Stygian Coal Lich Guide
Last Updated:April 11, 2025|Changelog
Welcome to the Stygian Coal Lich Guide. This Lich transforms into its horrific Reaper Form to unleash a barrage of deadly Necrotic Stygian Beams. Hit your enemies with Rip Blood to empower yourself and generate Mana and obliterate everything around you.
Turn Drain Life into a DPS powerhouse thanks to the Stygian Coal Unique Catalyst. Death Seal provides powerful buffs and releases pulsing Waves of Death around you while it's active that kill any enemies near you. The build has great mobility thanks to Reap and Transplant.
This setup NEEDS Stygian Coal to function.
Additionally, Items like Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros, Mad Alchemist's Ladle, Orian's Descent, 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 can challenge all the content in the game. 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 NEEDS Stygian Coal. Check our Unique Item Farming Guide for tips!
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.
- Splatter helps visually when aiming Rip Blood in the fray of battle.
- 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
- Occultist's Mind provides tons of Mana.
- 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.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Transform into Reaper Form.
- Cast Drain Life when its off Cooldown.
- Spam Rip Blood to regain Mana.
- Use Death Seal for the buffs it provides when its up.
- Use Reap and Transplant to juke enemy attacks.
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. Learn your limits and use the build's Spell Leech effectively to stay alive!
- 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 Stygian Coal Catalyst. This Unique is mandatory for the build as it turns Drain Life into a DPS powerhouse. Aim for T7 Spell Critical Strike Chance when you find it with Legendary Potential.
- Prioritize T5 Level of Drain Life on your Body Armor to invest more Points into its Skill Tree. You only need T5 to grab all the Damage related nodes.
- Stack as much Intelligence as you can and get a Mad Alchemist's Ladle. A well rolled Orian's Descent is another substantial DPS upgrade.
- Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros is an amazing option, as it provides many valuable base stats.
- Grasp of the Blood Mage is amazing for both defense and offense. Slam T7 Intelligence 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 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.
- Seed of Ekkidrasil allows to scale survivability with Mana. This is only recommended if you are struggling with survivability, as it can cause Mana sustain problems that lower your DPS output.
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
- Mana
- % 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
Scaling Tips
- Turn Drain Life into a DPS powerhouse thanks to the Stygian Coal Unique Catalyst. This Item allows you to turn your Mana pool into a Damage Multiplier and further enhances the DPS value of stacking Intelligence.
- 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: Reaper Form's Haunting 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Seed of Ekkidrasil allows to scale survivability with Mana. This is only recommended if you are struggling with survivability, as it can cause Mana sustain problems that lower your DPS output.
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 Stygian Coal Lich is a horrific powerhouse that performs well in endgame. It has amazing single target DPS and decent survivability thanks to its defensive layers.
- Turn Drain Life into a DPS powerhouse thanks to the Stygian Coal Unique Catalyst.
- Transform into your Reaper Form and stay in combat to keep it up as long 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.
- Items like Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros, Mad Alchemist's Ladle, Orian's Descent, 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.