As a witch that hit a hard wall two times this is what saved my build: 1- poe2 HEAVILY rewards sinergies. I see you use poison attack with skely snipers. Then get a way to detonate that cloud. The damage is gigantic even after nerf. you can use raging spirits, a single arsonist etc. 2- not all minions are equal. Some are more early game minions some are late game. The scorpion looking skellies really dropped in effectiveness in lategame. Spirits+ zombies, upgraded arsonists/ snipers are more suitable and scale up better. 3- for survivability dont be afraid to spec in strength for armor gear/ even use a shield. Shields are AWESOME. Allso in early game before raging spirit transition i sacrificed a sniper for arctic armor. Made me untouchable. Experiment. 4- look for +minion skill gear and runspeed on boots. Thats al you need. Keep minions at max upgrade. Conclusion- pure witch builds struggle, its true. You need to hybridize. Its clearly suggested by the game as one of the ascendacy choices is fire themed (and once you get it the game becomes easy mode). Think outside the stereotype. A heavy armor witch with a ton of strenght ( witch gives you alot of life and stamina) and wielding a massive shield is unkillable) and very easy on your hands gameplay wise. Hope this helps.
I feel a lot of people are mentioning the eventual strength of minion builds disregarding the struggle at the start. I dont think anyone thinks it should be easy, but your minions being killed nearly upon respawn isnt very fun. A bit more survivability at the start, or no cooldown to recast would greatly help
After I switched to combination of skeleton archer + flamewall-raging spirits I have no issues with dmg or bosses even. Main idea is to put a flamewall-circle, and spam into it poison cloud(gas) which immedialtly blown up dealing massinve damage while archers are killing all. that is it ^^ I love it. I rly like Witch how it is in POE2, also thinking of another build possible, but that is in future (some chaos+physics manupulation) hehe for now I'm blowing up everything. :D By the way challenging bosses and mini-bosses are ovesome!! They fill more require to yuor skill rather then gear comparing to POE or other ARPG. I hope they can keep it as is for upcaming patchins and game improvements.
Getting enough spirit to add in skeleton arsonists makes this go even crazier because you can use the arsonist to detonate all of the raging spirits with fire damage, allowing it to also detonate the poison cloud. It gets so insane 😂 i love it.
I have been switching to Firewall and Raging Spirits and it has helped me a lot for clearing trash, also to have some damage during bosses. Still struggling a bit keeping minions up during bosses. Stuck in the A3 Viper fight where I can't get corpses. :D We're struggling up at least :D
@@TiiaPlaysStuff What do you need corpses for. Flame Wall/Raging Spirits ruin the enemies so fast the arsonists rarely die. And they revive on their own.
I believe Witch builds have changed since you posted this video. I too am a minion player and was a bit frustrated until I talked to a guildmate about how to build it. You need to go outside the Witch gems and pick up flame wall and raging spirits. For the last part of act 1 and into act 2 all I've needed to do is run around casting flame wall and let the raging spirits, 2 skelly warriors and 2 skelly arsonists do all the work. Once in a while for flavor I'll toss out a contagion but it really isn't necessary. I really struggled on my Ranger to beat the Mist King but this Witch build just cruised right through it.
Never played PoE1 (well beyond like 2 hours) but PoE2 has been right up my alley. Witch was my first class and although I've had some struggle moments, most of it was due to wasting crafting resources. I've since made 2 more characters who have beat Act 1 and my Witch is in Act 3. I don't think the necromancer spin on witch is bad, mine wipes mobs really fast. Contagion usually killing every mob on screen. The issue mine has is that if there's no corpses in a boss fight to turn into minions, then she gets targeted and dies in 1 or 2 hits. But otherwise is great. I think people just need time (and the new loot drop update) to get used to the game....and dont throw away skill gems like I did on my first run.
I usually main minions. Trying bombard Merc for first solo character and Ranger for co-op with my wife so can't speak for minion builds but my experience has been challenging but not unfair. Boss attack telegraphs need learning and can lead to a few deaths for sure. I can imagine minions get wiped fairly easily though with many bosses doing attacks that leave 80-90% of the arena covered in fire/ice/poison/etc. Wit the auto-revive + temp minions are GGG trying to move minions to be a little more transient maybe vs the near-unkillable armies that we could make in PoE1? I.e. bosses are expected to wipe them and the Summoner sort of then does on 'cooldown' for a time? Doesn't sound ideal if that's the case. Summoner was going to be my next character so I'm praying they get made viable!
Idk about necromancer getting the short end of the stick... In terms of power its probably underwhelming for now, but the design is perfect. Poe1 necro was the most boring thing ever. Tree was the same everytime and you didnt have much options to go into. Now even if the minions are underwhelming due to EA balancing, you can still use them with ed + contagion or ignite. So they can act as supports and you play as a spellcaster. There is so much to do now, you dont have to be a dedicated minion class. Thats probably the reason why they removed necromancer as a class, a witch should use minions to do her bidding regardless what her plan is. And its more fun and interesting. I started witch and died 60 times, reached lvl 15 then soft quit, but thats not because minions were bad per say, I wasnt familiar with the new environment. As a poe1 veteran I thought I can cruise through or dodge mecanics easily. Yesterday I restarted witch and im 0 deaths at the same level, minions are definitelly super op if used corectly. And the corect use is not to rely on them, thats probably the mistake devs did on poe1 with minions and maybe they tried to teach players now to use them as an avenue for something else. Right now I stick with the ed contagion and the minions are simply just blocking attacks for me or proliferating contagion. And another thing, I thought the third witch ascendancy will be ed contagion minion dedicated, because I saw our curent witch ascendancy artwork. So if this artwork is for regular witch, then we could probably get necromancer as the third ascendancy, where she goes all in on minions. Idk, we'll see.
Btw, multiple streamers have infernalists and they are bonkers. The ascendancy is overall A tier, you probably didnt advance much like they did. It genuinely looks insane. Ghazzy made srs, kripp is playing arsonists.
The only choice is to have both…. I mean if you want to progress. My issue is it’s a straight rip of d3 necromancer.. the cool down respawn time on minions sux.
Excellent balanced first impressions. That boss who shall remain unnamed...ooof that was ROUGH
As a witch that hit a hard wall two times this is what saved my build:
1- poe2 HEAVILY rewards sinergies. I see you use poison attack with skely snipers. Then get a way to detonate that cloud. The damage is gigantic even after nerf. you can use raging spirits, a single arsonist etc.
2- not all minions are equal. Some are more early game minions some are late game. The scorpion looking skellies really dropped in effectiveness in lategame. Spirits+ zombies, upgraded arsonists/ snipers are more suitable and scale up better.
3- for survivability dont be afraid to spec in strength for armor gear/ even use a shield. Shields are AWESOME. Allso in early game before raging spirit transition i sacrificed a sniper for arctic armor. Made me untouchable. Experiment.
4- look for +minion skill gear and runspeed on boots. Thats al you need. Keep minions at max upgrade.
Conclusion- pure witch builds struggle, its true. You need to hybridize. Its clearly suggested by the game as one of the ascendacy choices is fire themed (and once you get it the game becomes easy mode). Think outside the stereotype. A heavy armor witch with a ton of strenght ( witch gives you alot of life and stamina) and wielding a massive shield is unkillable) and very easy on your hands gameplay wise. Hope this helps.
Thank you so much. This was more helpful than most of the things I found online
Witch here, I had 0 problems. Craft for magic find and let the rares rain from the sky. 0 mf = 0 goods.
I feel a lot of people are mentioning the eventual strength of minion builds disregarding the struggle at the start. I dont think anyone thinks it should be easy, but your minions being killed nearly upon respawn isnt very fun. A bit more survivability at the start, or no cooldown to recast would greatly help
After I switched to combination of skeleton archer + flamewall-raging spirits I have no issues with dmg or bosses even. Main idea is to put a flamewall-circle, and spam into it poison cloud(gas) which immedialtly blown up dealing massinve damage while archers are killing all. that is it ^^ I love it. I rly like Witch how it is in POE2, also thinking of another build possible, but that is in future (some chaos+physics manupulation) hehe for now I'm blowing up everything. :D
By the way challenging bosses and mini-bosses are ovesome!! They fill more require to yuor skill rather then gear comparing to POE or other ARPG. I hope they can keep it as is for upcaming patchins and game improvements.
Getting enough spirit to add in skeleton arsonists makes this go even crazier because you can use the arsonist to detonate all of the raging spirits with fire damage, allowing it to also detonate the poison cloud. It gets so insane 😂 i love it.
I have been switching to Firewall and Raging Spirits and it has helped me a lot for clearing trash, also to have some damage during bosses. Still struggling a bit keeping minions up during bosses. Stuck in the A3 Viper fight where I can't get corpses. :D We're struggling up at least :D
Try replacing your archers with arsonists.
@@TiiaPlaysStuff What do you need corpses for. Flame Wall/Raging Spirits ruin the enemies so fast the arsonists rarely die. And they revive on their own.
@@michaeldmckenzie I was running empowered zombies, which did fine but no chance on boss fights.
I believe Witch builds have changed since you posted this video. I too am a minion player and was a bit frustrated until I talked to a guildmate about how to build it. You need to go outside the Witch gems and pick up flame wall and raging spirits. For the last part of act 1 and into act 2 all I've needed to do is run around casting flame wall and let the raging spirits, 2 skelly warriors and 2 skelly arsonists do all the work. Once in a while for flavor I'll toss out a contagion but it really isn't necessary. I really struggled on my Ranger to beat the Mist King but this Witch build just cruised right through it.
Raging spirits was fixed as far as I know. Using it now and it's okay to clear trash.
Never played PoE1 (well beyond like 2 hours) but PoE2 has been right up my alley. Witch was my first class and although I've had some struggle moments, most of it was due to wasting crafting resources. I've since made 2 more characters who have beat Act 1 and my Witch is in Act 3. I don't think the necromancer spin on witch is bad, mine wipes mobs really fast. Contagion usually killing every mob on screen. The issue mine has is that if there's no corpses in a boss fight to turn into minions, then she gets targeted and dies in 1 or 2 hits. But otherwise is great. I think people just need time (and the new loot drop update) to get used to the game....and dont throw away skill gems like I did on my first run.
I usually main minions. Trying bombard Merc for first solo character and Ranger for co-op with my wife so can't speak for minion builds but my experience has been challenging but not unfair. Boss attack telegraphs need learning and can lead to a few deaths for sure. I can imagine minions get wiped fairly easily though with many bosses doing attacks that leave 80-90% of the arena covered in fire/ice/poison/etc. Wit the auto-revive + temp minions are GGG trying to move minions to be a little more transient maybe vs the near-unkillable armies that we could make in PoE1? I.e. bosses are expected to wipe them and the Summoner sort of then does on 'cooldown' for a time? Doesn't sound ideal if that's the case.
Summoner was going to be my next character so I'm praying they get made viable!
i beat the boss in act 1 with my minions after the 30th try mostly minion skills and curses
Idk about necromancer getting the short end of the stick... In terms of power its probably underwhelming for now, but the design is perfect. Poe1 necro was the most boring thing ever. Tree was the same everytime and you didnt have much options to go into.
Now even if the minions are underwhelming due to EA balancing, you can still use them with ed + contagion or ignite. So they can act as supports and you play as a spellcaster. There is so much to do now, you dont have to be a dedicated minion class. Thats probably the reason why they removed necromancer as a class, a witch should use minions to do her bidding regardless what her plan is. And its more fun and interesting.
I started witch and died 60 times, reached lvl 15 then soft quit, but thats not because minions were bad per say, I wasnt familiar with the new environment. As a poe1 veteran I thought I can cruise through or dodge mecanics easily.
Yesterday I restarted witch and im 0 deaths at the same level, minions are definitelly super op if used corectly. And the corect use is not to rely on them, thats probably the mistake devs did on poe1 with minions and maybe they tried to teach players now to use them as an avenue for something else. Right now I stick with the ed contagion and the minions are simply just blocking attacks for me or proliferating contagion.
And another thing, I thought the third witch ascendancy will be ed contagion minion dedicated, because I saw our curent witch ascendancy artwork. So if this artwork is for regular witch, then we could probably get necromancer as the third ascendancy, where she goes all in on minions. Idk, we'll see.
Btw, multiple streamers have infernalists and they are bonkers. The ascendancy is overall A tier, you probably didnt advance much like they did. It genuinely looks insane. Ghazzy made srs, kripp is playing arsonists.
The only choice is to have both…. I mean if you want to progress. My issue is it’s a straight rip of d3 necromancer.. the cool down respawn time on minions sux.
Are you still talking? jesus christ
you're right its a first impression video she should be quiet lmao what are u thinking man
@@kelvin9221 you go listen to her prattle for ten mins and say nothing then, channel blocked
best part about opinions is that the rest of us can know youre wrong while you can think youre right. works both ways so dont bother hating