The Witch is a class in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2) that focuses on Occult magic and ascend into a Lich, Infernalist, or Blood Mage. Check out more information on the Witch's ascendancies, class guide, builds, skills, playstyle, and whether you should pick the Lich, Infernalist, or Blood Mage for the Dawn of the Hunt update!

Witch Ascendancies

The Witch has three available Ascendancy classes for the Early Access. Below is a list of the confirmed ascendancy classes for Witch:

Lich

The Lich relies on mana to support herself and her teammates, using the ruinous powers of chaos to apply buffs, add effects to attacks, and gain utility.

Lich Ascendancy Overview and Skills

Infernalist

The Infernalist commands devastating powers of hell. She can summon a Loyal Hellhound that ignites enemies and absorbs a portion of the damage the Infernalist suffers. She can transform her mana into Infernal Flame, igniting her enemies, but the more spells she casts, the greater the risk of the flame overflowing, ultimately damaging her.

The Infernalist can also morph into Demon Form, amplifying her spell damage, casting speed, and mobility. However, this form comes at a cost as her life force drains away the longer she maintains it.

Infernalist Ascendancy and Skills

Blood Mage

The Blood Mage excels at sustaining herself by transforming her energy shield into additional maximum life and leeching life from enemies through her spell damage. Her mastery over blood magic allows her to amplify critical damage based on her maximum life.

In return for these potent abilities, the Blood Mage sacrifices a portion of her health and mana to cast her spells. However, she can recover from this cost as slain enemies drop Life Remnants, enabling her to regain lost health and stay in the fight.

Blood Mage Ascendancy and Skills

Which Ascendancy Should You Pick?

Play the Lich for New Experience

We highly recommend playing as the Lich for Patch 0.2.0 to experience it as the new Ascendancy for the Witch Class in the Dawn of the Hunt Update. The Lich makes for a perfect summoner class that relies on mana to make herself and minions stronger, all the while making Chaos damage scale farther into the game.

All Witch Ascendancies are Currently Strong

If you want to play the meta, choosing either three of the ascendancies is viable. Apart from the earlier evaluation of the Lich, the Infernalist is the overall better class to play in terms of playing around Minions and utilizing Meta gems. For overall damage, the Blood Mage is capable of dealing massive damage due to the recent Critical meta.

Witch Class Overview

Overview

The Witch
Attribute	Intelligence
Weapon	Wand

The Witch specializes in Occult magic and necromancy, allowing you to build an army, use bone spells, and spread debuffs to attack enemies from range or start a plague.

Witch Builds

Witch Leveling Build

Lich Necromancer

Lich Necromancer NEW
	Focus: Endgame, Minion, Chaos, AoE, Curse
Summary: Wreak havoc with your minions with the ruinous powers of chaos while casting debilitating curses from afar.

Leveling Builds

Witch Endgame Builds

※ Search for specific builds of an ascendancy by clicking the icons below the search bar. Select the latest patch for the latest builds, but click on the earlier versions if you want to see Legacy builds!

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Build	Patch
Lich Necromancer Focus: Endgame, Minion, Chaos, AoE, Curse	0.2
Cast on Ignite Comet Infernalist Focus: Endgame, AoE, Mobbing, Freeze, Ignite	0.2
Dark Effigy Lich Focus: Endgame, Chaos, AoE, Curse, Totem	0.2
Minion Infernalist Focus: Leveling, Endgame, Minions, Crowd Control, DoT	0.1
Bonestorm Blood Mage Focus: Leveling, Endgame, High Single Target Damage	0.1
Demon Form Infernalist Focus: Leveling, Endgame, Fast Clear, AoE	0.1
Detonate Dead Blood Mage Focus: Endgame, High Damage, Fast Clear, Minions	0.1

PoE 2 Best Leveling Witch Builds

Witch Skills

All Occult Skills

Unlike many classes, the Witch doesn't need specific weapons to cast her Occult spells, though equipping her with a Wand and Scepter is highly recommended. Below is a list of Occult Skills available:

Tier	Skills
1	Skeletal Warrior			Skeletal Sniper			Unearth			Contagion
3	Enfeeble			Skeletal Arsonist			Bone Cage			Essence Drain
5	Raise Zombie			Skeletal Frost Mage			Pain Offering			Bonestorm
7	Detonate Dead				Vulnerability				Profane Ritual
9	Skeletal Reaver				Despair				Dark Effigy
11	Skeletal Storm Mage				Bone Offering				Hexblast
11	Skeletal Brute				Skeletal Cleric				Soul Offering

List of All Gems

All Witch Persistent Skills

Witches have 7 Persistent skills, each of which granting passive buffs that are helpful to most builds.

Tier	Skills
4	Grim Feast						Withering Presence
8	Barrier Invocation				Cast on Minion Death				Blasphemy
14	Cast on Critical						Sacrifice

List of Spirit Gems

Recommended Skills

Skill	Effect
Pain Offering	Impales a Skeleton on bone spike to send nearby Minions into a frenzy as long as the spike remains. The bone spike itself is a minion. If it dies, effect ends immediately.
Skeletal Brute	Summons hard-hitting, Reviving Skeletal Brutes that can Stun Primed enemies.

Skeletal Brutes are tough, tanky minions that not only soak up damage but also stun enemies, giving the Witch some much-needed breathing room. Meanwhile, Pain Offering sends the Witch’s minions into a frenzy, drastically boosting their DPS.

How to Play Witch

Useful Tips for Witch
Makes Use of Minions Can Utlilize Enemy Corpses Has Access to Curses and Buffs Can Use Sorceress Skills

Makes Use of Minions

Focus on building your skeletal army early on, especially while leveling. These minions will not only absorb damage but can dish it out too, giving you some extra firepower and a solid buffer between you and the enemies.

Can Utlilize Enemy Corpses

Witches have a knack for turning corpses into powerful tools. Use Raise Zombie or Unearth to bring the dead back to fight for you, Detonate Dead to deal damage based on a corpse’s life, and Grim Feast to consume the remains and boost your Energy Shield.

Has Access to Curses and Buffs

Curses like Vulnerability, which reduce enemy armor, and buffs like Pain Offering, which send your minions into a frenzy, make battles faster and more efficient.

Can Use Sorceress Skills

Since both the Elemental and Occult spells rely on Intelligence, these skills complement each other perfectly, enhancing your playstyle, with some Sorceress spells fitting seamlessly into some endgame Witch builds. Flame Wall and Raging Spirits are fantastic early-game Sorceress spells to pick up.

Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2) Related Guides

List of Classes

List of New Classes

List of Early Access Classes

Class	Ascendancy Classes
Huntress	Amazon Ritualist
Mercenary	Tactician Witchhunter Gemling Legionnaire
Monk	Invoker Acolyte of Chayula
Ranger	Deadeye Pathfinder
Sorceress	Stormweaver Chronomancer
Warrior	Smith of Kitava Warbringer Titan
Witch	Lich Infernalist Blood Mage

List of Upcoming Classes