A new class has been revealed for Path of Exile 2: The Witch. In an almost 10-minute gameplay video, developer Grinding Gear Games showcases her gameplay. They even do some things better than the Necromancer in Diablo 4.
What kind of class is the Witch? The Witch is a class you can already play in Path of Exile. There, she focuses on magic. In Path of Exile 2, she will be the counterpart to Diablo 4’s Necromancer as a minion class.
The developer Grinding Gear Games introduces her in a nearly 10-minute video in detail:
How the Witch plays in Path of Exile 2
How does she play? The focus of the Witch in Path of Exile 2 is on summoning minions. However, she also has some standalone attacks. Your strategy here:
You summon your minions and send them into battle for you. While they rush forward for you, you support from the back with powerful magical attacks.
According to Game Director Jonathan Rogers, the summoning of your undead hordes has been adjusted for Path of Exile 2. Primarily based on experiences from the first part:
We completely changed the way summoning minions works. In POE 1, you had to summon all minions manually, which could be a bit cumbersome in different situations, but now all your minions regenerate simultaneously as long as none of them has died for a short period of time.
We found that it is much better for all minions to regenerate at once rather than one after another since the individual returning minion usually just dies again.
Jonathan Rogers in an interview with Gamesradar.com, 12.06.2024
This means that when your army of minions dies, you only need to focus on surviving and dodging. After some time, your retinue is automatically revived.
A special spell now even lets you recruit your enemies for your followers. However, these have a limited lifespan. Certain types of minions could allegedly also infect enemies, making it possible to infect entire game levels.
You are also free to assign your minions to specific tasks, according to Rogers. For example, they could open doors for you, keep certain enemies in check, or search chests for loot.
Is the Witch fun? Gamesradar journalist Josh West had the chance to play the Witch for a few hours. He claims to have played the Necromancer in Diablo 4 for over 100 hours. He finds the Witch in Path of Exile 2 even slightly more enjoyable during his playtesting.
According to West, the class is fun because it has its own heavy attacks and its minions are simply stronger and have more influence on the battle. There are also many more of them than in Diablo 4. Overall, the retinue simply has a larger role in fights – precisely because they deal more damage.
That the Witch’s minions feel better than their counterpart in Diablo 4 is somewhat surprising. Recently, Jonathan Rogers mentioned that they were able to learn very little from Diablo 4. Presumably, the adjustments for the minions are among the few things: Head of Path of Exile talks about Diablo 4, says: “We couldn’t learn much from it”
