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Path of Exile 2has 12 classes to play, each with a unique set of Ascendancy subclasses and a plethora of skills to choose from. The Witch is a fan-favorite class returning from the previous installment, this time equipped with a new set of Ascendancies and a slight design shift. Instead of fulfilling all Intelligence-themed builds, the Witch now encompasses most summoning and glass cannon playstyles.
A Witch who masters their craft can transform into a demon, summon hordes of undead to fight by their side, or tap into their life essence to empower their spells. In this class overview, we’ll be looking at how the Witch class functions, breaking down all of its Ascendancy subclasses, and giving some build recommendations to help you clear the horrors of Wraeclast with ease.
Initial Skills
Necromancy, Fire Spells, Curses, Chaos DoT
The Witch is an Intelligence class that is tailored forminion summoning and high-risk spellcasting builds.This is due to the class' topmost position on the passive tree, giving them ample access to spellcasting modifiers and minion passives. Their choice of Ascendancy subclasses—the Bloodmage and the Infernalist—is what really gives this class its niche.
Any class can use any skill and weapon in PoE2. Your class only determines your starting location on the passive tree and available Ascendancy options.
Starting out, Witches will have access to basic summons, Chaos spells, and a small selection of spells. You can alwaysacquire other non-Witch skills from Uncut Gems, but the starting roster of skills is great if you’re planning to make a necromancer, a physical spellcaster, or some sort of Chaos affliction build.
Witch Ascendancy Classes
As of PoE 2’s early access launch, there are two Witch ascendancies you can try: the Bloodmage and the Infernalist.Bloodmagesuse their Lifie pool as a secondary source of sustain, generating Remnants that can be claimed to overheal your character. If you want to build your character for meaty critical hits and survivability, the Bloodmage is the perfect choice.
Summoners and glass cannon spellcasters should direct their attention toward theInfernalist.This subclass can scale most of its stats with maximum Life, including Spirit. You can summon a demonic Hellhound pet to tank incoming damage, or you can transform into a demon to drastically increase your spell damage at the cost of continuous HP drain.
Notables
Sanguimancy
Grants Skill: Life Remnants. Skills gain a base Life cost equal to base Mana cost.
Life Remnants restore Life and can overflow up to 2x your max HP.
Your Curses have infinite duration.
Blood Barbs
Gain 10% of damage as extra Physical Damage. Elemental damage also contributes to Bleed magnitude.
All spells have 15% base critical chance.
Grasping Wounds
25% of Life loss from hits is prevented, then that much Life is lost over 4 seconds instead.
Crimson Power
Gain Energy Shield from equipped body armor as extra maximum Life.
The Bloodmage focuses onLife stacking and critical hits.You are forced to takeSanguimancyas your first node, which allows you to generate Life Remnants by slaying monsters and landing critical hits. you’re able to pick these Remnants up to restore a portion of your HP. If your Life pool is full, you’ll overheal up to twice your maximum Life. This makes Bloodmage an incredibly tanky spec for spellcasters and caster/melee hybrid builds.
Wait To Use Sanguimancy
The HP drain tied to Sanguimancy arguably makes it a downgrade for leveling. Since you’re forced to take it, we highly recommend youdon’tallocate Sanguimancy until you unlock your next set of Ascendancy points. Once you can grabVitalitySiphon, Sanguimancy’s HP drain should be negligible.
You canleverageyour massive health pool to enhance your critical damage withGore Spike, giving you additive critical damage for every 40 Life you have. Considering you can effectively double your HP with Life Remnants, this makes Bloodmage absurdly strong for critical builds. You can even takeSunderthe Fleshwhile leveling to give your spells 15% base critical chance, which can easily be scaled with passive tree nodes and equipment.
Another major standout here isGrasping Wounds, a defensive mechanic identical to Petrified Blood and Progenesis from the original PoE. Whenever you lose HP from an incoming hit, a quarter of that damage is turned into a damage-over-time effect that drains your HP over the next four seconds.
Grasping Wounds Example
For example, if you take 1,000 damage, you would instead take 750 damage and be inflicted a 250 DoT over four seconds, which means you’d take 62.5 damage per second.
Pair Grasping Wounds with some form of HP recovery to mitigate the DoT effect. Recoup pairs exceptionally well with this passive.
Altered Flesh
20% of Cold and Lightning damage is taken as Fire damage.
Demonic Possession
Grants skill: Demon Form
Shapeshift into a demon, vastly increasing your spell damage at the cost of escalating Life degen.
While in Demon Form, you cannot exceed 10 Demonflare stacks.
Pyromantic Pact
Replaces Mana with Infernal Flame. Gain Infernal Flame as you cast spells.
At max Infernal Flame, take your max HP and ES as Fire damage. Stacks reset.
Bringer of Flame
With > 30% Infernal Flame, all damage from you and nearby allies contribue to Ignite chance and magnitude.
With > 70% Infernal Flame, you and nearby allies gain 20% of damage as Fire damage.
Loyal Hellhound
Grants skill: Summon Infernal Hound
Permanent minion that Ignites nearby targets. 20% of incoming hit damage is redirected to your Hellhound.
Grinning Immolation
Landing a critical hit Ignites you, taking 15% of your HP and ES as Fire damage per second.
Multiplies your critical damage by 1.3x.
While the Infernalist seems like a fire-themed Ascendancy at first glance, this spec is actually best suited forsummoners and spellcasting.If you want to make a minion build as a Witch, you ideally want to go Infernalist solely forBeidat’s Will,increasing your maximum Spirit based on your maximum HP. Spirit is a difficult resource to scale in PoE2, so having a clear means of scaling it is invaluable for all summoner builds, not just pyromancy-themed characters.
Minion builds should also grabLoyal Hellhoundon their second or third ascension, as this gives you a constant 20% damage resistance against all incoming hits. The Hellhound will also Ignite everything nearby, which could prove useful for triggering certain passives or skill gems.
If minions aren’t your thing, the Infernalist has a lot to offer to spellcasters.Demonic Formshapeshifts your Witch into a floating harpy, significantly increasing your spell damage while active. This comes at the cost of a continuous HP degen that escalates over time, but you may clamp this HP loss to 10% of your max HP per second through Mastered Darkness.Throw on some Life regeneration or sources of recoup, and you should be able to remain in Demon Form indefinitely.
You can also spec intoPyromantic Pactto replace your Mana with Infernal Flare, a resource you generate with every spell cast. It’s arguably a detriment by itself since maximum stacks trigger self-damage, but you can use Infernal Flame to greatly buff your damage throughBringer of FlamesandCrimson Power.If you can keep your Infernal Flare under 100% capacity, this could prove incredibly strong for endgame caster builds.
Infernal Flare doesnotcount as Mana; it won’t trigger Mind Over Matter or similar effects.
Witch Builds
It’s still early days for Path of Exile 2, so we don’t have any strong build recommendations yet. Once we’ve reached the endgame and tested this class thoroughly, we’ll link some powerful Witch builds you can use through the campaign and beyond. Stay tuned.
