Alright, let’s talk about messing around with the Witch in PoE 2. Been spending some time trying to figure out a build that actually works, you know? It’s been a bit of a ride.
So, first thing, I jumped into the character selection. Witch always felt kinda right for me, always liked slinging spells from the backline. Seemed like a good starting point, especially with all the new stuff they showed off.
Started off fresh, obviously. Grabbed the first couple of skill gems they threw at me. Think it was some basic fire spell and a cold dot thing. Early game was, well, early game. Just blasting whatever was in front of me, trying to get a feel for the movement and the new gem system.
Getting Through the First Few Acts
Leveling felt a bit different. Slower maybe? Had to actually pay attention to gear drops more than usual. Found myself constantly swapping out crappy wands and robes. Focused hard on getting sockets and links. Anything blue, I picked it up, hoping for the right colors.
The skill tree… man, that thing is huge now. Felt kinda lost at first. I just started grabbing nodes that seemed useful. Life nodes were my top priority. Learned that lesson the hard way back in the day. Can’t cast spells if you’re dead, right? Then I started picking up some basic spell damage and elemental damage nodes near the Witch starting area.
Tried sticking with that initial fire spell for a while, but it started feeling weak around Act 3 or 4. Enemies were getting beefier. Died a couple of times because I just couldn’t kill stuff fast enough. That’s when I knew I had to rethink things.
Switching Things Up
Went back to town, stared at my stash full of random gems I’d picked up. Saw I had a few minion gems lying around. Skeletons, zombies… thought, why not? Always kinda liked the idea of having an army fight for me.
So, I started respeccing. Used up a bunch of those regret points, pulling points out of spell damage and putting them into minion stuff. Grabbed nodes for minion life, minion damage, more skeletons, that kind of thing. It was a bit painful seeing those points disappear, but hey, gotta experiment.
- Slotting in the minion gems.
- Linking them with whatever support gems I had that made sense, like added damage or minion speed.
- Trying to find gear with minion stats, which was tough early on.
Suddenly, things felt way better. My little boneheads were actually doing work! I could hang back more, focus on dodging, and just resummon them when they died. Mana became less of an issue too, which was nice.
Refining the Minion Master Plan
Kept pushing through the acts with my newfound army. Started looking for specific gear. Needed more sockets on my chest and helmet for the main minion setups. Looked for +levels to minion gems, that seemed like a big deal.
Also started paying more attention to defenses. Layering became important. Grabbed some armor/energy shield hybrid gear. Tried to cap my resistances as much as possible through gear and passive nodes. Still felt a bit squishy sometimes, especially against big elemental hits, but much better than before.
Found a decent Convocation gem, which helped reposition my minions out of bad stuff or onto specific targets. That felt like a game changer for controlling the chaos.
Where I’m At Now
So yeah, ended up settling into this sort of Necromancer-ish playstyle, even before picking an Ascendancy (still figuring that part out, honestly). Focusing on Skeletons as the main damage dealers, supported by Zombies as meat shields and maybe some Spectres later if I find good ones.
It’s not perfect. Still tweaking the passive tree, trying to squeeze out more damage or survivability. Gear is still a work in progress, always looking for upgrades. But it feels solid. It feels like my build, something I put together through trial and error.
It’s been fun, figuring things out piece by piece. Lots of dying, lots of backtracking, but getting there. That’s the PoE experience, isn’t it?
