Witch in Path of Exile 2: Infernalist and Blood Mage Builds

Witch in Path of Exile 2 — a necromancer who can resurrect slain enemies, summon skeletons and other minions, but in addition to this, upon Ascension, she gains access to the fire element or blood magic. The class is perfect for destroying crowds of enemies at a distance: while the Witch stands behind and attacks targets with multiple spells, her army fights on the front lines, and each new enemy will soon become another minion.

In this guide, we'll cover all the most effective builds for the Witch, ways to level up the skill tree, the best ive skills and gems, and we'll also talk about rotation for winning battles.

Read the detailed instructions in a separate manual. Lich subclass guide.

PoE 2 Witch Builds for Leveling

Below we will provide three key builds that are suitable for low levels during leveling.

Initial assembly before choosing a specialization

Once you start your journey and choose the Witch as your starting class, you will need to complete the first two acts for her. After that, the Sekhem trial will open, as well as the Ascension, during which you will be able to move to a completely new level. During this time, you will need to decide on the focus of the witch, get used to the summoner's skills and master ranged combat.

The starting build for the Witch is extremely important for quickly completing the content of the first acts. Next, we will consider the best way to level up the class for maximum damage at the beginning of the game, we will analyze the necessary equipment, active and ive skills, and also provide a video guide.

This build is intended for low levels until you have chosen a specialization for Sekhem's test. The estimated level for this build is up to 24.

Equipment

First of all, you need to figure out how to dress the hero and what items the Witch will need. Necromancer in Path of Exile 2 plays from minions, which is why it is important to pump their level, various parameters related to energy, resistance to effects, etc. The ideal build should combine all the main characteristics in order to realize the potential of the Witch.

The main parameter for a necromancer is intelligence. We will examine this in more detail below. what modifiers are needed For the Witch's equipment items, the table lists the best options available:

Based on the table, you will be able to figure out what equipment to choose for the Witch and gradually dress her in suitable equipment. Then you can start installing runes on the equipment. If there are no slots, add them using the spheres of astromancy.

• You can use Rune of Rebirth for regeneration for killing enemies.
• Add Rune of Inspiration to gain mana for killing enemies and increase base mana regeneration.
• Rune of the Desert will increase fire damage.
• Rune of Reason Suitable if you are experiencing a severe shortage of mana, which can happen in the early stages of the game.

To start, you will need the Enveloping Dawn Pilgrim's Garb and the Old Oak Heraldry Shield as items. Each costs 1 Exalted Orb per market.

Skills and stones

The most useful and important skills for the Witch summon and empower minions. It is worth starting with skeleton snipers so that they the owner with damage to the target. Additionally, it is worth paying attention to exhumation и infection - Both skills will allow you to easily get out of a battle with a hundred enemies: the more opponents, the sooner they will all fall under the power of the Necromancer.

What you should do next emphasis on the fire, which will be especially useful for the Infernalist. In the table below you can see the active skills of the Witch and the stones that the hero needs first of all:

Skeletal Snipers are good to start with, but once you get level 9 gems, switch to Skeletal Reavers for increased melee damage. At level 13 Upgrade them to Skeletal Brutes. Martial Tempo will increase your attack speed.

The key skills are minions, if you don't have enough points, you can take the Ice Mage Skeleton. Basically, the build is sharpened for the further development of the necromancer, but can be changed as you choose a subclass.

ive skills

Leveling up a witch should almost always start with increasing minion damage and increasing all stats related to dead minions. To do this, follow the teal branch, where the first major ive skill will be "Mass destruction". From there, move up to "Powers of the Dead". All these skills increase spell damage and minion damage.

As you level up, go a little higher and start swinging to the left to gradually reach the skill "To fall into depression" and get useful bonuses. Use "Essence Infusion", which is "on the way" to increase the bonuses to armor and shield. From "depression" pump a couple of skills down and open "Deadly Swarm" to increase minion damage and critical strike chance.

Next thing you need to do is swing the branch up and open it. "Hard Fix" - with its help, minions will become fatter, gain resistance and start regenerating more health. Unlock "The Grip of Evil" и "Entropic embodiment" to increase minions' critical damage, resistance and damage. Now pay attention to "Overgrowing flesh" - it will give the minions vampirism. "Reliable barrier" will allow you to recharge your energy shield faster. The skills on the left side of the ive map will also be useful:

• The Restless Dead.
• Growing crowd.
• Crystalline flesh.

Rotation

A witch pet who is also considered a necromancer, plays from minions: Minions rush into battle and kill enemies while their master provides with various abilities, such as Wall of Flame and Raging Spirits. The rotation for the Witch is as follows:

1. Get into a safe position and let Hellhounds, Skeletal Beasts, or Skeletal Devourers attack enemies, applying Vulnerable to them to ignore armor.
2. Use Wall of Flameto summon Raging Spirits and enhance projectiles with fire damage.
3. Activate "Painful Sacrifice" [Pain Offering] pierces the skeleton and causes nearby minions to go berserk, increasing their attack speed and damage.
4. Refresh the Wall of Flame as needed to keep the spirits from disappearing.
5. Complete the rotation with "Explosion of the Dead", turning corpses into time bombs to destroy surviving enemies.
6. Wait for the Pyro Skeletons to clear out the enemies while the Priest Skeletons continue to heal and revive the minions.

Witch Infernalist build for leveling time

The Infernal Witch is a great option for a starting build, which will allow you to complete the entire story campaign without any difficulties, which is what makes Ascension stand out from the Blood Witch.

Development along this branch will allow you to stick to the already familiar style of play, destroying enemies with the help of a horde of minions, setting everyone and everything on fire along the way. Infernalist talents increase survival, reduce consumption spirit and simplify the gameplay from minions.

Skills and stones

The build for the Infernalist is the same as the starting one, based on the use of minions. In addition to the basic skeletons, Hellhounds are included in the case, which do not consume spirit. All sorts of skills in this branch increase resistance, shields, and also exchange mana for a pyromantic pact, which is restored faster. Infernalist is a balanced class with good survivability and damage, the main skills and stones are:

General principles of playing as an infernalist almost no different from the fighting style for the starting witch, since both branches rely on the call of minions:

1. The rotation begins with summoning Raging Spirits with Wall of Flames.
2. After that, Skeleton Pyroes are summoned, dealing area damage. You can add Weaken or Ignite here to reduce enemy damage or increase minion damage.
3. Excavate is cast on enemy corpses to create a temporary army of minions that will explode when low on health.
4. Sacrifice of Pain will allow you to strengthen your minions.

ive skills

The key ive skills for the Infernalist are:

• Hellhound - a minion that does not reserve spirit, and also increases the witch's survivability.
• Altered Flesh — converts some of the cold and lightning damage into fire damage, making it easier for the witch to survive. Some of the physical damage is converted into chaos damage.
• The Will of Beidat - increases the amount of available spirit several times, scaling the resource from health.

A set of these three ive skills will allow you to feel more comfortable in combat, summon minions and destroy enemies. Also, the ives have a serious emphasis on strength and agility in order to collect normal equipment.

From the central branch, go right and collect a number of key ives, as well as everything that is behind them:

• Grave digger - accelerated resurrection of minions.
• Master of Corruption - strengthening of curses.
• Refocus - increased shield recharge speed and mana regeneration.
• Ingenuity — +25 to intelligence.
• Stable barrier - significant increase in energy shield and slowdown in the start of its recharge.
• Recovery - Energy shield buff.

It also makes sense to pump the left side of the entire tree, collecting along the way The silent guard to give minions a resistance bonus and Ancient Aegis to increase armor.

Video guides for Witch Infernalist

For a detailed look at the Witch Infernalist build, you can study the most useful video guides for this branch of leveling:

Build #1

Build #2

Build #3

Blood Witch build for leveling

The Blood Mage build is different in that early on the subclass has debuffs"Life Siphon" cannot compensate for "Bloodmancer", which adds a base health cost to skills equal to the base mana cost. Therefore, it is not chosen for the beginning of development, giving preference to the Infernalist.

The "blood" followers build a character without pumping up the main skills in the early game. The Blood Mage puts his life energy into spells, using health to deal damage. Killed enemies compensate for the costs by healing the Witch. Further development of the branch will make the Blood Mage a strong character with a stable playstyle.

Skills and stones

Ice Wall combined with Fireball is good for clearing out normal monsters in the early stages. Most enemies die from one comet. Fireball can be equipped with Blueflame Bracers, which will allow you to kill enemies with one click.

Comet requires a lot of mana and health, which can make it difficult to maintain. Be sure to restore mana and invest in its reserves and regeneration.

ive skills

For more damage and more room in gameplay, it is recommended pump up the triangle of elements: Roaring Flames, Rolling Thunder, and Ringing Frost. These ives will greatly increase your elemental damage.

Upgrade "Hypersensitivity" - It increases the effect of susceptibility to cold, fire and lightning by 30%, increasing the damage dealt to enemies.

Another trio of related skills will be useful:

• Limit of destruction - Increases the duration of elemental states on enemies, as well as the strength of imposed states that do not cause damage.
• Natural strength - increases damage from elements and resistance to them.
• Fueled by the storm - Increases the elemental damage if a critical hit has been dealt recently, and also increases the chance of dealing a critical hit.

Video guides for Blood Mage

For a better understanding of the Blood Mage leveling strategy, you can watch these video guides:

Build #1

Build #2

Witch Infernalist Endgame Build with Pyro Skeletons

The Witch build with Skeleton Pyro is relatively cheap compared to the Skeleton Archer build, but it covers a lot of content and can be adapted for later game if needed.

Skills and stones

Skeletal Flamewakers and Raging Spirits are used for single target clearing while area clearing is done with Detonate Corpse. Flammability is needed to scale all Fire damage, and Summon Hellhound is needed to apply Fire. Skeletal Warriors and Gream Feast are used as damage and defense buffs.

Above is the final, more expensive build, with a lack of level and resources you can sacrifice stonesto make it more economical. The key source of damage are the Arsonists and Raging Spirits.

Equipment

The equipment for the necromancer can be taken the same as for the infernalist through archers. In one hand, according to the classics, you need Rattling Sceptre, in the other one it will do Oaksworn Sigil Crest ShieldIn stats, look for chaos resistance and a chance to block damage, and also pay attention to spirit and energy shield.

For the head, the Expert Feathered Tiara with buffs for energy shield and increasing the level of minions is suitable. For the body, you can take the Buget Expert Altar Robe with an increase in armor and energy shield. Accelerated recharge of the energy shield will be a significant bonus, as well as an increase in spirit. For the hands, Expert Intricate Gloves and energy shield buffs are suitable, for the belt you need an acceleration of flask recovery. From the boots, you will need enhancements for the energy shield.

ive skills

The final ive skill map is presented above, the key ones among them are:

• Mass destruction.
• Open mind.
• Power of the Dead.
• Clean energy.
• Suppressor shield.
• Inspiration.
• Merging.
• Dead flesh.
• The Relentless Fallen.
• Fear of death.
• Emptiness.
• Cruel Correction.
• Entropic embodiment.
• The grip of evil.
• Strong barrier.
• The Restless Dead.
• Growing crowd.
• Crystalline flesh.
• Deadening touch.
• The dead can dance.
• Living death.
• Ingenuity.
• A stable barrier.
• Lord of Nightmares.
• Bringing order.
• Holy protector.
• Silent Guardian.
• Ancient Aegis.
• Wide barrier.

Video guides

For more insight into builds using the Arsonist Skeletons, check out the video guides.

Guide #1:

Guide #2:

Witch Infernalist Endgame Build with Skeleton Archers

The endgame build of the Infernalist Witch will allow you to close all the content, since it already includes the most powerful equipment, the best stones and much more. Next, we will analyze in detail what you should strive for in order to maximize the class through this Ascension.

Skills and stones

The Witch Infernalist's endgame build through skeletons implies a continuation of the starting builds of the necromancer. The build perfectly clears the map, quickly destroys bosses and is quite easy to master. The only downside is the need to purchase expensive items that are difficult to knock out.

Equipment

In the case of equipment, it is worth following general advice on characteristics. As a good build, you can choose the following set:

The following runes can be inserted into the slots:

• Rune of the Storm in gloves to increase lightning damage and resistance.
• Rune of Iron into body armor to increase physical damage and resistance to it.
• Rune of Iron into a shield for the same purposes as into a body armor.
• Takachi's Soul Core in a helmet to increase damage and gain resistance to chaos.
• The Core of Souls of Sitaqualotl in shoes for resistance to elements and increased elemental damage.

When assembling clothing, it is important to maintain a balance of the main characteristics. As a primary weapon, you can use Trenchtimbre Spiked Club, pay attention to the minion boost and scaling from the spirit. Then you can look at the attack speed and overall damage. The second slot will do Scepter of Foreshadowing or any other weapon that gives bonuses to minions.

For footwear, resistance and retention are important, you can consider mesh sandals. As body armor, it will be suitable Master Witch Outfit, the body should increase the spirit and EC, and also give a bonus to health and resistance. From the headdress is required an increase to minions, high EC and health, if possible, consider resistance and basic stats. For hands, look for masterful intricate gloves with a maximum shield and its increase. From the belt is required an increase in the energy shield and recovery from the flask, you can consider the Practical Belt.

When selecting characteristics, the ideal parameters are as follows: 205 intelligence, 50 dexterity, the rest is strength.

For rings, it is important to have a total increase in resistance that could not be taken from other items, good bonuses to rarity and increases to spirit. The rings "Game of Ventor Golden Ring" are suitable.

For gems the general requirements are as follows, however they will most likely have to be purchased through trading platform:

• Resistance to darkness.
• Prism of Belief.
• Sapphire - Snake wound.
• Sapphire - A hideous shimmer.

ive skills

Having opened the entire basic foundation during pumping, begin further development with two adjacent ive clusters:

• Fear of Death and the Relentless Fallento increase the accuracy of minions, as well as speed up their movement and attack/casting speed.
• Dead Flesh to increase creeps health and Grave digger to speed up their resurrection.

Go left and touch two more circles with ives:

• The Consecrated Crown to increase the viewing radius and increase the energy shield. Holiness for accelerated recovery after stunning and Strong barrier for energy shield buff.
• Crystalline Flesh to strengthen minions: now they have resistance to all elements. The Growing Crowd to increase the area of ​​effect of minions.

Master of Corruption will increase the effect of all curses, but in return will slightly reduce their duration.

Lord of Nightmares will decrease the resource retention of minions. Adjacent skill The Right Hand of Darkness will increase the creeps' area of ​​effect, now they have some chance to inflict Exhaustion when striking.

Video guides for Witch Infernalist

For more flexibility in builds, you can check out the video guides, which cover endgame infernalist builds in detail.

Guide #1:

Guide #2:

Guide #3:

PoE 2 Witch Infernalist Endgame Build via Corruption Burst

The Hexblast build is based around the Witch's basic hounds, but also heavily relies on various dark spells, with Hexblast itself at its core. The build deals massive area damage, has good survivability, but does not perform well against bosses. Otherwise, it can compete with the minion build.

Skills and stones

This build only has one Necromancer skill, Summon Hellhound. The main damage and focus comes from Demon Form, Corruption Burst, and the Witch's accompanying skills.

A short rotation of Contagion and Hexblast is suitable for clearing the map, the build stands out for its ability to play through two buttons. In battles with bosses, it will be a little more difficult, which is why Eye of Winter is added to the main combination, which is used before the Explosion of Corruption.

You can also consider a rotation of Orb of Storms for boss fights, which can be used to replace Solar Orb, Eye of Winter, Contagion, and Hexblast if desired.

Equipment

The build has a few key items that you want to aim for to increase its effectiveness. For the body, you'll need to find Ghostwrithe Tattered Robe, in the indicators it is important to look at the resistance and conversion of health into energy shield.

It will fit on your head Expert Feathered Tiara with resistance, regeneration, maximum mana and energy shield boosts. Look for hands Expert Intricate Gloves with resistances and energy shield enhancements. Suitable as footwear Feathered Sandals with additions to the same shield and resistances. In this build, buffing minions is not so important, since of all the creeps, only hounds are present.

ive skills

The final tree with ives should look something like this. The key and important slots are:

• Clean energy.
• Blessing of Mana.
• Control zone.
• Asceticism.
• Inspiration.
• Merging.
• Witchcraft blossom.
• Consecrated Crown.
• Strong barrier.
• A touch of magic.
• Reverberation.
• Repulsion.
• Reinforced barrier.
• A stable barrier.
• Ether flow.
• Flexibility of mind.
• Withering.
• Ice breaker.

Video guides

You can learn more about the build through the Corruption Burst from the selected videos.

Guide #1:

Guide 2:

Blood Witch Endgame Build with Corruption Burst

The most common Blood Witch build is one that focuses entirely on Corruption Burst. A hero with this build can solo clear a map and not have any trouble with bosses. The only problem is the cost of the build if you want to reach peak power.

Skills and stones

The key skill is the Corruption Explosion, while the other skills act as ing buttons. With proper pumping, you can destroy enemies with literally one skill.

Equipment

In of items, you should focus on Dueling Wand in the first weapon slot and Omen Sceptre in the second. In of stats, it is advisable to get an increase in spirit, health and mana regeneration, as well as an increase in damage from spells and chaos. Strengthening chaos spells will also be useful.

You can find something for your head Expert Chain Tiara with increased health and mana, as well as increased chance of critical hit. As a bonus, you can take various resistances. The body will suit Expert Keth Raiment with increased spirit and resistance to the elements. As gloves you can consider Expert Jewelled Gloves with increased HP and mana, as well as mana drain for kills. Boots need resistances and increases to health and mana. The belt should use 20% of the flask instantly.

ive skills

When opening ives, be sure to pay attention to the following list of key cells:

• Critical vulnerability.
• Control zone.
• Critical overload.
• Sudden escalation.
• A touch of magic.
• Reverberation.
• Repulsion.
• Desensitization.
• Mystical accumulator.
• Ether flow.
• Witching intensity.
• Raw mana.
• Whisper of Doom.
• Control of magic.
• Stretching.
• Event horizon.
• A sure hit.
• Hit where it hurts.
• Deadly force.
• Pure chaos.
• Withering.

Video guides

Blood Witch builds via Hexblast can also be built using selected videos.

Guide #1:

Guide #2:

Blood Witch Endgame Build in PoE 2 via Corpse Detonation

The Blood Witch endgame build is still focused on destroying enemies with minions, but all sorts of dark-oriented skills are added to this. Below we will take a detailed look at everything you need to pump this Ascension.

This build is cheaper, but for the same reason less relevant. It is suitable for leveling, but will sag in the late game.

Skills and stones

To level up, you need to equip all of the Blood Witch's key skills with the most useful high-level gems. You can find out more about the best skill leveling in the table below:

This build requires slightly fewer stones than the Infernalist build, but even this amount will allow you to get closer to the peak of strength and calmly clear content.

Equipment

In the late game, it is worth using specific equipment, or similar ones that give roughly the same stats. More information about the recommended equipment and its modifiers can be found in the table below:

Items can be replaced, but the modifiers indicate recommended stats. The following runes can be selected later:

• Glacier Rune in the helmet.
• Rune of the Storm и Rune of the Desert into body armor.
• Rune of the Storm in boots.
• Glacier Rune in gloves.

ive skills

Once you've unlocked your main pool of ive skills, it's time to move on to more specialized ones. Unlock "Grave Digger" for faster resurrection of minions, "Dead Flesh" will make creeps "thicker", and "The Relentless Fallen" will speed up the movement and attack of minions.

Next, move to the left side. There, open "Reverberation" to increase the area of ​​effect of the spell, "Repulsion" to gain the ability to knock back enemies and increase area damage. Skill "Desensitization" will give you the opportunity to crit more often and more painfully on your opponents.

"Crushing Force" Increases the critical chance and critical damage when dealing spell attacks. Additionally, the conditions inflicted by critical hits will be increased. "Blood-pulling" will allow you to apply stronger bleeding and deal more physical damage.

pay attention to "A Sure Strike", it increases agility and critical chance, as well as "Hit where it hurts", to hit with critical hits much more painfully. Skill "Deadly Force" Increases damage after dealing a critical hit.

Video guides for Blood Witch

Additionally, you can check out a selection of builds for the Blood Witch, which were selected from the vastness of the Internet:

Guide #1:

Guide #2:

Guide #3:

We hope that our guide helped you understand how to play the Witch in PoE 2 and the further paths that Ascension opens up. If you have any questions, ask them in comments, we will definitely answer each of them. Read other useful Path of Exile 2 guides in the relevant section of our website.