Hungering Souls Lich Guide
Last Updated:July 2, 2024|Changelog
Welcome to the Hungering Souls Lich Guide. This Lich transforms into its horrific Reaper Form to unleash destructive Spells while gliding through the battlefield causing absolute havoc. Manipulate the forces of death and the afterlife with Hungering Souls and Rip Blood. Hungering Souls is mainly specced for high single target DPS while Rip Blood focuses on buffing the Souls' Damage and AoE clear.
The Hungering Souls Lich is able to stay away from threats while fighting, but also has tools to engage enemies in close ranged combat. Death Seal releases Hungering Souls and pulsing Waves of Death automatically while it's active. The build has great mobility thanks to Reap and Transplant.
This setup doesn't require any Unique to function. However Items like Grimoire of Necrotic Elixirs, Marina's Lost Soul, Mad Alchemist's Ladle and Omnis turn this build into an absolute monster, capable of dealing great DPS while being extremely tanky.
Overall this horrific and powerful Lich is an amazing build capable of crushing all the content in the game, 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 article assumes you have a Level 70 Character.
Reach Level 70 with our Lich Leveling Guide.
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.
- Some Skills showcase extra Skill Points in case you find +Level of Skills that may not be included in the Planners.
- 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.
- The Fire Skull Node changes the Skill Tag, base Damage and visual appearance to of Hungering Souls to Fire. The Damage multiplier is worth the conversion, but you might need to adjust your gear around it.
- Invest the points necessary into the Piercing Gaze Node to cap your Hungering Souls Critical Strike Chance.
- Make sure you keep 3 Summon Skeleton Vanguards to buff your Hungering Souls Damage. Summon them with the Harvested Legions Lich Passive. If they die during Boss fights, put Summon Skeleton on your bar to summon minions at will.
- If you wish to do more Damage with the Waves of Death released by Death Seal : equip a Marina's Lost Soul and grab Hemomancer and Thirst inside Rip Blood to spam it faster and stack Damned stacks on yourself.
Passives
Passives provide powerful effects that dictate the playstyle of a Class and its Masteries. Remember that you can allocate Passives on the first half of all Masteries regardless of the one you chose.
- 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.
- Harvested Legions is vital to trigger Hungering Souls's Grave Bond and Unholy Trinity Nodes.
- Soul Maw and Ageless Ascetic provide tons of Leech and are crucial for sustain.
- Elixir of Death is crucial for survivability.
- Three Plagues and Necrotic Energy boost your Damage substantially.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
This Lich wants to position itself far away from the enemies while casting deadly Spells, but it's not afraid to dive in. Stay in combat to keep Reaper Form up as long as possible by leeching health back to you. Make sure you are familiar with enemy mechanics to know when to use your Support Skills to stay alive. Pay attention to the telegraphed attacks of your enemies and stay out of their range.
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Transform into Reaper Form.
- Spam Rip Blood at anything you see.
- Cast Death Seal when enemies are nearby.
- Let Death Seal release Hungering Souls.
- Manually cast Hungering Souls for additional burst Damage.
- Cast Reap and Transplant to juke or move.
- Keep your Reaper Form active by staying in combat and leeching.
Mapping
- Let the Hungering Souls released by Death Seal kill enemies as you cruise through the Echoes.
- Release Death Seal efficiently to gain Haste for the maximum duration possible. Use Transplant when the Haste buff from Death Seal runs out.
- Save your Death Seal cooldown for dangerous enemies and the Echo Bosses.
- Time Reap and Transplant apart to always be on the move.
Bossing
- Take advantage of all your buffs and keep them active as much as possible.
- Enter Boss fights with 3 Summon Skeleton Vanguards to buff your Hungering Souls Damage. If they die during Boss fights, put Summon Skeleton on your bar to summon minions at will.
- Position to maximize the DPS from the Hungering Souls released by Death Seal.
- Save either Reap or Transplant for emergency situations.
- Death Seal and Elixir of Death can mitigate incoming Damage. Time them against dangerous telegraphed Boss attacks.
- If you lack Boss Damage, place Hungering Souls on your Skill Bar and cast them manually too.
- This build can be very Mana intensive, make sure you invest into Mana Regeneration.
- If your Summon Skeleton Vanguard die while Bossing, place Summon Skeleton on your Skill Bar and summon 3 of them to ensure your Hungering Souls do maximum Damage.
- 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.
- Get at least 1 Large Immortal Idol with Chance To Fear On Hit to keep enemies away from you.
Learn more about how to maximize your gameplay in the Build Scaling section of this guide.
Gear
Gearing in Last Epoch revolves around finding Items and then using the powerful Crafting System to enhance them. As long as an Item has Forging Potential left, players can upgrade or modify their Affixes up to Tier 5. However, the powerful Exalted Tier Affixes are drop only and can't be modified by players.
Using the correct Item Bases allows you to make use of their amazing Implicits, this is fundamental for gearing efficiently. Combine Implicits, Passives, Idols and Blessings to cap your Resistances and stack as many other defensive layers as possible. Plan ahead for your next upgrades and consider the final Empowered Blessings of your build while gearing. Finish up by farming Uniques with Legendary Potential and Sealing Affixes into Exalted Items to unleash all of your build's power!
Here are the Stat Goals for this build:
- Capped Resistances
- Capped Critical Strike Avoidance
- Capped Endurance
- 3000 - 6000 Health
- 50% - 75% Armour
- 100%+ Cast Speed
- 65+ Intelligence
- 600%+ Increased Damage
- 300%+ Spell Critical Strike Multiplier
- 40% - 70%+ Movement Speed
Gear Progression
Milestone 1
Aim for good Item Bases with two valuable T5 Affixes. The Defensive rolls on T5 Suffixes are very important at this stage as they can easily cap all your Resistances when combined with Item Implicits, Idols, Blessings or Passives. Get a Weapon with double T5 offensive Prefixes as soon as possible.
Milestone 2
Make sure your Critical Strike Avoidance or Reduced Damage is capped. Remember that Woven Flesh is always an option early on. It can be farmed by killing the Abomination in the Fall of the Outcast Monolith Timeline.
Milestone 3
Fit as much Health into your gear as possible. Hybrid Health and Health are extremely valuable, but can be hard to find early on. Use regular flat Health until you find them.
Milestone 4
Aim for T5 Level of Death Seal on your Helmet and T5 Level of Reaper Form on your Body Armour to invest more Points into their Skill Trees. Level of Hungering Souls is also a great find.
Milestone 5
While you look for this basic set of gear, start farming your Empowered Blessings and look for any Idols that can help you cap all your Resistances momentarily or increase your Damage output. Try to find a Large Immortal Idol with Chance To Fear On Hit to keep enemies away from you.
Milestone 1
When all your core Defenses are covered, start working on your Damage. Get Intelligence, Spell Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Multiplier, Chance To Shred Armour on Hit and Cast Speed to increase your DPS drastically.
Milestone 2
Get Chance to Apply Frailty on Hit to decrease the Damage enemies deal to you. This Ailment is really important and should always be kept in mind.
Milestone 3
Look for Grimoire of Necrotic Elixirs, a common Relic that provides great buffs when using a Potion. It can be farmed in the The Last Ruin Monolith Timeline. It has amazing synergy with Elixir of Death.
Milestone 4
You also want to get Marina's Lost Soul. This Item is rarer, use Rune of Ascendance to get it. Equip a Profane Wand until then.
Milestone 5
As you finish up your Empowered Blessings keep a decent Health pool, capped Resistances, Endurance and Critical Strike Avoidance. Your goal is to have items with 4 valuable T5 Affixes, also known as T20. Keep an eye for Large Immortal Idols with %Health Prefix and Chance To Fear On Hit or Health Suffix.
Milestone 1
Upgrade your T20 set up with Exalted items, high value Sealed Affixes or ideally both. Obtain the Affixes included in the Planner, but prioritize the indicated Item Bases for their Implicits. Make sure to Seal highly efficient low tier Affixes. Ward and Ailment Cleansing on Potion Use is a must have for Belts.
Milestone 2
Farm Grimoire of Necrotic Elixirs and Marina's Lost Soul with Legendary Potential. Aim for the indicated Affixes in the Planner for each slot.
Milestone 4
Alternatively, you can farm a Mad Alchemist's Ladle with multiple Legendary Potential for your Weapon Slot. With enough Intelligence this Unique is crazy!
Milestone 5
Omnis is a great addition to this build for the valuable +1 To All Skills. Farm it by killing the Shade of Orobyss at 200+ Corruption. High rolls are not necessary but the Item itself could take significant time to farm.
Milestone 6
Focus on finishing your Large Immortal Idols with %Health Prefix and Chance To Fear On Hit or Health Suffix. You also want Stout Lagonian Idols with %Health Prefix and Health Suffix.
Milestone 1
Keep upgrading your gear with Exalted Items with Sealed Affixes. Get every stat in the right place and in the correct Item Base. Min/Maxing your gear in Last Epoch can be pushed to the extreme as Items with multiple Exalted Affixes are technically possible.
Milestone 2
Get as close to perfect rolls for all your Empowered Blessings and find all your desired Idols with the best in slot Prefixes and Suffixes.
Milestone 3
Continue farming Grimoire of Necrotic Elixirs, Marina's Lost Soul and Omnis with the maximum Legendary Potential you can find. Remember that some of these Items are extremely hard to get with multiple Legendary Potential. Good luck with the chase!
Milestone 4
Feel free to experiment with any crazy Unique, Legendary or Experimental Items that you might craft, trade or find! The possibilities are endless!
Learn the basics for crafting gear with our Beginner Crafting Guide.
Check our Unique Item & Set Farming Guide and learn how to get them!
Want to know more about Legendary Items? Check our Legendary Guide!
Blessings
Completing a Timeline in the Monolith of Fate lets you choose one of several randomized Blessings from its unique pool. Their benefits are permanent and persist even outside of the Monolith of Fate.
Empowered Blessings are a fundamental part of all builds, so getting the correct ones for each is key.
The sooner you reach Empowered Monolith, the faster you can start farming your desired Blessings!
Normal Blessings are not important as they are eventually replaced by Empowered Blessings. However they can still be a great source of Resistances, Critical Strike Avoidance or Life Leech for your build early on.
Pick up these Normal Blessings on your way to Empowered:
- Echo of Solarum
- Emptiness of Ash
- Hunger of the Void
- Bastion of Divinity
- Survival of Might
- Persistance of Will
- Protection of Heorot
- Resolve of Grael
- Heart of the Caldera
- Embers of Immortality
- Promise of Death
- Body of Obsidian
Note: Don't target farm Normal Blessings. Get to Empowered Monolith as fast as you can.
Reaching Empowered Monolith unlocks all the level 100 Timelines and the ability to farm Empowered Blessings. Unlike Normal Blessings, these need to be farmed until you get the desired ones for your build. It is extremely important to get this set up as fast as possible to free up affix slots on your gear. Remember, the more value you get from your Blessings, the easier it is to craft efficient gear!
These are the core Combat Empowered Blessings for this build:
- If you are lacking Critical Strike Avoidance, start with Grand Survival of Might. A high roll on this Empowered Blessing can be combined with a single high rolled T5 Critical Strike Avoidance to cap it.
- Work on Grand Bastion of Divinity and Grand Resolve of Grael for their Resistances.
- Once your core Defenses are sorted, grab grab Grand Body of Obsidian for more Flat Armour. Alternatively, you can grab Grand Promise of Death or Grand Breath of Cinders for a Damage boost. Pick one or the other based on what Damage type you have more off; Necrotic or Fire.
- Farm Grand Emptiness of Ash for even more Damage or Grand Echo of Solarum to easily cap your Void Resistance.
These Empowered Blessings are flexible and depend on your current needs and goals.
These are valuable Empowered Drop Rate Blessings for this build:
- Grand Sight of the Outcasts is very valuable to help you find Large Immortal Idols with %Health Prefix and Chance To Fear On Hit or Health Suffix. Once you find all your Idols, you can switch to the Grand Winds of Fortune and focus on Uniques instead.
- Farm Grand Cruelty of Formosus to find more Wands.
- Lastly, take Grand Slumber of Morditas to find more Relics.
Learn how to farm Blessings fast with our Advanced Monolith Strategies.
Idols
Idols grant your character bonuses when equipped in the dedicated Idol Container. Unlock all the slots of your Idol Container by completing the Campaign and some of its Side Quests. Remember that some Idols are Class specific and you won't be able to equip them with other non-compatible Classes.
These are the Idols recommended for this build:
- Get 4 Large Immortal Idols with %Health Prefix. For the Suffixes aim for 2 with Chance To Fear On Hit and 2 with Health. The Fear is crucial to keep enemies away from you.
- You also want 4 Stout Lagonian Idols with %Health Prefix and Health Suffix. This build can get an absurd amount of Health just from Idols.
- You might need extra Resistances out of your Idols early on, so keep an eye for anything useful until you get your final setup.
- Health
- %Health
- Vitality
- Armour
- Elemental Resistance
- Lightning Resistance
- Fire Resistance
- Cold Resistance
- Void Resistance
- Physical Resistance
- Poison Resistance
- Critical Strike Chance For You And Your Minions
- Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed With Transplant
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Idol Slots.
Learn how to be efficient with Idols with our Advanced Idols Setups Guide.
Build Scaling
This build uses Hungering Souls, Bone Curse and Soul Feast. The first Skill is mainly specced for high single target DPS while the other two are combined to AoE clear. They are scaled with the same stats to deal big Crits to your enemies. This Lich also has great survivability thanks to the multiple defensive layers it can take advantage of.
- 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.
- Flat Spell Damage: With the amount of Damage Multipliers this build has access to, you want to stack as much Flat Damage as possible. Your Profane Wand and the Necrotic Energy Passive grant tons of Necrotic Flat Spell Damage. Grimoire of Necrotic Elixirs also grants a good amount on Potion use.
- Cast Speed: The faster you attack the more Spells you cast and Ailments you apply.
- Intelligence: Hungering Souls, Bone Curse and Soul Feast gain 4% Damage per point of Intelligence.
- % Increased Damage: Anything that increases Necrotic Spell Damage is welcomed.
- Spell Critical Strike Chance: Deathbringer, Darkguard and the Reaper's Curse Node inside of Reaper Form give this tons of Spell Critical Strike Chance. It's easy to cap it with a good Implicit on your Crystal Skull and the Piercing Gaze Node inside Hungering Souls.
- Critical Strike Multiplier: Increases the Damage your Crits deal. Clairvoyant Insight grants 50% on its own. Build as much as you can on your gear.
- Grand Promise of Death or Grand Breath of Cinders: Since the build attacks pretty fast and has many hits, it is extremely easy to apply 10 stacks of Necrotic or Fire Resistance Shred to your targets. 10 stacks increase the Damage enemies take by 50% (20% for Bosses). This Blessing plays a big part on your Damage output, so make sure you roll it nicely (45%+) and as early as possible.
- Chance To Shred Armour on Hit: Each stack of this Ailment reduces enemy Armour by 100 for 4 seconds and stacks infinitely. Enemies have 0 Armour by default and it can go into the negatives. At -1000 Armour a target takes 16.5% increased Necrotic Damage, while at -4000 Armour it takes 40%. With the amount of hits the build has, the stacks ramp up quickly.
- Penetration: Three Plagues grants 24% Necrotic Penetration.
- 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.
- Brittle Bones: This Node in Bone Curse provides a Cull. Great for Bossing.
- 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.
- Endurance: A defensive mechanic that allows you to take up to 60% less Damage while below a certain Health threshold. Due to the Low Life nature of the build, endurance has insane value for this build. Your base Endurance Threshold is 20% of your total Health by default.
- Bone Armor: This buff grants 10% Damage Reduction by default while active. Easy to keep up while mapping thanks to Bone Curse's Marrow Thief Node.
- Intelligence: 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 far away from you.
- 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.
- Health: This build can stack an insanely high Health pool that is very effective when combined with all the other defensive layers the Lich has. Acolytes have access to Large Immortal Idols with %Health; not all Classes have access to these amazing Idols! The more Health you have, the better the buffs granted by Death Seal's Desperate Shroud Node are.
- Armour Mitigation: This build can get really high Armour. Just with the implicit Armour from your gear, Soul Feast's Toxic Craving Node, Death Seal's Desperate Shroud Node and Reaper Form's Soul Shroud Node you reach 50% to 75%+ Mitigation.
- Spell Leech: 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.
- Chill and Slow: Are Ailments that greatly reduce the Action and Movement Speed of your enemies. They are must haves on most builds, especially once you reach hard content with insane speed modifiers.
- Frailty: This Ailment reduces the Damage dealt by enemies by 6% for 4 seconds. Stacks 3 times.
- Ward and Ailment Cleansing on Potion Use: Cleanse all Ailments on Potion use.
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. As your gear gets better, remember to hide the rules that are no longer useful to avoid screen clutter.
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 Hungering Souls Lich is a balanced powerhouse capable of obliterating all the content in the game. It has good AoE, 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.
- Manipulate the forces of the afterlife with Hungering Souls, Bone Curse and Soul Feast. The first one is mainly specced for high single target DPS while the other two are combined to AoE clear.
- 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.
- This build can be very Mana intensive, make sure you invest into Mana Regeneration.
- The build has access to two great Movement Skills: unspecced Transplant and Reap.
- Harvested Legions is vital to trigger Hungering Souls's Grave Bond and Unholy Trinity Nodes.
- While they are not mandatory, Grimoire of Necrotic Elixirs, Marina's Lost Soul and Omnis are great Uniques that you want to get to scale the build to its full potential.
Credits
Written by Lizard_IRL.
Reviewed by McFluffin.