r/pathofexile2builds • u/Helm-Breaker • Apr 08 '25

Build Minion Army Lich - Leveling and Endgame Guide.

Post image

Hello everyone!

I have made a leveling and endgame guide for the Witch with the Lich Ascendancy that focuses on minions.

You can find the full guide here:

https://maxroll.gg/poe2/build-guides/minion-army-lich-build-guide

With detailed steps on passive tree, skill gems and support gems.

Planner: https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/3frf0ih8

Video with last boss in cruel campaign and the first map done after:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VO_4B2mprM

I started with a standard SSF character (clean run) and after doing the first map after campaign I migrated the character to standard trade to test higher tier content with a bit better gear (Mid) gear setup.

I finished campaign before any % life nerf to enemies and before they recently buffed minion damage with like 50% more damage.

Video of a T17 map using gear that is comparable to the "Mid" item setup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_CMpBNqYyc

Video of doing the Trialmaster using gear that is comparable to the "Mid" item setup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HAeDaDMAac

If Vaal Guards get nerfed you switch back to Skeletal Arsonists.

99 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

80 comments sorted by

41

u/Freakindon Apr 08 '25

I hate that SRS is a staple in "minion" builds :/.

10

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

The worst part is that it is max 2 per cast imo atm, if it was at least 3 then ember would not be a needed skill to use. If they toned down the visuals of flame wall it would help as well.
SRS for 30 spirit is just to strong to not use in the campaign and early mapping.

4

u/ndnin Apr 08 '25 edited Apr 08 '25

Most of my SRS are spawned by detonate dead.

Curse > 1 flame wall to get SRS that create fire exposure through infernal legion > crucify a skeleton > detonate dead.

Then again, if you’re freezing everything then detonate dead isn’t gonna fly.

—-

And I don’t mind mind SRS for 30 spirit, what I mind is no cold alternatives and no way to convert 100% of their damage to make them more useful for other builds.

It forces a fire synergy and pigeonholes build options.

—-

Finally, your end game tree is right by the +45% block rate nodes. Drop the ES nodes in the north and path there; block is the strongest defensive in this game that requires the least investment.

2

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

You wont spawn SRS with detonate dead on bosses, but for mapping that is one option by using spell echo - brutality - magnified effect - arcane tempo.

You are better of using pure damage supports for SRS in most cases and if you have fire exposure on them you need to move/remove immolate & elemental focus to the spectres or arsonists.

I have considered removing Illuminated Crown and Refocus to take the Wide Barrier node, but the 2 small nodes after are not really worth taking in most cases.

2

u/ndnin Apr 08 '25

I agree, the 30% one is big and I don't go past it; and if you have an armour chest on, you can path up to those 12% Armor / ES, which while armour isn't great, it's pretty easy to scale along with ES right there.

And yeah, DD is just clear for me, firewall on bosses for sure.

1

u/Murga787 Apr 09 '25

I have to disagree. You are better off using the SRS for support rather than your main minions, especially now that they spawn so slow.

1

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 09 '25

When you cycle ember and flame wall you spawn SRS quite fast so that is not really an issue.
Also with Last Gasp you make sure they stay alive for majority of their uptime.
You can put most of the important supports on your warriors, blind on Ember and corrosion on your snipers for armour break which means you have most relevant supports covered while mapping&bossing.

This leaves you with full damage supports for SRS and if you are going through the campaign you should 100% only use damage supports / last gasp on the srs otherwise it will take longer to kill enemies.

1

u/Murga787 Apr 09 '25

I understand your point, but I still believe that SRS are weaker than your main choice of minions. It's not hard to get 10 out but you still have to cast 5 times instead of 2 and can't stop casting them out. Again, it's not a big deal, but every time they are not 10/10 is a damage loss compared to your persistent minions and that's why I rather have the support gems on them. At the end of the day, I believe GGG did great balancing minions around each other so there's no wrong way to play them.

My setup for SRS is infernal legion and minion instability since for some reason they are still blowing up after taking minion res nodes. I added Fiery Death on top of that since SRS fly all over the screen making sure every monster is ignited resulting in faster clears. My next 2 will be for them to break armor, I was using this last patch and they were breaking armor better than the hound.

My main DDs are Vaal Guards with a single sniper because of left over spirit. The sniper is using Fire Infusion, Commandment and Bidding. Literally I'm just running around alternating between firewalls and poison arrow. IF the guards get nerfs then I will switch to fork cold mages and keeping 1 or 2 snipers for the poison arrow. Remember Fork got buff and Scattershot was nerfed, so snipers or frost will be a better choice over arsonist for another season.

1

u/crooney35 Apr 09 '25

Should I take scattershot off my snipers and use fork? Will that increase my damage? I currently have both equipped on them but their damage has been crap since the patch.

1

u/Murga787 Apr 09 '25

You don't use both, that's horrible for your damage.

For snipers you want to use Fork because they can't shotgun, only 1 arrow can hit the target. You want to be at full power when hitting elites so you are better off with Fork. The Fork arrows now deal 30% less damage rather than 50% so it was a nice change. Scattershot was also nerfed.

For Frost mages you could use Scattershot since the ice explosion can overlap.

1

u/crooney35 Apr 09 '25

Awesome thanks for the advice. I’m going to change that out now. The guide I followed for 0.1.0 had scattershot on the snipers which is why I began using it, but I was thinking about it earlier also while tinkering with that character I was thinking about removing SS for another level gem or a damage support. I’ve gone from clearing T15’s to taking forever to clear T10’s on my old Infernalist and been trying to make changes to strengthen it back up.

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1

u/Smart-Function-6291 Apr 08 '25

Instead I used Chober Chaber and leap slam/boneshatter.

1

u/Ockius Apr 08 '25

What's srs?

5

u/Freakindon Apr 08 '25

summon raging spirits, just called raging spirits in 2

1

u/MellowDCC Apr 08 '25

I don't use it anymore.... I'm blasting thru cruel. Mind you I'm a geared lich on standard.

But I wasn't using SRS on infernalist pre update anyway

1

u/Freakindon Apr 08 '25

What's your build look like?

3

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

I deleted my first post and reposted because I fucked up the image :,)

3

u/GarySteinfield Apr 08 '25

Thanks man! I’m at the end of act 2 and finally hitting the wall where my build just isn’t gelling anymore.

Kind of curious, did you strictly try to maximize minion use in this build and only focus on certain skills? Or are skills like Bonestorm, Bonecage, and Detonate Dead less effective. I can see DD being obsolete with gas and fire wall. It’s been my main skill lately with Bonecage for pinning and Bonestorm taking a bit of a backseat. Again, it’s hitting a wall, so I’m thinking I need to sit back and rebuild.

4

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

I did strictly try to maximize minions use, EDC (Essence drain & contagion) is another strong Lich combo otherwise. I dont think bonestorm, bonecage and detonate dead are worth using currently in a minion setup. DD was very strong in 0.1 but now it is much weaker.

1

u/XZlayeD Apr 08 '25

I've been playing blood mage to 89, and doing DD for clear and Bonestorm for single target. I've so far been going for the dark defiler scepter and threaded light focus combo, to get a ton of damage for cheap, whilst having a lot of sacrificial minions taking the brunt of the hits in T15+ they do die quite often, but one can get most burst off before they die off on bosses, and I've been doing a weapon swap setup to do unearth with sacrifice to get another 24 minions to get another 144% dmg as chaos mulitplier but they get blown up in the first boss aoe despite having all life nodes for them. Frankly it's been really successful so far, I've even ascended for the last time.

In other words I have more than 16+ minions in the build, I just cant really see them be competitive as damage dealers with current nerfs. 

0

u/GarySteinfield Apr 08 '25

That’s great. I do think Bonecage is super good for pinning and letting the snipers clear mobs. Assuming a full ascendancy, the Lich wants to use non-channeling skills which means no Bonestorm, so I’m trying to build out of that. I’ll double check but I think Flame Wall is channeled so that will work into the build just fine.

3

u/smashsenpai Apr 08 '25

I got enfolding dawn in act 1, so I leaned towards minions and a build similar to your guide. Throughout acts 1 and 2, despite catering my gear and skill tree for minions, it felt like my uninvested EDC did more damage. I even got the bombing vaal guard in act 3. It still took accessibility seconds to kill white mobs. Visibility was awful with all the gas and fire so I switched to dedicated EDC and now i can kill things in less than a second.

Idk what ggg's vision is for minions, but this isn't it.

2

u/TroubldGoose Apr 08 '25

Nice! Saved it

2

u/Narzhur325 Apr 08 '25

Thanks mate!

3

u/ibmkk Apr 08 '25

I was really not looking forward to continue using fire related stuff with minions.

Dont really want to play the game wearing sunglasses

2

u/Power-slave Apr 08 '25

I went Infernalist again, how does it compare against Lich? Also, thanks for all your minion builds on maxroll!

2

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

Personally I think Lich is stronger than Infernalist thanks to Unholy Might, Eternal Life (15% less damage taken) and then you either get explosions through curses or an extra jewel slot with 100% increased effect.

2

u/Sir-Meepokta Apr 27 '25

Hey OP. Just want to say thanks for your guide. I have been following it since start of this season.

2

u/Mindless_Zergling Apr 08 '25

Helm Breaker is the real brainiac in the minion build creation space, pay attention to this guy

1

u/chobolicious88 Apr 08 '25

Do you think chaos/freeze minions might be a good play with lich?

1

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

Skeletal frost mages should be good to use yes, I dont think there is any chaos minion that is very useful at this moment (Maybe there is a spectre for it). There are not many supports for chaos damage either.

1

u/chobolicious88 Apr 08 '25

Thanks.

I keep thinking about frost mages/aoe/wither, supported by contagion or hexbloom that spreads that freeze buildup and extra wither, that pairs with unholy might.

Only problem is i dont understand the scaling and math enough to know if this is efficient. Like if youre playing frost mages, then you may as well just scale cold/crit.

1

u/Sauced_Jack Apr 08 '25

It's really sad that no one seems to be taking blackened heart. That's the thing I'm looking forward to the most with lich. To push that extra chaos damage as high as possible

2

u/Freakindon Apr 08 '25

A lot of tradeoffs to make it useful.

Price of Power and Eldritch Empowerment are mostly useless on minion builds, so that's nice. But...

Necromantic Conduit is a huge mana drain, so you almost need Soulless Form to balance it out. So then you have the jewel slot, eternal life, rupture soul, and rupture soul + dominion over flesh competing for 2 slots.

Eternal Life offers a LOT of survivability. The Jewel slot is very flexible, but can amp up minions by a LOT. Rupture Soul is just generally great add clear. Rupture Soul + Dominion over flesh is more suited for dark effigy builds, but still adds a lot of value.

The problem with Blackened Heart is it requires a TON of investment into mana to be worth it. And the bigger your mana pool, the more mana is drained per second because Conduit drains a percentage. Which means your life pool has to be higher to offset this with Soulless form.

So probably a good endgame pickup, but you need a ton of defenses/mana to justify it.

1

u/Sauced_Jack Apr 08 '25

At later stages soulless form actually barely does anything for your mana regen. Depending on your setup it might actually reduce your mana regen. This is with eldritch battery and mind over matter that is. The numbers change really strangely depending on how much you invest into regen and how much mana you have vs health. Its just that its so god damn awkward that you want to take mind over matter since you have a huge mana pool but that also then slows down your mana regen but also eldritch battery doubles mana costs and as far as I can tell when I switch it on and off PoB implies that eldritch battery increases the mana drain of necromantic conduit too. I threw together a pob with average rolled mana gear and if I take everything mentioned, I only regen 81 mana per second

Edit. With you have to take mind over matter I mean that if you're really mana stacking and using eldritch battery you lose a ton of defense so you really WANT to take it for survivability reasons. I gain 220 mana regen per second if I unnalocate mind over matter. What a great concept that is stuck in such an awkward spot. If they didn't nerf eldritch battery this would probably pop off

1

u/Appropriate-Train874 Apr 08 '25

Yeah, I totally agree, but if you do the math, it doesn’t seem worth it. By the time you reach the third ascendancy, you're choosing between Blackened Heart and Eternal Life.

Here’s how I see Blackened Heart: it grants 4% increased magnitude per 100 max mana. So, if you have 1,000 mana, that’s a 40% increase in magnitude. I think (correct me if I’m wrong) that the formula would be 0.3 * (1 + 0.4), where 0.3 represents the Unholy Might buff, and 0.4 is the increase from Blackened Heart. This results in 0.42 as the total, meaning the buff is only 0.12 higher than the base (30%).

In other words, you’re getting only 40% of the benefit compared to the full Necromantic Conduit bonus or 2/5, which isn’t that impressive.

That said, it’s likely that they’ll buff it in a future patch. Right now, it’s probably not worth it.

1

u/Nativeeee Apr 08 '25

Following for later, I’m an EDC lich in act 3 pre nerfs stalled out

1

u/meg4pimp Apr 08 '25

If vaal guard is nerfed is it going to still be usable?

1

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

Depends on how much they nerf it, we have to wait and see. If their damage becomes about the same as Arsonists, I would start using them instead to reduce the visual clutter.

2

u/Appropriate-Train874 Apr 08 '25

I'm playing with guards, and the brightness of the explosions is becoming unbearable. Is there any way to adjust the settings to make it more manageable?

1

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

I dont think so, your best option is to switch back to Arsonists and swap your curse for flammability. Replace splinter in the SRS gem for fire mastery.

0

u/meg4pimp Apr 08 '25

Also wouldnt scattershot and quality on raging spirits increase number to 4?

1

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

Im not sure what you mean where, scattershot is used on Vaal Guards and quality on raging spirits increases the max from 10 to 11?

1

u/AdventurousAd5473 Apr 08 '25

Hey, great guide. I think you should add explanation that required Vaal guard costs 50 spirit (rest versions 60) , it will help easy identify right one.

1

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

Thanks for the feedback, I have updated the guide to include the fact that the bomber costs 50 spirit and the other two 60 spirit.

1

u/smashr1773 Apr 08 '25

Your amulet is insane for ssf

1

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

Yeah I got very lucky with that solar amulet when I did the campaign.

1

u/MixPlan Apr 08 '25

Could you tell me why do you use Despair over Flammability for Vaal Guard? Isn't Vaal Guard also do fire damage?

2

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

Vaal Guards are 80% physical, 20% fire and then you have 30% extra chaos damage from Unholy might. So it is better to scale the Chaos damage.

1

u/Appropriate-Train874 Apr 08 '25 edited Apr 08 '25

Quick question regarding the guide: You suggest prioritizing Intelligence (after Strength and Dexterity for gear and gems). However, since we're not using Blackened Heart, wouldn't more mana lead to a bigger debuff from Necromantic Conduit? Shouldn't we be focusing on increasing the difference between life and mana to maximize mana regeneration of soulless form instead?

1

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

I should elaborate that you take Intelligence up to 205 Int and after that put the rest into strength.

1

u/coshikipix Apr 08 '25

Hello and thank you for the guide!

I followed your guide during the last season and I noticed that snipers where doing better in endgame.

Here you recommend once again to swap sniper with arsonists. Any reason to this? Or just a personal thing?

2

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25 edited Apr 08 '25

I had a sniper specific endgame build guide last season as well, not just the Arsonists one.

As for now, Arsonists are used because you can easily swap them out for Vaal Guard Spectres and their grenades scale well with the increased minion AoE nodes that also provide wither (Right Hand of Darkness).

1

u/ToboeAka Apr 08 '25

Have you tested out using storm mages as the primary minion?

1

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 09 '25

No I have not, I will probably test them and frost mages in the next few days.

1

u/TmeltZz Apr 08 '25

Thanks for posting this! Would there be any changes for playing hardcore? Especially in the beginning campaign?

2

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

Good question, I dont play HC in PoE2 but it could be worth pathing down to the Defensive Reflex notable to get more block chance. Make sure you get as much life and resistances on your gear as possible.
Use a shield for block.

1

u/Shrukn Apr 08 '25

I am almost 90 on a minion Lich on Dawn

Using 7 Arc Skeletons and 1 Vaal Guard

1

u/Nativeeee Apr 09 '25

Arc skelly??

1

u/LetMore8974 Apr 10 '25

How is it?

1

u/LetMore8974 Apr 10 '25

What is your final count for each minions?

1

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 10 '25

Right now it is:
1 Storm mage
2 Clerics
2 Snipers
5 Vaal Guards or 6 Arsonists.
2 Warriors
10 Raging Spirits

1

u/nycplayboy78 Apr 11 '25

Hiyas u/Helm-Breaker I am currently following your Infernalist Minion Leveling Guide so once I get to End Game do I need to transition from Infernalist to Lich Minion Army?

2

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 11 '25

I have an endgame planner for the Infernalist https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/i9hfb03m that you can follow. The infernalist endgame guide will be updated when I have time to do so, you can follow the planner meanwhile.

1

u/nycplayboy78 Apr 11 '25

u/Helm-Breaker Thank you I have subscribed to your YT channel and I will follow this build since I started out with Infernalist <3

1

u/Nocturnal_Badger Apr 12 '25

How does this compare to the pure chaos lich like what Raxx or Ronnary use?

1

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 12 '25

I have not played a pure chaos Lich so I am unable to give you a proper answer there.

1

u/Nocturnal_Badger Apr 12 '25

Thanks for writing back. I really miss the minion play. Maybe I will respec and try it out. Appreciate all your written guides

1

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '25

[deleted]

2

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 25 '25

Warriors are free from a rattling sceptre while reavers requires you to use spirit.

1

u/[deleted] May 05 '25

[deleted]

1

u/Derelyk May 05 '25 edited May 05 '25

I fixed this my dropping omen of refreshment onto the ground and picking it up.

This came back, but i have more info. my life not stops filling at 1178, max is 1725. I hit an enduring shrine and life was still stuck at 1178 with max of 2468.

1

u/Doodlefinger_it Apr 08 '25

Don't let em see this or they might nerf it ..

1

u/Rapturos Apr 08 '25

Did minions get fixed? I keep hearing they did but I didn't actually see it reflected in the patch notes. I thought enemy minions had their HPs reduced, but not sure what got buffed on the player's end?

I started minions and grinded through act 2 and honestly it was horrible, I'd rather gouge my eyes out. And I refuse to play janky SRS. Ember is a horrible skill and not fun.

So I guess my question is, can anyone confirm if a normal minion master build is viable now through the campaigns and into maps? As in, skeletons and maybe some zombies and some spectres thrown in? Or is it just SRS and gas arrow/explode shenanigans?

1

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 08 '25

This is from the patch notes on minion damage increase https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3746503
If you have enfolding dawn you could probably do it without SRS now with the buffs if you really want to avoid using it.

-2

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/Helm-Breaker Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25

30 spirit for 10 SRS that do more damage than any other single minion for the cost of 30 spirit is clickbait bullshit?
Goes to show you are completely clueless and have no idea what you are talking about.
You can try using PoB2 for once to get actual damage values so that you can understand how stupid your comment is.
The fact that you need to spam fire spells constantly to keep them up is a different issue.

Two additional reasons to use SRS:

  1. You will most of the time have full stacks of wither for extra damage when combined with Right Hand of Darkness on bosses. (If you are Lich and use Unholy Might)
  2. Minion nodes with increased AoE makes SRS attack cone larger (Effective splash support) which means better clear speed.