Path of Exile 2 Sorceress configuration

Let’s get straight to the point. If you’re diving into Path of Exile 2 for the very first time and are intrigued by the Witch, it’s likely due to your fascination with having your own minion army. That’s completely understandable; we’ve all been there. In this write-up, we’ve crafted a Path of Exile 2 Witch build to help you get started on your journey through the game.

This guide will examine the fundamental identity of the build, the skills it employs, the optimal support gems, and the most effective passives for our objectives. We’ll also discuss what to prioritize regarding weapons and armor.

Path of Exile 2 Witch build

It turns out that a “Witch minion build” offers more diversity than you might expect! There’s quite a bit of variation available, depending on the type of minion master you wish to be. Do you envision your minions as expendable tools for buffs? Do you prefer minions that can resurrect themselves? Or would you rather have temporary minions that arise from corpses? Path of Exile has always excelled in providing players with ample freedom, and figuring out a Witch build serves as a prime illustration of this core game principle.

With that in mind, we’ll introduce a build centered around your skeleton archers as the cornerstone. You acquire these minions right at the beginning in Act 1 as the Witch, and by developing your character to enhance their power, you’ll witness how your passives, support gems, and skills influence their strength as you progress. Consequently, by the time you reach Act 3 (which we cannot detail due to our access to an early version), you can choose to either remain committed to your archer skeletons or respec and utilize what you’ve learned to empower a different type of skeleton.

Path of Exile 2 Witch best skills

Here are the skills we’ll employ in this build. Naturally, you’ll see the Skeleton Archers included, but other skeleton summons will also be here to aid you, along with additional skills aimed at safeguarding you and your archers while enhancing your overall potency.

Also, there’s a Witch-specific tactic to consider. Using your Spirit wisely is crucial here. You can assign Spirit to your skills on the skills page, and when applied to summons like the Skeleton Archers, it boosts the number of archers you summon. Therefore, our strategy will be to allocate most of the spirit to the archers (more archers = increased damage), while reserving a sufficient amount for standard Skeleton Warriors who will act as your tank.

• Skeleton Warrior – Summons a skeleton warrior that serves as your frontline tank and a supporting soldier.
• Skeleton Archer – Summons a skeleton archer, your primary source of damage. Inflicts poison damage!
• Essence Drain – A single-target chaos spell that provides something to do while your archers perform their duties.
• Pain Offering – Sacrifice a skeleton to empower the others, enhancing their damage and speed in using skills.
• Vulnerability – A curse that weakens enemies, allowing you to bypass part of their armor with attacks.
• Skeletal Cleric – A final skeleton you won’t sacrifice. They will heal your other minions and revive fallen skeletons.

Path of Exile 2 Witch best support gems

Now, what about support gems? Here’s what we’ve chosen for this Witch skeleton archer setup! (Note that we’ve included some tier 2 support gems for future use. If you want to fill up your support slots in Acts 1 and 2, mix and match with recommended gems for a temporary boost until then. You never know! It might spark inspiration for your next character’s build).

• Skeleton Warrior – 1: Meat Shield. Enhances their tankiness, but lessens their damage. 2: Maim. A tier 2 support gem. Aims to slow down enemies they hit by reducing their movement speed and evasion, making them easier targets for you and your skeleton archers.
• Skeleton Archer – 1: Comorbidity. Grants an additional poison application for the archers, but reduces the poison’s duration. 2: Feeding Frenzy. A tier 2 support gem. Increases the damage your minions deal and take.
• Essence Drain – 1: Chain. Enables Essence Drain to chain between foes. Ideal for area-of-effect clearing. 2: Chaos Infusion. A tier 3 support gem. Enhances the spell’s chaos damage at the expense of other damage types.
• Pain Offering – 1: Magnified Effect. Expands the range of the offering’s aura. 2: Font of Rage. A tier 3 support gem. Grants rage to both you and your minions nearby.
• Vulnerability – 1: Heightened Curse. Amplifies the curse’s power. 2: Hex Bloom. A tier 3 support gem. Spreads the curse upon the death of a cursed enemy.
• Skeletal Cleric – 1: Clarity. Offers increased mana regeneration while the cleric is alive! 2: Vitality. Provides increased life regeneration while the cleric is active!

Path of Exile 2 Witch best passives

This build emphasizes making your Skeleton Archers incredibly powerful, so we’ll concentrate on passives that accomplish just that. You’ll find general minion passives that enhance minion damage, health, etc. There will also be some general-purpose passives that enhance your own Witch’s effectiveness and survivability. Additionally, since we’re centering on the Skeleton Archers, we’ll incorporate more dexterity in comparison to other Witch builds, and we will select a specific passive that rewards this dex investment.

(Note: This means you should aim to collect Dexterity wherever necessary in attribute passive nodes alongside intellect. This becomes worthwhile once we acquire the Dead can Dance major passive, allowing you to focus on acquiring the attributes required for support gems as you progress, prioritizing intellect for mana until you obtain Dead can Dance, then adjusting with a respec to ensure both you and your Skeleton Archers gain more dex once you acquire the passive).

The primary passives we suggest aiming for are:

• Raw Destruction
• Open Mind
• Power of the Dead
• Pure Energy
• Living Death
• Relentless Fallen
• Fear of Death
• Necrotised Flesh
• Entropic Incarnation
• Grip of Evil
• Dead can Dance
• Right Hand of Darkness
• Essence Infusion
• Restless Dead
• Growing Swarm
• Crystalline Flesh

We’ve got plenty of minion passives alongside passives that enhance your energy shield recharge rate. It’s essential to keep in mind the significance of Dead can Dance. Once you unlock it, prioritizing dexterity in your passive attribute nodes becomes crucial. Just ensure you maintain enough intellect to utilize all your support gems and gear!

Path of Exile 2 Witch best weapons and armour

Now, what gear should you equip for your Witch? Interestingly, since this build will ultimately benefit greatly from Dexterity thanks to the Dead can Dance talent, you’ll gain a solid Evasion rating while progressing through the game. However, because this will also be balanced with intellect, you’ll want gear that provides both evasion and energy shields. Initially, before acquiring Dead can Dance, prioritize energy shields as you will primarily be focusing on Intellect by default. After obtaining Dead can Dance, having both becomes more advantageous.

Now that you have gear with evasion and energy shields, what sub-stats should you pursue? Well, intellect remains valuable, as do elemental resistances (which become increasingly significant as you approach endgame). Mana and mana regeneration are beneficial as well. However, given the nuances of this build, we’d also like to secure some Dexterity to boost the Dead can Dance passive when you eventually unlock it. Once you have Dead can Dance, this becomes significantly more critical. Additionally, as a ranged class, movement speed is always advantageous! You don’t want to be surrounded and overwhelmed.

If you can find weapons and armor featuring these stats, you should be set. The key point is not to hoard your upgrade materials. While it may be tempting to avoid common gear and weapons in favor of rare blues and yellows, you never know if a modest upgrade could yield exceptional results on what initially appeared to be mediocre loot. Remember, upgrade materials gathering dust in your stash do nothing to enhance your character’s strength.

With that, we conclude our beginner-level Path of Exile 2 Witch guide. From this point forward, you can choose to continue developing this build with a fire focus, or feel free to mix things up when you feel confident enough. The thrill of Path of Exile lies in experimenting with new and exciting builds, so once you’ve explored this one, consider trying out various other setups.