ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I had invested 4 points and a category point in the lichform talent. I was doing great and was against the final arena boss at wave 60. I was totally going to get rampaged to death, but instead of trying to dodge or anything, I activated the lichform instead because come on, I spent all these points to it and all that...

I died, no lich.

Is Lichform supposed to work in the arena? You can take the skill and the quest requirement is green.
What about infinite dungeon? I'm not going to take Lichform if I don't know it's going to actually work.

I've used it succesfully before in the campaign mode so I do know how it should work. Though I did die in the same dungeon anyway back then...

I don't know that the Arena is "given to the channeling of energies". But I doubt anyone is going to be a stickler about that.

Did you happen to find the still-beating heart of a powerful necromancer? Because that's another requirement...

Well, for him to be able to invest points in it, it should have waived those requirements.

_________________
When in trouble / or in doubt / run in circles / scream and shout.

...right.
I suppose that tiny detail slipped my mind.

I don't suppose he was Manaclashed to death? That'd drop his mana to zero (potentially), and deactivate any mana-based sustains, no?

I doubt it; the same thing happened to me ages back when I first unlocked necro and wanted a low-time-investment way to test out lichdom. I think that it simply doesn't work in the arena, likely as a consequence of how the different mode handles death (although I have no coding knowledge to back up this assumption).

I can confirm that lichdom words in infinite dungeon, though.