With a barrier for all kinds of attacks, the witch can also be considered hard to kill. The witch also has curses and diseases in her arsenal. There are 4 kinds of witches in the game i.e., Fire Witch, Lightning Witch, Ice Witch, and Summoner. The Witch class has also three Ascendancy Classes i.e., Necromancer, Elementalist, and Occultist. While playing the game, if you want to play as a witch class, you can choose to build with one of the kinds of witches mentioned above. The Witch class is considered one of the hardest classes to build in the game. And if built correctly, can be very powerful. So, in this article, we will discuss some of the best builds for the witch class.
Ultimate Raise Spectres Necromancer
This build is being used for many versions of PoE and still is one of the best in the current patch too. This build is also considered to be the fastest summoner and damage build in the game. With this build, you can obtain a movement speed of 200-300%. One of the best things about this build is that you don’t need high-level equipment and production. Unique equipment you need for this build like Victario’s Charity or The Devouring Diadem can be obtained in any league. This build uses Slave Drivers spectres which helps in boss killing, mapping, etc. This build will help you make a Necromancer with high DPS, high evasion, high life points, and regeneration.
Play Style
Raise Spectre Necromancer provides a balance between a conventional build (spellcaster) and a summoner. The use of Armageddon Brand does this. This build uses Slave Driver which allows for increased damage, easy boss clearing with our minions, and deals heavy Lightning Damage. To obtain the Slave Driver Spectres:
Go to the Control Block in Act V.Cast Desecrate to spawn corpses.Cast Raise Spectre on a Slave Driver.
You should use the highest level of Raise Spectre gem that you can afford. Remember to remove Spell Echo Support while casting Raise Spectre. Repeat the process until you have the maximum number of spectres.
Recommended Gears
Here is the list of gears that are recommended for this build:
Leveling
Leveling in Path of Exile is the most critical and hard thing to do. All equipment and build should be equipped in an order. To level and reach end-game fast and easy. You should be able to identify proper equipment to equip during leveling. Leveling items in PoE can be obtained for cheap. But also investing in some leveling uniques can also be done to try out multiple builds and speed up the leveling process. Most of the leveling uniques are cheap and you can get them by spending fewer Chaos Orbs. So, investing some of the currency will give you more time for farming for the end-game. Equipment like Tabula Rasa, Goldrim, Wanderlust, Berek’s Grip, Perandus Signets, Darkness Enthroned, Meginord’s Girdle, and Wurm’s Molt are some of the cheap leveling equipment that you can invest in to reach end-game. You can also sell them when you don’t need them.
Gem Link
The main gem for this build is Raise Spectre and we use this link for Slave Drivers. But we can also use Armageddon Brand for applying curse of choice and Blind Support.
Ascendancy Nodes
Make sure you choose these ascendancy nodes using your Ascendancy Points.
Mindless AggressionUnnatural StrengthCommander of DarknessPlaguebringer
Bandits
For the bandit quest, you can choose any of the following:
Save Bandit KraitynKill All the BanditsSave Bandit AliraSave Bandit Oak
If you kill all the bandits, you will get two Passive Points which will be very helpful.
Pantheons
For major gods, you can choose Soul of Lunaris or Soul of Solaris. For minor god, you can choose Soul of Gruthkul or Soul of Yugul. Also check out
Chain of Command Animate Weapon Build
After the introduction of Chains of Command in the game, this build is used widely by many players. It is considered to be one of the best occultist builds out there. This build requires Chains of Command, Grave Bind on Animate Guardian which should be level 19, and two Writhing Jar. In this build, you will play by buffing the Animate Guardian which in turn has lots of damage.
Play Style
You should play by equipping Animate Guardian with a White Wind or any other high PDPS weapon with Gravebind. Two Writhing Jar is mandatory for this build. The Writhing Jar can be sustained with Survival Secrets and flask nodes on the tree.
Recommended Gears
Here are some of the recommended gears for this build. These gears work well with this build.
Leveling
Minions are mostly used for clearing purposes. You need to give certain tools to minions which will help them to hit multiple targets. At level 8 you get the Melee Splash Support gem. Up to level 8 following skills can be used.
Stormblast Mine (for single target)Freezing Pulse (for clearing)Frost Bomb (instead of Freezing Pulse)
From level 12 you will acquire the Absolution skills which can be leveled all the way. Any link providing extra damage for the minion would be preferable early on.
AbsolutionMinion Damage SupportAdded Cold Damage SupportAdded Fire Damage SupportAdded Lightning Damage Support
Pick up Physical to Lightning Support in ACT II. Besides your main source of damage, you can utilize Rise Zombies and Ruthless Support as well as Vitality early on in the acts to keep yourself and your minions alive.
Gem Link
Follow these gem links to get the most out of this build. Only one 6-link is needed for this build. This gem-link is for the endgame:
Ascendancy Nodes
Choose these ascendancy nodes for this build:
Profane BloomVoid BeaconWithering PresenceMalediction
Bandits
For bandits quest, you can choose any of these four:
Save Bandit Lord KraitynSave Bandit Lord AliraSave Bandit Lord OakKill All Bandits
Kill all three of them for additional skill points of Eramir for this build.
Pantheons
Choose the powers of Soul of Lunaris for major god and Shakari for minor god for this build.
Big Lightning Ignites
Divine Ire gem is the most useful and fun gem for this build. It is fun to play with Divine Ire and players will be sure to enjoy this playstyle. This build deals with high damage and fast map clear. You are also able to scale with end-game dungeons with this build.
Play Style
Elementalist has Shaper of Flames which helps to ignite any type of damage. With the help of it, Divine Ire damage will be able to ignite (which is lightning damage). Divine Ire will multiply your damage. You need to channel the gem because it gives 1000% more damage when channeled properly.
Recommended Equipment
Leveling
Create a Witch and pick up an Explosive trap from the vendor. Go to kill Hailrake and clear Mud Flat. Your gem link should be following after Mud Flat.
Frost BombArcane Surge SupportExplosive Trap
After Killing Brutus add an Added Lightning Damage Support to Frost Bomb. From levels 12-28 your gem link should look like this:
Storm BrandAdded Lightning Damage SupportControlled Destruction SupportElemental Focus Support
After normal lab your gem link should look like this:
Divine Ire or Armageddon BrandUnbound Ailment SupportIgnite Proliferation SupportDeadly Ailment SupportSwift Affliction SupportBurning Damage Support
Gem Links
Follow these gem links for this build:
Ascendancy
These are the most important ascendancy nodes for this build. Choose one by one as given in the list.
Shaper of FlamesLiege of PrimordialElemancerShaper of Storms
Bandits
You should choose to kill all the bandits in this build.
Pantheons
You can choose Soul of Lunaris for Major god. For Minor god choose Soul of Shakari.
Unkillable Necro (Detonate Dead Necromancer)
With Detonate Dead you can target corpses and deal spell damage around the corpse and when the corpse explodes it deals fire damage to enemies. Basically, with the help of this spell gem, you can clear the room faster and can deal with bosses easily.
Play Style
Your damage mostly comes from Detonate Dead which detonates the monster corpse. The damage deals relate to the monster’s health. So, it is recommended to use spectre summon since they have high health. With the Desecrate gem, you can add a certain spectre to the monster pool. When you have a specific spectre, you can target summon them. Doing so will give you an increased life modifier to 750%. Since damage comes from corpse health all you want to do is create a high hp monster corpse and use Detonate Dead or Vaal Detonate Dead on the corpse resulting in high damage output. Also, you need to build your character to be the tankiest. Your character will have a lot of health and high defense making you unkillable.
Recommended Equipment
Gem Links
These are the gem links you need to create for this build in corresponding gear with enough gem slots.
Ascendancy
Choose these ascendancy nodes.
PlaguebringerCorpse PactMistress of SacrificeEssence Glutton
Bandits
In this build, you have to help Eramir and kill all bandits for 2 passive skill points.
Pantheons
Choose Soul of Lunaris for Major God and Soul of Shakari for Minor God for this build.
