Death Seal Lich Guide
Last Updated:April 17, 2025|Changelog
Welcome to the Death Seal Lich Guide. This Lich transforms into its horrific Reaper Form to unleash a cascade of deadly Spells. Hit your enemies with Rip Blood while empowering the destructive Waves of Necrotic energy released by Death Seal and dive into the fray of battle to obliterate everything around you.
The Death Seal Lich thrives and has the tools to survive the most brutal close range encounters. Death Seal provides powerful buffs and releases pulsing Waves of Death around you while it's active that deal massive Damage. The build has great mobility thanks to Reap and Transplant. Bone Curse provides additional AoE clear, DPS and survivability.
This setup doesn't require any Unique to function. However, Marina's Lost Soul is crucial for the build. Additionally, Items like Grimoire of Necrotic Elixirs, Grasp of the Blood Mage, Red Ring of Atlaria, Omnis and Nihilis turn this build into an absolute powerhouse, capable of dealing insane DPS while being super tanky.
Overall this powerful Lich is an amazing build that performs well in endgame, even in Hardcore. If you are looking for a dark caster that destroys enemies and is able to survive the hardest encounters, this build is perfect for you!
This build guide assumes you have a Level 70 Character.
Reach Level 70 with our Acolyte Leveling Guide.
Check our Tier Lists to know how this build performs in the current patch.
If you are looking for a different playstyle, check all our Build Guides!
Skills
Reaper Form
This is a Reaper Form Lich build. This Transformation provides incredible offensive and defensive buffs with Nodes like Reaper's Curse, Rapid Destruction, Soul Shroud and Vile Shroud. While on Reaper Form you gain the ability to Reap. Take Unholy Dominion so it doesn't share Cooldown with Transplant.
- This Death Seal is very flexible and highly depends on your gear. Adjust the Skill Tree based on your current needs and try to get Exalted Level of Death Seal on your Helmet and a well rolled Nihilis or Omnis as soon as possible.
- Consider investing Points into Deathtouch Scythe and Executioner inside Reaper Form if you don't need the defenses provided by Soul Shroud and Vile Shroud and want more DPS.
Skills showcase extra Skill Points in case you find +Level of Skills that may not be included in the Planners.
Passives
- Take Nodes with Intelligence, Health, Cast Speed, Spell Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Multiplier.
- Investing points into Forbidden Knowledge helps cap Necrotic Resistance.
- Dance with Death has great synergy with Death Seal's Deadlock Node.
- Get tons of Spell Leech with Soul Maw and Ageless Ascetic.
- Elixir of Death is crucial for survivability.
- Three Plagues and Necrotic Energy boost your DPS substantially.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Transform into Reaper Form.
- Toggle Bone Curse.
- Spam Rip Blood at anything you see.
- If you have Marina's Lost Soul casting Rip Blood grants a Damned Stack on you.
- Get near enemies and cast Death Seal for massive Damage from its pulsing Waves.
- Use Reap and Transplant to juke or to dive into enemies.
- Keep spamming Rip Blood and wait for Death Seal's Cooldown before going in again.
Bossing
- Take advantage of all your buffs and keep them active.
- Save either Reap or Transplant for emergency situations.
- Use Death Seal and Elixir of Death to mitigate incoming Damage. Time them against dangerous telegraphed Boss attacks.
- Keep your Reaper Form active by staying in combat and leeching.
- This build can be scary to play due to Low Life and the self-inflicted Damned stacks. Learn your limits and use the build's Spell Leech effectively to stay alive!
- Target dangerous mobs first and finish them fast with Death Seal.
- Transplant is a blink and can be used to go over incoming attacks or terrain.
- Use a Potion preventively before you engage dangerous enemies to proc Elixir of Death.
- Time Reap and Transplant apart to always be on the move.
- Use the Haste gained from releasing Death Seal efficiently while your Movement Skills are on Cooldown.
- Get at least 1 Large Immortal Idol or Huge Immortal Idol with Chance To Fear On Hit to keep CC enemies when you dive them.
Gear, Idols & Blessings
- Get Marina's Lost Soul. This Unique is crucial for the build to scale its Damage thanks to the ability so self-inflict Damned. Aim for T7 Critical Strike Multiplier when you find it with Legendary Potential.
- Prioritize T7 Level of Death Seal and T5 Level of Rip Blood on your Helmet to invest more Points into their Skill Trees. Once you get one, switch to a Legendary Seed of Ekkidrasil for the extra survivability.
- Grimoire of Necrotic Elixirs raises the tankiness to another level. Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros is also a good option, as it provides many valuable base stats.
- Grasp of the Blood Mage is amazing for both defense and offense. Slam T7 Chance to Shred Armor on Hit when you find it with Legendary Potential.
- Both Omnis and Nihilis are good options for the build, the first being more defensive and the second more offensive. However, it's important to make sure you get one well rolled.
- Two Red Ring of Atlaria are insane for the build for the Damage Reduction they provide with 180 total attributes. If you don't have them, use one Flames of Midnight for the valuable Swiftness buff, which grants 20% Movement Speed at level 100. In addition, it grants Necrotic Penetration.
Learn the basics for crafting gear with our Beginner Crafting Guide.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Idol Slots.
Build Scaling
Offensive Stats
- Flat Necrotic Spell Damage
- % Increased Cast Speed
- Intelligence
- % Increased Necrotic Damage
- % Increased Critical Strike Chance
- Critical Strike Multiplier
- Necrotic Resistance Shred
- Necrotic Penetration
- Armor Shred Chance
Defensive Stats
- Health
- Armor
- Endurance
- Leech
- Intelligence
- Mana
Scaling Tips
- Self-inflicted Damned: Stack this Ailment on yourself thanks to Marina's Lost Soul and scale Doomcall's Damage as much as possible. Attack faster for more Damage, Ailments and stacks of Damned on yourself.
- Low Life: Death Seal enables the Low Life playstyle thanks to Deadlock. In combination with the Dance with Death Passive and the Corrupted Consciousness Node, this ability provides incredibly Damage buffs for its duration.
- Mark for Death: Bone Curse's Sigil of Mortality Node inflicts this Ailment that reduces All Enemy Resistances by 25%, causing them to take extra Damage.
- Low Life: Death Seal enables the Low Life playstyle thanks to Deadlock. When active it provides 33% Damage Reduction. Combined with the Desperate Shroud Node, this ability grants incredibly Defensive buffs for its duration.
- Bone Armor: Transplant provides this buff that grants Damage Reduction. Keep it always up while mapping with Bone Curse's Marrow Thief Node.
- Seed of Ekkidrasil allows to scale survivability with Mana.
- Aside from gaining Damage per point of Intelligence with your Skills, this build also gains defenses from it. Reaper Form's Soul Shroud and Vile Shroud Nodes allow you to gain Resistances and Armour based on your total Intelligence.
- Chance To Fear On Hit: The Fear provided by the Large Immortal Idols helps keep enemies Crowd Controlled.
- Elixir of Death: Gain 50% Physical and Necrotic Damage Reduction while this buff is up. Combine it with the Damage Reduction granted by Grimoire of Necrotic Elixirs to turn into a juggernaut while you use a Potion and cast Death Seal.
- The more Health you have, the better the buffs granted by Death Seal's Desperate Shroud Node are.
- Ageless Ascetic and Soul Maw provide insane Leech for the build. This is especially important to stay alive while using Death Seal in Reaper Form.
Our Damage Explained Article covers all you need to know to scale Damage.
Learn all you need to know to scale Defense with our Defense Explained Article.
Loot Filter
Loot Filters are critical in Last Epoch. Making sure you highlight all the related valuable Item Bases, Affixes, Uniques and Idols is crucial to ensure your character's progression. Click on the Generate Loot Filter button down below then use the Paste Clipboard Contents button in-game to import it!
Here is the Endgame Loot Filter for this build:
Learn how to load and make Filters with our Loot Filter Guide.
Video Guide
COMING SOON!
Summary
Overall the Death Seal Lich is a horrific powerhouse that performs well in endgame. It has amazing single target DPS and great survivability thanks to its multiple defensive layers.
- Transform into your Reaper Form and stay in combat to keep it up as long as possible.
- Spam Rip Blood to stack Damned Stacks on yourself with Marina's Lost Soul and scale Doomcall's Damage as much as possible.
- Death Seal enables the Low Life playstyle thanks to Deadlock. When active it provides 33% Damage Reduction and a 66% Damage Multiplier. Combined with the Desperate Shroud and Corrupted Consciousness Nodes, this ability grants incredibly buffs for its duration.
- The build has access to two great Movement Skills: Transplant and Reap.
- While they are not mandatory, Marina's Lost Soul is crucial for the build. Additionally, Items like Grimoire of Necrotic Elixirs, Grasp of the Blood Mage, Red Ring of Atlaria, Omnis and Nihilis are great Uniques that you want to get to scale the build to its full potential.
Credits
Written by Lizard_IRL.
Content Reviewed by Volca.
Language Reviewed by Tenkiei.