Lvl 78 Witch Build Help

Hey guys,

I have a level 78 Witch that focuses on fire damage, using Magma Orb and Fire Storm as my main attacks. The AoE combined with my minion army has been effective for me so far, but I am starting to have issues progressing in the game.

The main issue with my build is survivability. I think the problem is that I have only about 1.5k life and 1.7k ES, from what I've been reading my HP and ES might need to be more like 5k combined.

Basically, I like summoning things and have gotten the extra Specter as well as all the Zombies that I could reach, which may be why I am so vulnerable. My items also don't have any HP+ or ES+, so that might be a key fix that I can quickly tend to.

I use 2 auras all the time (vitality and discipline), but am starting to wonder whether I should use one of the Herald abilities, and maybe combine that with a curse as I've seen some players do. I also was wondering whether Mind Over Matter would be something that could help, I have 450 MP left over after my auras so i do have some Mana to work with.

Here is a link to my build.
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMDAQZJCPQNfBBYES0RUBNsFScVUBZvFy8YXRzcHaofxyL0JLAo-ilPKpgreCycMtE1uTwFRAREq0VHRnFI5025Va5XlFfJV-Jb9GaeaPJqQ2qsa9tsC20ZdhF35XmhfEt8g30YgKSCEIKbgseDCYVgh2WIQIuZjHaMsY8aj0aPppAzlnSaO5uKm6GePJ_fpqynCKrErfGvm7QMtoa3MbiTuW--T7-XwFTAZsk9zLzT-9Wm2Qva3d-w4Yjjauq66-7siu0g7TzvfPIe99f56PqA-tL-SQ==

Not saying you shouldn't go self casting fire spells and have minions, but it spreads you really thin.

Looking at your tree you have pretty much no defense investment to speak of. Contrary to what summoners had hoped for, you need to stack your own defenses at the same time as your minions. They won't help you against aoe attacks.

Going hybrid es life is easy enough if you want as a summoner. Terrifying_Beauty is my pure summoner if you want to take a look. The passives I take along with the gear I have keeps me at 3.8k life and 1kish es that goes closer to 2k with spirit offering up. Keep in mind those stats are still pretty garbage for a summoner and I will be doing a new summoner in essence league where 5k life and some es would be more appropriate effective health.

The problem is that with a summoner and saving yourself, you don't really have room to boost self casted spells too much.

The other thing is that I don't think conduit helps you in the slightest. Didn't see that at first.

Edit: It would also be nice to see your gear if you could link it or open your character tab on your profile. It is disabled by default.

Thanks for the tips Pleiades, I'll def put some of what you said to use, I like that area with all the health powerups around constitution, that'll make a big difference I'm sure.

On Conduit, I always play with a friend, we've been playing together from the start. Past Conduit, the ability to get those charges based on killing something is pretty nice I figure. I may not go with those 4 points there when I rebuild, not sure yet.

"

nickanderson08 wrote:

Thanks for the tips Pleiades, I'll def put some of what you said to use, I like that area with all the health powerups around constitution, that'll make a big difference I'm sure.

On Conduit, I always play with a friend, we've been playing together from the start. Past Conduit, the ability to get those charges based on killing something is pretty nice I figure. I may not go with those 4 points there when I rebuild, not sure yet.

The thing is, unless you are consistantly and continuously keeping your charge generation up, it is kind of worthless if your friend is able to keep their own charges up for their use.

Say for instance, are they using resolute technique? Then power charges are worthless to them. Has a high mana cost build? Increased attack and cast speed from frenzy could be annoying.

Fact of the matter is unless you have your build specced out for a ton of extra charges of all types, your friend can probably do without it. Most builds have their own self regulated charge generation nowadays. Conduit is a bit of a forgotten node area unless you are aiming to go full support in some capacity being an aurabot, cursebot whatever with charges as well.

Not to be discouraging but PoE is a game that punishes the shit out of trying to be a jack of all trades. Pick like 1-2 things you want the build to do, both of you and focus on that.

If you let me know your friend's build I would be more than happy to let you know how to handle charges better. But with the information I have at hand, I have to work under the assumption that conduit is not worth the points since you yourself are partial summoner at the moment and conduit does nothing for summons. Ideally, all those charges should help you but help your friend much more but I am willing to bet if we set up your friend's charge generation to be easily self sustained, you can change out any charge generation you have that isn't necessary for defense or offense in another form.

My Elementalist is also 78 lvl and I have problems with surviving. I invested my passive points in Elemental damage, mostly Ice. I think I have not good build, but still with all my armors I have 5 k ES and 1,7 k life. My damage is 997.9 per second. I use Ice and Lighting spells + 2 golems.

The thing I learned from my current experience of bad build I suppose is for Elementalisht, Necromancer and Occultist YOU MUST have ALL Elemental ressistances on Passive tree + Chaos Resistance to stay alive and see Atziri for example. Defence is a MUST if you don't invest Passive points in Life and spend it on Damage like me..

In next league I think to try Occultist even I don't have a single idea how, but I will give a try.

This is my experience and I also look for ideas about the Witch Build. Here is my current build: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMCAAj0DkgQWBEPES0RUBSwF1QXpBhdGyUc3CKBIvQo-ilPLJwy0TW5Olg8BTzvRKtFR0bXSVFLrkwtTItQQlM1U9RVrlXGVkhWSlcpXGtmVGjyakNsC20ZcYVyD3yDfseBr4IQgh6Cm4RIhXuIQow2jHaNgo48jxqPRo-mj_qQ-pMnlG-aO5uhna6ePJ6hnwGf36IupwinK6yYrfGvm7EFuJO40MBUwGbBxcNt0NDR5NQH1abYJNlb2jra3dyN323fit-w5YvpAuvu7BjsOO0873zw1ffX-ds=?accountName=Strandedmoon&characterName=Iced_Moon

I think it will have some modifications, but for now is this.

"

Strandedmoon wrote:

My Elementalist is also 78 lvl and I have problems with surviving. I invested my passive points in Elemental damage, mostly Ice. I think I have not good build, but still with all my armors I have 5 k ES and 1,7 k life. My damage is 997.9 per second. I use Ice and Lighting spells + 2 golems.

The thing I learned from my current experience of bad build I suppose is for Elementalisht, Necromancer and Occultist YOU MUST have ALL Elemental ressistances on Passive tree + Chaos Resistance to stay alive and see Atziri for example. Defence is a MUST if you don't invest Passive points in Life and spend it on Damage like me..

In next league I think to try Occultist even I don't have a single idea how, but I will give a try.

This is my experience and I also look for ideas about the Witch Build. Here is my current build: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAMCAAj0DkgQWBEPES0RUBSwF1QXpBhdGyUc3CKBIvQo-ilPLJwy0TW5Olg8BTzvRKtFR0bXSVFLrkwtTItQQlM1U9RVrlXGVkhWSlcpXGtmVGjyakNsC20ZcYVyD3yDfseBr4IQgh6Cm4RIhXuIQow2jHaNgo48jxqPRo-mj_qQ-pMnlG-aO5uhna6ePJ6hnwGf36IupwinK6yYrfGvm7EFuJO40MBUwGbBxcNt0NDR5NQH1abYJNlb2jra3dyN323fit-w5YvpAuvu7BjsOO0873zw1ffX-ds=?accountName=Strandedmoon&characterName=Iced_Moon

I think it will have some modifications, but for now is this.

You do not need to find yourself taking every elemental resist you can on the tree, what you do need is to makes sure you are capped for ele resists by end of merciless if not sooner. Chaos resist is secondary and usually ignorable until super late end game.

If you could link your gear I would have an idea of your gem setup and such because your dps is incredibly low for being so invested in damage. If you are hybriding life and es then you are currently doing it wrong. With es/life hybrid, stacking life comes first by a long shot. If your chaos resistance isn't capped then 1.5k life under 5 k es will get you nowhere in some maps.

I've been messing with a lot of different witch classes so if you give me some idea of what you want to do with occultist I can likely help.