Lich Leveling Guide
Last Updated:April 11, 2025|Changelog
This Lich leveling build melts her foes with poison using Spirit Plague, Wandering Spirits and Aura Of Decay. Aura Of Decay and Reaper Form apply poison passively, meaning this build has great clearing capabilities despite it's limited mobility. Vile Tide enables this build by scaling the poison penetration for each stack of poison.
The Lich plays at mid range of monsters as it destroys them by the time they come too close. If you are in a dangerous situation, you can rely on the extra health pool of Reaper Form, while reducing your damage taken with Death Seal. In terms of recovery, the Lich specializes in leeching off its damage. You get tons of leech through the passive tree and combined with its high damage, this results in a large amount of recovery.
Overall, the Poison Lich is an amazing leveling build, as it provides insane damage, defense and recovery. It also scales really well into the end-game with powerful item bases and passive tree points. This combination makes Lich leveling look easy.
Check out the Campaign Guide for an in depth breakdown of the campaign.
Gameplay
As we level the power of skills evolve, with some becoming stronger while others get weaker. To account for this, we transition from a setup that is optimized for early game to one that is more suited to tackling endgame content.
Early Setup
Use this setup until you unlock your Mastery and are level 20.
- Use Rip Blood then replace it with Spirit Plague.
- Use Wandering Spirits on cooldown for clear.
- Summon your Summon Bone Golem to take the aggro away from you.
- On bosses, use Bone Curse for extra damage.
- Use Transplant to move quickly through the chapters.
Final Setup
Respec Rip Blood for Reaper Form and spec Spirit Plague in the third slot.
- Use Wandering Spirits on cooldown for clear.
- Use Spirit Plague for single target and clear.
- Use Reaper Form and Death Seal on cooldown, without them up the build doesn't work properly.
- Only use Aura Of Decay once you have specced into it.
- Before switching to another area you can let Reaper Form fade as it refreshes its cooldown when entering a new area.
Key Leveling Notes
- Keep your character at the area level by killing monsters.
- To use this guide, you need to maintain at most a 5 level difference with the area.
- Press C to open the character sheet to find your level and TAB to find the area level.
- Only collect loot that serves as an upgrade.
- The loot filter reveals many items that might not be an upgrade for your character.
- If your inventory is full, stick gear with high value affixes in your stash and sell the rest.
- Don't sell gear that has high value affixes to a vendor.
- Instead, keep it to use later or destroy it with a Rune of Shattering or Rune of Removal.
- Always get the best weapon you can.
- Weapons are a core part of your power and getting a higher level base boosts your damage significantly.
- Early on, you can buy them at the
Gambler NPC in the Council Chamber town and in the End of Time town. - After level 40, they don't sell you higher item bases.
- If you want to enter the Monolith of Fate early, unlock all the passive points and idol slots from quests first.
- By the time you complete chapter 7, you will be ready to tackle the Monolith of Fate content.
- Crafting is powerful and important for enhancing your gear.
- Press F and place your item in the crafting interface to level up its affixes and craft new ones!
- Adding health or vitality on a few empty affix slots can increase your HP by a significant amount!
If you need help with crafting, check the Beginner Crafting Guide.
Skills and Passives
Passives and Skills provide powerful effects that dictate the playstyle of a Class and its Masteries. Remember that you can allocate Passives in the first half of any Mastery regardless of the one you chose.
Click on the Arrows at the top and on the Bar at the bottom to see Passive and Skill Trees Progression
Gearing and Side Quests Step by Step
Itemization is a vital aspect of your journey in Last Epoch. While prefixes and suffixes matter, what sets Last Epoch apart is the power of item bases. Many items have potent implicit attributes that can rival or even surpass modifiers.
Level 1 to 10
Items
- On the Blighted Root Staff of Conflagration prioritize Spell Damage and Chance to Ignite on Hit.
- Imbued Silver Ring of Deflection is the best source of movement speed early on.
- Use Scholar's Skull Cage of Deflection, Imbued Brass Amulet of Conflagration and Scholar's Defiled Bones of Deflection for extra damage early on.
- On Vital Leather Boots of Deflection, prioritize Movement Speed and Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed to enhance your mobility.
Side Quests
- Storeroom Sabotuers for 1
Passive point. - Evacuation Quest for 1 Passive point.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Level 11 to 25
Items
- Start equipping Idols with Vitality, any type of resistance, Health and Shared Poison Damage.
- Blighted Gold Ring of Deflection provides significant elemental resistances, outshining other options at this level.
- Avarice gives you a decent chunk of elemental resistances and leech.
Side Quests
- Erza's Ledger Quest for 1 Passive point and Avarice.
- Don't talk to the Gambler NPC before completing this quest, otherwise you can't get Avarice.
- The Upper District Quest for 1 Passive point.
- An Ancient Hunt for extra
Idol slots. - The Lesser Refuge Quest for 2 Passive point.
- The Corrupted Lake Quest for 1 Passive point and extra Idol slots.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Level 26 to 40
Items
- Acolyte's Witch Robes of Deflection has a nice Cast Speed implicit. Useful to apply more Poison stacks on bosses.
- Toxic Spine Rod of the Scorpio is the best weapon base for this build.
Side Quests
- Hidden Gems Quest for 1 Passive point.
- The Sapphire Tablet Quest for 1 Passive point and extra Idol slots.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Level 41 to 58
Items
- Blighted Bone Amulet of Deflection is the best amulet base in the game as it gives a lot of resistances, which gives you more space for suffixes on your gear.
- Toxic Spidersilk Sash of the Giant is a powerful base that helps you fix your Cold res when combined with Vital Heoborean Boots of Sparks.
- On Scholar's Plated Gauntlets of the Feast, try to get Increased Leech Rate. It significantly increases your survivability.
Side Quests
- A Heoborean Cure Quest for extra Idol slots.
- Liberating the Nomads Quest for extra Idol slots.
- After defeating the Frostroot Warden boss and completing chapter 7 quests, you have reached the cap of 15 Passive points and 8 Idol slots. You can dive into the Monolith of Fate or you can choose to finish the campaign for a reward of +1 to all attributes.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Early Monolith
Items
Important At this point, you have access to most of the best item bases in the game. Your upgrades come from prefixes and suffixes on items instead of the implicits.
Here is a recap of the best item bases :
- Weapon : Spine Rod
- Helmet : Revenant Mask or Burial Mask
- Body Armour : Coven Robes, Revenant Plate or Burial Plate
- Belt : Spidersilk Sash or Praetorian Belt
- Boots : Heoborean Boots and Solarum Greaves
- Gloves : Plated Gauntlets
- Amulet : Bone Amulet
- Rings : Gold Ring or Opal Ring
- Relic : Runed Bones or Cursed Bones
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Monolith Progression
After beating the Abomination timeline boss and completing your first timeline, you have the choice to go between The Stolen Lance timeline and The Black Sun timeline. Go for The Black Sun timeline.
You want to do timelines on the right-hand-side of the Monolith progression as they provides more relevant Blessings for your character progression.
Level progression includes 1-10, 11-25, 26-40, 41-58 and Early Monolith, scroll to find the correct tab.
Lich Uniques
If you are lucky you might get a Rune of Ascendance while leveling. Use this first on boots to get unique boots such as Advent of the Erased, Eterra's Path or Transient Rest.
Keep an eye out for useful Uniques such as Arboreal Circuit, Legacy of the Quiet Forest, Isadora's Tomb Binding, Prism Wraps,Woven Flesh, Transient Rest and Eterra's Path.
Gear Stats Priorities
Best Prefixes
- Level of Spirit Plague, Level of Wandering Spirits, Level of Reaper Form, Level of Aura Of Decay and Level of Death Seal
- Poison Damage and Damage Over Time
- Cast Speed
- Poison Penetration
- Poison Damage And Poison Resistance
- Vitality
- Damage Leeched as Health While Transformed
Best Suffixes
- Chance to Poison on Hit
- Poison Penetration and Minion Poison Penetration
- Health
- Hybrid Health
- Fire Resistance, Lightning Resistance, Cold Resistance, Elemental Resistance, Physical Resistance, Necrotic Resistance and Void Resistance
- Health
- Chance to Chill on Hit
- Chance to apply Frailty on Hit
- Chance to Slow on Hit
- Armour
- Dodge Rating
Idols
- Increased Poison Damage while Aura of Decay is active
- Increased Damage Over Time while you have an Ailment Overload
- Damage While Transformed
- Poison Chance On Spell Hit
- Increased Aura of Decay Area
- Damage Over Time while at Low Health
- Health
- Healing Effectiveness
- Health
- Health
- Vitality
- Damage Leeched as Health While Transformed
- Damage Over Time Taken While Transformed
- Health Regen And Damage Taken Over Time
Loot Filter
Loot Filters are critical in Last Epoch. Highlighting all the related valuable Item Bases, Affixes, Uniques and Idols is crucial to your character's progression. As your gear gets better, remember to hide the rules that are no longer useful to avoid screen clutter.
Link : Download Lootfilter
Learn how to load and make Filters with our Loot Filter Guide.
Summary
This Lich leveling build shines in its offensive capabilities. It melts everything in its way, making it a very solid mastery to play during the campaign.
- Use Rip Blood as your single target until you unlock Spirit Plague.
- Use Wandering Spirits on cooldown for clear.
- Use Spirit Plague for single target and clear.
- Use Reaper Form and Death Seal on cooldown, without them up the build doesn't work properly.
- Only use Aura Of Decay once you have specced into it.
- Before switching to another area you can let Reaper Form fade as it refreshes its cooldown when entering a new area.
- Always change your staff to the best base possible, until level 38. After this level look only for Spine Rod.
- Cap your Physical Resistance early to make the campaign look easy.
What's Next?
Congratulations, you completed the campaign and your first 3 Monoliths Timelines! What awaits you is unlocking Empowered Monolith after pushing through The Reign of Dragons, Spirits of Fire, The Age of Winter and The Last Ruin Timelines and activating the beacon in the middle of them. Then you can dive into dungeons, empower your character further and test your limits at the Arena leaderboard.
Check out our Lich Guides and find the perfect Lich Endgame build for you.
Explore the Monolith of Fate with our Beginner Guide and learn how to farm Dungeons.
Credits
Written by Terek.
Reviewed by Tenkiei.