Do you want to create a character in Path of Exile that specializes in spells and magic damage? If so, the Witch certainly is the class for you!
In today’s article, we are going to discuss what makes this class different from the others, and why you should think about choosing this over, say, the Marauder.
We are also going to provide you with our top recommendations to help you know which builds are worth your time and investment.
So, join us as we unravel the best Witch builds in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League!
Why Choose the Witch
The Witch is the go-to option when it comes to builds that deal spell or magic damage. This is mainly because this class has easy access to nodes that boost spell damage, energy shield, and curse effectiveness.
After completing the labyrinth, you can choose between three different ascendancy classes; each with its own specialty.
Elementalist
The Elementalist is the quintessential ascendancy class in Path of Exile that specializes in the elements. She has the power to bring the most out of spell skills that deal elemental damage. Let’s talk about why the Elementalist is great.
Normally, elemental ailments like Chill, Freeze, Shock, and Ignite can only be applied if you deal damage associated with a particular ailment. For example, you cannot inflict Ignite if you are dealing cold damage. The same goes for Shock if your build specializes in burning your enemies to a crisp with fire damage.
By allocating some specific notable ascendancy classes that are available to the Elementalist, however, that rule does not apply.
Shaper of Flames is one of the most useful ascendancy nodes in the game. This causes all hits against the enemy to inflict Ignite, which is an ailment associated with fire that deals damage over time.
The Shaper of Storms is amazing as well. This notable ascendancy passive skill grants you the ability to inflict the Shock status effect, which causes affected enemies to take at least 15% increased damage from all sources.
While not as popular as the first two, there is still value that can be gained from the Shaper of Winter. Not only can you Chill enemies regardless of the elemental damage type of your spell, but the said ascendancy node also reduces the action speed of those you have chilled by up to 40%.
If you want to go on the offensive, you have Mastermind of Discord and Heart of Destruction to aid you. The former enhances the elemental Exposure you inflict upon the enemy, causing them to have their elemental resistance reduced considerably. The latter, on the other hand, grants you a damage buff that lasts for eight seconds. If you do not have Convergence, your spells are given a 60% increase in AoE.
Survivability is an integral part of any build in Path of Exile. Thankfully, the Elementalist is not all offense as it has access to a node that specifically bolsters your defense too. We are talking about Bastion of the Elements. When allocated, you are protected by a special barrier called the Primal Aegis, which can soak elemental damage before your life (or mana) is reduced.
Even though golems are not popular in the Necropolis League, the Elementalist is the preferred ascendancy class if you want to go all-in on being a golem specialist.
Elemancer improves the effect of the auras granted by your golems to you by 25%. A lightning golem, for example, enhances your attack and cast speed considerably when you take the Elemancer ascendancy node.
Liege of the Primordial alleviates the need to resummon your golems every time they die. That is because every four seconds, they will be summoned automatically without user intervention!
Choose the Elementalist if you are into builds that deal elemental damage.
Occultist
When it comes to boosting the effects of curse spells and amplifying the damage of cold and chaos skills, then the Occultist has got you covered.
Profane Bloom is a popular notable ascendancy passive skill that greatly improves your map-clearing potential even with budget gear. That is because it causes cursed enemies to explode on kill, dealing a quarter of their max HP as chaos damage to nearby monsters.
Speaking of cursed monsters, Unholy Authority lets you apply an additional curse (similar to “Whispers of Doom” on the passive tree). For the uninitiated, Path of Exile limits you to apply only one curse on the enemy. With Unholy Authority allocated, you essentially get a free Whispers of Doom, freeing up one skill point that you can use to get another passive of your choosing.
Withering Presence is a staple for many chaos damage-dealing builds in PoE that uses the Occultist as the ascendancy class. It provides a 15% “more” chaos damage multiplier, which in Path of Exile, means you are getting plenty of it (compared to “Increased” damage mods). This node automatically applies the Wither debuff as well, which causes affected monsters to take increased chaos damage so long as it is active.
Do you want to maximize cold damage? Then taking Frigid Wake is a must! This literally grants you 15% more cold damage. However, this serves as a defensive node too. Why? Because it makes you immune to Chill and Freeze, not to mention that monsters you have chilled deal reduced damage over time.
When it comes to the defensive side of things, the Occultist enhances energy shield to a much greater extent compared to the other Witch ascendancy classes thanks to Vile Bastion. For one, this node regenerates 40 energy shield per second right off the bat.
Moreover, Vile Bastion boosts energy shield regeneration by 2% (up to a maximum of 10%) so long as you are attacking enemies within several seconds. And oh, this gives you stun immunity as well!
If you are new to Path of Exile, there is a build archetype where you stack “charges” for maximum benefit. These are Power Charges, Frenzy Charges, and Endurance Charges.
The Occultist is a great choice for Power Charge-stacking builds, specifically, because of Forbidden Power. Typically, a single Power Charge only grants you an increased critical strike chance. But Forbidden Power takes it up a notch by enhancing the charge’s effects.
So, with each Power Charge, you are also getting a 6% increased area of effect and a 6% increased damage. Thanks to the said notable, you can reach upward of eight Power Charges with enough investment!
Necromancer
Do you want to command an army of the dead? If so, the Necromancer is the perfect ascendancy class for that! With nodes such as Mindless Aggression, Unnatural Strength, and Commander of Darkness, your minions are enough to scare any monster you see on the battlefield.
However, those are not the only things that make the Necromancer great. Aside from the fact that it can boost your minions’ in more ways than one, this ascendancy class has passive skills that affect you too.
Bone Barrier helps you last longer by providing you with physical damage reduction and life leech (via your minions’ attacks). Plaguebringer grants a few things, including more damage, increased area of effect, and reduced monster damage if you have consumed corpses recently.
Speaking of corpses, Corpse Pact and Essence of Glutton help you with both offense and defense, respectively. As you can tell, you do have to consume corpses for their bonuses to take effect.
Offering skills, namely Bone Offering, Spirit Offering, and Flesh Offering, typically only affect your minions. With Mistress of Sacrifice, these skills will affect you as well, albeit at a 50% reduced effect. Still, that is a fair compromise given that these Offering skills will come in handy depending on the situation you are in.
The Necromancer is an incredible ascendancy class if all you want is to destroy every monster in PoE with hordes of minions at your disposal!
Best Witch Builds
This is probably what you have been waiting for! In this section, we will reveal our picks for the best Witch Builds in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League.
Even though the builds are listed in descending order, you cannot go wrong with any of them. So, without further ado, let’s get started!
10. Detonate Dead Elementalist
+Easy to scale
+Can be used as a league starter
+See enemies explode in a fiery explosion
+Two viable versions in the endgame
-Build archetype might not be to everyone’s liking
-Requires corpses (via Desecrate or otherwise)
The Detonate Dead Elementalist is capable of making enemies explode using the corpses that are created by Desecrate. When you see a group of monsters, cast Desecrate, and then follow that up with Detonate Dead and that is pretty much your main rotation.
Detonate Dead itself deals damage twice – the initial explosion and the secondary explosion that occurs shortly after. The first one takes into account the maximum life of the corpse that you’ve used to detonate, while the second one is scaled by area damage and fire damage.
How the Elementalist factors into the equation is that enemies that are hit by the resulting explosions are Ignited thanks to Shaper of Flames, causing them to suffer from fire damage over time. With Ignite Proliferation as one of the support gems for Detonate Dead, the Ignited enemies will spread the condition to nearby monsters as well.
This build has two versions that vary depending on the level of survivability. There is the version that uses Viridi’s Veil and Incandescent Heart. This one utilizes the Chaos Inoculation keystone passive to heavily mitigate elemental damage with Incandescent Heart.
Viridi’s Veil, when paired with a Magic Ring on the right slot, makes you immune to hex curses like Enfeeble and Vulnerability. The Magic Ring can be any base, though it must have a “Curse Enemies with Flammability on Hit” suffix to maximize its value.
The other version is meant for those who favor offense rather than defense. This build uses a powerful combination of accessories, such as Polaric Devastation and Replica Emberwake. The former covers enemies in Ash, which causes enemies to take increased fire damage. The latter, on the other hand, makes Ignites deal damage significantly faster, thus making enemies die a quick and painful death.
The more offensive version utilizes a self-crafted Oscillating Sceptre with fire damage over time and damage over time multipliers. This weapon is used as the crafting base primarily for its Elemental Overload keystone passive as an implicit modifier.
Although this build might seem slow on the surface, when it is built right, the Detonate Dead Elementalist can serve as a good currency farmer and boss killer, with the right investment, of course.
9. Vaal Blade Vortex Occultist
+Easy mapping experience due to main skill gem
+Hits hard even with budget gear
+Good league starter
-Must convert all damage to cold
-Knowledge about damage conversion is a must
-Upgrades are expensive
If you just want to zoom around the map and see enemies die in the process, then the Vaal Blade Vortex Occultist is for you.
Blade Vortex (aka BV) is a spell skill gem in Path of Exile where you conjure ethereal blades that spin around you, dealing physical damage to enemies that are in close proximity. Specifically putting increased area of effect mods on your gear and on the passive tree will increase the coverage of this skill, enabling you to hit more enemies at once.
As the vortex of ethereal blades keeps spinning on you, more and more blades will be created, up to a maximum of 10. Each blade makes the skill deal 35% more damage, which is why it can decimate monsters even on budget gear.
This build promises a comfortable playstyle due to Unleash Support. Just cast Blade Vortex once and you just run around the map and see monsters die almost instantly.
While BV is fun and all, it does suffer from poor single-target damage, especially if you are not fully geared yet. Fortunately, Vaal Blade Vortex comes in handy in these situations. How is it different from the base skill, you ask?
Vaal Blade Vortex creates a vortex of ethereal blades that move to the target closest to it. The ethereal blades conjured by the Vaal skill work much the same way as the original BV, albeit they have a higher critical strike chance for more damage.
So, why is the Occultist the ascendancy class of choice for this build? Blade Vortex is a “physical” skill gem, but you can use some gear pieces coupled with the appropriate Cold Mastery to achieve 100% physical-to-cold damage conversion. And, do you remember what the Occultist specializes in? That’s right, it is cold damage!
The powerful tandem of Void Beacon and Frigid Wake ensures that monsters that you come across have no chance of escape. That is because Void Beacon reduces their cold resistance, while Frigid Wake provides a 15% “more cold damage” multiplier.
If you are going to run this at the start of the league, you can fully convert physical damage to cold damage simply by wearing the Hrimsorrow. Ultimately, you will transition to self-crafted cold damage conversion gloves.
At the beginning of a new league, a rare wand and spirit shield will suffice. Prioritize getting cold damage on the wand, as well as crit chance for spells and critical strike multiplier for good measure. The spirit shield can roll “+1 to Level of All Physical Spell Skill Gems,” which is helpful when boosting the damage of BV. Use Harvest Reforge Physical to help you obtain it quickly.
In the endgame, you are going to get a synthesized bow with the awesome implicit mod: “Enemies You Kill Have a 25% Chance to Explode, Dealing a Tenth of their Maximum Life as Physical Damage.” If you have enough PoE Currency, get the Citadel Bow as a crafting base for its inherently high physical damage.
A fast mapper capable of dispatching enemies with ease, the Blade Vortex Occultist is a viable league starter that can be upgraded to suit the endgame. Try it out and let us know of your experience!
8. Explosive Arrow Elementalist
+Able to stick multiple arrows to an enemy for massive fire damage
+Does not require any specific items, making it a good league starter
+Elementalist’s Shaper of Flames allows the skill to deal damage twice via Ignites
-Totem playstyle might not be to everyone’s liking
-Requires crafted items for the endgame
The Explosive Arrow Elementalist has been one of the most popular builds in Path of Exile for quite some time now and the reason is that it just works!
Let’s talk about the main skill gem first. Explosive Arrow is a bow attack skill that prompts you to fire arrows at a target. These arrows have an interesting property where they stick to surfaces (including enemies) and explode after a brief period.
Up to a maximum of 20 arrows can be stuck on an enemy before it explodes. You can also achieve a 45% increased skill effect duration if you want to buy more time. However, even with a high attack speed, you cannot reliably stick 20 arrows on monsters at a time, which is why you are going to use ballista totems.
Explosive Arrow, when linked to Ballista Totem Support, allows you to place totems on the ground that will fire the arrows for you. The reason why you do this is that totems just fire significantly faster than you. And, because you can drop multiple totems at a time, you can reliably and consistently stick 20 arrows to nearby monsters.
Now, Explosive Arrow only deals fire damage via the explosion, but did you know that you can take things a step further with the help of the Elementalist? That’s right! Thanks to Shaper of Flames, the resulting explosion actually applies Ignites on nearby enemies, causing them to take fire damage over time.
As a result, boosting the damage of this build can be achieved by putting as much fire damage, damage over time, and fire damage over time modifiers on your gear and passive tree.
The Explosive Arrow Elementalist has been a viable league starter in Path of Exile for so many expansions now due to the fact that it does not require any specific gear to work. However, this does not mean that you cannot use any.
Dyadian Dawn is a heavy belt that causes the Ignites you inflict to deal damage considerably faster. Polaric Devastation is an instant damage boost because each attack allows you to cover enemies in Ash. Just make sure that you put Polaric Devastation on the left ring slot.
Eye of Malice is an incredible item for what it gives. With this equipped, you have a chance to inflict Fire Exposure, which reduces the enemies’ resistance to fire damage. This is enhanced even further with the Elementalist’s “Mastermind of Discord” notable ascendancy passive skill.
If you are happy with the playstyle and would like to use this build well into the endgame, you are going to have to craft some items, particularly the bow and the quiver.
Other than that, the Explosive Arrow Elementalist is a build that you can rely on in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League!
7. Ice Nova of Frostbolts Occultist
+Fills the screen with damaging ice novas
+One of the most popular mappers in Patch 3.24
+Power Charge stacker made easy thanks to the Occultist
-Requires knowledge of CoC breakpoints
-Must use POB to ensure certain things
The Ice Nova of Frostbolts is one of the most popular Transfigured Gems in PoE right now due to its interaction with Frostbolt projectiles.
If you do not know, Frostbolt is cast first in this instance to unleash several projectiles. Immediately using the Ice Nova of Frostbolts after that will cause the ice nova to appear at the projectiles’ location instead of around the caster. Because of this interaction, you can clear maps quickly and efficiently.
The said Transfigured Gem has been used by many different ascendancy classes, most notably the Hierophant with the newly buffed Archmage Support. So, what makes the Occultist different?
Well, the Occultist version is a Power Charge stacker that heavily relies on Cast on Critical Strike Support to make things happen. That is the reason why Cyclone is also included as part of your main rotation.
Basically, Cyclone enables you to land critical strikes on the enemy quickly for Cast on Critical Strike Support to get activated. Then, Ice Nova of Frostbolts will be unleashed thanks to the said support gem.
Now, casting Frostbolt manually is quite cumbersome, especially if you have to spin with Cyclone as well. To address this, you will use Cospri’s Malice – a unique one-handed sword that triggers a socketed cold spell on a melee critical strike. Put the Frostbolt spell here along with Greater Multiple Projectiles Support and Frostbite to reduce the enemy’s resistance to cold damage.
To maximize the activation of Ice Nova of Frostbolts, you have to have knowledge of the CoC breakpoints. Without getting too technical, you have to achieve a 52% cooldown recovery rate so that the support gem will activate Ice Nova of Frostbolts more frequently. This can be done by inserting a level 6 Awakened Cast on Critical Strike Support and taking the “+3 to Level of Critical Support Gems” from the Critical Mastery.
Doing the things above only gives you 34%. The other 18% can be obtained from crafting a pair of Shaper- or Crusader-influenced boots. Spam the boots with Orb of Alteration and then use Regal Orb and Exalted Orbs to fill the rest of the mods.
The 52% increased cooldown recovery rate is only part of the equation; you have to make sure that you also have a 10.1 attack rate for Cyclone This is the tricky part because you have to raise your attack speed just high enough in order to get to 10.1 attacks per second. Plug your character in Path of Building (POB) to see this value as the information is not available in the game.
After all of that is sorted out, you will have a character that can destroy any monster that you will encounter while mapping. Make no mistake, this build can take on uber bosses without a problem as well!
If you like a build that is known for its incredible burst damage via critical strikes, the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Occultist is the one for you!
6. Poison Summon Raging Spirit Necromancer
+Viable league starter that transitions well into the endgame
+Minion build that has a unique playstyle
+Causes massive poison damage, especially when fully geared
-May have survivability issues early on
-Upgrades might be expensive depending on market prices
If you have played Path of Exile prior to the Necropolis League, you may have heard of the Poison Summon Raging Spirit Necromancer. The community calls it the “Poison SRS” build mainly because it is much easier to pronounce. However, this build is not a pushover because it can obliterate enemies foolish enough to get in your way.
For starters, Summon Raging Spirit is a minion spell that allows you to conjure flaming skulls when used. Even though these skulls are considered “minions” in the game, they do not have the physical property of your conventional minions. What we mean by this is that enemies cannot target the skulls directly, so any damage that comes from their attacks will be directed toward you or your other minions.
Wait a minute, isn’t this build called “Poison SRS?” Where does the “poison” come from in this regard? Well, that is taken care of by the gear that you are going to use.
During league start, you can scour the trade website for the Severed in Sleep – a unique one-handed sword that grants a level 25 Envy Skill. For the uninitiated, Envy is a buff that provides added chaos damage to attacks and spells, which can affect minions as well. Severed in Sleep also enables your minions to inflict Wither on hit, causing monsters to take increased chaos damage.
If you have the PoE Currency, you should purchase United in Dream. This is another one-handed sword that still grants a level 25 Envy skill. But, instead of your minions applying the Wither debuff on monsters, this sword enables them to inflict damaging poisons on hit.
To boost your SRS minion’s poison damage, you are going to insert the spell skill gem into The Covenant. This body armor makes it so that your Summon Raging Spirit is supported by a level 29 Added Chaos Damage. Take note that when you do put SRS in the body armor, each time you cast the spell, it will cost life equal to 100% of the base mana cost. For example, if SRS costs 97 mana, the spell would require you to spend 97 HP too.
As far as minion builds go, your main goal is to become quite tanky. This can be difficult in the early game where you do not have access to good equipment yet. However, it gets easier if you are able to get your hands on the Aegis Aurora or the Reckoning. Both are unique shields that have something to offer, so it is up to you which one you prefer. With the newly adjusted Bone Barrier node from the Necromancer’s ascendancy passive tree, you gain additional physical damage reduction for every minion that you have summoned.
So, how is this build played? Simply run around the map and cast SRS whenever you come across a pack of monsters. Keep an eye on the number of flaming skulls that you have and make sure that you keep their numbers at the maximum.
Aside from the flaming skulls, this build is capable of summoning other minions as well. Use Animate Guardian on a Belly of the Beast if you want more survivability or a Leer Cast if you prefer more damage.
For Raise Spectre, go to any of the new Tier 17 maps and cast Desecrate. Look for the Spectral Leader for that “20% Increased Action Speed” or the Wretched Defiler to help with map clear.
The Poison Summon Raging Spirit Necromancer is still popular to this day, even more so with the addition of the new spectres from Tier 17 maps, as well as other changes implemented in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League.
5. EK (Ethereal Knives) of the Massacre Elementalist
+Impressive AoE clear via Ignites
+League-start viable
+Can be upgraded to be a powerhouse
-Some upgrades require a huge investment
-Not as tanky as other builds
The EK Ignite Elementalist has been around the game for so many years now due to its amazing capacity to burn enemies to a crisp.
By utilizing multiple damage conversions, the EK Ignite Elementalist is capable of downing even the most fearsome T17 map monsters.
Where this build shines is that it can run with budget gear, which you can, of course, scale into the endgame by crafting certain equipment.
To understand why this build is awesome, we must first talk about the mechanics at play here. Ethereal Knives of the Massacre, which is a transfigured version of EK, is a spell skill gem in Path of Exile that prompts you to fire multiple knives in a circle. This is an even better version than the original due to the fact that you can hit multiple enemies, especially those that surround you.
Take note that this is a “physical” spell skill gem, so you have to convert its damage to elemental by doing a few things. First, you convert physical damage to cold damage by getting a Watcher’s Eye with the “40% of Physical Damage Converted to Cold Damage While Affected by Hatred and another 40% from Cold Mastery. The other 20% can be bench-crafted on the gloves.
Once you have converted all of the physical damage to cold, you then take advantage of the aptly named Cold to Fire Support to convert a huge chunk of your cold damage to fire damage.
This is where it gets interesting: you equip Gloomfang to provide you with up to 35% non-chaos damage asextra chaos damage. This extra damage, by the way, is added in every step of the conversion. So, just imagine the insane damage output of this build as long as you are able to convert all of your physical damage to cold and fire damage.
Now, the “Ignites” actually comes from the Elementalist’s Shaper of Flames. When used in conjunction with Shaper of Storms, your enemies will receive huge amounts of damage from all sources.
In terms of gear during league start scenarios, you can equip the Obliteration unique wand for that 40% extra chaos damage. The ability to make enemies explode on kill is a nice bonus and helps with your map-clearing speed immensely, even on a budget.
If you are ready to take this to the endgame, you are going to have to craft a bow with “+1 to Level of Socketed Gems” and “+2 to Level of Socketed Support Gems.” The upgrades can be expensive, so be sure to save enough PoE Currency before pulling the trigger.
You will also craft a good endgame quiver to accompany the bow. The Vile Arrow Quiver is an excellent quiver for this build, mainly because of its “15% of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage” implicit modifier. This bow does contain a couple of extra damage mods for good measure. If you are interested in making one, be sure to head to our crafting guide for more information.
Where this build falls short is on the defensive side of things. You could help bolster your defenses by using the Taste of Hate or even a Progenesis, but this build is not as tanky as the previous ones mentioned on this list.
Be that as it may, the Ethereal Knives of the Massacre Elementalist is still worth your time and investment. It can obliterate monsters with powerful Ignites thanks to multiple levels of conversion. Seriously, try this one out. You will never regret it!
4. BAMA Necromancer
+Skill gem summons clones that bombard enemies with a plethora of arrows
+Other minions join in on the fight as well
+Destroy everything with powerful chaos damage
-Build’s true potential is only noticeable when properly geared
-Might struggle to survive early on
The BAMA Necromancer (short for “Blink Arrow, Mirror Arrow” Necromancer), is a minion build that utilizes a bow attack skill gem that creates three clones when used. These clones will bombard your enemies with a plethora of projectiles via Rain of Arrows.
As to why there are two skill gems here, they are just a matter of preference. Use Blink Arrow if you want a speedy character that can zoom in and out of maps efficiently. Mirror Arrow is for those who want a more methodical and relaxed approach, where you take your time firing and summoning the clones that will attack monsters for you. No matter which skill gem you will use, their fundamentals are almost exactly the same regardless.
The three clones are not the only ones attacking, though, because you are going to need some help from spectres and other minions as well. We highly recommend that you enter any Tier 17 map and cast Desecrate as soon as you drop in. Doing so will summon corpses that are native to the area that you can raise as a spectre to fight for you. That said, there are three different corpses that you need to look for, namely Wretched Defiler, Flame Creator, and Necrotic Bones. These are awesome in terms of overall damage output and map-clearing ability, so if you spot any of them, cast Raise Spectre on them for sure!
Since your minions will do all of the heavy lifting, your goal here is to survive on the battlefield. To aid you in achieving that, you will utilize the combo of The Fourth Vow and Glorious Vanity Timeless Jewel (Xibaqua). Putting this specific Timeless Jewel on the passive tree turns the nearest keystone into “Divine Flesh,” which converts half of the elemental damage you receive from enemies to chaos damage. So how does The Fourth Vow factor into this? Well, Saintly Chainmail has a unique effect where armor also mitigates chaos damage taken.
The BAMA Necromancer has her minions deal chaos damage thanks to the “Unnatural Strength” ascendancy node. This grants minions with Unholy Strength, which converts all physical damage to chaos damage. The support gems used with Blink Arrow/Mirror Arrow are all about boosting chaos damage and damage over time.
In addition, by taking Mindless Aggression, Commander of Darkness, and Bone Barrier from the Necromancer’s ascendancy passive tree, all of your minions are capable of taking a beating as a result.
The BAMA Necromancer is a versatile build in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League that changes its playstyle slightly depending on the main attack skill that is used.
3. Hexblast Mines Occultist
+Mines output huge amounts of damage even with budget gear
+Gets high damage bonuses by stacking Frenzy and Power Charges
+Turning Hexblast into a Mine skill addresses the slow cast speed of the said spell
-Mine playstyle might not appeal to you
-Although this build is a viable league starter, it does require certain items to take things to the next level
Do you want to blast enemies to oblivion in Path of Exile? If so, then the Hexblast Mines Occultist is for you! You may have heard of a Saboteur version of this build, so how does it differ from this one? Strap yourself in, we are going to explain the differences in a bit.
Hexblast is a chaos spell that deals more damage if the monster you are hitting is affected by hex curses. By utilizing Frostbite/Flammability and Elemental Weakness, monsters that you hit with this spell are sure to die in the most miserable way possible.
But, you are probably perplexed by the use of hex curses that reduce elemental resistance on this build. The thing about Hexblast is that even though it is classified as a spell that deals chaos damage, it actually takes into consideration the enemy’s lowest resistance and uses that for damage calculation.
For example, if a monster has 12% fire resistance and 19% chaos resistance, the fire resistance will be taken into account rather than chaos resistance. What does this all mean? It means that each cast of Hexblast ensures maximum damage output.
While Hexblast is indeed a powerful spell on its own, it does have one problem that cannot be ignored; its very slow cast time. You might think that a 1-second cast time does not matter, but in a fast-paced game such as Path of Exile, it feels like an eternity!
Fortunately, there is a way to circumvent that downside and that is by turning the spell into a Mine skill with the help of High-Impact Mine Support. When linked to the said support gem, Hexblast will be unleashed just like any Mine skill in the game. Therefore, you just lay down your mines and detonate them, either manually or automatically (after a brief period).
To maximize this build’s potential, you will stack your Power Charges as high as you can. You can use the Void Battery, Malachai’s Loop, and Ralakesh’s Impatience to get you started. Frenzy Charges can be stacked along with Power Charges by wearing the Badge of the Brotherhood too! Together, you get insane amounts of damage and critical strike chance for Hexblast, making the skill even more devastating.
When you have earned enough PoE Currency, you can purchase the Sandstorm Visage to elevate this build to the next level. This helmet is best paired with a self-crafted Prophecy Wand due to its high base critical strike chance.
The Hexblast Mines Occultist is an interesting build that not only addresses the inherent slow cast time of the main spell, but also makes for a fun experience due to the zoomy playstyle of laying down mines and running around the map.
2. ‘Zoomancer’ Necromancer
+Fill the screen with minions, leaving your enemies without a chance of escape
+Fun build that lets you command a minion army
+Best “summoner” build relative to investment
-Having 70+ minions on screen can be problematic for low-specced systems
-Needs heavy investment to take down uber pinnacle bosses
Do you want to be a summoner who is able to command a legion of minions to destroy anything in your path? Then, the penultimate build on this list is surely one that you’ll want to try out!
The “Zoomancer” is a Necromancer build that summons hordes of minions to fight for you. This build allows you to summon pretty much any minion that is available in the game, primarily spectres, zombies, and golems.
An important part of this build is the Triad Grip – a pair of unique gloves that converts physical damage to elemental damage depending on the color of the gem sockets. For the Zoomancer, you want the gem slots to be green to achieve a full 100% physical-to-cold damage conversion.
In terms of the spectres you can use, get any of the ones mentioned in the BAMA Necromancer section, especially those found in the Tier 17 maps. Just reserve one slot for the Primal Crushclaw, which has an effect that increases the cold damage nearby monsters take from your minions’ attacks. The Primal Crushclaw can be found in the Sacred Grove, particularly in fields that grant Primal Crystallised Lifeforce as a reward.
The notable ascendancy passive skills you will take are almost the same as the BAMA Necromancer, except that you forgo Unnatural Strength in favor of Mistress of Sacrifice.
For your Animate Guardian, you can go for Gruthkul’s Pelt for a huge boost in HP or Doppelgänger Guise for significant physical and chaos damage mitigation.
Apart from the spectres and animate guardians, the build is surprisingly easy to play. You simply have to summon all of the minions on the battlefield. Keep a close eye on them and just resummon those that have died. It’s that easy!
The Zoomancer Necromancer is the ideal build to play if you want to live out that fantasy of being a legion commander, with minions that you can use at a moment’s notice.
1. Summon Holy Relic of Conviction Necromancer
+New Transfigured Gem purely for offense
+Keep yourself at a distance while your Holy Relic minions do the dirty work
+Can take down uber pinnacle bosses with the right gear
-Requires a couple of level 4 support gems that are quite expensive
-Must achieve certain breakpoints to maximize damage
The PoE community has spoken! The best Witch build in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League is none other than the Summon Holy Relic of Conviction Necromancer! This build deals insane amounts of chaos damage thanks to the notable ascendancy passive skills, as well as other key items and gems.
Summon Holy Relic of Conviction is a Transfigured Gem that was introduced in the previous league. How is this different from the base version, you ask? The transfigured version of Summon Holy Relic no longer heals you. Instead, the Holy Relics will cast a damaging nova spell directly at the monster's location every time you attack with another skill. This is the reason why you are also going to use the Lancing Steel of Spraying.
The Lancing Steel of Spraying only has one role on this build and that is to ensure that you hit anything that you can see on the screen. This Transfigured Gem is better than its base counterpart mainly because you are able to throw a lot more projectiles per cast.
It is important to note that the damaging nova cast by the Holy Relics deals physical damage. To convert that, you will take the Unnatural Strength node from the Necromancer.
When you raise the quality of Summon Holy Relic of Conviction, its cooldown recovery rate is increased by 1%. Why is this important? This is crucial to the success of the build because the cooldown recovery rate actually translates to how many times the Holy Relics cast their damaging nova.
If you have achieved a 52% increased cooldown recovery rate, which is quite doable by wearing the Ashes of the Stars with 30% quality of all skill gems, the Holy Relics will be able to execute five attacks in quick succession. Increase that to 82% cooldown recovery rate, and that said minions can initiate six attacks. The next breakpoint does not matter because you are better off investing in other modifiers, such as increased minion damage, life, and resistances.
The 82% CDR breakpoint is possible by socketing a level 4 Enhance Support (48%) coupled with a perfectly rolled Ashes of the Stars. If you do not have the budget for the said unique amulet, you can opt for Dialla’s Malefaction, with the armor having all green sockets. As you can already tell, this build does require some investment if you want to maximize its damage output. But we promise you, it will all be worth it!
Now, by default, Summon Holy Relic of Conviction calls two Holy Relic minions to fight for you. However, you can summon one more by equipping Geofri’s Crest. This is mandatory, particularly if you want to eliminate the uber pinnacle bosses too!
The Summon Holy Relic of Conviction Necromancer can do every content in the game thanks to its incredible damage output and map-clearing potential. It is no wonder why this build is the most popular in Patch 3.24.
Conclusion
The Witch is the class that you should choose if you want to live out the fantasy of being a caster or a summoner. The Elementalist is perfect for builds centered around elemental damage. The Occultist is the go-to option for chaos and cold damage builds. And then, you have the Necromancer, giving you the power to command a legion of minions to decimate the competition.
And there you have it! We hope that you have learned something from our list of the best Witch builds in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League! So, which of these builds are you going to try soon?
With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!
