Spirit Plague triggers Poison Overload, which grants 4% poison penetration per stack up to 100 stacks-that's a whopping 400% poison penetration at Last Epoch gold full uptime.

Against groups, curse a single enemy in the pack. Against bosses, target the boss directly.

Use Great Harvest when off cooldown.

Thanks to Executioner's Tiebreaks, Harvest transforms into Great Harvest with a 5s cooldown.

It restores mana (26% against bosses/rares, 4% against normal mobs), which is critical for sustaining Flay spam.

Repeat the loop.

Stay relatively still to maximize Aura of Decay's damage multipliers.

Use Flay for damage and curses, Spirit Plague for penetration, and Great Harvest for mana sustain.

Skill Synergies in Detail

Aura of Decay - The Real MVP

Poisons enemies four times per second baseline.

With Reaper Form's 500% poison chance, this results in 24 poison stacks per second.

Poison frequency can be doubled with nodes from Aura's tree and further multiplied via Flay's nodes.

Staying still builds Fester stacks (up to 9), granting 54% more multiplicative damage.

Fume Weaver reduces enemy poison resistance by 1 per point of Intelligence-so aim for 50+ Intelligence.

Also heals for 8% missing health per second, offsetting the self-poison drawback.

Important: Aura of Decay poisons you, too. For safety, deactivate it between echoes and use gear with cleanse on potion use for emergency resets.

Reaper Form - Your Extra Life

Functions as both a damage steroid and a survivability tool.

When your health bar hits zero, you revert to human form instead of dying instantly.

Grants:

50% increased poison chance

Extra attack/movement speed

Flat damage bonuses

Always have it active before engaging.

Flay - The Active Spam Skill

Your main attack is constantly dealing damage and applying curses.

Inflicts two curses via its skill tree.

Combined with Spirit Plague, enemies usually suffer from three curses at once.

Works beautifully with the Soulstealer Warlock passive, which refunds 13 mana per curse on hit.

Spirit Plague - Poison Overload Engine

Ensures near-permanent 400% poison penetration through Poison Overload.

Efficiently spreads in packs and is mandatory on bosses.

Also sets up Withering Curse when paired with Harvest, further boosting damage.

Great Harvest - Mana Sustain Burst

Normally, Harvest has no cooldown, but Executioner's Tiebreaks convert it to Great Harvest with:

150% more multiplicative damage

50% more AoE

5s cooldown

Critical for mana sustain: restores 26% mana on bosses and 4% per kill on mobs.

Defensive Layers and Sustain

Even though Aura of Decay can be dangerous to you, the build has multiple ways to mitigate that risk:

Aura of Decay Healing - Restores 8% missing health per second.

Potion Cleanse Mod - Essential for buy Last Epoch gold safely removing self-poison stacks.