Path of Exile 2 best Witch build

Looking for the best Witch build in Path of Exile 2? As the Witch, you'll raise skeletal minions to subdue all enemies in Path of Exile 2. The Witch serves as the only class in the game that starts with a small army at her disposal, and this army will only grow in size and power with every level.

Maximising the Witch's potential, then, is a delicate act of amplifying your minions as much as possible while ensuring that they're hardy enough to do their job as meat (or rather, bone) shields. In this guide we'll give an explanation of the best Witch build for Path of Exile 2's Early Access, breaking down the most useful skills and support gems to raise hell.

Best Witch build in Path of Exile 2

The best Witch build in Path of Exile 2 is what we'll call the Minion Infernalist build. Her collection of skills emphasises the Witch's strength of building up a heavy array of summons, and then taking the Infernalist Ascension to make those summons blow up with fire magic.

This build's only downsides are its squishiness and heavy reliability on Spirit. But the Witch is a squishy class in general who needs Spirit more than anyone else in the game, so this shouldn't come as a massive surprise. Be sure to equip gear that maximises your Energy Shield and Spirit (a good Sceptre is essential; see our how to get more Spirit guide for more on this) and seek out armour that boosts Intelligence or offers modifiers to your minion stats.

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Witch build: Best skills

There are several Witch skills that can work with a Minion Infernalist build, as long as you manage to get some fire magic in there and some summons. The following ten have been my personal mainstays:

Unearth

Unearth is a favourite that I always grab for my first Uncut Skill Gem. This lets you deal AoE damage in the form of exploding bone bursts, and you can also spawn minions from corpses that look like cool bone scorpions.

Skeletal Sniper

You have many options when it comes to summoning skeletons, but Skeletal Snipers are the ones to go for in the early game. They're obviously less up close and personal when compared to Skeletal Warriors, and cost more Spirit, meaning that you'll likely only have one at a time. Skeletal Snipers deal great damage though, especially via their Gas Arrows.

Skeletal Arsonist

Once you reach the mid-game, you can start replacing your Skeletal Snipers with Skeletal Arsonists, who are friendly molotov-chucking bony guys. They're great for offering up some AoE minion damage, while your Skeletal Snipers are better at single targets.

Pain Offering

This Vlad the Impaler-esque skill summons a bone spike that gives all nearby minions a buff of 40% increased attack and casting speed. This morbid totem is itself a minion, and can thus be targeted and destroyed - but while it's up, it's a great way to bolster your forces.

Bonestorm

Bonestorm lets you create a storm of bony spikes in the air and then release them at enemies. This is a reliable AoE projectile skill, and shrapnel from the Bonestorm lodges itself in the bodies of your enemies - meaning that your minions will deal additional damage right after you pop this.

Detonate Dead

Detonate Dead works perfectly with the scorpion minions summoned by Unearth. You can also use it on any of your skeletons, and it's especially fun for your Skeletal Arsonists to ensure that even if their molotovs miss, their self-destruct will deal damage in the end.

Flame Wall

Flame Wall might be a skill that's popular with early game Sorceress builds, but the Witch will also benefit mightily from it, especially considering that she has the Infernalist as one of her Ascendancy classes. Aside from serving as a fiery buffer between you and your foes, Flame Wall can also ignite the Gas Arrow fired by your Skeletal Snipers.

Raging Spirits

You've got Flame Wall, now supplement it with Raging Spirits, which becomes available when you get Uncut Spirit Gems around level 10 or so. Whenever this is active, any fire spell you cast will summon little flaming skulls who will attack nearby enemies. This means Flame Wall becomes all the better, and the ranks of your minion army continue to increase!

Vulnerability

Vulnerability curses all nearby targets and makes hits against them ignore a portion of their armour. This has good synergy with Pain Offering - set up the bone spike to make your minions hit harder, then pop Vulnerability to have their attacks shred the opposition.

Summon Infernal Hound

Finally we have Summon Infernal Hound, which is a skill that you'll obtain after you get your Ascendancy and dip your toes into the Infernalist's fire attack-centric Passive Skill Tree. Your hound will ignite enemies near it and take a portion of hits meant for you - the perfect ultimate minion for a raging Infernalist!

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Minion Infernalist build: Best support gems

To support this build, you're going to want to equip support gems that supplement minion attacks and tweak the effects of your magic. Try the following out:

Martial Tempo

Martial Tempo will be needed for your Skeletal Snipers to make 'em shoot faster. It's a good support gem for any skeletal minion, honestly, and works well with Last Gasp.

Last Gasp

Now that your bone Skeletal Snipers are shooting faster, make them slightly hardier with Last Gasp. The trade-off is that they deal less damage, but since we've supplemented their DPS with Martial Tempo, it works out okay in the end.

Feeding Frenzy

Once you've gotten Skeletal Arsonists to fill out your ranks, equip Feeding Frenzy to make their bombs more effective, dealing 30% more damage. They'll also take 20% more damage, but that's no bother, because you can always blow them up with Detonate Dead.

Arcane Tempo

Use Arcane Tempo to supplement your own spells - specifically Bonestorm, which needs to be cast as rapidly as possible to turn the space in front of your Witch into a projectile hell.

Persistence

Persistence is simple - it makes any skill that has a duration last just a wee bit longer. Use it with Pain Offering to make your bone spike stick around beyond its typical expiration date.

Ablation

Ablation's another possible support gem for Pain Offering, though it's riskier than Persistence. It sacrifices a portion of your health to increase the effects of a buff. Equip it if you feel confident in your minions' ability to protect you while the bone spike is up.

Magnified Effect

Magnified Effect makes any AoE skill larger. This is a superb choice to complement Detonate Dead, since there's nothing like making the most of your skeletons by upping their blast radius!

Fire Infusion

You're an Infernalist, so you've got to have Fire Infusion, which will amplify attacks to deal more fire damage at the expense of cold and lightning damage. This gem can go well with a number of skills, but try it alongside Unearth for an explosive side effect as you rip open the ground in front of you.

Fortress

Fortress takes any spells that generate in a line and switches this up to a circle. Circular targeting is generally a bit easier in Path of Exile 2, where enemies are coming at you in tight corridors, and this works especially well with Flame Wall.

Immolate

Use Immolate on the flaming skulls generated by Raging Spirits to get them to deal extra fire damage against already-ignited enemies. This is a great way to supplement the strength of your little Ghost Rider-esque buddies.

Now that you know the best way to raise your skeletal forces, go out there and show your foes what a true Witch is capable of. For more on the mechanics that power Grinding Gear Games' epic ARPG, see our guides to the Passive Skill Tree, Attributes, and crafting. We've also got a look at the best character class for beginners, as well as a list of what to do first if you're just getting started with Path of Exile 2's early game. And if you'd like to learn how to take your class to greater heights, see our guide on how to Ascend via the Trial of the Sekhemas.