Last Epoch: Lich levelling guide (Season 3)

While Lich was one of the more buffed classes in Last Epoch Season 3, it's easier on the whole to level an Acolyte as a Warlock and change your Mastery as you reach endgame. However, levelling as a Lich from the get-go is viable too - if you don't mind some fiddly transformation and resource-management edge in your run. The obvious benefit to this is a smoother transition to a Flay Lich setup, which is one of the best builds in patch 1.3 (check out our Season 3 tier list for a bigger overview on what's good).

In this guide, we'll go over the best way (that we know so far) to cruise through the campaign as a Lich in Last Epoch Season 3.

Lich Levelling Skill progression in Last Epoch Season 3

Once you start out as an Acolyte, what you'll immediately notice is how Rip Blood has changed quite a bit. Its single-target DPS is worse (at least in the opening third of the campaign), but it has some real AoE now, so this will serve as your very first early-game mobbing skill. Here's the gist of our Lich levelling plan in terms of Skills, and there are some swaps to be made:

Throughout our run, we rely on Rip Blood for mobbing to some extent. Marrow Shards is another skill we unlock for the express intent of casting through Ripper Blood, which makes Ripper Blood a better-scaling DPS tool.
Up till around Lvl 50-ish, Spirit Plague will be our main monster-clearing tool with the Plague Bearer talent.
We will replace Spirit Plague with Death Seal once we build up Hungering Souls in the fifth slot passively.

Phase 1 (Lvl 1 - 50)

Rip Blood, our main skill throughout the campaign (Image via EHG)

Here's what we do pre-lvl 50:

Use Rip Blood + Wandering Spirits to get through the first Chapter
Specialize in Spirit Plague in the second slot for mobbing once you unlock that (Wandering Spirits still useful for extra DPS)
Eventually, we will spec Reaper From in the third Specialization Slot.
In the fourth slot, we will get Marrow Shards. However, we will not be casting Marrow Shards directly. Instead, we will rely on the auto-proc through Rip Blood's Carnage talent.

Hotbar and rotation - Your spam skill is always Rip Blood, but other than that, you want to have Spirit Plague as a secondary spam, Reaper Form off cooldown, and Wandering Spirits for some more area DPS when needed. The other slot is flexible: you can use either Transplant for mobility, any of your Minions if you wnat them, and Bone Curse when bossing.

Specialization Slot 1: Rip Blood

4x Arcane Absorption > 3x Gushing Wound > Blood Tether > 2x Hemomancer > 1x Volatility > Carnage > 2x Splatter > 2x Quenching > 3x Mana Feast > Coagulation

Specialization Slot 2: Spirit Plague

Before you unlock Spirit Plague, you'll be using Wandering Spirits as your second Specialization temporarily. The best thing to do for this placeholder is to get a few points in Souls of Rage and Poisoned Minds, but it doesn't really matter much because it's just for the first 10 levels or so.

After you get Spirit Plague, though, here's the order till Lvl 50-ish:

2x Pestilence > Plague Bearer > 2x Rotten to The Core > 2x Concentrated Rot > max out Rotten to The Core > 1x Hindering Affliction > 1x Enfeeblement > Plague of Eyes > 2x Efficacious Application > 2x Perpetuity

Specialization Slot 3: Reaper Form

1x Soul for a Soul > 2x Reaper's Curse > 1x Mistress of Decay > 1x Swift Harbinger > Unholy Dominion > max out Reaper's Curse > 3x Rapid Destruction > 1x Mistress of Decay > 3x Soul Shard > Vile Shroud

Specialization Slot 4: Marrow Shards

Bone Knives > 2x Soul Blood > 5x Demise > 2x Dead Weight > Bone Splinters > 3x Dead Weight > 3x Blood Assassin

Phase 2 (Lvl 50-70)

In this phase, nothing really changes playstyle-wise. You just slot in Hungering Souls in the fitfth Specialization slot, and scale it up for later usage. In other words, much like Marrow Shards, you'll never need to actively get Hungering Souls in your hotbar.

Specialization Slot 5: Hungering Souls

Forbidden Pact > Isolation > 1x Great Soul > Fire Skull > 5x Piercing Gaze > max out Great Soul > 1x Grave Bond > 3x Unholy Trinity

Phase 3 (Lvl 70+)

Replace the Spirit Plague in your second Specialization slot with Death Seal, to get the Devouring Release talent.

Hotbar and rotation - We no longer use Spirit Plague. In its stead, you want to get Death Seal once so you toggle it, then you can replace it with Bone Curse. Do note that you need to re-activate Death Seal after you die.

Specialization Slot 2: Death Seal

2x Moratorium > Devouring Release > 3x Insatiable Soul

Transition to Endgame

The best Endgame option for the Lich in Last Epoch Season 3 is a dual-wielder playstyle with an off-hand Traitor's Tongue + Lich's Executioner passive (enables dual-wield). For this, you want to use a Flay + Harvest combo as your main skill, and use Aura of Decay (with Cold Death), Transplant for mobility (with Bone Armor and Doom Bringer), and sustain Reaper Form.

Last Epoch Lich Leveling build: Passives leveling order

Lich tree for this build at high levels (Image via EHG)

For your main Acolyte tree, you need to get 20 points to unlock access to subclass trees. So here's what we take:

Acolyte tree: 8x Blood Aura > 8x Forbidden Knowledge > 4x Mania of Mortality

For our Lich tree, we eventually put 5 points in Corrupted Form, but make sure you get tanky through leech and ward generation via Accursed Feast and Mind over Body first.

Lich tree: 8x Survival of The Cruel > 10x Apocrypha > 5x Desolation (to get the Bone Vanguard) > 8x Excoriating Insight > 1x Corrupted Form > 5x Deathbringer > 1x Three Plagues > 5x Spectral Wounds > 3x Wands of The Fallen > 1x Accursed Feast > 5x Mind over Body > max out Corrupted Form > 8x Dance with Death > 5x Impact Ward

Itemization options for leveling Lich in Last Epoch Season 3

While leveing this Lich build for Last Epoch Season 3, you want mainly a Staff for the +Spell Damage, and look for the following offensive scaling affixes on your weapon and Relic:

% Increased Spell Damage
% Increased Spell Critical Strike Chance
Additionally, +Intelligence also scales your damage with everything

On the defensive/stat side of things, you want to mainly look for Physical and Elemental Resistance, and +Vitality. Also, while leveling, +Movement Speed boots goes a long way.

Uniques to consider are Avarice (increased Leech rate and innate Leech off Elemetnal damage) and Woven Flesh (even more Leech rate and Leech off Overkill damage).

If you switch to a melee Flay + Harvest setup in the Endgame, though, you want to get Traitor's Tongue as an offhand as discussed before, and then the Army of Skin boots for an obvious boost to Flay. Velocyn's Jaw from the recently added set of Primordial Items in Last Epoch Season 3 is also looking great as a main-hand option.

Check out our other build guides in Last Epoch Season 3:

About the author

Sambit Pal is an esports Journalist on Gaming and MMO at Sportskeeda. He has Master's degree in English Literature. In his spare time, he is an amateur sleuth trying to trace the Riven Mafia in Warframe, and a recovering Bethesda modding addict. He also secretly enjoys action Roguelites, a severe lack of gitting gud notwithstanding.

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Edited by Sambit Pal