Path of Exile 2: How To Play Witch Class

Path of Exile 2 offers players 12 unique classes, each with its own Ascendancy subclasses and a vast array of skills. Among them, the Witch stands out as a returning favorite, revamped with new Ascendancies and a refined design. While still a class centered around Intelligence, the Witch now focuses on summoning and glass cannon playstyles.

The Witch can take on a variety of powerful roles, transforming into a demon to decimate foes, commanding armies of undead minions, or sacrificing life essence to supercharge devastating spells. This versatility makes the Witch an exceptional choice for players who love high-risk, high-reward gameplay.

In this guide, we’ll explore how the Witch class works, delve into its Ascendancy subclasses, and provide build recommendations to help you navigate the dangers of Wraeclast. Whether you’re a new player or a seasoned veteran, mastering the Witch will make you a formidable force in Path of Exile 2. Let’s get started!

Witch Class Breakdown

Primary Attribute
• Intelligence

Ascendancy Options
• Bloodmage
• Infernalist

Starting Skills
• Necromancy
• Fire Spells
• Curses
• Chaos Damage over Time (DoT)

The Witch is an Intelligence-based class that excels in summoning minions and high-risk, high-reward spellcasting. Positioned at the top of the passive skill tree, the Witch has unparalleled access to nodes that enhance spellcasting and minion abilities, making her an excellent choice for players seeking powerful glass cannon or necromancer-style builds.

The Witch’s identity is further refined by her Ascendancy subclasses, the Bloodmage and the Infernalist, each offering unique ways to specialize her playstyle. Whether you want to drain your life to unleash devastating spells or command an army of fire-infused undead, these Ascendancies open up a wide array of powerful and thematic options.

Starting out, the Witch has access to a versatile set of skills, including basic summons, Chaos-based spells, and elemental magic. These abilities provide a solid foundation for creating necromancers, Chaos affliction builds, or even physical spellcasters. If you wish to diversify, you can expand your arsenal with Uncut Gems to acquire non-Witch skills, giving you even more options to experiment and refine your build.

Witch Ascendancy Classes Overview

In Path of Exile 2’s Early Access, the Witch has two Ascendancy subclasses to choose from: Bloodmage and Infernalist. Each offers a unique playstyle tailored to different preferences, ranging from tanky, critical-hit-focused spellcasters to glass cannon summoners.

Bloodmage Ascendancy

The Bloodmage is a powerful and versatile Ascendancy option for the Witch class in Path of Exile 2, offering a unique playstyle centered around Life as a resource, critical hit scaling, and durability through overhealing. With its ability to leverage massive health pools and convert Life mechanics into offensive and defensive advantages, the Bloodmage is perfect for players who enjoy a blend of survivability and devastating spell power.

Key Features of the Bloodmage Ascendancy
• Life Remnants as a Resource: Allows you to use Life to cast spells, generate healing opportunities, and overheal beyond your maximum Life.
• Massive Critical Hit Scaling: Converts your large Life pool into bonus critical damage and base critical chance for devastating attacks.
• Exceptional Survivability: Features mechanics that mitigate burst damage and spread it over time, providing a strong defensive edge.

Notable Bloodmage Skills

1. Sanguimancy
• Unlocks Life Remnants, which act as a secondary resource.
• Spells cost Life instead of Mana, equal to their base Mana cost.
• Life Remnants restore Life when picked up and allow overhealing up to 200% of your maximum Life.
This skill is the core of the Bloodmage Ascendancy, enabling powerful health-based mechanics that scale both offense and defense.

2. Gore Spike
• Increases critical damage by +1% for every 40 Life in your pool.
• Scales your offensive potential with Life, making this node crucial for critical hit builds.
With a doubled Life pool from Life Remnants, your critical damage scaling becomes exponential, allowing you to unleash devastating blows.

3. Sunder the Flesh
• Grants all spells a 15% base critical chance, drastically improving your ability to land critical hits.
• Pairs exceptionally well with critical scaling passives and equipment, allowing for consistent high-damage output.

4. Grasping Wounds
• Mitigates burst damage by preventing 25% of Life loss from hits, turning it into a damage-over-time effect spread over four seconds.
• Similar to Petrified Blood from Path of Exile 1, this mechanic ensures survival against high-damage hits by giving you time to recover.

5. Crimson Power
• Converts the Energy Shield from equipped body armor into additional maximum Life, further enhancing your survivability.

6. Open Sores
• Grants infinite duration to your Curses, eliminating the need to reapply them during prolonged encounters.

7. Blood Barbs
• Adds 10% extra Physical Damage while allowing Elemental Damage to scale Bleed effects, making it an excellent choice for hybrid builds.

8. Vitality Siphon
• Leech 10% of all Spell Damage as Life, ensuring a steady stream of healing during combat.

Playstyle and Strategy

The Bloodmage Ascendancy excels in builds that prioritize Life stacking, critical hit mechanics, and durability. Here’s how to make the most of this subclass:
1. Leverage Life Remnants:
• Generate Life Remnants by defeating enemies and landing critical hits.
• Use these Remnants to restore Life or overheal, effectively doubling your maximum Life pool.
2. Focus on Critical Hit Scaling:
• Invest in nodes like Gore Spike and Sunder the Flesh to maximize your critical chance and critical damage.
• Use passives and gear to enhance critical multipliers for consistent, devastating hits.
3. Enhance Survivability:
• Utilize Grasping Wounds to mitigate large bursts of damage, converting a portion into a manageable DoT effect.
• Combine Crimson Power with high Energy Shield armor to significantly boost your effective health.
4. Dominate with Hybrid Builds:
• Blood Barbs allows you to incorporate Physical and Elemental damage, enabling hybrid builds that deal Bleed damage while scaling with elemental effects.
• Combine Vitality Siphon for sustain in prolonged fights.

Why Choose the Bloodmage Ascendancy?

The Bloodmage is an ideal choice for players who want a high-risk, high-reward playstyle with unmatched Life-based scaling. Whether you’re building a tanky caster or a critical-hit powerhouse, the Bloodmage offers unparalleled versatility and durability. Its combination of Life Remnants, critical scaling, and damage mitigation ensures you can handle the toughest challenges in Wraeclast with ease.

Best Builds for the Bloodmage
• Critical Spellcaster: Use massive Life pools and critical mechanics to create a devastating caster build.
• Hybrid Melee/Caster: Leverage Life Remnants and hybrid damage nodes for a flexible and powerful playstyle.
• Sustained DPS Specialist: Focus on Life leech and overhealing mechanics to stay in the fight indefinitely.

With its unique mechanics and potent combination of offense and defense, the Bloodmage Ascendancy stands as one of the most engaging and versatile choices for the Witch class in Path of Exile 2.

Infernalist Ascendancy

The Infernalist Ascendancy for the Witch in Path of Exile 2 combines fiery power with summoning and spellcasting mechanics, making it an exceptional choice for both minion builds and high-risk, high-reward spellcasters. While it appears fire-focused at first glance, its mechanics offer a versatile toolkit that enhances Spirit scaling, minion survivability, and spell damage output.

Key Features of the Infernalist Ascendancy
• Versatile Playstyle: Ideal for summoners, spellcasters, or pyromancy enthusiasts.
• Spirit Scaling: Increases Spirit capacity based on maximum Life, invaluable for summoner builds.
• Transformative Power: Features like Demon Form provide massive spell damage at the cost of continuous Life degeneration.
• Fire Mechanics: Allows scaling of Ignite and Fire Damage, with unique mechanics like Infernal Flame to replace Mana.

Notable Infernalist Skills

1. Altered Flesh
• Converts 20% of Cold and Lightning Damage into Fire Damage.
• Converts 20% of Physical Damage into Chaos Damage.
This node enhances survivability by diversifying incoming damage types, making it easier to mitigate.

2. Beidat’s Will
• Reserves 25% of your Life.
• Grants +1 maximum Spirit for every 25 maximum Life.
This node is essential for summoners, as it provides a clear method of scaling Spirit, a difficult-to-boost resource critical for sustaining multiple meta skills or minions.

3. Loyal Hellhound
• Grants the skill Summon Infernal Hound, a permanent minion that redirects 20% of incoming hit damage to itself.
• The Hellhound ignites nearby enemies, enabling synergy with Ignite-focused passives or skills.
This node is invaluable for minion builds, adding survivability by redirecting damage and boosting damage potential through Ignite.

4. Demonic Possession
• Grants Demon Form, a shapeshifting skill that drastically increases spell damage.
• While in Demon Form, you suffer escalating Life degeneration.
This transformation turns the Witch into a powerhouse for spell damage, ideal for glass cannon builds that can manage the continuous HP loss.

5. Mastered Darkness
• Limits Demon Form’s Life degeneration to 10% of your maximum HP per second.
By capping the degen effect, this node ensures you can sustain Demon Form indefinitely with Life regeneration or recoup mechanics.

6. Pyromantic Pact
• Replaces Mana with Infernal Flame, a resource generated by casting spells.
• At maximum Infernal Flame, you take damage equal to your max HP and ES.
This mechanic is risky, but it enables massive damage potential through nodes like Bringer of Flame and Crimson Power, which provide Ignite buffs and bonus Fire Damage based on Infernal Flame levels.

7. Bringer of Flame
• While above 30% Infernal Flame, all damage from you and nearby allies contributes to Ignite chance and magnitude.
This node amplifies Ignite effects, making it a great choice for Fire-based spellcasters or minion builds.

8. Crimson Power
• While above 70% Infernal Flame, you and nearby allies gain 20% of all damage as Fire Damage.
A substantial damage buff that rewards effective Infernal Flame management.

Playstyle and Strategy

The Infernalist offers a highly versatile playstyle that can cater to summoners and spellcasters alike. Here’s how to make the most of its mechanics:

For Summoners
• Spirit Scaling: Start with Beidat’s Will to increase your maximum Spirit, enabling you to sustain multiple minions and meta skills.
• Loyal Hellhound: Take this as your second or third node for consistent 20% damage redirection, boosting survivability and crowd control through Ignite.
• Combine Spirit-based passives with Ignite synergies like Bringer of Flame to further enhance your minion damage and utility.

For Spellcasters
• Demon Form: Unlock Demonic Possession for a massive spell damage boost, and pair it with Mastered Darkness to cap Life degeneration, allowing sustained use of the form.
• Infernal Flame: Use Pyromantic Pact to replace Mana and enhance your damage potential. Manage Infernal Flame carefully to avoid self-damage while taking advantage of bonuses from Bringer of Flame and Crimson Power.
• Focus on Ignite and Fire damage passives to maximize the benefits of Infernalist’s offensive capabilities.

Why Choose the Infernalist Ascendancy?

The Infernalist is ideal for players seeking a dynamic and high-damage playstyle, whether through summoning or spellcasting. Its unique mechanics offer unparalleled customization options:
• For Summoners: The ability to scale Spirit and summon a durable Hellhound makes this Ascendancy the top choice for minion-focused builds.
• For Glass Cannon Spellcasters: Demon Form and Ignite synergies allow for incredible spell damage output, rewarding players who can manage the associated risks.

If you’re looking for a flexible and rewarding Ascendancy, the Infernalist is an excellent choice for unleashing fiery destruction and commanding minions in Path of Exile 2.

Best Witch Builds in Path of Exile 2

The Witch class in Path of Exile 2 is a versatile choice, excelling in summoning and spellcasting builds. With access to the Bloodmage and Infernalist Ascendancies, the Witch offers a variety of playstyles, from commanding armies of undead to unleashing devastating elemental or Chaos-based spells. Below are some of the best Witch builds for both newcomers and experienced players.

1. Necromancer Build

Overview

The classic summoner build focuses on raising an army of minions to do the heavy lifting while you stay at a safe distance. This build is perfect for players who enjoy controlling hordes of minions that clear mobs and tank bosses.

Core Skills
• Raise Skeletons: Summons melee minions to swarm enemies.
• Summon Zombie: Provides tanky minions that absorb damage and deal solid AoE.
• Summon Spectres: Adds ranged or utility minions to enhance your army.
• Carrion Golem: Boosts minion damage and provides additional tankiness.
• Bone Offering: Grants minions block chance and life sustain.

Ascendancy Choice
• Infernalist: Leverage Beidat’s Will for extra Spirit to sustain multiple minions and Loyal Hellhound for damage redirection and Ignite utility.

2. Fire Hellhound Build

Overview

This build focuses on the Infernalist Ascendancy, combining Ignite mechanics with the Summon Infernal Hound skill to create a tanky and high-damage summoner build. Your Hellhound will serve as both a tank and an offensive tool, applying Ignite to nearby enemies.

Core Skills
• Summon Infernal Hound: Your primary minion that redirects 20% of incoming damage to itself.
• Flame Surge: Deals high Ignite damage to burning enemies.
• Fireball: A classic fire skill for long-range Ignite application.
• Infernal Cry: Causes enemies to explode on death, amplifying AoE.

Ascendancy Choice
• Infernalist: Prioritize Loyal Hellhound, Bringer of Flame, and Crimson Power for Ignite scaling and Fire damage bonuses.

3. Bloodmage Life Caster Build

Overview

This build utilizes the Bloodmage Ascendancy to convert Life into a resource, allowing for massive critical hit scaling and exceptional survivability. With Life Remnants, you can double your effective Life pool while unleashing devastating spells.

Core Skills
• Glacial Cascade: A high-damage cold spell with strong AoE potential.
• Siphoning Trap: Provides Life recovery and synergy with Life-based mechanics.
• Frostbolt: Delivers precise critical hits, leveraging your critical scaling.
• Petrified Blood: Mitigates incoming damage by spreading it over time.

Ascendancy Choice
• Bloodmage: Focus on Sanguimancy, Gore Spike, and Sunder the Flesh for critical hit scaling and sustain.

4. Demon Form Caster Build

Overview

This glass cannon build revolves around the Infernalist Ascendancy, using Demon Form to unleash devastating spell damage. By carefully managing the Life degeneration effect, you can sustain massive damage output for extended periods.

Core Skills
• Firestorm: A high-damage AoE skill for mob clearing.
• Immolation Aura: Constant Fire damage around your character, synergizing with Demon Form.
• Pyroclast Mine: A delayed Fire damage skill for precise bursts.
• Flame Dash: A mobility skill for repositioning during combat.

Ascendancy Choice
• Infernalist: Prioritize Demonic Possession, Mastered Darkness, and Pyromantic Pact for sustained Demon Form and Fire damage scaling.

5. Chaos DoT Build

Overview

This build leverages the Witch’s access to Chaos damage over time (DoT) skills to melt enemies with damage that bypasses resistances. Perfect for players who enjoy long-lasting damage effects and high mobility.

Core Skills
• Essence Drain: Applies a strong Chaos DoT effect to enemies.
• Contagion: Spreads Chaos damage across mobs when affected enemies die.
• Blight: Deals channelled Chaos damage over time in a small AoE.
• Wither: Amplifies Chaos damage taken by enemies.

Ascendancy Choice
• Bloodmage: Use Vitality Siphon for Life leech and Grasping Wounds for better mitigation of incoming damage.

Which Witch Build Is Right for You?
• Choose Necromancer Build: If you love controlling hordes of minions and prefer a safer, passive playstyle.
• Choose Fire Hellhound Build: If you want a tanky minion build with strong Fire and Ignite synergies.
• Choose Bloodmage Life Caster Build: For players who enjoy critical hit scaling and using Life as a resource.
• Choose Demon Form Caster Build: Perfect for those who love high-risk, high-reward gameplay and massive Fire damage.
• Choose Chaos DoT Build: Ideal for players who prefer damage-over-time mechanics and bypassing resistances.

The Witch class offers a wide variety of playstyles, ensuring there’s a build to match every player’s preferences. Whether you’re commanding an undead army or harnessing the power of Fire and Chaos, the Witch is a dynamic and rewarding class to master in Path of Exile 2.

Conclusion

The Witch class in Path of Exile 2 is a versatile and powerful choice, offering playstyles that cater to both summoners and spellcasters. With access to the Bloodmage and Infernalist Ascendancies, the Witch can adapt to various builds, from commanding an army of undead to unleashing devastating elemental and Chaos-based spells.

Whether you’re a fan of summoning minions to fight by your side, transforming into a demon for unparalleled spell damage, or mastering the art of high-risk, high-reward glass cannon builds, the Witch provides endless opportunities for creativity and progression. With the right skills, Ascendancy choices, and strategy, the Witch can dominate both the campaign and the endgame challenges of Wraeclast.

No matter your experience level, the Witch class is a fantastic option for players who want a dynamic and rewarding experience in Path of Exile 2. Embrace her power, master her Ascendancies, and carve your path to greatness.