Path of Exile 2: The Lich and the Last Lament – A Masterpiece of Undeath

Path of Exile 2 (POE 2 Currency) has quickly become a breeding ground for some of the most creative builds in modern ARPG design. Among the classes players can choose, the Lich stands out as one of the most unique. Unlike more traditional archetypes, the Lich thrives on mechanics that warp conventional ideas of health, survival, and damage scaling. Recently, a fascinating build has emerged that combines the Lich’s strange power over undeath with a new unique crossbow called The Last Lament. What makes this synergy so captivating is that it doesn’t follow the usual “summon an undead army” path people expect from a lich archetype. Instead, it focuses on speed, rage, and lightning shotgun blasts — all while bending the rules of life and death.

This article will explore the design of this build in depth, breaking down how it works, why it’s powerful, and why it represents one of the most innovative uses of PoE2’s mechanics to date.

The Last Lament – A Crossbow with a Cost

The foundation of this build is The Last Lament, a unique crossbow added in version O21. At first glance, it seems like a weapon with a major drawback. Normally, the crossbow bypasses reloading at the expense of 300 life per shot. For most characters, this is a death sentence. Firing a few bolts might be fine in trash fights, but any extended combat would eat away at the user’s life pool until they inevitably crumple.

However, PoE has always been about bending mechanics to your advantage, and the Lich has a particularly broken interaction here. Thanks to the Eternal Life node, a signature Lich passive, life cannot change as long as you have some Energy Shield. This means the “sacrifice life” cost of The Last Lament is effectively nullified. You fire indefinitely, never lose life, and never need to reload. The downside evaporates, leaving only the upside: infinite, free firing.

This already makes The Last Lament one of the most attractive weapons for the Lich. But what makes it incredible is how well it synergizes with both crossbow skills and the class’s toolkit of passives and mechanics.

Galvanic Shards – Lightning Shotgun Power

For clearing packs of enemies, this build uses Galvanic Shards, a lightning-based shotgun skill. Unlike traditional bows or crossbows that focus on piercing projectiles or chaining arrows, Galvanic Shards operates more like a short-range blast of electricity. It sprays multiple projectiles in a wide arc, letting players annihilate groups quickly and efficiently.

The interaction with The Last Lament’s infinite ammo means that you can continuously fire Galvanic Shards without worrying about mana or reload timers. In PoE2, resource management is often a limiting factor in damage output, but this setup eliminates that problem entirely. The result? Constant blasting at zero cost.

Compose Requiem – A Boss Killer with a Song

For boss encounters, The Last Lament comes equipped with its own unique skill: Compose Requiem. This ability requires charging, but once unleashed, it deals massive damage to single targets. As if that wasn’t enough, the skill literally sings while being used, giving the build a touch of flavor that feels perfectly thematic for a Lich.

Between Galvanic Shards for clearing and Compose Requiem for bosses, this build has an answer for every situation. But the strength of the build goes far beyond just its skills.

Low Life Synergy – Turning Weakness into Strength

One of the most fascinating aspects of this Lich build is its use of low-life mechanics. In PoE2, being considered a “low life” means having 35% or less of your maximum life remaining. Normally, this is a precarious state, as it leaves you vulnerable to being one-shot by heavy damage. However, the Lich once again flips the script.

Because the Eternal Life node ensures that your life cannot change while you have Energy Shield, you can intentionally keep your health below the 35% threshold without risk of dying. This unlocks a whole new world of bonuses designed around “low life” states.

Some of the key interactions include:

Execute Support Gem: Grants 30% more damage while on low life. This bonus can be stacked across nearly all of the Lich’s active skills, giving a massive boost in output.

Dire Strike Support: Another damage multiplier that activates when you have enough Spirit available, further amplifying attacks.

Passive Tree Nodes: Several passives now reward characters who remain on low life, stacking even more offensive power.

In short, what would normally be a dangerous liability becomes a constant source of strength.

Rage and Berserk – The Angry Lich

As if infinite ammo and low life bonuses weren’t enough, this build also integrates the Rage mechanic. Rage typically boosts attack damage and attack speed, stacking higher the longer you generate it. However, Rage usually drains life in exchange for its power. Once again, the Lich sidesteps the cost.

By equipping Death Articulated unique gloves, the build gains a steady stream of Rage without suffering the associated health loss. From there, you can expand the Rage cap through socketables and passive tree investments. This opens up the use of Berserk, a powerful buff that amplifies Rage effects at the cost of life. But thanks to the Lich’s abilities, that life cost simply doesn’t apply.

The result? A perpetually furious Lich wielding a lightning shotgun crossbow, tearing through enemies faster than most melee builds.

Speed as a Secondary Goal

Once the damage problem was solved, the creator of this build — known as Sza — turned their attention to the next most enjoyable factor: speed. After all, what’s the point of being immortal and devastatingly strong if you can’t also move like lightning?

The build focuses heavily on reducing the movement penalty associated with firing while moving. Normally, characters suffer reduced movement speed when trying to attack on the go. But through a mix of passive tree nodes and modifiers (such as new Desecrated modifiers), it’s possible to stack 100% reduction to this penalty. At that point, you can move and shoot simultaneously at full speed.

This opens the door to using the Deliberation support gem, which increases damage at the cost of movement speed. But since the penalty is nullified, the gem provides only upside.

Additional sources of speed include items like Techrod’s Gaze, which boosts movement speed by 10% while on low life, further compounding the build’s synergy. The end result is a character that doesn’t just kill fast but also moves fast — so fast that mounts begin to feel unnecessary. Who needs a horse when your lich legs carry you across the battlefield effortlessly?

Crystalline Phylactery and Necroantic Conduit – Passive Perfection

The genius of this build is how well it makes use of every single Lich node. For example:

Crystalline Phylactery: This node allows you to use a jewel and double its effects. By slotting in a crossbow-focused jewel, Sza significantly boosts damage, reinforcing the build’s reliance on The Last Lament.

Necroantic Conduit: Normally, this node provides Unholy Might, a powerful buff. However, it would often disable itself when players run low on mana. Since this build spends no mana whatsoever (thanks to the crossbow’s mechanics), the buff remains active permanently, providing a constant source of extra chaos damage.

Together, these nodes elevate the build from “strong synergy” to “masterclass in efficiency.”

Defensive Layers

While offense is the highlight, defense hasn’t been entirely ignored. This build leans heavily on Evasion and Energy Shield, supplemented by carefully chosen gear. The Energy Shield not only protects the Lich from incoming hits but also ensures that Eternal Life’s condition is always met. Without Energy Shield, the build would collapse, as life would suddenly become a spendable resource again.

For players starting out or those preferring a safer playstyle, it’s possible to drop the Rage mechanics entirely. By skipping the gloves and Berserk interactions, you can invest more heavily into survivability nodes on the passive tree, creating a version of the build that’s tankier, if less explosive.

Why This Build Works

The reason this build is so exciting isn’t just raw power — though it has plenty of that. It’s because it represents the heart of Path of Exile’s design philosophy: taking disparate mechanics, finding loopholes in their downsides, and combining them into something greater than the sum of its parts.

The Last Lament was clearly designed as a high-risk, high-reward weapon. For most characters, it’s unusable because of its life cost. But for the Lich, it becomes not only viable but god-tier. The Eternal Life node flips the script, and suddenly the “risk” vanishes, leaving only reward.

From there, layering on low life bonuses, Rage mechanics, and movement synergies creates a build that feels not just powerful but also thematically perfect, cheap Path of Exile 2 Currency. The image of an undead queen firing lightning blasts from a crossbow while sprinting across the battlefield in a rage-filled frenzy is exactly the kind of fantasy PoE players love.

Conclusion

Path of Exile 2 continues to encourage innovation through its complex systems, and the Lich with The Last Lament is one of the best examples of this so far. By negating downsides, stacking synergies, and thinking outside the box, players like Sza are showing just how deep the game’s design space truly is.

This build is fast, furious, and unorthodox — a shotgun-wielding, rage-powered Lich who never needs to reload and never runs out of steam. It demonstrates the joy of experimentation in PoE, where every unique item or passive node can be the key to unlocking a whole new way to play.

Whether you’re a seasoned exile or new to the series, this build showcases what makes Path of Exile 2 such a compelling ARPG: the freedom to create something entirely your own, and the thrill of breaking the rules in the most spectacular way possible.