Best Witch starter build in Path of Exile 2

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(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)

Path of Exile 2 Witch build

Jump to:Best skills and support gemsStat prioritiesPassive skillsGear

IfPath of Exile 2’sbest early game Witch buildhad a motto it’d be ‘work smarter, not harder.’ Well, either that or ‘burn them all and let god sort them out.’ The Witch is PoE 2’s answer to Diablo’s Necromancer, and a lot of your play will revolve around configuring your retinue of skeletal summons for maximum damage per second and letting them do the work for you, keeping yourself relatively far from the fray to protect your squishy, squishy body.

Early on, the Witch’s passive skills revolve around buffing energy shield to make yourself a little less eminently murderable, as well as boosting the damage and survivability of your minions. I’m going to take you through the best starter build I’ve found for the Witch, and which potent mix of support gems, skill gems, and passive skills will help you most effectively reduce enemies to thin soup.

Path of Exile 2 Sorceress build: Making magicPath of Exile 2 Monk build: Flow like waterPath of Exile 2 Warrior build: Shock and awePath of Exile 2 Mercenary build: Hail of bolts

Path of Exile 2 Sorceress buildPath of Exile 2 Monk buildPath of Exile 2 Warrior buildPath of Exile 2 Mercenary build

Path of Exile 2 Sorceress build: Making magicPath of Exile 2 Monk build: Flow like waterPath of Exile 2 Warrior build: Shock and awePath of Exile 2 Mercenary build: Hail of bolts

Best Witch skills and support gems for the early game

(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)

Path of Exile 2 Witch starter build - Casting Unearth at a Sun Clan Scavenger.

Unearth

When in doubt, throw bones at ‘em. Unearth has quickly become my default attack for PoE 2’s Witch—it flings out an AoE cone of bones that does meaningful damage and, most importantly, turns enemy corpses into helpful Bone Crawler minions. That comes in even more handy when you unlock the next skill.

Skeletal Arsonists

Bonestorm

It has the funniest skill name of any talent in the Witch’s arsenal, and hurts a bunch to boot. Bonestorm takes a sec to charge up, but clears rooms of weaker mobs like nobody’s business. Even better: Enemies who stay alive take a bunch of extra physical damage from the next attack, making them easy work for your summons. I’ve found the support gem—Minion Pact—dovetails nicely with the Bone Crawlers you get from Unearth, who are pretty much disposable anyway.

Skeletal Warriors

This one’s a take-it-or-leave-it thing. If you’re confident in your survivability, you might want to allocate thespirityou’d spend on keeping one or two Warriors summoned to Arsonists instead, but I found it handy to have a couple of the Witch’s most basic summons around. These are great at distracting enemies and soaking up hits, particularly in the more hectic areas of the early game.

Grim Feast

This is the first persistent buff I unlocked and I’ve not regretted it, especially in tougher boss fights. Like I said up top, the Witch is squishy, which means you’ll rely a lot on your energy shield and evasion (plus your minions) to avoid damage. Grim Feast makes it so that anything that dies near you has a chance to drop a Grim Remnant—basically an instant charge for your energy shield—which has saved my bacon more than a few times.

On the other hand, if you’re very confident in your ability to stay alive, you might want to beeline forRaging Spiritsinstead, which synergises nicely with all your fire abilities, both the ones you have now and the ones you’ll get as you ascend to Infernalist.

Witch stat priorities

Here are the stats you’ll want to focus on to turn your Witch into a murder machine:

Swipe to scroll horizontallyRegular stats1. Intelligence2. Dexterity3. Strength

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Regular stats1. Intelligence2. Dexterity3. Strength

Ironically, it’s a no-brainer: Intelligence will bump up your mana, letting you cast more spells and do more horrible, damaging things to your enemies. It’ll also let you wear equipment that makes you even more of a monster on the battlefield. Dexterity ranks second because, well, it’s always a decent idea to improve your accuracy, while Strength will mostly only come in handy for increasing your HP (and you’re likely to focus on evasion and your energy shield when it comes to avoiding damage).

Swipe to scroll horizontallyDefensive stats1. Spirit2. Energy shield3. Evasion4. Movement speed5. Maximum mana6. Regenerate life per second7. Maximum life

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Defensive stats1. Spirit2. Energy shield3. Evasion4. Movement speed5. Maximum mana6. Regenerate life per second7. Maximum life

A good Witch hangs back and lets her minions do the work, and when she does get pulled into the fray, she relies on her energy shield and evasion to tank the blows while her movement speed gets her out of there ASAP. That’s why spirit—which is what dictates how many summons you can have—is number one with a bullet, while your tank-y stats and speediness come in just below. Meanwhile, you’ll need a high maximum mana to fling out all your Unearths, curses, and so on, with your life stats coming in last.

Swipe to scroll horizontallyOffensive statsFire damagePhysical damageBone construct limit

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Offensive statsFire damagePhysical damageBone construct limit

Because we’re focusing on Skeletal Arsonists and detonating our Bone Crawlers, fire damage is priority number one for our Witch starter build. Coming in at second is pure physical damage—that’s what your Unearth and other bone skills deal. Last, the bone construct limit on your Unearth summons is always worth pumping up when you can. More Bone Crawlers means more little guys to distract enemies, and more walking bombs for your Arsonists to detonate.

Best Witch passive skills to grab early

The Witch’s early passive skills focus on her mana (and mana regen), energy shield, and minion damage. I recommend prioritising the last two over that first one, though you’ll unlock a pretty easy way torespecearly if you decide to go a different way with it.

Here are the passive skills I recommend taking as soon as possible for your Witch:

Swipe to scroll horizontallyPassivesSkillDescriptionRaw Destruction16% increased Spell Damage, Minions deal 16% increased Damage, +10 to IntelligencePower of the DeadMinions deal 15% increased Damage, Minions have 3% increased Attack and Cast SpeedPure Energy30% increased maximum Energy Shield, +10 to IntelligencePracticed Signs6% increased Cast SpeedLiving DeathMinions have 15% increased maximum Life, Minions revive 15% fasterPotent Incantation30% increased Spell Damage, 5% reduced Cast Speed

Swipe to scroll horizontally

PassivesSkillDescriptionRaw Destruction16% increased Spell Damage, Minions deal 16% increased Damage, +10 to IntelligencePower of the DeadMinions deal 15% increased Damage, Minions have 3% increased Attack and Cast SpeedPure Energy30% increased maximum Energy Shield, +10 to IntelligencePracticed Signs6% increased Cast SpeedLiving DeathMinions have 15% increased maximum Life, Minions revive 15% fasterPotent Incantation30% increased Spell Damage, 5% reduced Cast Speed

This gives you a healthy boost to your minions’ damage output, your own durability, and even makes the spells you fling around yourself a little speedier and more effective.

Best Witch gear

(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)

Path of Exile 2 Witch starter build - Combat in the Hunting Grounds.

Sceptres, sceptres, sceptres. In my early game experience of Path of Exile 2, my Witch cycled through increasingly fancy sceptres like a supermodel cycles through outfits. Not only will a goodRattling Sceptredole out a bunch of summons for zero spirit cost, they can also grant modifiers like +1 to all therestof your minion skills, while buffing your summons with more accuracy, armour, or what-have-you.

In terms of other gear, my advice is to prioritise stuff that buffs yourenergy shieldandevasion, as those are your prime Witchy defensive stats. Equipment like theCrown of Thorns, should you find it, is a great early-game boost to your survivability.

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Best Witch skills and support gems for the early game#

Unearth#

Skeletal Arsonists#

Bonestorm#

Skeletal Warriors#

Grim Feast#

Witch stat priorities#

Best Witch passive skills to grab early#

Best Witch gear#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Best Witch skills and support gems for the early game

Unearth

Skeletal Arsonists

Bonestorm

Skeletal Warriors

Grim Feast

Witch stat priorities

Best Witch passive skills to grab early

Best Witch gear

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals