[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Witch Builds

Updated:

31 Oct 2021

Looking for a new witch build to play for the new league? Well, you've come to the right place. Here are my current top 5 builds.

Hello, Exiles.

Pretty straightforward, the Witch is the primary class for spell casting in POE, and there is a good reason why.

Her ascendancies allow for you to take your pick between spell damage, elemental damage, minion casting, life, energy shield, curses, mana stacking, and much more. In current meta play, the top Witch builds offer a variety of options for players, so it’s very likely you will find a build that suits your individual playstyle needs.

Get ready for the best of minion tanking, elemental bursting, and mob slaying.

5. Cold Snap/Vortex Occultist

The Witch places icy vortex novas on the ground, chilling all who pass over them, slowly widdling away at their health as the cold begins to take over their being.

Cold Snap/Vortex Occultist is a very easy build to play in terms of how it’s damage works. As you can see in the image above, the build also accrues a significant pool of energy shield, but be very wary of physical damage, as you will have virtually no mitigation for physical hits.

Vortex is a damage over time nova (circle) ability that places at your feet upon casting, where it remains for the duration of the spell. Cold Snap will cast to your cursor, leaving an icy patch on the ground that chills all who pass over it, dealing cold damage over time. Simply pop your spells and watch enemies crumble as they attempt to pursue you, only to be met with an icy demise.

What’s Good About This Build:

The chill left on the ground not only damages enemies, but slows them, making it easy to get away while also ensuring they take damage for a longer time
High energy shield allows you to take most heavy hits without the fear of getting one shot
The Witch tree provides energy shield leech for cold damage, so you regenerate defense while dealing damage
The build typically uses curses, which offer extra offense and defense
You can stack Vortexes to cover a wider area of space, thus ensuring your target will be damaged, and then stack Cold Snap on top of that to deal a significant amount of damage over time to bosses

Vortex/Cold Snap Occultist gameplay and build guide.

4. Blade Vortex Elementalist

The Witch casts a blade that swirls around her body, damaging all who pass through it with a cacophony of elemental damage.

Blade Vortex Elementalist has been in the limelight since Incursion league two years ago when a number of streamers discovered its potential, and it has remained a community favorite. Blade Vortex is actually a dexterity based spell, which is abnormal for Witch builds, so you will need to take skill nodes from the nearby Shadow and Ranger tree to meet attribute requirements.

The spell deals primarily physical damage, which seems strange for an elementalist build, right? But that’s why the build relies on auras and support gems to give it the elemental twist. Simply cast the ability, run your auras, and watch the ethereal blade surrounding you tear through enemies in an explosion of the elements, all while quickly decimating mobs and running circles around bosses.

What’s Good About This Build:

Typically uses 3-4 heralds, so you draw elemental damage from all sources, so even if a mob resists cold, you will still deal fire and lightning
Very quick and effective clear, with good single-target to boot
Mobs getting too close isn’t an issue, since the effect surrounds your body and you will have high defense
Easy to scale damage, since the build scales with spell damage, physical damage, and each elemental damage type
Elementalist ascendancy makes you immune to reflect damage, so you can run all content

Blade Vortex Elementalist gameplay and build guide.

3. Ethereal Knives Elementalist

The Witch throws knives from her body in a cone or a circle, tearing holes through her enemies and leaving tendrils of lightning, burnt flesh, and frostbite in their wake.

Ethereal Knives is another spell-based skill, which draws on dexterity in addition to intelligence. The spell also technically deals physical damage, rather than elemental. In order to deal elemental damage, the build relies almost entirely on the use of aura based skill gems.

This does not mean you will deal less damage, however, as between your auras, the skill tree, and the Elementalist ascendancy, there is plenty of damage to go around. Ethereal Knives shoot out in a fixed cone from the caster and pierce through enemies to deal massive amounts of damage accompanied by a satisfying explosion effect.

What’s Good About This Build:

Great clear without sacrificing single-target damage for bosses
Very budget-friendly with good and cheap uniques available for gearing
Easy to scale damage since the skill uses physical, spell, and also all elemental damage modifiers (via heralds)
Well-rounded defense
High critical damage gives good burst, and will also freeze enemies, increasing survivability and preventing after-death effects such as detonate dead

Ethereal Knives Elementalist gameplay and build guide.

2. Radiating Carrion Golems

With an army of golems at her side, and assisted by the undead, the Witch commands her charges to destroy all who oppose her.

Radiating Carrion Golems takes the Necromancer ascendancy and has extremely high damage output potential, along with great survivability. Your main source of damage comes from the Summon Carrion Golem skill gem, which you will scale to summon multiple golems at a time. Auras are used to boost the survivability of the player, but more importantly the golems themselves, adding elemental resistances, psychical damage reduction, and a small amount of damage.

The unique part of Carrion Golems is that they deal bonus physical damage based on other minions summoned, so the more you summon the more damage they deal. Grab some zombies and/or specters to accompany your golems on their ventures and no enemy will stand a chance.

What’s Good About This Build:

The minions do all the work, so you get to sit back and try your best to survive
No reflect damage, all of that goes to your minions, making all content viable
Even if you do get hit, you have tons of resistances and mitigation via auras
Incredibly high DPS
Good budget options that still result in high damage and good survivability, but even better min-max options if you like the build and want to really make it sing

Radiating Carrion Golems gameplay and build guide: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2882940

1. Summoner

Calling into the depths of the underworld, the Witch raises her undead army to wreak havoc on the land of the living.

Summoner Necromancer has been among the most popular Witch builds for quite a long time now, and has had a long run of success. While below I provide the link to a video for Summon Spectre, there are many ways to play a Summoner, as mentioned in said video. You can choose from a variety of individual minions or any combination of them, and each build path will work for any minion chosen, with minor adjustments.

Regardless of what you choose as your minion(s) of choice, the build will prioritize minion damage, life, and defenses, as well as player defenses. The minions will do all the heavy lifting and the player’s only task is to stay alive; as a wielder of what is considered canonically as dark arts, once you raise your undead army, the rest will become history.

What’s Good About This Build:

The minions do all the work in terms of aggro and damage, you simply sit back and try not to get hit
If you do happen to get hit, your tree leans towards player survivability, so you will have good defenses and a high life or energy shield pool.
Very cost-efficient; the build is known for having one of the highest damage output to cost ratios
Will not take any reflect damage, absolutely none, all that goes to the minions, meaning all content is viable
I cannot stress enough how easy to play this build is