witch hunter sucks
" They only way to make a really good character is starting next to the ES area. Everything else sucks, get with the times. |
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to be fair; which hunter culling strike to this day is the most fun build I played and to put the cherry on top; most of it was my own creation, while ( being a casual) I really struggle to put anything else together... So my experience is the exact opposite.
I made it work by going for physical dmg only using armor breaking rounds (for that machine gun feeling), you need to push the culling threshold as much as possible too (unique helmet + unique jewel + nodes). At late endgame single traget damage becomes a problem and you have to invest in a somewhat decent xbow (950+ phys DPS). Or start looking for a decent grenade / second weapon setup. The tools are there also: armor + evasion worked just fine for me - witch hunters sorcery ward (asc point) looks terrible on paper but works decent enough in game. MOst things won't reach you anyway that's just my 2 cents Last edited by Molch#9062 on Dec 29, 2025, 3:31:33 AM
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the witch hunter ascendancy is just a very good example of several broken game mechanics. Many posts just immediately suggest not playing the class; this means there needs to be improvements to make it more viable.
Key takeaways on what the witch hunter ascendancy does for the player: 1) Nodes give far too little benefit or no benefit at all Examlpe: breaking concentration does not even work against many bosses to reduce their mechanic cooldowns. The bonus damage potential from losing concentration is inferior to other classes which just receive "X% more damage" with no mechanics/tricks required. 2) Nodes on the culling/decimating strike branch actually work backwards, weakening the benefits acquired. You gain bonus damage against low hp targets at 35% health but all that benefit potential is lost because they get culled at 30% health (and that's WITHOUT a boosted culling threshold, if boosted you literally get ZERO benefit for your ascendancy nodes). 3) weapon master branch has no direct benefit to offense/defense and just simply adds weapon set points. When you compare these two points to any other ascendancy its a joke. Conclusion: Your opinions don't matter if the numbers don't lie, look at the data; almost no one is playing witch hunter, especially in the end-game. It is embarrassing after multiple leagues that the developers have STILL not fixed this class. How long will we wait for? |
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I'm running brass dome on witch hunter to armour stack and I end up with something like 22k armour 35k to ele and 6.3k sorcery ward with 1.9k life and it's respectably tanky, I had no problem tanking pre-nerf monkey in t15s etc. DoTs are dangerous but after the shade walker nerf they're manageable. I had to make myself ignite immune because ignites seem to be broken but otherwise its a very solid defensive set up.
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I´m running a Witch Hunter full EV/no ES build and I done all content in the game including uber arbiter, all deli, abyss, breach content without issues. Running T15/T16 maps with abyss/deli/precursor tablets without any issues at all.
Have been very comfortable and enjoyable. So I guess if you are struggling with the Witch Hunter you are doing something wrong. Go check a build guide. I started with Woolies run and gun WH before switching over to another setup. His build guide got me to T15 maps on an Exalt budget. I have currently spent around 25 div on my gear to do all end game stuff. |
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Ca you link your poe ninja? I think witch hunter is absolutely viable for softcore but not quite convinced for hardcore.
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" weapon master is the only good thing in witch hunter, you can get biggest branch of shock effect on tree to get 80-90% of damage increase with mark effect and exposure effect for this ascendancy like i do, or get completely other setup for herald damage which you can't properly sustain without this ascendancy. Explosions are good too, but i need smg else when meta dictates herald of ice and it's x5 better than these explosions. But to be fair, weapon master is too annoying with attributes restrictions, too many waste of gold cause we still can't change attributes in mastery tree without removing them Pointed at same other problems too Last edited by Offfit#6199 on Dec 29, 2025, 9:21:34 AM
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Defensively, the Witch Hunter is pretty strong thanks to Sorcery Ward; tho you kinda have to use 4 points to it.
The problem is mostly basically zero real offensive scaling in practice. Many ascendancies combine their defensive additions to their offensive additions. E.g. Blood Mage's life additions synergize with increased crit per max life. Titan's armour bonuses synergize with damage scaling from armour (and Hulking Form is very strong overall, both defensively and offensively). And even if they don't straight up synergize, there usually is still a good offensive branch to take in addition to a defensive one; the Witch Hunter's offensive ones just are not good. |
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Indeed
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" wh has mid effective dps with culling/decimating strike actually, but the problem is that there is too low buffs and synergy to this, and no other option. This nodes are good for for some shit, and nulify too many effects to others with scalling of culling strike effect, like heralds- they don't work on magic or normal mobs most of a time on my wh with ~200% culling strike effect increase cause these mobs don't get bleed/freeze/shock. That sucks, and explosion asc node can't fully replace heralds clear. And on other side, this big cull effect has isn't good against rare and unique mobs. Conclusion: poor gamedesign, i'm dissapointed that ggg ruined poe1 for 5+ years with this creature Last edited by Offfit#6199 on Dec 29, 2025, 9:32:49 AM
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