Best Builds for Witch in PoE 2

Introduction

With the addition of new abilities, progression systems, and mechanics, Path of Exile 2 gives players even more creative freedom in creating their ideal characters. Among the various archetypes in the game, the Witch is particularly notable for its power and versatility.

The Witch class offers something for every playstyle, whether your preference is to use elemental damage or hybrid builds, help allies as a buffer support, or destroy enemies with chaos damage.

The top Witch builds in Path of Exile 2 will be presented in this guide, with an emphasis on builds that focus on endgame content, combine damage output and survivability, and utilize the most recent game mechanics. With comprehensive information on gear, passive skill tree selections, support gems, and gameplay tips to optimize your potential, each build is customized to fit various playstyles and strategies.

This guide will teach you the skills to build a Witch that thrives in the crazy world of Path of Exile 2, regardless of whether you're an experienced player trying to improve your strategies or a beginner to the game or ARPG genre. Let's get started and get the power of your ideal build ready to use!

Key Takeaways

The best Witch builds in Path of Exile 2 are:

• Best build for beginner Witches: Minion Army Infernalist
• Best build for leveling Witches: Minion Army Infernalist
• Best build for solo Witch: Bombarding Minions Infernalist
• Best DPS build for the Witch: Blink Autobomber
• Best Witch speedfarm build: Blink Autobomber
• Best mapping build for Witches: Blink Autobomber for Breaches & Life Stacker Infernalist for Delirium/Simulacrum
• Best bossing build for the Witch: Arc Blood Mage

Choosing the best build as a Witch in PoE 2

In Path of Exile 2, choosing the best Witch build requires carefully considering your objectives, preferred playstyle, and the kind of content you want to master. Are you looking for a glass cannon with high damage that can destroy bosses in a matter of seconds? Or a very powerful summoner that will be vicious in endgame battles while keeping its distance? Perhaps you're looking for a build that can use the Demon form permanently.

Understanding the essential elements that define and shape a successful build is crucial before you start designing and selecting your build in Path of Exile 2. We provide an in-depth analysis of each in the list below:

• Playstyle - The versatility of the Witch offers it a plethora of choices when it comes to builds, so choosing one will be necessary moving forward. As we have mentioned, the options are plentiful, from elemental-based damage-dealing builds to chaos-based ones or even minion builds that will have you staying back and enjoying the show.
• Skill Gems - The main part of the build, the skill gems are an essential part of the choices you have to make. The only two limitations to choosing any of the skill gems available in the game will be the stat requirement (STR, DEX, and INT) and the weapon you are about to use.
• Support Gems - Just as important as the skill gems, the support gems offer a great versatility to the functionality of almost any skill gem in the game. You can easily modify how a skill gem works with different support gems, making them easily fit in any build.
• Gear - The second place as importance when choosing, the gear is there to complement the skills you are planning on using in the build selected. The gear's capability is immense, raising the power of a build tenfold, maybe even more, with stats that can increase the skill gem's level, the spell or attack damage, resistances, and even life, mana & energy shield.
• Passive Skill Tree - Another big choice you have to make is the passive tree. With so many options and good nodes around, you will have to make sure that you choose the ones that benefit your build the most. The nodes farther away will offer more potent upgrades, so don't get caught up in the initial nodes, no matter how lovely they appear. The starting point should ideally have a single line of nodes pointing toward the primary Key Passive Nodes that will be most advantageous to the build.
• Ascendancy - The Ascendancy, also known as a subclass, is the last big choice you must make now. It is found in the middle of the passive tree and will provide compelling stats, whichever the choice may be.

Types of Witch builds

In Path of Exile 2, witches provide a variety of playstyles that are separated into different archetypes according to their main mechanics. The most common kinds of Witch builds that you can use are as follows:

• Elemental-based DPS builds
• Chaos-based DPS builds
• Summoner builds
• Perma Demon builds
• Corpse-based builds (detonate dead)
• Stat Stacking build
• Support build

What is the best Witch build in PoE 2?

Choosing the best Witch build will depend on many factors tied to your playstyle and APM preference, with the best build being different for each player. For example, seasoned players who prefer dishing out high amounts of damage will prefer a glass-cannon build, choosing high damage outputs over survivability but maintaining a high APM (actions per minute) playstyle, dodging, and positioning constantly. The Blink Autobomber is a great example of this choice.

On the other side of the coin, some players will consider the best build for Witch one with high survivability while dealing lower amounts of damage, not requiring constant positioning, dodging, avoiding one-shot mechanics, and having a lower APM playstyle, compared to the latter build type. As a great example here, we can mention the Life-stacker Infernalist build.

Another type of build that the Witch excels with is one based around minions. There are many choices for every type of minion, each playing a different role. This type of build is the easiest to play, with minions facing-tanking everything while you stand back away from danger or having multiple kinds of minions playing different roles. Two great examples of these builds are Minion Army Infernalist and Bombarding Minions Infernalist.

The last type of build we are going to talk about is centered around the Detonate Dead skill gem while using corpses or your reviving minions, if you have the Sacrifice skill gem equipped, to deal high amounts of damage while using the other minions to keep the distance from enemies. This build can be used by both ascendancies, each excelling in its different type. For example, this build can be used by the Blood Mage, stacking high amounts of critical spell damage bonus, levels to minion gems, and minion maximum life.

Best Witch build for Beginners. Witch early builds

The best builds for Path of Exile 2 Witch beginners are those that are easy to play, don't need a high action per minute (APM) playstyle, don't require hard-to-obtain gear or many support gems in each skill gem, and provide high survivability and decent damage.

To breeze through the campaign as a novice Witch, early builds should prioritize the basic skills that must be chosen, but also understanding how to scale the survivability and damage towards the endgame for a seamless transition to an endgame build.

To handle every activity in the early game, you can easily transition the Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Snipers into Skeletal Brutes and Skeletal Clerics while also using Detonate Dead for extra clear speed and having the Sacrifice skill gem to detonate your minions while fighting bosses, the build being changed into the Detonate Dead build, which we will detail later in the guide.

Note: The build presented contains every skill and support gems for the build to reach the endgame. If you are at a lower level and can't afford to obtain all the skills and supports mentioned in the table above, try adding them step by step while leveling.

Best Witch leveling & campaign build

To easily breeze through the campaign, the best Witch leveling and campaign build in PoE2 should balance survivability and damage output and focus on simple mechanics while accommodating the game and the playstyle.

Selecting the skill and support gems should help understand the game's mechanics while keeping the player safe and helping gather knowledge about everything happening around you. We have selected the Detonate dead crit blood mage as an example, being a very simple build to play.

The Minion brute will face-tank every enemy in your path, the Skeletal Clerics will revive the brutes that have fallen from time to time, and the Sacrifice gem will let you detonate your brutes for incredible damage when there are no corpses on the ground nearby.

Note: We will add the skill and support gems in the table below in the order you should obtain them.

Best Witch Solo & Group Builds

In PoE2, there is no limitation for how you can play your Witch, with each playstyle being viable if optimized properly. The Solo Witch builds are mainly focused on being able to complete any activity in the game by yourself without the need to rely on anyone or anything else. These builds often add one or more defensive layers with or without mobility skills, not focusing entirely on dealing damage.

Compared to the solo builds, the group builds can easily focus completely on different roles, like dealing massive amounts of damage without worrying about survivability or supporting allies through different buffs & curses, while also being able to tank using minions.

Each Witch build for solo and group play has advantages and disadvantages, which we'll detail in the following part of our article.

Best Witch Solo Build

This following build, Bombarding Minions Infernalist, is one of the best builds for a solo, in our opinion, being able to compete with every type of content.

The solo build involves simple and efficient gameplay: whatever the content is, progress through it by moving the minions first using the default "`" key, while paying attention to your surroundings. That should summarize most of the build gameplay, except killing elite enemies and bossing, which have a different skill rotation, as follows:

• For general mapping with white/blue enemies - Cast Flame Wall to summon Raging Spirits and then use Detonate Dead as soon as you have a corpse available. The Raging Spirits or your Skeletal Arsonists should be able to kill an enemy very fast to enable the chain reaction of corpses, allowing you to cast Detonate Dead without a worry.
• For bossing and rare enemies - Cast Flame Wall to summon Raging Spirits, cast Pain Offering to buff your Minions for a massive damage increase, then cast Flammability to debuff your enemies. You can then use Detonate Dead if corpses are available around you; if not, restart the skill rotation after the buff on the minions expires and cooldowns are available again.

Note: If your Minions get stuck somewhere in the map, you can use a random weapon in the secondary weapon just so you can swap back and forth, so the minions will despawn and teleport right back at you when switched to the original weapon set.

Best Witch Group Build

In Path of Exile 2, the group builds are made to work with other players in group play, and the role ranges from providing strong buffs and curses to tanking enemies or even being the main damage dealer.

The build we have chosen will combine the support side with the damage dealing, so you can play it even when your group is not online.

Best Witch Endgame Builds

In Path of Exile 2, the endgame builds are designed to clear any content in the game. Professional players or streamers who have played this game for a long time typically write the endgame build guides. They will optimize it in the best way possible so you can get the best endgame build possible because they have the knowledge from either testing the build in PoE 2 in a variety of ways or from playing the game before.

We'll cover a range of strong endgame Witch builds in the upcoming sections that are made to perform well in various scenarios and tasks, so you'll be prepared for anything that PoE2 has in store for you.

Best Witch Speedfarming Builds

The goal of speedfarming builds in Path of Exile 2 is to complete content as fast and effectively as you can. To destroy enemy packs as quickly as possible, these builds emphasize great mobility, very high attack or cast speeds, and great area-of-effect damage. They are excellent at maintaining momentum while traveling maps, making them perfect for farming currency or hard-to-obtain items.

As an example of the requirements needed for a speedfarming build, we will present the Blink Autobomber Blood Mage, which destroys everything that comes across its path.

As we can see, the build does not have high-skill gem requirements, especially for the frostwall, which requires a low level. We can't say the same thing about the gear because this build requires Temporalis, a very sought-after unique item that will cost you a lot of divines, but it will be worth it in the end.

Best Witch Mapping Build

Before choosing a build for mapping, we must understand what makes a build so great for this activity. For a build to be great for clearing maps, the most critical aspect is the speed at which it can clear them. The speed of clearing maps includes factors like dealing huge damage, having enough survivability so you can navigate the maps without the fear of getting one-shotted, and mobility, which is composed of movement speed and mobility skills.

Considering the factors mentioned above, we have prepared a section that will divide the best builds for mapping based on the activities you can find so you can better understand what you should focus on.

Best Witch build for Breach

Just like in Path of Exile 1, the Breach mechanic in PoE2 is an exciting and challenging piece of content that can be found in your atlas. When you touch the Breach hand, a purple zone will start expanding, and enemies will start trying to kill you. As the zone gets bigger and bigger, larger numbers of foes will emerge. If the enemies are not killed in a timely manner as the zone progresses, the Breach will stop and will rapidly close, ending the mechanic.

Knowing this basic information about the mechanic, we can surely say that a lot of damage and mobility is needed to kill as many enemies as possible and extend the zone as much as possible, reaping the most rewards possible. The Blink Autobomber is the perfect choice for such gameplay content, as you just blink around the edge of the zone, slaying the foes very rapidly.

Best Witch build for Delirium

Delirium in Path of Exile 2 is one of the most challenging activities at the moment, with the foes gaining more and more power, increasing the risk of getting one-shotted and their resistances. Compared to the latter activity, this one requires you to focus more on survivability, considering that the rewards obtained from the activity, the Distilled Emotions, will be lost if you die, and the map will close.

For this type of activity, we have chosen the Sniper Explode Summoner Infernalist so you can navigate through this endgame content carefree, especially when you want to face the Simulacrum activity, which is tied to the Delirium mechanic.

Best Witch build for Expedition & Ritual

Compared to the other endgame activities, the Expeditions and Rituals are not that dangerous, so most of the builds a Witch can use can be easily used. For these activities, we have chosen to present the Minion Army build since it's easier to put together and allows quick access to clear this content.

Best Witch Bossing Build

Depending on the kind of boss you are going to face, the Witch can adapt the build to its needs easily. There are many builds that need little to no optimization between bossing and other activities, and we'll use the Minion Army build.

Best Witch Magic Find Build

In comparison with Path of Exile 1, in PoE2, the "Increased Rarity of Items Found", also known as "Magic Find", works very differently and in our opinion, is not worth losing important stats over. You can easily add this affix if there are open slots for it on your items or use very well-rolled Ventor's Gamble unique rings and even combine them with a very well-rolled Ingenuity.

We can say that the "Increased Rarity of Items Found" affix is not worth losing better stats for because there are other great methods for it. One of these methods is having people in the party with you who will focus solely on gaining as much Magic Find as possible while also using the Gravebind unique gloves, which count the kills of the DPS as their own.

This method can be used with up to 5 people, each person fulfilling a different role, from "Cursebot" style builds to Chronomancer Block builds. We will give you an example of a completely min-maxed, very expensive rarity build, as follows:

Best Witch builds by damage type

Considering the freedom of choice Path of Exile 2 builds offer, the Witch can easily choose any element to prioritize in her builds, being able to master them quickly. Each element has its advantages and disadvantages, but you can also combine any of them for powerful synergies.

Knowing this information, we will present one build for each element:

Best fire build for Witch

We have chosen the Bombarding Minions Infernalist build for the fire element since most, if not all of the damage comes from the Skeletal Arsonists, which throw firebombs and can detonate other minions.

Best cold build for Witches

As the name of the build might suggest, the Skeletal Frost Mages will cast icy explosions, so we have chosen this powerful build for our cold element.

Best lightning build for Witch

For the lightning element, we have chosen the Arc Blood Mage. This build uses Greater Lightning Bolts and Arc to shock and kill any enemy that crosses your path while using Cast on Critical combined with Frostwall for incredible explosions.

Best chaos build for Witch

While Chaos might be the most powerful type of damage, the choices for a Chaos build are very limited. That did not stop us from compiling a chaos-based Infernalist build that can stay in demon form for an extremely long time and will deal incredible amounts of damage using the Demonflame stacks for a tremendous Spell Damage bonus.

Note: Most of the builds, even those that we say specialize in one element, will incorporate skills of other elements for added utility or damage, creating great synergy in the mentioned build. This is a choice made by design, not mistake.

Best DPS Witch Build

The best Witch DPS build will vary solely by your playstyle and the content you are about to conquer, being easily customizable and optimizable on the go. When it comes to the best DPS build, it must meet certain criteria to be considered the best, like dealing incredible amounts of damage, clearing every enemy that even thinks about coming close to you, but also having enough survivability to avoid getting slain by the more powerful foes.

As an example of such tremendous power, we will use the Blink Autobomber build, which can easily destroy anything that comes across your path and slay even the most powerful bosses with minor tweaking, which we will detail below.

For Bossing, swap Cast on Dodge with the Cast on Critical that uses Eye of Winter. Even using a low level Eye of Winter is fine, given the INT requirement and Mana cost.

Witch Softcore, Hardcore & SSF Builds

Depending on the game mode (Softcore, Hardcore, and Solo Self-found), the best build for Witches in PoE2 will differ. Compared to softcore, where players can focus on glass-cannon builds and not care about dying, while maximizing the speed of clearing as the main priority, that is not possible on hardcore.

Dying in hardcore can be as easy as getting hit by one single projectile that will one-shot the player, with the character being completely lost. This means the players must prioritize survivability and resistances, with the DPS maximizing falling in second place.

Compared to Softcore & Hardcore, the Solo Self-found (SSF) builds must offer a wide range of choices, as gear with high affix necessity would be incredibly hard to obtain, even by crafting. Knowing this, you should choose a build that will focus more on the skill gems, passive gems, and passive tree optimization, with gear falling in second place while also pushing the gear optimization towards the late endgame.

With all this in mind, we have selected a build for each of the game modes mentioned above, as follows:

Best SC Witch Build

Considering that the main factor when choosing a softcore build for the Witches in Path of Exile 2, we have many builds to choose from, but we will present the Bombarding Minions Infernalist since it's one of the most satisfying ones at the current moment.

Best HC Witch Build

As we have mentioned before, the main focus must be survivability when looking for a hardcore build for the Witch. That's why we have chosen the Minion Army Infernalist, being able to distance yourself from the fight and have minions to tank the damage for you.

Best SSF Witch Build

With the perfect gear for the desired build being either expensive or very hard to obtain, the SSF build we have chosen has items that are relatively easy to obtain, with the only hard affixes to obtain being "Level to minion skills" and high rolls of "% or # Spirit" and the Enezun's Charge unique wand, which drops randomly from enemies.

FAQs – Best Witch Builds in PoE2

What is the best build for Witch in Path of Exile 2?

As mentioned in the sections above, the best build for the Witch in PoE2 depends entirely on your playstyle and the content you want to play most.

What is the easiest build to play as a Witch in PoE 2?

The easiest build you can have on the Witch in PoE2 is one that has simple mechanics that are easy to understand, easy to obtain gear, and has a decent amount of damage but also great survivability.

What is the best Path of Exile 2 Witch leveling build?

Just like the build mentioned above, the leveling build must meet the same criteria and a great example of a build meeting those requirements is Minion Army Infernalist.

What is the best solo build for Witch in Path of Exile 2?

The best solo build in PoE2 for Witches combines survivability, so you won't continuously die or get one-shotted while dealing significant amounts of damage and can easily complete any content the game offers.

What is the best PoE 2 Witch Hardcore Build?

Compared to the solo build, the best Witch hardcore build must focus more on the survivability aspect rather than dealing huge amounts of damage. Once you are sure that you can't get one-shotted while clearing content, you can focus on adding more and more damage to the build.

What is the best PoE 2 Witch SSF Build?

The best builds for Witches in SSF PoE2 are ones that encompass most of the core stats that an endgame build must focus on while keeping the gear easy to obtain. Once the build is decent enough and can conquer most of the content in the game, items that are rare or very rare to get can be farmed and incorporated into it.

Final Thoughts

In summary, Path of Exile 2 provides a vast selection of strong and varied Witch builds that can fit any playstyle or game mode, whether you're speedfarming, taking on endgame bosses, or delving into Hardcore content. There is a very high versatility to Witch builds, ranging from DPS by any element, to chaos damage, hybrid builds, and even "cursebot" type builds.

We designed our PoE 2 Witch Class Best Builds guide to help you understand how the builds work. We hope we helped you better view this complex class and learned how you can quickly become a mighty Witch. Our recommendations should help you choose a build to fit your playstyle and needs as a guide, create the perfect build, and have fun mastering the elements.

Related Guides

Stay tuned and check out our related guides for Path of Exile 2:

• Path of Exile 2 Leveling Guide
• Path of Exile 2 Currency Guide
• Path of Exile 2 Best Classes Guide
• Path of Exile 2 Gearing Guide
• Path of Exile 2 Beginner Guide
• Path of Exile 2 Trading Guide
• Path of Exile 2 Crafting Guide
• PoE 2 Mercenary Guide – Complete Class Overview
• PoE 2 Witch Guide – Complete Class Overview
• PoE 2 Sorceress Guide – Complete Class Overview
• PoE 2 Monk Guide – Complete Class Overview
• PoE 2 Warrior Guide – Complete Class Overview

About KBoosting

Thank you for taking the time to read our guide about Best Witch Builds in Path of Exile 2. Did you know that at KBoosting, we are not only about guides and articles? We also provide boosting services to make things even easier for you. Check out our PoE2 boosting services, let us handle everything for you, while you have some real fun in the game!