Last updated on Nov 30, 2023 at 20:30by AaronActionRPG
This is the perfect leveling guide for new players wanting to start with Lich!This page will cover everything and anything you could need to know about leveling the class,including which skills to use, what stats to prioritize, and what uniques are useful early inthe game.
1.
Introduction
This Lich mastery leveling guide is designed to get us started in the rightdirection with your new mastery, by offering a simple skill setup to assist uswhile we play through main story act of the game and begin the Monolithendgame. We have chosen a set of skills and passives that create an effectiveand yet simplistic play style that can rapidly push our character to level 70and complete the main campaign.
This build uses 
Harvest as its main DPS skill, with abuilt-in Necrotic resistance shred for a boost to our damage. To add even morepower to our Harvest skill, we will be incorporating 
Bone Curse as partof our rotation. To apply Bone Curse, we use 
Transplant toautomatically apply it to enemies as we jump on top of them. This will add toour Necrotic damage output, but also help us move around the battlefieldquickly. As you level this build past level 35 and unlock your
Reaper Form, you will be begin to see bigger gains in Damage untilfinally you hit you last skill, 
Death Seal. This final skill willactivate a low-life option for us to lock our life at 30%, but boost our leechand overall damage to new heights. Bear in mind, our Health leech is one ofmain defensive mechanism and this build can be quite powerful, but squishy.
2.
Lich Leveling Passive Trees
Class PassivesSkill Passives
AcolyteLich
HarvestBone CurseTransplantReaper FormDeath Seal
2.1.
Acolyte Passive Tree
Acolyte is our base class to start this character off with. Our goal in thispassive tree is to gain some critical stats for our character, ways toaugment our Harvest, and eventually gain Reaper Form. We startwith Forbidden Knowledge to boost our Intelligence which directly help toscale our damage abilities. Next we want to take points in Blood Aurafor the flat increased Damage to all of our skills. Stolen Vitality is takenfor the boost to vitality to counter-act some of the Health drain our skillswill inflict on us.
Now that we've completed our the Passive Tree for Acolyte, we will bemoving on to our Mastery Passive Trees. For this build specifically,we will be focusing all of our points into the Lich Passive Tree,as they synergize the most with our kit and we have a limited amount of pointsthat can be used for leveling.
2.2.
Lich Passive Tree
We are going to invest the remaining Passive Points into the Lich PassiveTree. This being with the first 3 passive skills, we will be maxing out each ofthem. Apocrypha is going to boost our Intelligence and Mana Regen.Survival of the Cruel will grant us base Health and Health leech fromspells. Dance with Death is going to increase our Damage, tripling invalue when we are at low life which we will be triggering later throughDeath Seal. The next three passive skills will be focusing on ourNecrotic Damage, Attack Speed and granting us more Health Leech. These passiveskill points are aimed at making us Leech enough Health to counteractReaper Form and Death Seal's health decay, and boost our damage asmuch as possible. In this build, the greater our damage, the greater ourdefenses.
2.3.
Harvest
The Harvest skill tree has one main branch with two additional skillnodes selected. The main branch, starting with Harrowing Blade, is wherewe will invest our skill points first. We will follow the pathway on the lefthand side all the way over to Symbol of Loss, amplifying our damage whena target is cursed. This will work with Bone Curse, givingHarvest some added synergy. Next, we want to invest inFinality adding a Kill Threshold to the ability.
2.4.
Bone Curse
This skill tree has two main pathways: top and bottom. We want to take thetop branch first to get to Cursed Limbs. This will be very helpful withapplying Bone Curse. How this skill node works is when we cast BoneCurse, which we will be doing through Transplant (more about that inthe Transplant section), we will gain the ability to apply Bone Curse on hitfor 5 seconds.
Take the bottom branch going left first toMarrow Thief which grants us a 30% chance to gain 
Bone Armor whenwe will a target with the Bone Curse on them. Finally, we go to the righthand side of the branch and take Sigil of Mortality, this grants our BoneCurse the ability to apply Marked For Death.
2.5.
Transplant
Transplant is a movement skill that acts very similarly to ateleport. We use several different utility nodes to take advantage of alteringhow the skill works. We will begin with the right hand side branch, passingthrough Acolyte's Fervor and going to Doom Bringer. Acolyte'sFervor will grant us two buffs (Haste and Frenzy) when we use the skill andDoom Bringer will cast Bone Curse on everyone around us when we arrive at ournew location. Finish the right hand side with the bottom skill nodeEthereal Body to convert the skill to Necrotic. Now we can head to theopposite side of the skill tree and use the remaining points to takeBone Armor to add another buff to use when we use this skill. We willfurther augment our Bone Armor with the two skill nodes Plated Bone andApostasy.
2.6.
Reaper Form
This is our brawling form, which we will try to stay in as much as possible.The first skill node we need to target is Unholy Dominion at the bottomright hand side of the skill tree. This separates our Transplant and
Reap into their own cooldowns - very important as we want to use themindependently of each other. Next, we augment our Reaper Form withincreased Damage, increased Critical Strike Chance, Swiftness on Kill andAttack Speed. Our goal is to stay and fight in our Reaper Form as muchas possible.
2.7.
Death Seal
Our final skill, Death Seal, pushes our build into low-life using theskill node Deadlock for a very large boost in damage. While this doesmean you are more susceptible to dangerous game play and getting 1-shot, yourdamage is so high you should just cut down most enemies before they get achance to hit you. We also pick up the skill node Mortal Pulse to add adamage aura around yourself, which we will buff with Cycle of Decay andCurdled Flesh. These two skill nodes amplify our Necrotic pulse as longas enemies are poisoned, which will happen quite often withPustulent Presence.
Image courtesy of Last Epoch Tools
3.
Mechanics and Playstyle
This build is played very similarly to a damage aura build, usingDeath Seal to constantly pulse damage at enemies while we run around withTransplant. Bone Curse getsautomatically applied to enemies as we 'arrive' at locations withTransplant. These two skills have such great synergy by notonly helping to maintain our curses, but each of them also grants us buffs(Frenzy, Haste and Bone Armor) and offer us a chance to Shred Armor. Bear inmind that our Death Seal will keep us at Low Health, while we brawl inReaper Form with Harvest.
4.
Gearing and Affixes
We are going to target weapons for dual wielding, swords or axes. The restof our gear will be straight forward filling in the slots with the recommendedlist of Affixes below. You should aim to upgrade your gear using a loot filterto highlight the gear you need with the right affixes. This game also carries asubstantial crafting system where you will be able to augment pieces of gearyou find with either strong affixes or craft new one you can add to an emptyslot. There is a deeper look at the crafting system in the link below.
| Attributes | Offensive | Defensive |
|---|---|---|
| Vitality Strength | Necrotic Damage Necrotic Damage while Transformed Melee Critical Strike Chance Critical Strike Multiplier Melee Attack Speed | Armor Resistances Health on Kill Health on Melee Hit Health Regen |
4.1.
Useful Uniques
As you go through the game we will come across many uniques. While the majorityof low-level uniques should be set aside for levelingalts, we will want to keep our eyes out for these specific items toassist with the build. While none of these have huge build changing affixes, themajority of them are good items you can scale easily with. One of thethemes you will see with these uniques is Movement Speed; this affixaccelerates gameplay even just from being able to go around faster thebattlefield.
If you happen to come across the unique two-handed axe 
Bone Harvester, thiswill likely be your best options for a weapon until we find something we cancraft with higher values in our 40s or 50s. Despite its level, this unique weaponcan take you into the endgame if it has Legendary Potential, allowing us to boostthe Necrotic Damage on it.
Another great unique for this build is the 
Chimaera's Essence.This amulet is fantastic, as our Reaper Form counts as atransformation. It also has many other valuablestats for our build besides the damage, so keep your eyes out for one.
Our next targeted unique are the gloves 
Fighting Chance.Despite their level 15 requirement, these gloves can be a massive damage boostand help accelerate you through the game. The only draw back is the increaseddamage taken, but everything else about them is amazing.
Speaking of accelerating, we must talk about unique boots, particularlythe 
Advent of the Erased. These boots boots can grant us Haste,and while this chance is small, it is likely to happen frequently with mob groups.
Lastly, we want to mention the unique relic called
Grimoire of Necrotic Elixirs. This relic offers a great set of bonuses onpotion use that our build can benefit it from, especially during a boss fight.That boost of Necrotic damage can really help take down a high-health target alot easier.
Despite the lower level of these uniques, they are quite valuable and canhelp push you that much faster to level 70. These can all be expanded intofantastic items if found with Legendary Potential for any future levelingneeds. Good luck hunting and may your luck be high!
4.2.
Idols
Idol slots are gained through the campaign, unlocking small bonuses andunique affixes for the player to discover and augment their builds with. The Idol screenconsists of a grid system for the player to fill out with different sized idols,eventually filling in every part of the grid. As the Idol shape increases (1x1, 1x2,1x3, 1x4, etc.) the stronger an affix you might find for your build.
The target Affixes we want to look for in our Idols are:
- +% Health
- + Health
- Chance to Chill on Necrotic Hit
- Resistances
5.
Progressing to Endgame
This build will carry you all the way to the start of the Monolith, whereyou will need to decide on an Endgame build to follow. We have several optionsavailable for Lich.
Chaos Bolts Harvest Build
6.
Changelog
- 30 Nov. 2023: Guide added.
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