With the launch of Last Epoch Season 3: Beneath Ancient Skies, many players are exploring new builds to tackle endgame content efficiently. In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at the Harvest Flay Lich build, based on a video shared by Volca on his YouTube channel. Some players say that Flay Lich is weak, but that’s not true. With the right setup, it becomes a powerful melee build that excels in both clear speed and single-target damage. This guide focuses on a melee cold damage hybrid that combines Harvest with Flay for high DPS and smooth gameplay.
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Core Playstyle
Clear Speed: Flay is primarily used for fast map clearing and for maintaining buffs from boots and curses.
Single Target: Against bosses, start by stacking debuffs with Flay, then switch to Harvest as your main source of damage while refreshing Flay every 8 seconds to maintain stacks and curses.
Damage Output: With proper gear, the build can reach 2.5–3 million DPS, delivering both impressive clear and boss damage.
Gear & Uniques
This build is gear-dependent, but the required items are obtainable:
- Weapon: Traitor’s Tongue (Dagger) and Velocyn’s Jaw (Primordial Dagger)
- Head: Snowblind (common, easy to find even at 4 LP).
- Boots: Essential for any melee build, granting massive buffs, and a must-have for this setup. You can use Army of Skin.
- Chest: Core of the Mountain Chest (great endurance, dodge, and attributes)
- Accessories: Siphon Anguish Ring and Shattered Chains Belt for melee damage; Red Ring of Atlaria to help cap resistances; Falcon Fist gloves for attack speed and endurance.
- Upgrades: Replace gloves and relic with Uber items when available.
Damage Scaling
Dexterity: Provides both flat cold damage and movement speed with the dagger (2 flat cold damage per Dexterity). Currently, over 266 flat cold from Dexterity alone.
Flat Damage: Stacked primarily on one dagger, while the second slot is used for high attack speed (T7 Attack Speed).
High HP Bonus: The build deals 50% more damage against high-HP enemies, making it shine in boss fights.
Skill Setup
Flay: Used for clear speed, buffs, and curses. Maintain Flay every 8 seconds on bosses to keep stacks active. With nodes and amulet bonuses, you can add distance to the dash effect, creating a “flicker strike” style for fast mapping.
Harvest: Main boss DPS skill, fully converted to cold. Generates mana on hit/kill and has high multipliers for damage. Surprisingly effective, exceeding initial expectations.
Transplant: Provides mana sustain, Frenzy buff, mobility, and utility for mapping.
Reaper Form: Focus on maximizing damage and crit chance. Dash mobility is covered by Flay and Transplant, so Reap nodes are unnecessary.
Mana Management
Unlike mana-stacking builds, this version has no mana issues:
- Mana on hit/kill from Harvest
- Natural mana regeneration
- Additional mana sustain through Transplant
This ensures smooth, uninterrupted gameplay.
Passives & Defenses
- Acolyte Tree: Standard damage and ward nodes.
- Lich Tree: Heavy investment into Dexterity and dodge.
- Defenses: Around 1.3k dodge, strong endurance from uniques.
- Corrupted Form: Low-life node for increased HP and damage efficiency.
Blessings & Idols
- Prioritize Cold Damage and damage multipliers.
- Cold shred comes naturally from Harvest conversion, so additional shred isn’t required.
- Idols can be used to fix resistances and penalties.
Conclusion
The Harvest Flay Lich is a high-DPS, melee-focused hybrid that blends Flay’s flicker-like clearing with Harvest’s boss-shredding power. It offers:
- Fast map clear with Flay’s dash mechanics
- Strong single-target DPS from Harvest
- Smooth mana sustain without clunky mechanics
- Scalable gear options for endgame
With the right uniques and proper stat stacking, this build proves that Flay Lich is far from weak—it’s one of the most effective melee options in Last Epoch Season 3.
