Staff and Energy Shield Witch

Hi everyone ^_^

After doing some thinking about the situation, i've decided that i hate wands. Also focuses, but mainly i think wands are silly.

im a lv18 witch just now, and my build is so far mostly focused on getting energy shield bonuses that are just north of the starting point.

I have an idea of how i want the character to end up, but i could do with some help planning out skill paths ^^. I don't expect to create the most overpowered witch ever, but i want to make one that i'm happy with, and hopefully can at least manage to survive a bit in the later game.

1. Staffs. I want a staff as my weapon. I know that wands give spelldamage bonuses and staffs aren't optimal, but i want one. Mainly i just want it for aesthetics, but minorly i also like the defensive benefits of the block chance. I try to stay back from enemies as much as possible, but this doesn't always work. I don't really expect to use it as a melee weapon, except in emergencies, like using the sweep skill to push stuff away (i found a gem for that)

I know staves are supposed to be for the templar class, and it would be most optimal to play him if i want one, but i don't want to play a male character, especially an old man :p i like being pretty ^^

2. Energy shields. I like this concept, i like robes and stuff. I've been focusing on energy shield so far and i'd like to continue doing so

3. Aoe magic. i like aoe. I'm not too specific about focusing on one element, infact so far i've deliberately avoided elemental specialisation. Though if i had to pick one, it'd be ice.



Can anyone give advice on important stuff i should head for?

The only advice that I can give you is that you hit the nail on the head within your op: you will be sacrificing effectiveness for aesthetic purposes. Staves are just not effective as a weapon for witches since you would be sacrificing spell damage, cast speed, and other valuable mods attainable with both a wand and a focus.

Maybe this will change with the addition of new items but for now I would recommend against it. Also, if you're thinking of aesthetics, the staves in the game aren't really "witch staves"; they look and act like bludgeoning weapons.

You'll be missing out on a bit of block chance (staves are worse than focuses at this, and slightly worse than dual-wielding) and increased spell damage (since wands and most focuses have this).

However, it's not a total loss - you can still get some spell damage on staves even if it isn't implicit, and Sweep is an area skill, so it'll benefit from those passives. And if you keep at it, staves are two-handed weapons, which means that (unlike wands), they can get more than three sockets, which in turn means more powerful (and more expensive) spells.

Here's an example build I came up with (42 points spent, you can get to here by the end of Ruthless the way things are currently set up). Slight cold emphasis, but versatile enough to work with any element; no accuracy whatsoever, so you'll probably want to avoid actually swinging with the staff much (unless you get that never-miss gem for sweep).

you could consider the hybrid 1h maces too. I would think that their passive increase to elemental damage would effect most spells.

i've just started on a CI melee physical staff witch.

Some of the highest total spell damage weps (119% fire dam) I've seen have been 1h maces (sceptre) and some of the highest ES numbers (500+) I've seen on AR/ES shields.

you could be armor wielding templar type dude. Still possible from the witch starting point.

Staves are by no means the only option for non-wand spellcaster. But if you DO want and a staff, try ot build it around the fact that sooner or later you'l have 2 items with 4 or 5 links to play with. What skills you want to boost the most?