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Ghostflame Reaper Form Lich Build Guide

Posted by Bowllee on June 9, 2024
Last updated on June 16, 2024

Overview

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Hello! Welcome to my first build guide.

This is a high crit physical 'one button' playstyle build which comfortably clears through the early corruptions at a fast rate. Our goal is to scale as much damage into our Marrow Shards which then gets cast by Ghostflame through the Feast of Bones 1/1 node.

Offensively, as mentioned, we scale a lot of critical strike chance and multiplier to amp the damage of our Marrow Shards as much as possible. Blood Assassin 3/3, Marrow Death 2/2 and Femoral Offering 1/1 all give us great scaling to start doing some high critical damage, alongside Fuel of Anguish 3/3 from the Ghostflame tree you're able to roam holding one button 90% of the game. Pretty neat!

Due to the nature of channelling we scale a lot of defence through the Warlock tree with important nodes such as Ward of Malevolence 5/5 and Doom Herald 8/8, as well as Reaper Form to scale some armor - Soul Shroud 3/4 - and more resistances - Vile Shroud 1/1 - on top of a crazy amount of leech thanks to the Lich passive tree, with passives such as Ageless Ascetic 5/5 and Soul Maw 5/5, alongside one of the first very easy attainable uniques Woven Flesh we gain a really respectable amount of EHP whilst channeling Ghostflame.

The only unique I would consider 'mandatory' for this build is, as mentioned earlier, Woven Flesh. It not only gives us an incredible amount of leech to sustain Reaper Form for as long as possible, but it also covers our SuffixCritical Strike Avoidance meaning we can focus on other forms of defence elsewhere. With us opting to go more ward based, Boneclamor Barbute and Telf'un's Mirage slot beautifully into this build. We practically cap SuffixNecrotic Resistance from our passive trees meaning any we can add to our build turns into SuffixWard per Second, whilst Wraith Form 3/4 from the Ghostflame skill tree gives us the ability to scale a lot of dodge to multiply with our boots, meaning we can attain over 10000 dodge rating incredibly easy. A well rolled Ambitions of an Erased Acolyte and Thorn Slinger are not needed at all but are very easy uniques to attain which can help cover your build until you get further into the end game!

This build is very easy to pickup once you hit monoliths but in terms of quality of life you definitely need certain pieces, but they're incredibly easy to get.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Very casual and friendly to play

Mainly a one-button build

Very fast farmer

Easy to attain uniques

Can get you decently into the endgame (250c plus)

Cons

Poor at bossing

Mana management is tough early

Not HC viable until you put heavy investment into the build

Gameplay / Mechanics

The core focus is to be channeling Ghostflame as much as possible to trigger Marrow Shards and detonate your enemies into pieces! Supporting this, you want to be in Reaper Form as much as possible to gains its mobility, offensive and defensive multipliers - thankfully this is very easy. Transplant and Bone Curse give some great quality of life for bossing and rares that may be in your way.

Although we do not cast Marrow Shards, it is the majority of the damage for this build. Ghostflame changes it's damage type to physical through Arteries of Malice 1/1, and casts Marrow Shards for us through Feast of Bones 1/1. Fuel of Anguish 3/3 allows this to trigger more often and scales our damage up massively. With Ghostflame changing to physical damage it now also applies Bleed which gives us access to Demise 5/5, on top of Bone Knives 1/1, Apathy 1/1 and Dead Weight 4/5, we get some insane multipliers to our physical damage. Rip Marrow 1/1, Life Blood 2/2 and Spirit Feast 1/1 make the ability to keep channeling for as much as possible, and with the mana issues later described in the build guide you will need this!

Ghostflame itself has to have points invested somewhat wisely, focusing on supporting Marrow Shards, mobility and defences as much as possible. Wraith Form 3/4, Spirit of Dread 1/1 and Doom Surge 3/3 all give us the ability to get quicker through monoliths. Due to the mana modifiers linked to Ghostflame, we need Spectral Menace 5/5 on top of multiple PrefixMana Efficiency with Ghostflame idols to keep our mana sustained. This will be awkward if you try to transition to this build without these equipped so beware!

Reaper Form is the key component to support our two main skills. Reaper's Curse 4/4, Death Comes Quickly 2/4 and Rapid Destruction 3/3 fill out the main offensive and mobility bonuses, whilst Unholy Dominion 1/1 helps feel the build much less clunky getting around. Vile Shroud 1/1 and Soul Shroud 3/4 gives us the ability to stay in our form longer which means we get to utilise the previous mentioned bonuses for as long as possible.

Transplant gives us access to Bone Armor 3/3 and both of it's huge bonuses - Apostasy 3/3 and Plated Bone 2/2 - whilst applying the full effect of our Bone Curse through Doom Bringer 1/1. One way our mana management is helped is through Pale Blood 3/3 as we have Reaper Form mobility to fall back on should the cooldowns be awkward.

Bone Curse can be applied through Transplant as mentioned but also self-cast to get other benefits. Cursed Limbs 2/5 is nice to weave in between difficult packs, such as ambushes, to get more of it's really strong benefits. Defile Defenses 5/5 is the builds core way of applying Shred Armour, Sigil of Mortality 1/1 lets us apply Marked For Death and Brittle Bones 3/3 gives us execute which helps cover the poor damage we have against bosses.

It should definitely be noted that Transplant and Bone Curse are flexible skills for this build, and you have the option to go for other abilities should you feel more comfortable.

Skills

Passives

Stat Priorities

Equipment

The main damage scaling of this build is PrefixCritical Strike Chance, PrefixCritical Strike Multiplier and PrefixPhysical Damage or PrefixSpell Damage as we are fortunate enough to scale with both. Alongside this, PrefixPhysical Penetration is definitely something to consider where possible. I'd say that there are soft caps you should definitely want to hit:

Once you hit both of these marks you can freely start scaling PrefixCritical Strike Multiplier and PrefixPhysical Penetration as they will offer the most damage for your Marrow Shards.

PrefixLevel of Ghostflame and PrefixLevel of Marrow Shards aren't mandatory but if you can achieve +2 at least in each you most definitely should. Focus for these on your helmet or ideally Boneclamor Barbute with LP if you're fortunate enough.

Defensively I focused on SuffixEndurance for this build as Reaper Form drains your health consistently and you need to be hitting something to generate health back. Capping SuffixEndurance with a sufficient amount of SuffixEndurance Threshold will help the build massively. Outside of this you just want to cap resistances, and once that is done - and you have a Boneclamor Barbute - start stacking SuffixNecrotic Resistance to gain it's benefits. It may feel like there's a lack of options for defenses as SuffixHealth isn't necessarily the best stat for us, but with Telf'un's Mirage and Wraith Form 3/4 you also don't necessarily need it! Without the boots I'd recommend focusing on SuffixHealth and SuffixHealth.

Idols, as mentioned previously, are vital for this build to run efficiently. PrefixMana Efficiency with Ghostflame over or as close to 50% is the goal, meaning ideally four Large Immortal Idol. I rounded the build off with some PrefixWard per Second while channeling Ghostflame and PrefixChance to apply Damned on Hit but neither are as important as the mana efficiency.

Slot
Item
Stats

Idols

Please note - whilst playing this build in early monoliths if you aren't playing Merchant's Guild these idols may take a little while to acquire. Until then, focus on using idols to cap resistances where possible and it will make your end game much smoother!

Blessings

Timeline
Blessings
The Age of Winter
Fall of the Outcasts

Any

The Stolen Lance

Any

Blood, Frost, and Death

Any

Fall of the Empire

Any

The Last Ruin

Any

Build Variants

Leveling

This build isn't recommended to level with as Ghostflame requires a lot of items to maintain. I'd recommend many of the other great levelling builds available on this website!

Endgame

There are a few ways this build can be pushed into further corruptions, beginning with SuffixEndurance and SuffixEndurance Threshold. Hitting 60% SuffixEndurance is the key step but remember you need SuffixEndurance Threshold as high as possible to work with this. The blessings in particular give you a massive boost to this.

If you can afford to drop some leech from Soul Maw 5/5 to invest more into Three Plagues 4/8 this means you don't have to focus on PrefixPhysical Penetration in your amulet or weapon, although I felt much less comfortable without the extra leech.

If you can get a better prefix on your Boneclamor Barbute instead of PrefixLevel of Ghostflame you should do so, an example being T7 PrefixIntelligence or PrefixPhysical Damage While Transformed.

FAQ

Video

Changelog

  • Added video
  • Small changes to talents
  • Build guide was published

Discussion

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