Lich Chaos Bolts Harvest Endgame Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.0)

Our base class is the Acolyte, which acts as a generic spell caster and summoner. Our character will be offered an opportunity to select an Advanced Mastery once we have completed the first act of the campaign. Each base class has three possible masteries to choose from. For the Acolyte, we have access to the Mastery Tree Passives for Necromancers, Lich and Warlock. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Acolyte Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

Lich as our advanced class for the build. We will utilize the majority of our Passive Points for the Lich Passive tree, with minimal points in the Acolyte tree. The Lich passives will focus around increases to Necrotic Damage, Cast Speed and Critical Hit modifiers. To help round the build out and unlock  Chaos Bolts, we will be taking additional points in the Warlock tree. These points will focus on defensive gains and our Mana pool.

• 8 points into Forbidden Knowledge: Intelligence and Necrotic Resistance.
• 6 points into Blood Aura: Increased damage for you and Golems.
• 1 point into Mania of Mortality: Traversal node.
• 5 points into Unnatural Preservation: Large gains to Ward Retention, Necrotic Resistance, and Poison Resistance.

Our base class is the Acolyte, which acts as a generic spell caster and summoner. Our character will be offered an opportunity to select an Advanced Mastery once we have completed the first act of the campaign. Each base class has three possible masteries to choose from. For the Acolyte, we have access to the Mastery Tree Passives for Necromancers, Lich and Warlock. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Acolyte Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

Lich as our advanced class for the build. We will utilize the majority of our Passive Points for the Lich Passive tree, with minimal points in the Acolyte tree. The Lich passives will focus around increases to Necrotic Damage, Cast Speed and Critical Hit modifiers. To help round the build out and unlock  Chaos Bolts, we will be taking additional points in the Warlock tree. These points will focus on defensive gains and our Mana pool.

• 10 points into Apocrypha: Intelligence and Mana Regen.
• 5 poinst into Dance with Death: Increased damage, with a larger bonus at low Health.
• 5 points into Grasp of Fate: Increased Necrotic Damage.
• 5 points into Mental Cacophony: Mana and Ward Retention.
• 8 points into Crippling Insight: Intelligence gain..
• 8 points into Three Plagues: Necrotic Penetration.
• 5 points into Deathbringer: Increased Cast Speed and Critical Strike Chance.
• 5 points into Darkguard: Increased Critical Strike Chance, as well as Ward generated per Critical Hit.
• 10 points into Necrotic Energy: Added Melee Necrotic Damage.
• 5 points into Clairvoyant Insight: Critical Strike Multiplier.
• 2 points into Ageless Ascetic: Bonuses to Cast Speed, Movement Speed, and Damage Leech.

Our base class is the Acolyte, which acts as a generic spell caster and summoner. Our character will be offered an opportunity to select an Advanced Mastery once we have completed the first act of the campaign. Each base class has three possible masteries to choose from. For the Acolyte, we have access to the Mastery Tree Passives for Necromancers, Lich and Warlock. Upon selecting a Mastery and placing 20 Passive Points into the Acolyte Tree, you'll then be able to place Passive Points into the Mastery Trees.

Lich as our advanced class for the build. We will utilize the majority of our Passive Points for the Lich Passive tree, with minimal points in the Acolyte tree. The Lich passives will focus around increases to Necrotic Damage, Cast Speed and Critical Hit modifiers. To help round the build out and unlock  Chaos Bolts, we will be taking additional points in the Warlock tree. These points will focus on defensive gains and our Mana pool.

• 5 points into Soul Stealer: Increased Mana Regen, but also provides a chance per Curse on the target to gain Mana on hit.
• 8 points into Occultist's Mind: Intelligence gains, and added Mana per Intelligence point.
• 5 points into Harrowing Armor: Taken specifically for the increased Armor per Curse on the target bonus.
• 5 points into Dark Protections: Ward per second, as well as 2% less damage per Curse on the enemy.
• 2 points into Spirit Leech: Extra Leech, with a bonus against Cursed enemies.

In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.

 Chaos Bolts automates nearly our entire build for us. Through this skill, we automate the casting of  Rip Blood,  Bone Curse, and most importantly  Harvest. This is the only manually casted damage-dealing skill used in the entire build. Our main focus for Chaos Bolts will be to increase Cast Speed.

• 3 points into Abrupt Chaos: Increased Casting Speed, and Chaos Bolts travel faster.
• 4 points into Doom's Vindication: Damage boosts, and a bonus to damage against Cursed enemies.
• 1 point into Reaper of Mayhem: Grants a chance to proc  Harvest per Dexterity. For this build, we will aim for around 30 - 40 Dexterity.
• 1 point into Exacted Libation: Grants a chance to proc  Rip Blood per Intelligence For this build, we will have more than 100 Intelligence and this should proc at the highest rate possible.
• 2 points into Devour the Damned: Health and Mana gains per hit against Cursed enemies.
• 1 point into Cursed Blood: Refreshes Curse duration on Hit, and refunds more Health per Curse on an enemy.
• 1 point into Another Affliction: Automates  Bone Curse when you hit a Cursed enemy with Chaos Bolts.
• 1 point into Seed of Chaos : Adds a 10% chance to recast Chaos Bolts when you hit a Cursed enemy, but only if they're at least 5 meters away.
• 3 points into Pandemonium: 39% chance for larger Chaos Bolts to be cast.

In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.

 Harvest is the main damage dealer in this build. It is proc'd off Chaos Bolts, and can proc three times a second. The proc chance scales off Dexterity, and will come entirely from gear affixes. Due to how this skill procs, there's a careful balance between Cast Speed and Dexterity that needs to be taken into consideration in order to maximize DPS output. The higher your Cast Speed, theoretically will lower the necessity for Dexterity as you will be hitting that three casts a second threshold much easier. Early in the gearing process, more Dexterity will be preferred in order to make sure you get Harvest off as needed. Later on you can pull some Dexterity off gear and replace it with other necessary attributes, such as Intelligence, which adds 1 Melee Necrotic Damage to the base value of Harvest per point, rather than the normal scaling of 4% Increased Damage most other skills use.

No matter what, it is unlikely you will want less than 30 Dexterity to make the build feel smooth. Below this amount of Dexterity, the rotation may feel clunky, and the damage output will most likely not be consistent.

• 3 points into Mind Harvest: Adds Ward generation when you hit Cursed enemies.
• 1 point in Mirror Soul: Grants Ward based on maximum Health when you hit a Cursed enemy.
• 3 points in Great Scythe: Increases the area that Harvest deals damage in.
• 3 points into Symbol of Loss: Harvest deals extra damage against Cursed enemies.
• 3 points in Spectral Whetstone: Adds base Critical Strike Chance to Harvest.
• 5 points in Learned Weakness: Increases global Critical Strike Chance by 50%.
• 2 points in Steal Youth: Extra Movement Speed when you land critical hits.

In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.

In order to add sustain to the build,  Rip Blood is proc'd off  Chaos Bolts. By the time you are ready for Empowered Monoliths, your Intelligence should be somewhere above 80, if not at 100. This will ensure consistent Blood Rip casts. Blood Rip costs zero Mana, so it won't cut into our resources at all. It is just a nice bonus to add to the build. Early on, before you get enough Leech, you may want to run Rip Blood as a source of Health. However, later on, you should invest the singular point into Arcane Fortress in order to build up our Ward shield. It is up to the player on making this distinction and when they are comfortable making the change. For an example, we have alloted points specifically with Ward generation in mind.

• 2 points into Arcane Absorption: Traversal node.
• 1 point into Rip Spirit: Rip Blood is converted to Necrotic.
• 1 point into Arcane Fortress: Blood Orbs now grant Ward instead of Health.
• 3 points into Hemomancer: Traversal node.
• 3 points into Thirst: Reduces the Mana cost to zero.
• 5 points into Splatter: Rip Blood has a 100% chance to splatter and deal AoE damage.
• 5 points into Quenching: Blood Orbs travel faster and grant more Ward.
• 1 point into Hematology: Blood Orbs grants more Ward per Intelligence.

In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.

 Bone Curse is yet another automated spell cast from  Chaos Bolts. The requirements for this is not based off main attribute points like  Rip Blood and  Harvest were. Instead, this relies on an enemy already being Cursed through other means. Since the majority of curses are out of our reach as Lich, we will be relying on  Mortality's Grasp to inflict Marked For Death. There is a 6 second cooldown on Bone Curse automating off Chaos Bolts, so even a low roll on the unique gloves is more than fine to take advantage of the effect.

The purpose of  Bone Curse is to add Kill Threshold, apply Marked For Death in an AoE to all nearby enemies, and to provide a damage increase to hits dealt while Bone Curse is active. This skill will greatly speed up our mapping speed, allowing us to mow down mobs quickly.

• 5 points into Conflation: Amplifies the size of Bone Curse by 150%.
• 1 point into Sigil of Mortality: Casts Marked For Death on enemies hit by Bone Curse.
• 4 points into Reaper's Mark: Marked for Death now lasts longer.
• 1 point into Misery: Converts Bone Curse into a Necrotic spell.
• 5 points into Iron Maiden: 50% more damage.
• 3 points into Brittle Bones: Additional damage and Killl Threshold.
• 2 points into Crippling Anguish: Adds a 4 second Slow to enemies hit by Bone Curse.

In this section, we will break down each skill and highlight the key passives we have selected to make the skill shine in the build. While some of these skills do allow for some variation to exist depending on your own custom choices, we recommend utilizing the skill trees as presented until you have a strong understanding of the build itself.

 Reaper Form, while a transformation skill, is mainly used as a way for us to increase our stats. This ability will bolster our Critical Hit Chance and Critical Multiplier, increase our base damage, increase our Cast Speed, and also provide us the ability to increase our Movement Speed after kills.

• 1 point into Mistress of Decay: Slows the decay ramp up from having Reaper Form active.
• 1 point into Soul for a Soul: Traversal node.
• 4 points into Reaper's Curse: Increases damage and Critical Hit Chance. Adds the drawback of losing Health on kill.
• 2 points into Death Comes Quickly: 50% chance to gain Swiftness on kill. You can get 10 stacks of this at maximum. (This was removed, points will be redistributed when the build is updated.)
• 3 points into Rapid Destruction: 30% Cast Speed increase.
• 4 points into Deathtouch Scythe: Added Necrotic Damage.
• 5 points into Executioner: Additional Critical Multiplier.