New player, looking for pointers and tips for Witch Character

I'm still relatively new to PoE, i haven't played much of it, so there are a lot of things i'm probably doing wrong, or just don't know about.

I've come here today, in hopes of looking for some tips or pointers on what i should be doing to better my lvl 39 witch class.

At the moment, i'm trying to spec into every passive skill that grants more lightning damage and actively looking for more gems to either introduce more lightning based skills or support gems that increase damage.

Doing this though, i have realized i'm a huge glass cannon, i cannot take much damage once my shield depletes, this doesn't bother me much though.

I saw that PoE has this neat little feature where you can show people your gear/passive skill tree, so heres that
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Surreal_Mist/characters

If your curious why i went down a certain path or i haven't explained something that'd help, feel free to ask.

As Zphyr has said. You should invest to life in this phase.

Try to keep 300 life per act and building up your resistances.

You don´t really need to invest in many damage nodes with six link tabula.

Cruel preparation / Melding passives are close.

Try to fix your link though.

Summon phantasm is minion based skill that won´t boost your arc.
Put herald of thunder into other socket (besides body) and use spell echo + lightning penetration gems instead (control destruction is also a good choice).

We usually use arcane surge outside the main link but it´s fine using it that way now.

Flame dash (lvl 1 is enough) linked with faster casting will help you with movement.

Golem linked with minion elemental resistances can distract enemies and buff you a bit.

"

Zphyr wrote:

I would suggest investing, at the moment, more on your defenses (life and +75% elemental resistances) over acquiring more damage. Branch out and move onto the life nodes... or energy shield if you prefer, but ES is harder to work with.

Monsters will become increasingly more difficult, and if you're dead you can't deal damage.

Alright, i'll start working towards Life nodes. Another question though, Why is ES harder to work with? is there not many nodes that increase it, or is it just not worth while?

"

Rakiii wrote:

As Zphyr has said. You should invest to life in this phase.

Try to keep 300 life per act and building up your resistances.

You don´t really need to invest in many damage nodes with six link tabula.

Cruel preparation / Melding passives are close.

Try to fix your link though.

Summon phantasm is minion based skill that won´t boost your arc.
Put herald of thunder into other socket (besides body) and use spell echo + lightning penetration gems instead (control destruction is also a good choice).

We usually use arcane surge outside the main link but it´s fine using it that way now.

Flame dash (lvl 1 is enough) linked with faster casting will help you with movement.

Golem linked with minion elemental resistances can distract enemies and buff you a bit.

Alright, I've fixed my links, I've moved phantasm to a gem link with my raise zombie, and I've moved herald of thunder to my head piece, leaving just one slot open on my chest. After i get Cruel Prep and melding, is there any others i should work towards? I'm only on ACT 3, so enemies at the moment aren't too difficult atm, how fast do they increase in difficulty?

"

Surreal_Mist wrote:

"

Zphyr wrote:

I would suggest investing, at the moment, more on your defenses (life and +75% elemental resistances) over acquiring more damage. Branch out and move onto the life nodes... or energy shield if you prefer, but ES is harder to work with.

Monsters will become increasingly more difficult, and if you're dead you can't deal damage.

Alright, i'll start working towards Life nodes. Another question though, Why is ES harder to work with? is there not many nodes that increase it, or is it just not worth while?

ES doesn't have the same mechanics as life, regarding regeneration and flask availability.
ES can be incredibly powerful in the late game when you have invested alot into it, combined with the CI passive (Chaos Innoculation, which sets your maximum life to 1 and makes it so Chaos Damage doesn't bypass energy shield) or an item which has the same effect regarding Chaos Damage (since it bypasses energy shield per default and goes straight onto life), such as Shavronne's Wrappings or Solaris Lorica.

There's no flask you can pop to quickly gain back ES, as with life flasks, which makes you rely on massive regen (which requires alot of investment) or ES on hit (of which the only viable option in my opinion is a Watcher's Eye unique jewel which in turn costs quite a bit).

Life is easier to sustain and scale.

The best tip anyone new to PoE can get is; Don't fall into pure damage/unique stacking. Uniques fill a role, but stacking your character with them makes survivability very complicated. Same with pure damage stacking.

"

Surreal_Mist wrote:

Alright, i'll start working towards Life nodes. Another question though, Why is ES harder to work with? is there not many nodes that increase it, or is it just not worth while?

It´s a lot easier to deal with life than ES bcos:

1) There are no ES flasks for refilling ES

2) You can´t recharge your ES while taking damage (again no life flask)

There are methods how to deal with the drawbacks but I can´t recommend ES for new player.

On the other hand you can reach more "hit points" with ES and be immune to chaos damage and/or get some interesting buffs related to ES but again you can´t reach good numbers without really good gear.

"

afvskrap wrote:

ES can be incredibly powerful in the late game when you have invested alot into it, combined with the CI passive (Chaos Innoculation, which sets your maximum life to 1 and makes it so Chaos Damage doesn't bypass energy shield) or an item which has the same effect regarding Chaos Damage (since it bypasses energy shield per default and goes straight onto life), such as Shavronne's Wrappings or Solaris Lorica.

Just want to correct your statement to not confuse new players.
There´s significant difference between CI keystone and specific items such as Solaris Lorica or SW.
CI keystone grants immunity to chaos damage, but sets maximum life to 1.

On the other hand Solaris Lorica or SW prevents chaos damage from bypassing the character's energy shield but you´re not immune to chaos damage therefore you need to deal with chaos resistance.

"

Zphyr wrote:

The next two acts should be a smooth ride, with the challenge being mostly act boss fights. Since you deal significant damage already, having a better life pool and capped resistances should be enough.

The first real peak in difficulty and where poorly made builds would find it difficult to progress is act 6. The main culprit imo is the -30% resistance penalty, which often catch new players by surprise. And from then on there will be a death penalty (-5% level XP), so if a character keeps dying they wouldn't be able to level up.

So for the remainder of this act, and the next 2 i should be focusing on building up my health pool, and also making sure to grab resistances along the way correct?

"

Just want to correct your statement to not confuse new players.
There´s significant difference between CI keystone and specific items such as Solaris Lorica or SW.
CI keystone grants immunity to chaos damage, but sets maximum life to 1.

On the other hand Solaris Lorica or SW prevents chaos damage from bypassing the character's energy shield but you´re not immune to chaos damage therefore you need to deal with chaos resistance.

I've grabbed flame dash from the vendor at ACT 1, i must say, it certainly is easier to use than lightning warp with its long cast time. Able to zip around now haha, two more questions though,

where is arcane surge usually used?
and if your able to, could you explain more about Spell echo and control destruction?