Lich Drain Life Endgame Build for Last Epoch (Patch 1.1)

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, but will also invest a portion of points into the Warlock tree. The Lich passives will focus around scaling Low Life Damage, Necrotic Penetration, Intelligence, and boosting our Critical Hit Damage. To help flesh the build out, we'll be looking to use Warlock in order to add Leech, sizable amounts of Mana (used to scale damage), and provide some minor defensive scaling in the form of Ward and Armor.

• 8 points in Forbidden Knowledge: Intelligence and Necrotic Resistance.
• 8 points in Stolen Vitality: Additional Health and Poison Resistance.
• 1 point into Mania of Mortality: Traversal node.
• 3 points into Unnatural Preservation: 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, but will also invest a portion of points into the Warlock tree. The Lich passives will focus around scaling Low Life Damage, Necrotic Penetration, Intelligence, and boosting our Critical Hit Damage. To help flesh the build out, we'll be looking to use Warlock in order to add Leech, sizable amounts of Mana (used to scale damage), and provide some minor defensive scaling in the form of Ward and Armor.

• 10 points in Apocrypha: Intelligence and Mana Regen.
• 8 points in Dance with Death: Increased damage, the effect tripling when in Low Life with  Death Seal.
• 5 points in Grasp of Fate: Increased Necrotic Damage.
• 8 points in Crippling Insight: Intelligence gain.
• 8 points in Three Plagues: Necrotic Penetration.
• 4 points in Deathbringer: Increased Cast Speed and Critical Strike Chance.
• 5 points in Darkguard: Increased Critical Strike Chance, as well as Ward generated per Critical Hit.
• 10 points in Necrotic Energy: Added Spell Necrotic Damage.
• 5 points in Clairvoyant Insight: Critical Strike Multiplier.
• 2 points in Ageless Ascetic: Small boost to Attack Speed, Movement Speed, and Leech on Hit.
• 10 points in Mind Over Body: Intelligence at the cost of Health drain per second.

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, but will also invest a portion of points into the Warlock tree. The Lich passives will focus around scaling Low Life Damage, Necrotic Penetration, Intelligence, and boosting our Critical Hit Damage. To help flesh the build out, we'll be looking to use Warlock in order to add Leech, sizable amounts of Mana (used to scale damage), and provide some minor defensive scaling in the form of Ward and Armor.

• 5 points into Soul Stealer: Increased Mana Regen, but also provides a chance per Curse on the target to gain Mana on hit. For this build, both  Bone Curse and Marked For Death will be the Curses being applied to enemies.
• 8 points into Occultist's Mind: Intelligence gains, and added Mana per Intelligence point. Massively important to scale the damage in this build.
• 5 points into Harrowing Armor: Taken specifically for the increased Armor per Curse on the target bonus.

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.

 Drain Life, while usually a Damage over Time skill, has been converted to a Hit skill through  Stygian Coal. This is our main damage skill for the build, thus everything we do going forward will be an attempt to maximize the damage. The channeling aspect of Drain Life is killed through the Passive Tree in favor of a casted version that costs more Mana. Our huge Mana reserve laughs at this cost though, and  Wandering Spirits are used in tandem with this to ensure we make the Mana cost back.

• 2 points in Thoughtsteal: 20% Mana cost reduction.
• 4 points in Condemnation: Drain Life will now apply stacks of Damned to enemies it hits.
• 3 points in Unholy Mass: Drain Life scales off stacks of Damned, dealing more damage up to a 63% cap.
• 2 points in Word Of Conviction: Damned inflicted by Drain Life lasts longer.
• 1 point in Eternal Servitude:  Wandering Spirits will now remain active while using Drain Life and only disappear if Drain Life ends.
• 3 points in Ravenous: Drain Life now leeches a portion of the damage dealt.
• 2 points in Insatiable: More Health Leech, but at the cost of more Mana.
• 1 point in Dark Shackles: Drain Life is no longer a channel, instead it's casted and lasts 3 seconds.
• 2 points in Enduring Night: Drain Life lasts an extra 2 seconds, for a total of 5, but costs for Mana.

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.

 Wandering Spirits will for the most part be a cast and forget ability. Once casted, so long as you have  Drain Life active, the Spirits will persist. The ghosts do two things for the build:

1. Spirits will apply Necrotic Shred to nearby enemies as they pass through them.
2. Every time a Spirit expires, we regain 8 Mana.

• 3 points in Souls of Rage: Spirits will move faster, but this is a forced node we have to take for pathing.
• 1 point in Medium: Another pathing node.
• 1 point in Sheltering Spirits: Ward gained per Spirit, but mostly pathing node.
• 2 points in Infusing Souls: Mana gained every time a Spirit expires.
• 2 points in Spirit Swarm: Pathing node.
• 5 points in Drained Will: Spirits now shred the Necrotic Resistance off enemies they pass through.
• 5 points in Thin Veil: Spirits now reveal at a 35% increased rate.
• 1 point in Sins of the Forgotten: Last point, best used for a bit of AoE application of Damned.

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 is pretty much used as a stat stick for the build. It increases the Necrotic Spell Damage we deal, boosts our Critical Multiplier, and increases our Critical Strike Chance. Like any build using Reaper Form, you cannot be killed while under the effect of the transformation. However, as is typical, gameplay while outside of Reaper Form is considerably worse. This build can still kill things while a Human, however extra care should be taken while doing so.

• 1 point in Soul for a Soul: Pathing node.
• 4 points in Reaper's Curse: Increased Damage and Increased Critical Chance.
• 3 points in Deathtouch Scythe: Adds a base of 6 Necrotic Damage to all actions while in Reaper Form.
• 5 points in Executioner: 50% Critical Multiplier.
• 2 points in Mistress of Decay: Pathing node.
• 3 points in Harbinger of Blood: Increased Leech, which is our main form of self sustain.
• 4 points in Reaper's Ascendance: You will gain a stack of Reaper's Ascendance for every 5 seconds spent in Reaper Form. Each stack will boost your Spell Damage by 4% up to a maximum of 100%.
• 2 points in Reaper's Supremacy: Reaper Ascendancy now accumulates 80% faster.

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 will need to be applied manually in this build, but that's perfectly fine. Since  Drain Life lasts 5 seconds, you really don't have much to do in between casts. Use this time to cast Bone Curse and apply Marked For Death to enemies. Bone Curse will deal a sizable amount of damage on it's own for this build, and it comes with a nifty 12% Kill Threshold as well.

• 4 points in Conflation: Amplifies the size of Bone Curse by 120%.
• 1 point into Sigil of Mortality: Casts Marked For Death on enemies hit by Bone Curse.
• 2 points into Reaper's Mark: Pathing node.
• 1 point into Misery: Converts Bone Curse into a Necrotic spell.
• 1 point in Oppressive Gaze: Bone Curse may only be applied to one target at a time, however Marked for Death now lasts until the enemy dies.
• 5 points into Iron Maiden: 50% more damage.
• 3 points into Brittle Bones: Additional damage and Kill Threshold.
• 3 points in Defile Defenses: 60% chance to Shred Armor.

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.

 Death Seal is used almost entirely to throw us into Low Life. The effect of Death Seal is you deal more for the amount of Health you're missing. In order to make this effect consistent, we force Death Seal to put us at 33% Health for the duration it's active. This synergizes well with the Lich Mastery Passive node Dance with Death.

• 5 points in Corrupted Consciousness: Increases your damage based on how much Health you're missing.
• 3 points in Desperate Shroud: Added Armor for missing Health.
• 1 point in Deadlock: Forces your Health down to 33%, maximizing damage gains.
• 1 point in Life Tap: If you drop below 10% Health, Death Seal automatically releases.
• 1 point in Grim Scale: Increases Mana Regen while Death Seal is active at the cost of Health.
• 3 points in Moratorium: Death Seal now has a longer duration.
• 1 point in Soul Stability: Death Seal now prevents Health drain from any effect that continuously drain Health, but does not effect things like  Reaper Form.
• 1 point in The Quick And The Dead: When Death Seal releases, you gain Haste.
• 1 point in Flesh Pact: When Death Seal releases, you'll gain 35 Health per second.
• 3 points in Pustulent Presence: These points are forced, but it does grant your Stygian Beams a chance to Poison on hit.