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PoE 2 Build

LICH Minions 0.4 Leaguestarter

Witch

Lich

Starter

Creator

0.3 TTE

By animeprincess

LIVE

Updated on Dec 4, 2025

Dec 4, 2025

Build Overview

BUILD SUMMARY:

This guide covers my favorite way to level minions right now. It's fast, has extreme amount of boss killing potential, and has a smooth ramping power curve that feels good even in SSF with bad gear. It will carry you through the campaign and you'll have so much fun!! You can scale this into a zero button right click minion afk walking simulator with enough +minion level investment, or keep the active Gas Arrow playstyle the entire way through maps, whichever you prefer!

You can also swap over to ANY witch build after you use this to comfortably complete the campaign and early maps!

EDITOR'S NOTE:

A VIDEO GUIDE WILL BE RELEASED BEFORE 0.4 LAUNCH. FOR NOW I HAVE UPLOADED A FULL CAMPAIGN RUN WITH TIMESTAMPS.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Fast zone clearing, chunks enemy packs easily
Not too many buttons
MASSIVE damage (can instaphase and skip mechanics)
Great for 0.4 meta changes which buff monster life and lower monster density

Tight layouts are more difficult, because Skeletal Snipermay lose LOS with enemies. Use Unearth to create a protective barrier of minions in these layouts. Not really an issue in maps.

Build Variants

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Interludes

BUDGET SETUP:

The league starter budget variant focuses on easily obtainable unique gear, as well as high priority damage stats on the Sceptre, Amulet, and Helmet. The rest of the gear is generic defensive rares that aim to cap resistances, attributes, and provide as much energy shield and life as possible.

This build is ideal for new players or anyone looking to hit maps quickly and easily without investing much currency!

Equipment

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Interludes

Set 1

Set 2

Equipment Priority

Helmet

Expert Feathered Tiara

Off Hand

Blazon Crest Shield

Left Ring

Amethyst Ring

Right Ring

Prismatic Ring

Amulet

Solar Amulet

Body

Enfolding Dawn

Gloves

Expert Jewelled Gloves

Belt

Fine Belt

Boots

Expert Feathered Sandals

Main Hand

Rattling Sceptre

VENDORS REGEX:

"\d+% i.+mov|\d ch.+da|^\+.*ills$|spiri"

The code aboveis a vendor regex that will highlight items that have +levels to skills, spirit, and will highlight scepters. You should buy all white Rattling Sceptre's and transmute + aug to search for good stats, such as the ones shown in the example gear.

GEARING STAT PRIORITY (OFFENSIVE):

+ Level to Minion Skill gems

Spirit

Allies in your presence deal % increased damage

Allies in your presence have % increased attack speed

+ Level to minions skill gems rolls on the helmet, sceptre, and amulet, so make sure you check both the weapon and the armor vendors in each act! + Level to all skill gems rolls on the focus, which will also count as a + level to our minions, and is therefore also useful to us!

GEARING STAT PRIORITY (DEFENSIVE):

Maximum Energy shield

Maximum Life

Resistances

Block chance (on shield)

BUDGET UNIQUES:

Some powerful uniques we should be keeping an eye out for early on, especially if we get some lucky exalted drops, are

Trenchtimbre, replaces shield and gives you alot of damage

Enfolding Dawn, low defenses but provides ALOT of spirit

Pariah's Embrace, provides spirit (less than enfolding dawn)

Fireflower, provides up to 4 levels to our snipers

Sunsplinter, up to +3 fire skills for our snipers

Note: a rare defensive shield with high block chance is very good value, and may feel more comfortable than a Trenchtimbre.

UPGRADE LIFE AND MANA FLASKS

This build is reliant on both the life but also especially the mana flask. The spell weapon vendors sell high level flasks and its important you keep matching your character level with the highest possible life and mana flasks! They are pretty cheap in terms of gold cost. I really like the roll that gives x charges per second, and its worth using your currency if the flask is not magic already,

Skill Gems

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Interludes

Support Gem Requirements:

Str 10

Dex 5

Int 20

Expand all

Unearth

Skeletal Warrior

Skeletal Sniper

Contagion

Frost Bomb

Essence Drain

Gem Priority

SKILL PROGRESSIONS:

There are 5 separate pages that show the skills and supports you should be using, and show which acts you will be able to get them. I have also included a written explanation of *HOW* and *WHY* you should be using these spells and supports.

ACT 1 SKILL USAGE:

Rattling Sceptre in act 1 from a vendor in order to get Skeletal Warrior's. These are free minions that do not reserve any spirit, and help with supplementary damage. Last Gasp is an optional support that helps these minions tank for you much better.

When you kill a monster that is inflicted with Contagion, you can Unearth on its corpse to create a scorpion that will proliferate contagion further, and spawn MORE scorpions that also proliferate contagion. This has massive clearing power and snowballs after you get the chain going, and they will even spread it to offscreen packs since they move really quickly. We leverage this through act 1 and 2 specifically. Prolonged Duration I feels great.

Skeletal Sniper is our main minion throughout the entire campaign, and we use their active ability Gas Arrow to deal damage. Fire Attunement and Multishot I are crucial supports and should be your top priority. Fire attunement will explode the gas clouds for massive nuking and clear, and multishot creates 3 gas clouds every cast.

Frost Bomb puts exposure on single target enemies, and helps scale the Gas Arrow explosions.

Essence Drain is an optional skill that you would likely only use in act 1 and possible 2. It puts a dot on the boss to help kill him more quickly. You only ever cast frost bomb and essence drain on single target.

Passive Tree

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Interludes

main:

123

set 1:

set 2:

ACT 3 FREE LESSER JEWELLER ORB

The very first zone in act 3 (before the encampment) has a guaranteed lesser jeweller orb that we should use on our skeletal snipers. In order to get this reward, you need to clear the Orok Campsite and open the rare chest, which will drop the jeweller orb!

QUEST REWARDS:

venom crypts: 25% increased stun threshold

ASCENDANCY PROGRESSION:

1. Soulless Form

2. Necromantic Conduit

3. Crystalline Phylactery

4. Eternal Life

(details explained in "How it Works" section)

Atlas Tree

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Interludes

0.4 atlas tree coming soon...

How it Plays

This build relies on our skeletons active command ability Gas Arrow to output large nukes that will blow up the screen. We scale minion area of effect so that this ability can clear quickly. Fire Attunement support on Skeletal Sniper's will trigger the fire explosion from Gas Arrow, and a Vaal Guard Bind Spectre from Act 3 Utzaal is an alternative option to ignite the gas clouds instantly, at the cost of 50 spirit investment.

Frost Bomb and Elemental Weakness are cast on bosses because the majority of our boss damage is fire based, and these boost that damage type dramatically.

I go into more detail about every supplementary skill in the skill gem section further up in the guide.

How it Works

ASCENDANCY NOTES:

1. Soulless Form

This node changes our base mana to be equal to a % of our total life, which results in us having ALOT more base mana. This in turn will mean % mana regen on the tree is much more effective. You will never have mana problems with this allocated. This is great news because of the mana drain from the next ascendancy passive below.

2. Necromantic Conduit

Necromantic Conduit is a damage buff, which synergizes with the 'Right Hand of Darkness' notable passive skill, in order to dramatically amplify our minions damage. This powerful upside comes with the downside of 5% max mana loss per second. We can grab a bit of mana regen on the tree to help maintain our mana, and will likely have to rely on a mana pot until our 2nd ascendancy point.

3. Crystalline Phylactery

This equates to essentially 2 jewel slots, and a good amount of ES on the travel point.

4. Eternal Life

The defensive upside of eternal life kicks in with lots of energy shield gear, which we will not have on leaguestart, but will aim to scale with our gear and our passive tree as we upgrade our character.

Feel free to pop in on Twitch to ask me any questions! twitch.tv/animeprincess