Passive tree - general idea is to?

I need some general pointers for how I should be building my skill tree. I'm looking to play either a witch or a scion, using spells.

I always end up building a "glass cannon," I just want to grab all the damage nodes! So before checking out more of this 2.0 patch, I'd like to get an idea of what I should be focusing on up to say level 50 (for me it's when things start getting rough). I'd like to focus on that now, and then think what I can do after 50, because I need to survive until then without getting low on HP in a few hits and fearing of dying on Hardcore (the only mode I play), and I need to survive past that with what I have built.

Also account that I don't use the market, I have no patience for it nor do I enjoy farming to be able to afford stuff. I think it's utterly boring. I do have a lot of items though, but none of them are great, just okay-ish, and those are the ones I'll use unless I find something better.

Feel free to ask anything that might help you help me...

Edit 1: I want to use only ES gear, but not sure if that's possible.
Edit 2: I also enjoy critical strikes, but I think it's too reliant on chance for me to go full with that. I usually add a few points on high-crit passives for the occasional "this was awesome!" feeling.
Edit 3: I love fast spell casting.
Edit 4: I do enjoy using auras (or rather thunder herald), it's fun.

Go to witch section and check some guides.

Most spellcasters have very similar general skilltree layouts, just a bit of yariety in elemental type and "crit yes/no?".

A balanced build spends the points like this:
1/3 life nodes (or ES)
1/3 damage (cast speed, spell damage, etc)
1/3 "travelling cost" + random nice stuff (charges, armor, keystones etc)

At level 50, you have around 60 skillpoints.
So find yourself a tree with 20 offensive and 20 defensive points spent, and you'll probably do fine.

Maybe something like this:
Click me

At low levels (below 70-80), I'd say ES and Crit are not worth it. You need high tier gear for this, and a lot of skillpoints.

"

Peterlerock wrote:

Go to witch section and check some guides.

Most spellcasters have very similar general skilltree layouts, just a bit of yariety in elemental type and "crit yes/no?".

A balanced build spends the points like this:
1/3 life nodes (or ES)
1/3 damage (cast speed, spell damage, etc)
1/3 "travelling cost" + random nice stuff (charges, armor, keystones etc)

At level 50, you have around 60 skillpoints.
So find yourself a tree with 20 offensive and 20 defensive points spent, and you'll probably do fine.

Maybe something like this:
Click me

At low levels (below 70-80), I'd say ES and Crit are not worth it. You need high tier gear for this, and a lot of skillpoints.

Thank for the tips.

As for low levels not upping crit/ES, does that mean I should skip any at all crit points, and stuff everything on HP? Also, if so, doesn't that render ES armor useless for <70-80?

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I never ever use charges. I'd have to use my wand, which deals little damage, and I prefer for my enemies to be dead before I would even start attacking them if I was using that skill that gives you a charge.

---

My gear never has armor if I'm playing witch (I'm very methodical when it comes to armor), and I never use keystones. Could you give me some tips on that? I.e. if I should consider some keystones, and perhaps something about gear/armor for a which.

Answering this at breakfast in a rush just because I was bored reading forums so will answer only title.

General idea is to specialize and synergize. You can't make a char that does everything like an Armour Evasion Energy Shield tank that also excels at Spells and Attacks. Generally you will want to focus on one Skill Gem, which means choosing between Attack bonuses and Spell bonuses. You can specialize further with elements, weapons, etc

Also keep in mind that jewel sockets on the tree can often be worth 2 or 3 skill points with the right jewel in place and will allow for quite a bit of flexibility, esp. early on as they have no level req.

"

respwnd wrote:

Also keep in mind that jewel sockets on the tree can often be worth 2 or 3 skill points with the right jewel in place and will allow for quite a bit of flexibility, esp. early on as they have no level req.

I am still looking into jewels. I've found some that increase damage a bit, which indeed can be worth 2 passives. But getting to it usually consumes 2-3 passives anyway, so essentially it balances itself out, I think. I may be wrong about this, especially since my knowledge is limited by the few jewels I've found (5 maybe?).

--

I'm still very interested if someone could answer the questions posed in the previous post of mine.

It's hard to recommend specific keystones as general as we're being.

ES at low levels isn't bad necessarily, you'll also want hp anyway (unless you go CI) so you can snag both when convenient and pump your ES as you progress.

Charges can be generated in a variety of ways and are generally quite useful, though not required. Again, this will depend heavily on your build.

It's good that you've focused on a specific armor type, as has been said it's not practical to use all three. Don't feel like you have to use ES as a witch though. BM/HP/armor Flame Totem witch is a thing, for example.

Jewels are absolutely worth the points they cost, though perhaps less so if you're doing self found. One huge advantage is that you can add stats that you've run out of nodes for. This is big for summoners who have a very finite number of minion nodes available to them.

I know lots of people object to straight up copying a build from the forums which I tend to agree with - you should be experimenting and finding what works for you. Having said that, it's worth glancing at some just to get an idea of how people put trees together.

Edit: speaking of self found. I respect the mindset, buying and selling can be a hassle. However unless it's really important to you as a hard and fast rule: it can sometimes be immensely helpful to hop on poe.trade for a clutch item every now and then. It's amazing what even a couple of chaos can get and it can really help you weather those dry spells of good drops.

There are also lots of very handy uniques that are crazy cheap and allow you to do things you might not be able to otherwise. Note none of this is necessary to pass level 50. It will be helpful moving forward though.

edit2: good reading: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/510084

You need 120% increased life and 50 life on all your gear at bare minimum.

"

FrozenOne wrote:

As for low levels not upping crit/ES, does that mean I should skip any at all crit points, and stuff everything on HP? Also, if so, doesn't that render ES armor useless for <70-80?

It is hard to find good ES armor before you reach lvl 70 or so. By going ES earlier you are severely limiting your gear choices during leveling. That really nice armour chest you just found? Nope, better buy something with good ES.

I think the best strategy is to invest into life until you can afford and wear a nice chest piece with ES. You can start looking around level 62 but you probably want to wait until you can wear a Vaal Religia (68) to have a bigger pool from which to choose.

Also, it's really important that you always have a flask on you that removes ignite! As long as you are burning your ES won't regenerate which can lead to a rapid, unplanned deconstruction of the parts that keep your blood on the inside... ;)



Crit works similar. Crit only benefits you if you stack it - a lot. Until you can it's better to go with raw damage imo. Think about it this way: You stack 100% increased crit chance. Your base crit chance is maybe 5%. So that impressive sounding 100% brought you from 5% to 10%.

But you base crit damage multiplier is only 150%. You now have the 5% higher chance to deal 1.5 times your regular damage, which is like almost nothing. Suddenly that 12% increased damage node seems like a really good deal, right? At some point if you stack enough crit chance and multi the whole thing turns around. You also increase the chance to shock, freeze, ignite which can add a lot of "tooltip invisible" dps. Not to mention that chilling and freezing is a big deal. It's keeping you save!

On top of that you are dealing very inconsistent crit damage early on. You will often one-shot the white pack and just deal regular damage when you really want that spike for a blue pack or boss.

"

FrozenOne wrote:

I never ever use charges. I'd have to use my wand, which deals little damage, and I prefer for my enemies to be dead before I would even start attacking them if I was using that skill that gives you a charge.

I'm not an expert but I think this might be what you are looking for:
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Romira's_Banquet

"

smithist wrote:

It's hard to recommend specific keystones as general as we're being.

ES at low levels isn't bad necessarily, you'll also want hp anyway (unless you go CI) so you can snag both when convenient and pump your ES as you progress.

Charges can be generated in a variety of ways and are generally quite useful, though not required. Again, this will depend heavily on your build.

It's good that you've focused on a specific armor type, as has been said it's not practical to use all three. Don't feel like you have to use ES as a witch though. BM/HP/armor Flame Totem witch is a thing, for example.

Jewels are absolutely worth the points they cost, though perhaps less so if you're doing self found. One huge advantage is that you can add stats that you've run out of nodes for. This is big for summoners who have a very finite number of minion nodes available to them.

I know lots of people object to straight up copying a build from the forums which I tend to agree with - you should be experimenting and finding what works for you. Having said that, it's worth glancing at some just to get an idea of how people put trees together.

Edit: speaking of self found. I respect the mindset, buying and selling can be a hassle. However unless it's really important to you as a hard and fast rule: it can sometimes be immensely helpful to hop on poe.trade for a clutch item every now and then. It's amazing what even a couple of chaos can get and it can really help you weather those dry spells of good drops.

There are also lots of very handy uniques that are crazy cheap and allow you to do things you might not be able to otherwise. Note none of this is necessary to pass level 50. It will be helpful moving forward though.

edit2: good reading: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/510084

I will not do CI, seems too dangerous for a Hardcore character which doesn't farm at all nor trades.

I'm guessing that's with unique items? If so, it's still out for me, unless I get lucky enough to find an item without farming or trading, and so far I've never found such an item.

Totems aren't my thing. I like action. I like moving and not just holding the key down like with meteors, or waiting for something else to kill monsters like with totems. BM also seems a bit dangerous for Hardcore in my opinion (for a person who doesn't farm or trade particularly).

Do you think I should try upping strength a bit to mix armor and ES though? I think I may be just too attached to the idea of a character using one type of armor.

Oh yes, I've found a summoner jewel, it adds extra minions. That is indeed a great jewel. Are there such 'useful' jewels for DPS witch too? (10% cold dmg + some manage regen isn't a great jewel in my opinion, and that's the best I found so far I think)

Any tips for how to quickly browse through the items that I may need, and how to know if I'm not overpaying? I'm all for fair prices, and I'm not willing to spend more than 10-15min looking and trading, I absolutely loathe the activity.

Could you suggest some of those cheap uniques that I should look for?

I will read that article in a few, wanted to reply first.

"

PrinceOfPuddles wrote:

You need 120% increased life and 50 life on all your gear at bare minimum.

If I go solely for HP nodes, skipping anything else, I could have that by ~Lv50.

However I have never had all my gear with 50+hp bonus. Ever. At most I had the helmet and boots (or gloves) with 30-40HP and 50-60HP increase. As I said, I will never farm, so I can only go with the gear that I have or will find while playing normally (I clear every area).

"

Col_Jessep wrote:

"

FrozenOne wrote:

As for low levels not upping crit/ES, does that mean I should skip any at all crit points, and stuff everything on HP? Also, if so, doesn't that render ES armor useless for <70-80?

It is hard to find good ES armor before you reach lvl 70 or so. By going ES earlier you are severely limiting your gear choices during leveling. That really nice armour chest you just found? Nope, better buy something with good ES.

I think the best strategy is to invest into life until you can afford and wear a nice chest piece with ES. You can start looking around level 62 but you probably want to wait until you can wear a Vaal Religia (68) to have a bigger pool from which to choose.

Also, it's really important that you always have a flask on you that removes ignite! As long as you are burning your ES won't regenerate which can lead to a rapid, unplanned deconstruction of the parts that keep your blood on the inside... ;)



Crit works similar. Crit only benefits you if you stack it - a lot. Until you can it's better to go with raw damage imo. Think about it this way: You stack 100% increased crit chance. Your base crit chance is maybe 5%. So that impressive sounding 100% brought you from 5% to 10%.

But you base crit damage multiplier is only 150%. You now have the 5% higher chance to deal 1.5 times your regular damage, which is like almost nothing. Suddenly that 12% increased damage node seems like a really good deal, right? At some point if you stack enough crit chance and multi the whole thing turns around. You also increase the chance to shock, freeze, ignite which can add a lot of "tooltip invisible" dps. Not to mention that chilling and freezing is a big deal. It's keeping you save!

On top of that you are dealing very inconsistent crit damage early on. You will often one-shot the white pack and just deal regular damage when you really want that spike for a blue pack or boss.

"

FrozenOne wrote:

I never ever use charges. I'd have to use my wand, which deals little damage, and I prefer for my enemies to be dead before I would even start attacking them if I was using that skill that gives you a charge.

I'm not an expert but I think this might be what you are looking for:
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Romira's_Banquet

That makes a lot of sense, your post is extremely logical indeed. Here's something that I kept thinking while I was reading, or rather one of the questions: resetting your skills from str and/or dex later on then would cost a lot of orbs of regret, which as I understand are worth quite a bit (I may be wrong?). That said, is it really that good of an idea to go for that?

Also a side-question: should I use orbs of chance or alchemy to upgrade white armors for around lv40-50 or save them for later?

As for Romira's Banquet, I haven't found one yet.

Oh, also a note for inconsistent damage - I actually like that, it makes me feel good whenever I crit monsters. That's why I would always add a few points to crit chance - because it would occasionally give me that "awesome!" moment that would make me feel good. I'm not sure I'll do that again though, as it doesn't seem to make a big different anyway it seems. I just never played without a few points on crit chance (~200% increment total, I think), so I'm not sure how would have been w