Low life

Example of Low life / Energy shield builds. Most of the Life has been reserved by auras.

Low life is a condition that applies when life is at 50% or lower. Linking mana-reserving skills (such as auras) to Arrogance SupportArrogance SupportAura, Support
Icon: B
Level: (1-20)
Cost & Reservation Multiplier: (220-201)%Requires Level 31Supports any non-blessing skill with a reservation.Supported Skills have (10-19)% increased Aura effect
Supported Skills Reserve Life instead of Mana

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
Supported Skills have (0.25-5)% increased Aura effectThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket. which converts them into Life-reserving skills is one of the easiest way to maintain the low life condition.

Players that use low life will typically either use energy shields to protect their health or Petrified BloodPetrified BloodSpell
Level: (1-20)
Reservation: 35% Mana
Cooldown Time: 1.00 sec
Can Store 1 Use(s)
Cast Time: InstantRequires Level 24Applies a buff that protects the lower half of your life, preventing some of the immediate life loss when damaged by hits and applying the loss over time instead. Your life cannot be raised above low life other than by flasks, and while above low life, skills will cost life as well as mana.Life Recovery other than Flasks cannot Recover Life to above Low Life
When taking Damage from Hits, 40% of Life loss below half Life is Prevented, then (100-81)% of Life loss prevented this way is lost over 4 seconds
Skills gain a Base Life Cost equal to 40% of Base Mana Cost while not on Low Life

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
-(0.25-5)% of Life loss prevented is lost over 4 secondsPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket. if they're not using energy shields. "LL" is commonly used to describe this type of build, which stands for "Low Life".

The only way to achieve Low Life while Chaos Inoculation is allocated is with , as a maximum life of 1 counts as being on full life.

The low life state unlocks several interesting aspects for a character, but can be difficult to maintain efficiently.

Strategy

See also: Guide:Maintaining low life

The advantages to being low life:

• Ability to use Pain Attunement passive skill that grants more spell damage when on low life.
• Ability to use Bloodthirst Support for attack skills on life-based low life builds.
• Ability to use many more auras by using Life reservation in combination with Mana reservation
• Ability to take advantage of the damage mitigation provided by Petrified Blood, as well as being able to overleech life if you have unreserved life over the low life threshold

The disadvantages for being low life:

• Energy shield has fewer recovery method. It cannot be recovered through flask, and energy shield recharge can be interrupted by taking damage. Zealot's Oath is often used in order for life regeneration to apply to energy shield.
• Visibility in low light level areas is largely affected by light radius, which is based on current percentage of your maximum life. Low life build has low light radius due to often reserving 50~99% of their life. This can be mitigated by allocating the Energy Shield Mastery to make light radius based on energy shield instead of life or avoid running maps with indoor layouts.
• Energy shield leech has maximum total recovery per second at 10% of your maximum energy shield, which is half of what life has. Ghost Reaver is often used to double maximum total energy shield recovery per second from Leech.
• Stun threshold and duration is calculated based off the your maximum life. Some low life builds have very low maximum life, causing them to get stunned often with long duration or even stun locked. Stun immunity/avoidance are often used in conjunction, or alternatively effects that alter stun threshold like and the 50% of your Energy Shield is added to your Stun Threshold Energy Shield Mastery.

Common unique items

• is a very common choice for low-life ES builds, as it forces Chaos damage to affect energy shield instead of life. If it is not used, any Chaos damage can one-shot players if they have a very small amount of life.
  • is an alternative for builds that maintain high mana (i.e. Archmage SupportArchmage SupportLightning, Arcane, Support, Spell
    Icon: ^
    Level: (1-20)Requires Level 31Supports spell skills that deal damage with hits and have no reservation. Cannot support arcane skills, Brand skills, Orb skills, Vaal skills, or skills used by totems, traps or mines. Cannot modify the skills of minions.Supported Skills gain Added Lightning Damage equal to (10-19)% of Unreserved Maximum Mana
    Supported Skills have added Mana Cost equal to 5% of Unreserved Maximum Mana
    
    Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
    Supported Skills deal (0.5-10)% increased Spell DamageThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket.).
  • with 100% uptime using flask charge generators - such as Pathfinder passives, The Traitor Timeless Jewel keystone, and - and increase flask duration is another alternative.
• is another common choice that converts a large part of life into useful energy shield.
• is often used in low-life builds to reserve auras using Life rather than Mana without incurring a huge reservation multiplier penalty, unlike Arrogance SupportArrogance SupportAura, Support
  Icon: B
  Level: (1-20)
  Cost & Reservation Multiplier: (220-201)%Requires Level 31Supports any non-blessing skill with a reservation.Supported Skills have (10-19)% increased Aura effect
  Supported Skills Reserve Life instead of Mana
  
  Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
  Supported Skills have (0.25-5)% increased Aura effectThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket..

Related items

Essence modifiers

Essence of Hysteria adds the following suffix modifier to a helmet: Socketed gems deal 30% more damage while on low life

Unique items

The list below displays unique items related to Low Life:

Item		Stats
Araku TikiAraku Tiki Coral AmuletRegenerate (2-4) Life per second+(150-250) to Evasion Rating while on Low Life +(30-50) to maximum Life +(20-30)% to Fire Resistance Gain Elusive on reaching Low Life You have Phasing while on Low LifeIt is said to make you invisible when the Great Spirit comes to take you on your final journey.	1	Regenerate (2-4) Life per second+(150-250) to Evasion Rating while on Low Life +(30-50) to maximum Life +(20-30)% to Fire Resistance Gain Elusive on reaching Low Life You have Phasing while on Low Life

Related passive skill

Base and notable passives

Name	Stats
Brink of Death	Regenerate 4% of Life per second while on Low Life [1]
Executioner	60% increased Damage with Hits against Enemies that are on Low Life 15% increased Area of Effect if you've Killed Recently [1]

Cluster jewel passives

No results found for the given query.

Keystone passives

Name	Stats
Minion Instability	Minions Explode when reduced to Low Life, dealing 33% of their Life as Fire Damage to surrounding Enemies [1]
Pain Attunement	30% more Spell Damage when on Low Life [1]

Ascendancy passive skills

Ascendancy Class	Name	Stats
Assassin	Ambush and Assassinate	+40% to Critical Strike Multiplier against Enemies that are on Full Life 100% more Critical Strike Chance against Enemies that are on Full Life Critical Strikes have Culling Strike 15% more Damage with Hits and Ailments against Enemies that are on Low Life 100% more Critical Strike Chance against Enemies that are on Low Life [1]
Champion	First to Strike, Last to Fall	Your Hits permanently Intimidate Enemies that are on Full Life Gain Adrenaline for 20 seconds when you reach Low Life Remove all Ailments and Burning when you gain Adrenaline Recover 25% of Life when you gain Adrenaline [1]

Mastery Effects

Mastery	Effects
Axe Mastery	10% more Damage with Hits and Ailments against Enemies that are on Low Life
Claw Mastery	60% increased Damage with Claws against Enemies that are on Low Life
Life Mastery	You count as on Low Life while at 55% of maximum Life or below

Miscellaneous low life benefits

Flask prefixes PrudentPrudent
Prefix
(101-106)% more Recovery if used while on Low Life and StartledStartled
Prefix
Instant Recovery when on Low Life
(30-27)% reduced Amount Recovered .

Upgraded Soul of Ryslatha Pantheon power.

Icon	Name	Effect(s)	Upgrade
	Soul of Ryslatha	Life Flasks gain 3 Charges every 3 seconds if you haven't used a Life Flask Recently 60% increased Life Recovery from Flasks used when on Low Life	Capture Murgeth Bogsong in Stagnation Map Enemies you've Hit Recently have 50% reduced Life Regeneration rate

Trivia

Since version 0.9.6, the player light changes to noticeably reddish over the 33% - 37% range to make it easier to judge when the condition applies.

Version history

Version	Changes
3.21.0	Add a new Life Mastery: You count as on Low Life while at 55% of maximum Life or below
3.14.0	The Low threshold for Life, Mana and Energy Shield is now 50% or below (previously below 35%). This means that a single 50% reservation will now put you into a Low state. Light radius has been adjusted accordingly.
0.9.6	The light radius reduction that occurs when on low life indoors has been changed so that it is more appropriate for players who care about the "when on low life" abilities.
Before 0.9.6	Introduced to the game.

See also

• Life reservation
• Mana reservation
• Low Mana
• Low Energy Shield