounters or defeat the Last Epoch Morditas boss before using it. The only unlock gate is the 30-point Shaman passive requirement.

For Season 5 Shaman players, the Last Epoch Summon Tide Elemental skill is useful precisely because it can fill more than one job. The Last Epoch Summon Tide Elemental skill also scales cleanly enough to support focused minion investment. The Last Epoch Summon Tide Elemental skill therefore gives Shaman a permanent companion with several genuinely different jobs rather than one fixed build. Start by deciding whether you want direct minion damage, totem support or spell synergies, then specialize around the nodes that reinforce that role instead of trying to take every interaction at once.

Eleventh Hour Games lists the unlock requirement, base stats, scaling and full specialization changes for the skill in the official Last Epoch Season 5 patch notes.