One thing I don’t see mentioned here, but you can note if you take a look at @Shrukn’s posted build - Endurance and Endurance Threshold.
As @Heavy said you definitely want more health, and Acolyte is amazingly good at getting more health. But even more valuable imo for Lich is Endurance/Threshold. In-game has more detail but the gist is “Once your health gets below < endurance threshold > you have < endurance % > additional damage mitigation” (@Heavy mind correcting me if I’m missing some nuance there?)
Basically it makes you incredibly tanky at low-life, which with Reaper Form (and a delicious Death Seal) can be incredible. This is one of the reasons for not taking CSA, since having 60% (the endurance % cap) mitigation against everything is pretty powerful. Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Endurance mitigation sees some nerfing in the future because imo it’s incredibly strong (but maybe it has fall off, my Lich is only 85 or so).
Also, note the Aura of Decay node “Absence of Life”, which heals allies (including you) 12% of your missing health per second. (EDIT: My bad, I see you already have this node in your build, so you see the potential but it’s even stronger with endurance) This becomes extremely more powerful coupled with high hp and endurance/threshold. But of course this is all just one approach for a strong sustain build.
The thing is, he is so early in his item progression going endurance already is probably not worth it.
Endurance is really good, but does require a high level of investment and only starts to get really good, once you have a certain level of investment.
I definitely don’t want to downpaly endurance, endurance is amazing.
But for a AoD Build that uses Absence of Life Maaximum Health is waaaaaay better.
That is very accurate.
One more thing that is noteworthy here. A hit can be partially reduced by endurance, if the hit will bring you below your endurance threshold.
This is very important, because endurances does protect against single big hits.
If @srsnaxalot wants to consider using Death Seal, endurance would become alot mroe valueable of course.
But since i wanted to give ideas and suggestion on his current build, i considerd endurance as a defensive layer, that he might want to invest in later down the line, once he has a very good foundation.
I don’t think so, Endurance does require alot of investment. And i mean alot.
We are talking 3 affixes/implicits(or blessings +1-2 affixes/implicits) for reaching 60% endurance and then another up to 6 (excluding shields) affixes to get maximum threshold.
So we are talking 7-9 affixes (+ potential blessing).
With Death Seal and a lowlife build this is definitely the best defensive layer, but if you are playing non low life, it’s not the best, it’s just one of many options.
While endurance is not bad in conjunction with this node, stacking max health is superior.
You can easily reach over 3k health as a Acolyte. Which makes Absence of Life a True Monster of a Node
Hmm… yea I’m currently leaning heavily into death seal + low life for Reaper Form sustain but thanks for the advice, I’m going to play around with trading some of that endurance for max HP and see how it feels. Also realized my Lich is only 76 (Spellblade was my 85ish one) so still tons of points to play with on that.
Yea I probably have a tad over-exaggerated view of endurance since I couple it with the Death Seal’s “Deadlock” to ensure it always puts me near threshold range + the crazy mitigation I get from Death Seal itself
Yeah cant fit it in currently, however was doing Lagon timeline for Lightning res blessing, and then would move onto Age of Winter for cold res, so I can then drop elemental resist on my boots and 1 ring to exchange for CSA - it took a lot of gear shuffling to fit in those Coral Rings instead of Gold Rings. Also my Poison resist is lowered down to 76% from AoD when its actually 90+
I also chose the Poison shred instead of CSA so this character at best will only maybe get 40-50% CSA and its fine really because I am almost always in Reaper Form
I tend to aim for blessings I cannot get anywhere else. ie poison shred immediately boosted my damage over longer fight by a good 25%
My endurance is 59% which I need a 1% higher blessing, my endurance threshold is pretty much set to my deadlocked HP in deathseal. so I have 33% damage reduction + another 59%, the 33% can actually go to 48% if I drop to extremely low HP. what this means is you almost NEVER get knocked out of Reaper form when deathseal is up. Also Aura of Decay healing me for upwards of 500/hp second and all that leech. I can survive lagon beam as it passes through me for example
The main thing you always want is 33% of your HP to match your endurance threshold and endurance to be 60% - mine is 560 or something so im always receiving the reduction in deathseal
I tried to respond earlier but for some reason this forum only lets me post a few times a day saying im a new user but ive had this account for over 1.5 years
Thanks for drawing my attention to the role of endurance @Kehtnok. I’d read about it and hadn’t fully grasped the way it might play. Thanks again @Heavy for weighing in.
I’ve also been stuck behind the new user restriction @Shrukn. I was only allowed to reply to posts a max of 13 times in my first 24 hrs (despite lurking in the forums since January)!
Also, thanks for talking about your strategy vis-a-vis CSA and blessings. I’m still only early endgame so only have my first blessing, so this is really useful stuff.
I’ve played a fair amount of D3 and Grim Dawn but always stuck religiously/mechanically to build guides without every understanding the build synergies.
Am loving LE a lot. Partly because for the first time I get a sense I might realistically be able to (and want to) put the time in to understand the mechanics at a deeper level.
Following this conversation has been really illuminating. Thanks again all.
My build is indeed not up to date. I’ve not played LE long enough in recent patches to put together new guide (after defenses rework).
Though my own character can still do endgame content in current patch, without gear or skill tree changes. But I was deep in gear progression already.
My philosophy was taking full advantage of healing from AoD, coupled with healing effectiveness to have potent healing for the first few minutes after using reaper form (say 3 minutes is very good goal to reach, anything longer will make second health bar gets reduced so quickly). Then there’s also life leech, which only helpful if you are actively attacking and doing damage to enemies.
And ofc I build poison resistance higher than cap, because AoD can reduce my own poison resistance. And use some idols with stats like take less damage over time and similar stats to minimize self damage.
Currently the only thing that can kill me is damage types that I don’t have capped resistance against. Especially physical archers at higher waves.
I’m sure sharing my current build will not be really helpful, since it’s far from optimal, and can improve in every aspect. Current players already gave you way better advice… I just wanted to share my thought process with you, since you so kindly summoned me to your thread.
Thanks @elnawawi for the detailed reply and for putting your guide out there in the first place. Am thoroughly enjoying the play style, particularly the way the Lich slices through whole packs of trash mobs (and then hearing the clink of gear dropping in the distance as the DoT hits!!!)
I’m currently re-tooling my gear away from CSA into health, more health and health again. Fortunately I’d already got a lot of + healing effectiveness.
I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for an updated guide if you ever decide to do one!!
but it’s even stronger with endurance) This becomes extremely more powerful coupled with high hp and endurance/threshold. But of course this is all just one approach for a strong sustain build.
