Path of Exile 2: Best Witch build, skills, and equipment

The Path of Exile 2 Witch build you've outlined is a fantastic choice for summoning and life-draining mechanics, especially with the Bloodmage Ascendancy and the focus on minion skills. Here's a breakdown of the key elements and strategies you can use to maximize your effectiveness with this build:

Key Skills

Skeletal Minions: These will be your primary source of damage, so make sure to max out their effectiveness with passives and equipment that boosts minion damage.

Unearth/Detonate Dead: Early on, Unearth can summon skeletons, while later on, Detonate Dead becomes your main source of clearing. You can stack corpses for massive AoE damage when you explode them.

Enfeeble: This skill is great for debuffing enemies, reducing their damage, and making them easier to deal with.

Hexblast: For alternate damage dealing and additional protection, Hexblast can handle AoE situations and provide utility when fighting tougher foes.

Key Persistent Spirit Buffs

Grim Harvest: This allows you to regenerate your Energy Shield by consuming corpses, which will be critical for your survivability, especially with the Bloodmage ascendancy.

Barrier Invocation: Activated with Grim Harvest, this will help you maintain your Energy Shield as you summon minions and deal damage. Having it up during large waves of enemies will prevent you from dying.

Key Passives

Power of the Dead: A must-have early in the tree to boost your minion damage and speed.

Living Death: Enhances your ability to raise corpses and makes them stronger. This helps with your Detonate Dead strategy.

Necromantic Talisman: This boosts minion life and minion damage, and synergizes well with any minion-focused gear you pick up.

Lord of Horrors: This passive reduces your reservation costs, allowing you to summon more minions overall without compromising too much on your other resources.

Ascendancy Choice: Bloodmage

The Bloodmage ascendancy might sound risky since it costs both life and mana to cast spells, but with Grim Harvest and Energy Shield scaling, you can offset the health costs and remain survivable. Additionally, the life remnants dropped by enemies will help you recover health during battle.

Best Equipment for the Witch Build

Weapons: Opt for scepters instead of wands or daggers as they offer minion buffs and enhance your spirit pool.

Armor: Focus on items that provide energy shields, life regeneration, and resistances. If you're using Grim Harvest, you'll want to stack Energy Shield for better survivability.

Accessories: Look for amulets or rings that grant minion damage, life leech, or spirit regeneration to keep your minions summoned without compromising your health.

Item Affixes: Look for affixes that boost minion damage or energy shields, as they are essential for maximizing the Witch's capabilities in both offense and defense.

Strategy

Early on, focus on summoning Skeletal Minions and using Unearth to build up a corpse army. Use Enfeeble on bosses or tougher enemies to reduce their damage.

Once you unlock Detonate Dead, start clearing groups of enemies quickly by detonating corpses. Always be mindful of your Energy Shield and use Grim Harvest to sustain yourself.

Hexblast can act as a safety net for more powerful single-target damage when needed, especially when dealing with bosses or high-health enemies.

Final Thoughts

This build gives you a perfect balance of summoning and life-draining abilities. With your army of minions distracting enemies and your ability to detonate them, you'll be a formidable force in endgame content. By ensuring you have a solid mix of minion damage and defensive layers (via Energy Shield and life recovery), you'll be able to clear tough bosses like the Arbiter of Ash without too much trouble.

If you have Path of Exile 2 currency and Path of Exile 2 items, you have the flexibility to pick up those crucial gear upgrades or trade for specific minion-enhancing gear. Are you focusing on farming for specific pieces of equipment, or do you have some high-tier gear already in mind to help you through these tougher encounters?