Chaos Totem Lich - League Starter / Early Endgame

This Witch Lich build focuses on levelling using Chaos Damage skills as the primary source of damage then later transitioning into a Chaos Totem Build.

This planner was originally built in 0.2.0 and has been updated for 0.3.0.

NOTE: I'l be aiming to update this in the next day or two on my day off.

The build should work just fine as so long as the supports haven't changed too drastically and it turns out there is a straight up buff in Ancestral Bond this league which makes this build stronger than before in the latter stages of the build.

I'l be sure to work on an endgame planner post launch for this build as this will require some extra knowledge before it can really be put together properly. Be sure to Favourite This Guide to keep updated in the Change Log when there are updates.

NOTE: This build is still a work in progress. If you have any questions about the build, feel free to jump in my Discord and ask me questions directly.

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I'l be live streaming most evenings (GMT) so this is a good time to come ask me questions directly!

Level 1 - 30

To start with you will need to use whatever skills are available to you before Level 31 and obtaining a Level 9 Skill Gem which is the point at which Dark Effigy becomes available to us.

Skeletal Warrior will be auto-summoned for us by having the Rattling Sceptre equipped so we can just let them do there thing and tank for us in the early game.

Cast Contagion liberally when engaging enemies to infect one or more of them so when they die it spreads all Chaos Damage Over Time Debuffs to nearby enemies.

Cast Frost Bomb under large groups of enemies or larger targets for huge demolition style AOE damage. This is excellent for clearance and for big damage on bosses when they are stationary or crowd controlled.

Essence Drain should be cast liberally to spread it's Chaos Damage Over Time Debuff to nearly enemies. This be be further boosted by casting Flame Wall and firing Essence Drain through it for Additional First Damage for each projectile that passes through it.

If a Corpse happens to be nearby Profane Ritual can be cast to Consume it and create an extra source of Chaos Damage Over Time for enemies that stand inside it's Area of Effect.

Activate Convalescence when youe Energy Shield is low or depleted to instantly start regenerating Energy Shield at your Energy Shield Recharge Rate.

Level 31+

Cast Despair to prime enemies within it's area with Decaying Hex which reduces an enemies Chaos Resistance, amplifies all Chaos Damage you inflict on them and counts as an extra Chaos Damage Over Time Debuff for our Dark Effigy projectile scaling.

Once enemies are inflicted by Despair it's time to place Dark Effigy down in a sensible location where it can setup and start attacking all enemies inflicted with Chaos Damage Over Time Debuffs that are within range.

Note: It's important to understand how Dark Effigy works as a Totem Skill and in regards to it's Projectile Scaling. Check out the Skill Info section below for further details.

Once the Dark Effigy is placed and doing it's thing it is recommended to cast Contagion on a few different enemies whilst also casting Essence Drain combine with the Envenom support to apply extra Debuffs to large groups of enemies, further boosting the projectile output of our Dark Effigy.

Profane Ritual can be cast on a nearly enemy Corpse to produce another Chaos Damage Over Time damage source to all enemies within it's Area of Effect.

A list of all the Chaos Damage Over Time Debuffs are as follows:

• Essence Drain
• Contagion
• Profane Ritual
• Decaying Hex
• Envenom

Convalescence is available as a Panic Button to quickly regenerate our Energy Shield at the recharge rate the player has when it naturally recharges. This is a very powerful Defensive Skill if used correctly.

Withering Presence automatically applies Withered to enemies that come within our Presence for extra damage.

Bind Spectre is used to automatically spawn a Tank Minion for us once it becomes available, replacing Skeletal Warrior.

Blasphemy automatically applies Temporal Chains for us to all enemies within range.

When an enemy is within range to be Culled, cast Power Siphon to Execute them.

Early Endgame

The skill rotation of the build stays the same as above with the following changes:

Sigil of Power becomes available to us by equipping a Chiming Staff to Weapon Set 2.

Aim to place Sigil of Power somewhere central to where you want to run around so you can start charging it up and give yourself plenty of area to move around whilst benefitting from the extra damage it provides if you have to avoid incoming damage. Reset the placement if it ends before the fight is over, in most cases this won't be the case.

NOTE: Make sure to assign all damage skills to Weapon Set 1 only so that when you cast an offensive skill you will automatically swap back to your main weapon and off-hand. Sigil of Power is automatically allocated to weapon set 2 as it's a skill that is attached to the staff we equip. You can leave Blasphemy and Convalescence on both Weapon Set 1 and Weapon Set 2 so these stay active regardless of what set we have equipped at any given time.

Starter Skills

On a fresh character you'l want to start with the basic skill gems available such as Skeletal Warrior / Unearth / Contagion / Frost Bomb / Flame Wall until you can get your hands on Essence Drain which will be your main caster spell even after your swap to be more Totem focused later on.

Skill Gems

Unearth is made available to us at the very start of the campaign so is taken to assist with the early stage of levelling until we can unlock some of our other skills. This does a decent amount of Area of Effect damage as well as Summons Minion Constructs which are useful to us for tanking enemies as well as for extra damage.

Contagion is an extremely potent skill which can be taken as early as Level 3 infecting enemies with a Chaos Debuff and when an enemy dies infected by this Debuff it spreads itself and all other Chaos Debuffs to nearby enemies with increased potency. Adding the Unleash support makes this a lot nicer to apply to larger groups of enemies whilst Magnified Effect is taken early on in the campaign to increase the radius which it will spread to enemies. Later on we gain access to Chaotic Freeze which to start with we'l add to Contagion because we aren't quite setup to place it where we will eventually want it to go. This allows us the ability to freeze enemies affected by Contagion when hitting them with Chaos Hit Damage. Much deeper into the campaign we will remove Magnified Effect and replace it with Swift Affliction for extra non-Ailment Damage over Time which should help with group clearance.

Frost Bomb was very strong early on for killing groups of enemies and bosses. Spell Cascade and Fast Forward can be added to further the damage output and useability which I found to be super helpful.

At Level 6 Essence Drain can be taken which will become our main caster skill and later on our main spreader skill alongside Contagion's natural ability to spread Chaos Debuffs. Although you can't stack more than one of the same Chaos Debuff at a time, Arcane Tempo is still useful to take here because Essence Drain has a Hit Damage element to it as well so it allows us to utilise that a bit more. We take Chain to be able to spread the Chaos Debuff to multiple enemies which should make getting through map areas a bit nicer. Although Scattershot got nerfed in Patch 0.2.0 it's still pretty useful early on for damage and spreading the Chaos Debuff this skill provides. It also means it spreads Hinder more effectively for us as well which helps slow down enemies a little in the early stages of the game before we can get our hands on Temporal Chains. Later down the line nearer the end of the campaign you will gain access to the new support Gambleshot which can be used as a replacement to Chain if you want a bit more damage out of Essence Drain at the cost of having a random spread effect instead of always Chaining, this is entirely up to you. The support Envenom can also be added here if you are lucky enough to unlock the extra support slots as the poison despite being an Ailment acts as another Chaos Debuff for Dark Effigy so this further outputs our damage later on.

Flame Wall is available to us from the very start of the campaign and is entirely optional to use here. It can be useful for some extra damage when firing your Essence Drain projectiles through it for some extra Added Fire Damage.

Profane Ritual is a bit more of a situational skill during the campaign that becomes available to us at Skill Gem Level 7. It requires a Corpse to cast and Consumes it when it is used so it isn't a skill you can cast on demand. If Profanity is socketed here it can do a pretty high amount of Chaos Damage and counts as another Chaos Debuff so if a Corpse just so happens to be in the right place, this will do you wonders. This becomes much more useful later on when you can expand it's radius a bit and there will be more enemy corpses to cast upon.

Convalescence which is essentially an Energy Shield Panic Button with a Duration and Cooldown on it. Use this when your Energy Shield has been depleted to Instantly Start Recharing Your Energy Shield.

Despair is used to prime enemies within it's area with Decaying Hex which counts as an extra Chaos Damage Over Time Debuff for our Dark Effigy projectile scaling. This also applies the Chaos Resistance Curse to enemies within it's area which reduces an enemies Chaos Resistance and amplifies all Chaos Damage you inflict on them. Once the support Chaotic Freeze has been socketed it will also allow all Chaos Damage to build up towards Freezing Enemies inflicted within the curses area which gives a very important source of Crowd Control to the build as well as boosting our damage through the use of Thin Ice.

Dark Effigy is placed down in a sensible location where it can setup and start attacking all enemies inflicted with Chaos Damage Over Time Debuffs that are within range. Earlier on in the campaign Overabundance is very useful for alllowing two Dark Effigy Totems to be placed, essentially doubling the damage output of the build so long as there is enough Increased Skill Duration active to make the Totems last a decent length of time. This should be used in conjunction with Ancestral Urgency allowing the placement of multiple Totems at a far quicker pace. Later on when entering the endgame system, the support Greatwood can be taken along with the Key Passive Ancestral Bond in order to gives us one larger, more powerful Totem. This is very useful at this stage of the game as it helps with the Totems Survivability and Area Of Effect.

Later on we take Blasphemy in conjunction with Temporal Chains which is a very powerful combo that allows us to slow down the Movement Speed of all surrounding enemies so long as they aren't Hexproof. This turns the Curse into an Automatic Aura with Less Effectiveness but Greater Area Of Effect. By taking Whispers of Doom we can Apply 2 Curses to enemies which is required to use this tech as well as Despair together.

Skill Info

Since Dark Effigy is a Totem Skill it takes all of the Offensive Stats Of The Player whilst retaining it's Own Defensive Stats. This means that if it's a Spell based Totem it will scale it's Cast Speed as the Player's Cast Speed is scaled. It also means that stats such as Spell Damage and Chaos Damage will also scale the damage of Dark Effigy.

On top of this, Dark Effigy has a second way to scale it's Cast Speed through the use of Unique Chaos Debuffs. There has to be at least 1x Chaos Debuff on an enemy for it to target and cast Vile Effusion Projectiles at them, scaling the number of Projectiles it fires at any given enemy during it's Cast Time by the number of Chaos Debuffs that are active on them. So if Dark Effigy has a Cast Time of 1sec. and there is 1x Debuff on an enemy, it will fire 1 Projectile per Second at the enemy. If that enemy was to have 2x Debuff on them Dark Effigy would fire 2 Projectiles per Second at the enemy.

Sigil of Power is added to Weapon Slot 2 later on in order to give us that extra damage we need for Harder Single Target Enemies. At Level 18 it gives 14% More Spell Damage Per Stage equating to 56% More Spell Damage at Stage 4. The sigil is charged up by spending mana inside the sigil so casting lots of high mana skills constantly will help a lot here.

4th April 2025 / v1.0

• Initial Planner Added

29th August 2025 / v2.0

• Build updated for 0.3.0 - The Third Edict.