Sorceress is one of the two Intelligence starting classes in Path of Exile 2. The class focuses primarily on Elemental Damage, Elemental Ailments, Mana and Energy Shield, which makes it somewhat similar to the Elementalist from POE 1.
Here we’ll go over all Sorceress themed abilities we know so far. But just like in POE 1, you can of course use these skills on any class, not just Sorceress, this is just for marketing POE 2, to make all of these skills clearer and easier to understand for new players joining the series for the first time. Let’s get straight into it!
Fireball
Starting with Fireball, this skill looks very similar to the one in POE 1. But it functions differently, as it explodes on contact, forming a small fireball that shoots out in all directions. This is great for clearing out dense groups of monsters to speed up POE Currency farming efficiency.
It’s also worth mentioning that Fireball was one of the showcase abilities, and it appeared in ExileCon Showcase as an Implicit skill granted by the weapon. The developers stated that this version of the skill can be cast for free.
Spark
Next up we have Spark, which is also very similar to its counterpart from POE 1, firing projectiles that appear to move around randomly and bounce off the terrain. During ExileCon Showcase, the developers mentioned that this skill would be better suited for clearing monsters if equipped with Pierce Support.
Arc
Arc is another Lightning skill. The character fires some lightning at a target enemy, which then chains to other nearby enemies. This skill is better suited for single targets, as it deals more damage to the first target it hits.
Frostbolt
Frostbolt is also very similar to its counterpart from POE 1, with the major difference as the projectile follows Chilled Ground that forms below it as it moves, and when the projectile collides with the terrain it actually explodes, dealing AOE cold damage. This will make it a key skill for clearing a lot of enclosed space in some map layouts.
Ice Nova
Next up is Ice Nova, a spell that increases the cold damage radius around the caster while also knocking back enemies, depending on how close they are to you. Ice Nova can also be used on a moving Frostbolt Projectile, and doing so will increase the power of Ice Nova, making it easier to freeze enemies.
Cold Snap
Cold Snap is another cold skill that interacts with Frostbolt Projectile. The skill can target frozen enemies, causing them to shatter and explode, dealing AOE cold damage.
You’ll be able to use Cold Snap by targeting Frostbolt Projectiles, causing the skill to shatter all frozen enemies in the area around Frostbolt. Obviously, this means that the combination of Frostbolt, Ice Nova, and Cold Snap is great for clearing setups.
Comet
Then we have Comet, another cold-themed skill. This skill looks great. It has a long cast time, and it drops a giant Ice Ball at the target area, dealing a ton of cold damage. It’s worth noting that casting this skill actually moves the character back a bit, allowing for some repositioning counterattacks.
Barrier Invocation
Barrier Invocation is an interesting skill, one of the new Meta Skill Gems. It reserves Spirit to gain buffs, and the buffs will recharge the energy mechanic based on the amount of damage you deal to Energy Shield until the maximum energy threshold is reached. You can then use the skill again to consume the already accumulated energy to trigger socketed spells.
It’s important to note here that in POE 2, triggered abilities work differently. Because the casting time of the triggered ability will directly affect the trigger condition, Barrier Invocation will use more stored energy to trigger a spell with a longer casting time than a spell with a shorter casting time.
Cast On Shock
This is another new Meta Skill Gem. It also accumulates energy when you shock an enemy, similar to Barrier Invocation, and the maximum amount of energy you can have is based on the casting time of the triggered ability. So if the skill has a longer casting time, it will take longer to accumulate the energy required to trigger the skill.
Arctic Armour
Arctic Armour is another skill that reserves Spirit, and it will grant you an Ice Barrier that builds up over time while stationary, and wears off pretty quickly. Once you start moving, the buff will make you immune to Freeze, and it will cause you to take less Physical and Fire damage per phase, which is accumulated while standing still.
Importantly, from the looks of it, the less Physical and Fire damage Arctic Armour takes seems to work on other types of sustained damage as well. Not just hitting monsters, as long as Ice Barrier is up and active, they’ll take cold damage.
Flame Wall
Flame Wall seems to function exactly the same as it did in POE 1. It creates a wall of flames on the ground that deals sustained fire damage to enemies standing in it.
If any enemies enter the area after it’s activated, they’ll take additional fire damage over time from the secondary debuff. Not only that, but this can also apply some extra fire damage by firing projectiles at enemies.
Rolling Magma
One protection skill that can be used with Flame Wall is Rolling Magma, which forms a bouncing Fiery Orb that deals AOE damage with each bounce. This skill also refreshes the number of remaining bounces when it passes through a Flame Wall.
Solar Orb
Next up we have Solar Orb, which creates a large Fire Orb at a location that will periodically explode for fire damage. Any enemy close enough to Fire Orb will also take ongoing fire damage, but recasting Solar Orb will actively replace the current Orb.
Flameblast
Flameblast is another classic skill from POE 1 that is slightly different in POE 2. This channeling skill will release explosions around Castle in the initial stages, but will shift to a larger area and deal more damage at higher stages. What’s more, Flameblast can also target an active Solar Orb to expand the blast radius at that location.
Frost Bomb
Frost Bomb will pulse in an area for its duration and apply Cold Exposure to nearby enemies. After the duration expires, Frost Bomb will explode, dealing massive cold damage.
Mana Tempest
Mana Tempest is a spell that boosts your other abilities while you’re standing in its area. This ability consumes your mana while you stay in Storm to power up your spells.
Additionally, it adds chaining to Lightning Projectile and Beam spells so they can hit more enemies. However, be aware that Mana Tempest area disappears shortly after you leave it, just like in POE 1.
Orb Of Storms
Orb of Storms creates a stationary storm that periodically attacks nearby enemies, and this damage is then spread out to other enemies in the area. It’s worth noting that increasing your casting speed affects how often Orb of Storms triggers.
Lightning Warp
Lightning Warp looks pretty interesting, and it can be used to target an enemy and teleport to them. Once they’re in cold range, and teleport to an enemy that can deal cold damage, the enemy will explode in the area around them dealing lightning damage and creating Shocked Ground.
This skill also highlights enemies in your vicinity that are in a cold radius, which you can then use to teleport to multiple targets in sequence.
Lightning Conduit
Lightning Conduit can be used to attack a group of enemies in a cone in front of the caster. If the enemy is already shocked, this lightning damage will do more damage, but will also then remove the shock.
Frost Wall
Frost Wall forms a wall of ice that prevents enemies from reaching you. If you take enough damage or an enemy moves in its direction, and the wall is stressed enough, it will explode. When it explodes, it will deal heavy AOE damage to enemies around the broken area of the wall.
Firestorm
Firestorm is a duration-based fire spell that rains down fire at a target location that explodes on impact, dealing damage to enemies caught in the storm.
Energy Remnants
Energy Remnants is a Sorceress-themed skill. At this point, we know nothing about it, except for the name of the skill. However, the icon is the same as Arcane Cloak in POE 1, maybe with some color changes, so perhaps this skill will also achieve a very similar effect by consuming energy shields.
Raging Spirit
Finally, Raging Spirit. From what we know so far, this skill doesn’t actually appear on Sorceress skill list, so it’s likely a Sorceress-themed skill. But I feel like it might be somewhere in between, a minion skill.
In POE 2, Raging Spirit can also be triggered by using fire spells. Whenever you use a fire spell, it summons Raging Spirit Minions, and the number of summoned Spirits can be increased by either boosting AOE of the fire spell you’re using or hitting more targets with projectile-based fire spells.
Outro
That’s all we know so far about Sorceress-themed abilities in Path of Exile 2. Again, remember, these are just thematic abilities, and you can absolutely use any of these abilities in any class you like. The choice is yours. See you next time!
Hello fellow Exiles! Here we are going to discuss a forgotten unique item. We will take a look at how exactly it works and how its mechanics interact with other aspects of Path of Exile 3.24, especially some of the newer builds or Ascendancy reworks.
The item we are going to share today is Nametaker Unique Sword. This Unique One Hand Sword first appeared in POE 3.23 Affliction as an exclusive drop from monsters in Wildwood. Then, in POE 3.24 Necropolis, Nametaker was added to the core drop pool.
Since this POE item was added to the game very recently, you might not believe that it is forgotten by most players. But in fact, this sword is only used by a few characters in Necropolis.
Modifiers
Let’s take a look at the modifiers on Nametaker.
Increased Critical Strike Chance
First up is the 20% to 40% increased Critical Strike Chance, which is a local Increased Critical Strike Chance modifier. This is a pretty good number if you can make sure you have a good modifier role. This will increase the critical chance of the weapon to 7%.
It’s worth mentioning that you can also make full use of Harvest enchantment to convert weapon quality into a critical chance for this weapon. Since base quality won’t do much in terms of weapon damage increase, and this weapon relies heavily on external sources of flat damage.
Leech Modifiers
Next we have two Leech modifiers: 2% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Life and 2% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Mana.
These will give you a source of leech for Life and Mana, but unfortunately they are limited to the physical portion of any attack damage you deal, and physical attack leech for life and mana is one of the most common leech modifiers in the game.
Other than that, you’re unlikely to deal much physical damage with your attacks, as many sources of flat physical damage are a bit hard to come by, and generally harder to exploit. For example, a build using this item is more likely to deal flat elemental damage, in which case these Leech modifiers won’t be as useful.
Enemy Power
Now let’s move on to Nametaker’s unique modifiers. When hitting with this weapon, the critical multiplier increases by 10% for each additional Enemy Power.
The term Enemy Power refers to a mechanic that was unique to Warcry before this Nametaker came along. Enemy Power is a number, and it’s tied to the rarity of the monster. Normal or White monsters have 1 power. Magic or Blue monsters have 2 powers. Rare monsters have 10 powers, and Unique monsters have 20 powers.
If you plan on playing some PVP, the player character has 5 powers, so whenever this weapon comes into contact with a monster, this Power system will determine the stats granted by these modifiers.
Here’s a breakdown of the stats you get from these modifiers, depending on the rarity of the monster:
- When hitting Normal monsters, your critical multiplier will be increased by 10%, and 5% of your leech will provide instant recovery.
- When hitting Magic monsters, your critical multiplier will be increased by 20%, and 10% of your leech will provide instant recovery.
- When hitting Rare monsters, your critical multiplier will be increased by 100%, and 50% of your leech will provide instant recovery.
- When hitting Unique monsters, your critical multiplier will be increased by 200%, and 100% of your leech will provide instant recovery.
How Do Nametaker And Dual Strike Mechanics Differ?
Keep in mind that these bonuses only apply to hits made with Nametaker, which is an important distinction from mechanics like Dual Strike.
Dual Strike requires the character to dual wield and use both weapons for a single strike. When this happens, each weapon will roll Accuracy and Critical Strike Chance separately. They will also roll their own damage ranges, and only the expected damage from each weapon will be combined into the last hit, which is the one set of damage from a single hit.
However, Nametaker critical hit multiplier and instant leech can only affect the expected damage from the portion of the hit that comes from that weapon. It won’t apply to both weapons at once, but this means that Nametaker synergizes quite well with Dual Strike of Ambidexterity. Because this Transfigured version of Dual Strike emphasizes dealing most of the attack damage from the main hand.
How To Get More Flat Added Damage?
On top of that, Nametaker also provides a way to scale damage in the form of very large crit multipliers depending on the type of monster you’re fighting.
But what it lacks is base damage, which needs to be addressed by getting a source of flat added damage. For example, using Added Lightning Damage Support with Flat Added Damage Modifiers on Rings and Amulets, or even using Replica Alberon’s Warpath on a Strength Stacking setup to get a ton of Flat added Chaos Damage.
Why Was It Forgotten?
So why isn’t Nametaker used more often? One thing I haven’t mentioned so far is that Mastery on Passive Skill Tree breaks the ability to use Nametaker’s modifiers to take advantage of smaller portions of instant leech to ultimately do more damage.
If instant leech was harder to come by like it used to be in the game, then this modifier on Nametaker would make it a more worthy choice for builds that rely entirely on leech as their primary source of mana regeneration. But who knows when that change will come?
That’s all for today. What do you think of this Nametaker Unique Sword? Do you have a better way to unlock the full potential of this Unique One Hand Sword? See you next time!
In this guide we’ll talk about some of the big changes we’ve learned about Passive Skill Tree in Path of Exile 2. These changes are derived from Path of Exile 1, from the extinction of Life node to the introduction of the brand new Weapon Passive Skill feature, here we cover everything you need to know. Let’s get started!
Weapon Skill Tree Passive
So let’s jump right into the most interesting change on this list, Weapon Skill Tree Passive in POE 2 Weapon Swap will be incorporated into normal gameplay, with a feature that allows you to choose which weapon set a specific skill will use when it is cast.
For example, you can attach a Staff that provides gem levels for Fire skills to your Firestorm skill, while you may want to attach another weapon set that improves the effect of the shocks you cause to your Spark skill. When you cast one of these skills, you automatically switch to the weapon set it is attached to so that using that skill can benefit from the stats of that weapon.
But as part of this feature, there will also be Weapon Skill Tree Passives, which are a portion of your character’s total Passive Skill allocation. This portion will come from Book of Skill during the campaign, and we don’t know exactly how many you’ll get, but I’d guess it’s around 20 or 25.
These Passive Points differ from Skill Points you get from leveling up, in that they can be attached to a weapon set to be assigned to a specific Passive Skill Tree while that weapon set is active. This, combined with the previously mentioned feature, allows you to assign these weapon specific Passive Points to nodes that will benefit that specific weapon set and its attached skills.
We could imagine a melee character using Two Hand Maces as an offensive weapon, and another Weapon Swap for a more defensive Flail and Shield combo. This character could then use their Weapon Passive Skill to deal more damage while Two Hand Maces is active. With the defensive Shield active, we could then choose to spend the points on a node that provides more armor or a chance to block.
This feature will be part of the build in Path of Exile 2, making it less focused on just one Archetype, and allowing them to focus on other options for specific scenarios.
Starting Position Of Characters
The next big change coming to PoE 2 is the starting position of characters on Passive Skill Tree.
In PoE 1, each class had a specific starting position, which was primarily determined by the class attribute alignment and Archetype category those classes belonged to.
In Path of Exile 2, each class still has a specific starting position, but the positions have been moved. All classes will start in the middle of Skill Tree, and the position they face is once again defined by attribute and archetype alignment.
Something to note here is the removal of Scion class in Path of Exile 2. In PoE 1, Scions started in the middle of the tree and could choose to leave the center in any direction they liked. This class was designed as a sort of Jackal Trades, bridging the gap between any possible unsupported archetypes by allowing easy access to specific areas of the tree in exchange for the mostly weaker Ascendency.
But in POE 2, Scion is gone, and that’s because they’ve added two classes for each attribute alignment, which means there will be a total of six different Ascendency options for each starting position on Passive Skill Tree, helping to solve the problem that Scion solved before.
You may also notice that the middle of the tree has changed significantly as well, with no routes going directly through the middle of the tree. The developers mentioned that the layout of the tree in POE 1 made it harder to balance, so they made it more direct to get from the class starting position to specific Keystones or Clusters by removing the middle of the tree.
Life Node Removal
Speaking of balance, the third notable change between Passive Skill Tree in POE 1 and POE 2 is that Skill Tree in POE 2 will not have Life nodes.
Note that the decision to remove Life nodes would have had a tremendous impact on POE 1 if it was fully implemented, but POE 2 was designed from the beginning to have no Life nodes on the tree. When you think about it this way, this design decision actually makes a lot of sense.
They can better balance the life of ordinary characters, and the life available to players will be largely determined by POE Currency they invest in equipment. At the same time, due to this change, space on Passive Skill Tree without Life nodes is freed up. By the way, there are a lot of Life nodes on POE 1 Skill Tree.
These spaces can be used for more specific character defense investments, which is one of their goals for this change. The developers allow players to use these points to specialize in defense mechanics that make sense for the build they are playing.
Cancel Masteries
Another major change is that Path of Exile 2’s Passive Skill Tree will not have Masteries, at least at the beginning.
Just like the design of no Life nodes on Skill Tree, the concept of no Masteries makes sense in the context of POE 2. After all, Passive Masteries system was originally created to solve the problem of locking unique build-enabling mechanics into specific areas of the tree.
But POE 2’s skill system was designed to be very different from the beginning. It has performance abilities that can be combined with each other and a Support Gem system that limits characters to copies of a support gem. So it makes sense that these more niche offensive mechanics exist on the skills themselves or on specialized support gems that can enhance them.
Travel Nodes Selectable Stats
In addition, POE 2’s Travel Nodes will be stat selectable, providing lower but generally more meaningful stats. When selecting Travel Nodes, you can choose +5 Strength, Intelligence and Dexterity, helping you more easily meet the stat requirements of gear or abilities.
This change is actually huge for leveling, especially considering that the socket colors are gone as well, so you’ll be able to more easily level up the way you want without being limited by your stats or gear sockets.
That’s the major difference between the passive skill trees in Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2.
Outro
So those are the top 5 changes we know about Passive Skill Tree in Path of Exile 2 so far. Let me know what you think of these changes and which changes (if any) you’re most excited about. I think it’s definitely those Weapon Skill Tree Passives, which could end up being an incredible feature! See you next time!
In this guide, I want to talk about the iconic skill in Path of Exile, Summon Raging Spirit. Path of Exile 2 has changed its casting and skill effect in the form of an automatic skill that summons temporary minions whenever you use a fire spell.
Here, we will talk about how SRS in POE 2 differs from POE 1 and explain the mechanics of this skill and how it can be applied to your build.
Differences And Similarities
It has to be said that the implementation of Summon Raging Spirit in Path of Exile 2 is really different. Here is a comparison of the two Support Gems.
Raging Spirit in Path of Exile 2 retains Spirit while it is activated. Your fire spells also summon Raging Spirits, which are short-lived flying flaming skulls that will rush to nearby enemies and quickly attack them. Enemies will not attack these minions directly and can pass through them.
There are also a lot of similarities between the actual minion mechanics of POE 2 and POE 1, which still summons a short-lived minion. It appears to have aggressive behavior and will rush to the enemy, and the enemy still will not directly engage it.
These minions are just like they were in Path of Exile 1, and they will not collide with the enemy. At the same time, they still cannot attack the enemy, but 70% of physical damage is converted into fire instead of 100% of the current SRS in POE 1.
This is pretty much the similarities and differences between the two skills, and it also shows where the new mechanics of this skill in Path of Exile 2 come in handy.
Mechanics Explained
I am very excited about the changes to this skill because not only can we use this Support Gem in POE 2, but GGG can use it to implement other new and old skills in POE 2.
Since this Raging Spirit ability can reserve Spirit, and we know that Spirit is like a reservation resource in POE 2, it will most likely be used to reserve things like Auras or permanent minions.
We actually saw this in a recent Witch gameplay preview, where permanent minions retain Spirit, and will automatically respawn after a short time as long as your other permanent minions haven’t died recently.
We also have temporary minions, which don’t retain Spirit, but they consume resources like corpses to be summoned.
In fact, in one discussion, the developers talked about a very interesting balance between permanent and temporary minions. Minion builds have extremely high single target damage output, but they lack clearing speed. So investing more POE Currency in improving temporary minions clearing speed is always our first strategy to optimize minion builds.
But you can’t really use these temporary minions in boss fights because corpses are not very easy to obtain, and in Path of Exile 2, they will be more limited and there will be no Desecrate ability or anything like that, so players won’t be able to actually generate their own corpses.
This is also what makes the Raging Spirit in POE 2 so interesting, because it’s between permanent and temporary minions. It does reserve Spirits just like permanent minions, but it does so in order to allow you to create temporary minions, which means that these temporary minions will be used in boss fight scenarios.
SRS Synergy With Fire Spells
Let’s take a look at the interaction here and see how it works with your Fire spells.
The Reservation ability allows you to summon Raging Spirits when you use a Fire spell. Any spell with the Fire tag will do.
We achieve this by casting two rows of Fire Area spells to summon one Spirit per 1.5 meter radius, besides which the projectiles from the Fire spells can also summon a Spirit when they hit. This immediately gives you two very interesting ways to scale this ability so that you can summon more Raging Spirits every time you cast those Fire spells.
Besides this, you can also think about scaling Fire spell Area of Effect. Imagine a giant explosion of fire and summoning a swarm of Raging Spirits. I’m not actually sure if it summons Spirits at the location where the spell hits the enemy, or if they spawn next to the corpse, but it will be interesting to see how exactly it works.
Of course, you can also go the projectile route with a Fire spell that fires projectiles, and you can adjust the number of projectiles so you can hit more enemies and summon more minions. Or, you can use a mechanic like Chain or Pierce so you can have a projectile go through multiple enemies and summon multiple minions that way.
Final Thoughts
I can already imagine a Fire Mage throwing Fireballs and summoning a bunch of Raging Spirits in a Popcorn setup, with the minions instantly exploding on top of the enemies, which sounds pretty fun.
This is pretty crazy when you think about it, because this ability simply doesn’t make sense in the context of POE 1, because we didn’t have builds like Spellcaster. They were dealing damage with their abilities, while also summoning minions, and the minions themselves dealing tons of damage.
I really think this is one thing I’m most excited about POE 2. This combination of Archetypes really wasn’t possible in POE 1. And POE 2 gives players more opportunities to have more and more freedom. Anyway, I love this, and that’s what this guide will be all about.
All in all, this Support Gem has me really excited about what else might be coming to Path of Exile 2. Do you have any crazy ideas about how they could implement other parts of POE 1’s abilities into POE 2 in new ways? Let me know what you think of SRS in POE 2.
As POE 3.24 is gradually coming to an end, here we want to talk about the 3 most worthwhile big AOE builds to try in Necropolis League. If you like to wander around the map and challenge some powerful bosses, then these builds must be what you are looking for. Without further ado, let’s get straight to it!
Ultimate Sweep Slayer
The first build we chose is Ultimate Sweep Slayer with Duelist class. Unlike many minor hits like Cyclone, Sweep will deal some big hits and create a huge Area of Effect.
To understand the advantages of this build, I will start with the boss damage. Sweep really has the killing power and can kill Guardians by just spinning your sword four or five times. I promise you, this will even make you feel like a boss.
Not only that, this build also has excellent clear speed because of the huge Area of Effect that almost covers the entire screen.
For the cons, I’ll start with its survivability. Since you need to stay still and close to the enemy to successfully apply skills, this puts you in a vulnerable position. Therefore, I recommend that you always stay a few levels higher than the map you are on and invest in your survivability.
As for the budget, this build is completely affordable. You only need about 90 Chaos Orbs to destroy the endgame in the early game. But if you want to advance to Yellow Maps easily, investing in Chaos Orbs is necessary. Eventually, to finish our Atlas effortlessly, you also need to invest about 6 Divine Orbs.
For the clear speed of this build, it must be worth 9 points. You can use a huge Area of Effect to perform devastating blows. I only deducted one point because you need to stand still to attack and the attack speed is not the best.
Its boss damage is completely incredible and deserves a full 10 points. Even if you only attack a few times per second, they are powerful. Like I said before, they will kill Guardians in less than five attacks.
For its survivability, I would give it 8 points. This build has many layers of defense, such as Permanent Fortify, Evasion and Spell Suppression. You still need to be careful though, as you are always standing still while attacking, which puts you in a vulnerable position.
Archmage Ice Nova Hierophant
Next up, we have the powerful Archmage Ice Nova Hierophant with Templar class. This build works by stacking as much mana as possible and utilizing Archmage Support to convert up to 19% of your mana into additional lightning damage.
The skill we chose is Transfigured Gem Ice Nova of Frostbolts, which deals more damage when close to Frostbolts. To increase the efficiency of our attacks, we use Kitava’s Thirst Helmet to automatically cast Frostbolts for us.
To understand the strengths of this build, we'll start with its boss damage. There are countless Ice Nova stacked on Frostbolts here that will cause the boss to die like a simple monster.
Not only that, but its clear speed is also impressive. With Frostblink of Wintry Blast, we can move across the map quickly while casting Ice Nova in all directions for huge AOE damage.
Now coming to the downsides, I will start by saying that this build is relatively expensive and you need to invest in at least 10 Divine Orbs to make it work. Another problem is that you must have extra mana in all your gear, which can make the gearing process a bit difficult.
To complete this build, there are two mandatory unique items that you need to prioritize acquiring.
The first one is Kitava's Thirst Helmet. When you cast at least 100 mana at a time, it triggers Transfigured Gem, which makes Frostbolts that need to be cast automatically cast, greatly speeding up the clearing.
Next, we also need Anathema Ring. In this case, it makes our curse limit the same as our maximum Power Charge.
For the clear speed of the build, it is undoubtedly full marks. Its extraordinary movement speed is accompanied by Ice Nova that is always everywhere, so that you can’t see the enemies before they are eliminated.
The damage it does to bosses is also amazing, with overlapping Ice Nova casts on countless Frostbolts, the boss doesn't even have a chance to survive for more than two seconds.
For its survivability, I would give it 9 out of 10. Not only does it have a strong health pool and energy shield, but the unique mechanics of this build ensure that 50% of the damage is absorbed by mana before affecting our health pool.
As you know, we have a lot of manas in this build, and we also hit the enemy so many times per second that instant leech will make your health full almost 100% of the time.
Cyclone Of Tumult Slayer
Finally, we have this amazing Cyclone of Tumult Slayer with Dualist class in the first place.
Since Affliction league brought Transfigured Gem, an alternative version of Active Skill Gems, Cyclone Skill gained Cyclone of Tumult. This resulted in Cyclone’s Area of Effect being wider and more powerful while also being much slower.
However, we can eliminate this disadvantage with a simple trick, just have a Cyclone with 33% more damage and 40% more AOE.
For the pros of this build, I will start with the clear speed. It is always moving and can easily cut down all the low-level enemies on the way. Not only that, its boss damage is incredible. Once the build is completed, we can even kill the big boss in a few seconds. On top of that, this build is very simple and easy to assemble.
Now to the cons, I will point out some important issues that you should pay close attention to.
As mentioned before, this build has great survivability once it is completed, but you need to control the progress reasonably when you level up your character because you are always very close to the enemy. If you are not prepared, you will be killed by the enemy in one shot. So before entering the high-level content, it may be a good idea to spend some time to upgrade a few more levels.
Another useful tip about improving your survivability is how to deal with stuns in this build. You can get Stun Immunity on the closer Jewel, but not everyone can afford it right away. If that’s your case, you can also go for Evasion Mastery, which, after using it, makes it impossible to be stunned if you haven’t been hit recently.
For this build, you only need one mandatory unique item, which is Stampede Boots. This ensures that your movement speed is always 150% of its base, which means that the drawback of Cyclone of Tumult is meaningless to us.
For clear speed, we would give it 9 out of 10. Cyclone moves constantly while accompanied by a huge Area of Effect, so you can always farm your map without wasting time stopping to cast spells or doing things like that.
Its boss damage is just amazing and definitely worth 10 points. Once this build is complete, you will easily achieve over 15 million DPS, which is more than enough to destroy everything in a few seconds.
Now, for its survivability, I would give it 9 out of 10. This build achieves over 100,000 Effective HP because of multiple layers of defense and a lot of instant life leech. Now with the huge AOE bonus from Cyclone of Tumult, you don’t even need to get close to the enemy at the end of the game, which will give you more survivability.
That’s all for this guide. What do you think about these AOE builds? Are there any better options that didn’t appear on this list? Have a great day everyone.
Greetings, Exiles! I’m sure you all have received the sad news recently that Path of Exile 2 closed beta, originally scheduled for June 7, 2024, has been postponed, with the developers stating that it will be released “towards the end” in 2024.
However, this also means that we have more time to prepare for a better gaming experience when we enter POE 2. In this guide, we will reveal the gameplay of Witch. So, Witch main players, please don’t miss this guide.
Minion Mechanics
In Path of Exile 2, you can play as Witch, Mistress of Death and Decay, commanding your hordes of the undead and launching attacks on enemies.
Most classes have access to some kind of minions, but if you want to control an army, Witch may be the ideal class choice for you.
In POE 2, most minions do not need to be summoned manually. Celebrant Sceptre gives the player a couple of free warriors, as well as another resource called Spirit, which you can use to acquire any minions you want. You can see this Spirit Bar above the mana.
On the skills screen, you can choose the composition of your army and choose between the various minion variants available. Since this is a level-two area, we can only afford one more minion. However, when minions die, they are automatically resurrected as long as no other minions have died recently. So, before your next battle, all your minions will be resurrected.
You can also command your minions with a dedicated button, telling them to move to a specific location, attack a specific enemy, or even open a chest or portal for you.
We also have temporary minions. Besides this, many minions have command skills that depend on the type of minion you summoned.
Skills
Next, let’s talk about the spells available to Witch class.
Unearth
First up is Unearth, which creates some bone constructs if it kills a monster or hits the corpse of a monster. They can’t take many hits and have a limited lifespan, but you can build a proper army with them.
Contagion
I also use some debuffs with monsters when my minions attack. The first one we can use here is Contagion. If a monster dies with Contagion, it spreads to nearby enemies. And with each spread, the damage increases. So it’s a good idea to try to keep the infection going.
If any corpse is infected when you summon minions, then the minions will also be infected. Every time they hit an enemy, they will continue to infect the enemy. So it’s great to have an army of infected hordes of the undead.
Essence Drain
We can also use another chaos debuff called Essence Drain. This effect has a higher degen on a single target. If the monster is also infected with Contagion, then Essence Drain will spread as well, which can turn into a real disaster.
Bone Storm
I can use a channeling skill like Bone Storm, which creates a devastating burst of sharp spikes. Note that the longer you channel this skill, the more damage it will cause.
Pain Offering
We also have a skill called Pain Offering. These skills allow you to pierce one of your skeletons with a big spike of bone to buff all of your other minions. It makes all of our other minions faster and do more damage.
Profane Ritual
After a battle, we usually have some extra corpses that we don’t want to waste. Profane Ritual can generate Power Charge by consuming corpses, which can buff some of my other spells. If we use it to summon Zombies, we can create more powerful super Zombies that don’t even need corpses to summon them.
We can also use Power Charge to channel Bone Storm. If I do this, it adds a devastating AoE.
Minion Types
Finally, it’s time to focus on the types of minions that Witch can summon.
Zombies
The first one that comes to mind must be Zombies, which are extremely tanky minions. Although they require corpses to summon and won’t resurrect if they die, they are quite tough and can increase the number of your minions.
What’s more, many minions also have command skills. You can command them to deploy Gas Cloud Arrow on the battlefield to deal some sustained damage.
Skeletal Arsonist
In addition, we can summon Skeletal Arsonists, who can throw small Fire Grenades. Besides this, they have a command skill that can detonate your minions with low health. When you see the red indicator, use this skill and the minion will explode.
These bone constructs are especially good because they expire quickly, anyway. So, you can go and farm this area’s boss, Carrion Crone, with all the tools you find to earn a good amount of POE Currency.
Storm Mages
That’s the type of minions you can get in the level two area. But let’s see what the higher level minion gameplay is like.
In a level 30 area, besides still having our trusty warriors, there are many types of minions to choose from, such as Brutes for stunning or Ice Mages for freezing, most of which come with their own special abilities or command skills.
You can also stun enemies by using multiple Storm Mages: a Cleric to heal and revive my minions, and Reavers for high damage. You can also enrage them before the fight to slowly kill them, but Cleric should be able to keep enemies alive while my minions attack.
Storm Mages has a useful skill if a lot of your minions die. He can summon a Lightning Storm to hit the location of each Dead Skeleton in your army.
Monster Corpse
In POE 2, even non-boss monsters can be very devastating, such as Faridun Impaler. It has a wide variety of abilities and is difficult to defeat. But maybe we can make better use of its corpse.
By using Bind Spectre gems, we can take the corpse of any enemy and capture its spirit so that I can use it as a minion. Any monster can be captured, but the spirit cost depends on how powerful the monster is.
Such a powerful enemy requires a lot of spirit, so I have to summon a lot of other minions, but it does seem worth it. If Spectre dies like other minions, it will respawn after a short time.
All in all, Witch in Path of Exile 2 seems to have received some amazing quality of life updates to cater to her unique play style. Her various minion mechanics and gameplay will bring a lot of fun to the game. Even for those who don’t like minion builds, the diverse gameplay of Witch class will make you shine!
