Since its release, path of exile has had many updates, devs add more and more content every league, and with each update, the graphics and the user experience have evolved in a favorable way, the witch class is one of the most interesting classes, it has the most powerful and devastating skills and their builds are great for almost everything, so it is not only interesting but a very fun to play class.
Check here to learn about the Ranger class, one of the most popular pure classes in path of exile.
In this article you will learn why you should choose the witch class in path of exile to start playing either in the current league or in standard, I will also show you which are the best builds for this class, based on their survival for all content including endgame, as well as for the necessary amount of equipment to be able to stand out from the rest, obviously, the less expensive equipment will be better.
Witch class starting stats
The witch class is a pure int class, its main attribute is intelligence, and the second is mana, so it is important that we grant this attribute in the passive skill tree, as well as the other nodes that we occupy, initially the attributes are the following:
- Life: 57
- Mana: 56
- Intelligence: 32
- Strength: 14
- Dexterity : 14
When you start the game, you receive your first wand, you can attack from a distance with your wand, and immediately you receive a fire attack gem, which is more powerful but spends more mana, so initially your main skill will be your basic attack and the fire attack of that gem, choose carefully the element you will spend your passive points into, this will save you lots of headaches when you reach the endgame.
Before you get to do the ascendancy challenge in the labyrinth, which is at level 30, you will have to focus on your build, initially, the options for the witch are:
- Witch of electricity: One of my favorites, it is the most used path for elementalist builds also, it usually deals quite high initial damage and generates shock, which continues to generate a portion of damage over time.
- Fire Witch: It is used by elementalists and occultists ascendancies, these builds can be a jack of all trades, however, the occultists often need less special equipment, thus are cheaper builds.
- Ice Witch: I’ve tried a necromancer build with ice attacks and it’s phenomenal, very fun, and strong, it’s one of my favorites also for being fun despite being a build that relies on minions for battle.
- Summoning Witch: I don’t think there is much to say about this build, it is based on summoning monsters to do your dirty work for you, it can be combined well with ice or fire, but often occultist builds use summoning plus debuff spells to increase damage.
Witch class ascendancies
Once we clear the ascendancy challenge, the labyrinth of the lord at level 30, we will have our ascendancy and two points to invest in our ascendancy tree to optimize our build, the ascendancy options are the following:
Necromancer
The necromancer witch builds can be based on the summoning of skeletons, zombies, or specters, any is a very good build option, using ice skills is generally used to slow down enemies, and to do a good amount of damage, the slow down ability and buffs you cast will increase the survivability of your minions.
Elementalist
The elementalist witch is the best at doing damage of the three ascendants, since her passive node focus on increasing the damage of her attacks and their effects, but also on the increase of the resistance to the elements and the use of golems, some of these builds can be expensive, especially in the endgame.
Occultist
Occult builds are great for reaching endgame with gear that isn’t too expensive, this build is made to pulverize your enemies with degenerative spells while your summoned creatures do the rest of the work, the ascendancy points can pretty much make you invincible occult builds.
Recommended witch class builds to start a league.
Once a new league start, new players struggle to find out the builds that will perform the best with the next update, then, the next 3 weeks, the community start talking about the meta builds, so, if you are struggling to choose which build will be better to start within the new league, then let me show you 5 witch builds that can quickly take you to the endgame in any league as if it were easy mode.
Arc Build, Elementalist : A tremendous electricity build that does a lot of damage, and at the same time does not need a lot of expensive equipment to get good results, sometimes the highest tier maps will be hard, but by then you’ll probably have tons of currency or a nice gear.
Lich Queen, skeleton summoner, Necromancer: A pretty good variant of the necromancer with such a cool name that I couldn’t stop playing with, it’s really good, but it also doesn’t require very expensive items, maybe a trigger wand to be a good build and it’s not a so expensive piece of gear, it is based on summoning a whole horde of skeletons and specters while you attack with ice, so, what are you waiting for? start with this build!
Exsanguinate Necromancer : A very fun variant of the necromancer, with this build, you can reach and do almost every endgame content with low investment, however, if you want to make the highest map tiers or the most difficult bosses you will have to invest a lot in this build, but it’s pretty fun and powerful.
Fireball Ignite, Elementalist : An extremely good elementalist build, it burns your enemies to ashes and increases the damage and resistances with the golems, this build can take you through all the endgame content, of course, you will have to invest some currency on great gear to perform well on high tier maps, and the most difficult bosses.
The pestilent viper, Occultist : A pretty crazy and uncommon builds that perform great with the right gear, it’s actually a trickster build but in an occultist, with the ability to be completely immune to poison, specifically using a weapon that does quite a bit of damage of chaos and causing explosions that generate lots of damage from this same element, a build that can do most of the acts and the first part of the endgame, later you will need a carry or a great equipment, however, it appears here for being rare, fun and not requiring expensive equipment to work well until late endgame.
Conclusion
Choosing a class is a difficult decision if you are starting a league, however, most of the witch builds can take you through all the content of path of exile, of course, to be good in many of these builds and to reach the most difficult levels, you will have to invest a good amount of currency to improve your equipment, however, the witch is one of the most fun classes to play and its 3 ascendants can give you hours of fun.
