Is it viable in the Endgame?

Hello Community,

i want to try it again at the release of Patch 3.0 to come in the PoE Endgame. My last two trys found her ends in Merciless, because both Builds were really bad.

I think now it is time to call some help and knwo how from experienced Players.

Allright let´s start, i wanna try it as an Melee Witch Elementalist Life + ES Build with physical Damage Conversion to Lightning Damage (50%) and Cold Damage (40%).

Main Attack Gem Setup:



When i understand the mechanics correct, than i should look for an 2H Weapon with high physical DPS, because i has read in the Wiki at first comes the Damage Conversion, than the +% increase Mods, add to Mods, the Heralds, Auras and all other Damage Mods, right? Also this means i should take Elemental Damage, Lightning Damage, Cold Damage, Melee Damage, Area Damage, but NO PHYSICAL Damage Modifiers, because round about 90% of the Sweep Damage will be not physical. Right?

To get the 25% Lightning Ressistance Penetration from the Elementalists Ascendancy i need an Cold Skill, i want to use Cold Snap for this. Also i want to use Cold Snap as double Curse on Hit Skill and i want to give him an higher Chance to trigger Elemental Overload. I want to run in full ES Gear, it should makes it easy to get an 6 Link Chest with 6 Blue Sockets. Maybe i use 1 or 2 ES/Evasion Hybrid Items with pretty good Stats in Helmet/Gloves/Boots Slot.

Cold Snap Gem Setup:



To get the 25% Cold Ressistance Penetration from the Elementalists Ascendancy i need an Fire Skill, i want to use Molten Shell for this. The Gem it is tagged as Fire, i think it should work. Or not? And i need more Defence, i think Immortal Call it is an wise choice. I want to use an CwDt Level 1 Gem for these two Skills.

CwDt Gem Setup:



To push the Lightning and Cold Damage i want to use this Aura Setup. Hatred should be no option, because after the Damage Conversions my physical Damage should be to small, right?

Aura Gem Setup




At last i want to use two Golems, when the Main Attack deals two types of Elemental Damage than is the choice easy which Golems i should use to use the 40% increased Damage practical. Also should helps the Ice Golem to reduce my Accuracy Requirements and helps to crit to trigger Elemental Overload. Flicker Strike as Movement Skill and Fortify for more Defense.

Movement + Golem Gem Setup:




Level 80 Passive Tree:



I think on the 4 Jewels Strenght and increased Maximum Life are must have stats, because i has read for softcore life builds 150%+ increased maximum Life are recommended. Other nice stats on the Jewels are Chance to Freeze/Chance to Shock, increased Damage (Ele,Area,Melee,Cold,Lightning) and Attack Speed i think.

On the way to Level 90 i want to push the Damage and take another Socket.

Level 89 Passive Tree:



Finally i want to push the Damage again on the way to Level 100.

Level 100 Passive Tree:




You find any big mistakes? You think this build isn´t viable in Endgame? You have some improvement suggestions?

Let me know it!

Thanks for your answers and sorry for my awful english, i hope it is fairly understandably.

I am no expert on these things, but I am going to comment anyways :D

I think you will find your cold snap setup to be too clunky to be of any use (as you have to use it once every 10 seconds.)

When you stop to use cold snap, you will also stop leeching, and it seems your only defense is leech, so that is probably not good.

Your attack speed is going to be very slow, and your focus on dual elemental damage is going to hinder your damage output. The slow attack speed is also going to hinder your leech potential.

Also you say you are going to run in full ES gear, but you are not using Ghost Reaver for leech, so I'm assuming some sort of hybrid life/ES?

This probably means (as a melee) that your ES will be down most of the time, so you only have your life to survive on, and you only have 129%, so that's a no. There is a new belt (in 3.0, I think) that gives ES when leeching life, but you have no mention of it, so I'm assuming you have not planned for it either.

So no, I don't think you will survive with this build end game.

Btw, in conversion builds, both the physical damage and elemental damage are scaled, so physical weapon damage is good.

Damage conversion is done before any increases, or multipliers are applied to damage guaranteeing that they are only applied once. However, converted damage is affected by modifiers that apply to be both the original damage type it was converted from, and the new damage type that it was converted to so you can also scale physical damage.

I would stick to just one element, probably lightning damage and maybe this weapon
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Brain_Rattler or cold damage with passives and Hrimburn gloves but I guess there are more options (lightning can shock, cold can freeze/chill which is more defensive option, you can also get bonus from Frost Bomb etc. so its up to you)

You can also consider going for crit staff build using nice passives near the templar area such as Whirling barrier and build around block as an extra layer of defense.

You can´t recharge ES while taking damage (and you will as melee in close range) so I would try to build around Ghost reaver (even with nerf) and instant life flasks till they works:)

You can also consider life/mom build ...

I think your auras and curses are too offensive ... you need to survive a lot as melee char (especially as witch which is not supposed to be an extra melee master)

I would take hatred + blasphemy enfeeble + arctic armour/HoA or even more defensive combo such as grace aura (it might work with some evasion passives in the shadow area) + blasphemy enfeeble + arctic armour ...
or blasphemy enfeeble + tc + arctic/HoA ...
Second curse probably temp chain or elemental weakness (not element dependant)
(Curses are less effective vs bosses but with an extra effect from tree/items it´s still rly helpful)

As it's a build about phys conversion, have you thought of using essence of insanity and focus strictly on lightning damage?
It has the downside of a 4L setup, but the benefit is juicy.

Thanks for your answers and tips.


I think i will try it with the Hrimburn gloves and the physical to cold conversion from the tree. I found some Hrimburn gloves at poe.trade they are in my budget.

Gem Setup:



Now the Attack Speed it´s higher and should makes the Leech more actually. Concentrated Effect has certainly more DPS as Added Cold, but makes the Attack Area smaller. While Arctic Armour is working i can´t move and enemies with reach moving out of my attack reach. That´s why i think Concentrated Effect it´s an worse option. Multistrike has an long animation while i can´t use other skills, an another worse option i think.

With the Ice Bite Gems i want primarily freeze the enemies to proc the Herald and for more defense, because frozen enemies do nothing. The Cold Snap, Frost Bomb and Flicker Strike Damage should be too small to get many Frenzy Charges, but when sometimes these skills kill an frozen enemie and i get an Frenzy Charge i do not say no, however, is just not my primary thought. The Orb of Storms Setup isn´t clunky now and i can cast it now always automatically to get the 25% Cold Penetration from Ascendancy. Also i will not need an Enlighten Gem with these Aura Setup, because only 85% mana will be reserved. And the second curse now it´s one more defense push.

The passive tree has now Ghost Reaver, a little bit more Life Leech, higher increased Maximum Life.

Level 80 Passive Tree:



On the way to level 90 i want to pick up up another 10% chance to freeze, another 5% increased maximum Life, 20% increased crit chance and push the damage.

Level 89 Passive Tree:



Finally i want to push the damage again on the way to level 100.


Level 100 Passive Tree:




You found any other mistakes? You think this build isn´t viable in the endgame? You have any improvement suggestions? Or you think now it´s playable?

Thanks for your answers.

I don´t have much time now so in short ....
I still think you should take Sweep + multistrike + conc effect/area effect or melee damage + cold penetration + WED + leech as gem setup.
You can also consider taking Vitality void + maybe blasphemy warlords mark and drop life leech gem for damage one. It would probably be even better...

Those setups will give you much better results, higher damage = higher leech but it´s up to you.

I would take Retribution, Discipline and training and more passives in the templar/mara or duelist area. What weapon are you going to use?
Vaal pact doesn´t work with ghostreaver anymore ....

Btw to proc Mastermind of discord and cold penetration you need to use any fire skill.

First I would like to say over again thanks for your answer.

I´m not sure how many mana if i need to run 4 Auras, but I have integrated Warlords Mark sometimes as the fourth Aura.

I think with 18% reduced mana reserved from the tree and three Level 3 Enlighten Gems it should be works. Now i use an Fortify Gem in the 6 Link Sweep Setup, i think always take 20% reduced Damage from hits and 44% increased physical Damage at Gem Level 20 is not an bad idea,
since you have said I must be able to survive. Indeed, now I have nobody burst more for an movement skill. But I think this is no problem, then I just used a Qicksilver Flask. Maybe i get an ring with 1 socket in future and add an Ice Bite Gem to the Frost Bomb Setup and put the Golem in the ring.

Gem Setup:




I think i had not enough Points to reach the duellist Area. Also I would not like to specialise in a weapon kind to keep open all options to me. You may not forget I am poor in Currency.


Level 80 Passive Tree:



Around Level 75-80 it should be working and i can start maps to farm. Then i should be richer if i reach with Level 60-65 Act 4 Merciless and start to farm Currency. In 3.0 will be this maybe Act 9 or 10, i don´t know. Than i can look for Level 4 Enlighten Gems and remove the 4% reduced Mana reserved in the Witch Area and the 8% increased ES near the Witch startingpoint maybe earlier to put these points in Unnatural Calm for an much stronger ES.


On the way to Level 90 pick up two another sockets an push the damage.


Level 89 Passive Tree:



Finally use another regret and push the damage again.


Level 100 Passive Tree:




Now i have an fire skill in my setup, HoA procs after each kill. I have an lightning skill, I use him always automatically, now i should always proc Mastermind of Discord.

Also i have for defense, Warlord´s Mark + additional 0,4% Life Leech from passives, Enfeeble, Temporal Chains, Arctic Armour, Fortify, 161% increased Maximum Life, 164-186% increased Maximum ES and ~ 200 Dex, 80-90 Evasion from Gloves and 104% increased Evasion Rating should let me not take every hit.

Now I think it looks quite ready.

I see 4 curses in your setup: Frostbite - Temporal Chains - Enfeeble - Warlords mark.
To apply all curses you need 2* an extra +1 curse items.
You can´t proc orb of storm with CWDT setup as far as I know.
Btw you can save 1* enlighten gem if you stick 2 curses with blasphemy.
It seems better now anyway.

First of, I applaud your effort & determination to making a build for yourself!

Though, I must say I am a bit skeptical to making a melee elementalist.
None the less, you've already gotten most of the basic advice.

My question is, why Sweep?
It's a really old vanilla skill, that has not seen any love in years and has since long been surpassed by "newer" skills (In my opinion at least, tho I bet a lot of people will agree with my sentiment).

My advice, take a look at some other skills.

Earthquake http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Earthquake
Currently the best melee aoe skill. And pretty damn fun skill at that.
Slam once for damage in a medium sized area, then get an even larger & stronger secondary aftershock.
Reduced duration is a must when using this skill.

Ice Crash http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Ice_Crash
50% built in frost conversion, larger area than Sweep.
This skill should put you at a 90% conversion to cold, thus making all that Cold penetration your stacking even stronger.
Downside is an attack speed penalty. Also, multistrike would have to be replaced by faster attacks.

Sunder http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Sunder
Line based shockwave, that will "explode" at each target it hits.
Really solid skill, great for kiting and gives you a bit of range when needed.
Fun skill, very satisfying to use.

Maybe you are already dead set on using sweep. But I would urge you, give these skills a try, you don't need a build, just pick them up on any character you have and compare their core functionality to sweep.

Thanks for your answers.

I thought as an aura do not count blasphemy curses as curse. :(

I have looked over again, besides, has seen that he here (--->https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1885701) with Vaal Pact and Ghost Reaver plays. It is an successful HC build, i think he knows what he doing. I think both keystones should works together. I have seen this combination already in other builds.

Earthquake and Sunder are no options for me, because both skills deal damage only forwards, i hate to have to turn round to kill enemies behind me. I like this in Sweep to hit all enemies around me they are in reach. Another reason why I these skills may not is because i cannot use them with a sword what is my preferential weapon kind. I don´t like Maces and Staffs, but i know Vaal Axes late in the Endgame are one of the best options, if not even the best option.

Ice Crash is certainly worth a consideration, because with Ice Crash i could save these very bad Hrimburn Gloves.

The Flame Golem should be an Fire Skill, right? If I use him all 10 seconds, Mastermind of Discord should be activated.