[3.14] The Invisible Witch | SRS MI Bomber



(Leveling, Lab #1-4 setups, Budget gear, Min/Max gear, Gems, ...)
PoB (3.14) Updated 04-16-2021

https://pastebin.com/ywtsKSVf

Gems

Wand #1:

Flame Dash (21/23) + Arcane Surge (5/0) | Dread Banner (20/0)

Make sure Dread Banner isn't linked to Flame Dash + Arcane Surge. Dread Banner is used for "Nearby Enemies have (15-21)% less Accuracy Rating", nothing else. Don't plant it, just turn it on.

Wand #2 (WIP):

Sigil of Power (21/23) | Cold Snap (21/23) | Vaal Grace

No links are needed. Cold Snap is a nice way to generate Frenzy charges. It's quite reliable for mapping and works on Minion kills too. Power of Sigil is additional reduction. It's situational though.

Helmet:

Summon Raging Spirit (21/23) + (Awakened) Unleash Support (21/0) + Predator (21/23) + Concentrated Effect (21/23)

Our main link. For pure mapping you can exchange Predator for Elemental Focus, but Predator is useful for encounters like Legion, Blight ... basically anywhere you need to target specific mobs. So I recommend this setup for everything.

Chest:

Raise Spectre (21/0) + Ice Bite Support (21/0) + Hypothermia Support (21/0) + Elemental Proliferation Support (21/23) + Added Cold Damage Support (21/23) + Chain Support (21/0)

Additional defensive layer, very strong for mapping. Unless you outrun projectiles from your Specters (you can with this build), they freeze everything around, even some bosses. Moreover, frozen enemies are shattered leaving no corpses.

Gloves:

Ball Lightning (1/0) + Hextouch (21/23) + Flammability (21/23) + Culling Strike (1/0)

Our main curse link. Ball Lightning has the best cast time of all similar skills, the projectile is slow enough, and it has nice default range. You will reliably curse whole packs with one cast. It also procs Elemental Equilibrium, just make sure you don't have a wand with added fire damage to spells. Culling Strike is optional.
Later you can exchange Hextouch for its awakened version (level 5!) and link two curses to Ball Lightning - Flammability and Elemental Weakness.

Boots:

Raise Zombie (21/0) + Feeding Frenzy (21/23) + Minion Life (21/23) | Summon Skitterbots (21/0)

Raise Zombie + Feeding Frenzy will give us 100% uptime on Feeding Frenzy. It buffs our Raging Spirits. Also we use Cluster Jewels with chance to taunt and knock back for zombies. It's a nice little defensive layer.
Remember we don't need Elemental Army support gem, because we have this debuff in our ascendancy and they don't stack.
Summon Skitterbots are debuffs that greatly enhance our DPS.

Ring:

Flesh and Stone (20/0)

We use Sand Stance!


Gear

After Act 10 / Before maps:

Wand #1: Any rare Wand with Minion Damage/Life or resists
Wand #2: Any rare Wand with Minion Damage/Life or resists
Helmet: Any rare Helmet with 4-link for Spectres
Body: Tabula Rasa or any Rare Chest with life and resists.
Boots: Any rare Boots with movement speed, life, and resists.
Gloves: Any rare Gloves with life and resists.
Amulet: Tavukai or Any rare Amulet with life and resists
Rings: Any rare Rings with life and resists.
Belt: Any rare Belt with life and resists.

Try to get evasion based gear, but if you don't have any good pieces then it's better to use gear that have more sockets and links.
If you don't have Tavukai then use Infernal Legion in a link with Raging Spirits.

Improvements during white and yellow maps in this order:

1) Any Tavukai. Extra points for negative chaos resistance (to make Raging Spirits pop faster).
2) Any Elder rare Helmet with both "Socketed gems are supported with Minion Life" and "Socketed gems are supported with Minion Damage".
3) Any rare Body armor with life and resists, or Kinstugi if it's cheap.
4) Atziri's Step boots.
5) Better rare Rings with T1/T2 life and resists
6) +1 Wands (+1 to All Fire skill gems are cheapest) with open prefix or suffix, so you can craft some minion damage or minion life.

Now you should be able to clear juicy red maps, Shaper, Elder, Sirus and all other content, albeit slower. Don't try Shaper with Maven yet.

Improvements during red maps in this order:

1) Tavukai with at least -15% to Chaos resistance, and the best Damage and Life rolls for Raging Spirits you can find. But don't spend too much currency on it.
2) Evasion based Elder Helmet with "+3 to Socketed Minion gems" and both "Socketed gems are supported with Minion Life" and "Socketed gems are supported with Minion Damage". It will cost few exalts, but it's worthy. Dump all your currency into this item and don't buy anything else until you can afford it.
3) Level 21 of Summon Raging Spirits gem. If there aren't any on the market, try to level one yourself. Quality is not that important, but it helps.
4) Stygian Wise with T1/T2 life roll and resists.
5) Better Cobalt Jewels and Ghastly Eye Jewels. They all should have +life rolls and minion life / damage rolls.

Spectres

Frost Sentinels

They can be found in The Lunaris Concourse in Act 8. They are ranged mobs and they fire 2 projectiles. Chain support (+2 chain) and two spectres can hit 12 targets with 1 cast.
Their main goal is to freeze everything on the screen. Try it, it works :)
For (tough) boss fights you can exchange them for something else, but you would have to exchange the support gems as well. I just don't bother.


Gear and Gem swap for party play and bosses



3.13 Ritual Gear showcase




What's going on?

In the last year I've been playing my Necromancer SRS Minion instability build: The Moaning Witch (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3009407) and it's been a lot of fun. While I was satisfied with the damage output I had trouble to balance defensive layers of the build, especially in speed running parties with other Rangers (insane MS bonuses), because the specters just didn't shoot fast enough. So I got hit from time to time and I didn't like it.

So, I'm changing the Necromancer class to Raider class.

Why it should work?

- With Necromancer class I have enough damage but I need to reach nodes with defensive bonuses (evasion, HP etc.).
- With Raider class I have enough defense but I need to reach nodes with offensive bonuses.

The fun fact is that it's easier to reach offensive bonuses with Raider than defensive bonuses with Necromancer. So acc. to PoB I should have more HP and more evasion / dodge on the same damage output with Raider than with Necromancer.

Will it handle 100% delirious maps?

No. Get a HH and go play something else.

3.13

31 challenges, and if I didn't stop playing (boring grind), 36 would be easily achievable.
Last edited by troomar on Apr 16, 2021, 4:23:26 PM
Last bumped on Mar 5, 2023, 5:13:29 AM
I really dig this - been playing MI past couple of leagues and really like it but felt a little clunky. Raider looks like a surprisingly good fit, may test this out.

What are you doing to level it? Just as CA box build or something then switch when you get MI?
My apologies, I just realized you've laid out each step of the leveling process and the skill progressions in your guide. Very nice, thank you for this - gonna give it a shot and will post if I find anything to add.
"
timbrewolf wrote:
I really dig this - been playing MI past couple of leagues and really like it but felt a little clunky. Raider looks like a surprisingly good fit, may test this out.

What are you doing to level it? Just as CA box build or something then switch when you get MI?


Leveling process was an unknown element, but I have some initial experience:
- level: 0-30 - This wasn't a problem, I just picked up some general gems (CA first, Toxic Rain later) and leveled up with a bow. Like any Raider.
- level: 30-40 - Here was the hardest part. Since I was beelining to Witch for Minion nodes, I couldn't pick up any damage nodes on the way there. And it really showed up. First ascendancy was a pain damage wise. I had ton of HP, but really low damage.
- level 40+ - Easy peasy lemon squesy. Once you switch setup to SRS, it's a breeze. Second labyrinth was a cake walk. Third labyrinth was a complete joke. Perma Onslaught + Phasing ... I just ran to the boss. SRS are great damage wise since they scale primarily with gem level.

What I would suggest is to do the first ascendancy a bit later than usually. Finish the quest in Library (Act 3) to get SRS + minion gems. Level them up and take few minion damage nodes. Go to the first labyrinth when you are content with your SRS damage. It will be probably early Act 4.

Anyway, early leveling is slow and I should have taken different gems. Gems that scale with gem levels primarily.
"
timbrewolf wrote:
My apologies, I just realized you've laid out each step of the leveling process and the skill progressions in your guide. Very nice, thank you for this - gonna give it a shot and will post if I find anything to add.


Gems progression in PoB wasn't updated and the gems inside fits Witch leveling process. I have some updates to gem links already I will post them later today.

EDIT: New PoB https://pastebin.com/rzu40wC0
- Gem links updated
- Minor issues (INT requirements and resists) not fixed yet
Last edited by troomar on Jan 17, 2021, 4:31:22 PM
what kind of spectre?
"
potato404 wrote:
what kind of spectre?


Please check the original build, it's explained there:
The Moaning Witch (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3009407)

For Raider the gems are a bit different and ofc PoB is, but the rest is the same (for now).
Raider is my favorite ascendency, SRS is my favorite skill.

You combined them! Thanks dude, will try this out on my next build.
Great stuff, started one as well but has met up with mana problems with 95% of mana reserved it's hardly able to spam SRS. Rarely puts out more than 10 of them at the same time, feels kind of clunky and defeats the purpose of having fast casting.

May need some non-channeling mana reduction cost on rings at endgame to make it smooth.
I also found that aiming for 20 srs is ridiculous, you have either cleared the screen, run out of mana or died by the time you cast them.

my solution is to run Mark of the red covenant, queens escape and red triad grip. The interaction is so good. You only need mana for 5 casts, they gain so much AOE clear, and the minion speed is excellent for defenses. It does not boast the power of the OP build, but is very fun to play.

https://pastebin.com/iNSJkYvW

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info