My witch experience, unorthodox build

[Scathe]

edit - this thread was originally titled "my witch experience, some questions" my questions have pretty much been answered but I wanted to keep the story of my game in one place. I'm up to act 8 and level 63 now but will keep the text of my original post otherwise intact, skip to page 3 and 4 of this thread if you have any interest in giving advice on what I should take next or on reading about my latest progress.

So I'm up to level 29. furthest waypoint is the marketplace in act 3, died once in act 2 against some yellow thing that came up out of the ground in the forest just before the final pyramid. partly the death was poor reflexes and overconfidence on my part. here is what my skill tree looks like at 29.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1748583413

here is what skill gems I'm using -
robe - 4 linked blue sockets - raise zombie, minion damage support, minion life support, added lightning damage support.
gloves - 3 linked blue sockets - fireball, combustion, controlled destruction.
hat - 2 green, 1 blue linked - unearth, lesser multiple projectiles, added lightning damage support
shield - 2 linked blue - flame dash, combustion
wand - 2 seperate blues - discipline, minion flesh buff spell(I forget exact name)
shoes - 1green, 1blue linked and 1 seperate green - not sure what to put there, have some somewhat leveled stuff - poison damage support, ethereal knives, another lightning damage support, a mana surge support.
right now my elemental resists are near max, 550ish life and 470ish energy shield(with discipline) 380ish mana 250ish mana unreserved.

mostly I destroy stuff very fast, the fireball is good for focusing on bosses and good for shooting in the direction I want my 7 zombies to run in. my issue with dying once I think I can attribute to not having enough energy shield gear, too much of it was split gear energy shield/evasion.
so I'm wondering what keystones I should hit next, I am leaning twards arcane focus, but after that it is much more up in the air. minion instability seems possible, does anyone know if it is effected by passive fire damage bonuses? also possible are blast radius, breath of flames, fire walker, and ethereal feast. ethereal feast seems a bit out of the way but looks really good. I only have 1 jewel so far and it won't help much so jewel slots are probably a no. I was thinking heading left twards sacrifice, spiritual command, purity of flesh, and explosive impact might also be good.

I also have ascendancy coming up soon, did the trial in crematorium and the one in hall of sins so far.. arcanist and necromancer both sound good, but I don't know the exact bonuses of either, will the game let me know what I'm getting into before I pick?

[Rikkore]

The thing you need to decide on is either going for minions or going for fire damage. There is no in between.

Also energy shield in the beginning of the game is not good at all.

Before you pick your ascendancy it will show you the skills in each 3

[Scathe]

Originally posted by Rikkore:

The thing you need to decide on is either going for minions or going for fire damage. There is no in between.

I was afraid that would be the case, I'm unsure if I want to start erasing my fire damage points, which I only have 5 passives in fire damage so far compared to 10+ in minions, or if I want to continue with what I've got and start picking minions only stuff now. or if I want to keep splitting my attention and find out how far it can take me before I start dying alot and make a new character.

I am leaning twards continuing to use fireball and flame dash, but focusing all my future passives twards either defense or minions. flame dash is just a great spell to save me from stuff, even if I never connect with it for damage. I don't think I want to give up the 5 passives I just wasted in fire, but hopefully 5 isn't enough to seriously gimp me.

anyway, thanks much for the advice. still have the lingering question, can anyone tell me if passive fire damage boosting improves minion instability damage or not?

[___ToXy___]

Neither passive skills nor stats from the player's equipment affect minions unless they specifically state "Minions _____" https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Minion

[Scathe]

Originally posted by ___ToXy___:

Neither passive skills nor stats from the player's equipment affect minions unless they specifically state "Minions _____" https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Minion

thanks. guess my fire damage isn't looking too good. hmm.

[Zelph]

I would like to point out, that while energy shield is indeed not great at the start, its still perfectly fine. Having it and building for it early doesn't hurt.

But like the others said, choose between fire or minions, not both. If you are going fire, rain of fire is much easier to build for then fire ball. For fireball, you need the rolling fire jewel for it to be really good at all.

[Drake]

If you want to do some damage with a minion build you just need to go to the templar area, there is a node that lets you use minion damage passives with your own skills. Do you can use minion damage instead of fire damage for your skills.

If you just want an offensive spell you can also just use summon raging spirit instead of fireball, it's kind of the same but just minion.
You can also explore dark pact + skeletons.

[Zelph]

Originally posted by Sajah:

If you want to do some damage with a minion build you just need to go to the templar area, there is a node that lets you use minion damage passives with your own skills. Do you can use minion damage instead of fire damage for your skills.

If you just want an offensive spell you can also just use summon raging spirit instead of fireball, it's kind of the same but just minion.
You can also explore dark pact + skeletons.

Minions should always be witch based, simply because necromancer is way to good to not have access to.

[Linkk]

Originally posted by zelph:

Minions should always be witch based, simply because necromancer is way to good to not have access to.

Well, no playstyle is bound to a single ascendency.

And he saidthat the minion nodes in the templar area buff your minions and in the minion wheel far out on the left there is a notable so that "Increases and Reductions to Minion Damage also affect you".
You you can build a hybrid with that, it is so powerful that many builds just take that wheel even if they don't have minions at all.

[Zelph]

Originally posted by Linkk:

Originally posted by zelph:

Minions should always be witch based, simply because necromancer is way to good to not have access to.

Well, no playstyle is bound to a single ascendency.

And he saidthat the minion nodes in the templar area buff your minions and in the minion wheel far out on the left there is a notable so that "Increases and Reductions to Minion Damage also affect you".
You you can build a hybrid with that, it is so powerful that many builds just take that wheel even if they don't have minions at all.

Not bound, no. But not going necromancer means you end up way weaker over all with any other ascendancy if you are going summoner. Specters aren't as strong, skellies are way worse off, everything is just worse.

If they want to go for something that is better off with totems, it is probably just better to use totems.

[Drake]

Originally posted by zelph:

Originally posted by Sajah:

If you want to do some damage with a minion build you just need to go to the templar area, there is a node that lets you use minion damage passives with your own skills. Do you can use minion damage instead of fire damage for your skills.

If you just want an offensive spell you can also just use summon raging spirit instead of fireball, it's kind of the same but just minion.
You can also explore dark pact + skeletons.

Minions should always be witch based, simply because necromancer is way to good to not have access to.

I'm not talking about changing class. I'm talking about going to the minion nodes in the templar area (you're going to go there anyway because those clusters are just too good for minions) and take "Spiritual Aid", the notable that does this : "increases and reductions to minion damage also affect you", which was made exactly for those hybrid builds.

[Zelph]

Originally posted by Sajah:

Originally posted by zelph:

Minions should always be witch based, simply because necromancer is way to good to not have access to.

I'm not talking about changing class. I'm talking about going to the minion nodes in the templar area (you're going to go there anyway because those clusters are just too good for minions) and take "Spiritual Aid", the notable that does this : "increases and reductions to minion damage also affect you", which was made exactly for those hybrid builds.

Witch also has minion nodes close by. So I don't see what the difference is? Minions early on will be squishy regardless, having more of them is actually more beneficial then having a little bit more stats. They are both 7 nodes away from the best nearby large node, and lord of the dead is better then spiritual command.

[Linkk]

The difference is that Spiritual Aid gives you also the increases and the minion wheel is just very good. You essentially can not miss it as a summoner.
Spiritual Command and Sacrifice is good to catch on the way over.


@OP
When you install Path of Building you can import your char into it to plan your next steps and see how damage changes accordingly. You can also press a button to kinda see the keystones colorcoded for what they are wort (red = damage, blue = defense).
You can in there also see that f.e. Added Fire Damage gives your Zombies more damage than Added Lightning Damage

it takes some time to get used to and to find all the options you can use but it is helpful when planning

[Scathe]

wow, thanks for all the responses, looks like maybe I will head over that way for spiritual command and sacrifice and spiritual aid, interesting discussion..

about added fire damage doing more than added lightning damage, maybe I'm just blind, but either I haven't seen any added fire damage, or it is the wrong color to socket in my gear anyway. what color is added fire damage? or maybe it is a gem I get at a later level/further progression?

[Scathe]

so if I take minion instability I need one more intelligence node for that, then that intelligence node is only 4 intelligence nodes away from the spiritual aid wheel, doesn't seem too far. then I cut through the life and chaos resist wheel to get to the spiritual command and sacrifice wheels. think I got a plan. I might still spend my next two points to hit arcane focus first, not sure.

[Zelph]

Originally posted by Scathe:

so if I take minion instability I need one more intelligence node for that, then that intelligence node is only 4 intelligence nodes away from the spiritual aid wheel, doesn't seem too far. then I cut through the life and chaos resist wheel to get to the spiritual command and sacrifice wheels. think I got a plan. I might still spend my next two points to hit arcane focus first, not sure.

I personally wouldn't taken minion instability. You want them to last as long as possible, and with enough regen, they are healing fully in 10 to 20 seconds.