Path of Exile 2

Essence Drain Contagion Lich made for the new Dawn of the Hunt League.

Become the plague. This build turns your caster into a walking cloud of death, spreading destruction through Essence Drain and Contagion. Enemies don’t just die — they decay, infecting others in a chain reaction of chaos DoT devastation.
What makes this build truly shine is not just its AoE potential, but its survivability through rapid Energy Shield regeneration.

Strengths:
- Incredible area coverage with minimal casting.
- Reliable and consistent DoT scaling.
- 10,000 Energy Shield with high recharge rate.
- Safe ranged playstyle with good survivability.
- Very effective for both the maps and bossing.

Core Mechanics:
Essence Drain delivers huge damage over time to bosses and rare enemies, Contagion spreads that damage across entire packs!
For bossing use pre-cast: Sigil of Power, Despair, Dark Effigy and then spam Contagion and Essence Drain.
Put Blink and Despair to use with Weapon Set 2. All other Spells to Weapon Set 1. That allow to use Blink and Despair on swap. Blink use different Spirit Points and Despair have powerful bonuses from Skill Tree.

Skill Tree and Basic Gear (maxroll.gg)
https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/bcbpa07w

Character Resistances:
Fire: 76%
Cold: 76%
Lightning: 76%
Chaos: 75%

Ascendancy:
First: Eldritch Empowerment
Second: Souless Form
Third: Eternal Life
Fourth: Rupture the Soul

Campaign Stat Bonuses:
Act 3 (Normal) - The Venom Crypts - 25% increased Mana Regeneration Rate
Act 3 (Cruel) - The Venom Crypts - +10% to Chaos Resistance

Gem Links (Level 19 Quality 20%):
ssence Drain (Swift Affliction - Zenith - Considered Casting - Chaos Mastery - Chain) (Weapon Set 1)
Contagion (Unleash - Arcane Tempo - Magnified Effect - Inspiration) (Weapon Set 1)
Dark Effigy (Font of Mana - Withering Touch) (Weapon Set 1)
Despair (Ritualistic Curse - Heightened Curse - Cursed Ground) (Weapon Set 2)
Withering Presence (Persistence - Clarity) (Weapon Set 1)
Blasphemy (Temporal Chains - Encumbrance - Decaying Hex) (Weapon Set 1)
Sigil of Power (Weapon Set 2)
Blink (Second Wind) (Weapon Set 2)
Convalescence (Ingenuity) (Weapon Set 2)

Gear:

Weapon1:
Rare Wand +5 All Chaos Gems and 100+ Chaos/Spell Damage

Offhand:
Rare 300+ ES Focus +2 All Spell Skill and Cast Speed 

Weapon2:
Chiming Staff (Grants Sigil of Power Skill) with 4+ All Spell Gems

Body Armour:
Rare Body Armour 700+ ES and Resistances

Helmet:
Atziri's Disdain Corrupted 12% of Damage taken bypasses Energy Shield, Gain 15% of maximum Life as Extra maximum Energy Shield

Gloves:
Doedre's Tenure Corrupted 120% Increased Spell Damage

Boots:
Rare Boots 200+ ES, 30+ Movement Speed and Resistances

Accesories:
Rare Amulet with +3 All Spell Skills, Resistances/Attributes (allocate Hunter's Talisman)
2x Rare Rings with Life, Cast Speed, Chaos Resistance
Rare Belt with Life and Chaos Resistance
Jewels:
3x Rare Jewels with 15%+ increased maximum Energy Shield and two mods(increased Cast Speed/faster start of Energy Shield Recharge/increased Spell Damage/increased Chaos Damage)

Charm:
Stone Charm (Stun Immunity) with increased Duration
Thawing Charm (Freeze Immunity) with increased Duration

Flask:
Ultimate Life Flask with Instant Recovery
Ultimate Mana Flask

This build only contains items that can be traded, does not include the character.