Crit Witch Build

So, this is a build I made for the purpose of creating a character that could easily clear and farm without being expensive and being viable for a new player. To accomplish this I decided to go with a sort of glass cannon build with spell damage and crit, with the idea being the more damage you deal quickly, the faster they die, the less chance they get to hit you, the less resilience you need. So, one AoE spell has a significant increased base damage, then it also has a high chance to crit and a higher crit multiplier, meaning few spells doing massive damage. Also, as this is a farm build, the idea would be for you to not have to stop and wait for mana to regen, to which you have a significantly increased mana regeneration. Also, if you find you're taking too much damage, try moving. This is a fire and run kind of build so do keep that in mind. While this is a build new players can utilize, it does require you not to be retarded.

Pros:
Large Burst Damage
Mana Efficiency
Easy to kill most Mobs
68 Passive Skill Points
Tons of close Nodes to increase survivability or other aspects later on.

Cons:
Low Life
Low Defenses
Easy to die to most Mobs


Passive Skill Tree

+24 to Strength
+14 to Dexterity
+252 to Intelligence
+222 to maximum Mana
+78 to maximum Life
Evasion Rating: 53
+3 Maximum Endurance Charge
+3 Maximum Frenzy Charge
+3 Maximum Power Charge
4% Additional Elemental Resistance per Endurance Charge
4% Physical Damage Reduction per Endurance Charge
5% Attack Speed Increase per Frenzy Charge
5% Cast Speed Increase per Frenzy Charge
50% Critical Strike Chance Increase per Power Charge
110% increased Spell Damage
160% increased Mana Regeneration Rate
44% increased maximum Mana
115% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells
20% increased Elemental Damage with Spells
12% increased Radius of Area Skills
12% increased Area Damage
90% increased Critical Strike Multiplier
150% increased Critical Strike Chance
18% increased maximum Energy Shield
40% increased Critical Strike Multiplier for Spells
20% increased maximum Life
15% increased Elemental Damage
10% increased Attack Speed
15% increased Cast Speed
6% increased Movement Speed
1% of Life Regenerated per Second
+50.4% Energy Shield
+4.8% increased Melee Physical Damage
+28 Accuracy Rating
2.8% increased Evasion Rating


P.S. I'm a new player as well so perhaps I didn't catch some things in building this so please do critique this so I can improve it.

"

Cons:
Low Life
Low Defenses

I think you're understating the cons. You took no defensive nodes you didn't need to get to offensive nodes. You'll die from probably almost anything - and forget doing anything with this character if your connection

But yeah, this build will work great if you're on default...

...and sticking to permanent normal difficulty.

You're prioritizing the right stats in the most inefficient way.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMAAuMHYwelCPQOSA_EEZYWvxbzHNwelCQ8JjwmlSepLJwtHy1HL50xiDgbO3w9X0GWRKtJUUmyTLNQMFBCUlNVS1WuVytabVqmXfJfKmHiYqxjQ20ZbXtwUnDVc1N0VXYReQN8zn_GghCH24w2j6aRz5MnnaOdqqKjp1ysP7jKwFHAVMG0wfPWndte3Ffcx9-w44TkEeTs6-TxdvPq_Ks=

Firstly, Power Charges give you a hundred times more critical chance than a couple 15% crit nodes. In-fact, don't waste a single point on a node that only gives 15% crit - it's worthless garbage. You're getting 0.75% crit chance on a 5% base crit attack, you're not even getting +1% additional crit chance, which barely translates into 1% dps increase until you've gotten some +crit mult gear. +Cast speed or +increased spell damage are way, way, way better than 15% crit - 20% crit is barely worth a point and it's only worth getting at all if you plan to utilize on-crit effects, like power charge on crit.

Secondly, you need life to play this game. And you don't need to go all the way to the center of the tree to get enough mana. +6% life +8% mana nodes get you both and you're already dipping into that area, it makes no sense that you'd skip them in favor of reaching the useless notable nodes of the Scion - what's 1% life regeneration going to do to a sub 1k life pool?

Thirdly, spell damage increases are worthless when you're already blowing things to bits with high mult crits. Why are you going right past the nimbleness cluster anyway? That doesn't make sense - you're already over-extending getting that cast speed from the Scion start when you can get a bonus 3% on a cluster you already have access to. Never take 5% elemental damage over 3% cast speed - 3% cast speed is way, way more valuable.

Fourthly, pick an element. Take advantage of spell damage that you're fucking right next to! Nobody has three 6L and few have even a single 6L. You're going to be spamming one main damage spell - that's one single element.

Finally, pick up some resistances so you won't die instantly after being frozen or shocked by something. You can get rid of these nodes once you've farmed up "perfect gear".

The above build is still very squishy, but it's workable, gets better stats than what you had previously, and doesn't waste points on attributes (think about this - if it takes you 2 points of +10 int to get to doom cast... then you're paying 3 points to get 60% crit - or only 20% crit chance per point. Since you're not getting EB, there's no justification for so many more points invested in crit, when +3 power charge (get one in merciless) will give you plenty. Use Power Charge on Crit support and you will be critting everything left and right already.