Path of Exile 2 Build Guide: Summoner Lich

Updated for Path of Exile 2 Early Access Patch 0.2.0g (Dawn of the Hunt League).

Tired of squishy glass-cannon builds or button-heavy rotations? The Summoner Lich offers a refreshing and powerful alternative: a passive but deadly summoner playstyle focused on overwhelming enemies with an army of Skeletal Archers and empowered Spectres. As a Lich, you gain access to unique chaos-aligned minion buffs, curse amplification, and an eerie playstyle that trades raw aggression for relentless pressure from behind the scenes.

With excellent survivability through Energy Shield and defensive auras, this build is a perfect fit for players who enjoy strategic positioning, scaling power through utility, and watching their minions wreak havoc across the battlefield. Whether you’re a new player looking for a strong league starter or a veteran PoE2 player seeking a bossing powerhouse with hands-off combat, this build has you covered.

Overview

Core Skills

This Lich Build combine all the Skeleton Summoning Skills together to gather an Army for you. 

•  Skeletal Warrior
  • Maim, Sacrificial Lamb, Culling Strike
• Skeletal Cleric Activate to summon Reviving Skeletal Clerics that heal other minions and revive fallen Skeletons.Revive a fallen SkeletonSummons Reviving Skeletal Clerics that heal other minions and revive fallen Skeletons.Revive a fallen SkeletonActivate to summon Reviving Skeletal Clerics that heal other minions and revive fallen Skeletons.Revive a fallen Skeleton  
  • Ingenuity, Minion Mastery, Deathmarch
• Skeletal Sniper Activate to summon long-ranged, Reviving Skeletal Snipers that can fire a gas arrow on Command.Rain an arrow down from above, creating a cloud of flammable poisonous gas where it lands. The cloud will detonate if hit by a Detonator skill or if an Ignited enemy touches it, creating a fiery explosion.Summons long-ranged, Reviving Skeletal Snipers that can fire a gas arrow on Command.Rains an arrow down from above, creating a cloud of flammable poisonous gas where it lands. The cloud will detonate if hit by a Detonator skill or if an Ignited enemy touches it, creating a fiery explosion.Activate to summon long-ranged, Reviving Skeletal Snipers that can fire a gas arrow on Command.Rain an arrow down from above, creating a cloud of flammable poisonous gas where it lands. The cloud will detonate if hit by a Detonator skill or if an Ignited enemy touches it, creating a fiery explosion.  
  • Bidding, Commandment, Corrosion, Chaos Mastery
• Skeletal Storm Mage Activate to summon Reviving Skeletal Storm Mages that can call down a lightning storm on dead Skeletons on Command.Lightning bolts strike all fallen Skeletons in the area, creating Shocked Ground around them.Summons Reviving Skeletal Storm Mages that can call down a lightning storm on dead Skeletons on Command.Lightning bolts strike all fallen Skeletons in the area, creating Shocked Ground around them.Activate to summon Reviving Skeletal Storm Mages that can call down a lightning storm on dead Skeletons on Command.Lightning bolts strike all fallen Skeletons in the area, creating Shocked Ground around them.  
  • Conduction, Stormfire, Lightning Penetration, Lightning Mastery

Aura (Spirit Skills)

• Raging Spirits While active, your Fire Spells will also summon Raging Spirits, which are short-lived flaming skulls that rush at nearby enemies and rapidly Attack them. Enemies will not directly engage these Minions, and can pass through them.While active, your Fire Spells will also summon Raging Spirits, which are short-lived flaming skulls that rush at nearby enemies and rapidly Attack them. Enemies will not directly engage these Minions, and can pass through them.   – A must for any Summoner builds – generally more minion with the combination of Fire Skills.
  • Support Raging Spirit with Elemental Focus, Fire Infusion, Last Gap, Fire Mastery. 
• Bind Spectre Capture the spirit of a defeated monster, transforming this gem to instead allow you to summon the monster’s ghost as a Reviving Minion.Captures the spirit of a defeated monster, allowing you to summon it as a Minion.Capture the spirit of a defeated monster, transforming this gem to instead allow you to summon the monster’s ghost as a Reviving Minion.  
  • Scattershot, Martial Tempo, Feeding Frenzy, Muster

Utilities & Curse Skills 

•   Despair Curse all targets in an area after a short delay, lowering their Chaos Resistance.Curses all targets in an area after a short delay, lowering their Chaos Resistance.Curse all targets in an area after a short delay, lowering their Chaos Resistance.Curse inflicts lowered [Resistances|Chaos Resistance].   – Synergy with your Minion’s Chaos Damage
  • Heightened Curse, Curse Ground, Inspiration, Ritualistic Curse
• Pain Offering Skewer a Skeleton on a bone spike to send nearby Minions into a frenzy as long as the spike remains, making their skills faster and harder hitting. The bone spike is itself a Minion. If it dies, the effect ends immediately.Impales a Skeleton on a bone spike to send nearby Minions into a frenzy as long as the spike remains, causing them to use skills more quickly and deal more damage. The bone spike is itself a Minion. If it dies, the effect ends immediately.Skewer a Skeleton on a bone spike to send nearby Minions into a frenzy as long as the spike remains, making their skills faster and harder hitting. The bone spike is itself a Minion. If it dies, the effect ends immediately.pain_offering_buff   – Just a trick to make your army angrier.  
  • Meatshield, Danse Macabre, Ablation, Persistence

Leveling Skills 

For Leveling in the Campaign, utilize the classic combo   Skeletal Sniper Activate to summon long-ranged, Reviving Skeletal Snipers that can fire a gas arrow on Command.Rain an arrow down from above, creating a cloud of flammable poisonous gas where it lands. The cloud will detonate if hit by a Detonator skill or if an Ignited enemy touches it, creating a fiery explosion.Summons long-ranged, Reviving Skeletal Snipers that can fire a gas arrow on Command.Rains an arrow down from above, creating a cloud of flammable poisonous gas where it lands. The cloud will detonate if hit by a Detonator skill or if an Ignited enemy touches it, creating a fiery explosion.Activate to summon long-ranged, Reviving Skeletal Snipers that can fire a gas arrow on Command.Rain an arrow down from above, creating a cloud of flammable poisonous gas where it lands. The cloud will detonate if hit by a Detonator skill or if an Ignited enemy touches it, creating a fiery explosion.    with   Flame Wall Create a wall of Fire in front of the character, which Ignites everything within its area. Any Projectiles fired through the wall by you and Allies deal added Fire damage and inflict the Ignite on hit.Create a wall of Fire in front of the character, which Ignites everything within its area. Any Projectiles fired through the wall by you and Allies deal added Fire damage and inflict the Ignite on hit.Create a wall of Fire in front of the character, which Ignites everything within its area. Any Projectiles fired through the wall by you and Allies deal added Fire damage and inflict the Ignite on hit.You are taking Fire Damage while inside a Flame Wall.You are taking Fire Damage while inside a Flame Wall.You are taking Fire Damage while inside a Flame Wall. – This is because of the natural combination of the 

Ascendancy

Technically, this build is not new, as there is always the option to pick Infernalist for a Summoner Build, but with the introduction of Lich ascendancy in Dawn of the Hunt, the Summoner meta does receive a huge buff. Let take a quick recap on why Lich is a Perfect ascendancy for Summoner Builds. 

Why Lich Is Perfect for a Summoner Build

1. Passive Ally Buffing Through Presence Mechanics

• Necromantic Conduit gives Unholy Might to both the player and allies (including minions) as long as you’re not on low mana.

• This node effectively turns the Lich into a passive support core that continuously buffs all summoned minions with extra chaos damage, massively improving their clearing and single-target potential without additional setup.

2. Curse Synergy and Hexproof Bypass

• Dominion Over Flesh allows:

  • +1 curse limit, which is crucial when combining utility debuffs like Vulnerability, Despair, or Temporal Chains.

  • Curses to affect Hexproof enemies, ensuring full uptime and reliability in all encounters.

• Curse Area boosts the area of effect, letting summons auto-trigger large-radius curse effects and further debilitate enemy packs before engagement.

3. Exploding Enemies = Exploding Screens

• Rupture the Soul enables cursed enemies to explode on death, dealing chaos damage based on their max life.

• For minion builds that naturally swarm and overkill enemies, this node rewards wide-area minion slaughters with a chain-reaction of corpse explosions. It’s not just thematic—it’s a direct DPS multiplier for clearing.

4. Energy Shield-Based Scaling and Sustain

• Eldritch Empowerment + Energy Shield (ES) nodes:

  • Provide spell damage scaling via ES, which synergizes with many summoner builds that use chaos, fire, or minion-focused spells.

  • This allows the Lich to focus on ES gear and mana, without worrying about interrupting ES recharge while casting non-channelling spells (e.g., Raise Skeletons, Summon Raging Spirits).

• Crystalline Phylactery further empowers jewel socketing with:

  • +100% Jewel Effect, allowing you to dramatically boost minion life, damage, resistances, and utility from a single well-rolled basic jewel.

  • The trade-off in mana cost is manageable for minion casters who don’t spam frequently.

5. Life–ES Interaction for Survivability

• Eternal Life locks life value while ES is active, reducing risks of sudden death from hits or chaos DoTs if paired with proper recharge or leech mechanics.

• Combined with Soulless Form, which converts life regen into mana regen, Lich builds gain smoother skill usage even in energy shield builds that traditionally struggle with mana sustain.

Summary: Lich as a Chaos/Curse Minion General

Lich isn’t a generic minion ascendancy—it turns you into a dark priest of chaos, empowering your minions with corruption, and sacrificing traditional mana regen or HP systems for overwhelming curse, aura, and explosion synergy.

Its toolkit:

• Removes resistance barriers (Hexproof enemies? No problem.)

• Enables wide AoE chaos explosions

• Grants buffs to both you and your undead army

• Supports scaling through mana, curses, and jewels, instead of conventional summon-only stats

If you’re a fan of hybrid defensive builds, dark rituals, and battlefield control through indirect influence, Lich may be the most thematically and mechanically satisfying ascendancy for summoner players in Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt.

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The [Ascendancy Name] offers [brief description of ascendancy’s strengths]. Key nodes include:

• Necromantic Conduit: Grants Unholy Might to you and your minions while above 30% mana, at the cost of 5% mana per second.

• Souless Form: To Solve your Mana issue after your first node
• Eternal Life: One of the best defensive mechanic in Path of Exile 2 – This make you immune to DOT effect as long as you got your Energy Shield (Chaos DOT still bypass Energy Shield) 
• Crystalline Phylactery: Main reason to pick Lich Ascendancy – an extra Jewel slot with 100% increase effect? 

Passive Skill Tree

 

Passive Tree and Attribute Management for Lich Summoners

Attribute Allocation
Aim to meet minimum requirements for your core skill gems and gear:

• Intelligence: 205+ for spellcaster and support gems

• Dexterity & Strength: Just enough to equip your items and enable movement/support gems
  Once those thresholds are met, prioritize Strength to boost survivability through additional life.
  You can respec attribute nodes using Gold at The Hooded One or Doryani, especially useful after gear upgrades that alter your stat balance.

Key Early Game Notables

• Relentless Fallen and Fear of Death: These are among the first notables to pick up. They provide reliable minion damage scaling and movement speed boosts, which are crucial for smoother gameplay during campaign progression.

• Minion Accuracy: Though not always reflected correctly in the tooltip, melee minions greatly benefit from accuracy nodes to ensure consistent hits, especially when paired with Wither or debuff-support gems.

• Open Mind: This node is essential to offset the mana drain from Necromantic Conduit. Losing 5% of your mana per second can otherwise limit sustained spellcasting or aura uptime.

Defensive & Scaling Nodes for Minions

• Growing Swarm, Restless Dead, and Crystalline Flesh provide a well-rounded foundation:

  • Revive Timer Reduction: Speeds up redeploying fallen minions.

  • Minion Damage: Especially for hybrid attackers like Skeletons or Spectres.

  • Defensive Scaling: Helps minions stay alive during endgame AoE.

• Profane Commander is critical to expand your Presence radius (default is just 4 meters). This not only improves the uptime of Necromantic Conduit’s Unholy Might aura, but also amplifies other effects tied to Presence mechanics (e.g., Curse explosions from Rupture the Soul).

• Right Hand of Darkness increases minion attack AoE and grants a chance to apply Wither, synergizing well with chaos-scaling builds and bosses with high resistances.

Endgame Passive Tree Philosophy

As you move past the campaign and into mid-to-late game:

• Focus on Energy Shield scaling, regeneration, and recharge rate to enhance survivability, especially if you’ve taken nodes like Eternal Life or Soulless Form.

• Invest in Minion Damage clusters with multipliers and utility tags (e.g., faster casting, AoE) to handle higher-tier encounters.

• Plan for minor respecs to pivot your tree as needed—particularly when adapting to jewel sockets or new unique items.

Recommended Amulet Instills

You can customize your build with amulet instills to either smooth early progression or boost lategame resilience:

• Essence Infusion: Great early pick; offers +10 INT and +40% recharge rate for Energy Shield.

• Defensive Reflexes: Adds a flat 12% block chance, excellent for hybrid shield builds.

• Relentless Fallen: Expensive but impactful; revisit this later for big boosts to minion DPS and reliability.

Gear Recommendations

Weapons

• Early Game: Wand or Sceptre with +1 to Minion Skill Gems.

• Endgame: Rare Wand with +1 to Minion Skill Gems, increased Minion Damage, and Chaos Damage over Time

Prioritize the following prefixes and Suffixes in your gear

• Minions and Allies have #% Increased Damage.
• Minions and Allies have +# to +# Additional Attack Lightning Damage.
• Minions and Allies have #% Increased Attack Speed.
• Minions and Allies have #% Increased Crit Damage and Crit Chance.

Armor

As usual for Caster Builds these Defensive prefixes and suffixes is a Must

• Defensive Scaling
• Sufficient +#% to Fire, Cold, Lightning and Chaos Resistance to cap your Resistances.
• Maximum Energy Shield.
• #% Increased Energy Shield.
• A shield with a high % Block Chance.
• #% faster start of Energy Shield Recharge
• #% increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate
• +# to Maximum Life.

For Summoner Lich in general, try targeting these on your gear.

• Helmet: Rare helmet with +2 to Minion Skill Gems and Energy Shield.

• Chest: Rare chest with high Energy Shield and resistances.

• Gloves: Rare gloves with Minion Damage and Energy Shield.

• Boots: Rare boots with Movement Speed and resistances.

• Amulet: Rare amulet with +1 to all Skill Gems and Chaos Damage over Time.

• Rings: Rare rings with resistances and Energy Shield.

• Belt: Rare belt with Energy Shield and resistances.

Leveling Gear

For Early leveling, use the Enfolding Dawn Pilgrim Vestments for a straight increase to Spirit.

Leveling Tips

Leveling with Summoner Lich is generally pretty good, thanks to the work of Skeleton Sniper + Flame Wall + Raging Spirit combination. 

• If you face Mana Issue during campaign, don’t leveling your Flame Wall past level 5 or Support it with  Arcane Surge . Finish your second ascendancy as soon as you feel comfortable, as Souless Form is a must to sustain your Mana until the end game 

Gameplay Tips

• Positioning: Stay behind your minions to avoid direct damage.

  • Remember to use your Command Skill to direct the Minions to deal certain skills

• Mana Management: Invest in mana regeneration and Energy Shield to sustain Necromantic Conduit.

• Curse Application: Use Despair and Temporal Chains to debuff enemies effectively.

• Minion Control: Use Convocation to reposition minions during combat.

Campaign Bonus Selection

FAQ

• Is this build viable for solo play? Yes, If not one of the most fun build to play. You are not really “solo” with your minion 
• Does it require expensive gear?
• How does it perform in endgame content? Would requires some investment and scaling your minion damage, but overall pretty viable

Summary

The Summoner Lich is not just viable — it’s dominant. Combining an enormous volume of damage-over-time effects, versatile curse control, and a durable minion wall, it’s one of the most consistent builds for tackling both campaign and endgame content.

Its biggest strength lies in its flexibility: whether you prefer clearing with Skeletal Archers, supporting with utility spectres, or layering on curses to melt tanky foes, the Lich ascendancy supports it all. Thanks to the passive nature of minion combat, this build is also highly accessible and forgiving to pilot — even with modest gear.

This build offers a unique playstyle with Summoner Build, making it a strong choice for players that don’t want their hand dirty clearing the monsters. With natural synergy with Lich ascendancy, it stands out as a competitive option in the current meta. If you want a build that lets you control the battlefield from the shadows while your undead army does the dirty work, the Minion Lich is your calling. Embrace the dark arts, curse your foes, and let the hunt begin.