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PoE 2 Build

0.3 UPDATE Waggle's Chaos DoT Lich endgame

Witch

Lich

End Game

Verified

0.3 TTE

By Waggle

Updated on Nov 20, 2025

Nov 20, 2025

Build Overview

**IMPORTANT 0.3 UPDATES/WIP**

GLOVES/BOOTS/FOCUS UPDATED FOR MINMAX GEAR SETUP WITH NEW 0.3 STUFF!

Eldritch Empowerment no longer affects Dark Effigy due to the wording change on the node, but it's probably still the best 4th ascendancy option since it will still boost Essence Drain.

There is a new desecrated mod for focus that provides +1 spell totem, BIG dps boost for Dark Effigy

Almost all of the changes from 0.2 to 0.3 have to do with support gem stuff, make sure to check the gem section.

Passive tree looks like it will be mostly the same as 0.2, should be safe to follow.

Early maps/Early 15 gear should also be about the same, only exception is finding an extra 30 spirit to fit in Ravenous Swarm could be very good as new source of poison.

New permanent stat upgrade choice quests probably take attributes when able, resists also fine, movement speed also fine.

A caster build centered around Essence Drain and Contagion, with Dark Effigy for extra single target/boss damage. Huge amounts of ES for defense & very mobile against bosses thanks to high damage uptime on DoTs & totems.

*Act 3 venom vial quests -> stun threshold in A3

FOR EARLY GAME/CAMPAIGN GUIDE, CHECK https://mobalytics.gg/poe-2/builds/waggle-lich-leveling-build

Build Variants

Min-max endgame

Early t15 mapping

Early mapping

High investment, with most gear in the multiple divine orbs price range. Fully capable of all max difficulty pinnacle content & heavily juiced maps.

Equipment

Min-max endgame

Early t15 mapping

Early mapping

Set 1

Set 2

*0.3 updates*

GLOVES/BOOTS/FOCUS UPDATED FOR MINMAX GEAR SETUP WITH NEW 0.3 STUFF!

There is a new desecrated mod for focus that provides +1 spell totem, BIG dps boost for Dark Effigy

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gearing Priorities:

Atziri's Disdain has extreme value & synergy with the Lich ascendancy, at this point you should have one corrupted for 2 sockets, or for boosted ES/ES bypass modifiers.

At this level of gear you should be max elemental resistances, and near max (60%+ IMO) chaos resistance. You will also want an amulet with 30 spirit to run all your reservation skills. (technically you can bypass this currently by assigning Convalescence to your weapon swap, but there are some bugs making this more viable than it may be in the future when it is fixed)

Getting a big ES chest is a good choice of first big spend, as you really need a strong rare to justify replacing Waveshaper as a budget friendly item. Vile Robe has a fair bit more ES, but the mana regeneration on Flowing Raiment may make it a better choice unless you hit really good regen rolls elsewhere.

+gem level modifiers are king for damage, you want to have all the ones you can (+5 chaos on wand, +3 all spells on amulet, +2 all spells on focus). After that I prioritize cast speed slightly above spell/chaos damage, but they are very similar.

Wand stat priority: +Chaos spells > Cast Speed > Spell/Chaos Damage > Gain Extra LIGHTNING (enables shocks with totem) > Mana Regeneration

You can keep running Wondertrap instead of rare boots if you prefer the item rarity.

Things to pay attention to:

1) Mana regeneration becomes increasingly important as you push gem levels to their maximum (my character with level 33 Essence Drain & 32 Dark Effigy has ~400 mana per second before Arcane Surge). At the extreme end, it is also probably mandatory to get at least 1 item with some extra maximum mana, ideally on a ring. Get mana regeneration where ever you are able.

2) Ingenuity really shines if you are able to get 2 rings with 5 modifiers -> life, cast speed, chaos damage, and 2 more suffixes (resists/str/int/mana regen). Otherwise a rare belt with life + triple resists is very solid.

3) Amulet anoint: Reverberation is very good for clear (and relatively cheap), boosting contagion spread radius, but can be swapped out if desired for more damage/defense focused nodes like Spiral into Insanity, Calibration, or Spaghettification.

Skill Gems

Min-max endgame

Early t15 mapping

Early mapping

Support Gem Requirements:

Str 40

Dex 40

Int 95

Expand all

Essence Drain

Dark Effigy

Contagion

Despair

Blasphemy

Withering Presence

Convalescence

Sigil of Power

Bonestorm

Ravenous Swarm

^Support gems for each skill are generally listed in order of priority above^

6L Gem priority: Dark Effigy, Essence Drain, Contagion.

Quality priority: Contagion, Temporal Chains, Despair, Essence Drain, rest roughly equal.

GEM NOTES:

Ravenous Swarm allows you to poison with needing the support gem for Dark Effigy, but you will need an extra 30 spirit from gear to enable it (or 20 if you remove the Clarity I support from Withering Presence). If you are using this, you can replace Poison II from your totem with Chaos Mastery, Urgent Totems III, or Deliberation (unsure if this gem works with totem).

Can swap out Chain & Intense Agony from Essence Drain in exchange for Drain Ailments & Deliberation for tougher bosses if you need a small damage boost.

You can (and probably should) keep Contagion very low level (as low as level 1) once you start having any issues with sustaining mana. However once you 6L the gem and add Arcane Surge, you need to level it back up, aim for a mana cost of just over 1/3 of your total mana pool.

Don't forget to quality your Chiming Staff as this adds quality to Sigil of Power, giving it more AoE.

Bonestorm exists solely to get us back to low-life if we die (done by equipping Visage of Ayah & holding bonestorm until <35% life), and the support gems are purely to increase the life cost

*AS OF 0.3 YOU ALSO N EED TO MAKE SURE TO UNSPEC Enhanced Barrier IN ORDER TO GET TO 0 ENERGY SHIELD* alternative you can use a double item swap with Mask of the Stitched Demon and Titanrot Cataphract and you won't have to unspec any nodes.

Passive Tree

Min-max endgame

Early t15 mapping

Early mapping

main:

123

set 1:

set 2:

Ascendancy order:

1) Soulless Form

2) Eternal Life (as soon as you have Atziri's Disdain and/or around 3k total ES)

3 & 4) Rupture the Soul shines at lower DPS levels (eventually replaced by the following 2), Crystalline Phylactery once you have a strong jewel, Eldritch Empowerment once you feel your ES pool is big enough.

For jewels you ideally want %ES and cast speed on each jewel, and at least 3 with bonus stun threshold from ES. Wither effect is the strongest DPS stat for single target, and I recommend getting at least 1 jewel with ES recharge rate & 1 with faster start of ES recharge.

If you feel the totem nodes aren't necessary (they are mostly for the 60% extra totem life), you can instead use those points to grab Mental Alacrity.

The secondary/weapon swap passives (the green lines on the tree) are purely for boosting the AoE & duration of Sigil of Power, with a few extra ES nodes so that we dont lose too much ES swapping back and forth.

How it Plays

WHY LOW LIFE

One feature of Eternal Life is that we can manipulate our life pool to different percentages of our max HP, and it will stay locked in place so long as we have ES. In this build we intentionally get our character to "low life" (35% of max HP or lower). This is done for a few benefits: 20% cast speed from Final Barrage, 50% item rarity from Wondertrap, and 30% faster start of ES recharge from Quick Response. It may not seem like much, and we are talking about intentionally removing 1,000 or more life, but it's worth it. In most cases, if you lose all your ES you are almost certainly doomed anyway, especially because you will no longer be able to cast any spells due to Eldritch Empowerment.

HOW TO GET LOW LIFE

*AS OF 0.3 YOU ALSO N EED TO MAKE SURE TO UNSPEC Enhanced Barrier IN ORDER TO GET TO 0 ENERGY SHIELD* alternatively you can use a double item swap with Mask of the Stitched Demon and Titanrot Cataphract and you won't have to unspec any nodes.

To get to low-life is simple, we just need to spend our HP on a skill to drop it below the desired amount. However we must first remove our ES otherwise Eternal Life prevents us from doing so. The easiest way to solve this is to equip Visage of Ayah, which has Eldritch Battery which removes all our ES. Then you simply cast your Bonestorm (chosen due to being a channeled spell to get around the ES cost on Eldritch Empowerment) with Lifetap until your HP is low enough, and re-equip your normal helmet. Once you have done this, you should only need to re-do the process if you die.

General map clear is done with Essence Drain & Contagion, applying and spreading the DoTs. You want to cast ED first to let it benefit from Intense Agony, and because contagion will auto-prioritize enemies with ED on them. However on squishy mobs, sometimes casting ED first will kill them before contagion can be applied, so you need to reverse the order. Mostly a thing you get used to while playing.

For tanky rares and bosses you will want to place your Dark Effigy totems & Despair cursed ground. Dark effigy fires more projectiles for each DoT on the target, and for that we have Essence Drain, Contagion, Decaying Hex from despair, and poison from Envenom on the totem itself. Sigil of Power is also a huge damage boost for bosses so long as you remain in the circle.

Be mindful that unlike hit based builds, you will be dealing with monsters that can stay alive a little longer, as your DoTs take them out. This means we are more prone to taking hits, and need to be mindful of our ES recharge and when to use Convalescence. Luckily we have a huge ES pool so we are able to eat quite a lot of damage.

How it Works

**Due to how Soulless Form changes our mana regeneration to be based off our life, Chaos Inoculation is NOT an option like it would be for other ES builds.**

Lich provides huge defense and mana regeneration to the build through Soulless Form and Eternal Life. Soulless form converts the BASE mana regen to be calculated from life instead, but otherwise can be scaled the same as normal mana regeneration. Normal base mana regen is 4% of max mana per second, so at 2,000 life and 6% of life per second, we have the same base regen of a character with 3,000 mana, which is MUCH harder to get than 2,000 life. The other line about damage bypassing energy shield combos with eternal life, making it effectively damage reduction, since our life cant actually change. Between Soulless Form, Atziri's Disdain, and Heavy Buffer, we essentially get 25% damage reduction as long as our ES is > 0.

Essence Drain and Contagion is a 2 button combo for clearing, which can be slower than a 1 button clear, but has the potential in high density maps to continue chaining for multiple screens, giving massive value out of those 2 button presses.

Dark Effigy provides a massive boost to single target damage, but the totems are quite squishy, so be careful and try to place them out of harm's way.

Although cast speed does nothing for the actual DoTs from Essence Drain and Contagion, it does boost the DPS of Dark Effigy, and provides some very nice quality of life for clearing maps thanks to not being slowed down as much doing our 2 spell combo.