Path of Exile 2: Lich Minion Build

Discover everything you need to know about the best Lich Minion build in Path of Exile 2 and what makes this build stronger.

The Lich Minion build in Path of Exile 2 is a specialized summoner setup that uses the Lich ascendancy to empower minions. This allows the players to deal devastating chaos damage, critical strikes, and corpse explosions for massive area clear. The Lick minion build scales well into the endgame and offers a safe and ranged minion playstyle. The Skills you choose, along with the Support Gem, highly affect the efficiency of your character during combat or exploration. Dexterity, Strength, and Intelligence are important as they make your character much more powerful.

Choosing the best stats, ascendancy, gear, and passive skills is crucial for this build, as your gameplay mostly depends on them. In this guide, we’ll discuss the Lich Minion in Path of Exile 2, including the best gear and passive skills to use it more effectively. Choosing the best stats, ascendancy, gear, and passive skills is crucial for this build, as your gameplay mostly depends on them. In this guide, we’ll discuss the Best Smith of Kitava Build in Path of Exile 2, including the best gear and passive skills to use.

Lich Minion Build in Path of Exile 2 Explored

The Lich minion build in POE 2 covers all the progression from the league starter leveling setup to an endgame setup. This build focuses on chaos damage scaling and minion synergy. Opt for scepters with high Spirit modifiers and minion-related stats. Our build includes Withered Wand and Rattling Sceptre as the weapons to deal massive damage. The ich requires more strategic gearing and passive allocation than the Infernalist ascendancy.

You can unlock a powerful and rewarding summoner playstyle if you manage mana, leverage critical strikes, and make excellent gear choices. Skeletal Sniper, Skeletal Arsonist, Skeletal Cleric, Shield Charge, Pain Offering, Despair, Contagion, Essence Drain, Convalescence, and Dark Effigy are the best skills for the Lich minion build. Dexterity, Strength, and Intelligence are the best regular attributes to focus on as they can highly complement your build. However, this build is slower in the early game and depends on gear.

Lich Minion Build Pros	Lich Minion Build Cons
AOE Clear	Gear Dependent
High Minion DPS Potential	Slower Early Game
Cursing Strategy

Best Lich Minion skills and support gems in Path of Exile 2

Here are all the best active skills and Support Gems for the Best Lich Minion build in Path of Exile 2.

• Skeletal Sniper
  • Martial Tempo (Support Gem)
  • Scattershot (Support Gem)
  • Last Gasp (Support Gem)
• Skeletal Arsonist
  • Martial Tempo (Support Gem)
  • Scattershot (Support Gem)
  • Last Gasp (Support Gem)
• Skeletal Cleric
  • Ingenuity (Support Gem)
  • Elemental Army (Support Gem)
• Shield Charge
• Pain Offering
  • Font of Rage (Support Gem)
  • Expanse (Support Gem)
  • Meat Shield (Support Gem)
• Despair
  • Heightened Curse (Support Gem)
  • Cursed Ground (Support Gem)
• Contagion
  • Arcane Tempo (Support Gem)
  • Magnified Effect (Support Gem)
  • Unleash (Support Gem)
• Essence Drain
  • Chain (Support Gem)
  • Swift Affliction (Support Gem)
  • Considered Casting (Support Gem)
• Convalescence
  • Second Wind (Support Gem)
  • Persistence (Support Gem)
• Dark Effigy
  • Ancestral Urgency (Support Gem)
  • Withering Touch (Support Gem)
  • Acceleration (Support Gem)
• Raging Spirits
  • Bullseye (Support Gem)
  • Feeding Frenzy (Support Gem)
  • Execute (Support Gem)
  • Minion Mastery (Support Gem)
  • Fire Mastery (Support Gem)

Skeletal Sniper

Summons long-ranged, Reviving Skeletal Snipers that can fire a gas arrow on Command.

• (0-10)% reduced reservation of skills

Martial Tempo (Support Gem)

Supports Attacks, causing them to Attack faster.

• Supported Skills have 20% more Attack Speed

Scattershot (Support Gem)

It supports projectile skills, making them fire extra projectiles. It lowers the Attack and Cast speed of supported skills, as well as lessening their damage.

• Supported skills deal 35% less damage
• Supported skills fire 2 additional projectiles
• Supported skills have 20% less attack and cast speed.

Last Gasp (Support Gem)

Supports skills that create Minions, granting them more life but making them deal less damage.

• Minions from Supported Skills die 4 seconds after their Life is reduced to 0.

Skeletal Arsonist

Activate to summon bomb-throwing, reviving Skeletal Arsonists that can detonate other minions on command.

Martial Tempo (Support Gem)

Supports Attacks, causing them to Attack faster.

• Supported Skills have 20% more Attack Speed

Scattershot (Support Gem)

It supports projectile skills, making them fire extra projectiles. It lowers the Attack and Cast speed of supported skills, as well as lessening their damage.

• Supported skills deal 35% less damage
• Supported skills fire 2 additional projectiles
• Supported skills have 20% less attack and cast speed.

Last Gasp (Support Gem)

Supports skills that create Minions, granting them more life but making them deal less damage.

• Minions from Supported Skills die 4 seconds after their Life is reduced to 0.

Skeletal Cleric

Summons Reviving Skeletal Clerics that heal other minions and revive fallen Skeletons.

• Minions have (0-30)% more maximum Life

Ingenuity (Support Gem)

Supports skills with Cooldowns, increasing the rate at which those Cooldowns recover.

• Supported skills have a 30% increased cooldown recovery rate

Elemental Army (Support Gem)

Supports skills that create Minions, bolstering the Elemental Resistance of those Minions.

• Minions from supported skills have +30% to all elemental resistances

Shield Charge

Channel to charge in the target direction. You will crash into enemies on your path, stopping your charge and dealing damage to enemies in an area, and extra damage to the enemies you collide with. While charging, your Shield is raised, and you will block all incoming Blockable hits.

• 7 to 10 Base Off Hand Physical Damage
• 6 to 8 Added Physical Damage per 15 Armour on Shield
• Impact radius is 2.4 metres

Pain Offering

Impales a Skeleton on the bone spike to send nearby Minions into a frenzy as long as the spike remains. The bone spike itself is a minion. If it dies, the effect ends immediately.

• Limit 1 Pain Offering Spike
• Aura Radius is 6 Metres
• Spike Duration is 6 seconds
• Aura grants minions (20-29)% increased attack and cast speed
• Aura grants minions (20-58)% increased damage

Font of Rage (Support Gem)

Supported Skills that create stationary objects. Objects created by supported Skills generate a Font of Rage, creating an Aura which grants Rage over time, as well as preventing Rage loss.

• Objects created by Supported Skills create a Font of Rage with a 3 Metre Radius
• Fonts of Rage from Supported Skills grants 2 Rage Regeneration per second to you and your allies

Expanse (Support Gem)

Supports any skill that you use yourself, granting it significantly higher Area of Effect but causing it to gain a long cooldown. It cannot support skills that already have a cooldown.

• Supported skills have 50% more area of effect
• Supported skills have 8 seconds to cool down

Meat Shield (Support Gem)

Support Skills that create minions, granting them less damage taken but making them deal less damage. It cannot support skills that create damage-invincible minions.

• Minions from supported skills take 35% less damage
• Minions from supported skills deal 35% less damage

Despair

Curses all targets in an area after a short delay, lowering their Chaos Resistance.

• Curse applies after a 1.5-second delay
• Curse duration is (6-7.4) seconds
• Curse radius is (1.5-3.1) metres
• Curse inflicts +(24-18) to chaos resistance
• (0-10)% increased curse magnitude

Heightened Curse (Support Gem)

Supported Curse skills, magnifying their power.

• Supported curses have 25% increased magnitudes

Cursed Ground (Support Gem)

Supports Curse skills. Supported skills no longer have an activation delay, instead creating areas that Curse enemies so long as they are within them.

• Support skills create Cursed Ground
• Enemies on Cursed Ground from a supported skill are Cursed while within it
• Maximum 1 area of Cursed Ground

Contagion

Afflicts a single enemy with a Debuff that deals Chaos Damage over time. If the enemy dies while affected by contagion, it and all other Chaos Damage over time Debuffs spread to other enemies and refresh their durations. Reanimating or detonating a corpse affected by contagion will cause the Minion or explosion to spread Contagion on a hit.

• Deals 1.8 Base Chaos Damage per second
• Modifiers to Spell Damage apply to debuff’s damage over time
• Debuff deals 100% more damage for each time it has spread, up to 300%
• Spread radius is 1.7 metres
• Debuff duration is 5 seconds

Arcane Tempo (Support Gem)

Supports spells, causing them to cast faster

• Supported skills have 20% more cast speed

Magnified Effect (Support Gem)

Supports any skill with an area of effect, making it larger.

• Supported Skills have 30% more area of effect.

Unleash (Support Gem)

Supports Spells you cast yourself, making their effect reoccur when cast. It cannot support Channelling Skills or Skills with a Cooldown.

• Supported spells gain a seal every 200% of cast time, to a maximum of 2 seals
• Supported spells are unsealed when cast, and their effects reoccur for each seal lost
• Supported skills deal 50% less damage when reoccurring

Essence Drain

Fires a Projectile that applies a powerful Chaos damage over time debuff to enemy hits.

• Deals 9 to 16 Chaos Damage.

Chain (Support Gem)

Supports Projectile skills and any other skill that Chain, causing them to chain additional times.

• Supported skills Chain +1 times
• Supported skills chain 100% more times
• Supported skills deal 50% less damage with hits

Swift Affliction (Support Gem)

Supports any skill that deals damage, causing it to deal more damage over time but have a shorter duration.

• Supported skills deal 30% more Non-Ailment Damage over time
• 20% less duration of supported skills and damaging ailments they inflict

Considered Casting (Support Gem)

Supports Spell skills that Hit Enemies, boosting Damage at the cost of Cast Speed.

• Supported spell skills have 15% less cast speed
• Supported skills deal 35% more damage with spell hits

Convalescence

While active, grants a skill that you can use to instantly begin recharging Energy Shield and gain a Buff for a duration that prevents that Recharge from being interrupted. The Buff is removed at maximum Energy Shield, and the skill cannot be used while Energy Shield is full.

Second Wind (Support Gem)

Supports skills with cooldowns, giving them extra uses of that cooldown. It cannot support instant or triggered skills.

• Supported skills have 50% less Cooldown Recovery Rate
• Supported skills have twice as many cooldown uses.

Persistence (Support Gem)

Supports any skill that has a duration, making that duration longer.

• Supported Skills have 40% more skill effect duration

Dark Effigy

Raises a Totem that bombards enemies afflicted by Chaos damage over time Debuffs.

• Totem Duration is 8s
• Limit of 1 Totem

Ancestral Urgency (Support Gem)

Supports skills which place Totems, causing those skills to place Totems much more quickly.

• Supported skills have 80% increased Totem placement speed

Withering Touch (Support Gem)

Supports any skill that hits enemies, giving it a chance to Wither enemies on hit.

• Chance to inflict withered on hit with supported skills can exceed 100%
• Supported skills deal 25% less damage
• Withered lasts 4 seconds
• Supported skills have a 1% chance to inflict Withered on hit for every 175% of enemy ailment threshold dealt as Chaos damage

Acceleration (Support Gem)

Supports Projectile skills, making those projectiles travel faster.

• Supported Skills have 40% more Projectile Speed

Raging Spirits

While active, your Fire Spells will also summon Raging Spirits, which are short-lived flaming skulls that rush at nearby enemies and rapidly Attack them. Enemies will not directly engage these Minions and can pass through them.

• Minions from this skill convert 70% of Physical Damage to Fire Damage
• Limit 10 Summoned Raging Spirits

Fire Area Spells summon a Spirit per 1.5 metres of radius

• Projectiles from Fire Spells summon a Spirit on hit
• Maximum 2 Spirits summoned per Spell cast

Bullseye (Support Gem)

Supports Attacks, causing them to gain Accuracy.

• Supported skills have 50% more Accuracy Rating

Feeding Frenzy (Support Gem)

Supports skills that create Minions, making them deal and take more damage. It cannot support skills that create damage-invincible Minions.

• Minions from Supported Skills deal 30% more Damage
• Minions from Supported Skills take 20% more Damage

Execute (Support Gem)

Supports any skill that hits enemies, causing it to deal more damage against enemies on low life.

• Supported skills deal 50% more damage with hits against enemies that are on low life

Minion Mastery (Support Gem)

Supports Minion skills, granting them an additional level.

• 1 to level of supported Minion skills

Fire Mastery (Support Gem)

Supports Fire skills, granting them an additional level.

• 1 to level of supported Fire skills

Best Lich Minion Stat Priorities

There are certain aspects and new mechanics that you must consider for a Lich Minion Witch build in Path of Exile 2. Below are all the stats that can affect your setup, so focusing on the best one can make you a powerful Lich Witch.

Regular Stats

• Dexterity
• Strength
• Intelligence

Intelligence is your primary stat as a Witch in Path of Exile 2, as it increases the core abilities. Strength and Dexterity are also crucial to varying degrees based on the build. Intelligence stats boost Energy Shield, Mana, and spell damage. Strength increases Life and auras and enables the use of gear or gems. Dexterity increases accuracy and evasion.

Defensive Stats

• Energy Shield
• Life
• Fire, Cold, and Lightning Resistances
• Movement Speed
• Evasion
• Mana Recovery

The Lich Minion build depends on archetypes like spellcaster, summoner, and chaos damage dealer. As a Witch, you depend on Energy Shield for survivability, along with other layers of defense. Fire, Cold, and Lightning Resistances are essential to survive elemental damage. Life adds extra survivability by stacking life rolls on gear. Invest points in boots with high movement speed. Armour can reduce physical hits effectively in combat. Evasion is effective for summoners or chaos builds. Stats like mana regeneration rate and modifiers mitigate the mana cost of spells.

Offensive Stats

• Spell Damage
• Cast Speed
• Critical Strike Chance
• Minion Damage
• Minion Life

The Witch in Path of Exile 2 excels in a variety of damage types, including elemental damage, chaos damage, damage-over-time (DoT) effects, and minion-focused builds like this one. Enhance the damage of your spells and reduce the time it takes to cast spells. Critical Strike Chance enhances the burst damage significantly. Boost the damage dealt by minions to keep your minion alive.mage and added flat physical damage from gear or passive trees. Use the passive nodes or ascendancy bouses to amplify your overall physical damage.

Best Lich Minion Passive Skills

Path of Exile 2 offers passive skill nodes that we recommend grabbing when you can because they’re highly effective. The Witch Leveling has more substantial early options for passive skills, enhancing initial survivability. However, if you want to min-max more, they are easily respected. You will get a massive boost to attack power and rate without depending on flasks. Consider picking notable passives in the star-shaped cluster from your starting point.

• Entropy- You gain a 15% increase in chaos damage and a 15% increased skill effect duration.
• Living Death- Minions have 15% increased maximum Life, and they revive 15% faster.
• Power of the Dead- This allows your minions to deal 15% increased damage and have 3% increased attack cast speed.
• Potent Incantation- You gain 30% increased spell damage and 5% reduced cast speed
• Lingering Horror- It provides 23% increased chaos damage and 15% increased skill effect duration.
• Necrotised Flesh- Your minions have 40% increased maximum Life and 10% reduced life recovery rate.
• Gravedigger- Minions revive 155 faster and recover 2% of maximum Life when one of your Minions is revived.
• Relentless Fallen- It allows your minions to have an 8% increased attack and cast speed, along with 20% increased movement speed.
• Vile Mending- Minions have 205 increased maximum Life and regenerate 3% of maximum Life per second.
• Profane Commander- You gain 5% increased spirit and 30% increased presence area of effect.

Best Ascendancy for Lich Minion Build

Lich is the best ascendancy for the Lich Minion build in Path of Exile 2 because it focuses on an offensive playstyle with the ability to curse more enemies. Moreover, while playing Lich, you can also curse the Hexproof enemies, those who are immune to curses. In addition to the increased limit of curse, Lich drastically excels in dealing Chaos damage to enemies. The Rupture of the Soul node allows the enemies to explode (33% chance) when they are near you or your allies. The explosion on enemies deals 25% of their maximum Life as Chaos damage.

Moreover, Necromantic Heart and Blackened Heart nodes also allow you to deal extra Chaos damage. The Necromantic Heart gives you and your allies the Unholy Might, which grants 30% of all damage as extra Chaos Damage. If you pair it with the Blackened Heart, you will increase the effect of Unholy Might by 4% for every 100 maximum mana. Attaining these main nodes will help you become a stronger spellcaster, allowing you to deal extensive damage to a group of enemies.

Lich is an excellent choice for mapping and the campaign, but the ability to have an extra Jewel Socket will allow it to scale well into the endgame content. However, the Crystalline Phylactery node only grants the additional Jewel socket for non-Unique. It means you can only have an additional Jewel Socket for the basic Jewel. However, the effect of the socketed basic Jewel will be increased by 100%, allowing you to have twice the amount of buffs. Moreover, if you do not have Energy Shield, the spells that you cast will cost 50% more Mana.

How Skill Tree is Set in POE2

For most new players, the passive skill tree is extremely daunting, but actually, it’s quite simple. A character is granted one passive skill point every time they level up and are sometimes even granted more from completing certain quests. In extremely simple terms, we have the intelligence section, which focuses on spell damage, summoning, and elemental damage.

Next, we have the Dexterity section, which is more focused on ranged combat, evasion, and speed. At the bottom left, we have the Strength section, which is more melee and defense-oriented. Next, we’ve passive nodes, and they are split into two categories. The small passives grant minor bonuses, such as a small increase in attack speed, spell damage, melee damage, or attributes.

Second, we’ve got notable passives. These are larger passive points that grant greater bonuses than the smaller ones, but they have stats on them that are often closely related to the small passives leading up to them. Think of these as checkpoints to work towards. On top of this, we have a third passive point, but it is not entirely comparable to the other two. For the third one, we have the keystones, which are build-changing and character-defining and often provide a massive amount of power with a downside. However, these downsides can be reduced or worked towards.

Following a specific setup is extremely useful, and understanding the passive skill tree can make or break your character. Investing more time in this specific section will upgrade your knowledge of the game.

Best Lich Minion Gear

Here are the best gear for Lich Minion build in Path of Exile 2.

Gear Slot	Gear	Requirement	Effect
Main Hand Weapon	Withered Wand	1 level	Grants skill: Chaos Bolt (65-74)% increased Spell damage (65-74)% increased spell damage (45-54)% increased Chaos damage +2 to level of all Chaos spell skills
Off-hand weapons	Rattling Sceptre	1 level	Grants Skill: Skeletal Warrior (39-44)% increased spirit Allies in your presence deal (55-64)% increased damage +3 to level of all minion skills Allies in your presence have (8-10)% increased attack speed
Helmet	Jungle Tiara	59 level, 108 int.	+(34-41) to maximum energy shield +(60-69) to maximum Life +1 to level of all minion skills
Body Armour	Adherent’s Raiment	59 level, 122 int.	+(43-46) to Spirit +(85-99) to maximum Life +(21-25)% to cold resistance
Gloves	Gold Gloves	59 level, 95 int.	+(25-33) to maximum Energy Shield +(60-69) to maximum Life +(12-15)% to chaos resistance
Boots	Dunerunner Sandals	59 level, 101 int.	20% increased movement speed +(60-69) to maximum Life +(65-79) to maximum Mana +(21-25)% to lightning resistance
Ring 1	Sapphire Ring	12 level	Armour: +(20-30)% to cold resistance +(40-59) to maximum Life +(17-20) to intelligence +(21-25)% to cold resistance
Ring 2	Ruby Ring	8 level	Armour: +(20-30)% to fire resistance +(80-89) to maximum mana +(40-59) to maximum Life +(21-25)% to lightning resistance
Amulet	Solar Amulet	30 level	Martial Weapon: +(10-15) to Spirit +(38-42) to Spirit +(60-69) to maximum Life +2 to Level of all Minion Skills

How to Play Lich Minion in Path of Exile 2

The Lich ascendancy offers a unique playstyle that revolves around chaos damage and minion mastery. Search for Spell Damage / Chaos Damage at Wand and repick Sceptre to the Focus with Chaos damage. Use Chaos skills such as Contagion + Essence Drain to improve performance. You can add Skeletal Cleric after picking Skeletal Sniper and Skeletal Arsonist. Dark Effigy can also be used to improve single-target damage. Manually casting curses like Despair can be more effective.

Use Rupture the Soul because it provides a 33% chance for cursed enemies to explode upon death. The Witch can summon Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages, Zombies, and other undead creatures. The Spirit determines the number and strength of minions you can summon. Contagion and Essence Drain are the skills that can apply continuous damage to enemies and spread effects to close enemies. You need to leave mana nodes for later when you get Necromantic Conduit ascendency.

Best Lich Minion build in Path of Exile 2 Summary

FAQs about Best Lich Minion build in Path of Exile 2 (POE 2)?

How important is gear for my Lich Minion build?

Gear in Path of Exile 2 is crucial for any build, including your Lich Minion build. The Gears determine how strong and survivable your build will be in combat. Gear in the Lich Minion build allows you to handle the tougher battles in Path of Exile 2, so always focus on improving gear through crafting, buying, or farming.

How do I acquire Lich Minion’s new skills?

Yes, you can respec your Lich Minion build by refunding passive skill points through The Hooded One, an NPC located in the Clearfell Encampment. Complete the “Sorrow Among Stones” quest in Act 1 to unlock this feature. However, it will take you 2 to 5 hours, depending on your pace.

Can I re-spec my Lich Minion build if I make a mistake?

The Witch class in Path of Exile 2 has a wide variety of skills, primarily centered around elemental damage. Getting new skills involves obtaining skill gems that you can socket into the equipment to grant corresponding abilities. You can obtain the skill gems while progressing through the campaign, or you can purchase the skill gems from the vendors.

What are the best skills for Lick Minion Witch build in POE 2?

Skeletal Sniper, Skeletal Arsonist, Skeletal Cleric, Shield Charge, Pain Offering, Despair, Contagion, Essence Drain, Convalescence, and Dark Effigy are the best skills for the Lich minion build

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