Last Epoch Lich Build: Poison Flay Madness for 1000+ Corruption
Grab a coffee, because we’re about to break down how this works from the ground up.
Core Concept of the Build
At its heart, this is a damage-over-time Lich that spreads poison like wildfire. The key lies in stacking as many poisons per second as possible while reducing enemy poison resistance to shred through high corruption content. Having enough Last Epoch gold will increase the damage even more.
The main tools are:
Aura of Decay – The real MVP for inflicting poison stacks.
Flay – Our active spam skill that provides consistent hits and curses.
Spirit Plague – A curse engine that synergizes with poison overload.
Harvest (via Great Harvest conversion) – A mana sustain and burst damage tool.
Reaper Form – An offensive and defensive layer, acting as a second life.
Together, these skills create a loop that feels smooth and highly effective once mastered.
Opening Rotation and Gameplay Flow
The flow is deceptively simple but relies on tight synergy:
Activate Aura of Decay and Reaper Form at the start.
Aura of Decay is constantly poisoning everything around you.
Reaper Form grants attack speed, poison chance, extra damage, and a “second life” mechanic.
Engage with Flay.
This delivers direct hits while stacking curses.
Flay is your bread-and-butter button spam.
Apply Spirit Plague to enemies.
Spirit Plague triggers Poison Overload, which grants 4% poison penetration per stack up to 100 stacks—that’s a whopping 400% poison penetration at full uptime.
Against groups, curse a single enemy in the pack. Against bosses, target the boss directly.
Use Great Harvest when off cooldown.
Thanks to Executioner’s Tiebreaks, Harvest transforms into Great Harvest with a 5s cooldown.
It restores mana (26% against bosses/rares, 4% against normal mobs), which is critical for sustaining Flay spam.
Repeat the loop.
Stay relatively still to maximize Aura of Decay’s damage multipliers.
Use Flay for damage and curses, Spirit Plague for penetration, and Great Harvest for mana sustain.
Skill Synergies in Detail
Aura of Decay – The Real MVP
Poisons enemies four times per second baseline.
With Reaper Form’s 500% poison chance, this results in 24 poison stacks per second.
Poison frequency can be doubled with nodes from Aura’s tree and further multiplied via Flay’s nodes.
Staying still builds Fester stacks (up to 9), granting 54% more multiplicative damage.
Fume Weaver reduces enemy poison resistance by 1 per point of Intelligence—so aim for 50+ Intelligence.
Also heals for 8% missing health per second, offsetting the self-poison drawback.
Important: Aura of Decay poisons you, too. For safety, deactivate it between echoes and use gear with cleanse on potion use for emergency resets.
Reaper Form – Your Extra Life
Functions as both a damage steroid and a survivability tool.
When your health bar hits zero, you revert to human form instead of dying instantly.
Grants:
50% increased poison chance
Extra attack/movement speed
Flat damage bonuses
Always have it active before engaging.
Flay – The Active Spam Skill
Your main attack is constantly dealing damage and applying curses.
Inflicts two curses via its skill tree.
Combined with Spirit Plague, enemies usually suffer from three curses at once.
Works beautifully with the Soulstealer Warlock passive, which refunds 13 mana per curse on hit.
Spirit Plague – Poison Overload Engine
Ensures near-permanent 400% poison penetration through Poison Overload.
Efficiently spreads in packs and is mandatory on bosses.
Also sets up Withering Curse when paired with Harvest, further boosting damage.
Great Harvest – Mana Sustain & Burst
Normally, Harvest has no cooldown, but Executioner’s Tiebreaks convert it to Great Harvest with:
150% more multiplicative damage
50% more AoE
5s cooldown
Critical for mana sustain: restores 26% mana on bosses and 4% per kill on mobs.
Defensive Layers and Sustain
Even though Aura of Decay can be dangerous to you, the build has multiple ways to mitigate that risk:
Aura of Decay Healing – Restores 8% missing health per second.
Potion Cleanse Mod – Essential for safely removing self-poison stacks.
Ward Generation – Passive Warlock nodes provide steady ward gain.
Reaper Form Safety Net – Grants a valuable “second life.”
This makes the build surprisingly tanky for how much damage it pumps out.
Gear Priorities
Unique Dagger – Provides +4 skill levels and core scaling.
Gloves – With poison penetration to supercharge stacks.
Executioner’s Tiebreaks – Essential for converting Harvest into Great Harvest.
Belt with Cleanse on Potion – Strongly recommended.
High Intelligence Gear – Boosts damage via Fume Weaver node.
Closing Thoughts
The Poison Flay Lich is not just another DoT build—it’s a carefully tuned poison engine capable of handling 1000+ corruption with ease. By combining Aura of Decay’s insane poison stacking, Flay’s curse engine, Spirit Plague’s penetration scaling, and Great Harvest’s sustain, the build achieves both extreme damage and reliable survivability. Having enough cheap Last Epoch gold also ensures survivability.
If you’re willing to manage Aura of Decay carefully and gear properly for sustain, this setup offers one of the most satisfying high-corruption playstyles in Last Epoch. Poison builds don’t get much crazier than this.