Best Witch Builds for Path of Exile(PoE)

Witch is a popular choice for many Path of Exile players since she is the most versatile spellcaster that offers an array of amazing spells for you to use. Once you decide to play with Witch, you will be able to choose between one of three of her Ascendancy Classes: Necromancer, Occultist, or Elementalist.

We will delve into various builds for the Witch and give you 5 of the best builds that you can use when playing with her.

The 5 Best Builds for the Witch

The first thing you should know about the Witch is the advantages of her Ascendancy Classes. The Necromancer allows her to control armies of powerful minions and buff them up with numerous auras. The Occultist will focus on creating a mighty energy shield to defend her while using Curses to weaken her enemies. Lastly, Elementalist will manipulate Elemental powers such as Cold, Lightning, or Fire to dash out incredible damage.

5. Chain of Command Occultist

Chain of Command is a unique Chainmail that brings with it a skill called Animate Guardian’s Weapon. This skill creates a copy of your Animated Guardian’s main-hand weapon that fights by your side. Furthermore, Chain of Command greatly buffs your minions and allows them to do AoE damage and clear waves of enemies quickly.

Its main advantages are great damage output vs masses of enemies and quick clearing of them as well as their corpses, thus preventing on-death effects. The downside is that you can encounter difficulty when fighting bosses and can be fairly squishy so keep your character out of the line of fire. It’s a smart choice to keep Writhing Jar with you for instant recovery if you get jumped unexpectedly.

Related: Best Path of Exile (PoE) Timeless Jewel Calculator

4. Vortex Occultist

As the name says, this build will rely on the Vortex spell which is an AoE cold blast that also deals DoT damage with a whirl it leaves behind further slowing enemies caught in it. You can modify it with Decay Support which will apply Decay to any enemies hit by Vortex and amplify that DoT.

Combine Vortex with Cold Snap which similarly deals cold damage and slows in an area, and you will have double the AoE fun while monsters will have double the trouble when trying to move. In case the monsters you are trying to kill aren’t dying quickly enough with the combo, you can keep spamming the combo onto them so they don’t move much while spamming your other ranged spells.

For defensive purposes choose energy shield leech passives from the Passive skill tree to regenerate your shield while damaging your enemies. The build lacks any protection from physical hits, and you will mostly rely on your shield, so be attentive and try not to take too many physical hits.

3. Gryph’s Cremation Necromancer

When you decide to go for Necromancer, try the Gryph’s Cremation build. This build relies on the combination of Ashes of the Stars with Phantasmal Cremation and Phantasmal Unearth.

Phantasmal Cremation gives a 2% chance to explode a nearby corpse when firing projectiles per 1% quality by default. But when combined with Ashes of the Stars which greatly upgrades the qualities of the gems, you get as much as 50% of quality and a 100% corpse explosion chance. Add Phantasmal Unearth gem to this, which allows you to spawn corpses every time you attack someone and you got yourself a lot of corpses that will deal massive damage.

This Necromancer build offers some pretty serious damage if you can execute it well.

2. Blade Vortex Elementalist 

Another Vortex build, but this time it’s a dexterity-based Vortex that sends out spammable ethereal blades around you, dealing physical damage instead of magical. Because it is based on dexterity, you will need to branch out your Passive skill three to the green area and pick up some nodes that amplify physical damage.

When it comes to gems, you can boost Blade Vortex with Blade Blast which will allow your blades to detonate and create AoE damage. You can always have up to 10 blades flying around you so this will be a serious damage output. Add the Hated gem for the extra damage aura and Added Fire Support for maximum power.

All in all, it’s a well-rounded build that will have you kill groups of enemies as well as bosses without much struggle.

1. Detonate Dead Necromancer

Detonate Dead Necromancer is a popular choice for a lot of players and since the Detonate Dead spell has two instances of damage. Firstly, it causes the corpse to explode dealing AoE damage, and secondly, it causes the area of the explosion to burn dealing DoT damage.

The Detonate Dead deals damage according to the corpse’s maximum life (up to 6%) so you need to summon big HP pool specters with the Raise Spectre spell to run around with you for higher damage output. Add to this the amazing Desecrate spell that will allow you to summon corpses and cause chaos damage with additional explosions and you will have some pretty strong DPS coming out in no time.

One of the main things that make this build attractive is that it is great against bosses as well as large groups of enemies and it requires no unique items that are hard to come by.

We hope you enjoyed our guide about the best builds for the Witch. For more similar Path of Exile content see our build guides for Summoning Rage Spirit Necromancer and Vigilant Strike. Follow Gamer Journalist on Facebook and get the latest gaming updates right in your feed.