If you want to quickly complete Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 during the free weekend, a proper character build is essential.
A good character build can help you establish a significant advantage at the start, accumulating sufficient gear and Path of Exile 2 currency. Below, I'll introduce a Lich build perfectly suited for the early game, including all the detailed information you need.
Skills
Main Skills
To master Lich, you must understand her most effective skill combo: Essence Drain + Contagion.
Essence Drain is a Projectile Spell that deals continuous Chaos damage to hit enemies; Contagion is an Area of Effect Spell that distributes all Chaos damage over time as a debuff to nearby enemies.
This combo can help you clear large areas of enemies. It's not only surprisingly effective in the early stages of PoE 2, but you'll also use it throughout the game, including the late game.
Late Game Skills
In the late game, we need to unlock other skills, namely Dark Effigy and Sigil of Power. Dark Effigy, as a totem, fires Chaos Projectiles at enemies with Chaos buff, dealing extra damage. Sigil of Power generates a Sigil on the ground; when you and your teammates are within its range, you gain a powerful spell damage buff.
This combo greatly maximizes our damage output, helping us fight the final boss in the late game.
How To Unlock Basic Skills?
When you choose the Witch class at the start, our basic setup is relatively easy to obtain. Initially, we need to survive using health, Energy Shield, and strong positioning. Successfully killing some regular monsters or completing quests will earn you Uncut Skill Gems, which can be used to unlock the skills we want.
First, we should unlock Unearth skill, a directional area-of-effect skill that deals damage and creates temporary skeletal structures (essentially your Minion) if it passes over a corpse.
After unlocking useful skills, we can farm higher-level gems. Once we obtain the level 3 Uncut Skill Gem, we can unlock Essence Drain Gem. Simply insert the skill gem into our skill bar to use the corresponding skill in combat.
Support Skill Gems
Level 1
Our first support skill doesn't need to be powerful; a basic one will suffice. For Essence Drain, we can choose Swift Affliction. Although it shortens the duration of Essence Drain's damage on enemies, it increases continuous non-elemental damage, significantly boosting our single-target damage.
Our second support skill targets Contagion: Magnified Area, which improves the efficiency of Contagion skills.
These two support skills are essential. For the remaining slots, we can choose Rapid Casting, Unleash, or Zenith I. The first two gems also support Contagion, greatly improving our monster-clearing efficiency. Zenith supports Essence Drain, increasing our damage by 30%.
However, this skill is relatively difficult to use, requiring constant mana maintenance, so we rarely use it. If you feel you can maintain mana for a long time, then you can use Zenith.
Level 2
When we feel that Tier 1 skill support is no longer sufficient to meet our damage needs in the game, you can equip Tier 2 skill gems.
We can prioritize using Considered Casting, which increases spell damage by approximately 30%. The downside is sacrificing casting speed. If you enjoy the feeling of high damage output, you can prioritize Considered Casting.
If you feel your damage is already sufficient, you can equip Chain Support Gems to expand our skill range, thereby increasing our monster-clearing speed.
In addition, the following options are available:
- Zenith
- Rapid Casting
Equipment Stats
Core Equipment
As a witch, the most important weapon is Wand, which requires Intelligence to use. Unlike traditional weapons, it doesn't deal direct damage; instead, it inflicts damage through spells.
If you can find a wand in Path of Exile 2 0.4.0 that grants +1 to spell skill level, that would be ideal, as it's crucial for increasing damage. The wand should ideally include the following attributes:
- + Chaos Skill Levels;
- Spell Damage;
- Chaos Damage.
Others
If possible, you should also acquire some good rings or other items that increase casting speed, such as: Sapphire Ring, Amethyst Ring, Lunar Amulet, etc. For boots, we only need to focus on movement speed; other attributes are not important.
In other words, for other equipment, we mainly need to focus on these key attributes:
- Spell Damage;
- Chaos Damage;
- Cast Speed.
Chaos Lich Ascendancy Nodes
- Node 1: Soulless Form. This node fixes your mana, making management very simple and also making your second ascendancy choice easier to manage;
- Node 2: Eternal Life. Increases your tankiness;
- Node 3: Eldritch Empowerment. Increases energy damage by 30% when sacrificing Energy Shield.
The main choices are these three. Of course, you can also choose Rupture the Soul, which can improve our monster-clearing speed. Crystalline Phylactery is also a good choice, providing buffs to the character while also dealing damage to enemies.
All of these mechanisms work together to make this Chaos Lich build very powerful and expandable. You can use it in Path of Exile 2 0.4.0 to create distance between yourself and other players from the start. Good luck with your new league start!
