Let’s get to the point. If you’ve launched Path of Exile 2 for the first time and are curious about the Witch, it’s because you like the idea of having your own army of minions. Okay, it’s happened to all of us. In this article we wrote Path of Exile 2 Witch version this should aid you get started as you progress through the game.
In this guide, we’ll cover the core identity of a build, the skills it uses, the best support gems, and the best passives for what we’re aiming for. We’ve also covered what you should be looking for when it comes to weapons and armor.
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Path of Exile 2 Witch version
It turns out that the “Witch’s Creature Compilation” is more diverse than you might think! There’s a lot of variety here due to the style of creature master you want to be. Do you see that your minions like ammo, sacrificing it for buffs? Do you want enduring respawning minions? Or maybe ephemeral ones that appear on corpses? Path of Exile has always been good at giving players a lot of freedom and has tried to develop the Witch version as a perfect example of this fundamental aspect of the game.
So we’re going to bring you a build centered around skeleton archers as the basis for the entire build. You’ll get these guys right away in your first act as Maleficent, and as you build your character around increasing their power, you’ll see the impact your passives, support gems, and skills have on you. their power over time. By doing this before you get to Act 3 (which we can’t take you through due to the early access build we had access to), you can either stay true to your bone archer brethren or respect and exploit what you’ve learned to empower the different skeleton varieties .
The best witch skills in Path of Exile 2
These are the skills we will be using in this build. You’ll notice Skeleton Archers here, of course, but you’ll see other skeleton summons here to support you, as well as other abilities that will aid keep you and your archers sheltered and augment your overall power.
Here’s also a post about witches. What is vital here is the wise exploit of the Spirit. You can assign Spirit to your skills on the skills page, and when applied to summons such as Skeleton Archers, it increases the number of archers you receive. So what we’re going to do is allocate most of the spirit to the archers (more archers = more damage), but also allocate a decent amount to regular Skeleton Warriors to act as defenders.
- Warrior Skeleton – Summons a skeleton warrior who will act as a frontline tank and support soldier.
- Skeleton Archer – Summons a skeleton archer who will be your main damage dealing minion. Deals poison damage!
- Essence Drain – A one-way chaos spell that will keep you busy while your archers do God’s work.
- Victim of pain – Sacrifice a skeleton to send others into a frenzy, causing them to deal more damage and exploit skills faster.
- Security vulnerability – A curse you cast on enemies to weaken them, allowing attacks to bypass some of their armor.
- Skeleton Cleric – The ultimate skeleton you won’t sacrifice. They will heal your other creatures and revive dead skeletons.
The best support gems in Path of Exile 2 Witch
What about support gems? Here’s what we chose for this version of the Witch’s skeleton archer! (note that we have listed some Tier 2 support gems here for exploit later. If you want to fill the support slots in Act 1 and 2 with your skills, mix and match the recommended gems until then to get a ephemeral boost to your skills. Who knows! Maybe this will inspire you you to create another character).
- Warrior Skeleton – 1: Meat Shield. Makes them more tough, but reduces the damage they deal. 2: Mutilate. Tier 2 support gem. Maintains hit enemies, reducing their movement speed and dodging. Makes enemies easier to avoid and easier to hit by you and skeleton archers.
- Skeleton Archer – 1: Comorbidities. Allows archers to apply additional poison, but the poisons have a shorter duration. 2: Feeding frenzy. Tier 2 support gem. Your minions will take and deal more damage.
- Essence draining – 1: Chain. Allows Drain Essence to connect between enemies. Take this for an area cleanse. 2: Chaos Brew. Tier 3 support gem. Makes the spell deal more chaos damage at the expense of other types of damage.
- A victim of pain – 1: Magnified effect. Increases the range of the victim’s aura. 2: Rage font. Tier 3 support gem. Gives rage to you and your minions when you are around.
- Sensitivity – 1: Increased curse. Increases the power of the curse. 2: Hex Bloom. Tier 3 support gem. The curse spreads when a cursed enemy dies.
- Skeleton Cleric – 1: Clarity. Gain increased mana regeneration while the cleric is alive! 2: Vitality. Gain increased life regeneration while the cleric is alive!
The best passives in Path of Exile 2 Witch
This build is all about buffing your Skeleton Archers tremendously, so we’ll focus on passives that do just that. You will see general minion passive skills that augment the damage, health, etc. of minions. But you’ll also see some general purpose passive targets that will augment your witch’s power and survivability. Additionally, since we’re focusing on Skeleton Archers, we’ll exploit more Dexterity here compared to other Witch builds, and we’ll exploit a specific passive that will reward that Dexterity investment.
(Note: This means that you should try to take Dexterity where needed in the passive attribute nodes, as well as Intellect. Because this only really pays off when we take Dead Can Dance’s main passive, so the only thing you can do is after simply take which attributes are needed for support gems as you level up, intelligence first to boost your mana until Dead can Dance is ready, then adjust respect to ensure you – and your Skeleton Archers – increased dexterity when you acquire a passive skill).
The main passive elements that we recommend building towards are:
- Raw destruction
- Open your mind
- Power of the dead
- Clean Energy
- Living death
- The merciless fallen
- Fear of death
- Necrotic body
- Entropic incarnation
- The grip of evil
- Dead people can dance
- Right Hand of Darkness
- Essence Infusion
- Restless Dead
- A growing swarm
- Crystal Body
So we have a lot of passive minion skills, as well as passive skills that augment the energy shield recharge rate. It is worth paying attention to the game Dead can Dance. Once you have this, it becomes much more vital to add dexterity to your passive attribute nodes. Just make sure you have enough intellect to exploit all the gems and support equipment!
Path of Exile 2 Use the best weapons and armor
OK, so what should you equip your Witch with? Funnily enough, since this build will ultimately yield a nice amount of Dexterity, since we opted for the Dead can Dance talent, we’ll have a nice amount of Evasion progressing throughout the game. However, since this will also be balanced by intellect, we are looking for gear that will provide evasion AND energy shields. Initially, before you get Dead can Dance, prioritize energy shields, as you’ll mostly be taking Intellect by default anyway. After Dead can Dance, having both becomes more advantageous.
You already have gear equipped with evasion and energy shields. What sub-stats are you looking for? Well, Intellect is always nice, as are elemental resistances (which become much more vital as you head into the end game). Mana and mana regeneration are also good. However, due to the quirks of this build, we’d also like to get some Dexterity, as this will buff the Dead Can Dance passive when you finally get it. Once you get Dead can Dance, this becomes much more vital. So, as a ranged class, movement speed is always good! You don’t want to get surrounded and beaten to death.
If you can hunt down weapons and armor using these stats, you should be good to go. It is vital not to hoard materials for upgrades. You may be tempted to avoid regular gear and weapons in favor of Blue and Yellow, but you never know if a cheeky upgrade might reveal a god roll on these otherwise junk loot. Please note that upgrade materials stored in your stash do not improve your character’s power.
This brings us to the end of our basic Path of Exile 2 Witch guide. At this point you can choose to continue the build with the fire version or, hey, you can change it completely once you feel more confident. Part of the fun of Path of Exile is trying out up-to-date and fascinating builds, so once you’ve had some fun with that, try other things.
