In Path of Exile 2 plays the Witch with her army of Minions similar to a Necromancer. We show you a Witch build that allows you to go through all acts to the endgame.
What kind of build is this? This is the “Minion Infernalist” build for the Witch in Path of Exile 2. The Witch is one of the classes you can currently play in the Early Access of PoE 2. The build we present here refers to the subclass “Infernalist”, with which the Witch casts powerful fire spells, commands an army of the undead, and summons a Hellhound.
The build guide is based on our own player experiences since the release of the “Early Access” version of Path of Exile 2 and the experts from maxroll.gg. The build is regularly adjusted and updated.
We show you in our guide how you should optimally skill your Witch throughout your entire journey and what you need to know in the endgame regarding the gems and gameplay. In the build, you use skills from the categories “Occult” and “Elemental”.
Skills for the Beginning: From Act 1 to Act 3
Here’s how you get through the three acts: As you play through the campaign with its three acts, you expand your army of Minions. The Minions support you in combat and are the main component of your build. The key point is the skill “Flaming Skull” that you receive during the campaign. Note that you will need to place support gems into other skills in between.
Act 1: All Skills and Gems
The following skills are used in Act 1:
- Chaos Bolt (obtained via your wand)
- Skeleton Warrior (obtained via your scepter)
- Support Gems: Flesh Shield, Elemental Army
- Corruption
- Exhumation
- Support Gem: unstable creatures
- Skeleton Snipers
- Support Gems: Combat Tempo, Fire Infusion
- Fire Wall
- Support Gem: Fortress
- Debilitate
- Support Gem: Arcane Tempo
Skill Bar: Chaos Bolt, Corruption, Exhumation, Skeleton Snipers, Fire Wall, Debilitate
As soon as you receive gems of higher levels, you add the following skills:
- Skeleton Arsonist (instead of Skeleton Snipers)
- Support Gems: Spread Shot, Concentrated Effect
- Weaknesses
- Support Gem: Curse Maximizer
- Flaming Skull (you receive an uncut gem from a campaign boss that unlocks the special skill) → the most important skill for the build!
- Support Gems: Combat Tempo, Fire Infusion
- Sacrificial Pain
- Support Gems: Enlarged Effect, Persistence
Skill Bar: Corruption, Exhumation, Skeleton Arsonist, Fire Wall, Debilitate, Weaknesses, Sacrificial Pain (the remaining are “permanent skills”, thus activating by themselves)
Act 2: All Skills and Gems
What do I change in Act 2? In Act 2, you receive gems of higher levels, allowing you to replace the skill “Weaknesses” with “Flammability”. This buffs the damage of the Flaming Skull.
In Act 2, you will also face the “Trial of the Sekhem”. If you complete it, you will unlock your subclass (Ascendancy) and further skill options. For example, you will receive a Hellhound that you can also summon.
The following skills are used in Act 2:
- Skeleton Warrior (obtained via your scepter)
- Support Gems: Flesh Shield, Elemental Army
- when using the Hellhound skill: Brutality, Last Breath
- Corruption/Sparks
- Exhumation
- Support Gem: unstable creatures
- Skeleton Arsonist
- Support Gems: Spread Shot, Concentrated Effect
- Fire Wall
- Support Gems: Fortress, Arcane Wave
- Flammability
- Support Gems: Curse Maximizer, Spell Cascade
- Flaming Skull
- Support Gems: Combat Tempo, Fire Infusion
- Sacrificial Pain
- Support Gems: Persistence, Enlarged Effect
- Hellhound
- Support Gems: Flesh Shield, Elemental Army
Skill Bar: Corruption/Sparks, Exhumation, Skeleton Arsonist, Fire Wall, Flammability, Sacrificial Pain
Instead of Corruption, the skill “Sparks” is also recommended as it unleashes spark projectiles that seek out enemies. This is particularly helpful if you want to stay at a distance.
If you play with the “Hellhound” skill, you will place the support gems “Flesh Shield” and “Elemental Army” there. Instead, you can add “Brutality” and “Last Breath” to the Skeleton Warriors. If you complete the “Trial of the Sekhem” later, you can leave your Skeleton Warriors as they are.
Act 3: All Skills and Gems
What do I change in Act 3? In Act 3, you do not change anything about the skills you use. However, you receive spheres for further versions of your support gems and can thus easily expand the skills. You improve the levels of your skills, add more support gems, and build Will, which you need for many skills and Minions. From Act 3, support gems of level 2 drop.
The following support gems are added in Act 3:
- Flaming Skull: Piercing Fire (instead of Combat Tempo), Feast
- Skeleton Warrior: Shard (instead of Last Breath), Mutilate
- Skeleton Arsonist: Combat Tempo
- Hellhound: Fiery Death
Skill Bar: Corruption/Sparks, Exhumation, Fire Wall, Flammability, Sacrificial Pain
Minion Infernalist: Gameplay of the Witch
How does the build play? The gameplay carries through all three acts, with small changes to your skills and support gems:
- One of the most important skills for the build that you unlock is Fire Wall. This causes fire damage, but more importantly: later, Flaming Skull will fly out from the Fire Wall and automatically attack enemies. Basically, you can then spam your Fire Wall as long as you have enough mana and grill your enemies with the Flaming Skulls. The Flaming Skulls do not appear in the skill bar and are permanent.
- Additionally, Flammability reduces the fire resistance of enemies. You will therefore need that skill in the skill bar.
- Exhumation adds damage to enemies and assembles creatures from the corpses in the area that temporarily fight for you. Use the skill while the Flaming Skulls grill your enemies to always have as many Minions as possible.
- Corruption weakens enemies and deals chaos damage over time. If you have too many skills in your bar or generally want to press fewer keys, that’s the skill you can leave out. Alternatively, Sparks is recommended to deal damage to enemies from further away.
- Sacrificial Pain buffs your Minions – with support gems, they no longer die as quickly.
- Your scepter gives you Skeleton Warriors that revive themselves. You don’t need to equip the skill in your skill bar; the skeletons spawn and support you automatically.
- Your Skeleton Snipers also fight and revive themselves, but you can still press the command that makes them shoot a gas arrow at enemies. You can use as many snipers as your will allows.
- If you replace the Skeleton Snipers with the Skeleton Arsonists during Act 1, two will suffice. The Arsonists can explode other creatures on command. Otherwise, they also support you automatically in combat without you needing to activate anything.
- The Hellhound ignites enemies and takes a portion of the damage you would otherwise suffer. You do not equip the skill in your bar; it is permanent.
Witch Build: Equipment
What items do I equip? In the campaign, you primarily encounter enemies that deal physical damage. Here, equipment items that increase your armor and energy shield are beneficial. It is also important to increase your resistances to fire, cold, lightning, and chaos damage. You can add sockets to armor and use runes that increase resistances, armor, and other defensive values.
It is important to increase your maximum life points. A high movement speed is also essential to dodge attacks and better handle timed trials.
Regarding your main and off-hand, it is advisable to equip a scepter and a shield. Scepters grant you the skill “Skeleton Warriors”, which you don’t need on your skill bar. Attributes that relate to your Minions are suitable here, such as:
- Level on Minion Skills
- Allies deal increased damage
- Allies have increased attack speed
- Increased Will
Tip: Check in regularly with the NPC merchants. After each level-up of your player character, the offer changes, and you can get really powerful items. If you are short on gold, collect as much gear as possible and teleport back to town in between to sell it.
Witch Build: Ascendancy Class
What are Ascendancy classes? They existed in the first Path of Exile and allow you to specialize your class by following the path of an Ascendancy. You receive the first points for your specialization in Act 2 through the “Trial of the Sekhem”.
You follow the Infernalist path and gradually equip the following points:
- Faithful Hellhound
- Altered Flesh
- Will of Beidat
- Hand of Beidat
By following this path, you receive a Hellhound that reduces the damage that hits you. Additionally, you gain more life points, more Will, and a higher energy shield.
Witch Build: Passive Skills
How do I distribute my passive skill points? For Acts 1-3 and the Cruel mode, you work your way to the right and then up and activate the points that relate to your Minions. This includes, among others:
- Minions deal increased damage
- Minions have increased health
- Minions are revived faster
- Minions have increased movement speed
In between, you grab points that increase your intelligence, which is essential for the build. If you lack intelligence points, you cannot improve/equip certain skills. Once you have “enough” intelligence, you can also spend individual points on strength or dexterity, depending on what your gear requires.
- A complete skill tree for all acts and the endgame can be found at maxroll.gg.
At the NPC “The Veiled”, you can revise your skills for gold. He also has another useful function:
Skills for the “Cruel” Mode
In the Early Access of Path of Exile 2, there are currently 3 acts, but later there should be 6. To compensate for the missing Acts 4-6, the developers introduced the Cruel mode. Once you have completed Act 3, you play through the game again in Cruel mode from Act 1 to Act 3 – but this time the difficulty is higher than before.
What do I change in Cruel Mode? In Cruel mode, additional skills and support gems are added. “Grim Feast” provides you with higher defense by making enemies drop remains upon death that fill up your energy shield.
The following skills are used in Cruel mode:
- Skeleton Warrior (obtained via your scepter – the better it is, the more slots for support gems you have available)
- Support Gems: Brutality, Shard, Mutilate
- Exhumation
- Support Gem: unstable creatures, Legion of Hellfire
- Skeleton Arsonist
- Support Gems: Spread Shot, Muscle Power, Combat Tempo
- Fire Wall
- Support Gems: Fortress, Arcane Wave
- Flammability
- Support Gems: Curse Maximizer, Spell Cascade, Inspiration
- Flaming Skull
- Support Gems: Elemental Focus, Feast, Fire Infusion
- Sacrificial Pain
- Support Gems: Enlarged Effect, Persistence
- Hellhound
- Support Gems: Flesh Shield, Elemental Army, Fiery Death, Strip Away (once you have a 4th slot)
- Sparks
- Support Gems: Arcane Tempo, Unleash
- Grim Feast
- Clarity
Skill Bar: Exhumation, Sparks, Fire Wall, Flammability, Sacrificial Pain
Witch Build with Minions in Endgame
What do I change in the endgame? Upon reaching the endgame, you will adjust a few of your skills, add some, and upgrade existing ones. Here too, you rely on a large army of Minions and the powerful Flaming Skulls, but also on defensive skills. If you play the Stones in Path of Exile 2, the skill Corpse Explosion is suitable for faster clearing.
Endgame: All Skills and Gems
The following skills are suitable for starting in the endgame:
- Hellhound
- Support Gems: Flesh Shield, Fire Susceptibility, Strip Away, Fire Mastery, Burning Flame
- Corpse Explosion -> Use a gem of level 7-10 here, as the mana costs would otherwise be too high
- Support Gems: Spell Echo, Brutality, Enlarged Effect, Arcane Tempo
- Flammability
- Support Gems: Spell Cascade, Curse Maximizer, Inspiration, Persistence, Focused Curse
- Skeleton Warrior
- Support Gems: Mutilate, Shard, Death Blow, Blind
- Skeleton Arsonist
- Support Gems: Muscle Power, Spread Shot, Combat Tempo, Fire Infusion, Last Breath
- Fire Wall
- Support Gems: Fortress, Mobility, Arcane Wave
- Flaming Skull
- Support Gems: Feast, Creature Control, Elemental Focus, Fire Sacrifice
- Sacrificial Pain
- Support Gems: Fountain of Delirium, Blood Fountain, Mana Fountain, Strip Away
- Skeleton Storm Mage
- Support Gems: Charge, Storm Fire, Overload, Piercing Lightning
- Blink
- Support Gems: Second Wind, Ingenuity
- Grim Feast
- Support Gems: Clarity
More on the skill “Blink” can be found here:
The “Minion Infernalist” build for the Witch in Path of Exile 2 is a good choice for all content and could be just right for you if you usually like to play Necromancers. With small adjustments, you are safe for all acts, the Cruel mode, and the endgame. You can get an insight into the classes from Early Access here: Path of Exile 2: Tier List of the strongest classes in the game
