Use your favourite features in-game with our Desktop AppLeveling (campaign) guide for a fresh start 
Essence Drain / 
Contagion Lich build. Covers campaign gear/gem progression, to get you prepared for early mapping.
*Act 3/6 venom vial quests -> stun or ailment threshold in A3, and chaos resistance in A6.
FOR ENDGAME BUILD GUIDE, CHECK https://mobalytics.gg/poe-2/builds/waggle-chaos-dot-lich
Act 1, using Essence Drain and Contagion as soon as you get them, with 
Frost Bomb and later 
Bonestorm to help with single target damage. Gear is basically whatever you find, not much crafting to do here.
Gear in Act 1 is mostly random, using whatever magic/rare pieces you find. However it can be very worthwhile to regularly check Una in town for a wand/staff with +level of chaos spells, and socket with a Lesser Iron Rune if possible.
If you want to use 
Shield Charge for mobility, make sure to grab a low level shield, as ones you find later will have too high of a stat requirement. If you have a staff or a focus with useful stats, you can put a shield on your weapon swap set to use this.
Can use Transmutes/Augments on boots to try and get movement speed, but save exalts for now.
Cold resistance can help with the final boss in Act 1, but also keep in mind that fire/lightning resistance will become useful during Act 2.
Support Gem Requirements:
Str 5
Dex 10
Int 20
Essence Drain
Contagion
Bonestorm
Withering Presence
SKILL GEM ORDER (starting from the first uncut for defeating Miller)
Tier 1: Frost Bomb > Contagion (get this from the abandoned stash in Clearfell)
Tier 3: Essence Drain > Shield Charge (important to get with a tier 3 gem for stat requirements, can also skip if not interested in using for mobility)
Tier 5: Bonestorm (replaces Frost Bomb for extra single target)
SPIRIT GEM Withering Presence
SUPPORT GEM ORDER (it is entirely possible you will not get all of these in Act 1)
Magnified Area I for Contagion
Swift Affliction for Essence Drain
Scattershot & Arcane Tempo, both for Bonestorm
Zenith for Essence Drain (can be annoying to use, need to be >90% mana when the ED hits the target) OR Chain for ED if you feel damage is fine/want easier clear.
Persistence for Withering Presence
NOTABLES ORDER
Entropy, keep going up past notable for the 2 attribute nodes to get strength for Shield Charge.
Practiced Signs
Potent Incantation
Casting Essence Drain followed by Contagion is ideal for clearing trash, as contagion will auto-target enemies afflicted by ED. However sometimes damage may be too high and you will have to reverse the order.
Frost Bomb, followed by Bonestorm, followed by 
Dark Effigy are the single target damage abilities for bosses & tanky rare mobs. Once you get a new one of these, you can remove the old one.
When using Frost Bomb for single target very early on, you can just spam Essence Drain inbetween cooldowns, for the small amount of hit damage that it provides.
Once you get Dark Effigy, single target damage becomes all about keeping your 2 totems up & all DoTs active (Dark effigy shoots more projectiles for each chaos DoT on a target). The DoTs in this build are Essence Drain, Contagion, Decaying Hex linked to 
Despair, and Envenom (you may not use this until getting a 5L totem gem).
Export this build variant directly to your game.
Become a Creator
Want to earn rewards by sharing your builds with your community?
Witch
Lich
