Path of Exile 2: Skeletal Sniper Lich Build Guide for the Witch Class

The Skeletal Sniper Lich build for the Witch Class in Path of Exile 2 is a powerful and versatile minion-focused setup that combines damage-dealing, defensive mechanics, and support from various curses and buffs. Perfect for players who enjoy commanding minions, this build can take you from the early stages of the campaign all the way into the challenging endgame. By using powerful minions and a variety of curses to weaken enemies, the Skeletal Sniper Lich offers both flexibility and strength, making it an ideal choice for summoner enthusiasts. Whether you're looking to farm POE 2 Currency or conquer high-tier bosses, this build can take you all the way through Path of Exile 2's toughest challenges. Here's a comprehensive guide to mastering this build.

Campaign Strategy

Early Progression: Laying the Foundation

In the early stages of the campaign, the Skeletal Sniper Lich build uses the Spirit of Fury to provide a significant boost to your power. This Spirit is summonable and can be used to deal substantial damage to groups of enemies, making clearing mobs relatively efficient and fast. You'll want to focus on building up your minions as early as possible, particularly your Skeletal Snipers, which will act as your primary source of damage.

To enhance your ability to clear mobs, you'll rely on a combination of minion skills and area-of-effect (AoE) abilities. The Minion Command skill allows you to direct your minions effectively, focusing their fire on key targets and ensuring that enemies fall quickly. Your minions will handle most of the grunt work, while you focus on managing your resources and positioning.

Curses and Buffs

The key to maximizing your damage in the early game will be a combination of offensive and defensive curses. Skills like Ice Curse and Piercing Curse are excellent choices for debuffing enemies. These curses reduce enemy resistance and lower their defenses, making them more vulnerable to your minions' attacks. They also cause enemies to take increased damage, which is critical for maximizing your DPS output.

Buffing your minions is equally important. Skills like Reviving Light will increase the damage output of your minions significantly. This ensures that they can deal with more challenging enemies as you progress through the campaign, allowing you to handle tougher bosses and larger packs of monsters with relative ease.

Mid-Campaign: Transition to Greater Power

As you move into the mid-game, your minions will evolve and become more powerful. Your focus should be on ensuring that your Skeletal Snipers and other minions are properly supported and buffed. You'll need to focus on upgrading your gear and selecting the right support gems to increase your minion's damage output and survivability.

During this phase, be sure to keep an eye on your energy shield (ES) and block chance. These defensive mechanisms will be crucial in ensuring your survival as you face more challenging enemies. In addition, continue to focus on your curses and debuffs, as they will allow you to deal with stronger enemies and tough bosses.

Endgame Strategy

High-Level Content: Skeletal Snipers and Wolf Pack

Once you reach the endgame, your strategy will shift towards using Skeletal Snipers and Wolf Pack as your primary sources of damage. At this point, the reliance on Spirit of Fury and Wall of Flames diminishes, and you'll need to rely heavily on your snipers and wolves for sustained damage.

The Skeletal Snipers are fantastic at dealing high single-target damage. They can mow down bosses and tough enemies with ease. On the other hand, the Wolf Pack adds another layer of damage and utility to the build. The wolves can provide additional crowd control and can hold enemies in place while your snipers focus on taking them down.

You should also begin thinking about how to stack minion damage, critical strike chance, and attack speed to push your snipers and wolves to their full potential. At this point, you'll want to be able to clear maps and bosses quickly, and these factors will help you get there.

Defensive Layers for Survival

Defensively, the Skeletal Sniper Lich build takes full advantage of energy shield, energy shield recovery, and block chance to ensure you can survive in high-level content. It's crucial to stack defensive stats early, as the endgame will challenge you in ways the campaign doesn't.

To further bolster your defenses, you'll want to take advantage of the Immortality talent, which synergizes well with Soulless Form and Heavy Shield. These defenses reduce incoming damage by up to 15%, making you significantly tankier and ensuring that you can survive some of the hardest hits in the game.

Additionally, consider the Loyalty talent, which provides 10% reduced damage taken from hits for your minions. This talent not only benefits your minions but also provides you with extra protection, especially in situations where you might need to get up close to support your minions.

Gear and Unique Items

While the Skeletal Sniper Lich build doesn't necessarily require any specific Unique items to function, there are several items that can significantly enhance its performance. These Uniques can increase your minions' damage, boost your defenses, and help you maximize your overall effectiveness.

Recommended Unique Items

Dawn's Ring-This Unique ring increases minion damage and can be a key asset to your build.

Uler's Bone-An excellent defensive option that boosts your energy shield and overall survivability.

Trench's Echo-If you prefer additional damage over block chance, this is a solid choice.

Wave Shaper-A defensive option that offers extra energy shield and protection for your character.

These Uniques are highly valuable, and if you come across items like Sublime Stones or Chaos Stones during your campaign, consider using them to purchase these essential Uniques. Doing so will significantly optimize your build, especially as you reach the more difficult stages of the game.

Conclusion

The Skeletal Sniper Lich build is a strong, flexible, and rewarding choice for Witch players who prefer summoning powerful minions to handle enemies. By focusing on minions, curses, and defensive layers like energy shield, you can easily progress from the start of the campaign to the toughest endgame challenges in Path of Exile 2. This build offers plenty of versatility, allowing you to adapt your strategy to different situations, whether you're farming Currency or tackling the toughest bosses in the game. With the right gear, talents, and skills, this build can carry you through all stages of Path of Exile 2 and provide a satisfying summoner experience. Make sure to check out various cheap POE 2 Orbs for trading, and optimize your gear to fully realize the potential of this powerful Witch class build.