PoE 2 Lich Ascendancy Best Builds & Skills in 0.2.0 (Dawn of the Hunt)

In the upcoming Path of Exile 2 0.2 Patch next week, Lich will be available as the third ascendancy for the Witch class. Are you going to play it? 15 Lich skills have been shown during the Dawn of the Hunt live stream; now we'll look into an overview of the Lich ascendancy and recommend some great starter builds to try in the new league for PoE 2 Witch Lich.

PoE 2 Lich Builds in Dawn of the Hunt League (0.2.0)

The Lich ascendancy in Path of Exile 2 is very likely to be one of the strongest and best league start characters in the Dawn of the Hunt. Whether you want to summon hordes of minions with enhanced specters or deal massive chaos damage solo, this ascendancy offers incredible flexibility. Every ascendancy node in its skill tree feels impactful, with no weak options, making it appealing for both summon-focused builds and pure damage setups. Its ability to combine minion control with devastating direct damage output makes it stand out, and the addition of new support gems in the update further amplifies its potential.

PoE 2 Lich Ascendancy Tree & Key Skills

• Soulless Form: This skill changes how you manage your mana and defenses. Instead of using regular mana, you gain a percentage of your maximum life as mana each second. This can be beneficial if your life is high, as it boosts your mana recovery. Additionally, it allows 10% of damage taken to bypass your energy shield, making you tougher against hits.

• Eternal Life: It is a powerful node that enhances your survivability significantly. It keeps your life from changing, which means you can avoid death from fatal damage. This node synergizes well with specific items, allowing you to maintain an energy shield without sacrificing your life. It has the potential to make your character feel nearly immortal by constantly replenishing your energy shield.

• Price of Power: Allows your non-channeling spells to consume power charges for a boost in damage. By using skills that generate power charges, you can easily increase your damage output. Additionally, if you consume a power charge, you gain a nice bonus to your energy shield. This skill is versatile and can enhance many different builds.

• Crystalline Phylactery: This introduces a unique way to enhance your jewels. It acts as a special jewel slot that allows you to mirror your best jewel, making it even more powerful over time. This flexibility means you can adapt your setup as you progress through the game, making it a valuable addition to your character.
  

• Eldritch Empowerment: Provides a hefty damage boost of 30% to your spells. It requires you to manage your energy shield effectively, as casting spells will cost energy shield. If you can find ways to regain an energy shield while casting, this node can lead to incredible damage scaling for your spells.
  

• Rupture the Soul: With it, you can explode cursed enemies for additional damage. To maximize its effectiveness, you need to keep enemies cursed, which can be done through various skills. This node is particularly strong for clearing mobs efficiently, making it useful in endgame content.
  

• Dominion over Flesh: Use it to apply multiple curses to enemies, enhancing your curse mechanics. It functions similarly to a keystone that lets you curse hexproof enemies, making it easier to debilitate foes and improve your damage output. This node is essential for builds focused on curse synergy.
  

• Necromantic Conduit: Grants you and your allies a significant damage boost by adding extra chaos damage to your attacks. While you lose a bit of mana each second, this can be mitigated with good mana recovery. This node is great for both solo play and team setups, enhancing the overall damage potential of your group.
  

• Blackened Heart: It further amplifies the effects of your Unholy Might, increasing damage based on your current mana. The more mana you have, the greater the boost to your chaos damage. This makes mana management crucial for maximizing your damage output, especially in builds focused on high mana pools.
  

Top Lich Starter Builds in PoE 2 Dawn of the Hunt (0.2)

The PoE 2 Witch Lich focuses on Chaos damage and Energy Shield mechanics. It features skills that empower the player and their allies with effects like Unholy Might, which grants extra chaos damage, and Rupture the Soul, enabling cursed enemies to explode upon death, dealing significant area damage. Key features include the ability to apply multiple curses, enhanced spell damage through nodes like Eldritch Empowerment, and defensive mechanics such as Eternal Life, which allows the player's life to remain unchanged while Energy Shield is active. Lich offers versatile gameplay, combining high damage potential with robust survivability. Try it in the new PoE2 league if you enjoy minion-focused or chaos-damage builds.

1. Energy Shield Chaos Spellcaster

This Witch Lich build revolves around the powerful synergy between Eternal Life and Soulless Form, creating an extremely tanky character that can't die as long as Energy Shield remains. Stack ES as your primary defense while utilizing non-channeling spells for the 30% more damage bonus from Eldritch Empowerment. The build benefits from chaos explosions through Rupture the Soul for clear speed and can run multiple curses effectively with Dominion Over Flesh. The doubled jewel effects from Crystalline Phylactery allow for significant stat boosting, while Unholy Might provides consistent damage amplification.

Core Skills

• Crystalline Phylactery: This skill allows the Lich to socket a non-unique basic jewel, doubling its effects, which significantly boosts the character's stats while increasing mana costs if Energy Shield is not active.

• Eternal Life: This skill makes the character immune to changes in life while the Energy Shield is active, effectively preventing any life loss and enhancing survivability against damage.

• Soulless Form: This skill allows 10% of damage taken to bypass Energy Shield while also eliminating inherent mana regeneration, which can be beneficial for builds focused on Energy Shield.

2. Power Charge Spark Build

This build leverages the Price of Power node to turn Power Charges into significant damage multipliers while using Spark as the main skill converted to chaos damage. The build maintains high Energy Shield values to benefit from the 30% ES boost when consuming Power Charges while also utilizing Unholy Might from Necromantic Conduit. The combination of Eldritch Empowerment and Power Charge consumption creates multiple layers of "more" damage multipliers, resulting in impressive damage output.

Core Skills

• Price of Power: This skill converts Power Charges into substantial damage multipliers, enhancing the overall damage output of the build when combined with high Energy Shield values.

• Eldritch Empowerment: This skill provides a 30% damage increase for non-channeling spells, allowing for a significant boost in damage when utilizing spells in the build.

3. Curse-Focused Explosion Chain

This build maximizes the curse mechanics and chain explosions available to the Lich. By utilizing Dominion Over Flesh for an additional curse and the ability to affect Hexproof enemies, combined with Rupture the Soul's explosion mechanic, it creates devastating chain reactions in dense packs. The increased curse AoE ensures better coverage, while Blackened Heart and Necromantic Conduit provide additional chaos damage scaling.

Core Skills

• Dominion Over Flesh: This skill enables the application of an additional curse and allows curses to affect Hexproof enemies, enhancing the build's curse mechanics and overall damage potential.

• Rupture the Soul: This skill causes enemies killed by the Lich or allies to explode, dealing chaos damage based on their maximum life, which is particularly effective in clearing dense packs of enemies.

4. Minion Chaos Build

This build focuses on transforming minion physical damage into chaos damage through Necromantic Conduit while stacking mana to increase Unholy Might's effect via Blackened Heart. The build benefits from the doubled jewel effects for minion stats through Crystalline Phylactery while also gaining clear speed from curse explosions. The combination of minion damage and chaos conversion creates a unique hybrid playstyle that can handle both clear and single-target scenarios effectively.

Core Skills

• Blackened Heart: This skill increases the magnitude of buffs granted by Unholy Might based on maximum mana, enhancing the chaos damage output of the build.

• Necromantic Conduit: This skill transforms physical damage dealt by minions into chaos damage, allowing for a hybrid playstyle that effectively handles both clear and single-target scenarios.