In thisPath of Exile 2article, we will be taking a look at how to put togetherthe Witchbane buildfor you to use to get into the late-game or end-game of the game.Path of Exilehas become notorious for the sheer amount of skills and build possibilities available in the game, and the sequel follows suit with an extensive skill tree and a multitude of skill gems. This guide is here to help you get through all that and lay out a path for you to follow as you reach the end of the campaign and prepare you for your cruel playthroughs or endgame.
Introduction
The Witchbaneis a build that will be usingthe Crossbowand its skills as the build’s main tool and is able to cut through any enemy with ease. And for this build, we will be focusing on increasing our attack speed, making it easier for us to thin out and take on enemies as we kite around the battlefield.
Starter Class
For this build, we will be starting withthe Mercenary Class, which is one of the seven available for now.
On the expansive skill tree, the class will start on the south side. This side of the skill tree consists mainly of passives related to attack speed and flat increases in projectile damage, which we will be taking advantage of to maximize our damage output.
Passive Skills
Withthe Witchbane build,we will be trying to go for maximal damage output as quickly as possible using the crossbow by amplifying the weapon’s strength. We will be investing mainly in projectile damage and attack speed as we go down the south of the passive skill tree.
The first skill group we will be going for is the attack speed passive group containingMass Hysteria.
This group includes passive nodes that increase your attack speed and will also increase the attack speed of your teammates.
After investing inMass Hysteria, we will be going down the opposite branch of the southern side of the skill tree and going throughRemorseless and Ricochet. These nodes will increase your damage using your crossbow bolts and will give a chance for your bolts to hit multiple enemies by ricocheting. After these two nodes, we will be taking the branch towards the east to go for nodes to provide some survivability by going forthe Fortifying Blood node.
This node and the corresponding skill group will increase the Life Leech you have, but it is important to know that they will not give Life Leech by themselves. You need to have Life Leech on your gear for these nodes to provide their benefits.
You can either invest in the whole group or just go forFortifying Bloodand move on to other branches. It is a good investment to put your points inthe Dispatch Foesbranch to provide some additional critical hit chance, which is extremely useful since this build is a high attack speed build.
After these two small branches, we will continue further south on the skill tree until we reach the outer ring of the whole tree. It is a good idea to getthe Adrenaline Rush nodealong the way, as it will give us an increase in both attack speed and movement speed after killing an enemy—which we will be doing quite a lot—and will help with increasing the clearing speed of maps.
Although there are many great passive nodes that work well with this build, the core skill group we are aiming for is the crossbow passive skill group, which will increase our damage with the weapon, as well as increasing our crit chance and giving us a passive chance not to consume our crossbow bolts upon firing. This really helps with single-bolt reloading skills and can put out significant amounts of damage within a short amount of time whenever it procs.
The node that will offer a great amount of damage increase isthe Full Salvo node, which will give us an increase in damage for each different ammo type we used in the last 10 seconds.
Since this does not have a limit to how many ammo types it scales with—only the time—if we rotate between fast-firing, low shot count ammunitions, the increase in damage can ramp up quite significantly, especially against bosses.
These skill groups form the core of this build, and after investing points in these, the efficiency of this build is further enhanced by going for increases in projectile damage, attack speed, and the crossbow reload speed nodes. If you want additional survivability, you may also opt to go for the Life Leech nodes, which will allow you to facetank most mobs during mapping.
For the Ascendancy, we will be takingthe Witchhunterpath for the Mercenary, as this path works amazingly with our build setup.
We will be prioritizingthe Witchbane and No Mercynodes forthis Ascendancy, and these nodes give us the ability to increase our damage output even further once we have depleted the concentration on our targets. Although this might feel insignificant at first, the 40% increase in damage it offers after concentration depletion allows us to melt through even the toughest of the bosses.
Active Skill Setup
For this build, we are going with the simple and effective route and will not be focusing on a variety of skills but sticking with a handful that works extremely well and will let you deal with any situation the game throws at you.
We will be usingthe Armor Piercing Roundsas our main type of ammunition and skill for this build. Loading these bolts will allow you to fire off rapid-firing shots that can easily break down the armor of your targets and increase the damage they will be taking.
The second type of ammunition or skill that we will be using quite often isthe High Velocity Rounds.
This skill will load a single bolt that can deal high damage, but it has the advantage of being able to ensure a critical hit against any target that has their armor broken, consuming the status effect when doing so. The main rotation of your ammo type is armor piercing, followed by a high velocity shot, and repeat—especially when fighting against tougher enemies and bosses.
The last skill that we will be using that greatly increases our damage output isthe Rapid Shot skill.
This skill loads your crossbow with a heavy clip containing at least 50 bolts and will fire like a heavy machine gun after a small period of winding up.
This skill is different from other crossbow shots in thatRapid Shotwill accumulate heat for your crossbow, which will in turn increase the damage dealt by each of your bolts. As we will be unloading hundreds of bolts within seconds—quite literally—you will see the boss’s health bar going down within a short time frame. The damage output is especially visible once you have broken the concentration of the boss, and it will give you the most satisfying enjoyment of laying waste to a tough enemy.
These three ammunition types or skills are the ones we will be mainly using, especially against bosses, but sometimes they can have trouble dealing with large mobs of enemies.
In such instances, shots such asIncendiary Shots and Galvanic Shardswork really well, as they will let you fire off multiple shrapnels in a cone in front of you—much like a shotgun—allowing you to quickly deal with large groups of enemies while also having considerable knockback force.
Support Gems
The support gems really bring out the best ability of this build, and we will be focusing on maximizing our effectiveness using our main three shots.
For the Armor Piercing Rounds, it is best to put inthe Chain Support Gemas early as possible into this skill when you are putting this build together, as this will cause our bolts to chain to multiple enemies, allowing us to take them all out quickly without the need for more close-ranged shots.
The second support gem that really amplifies the function of the skill isthe Demolisher gem, which increases the armor-breaking ability by 50%, making it so that you will break down armor with fewer shots, in turn increasing the damage you deal against armor-broken enemies.
For theHigh Velocity Rounds, we will want to put inthe Ammo Conservationgem, as this will give a 25% chance not to consume a bolt, giving the opportunity to fire off two consecutive high-damaging shots in a short time.
To further add to this advantage, we will be slotting aDouble Barrel geminto the skill, as this will give us an additional bolt per reload. Although there is a downside of an increase in reload time when using this gem, this effect is negligible and will not have significant impact on the playstyle with this build.
ForRapid Shot, as the skill converts 60% of our damage to fire damage and gives our bolts the chance to ignite enemies, we will be usingthe Ignition support gem, which increases the chance by 100%.
Combined with theEternal Flame gem, which increases the duration of the ignite at the cost of 25% reduction in ignition chance, we can easily set enemies ablaze with our high attack speed rapid shots.
These form the core of the build, and having this setup will allow you to quickly deal with any enemy, including bosses—putting them down before they know what bolt hit them.
Gear and Equipment
This build is mainly built to work well with any kind of gear, as it does not require any specific uniques, but there are some gears that will greatly increase the effectiveness of this build.
When choosing a crossbow, the ideal choice will be one with a high amount of physical damage, as the rounds we will be mainly using scale best with physical damage rather than elemental types, and having a crossbow with high physical damage will go a long way in boosting the damage output of this build.
Among the different crossbow types, theDyad Crossbow/ Twin Crossbowworks really well with this build, as the weapon has the built-in property of loading an additional bolt for all of your skills, allowing you to fire off one more additional shot withthe High Velocity Roundsbefore needing a reload.
Rare gears with increases to attack speed and movement speed, and gear givingLife Leech, work really well with this build and will enhance clearing mobs when you are mapping.
Leveling Guide
The build levels smoothly without having much trouble, being a ranged build that can quickly take down enemies. And if you happen to gather a sizable amount,Galvanic Shards or Incendiary Shotscan quickly take care of groups of enemies, giving you little trouble.
The one downside is that you are susceptible to crowd control and on the squishier side of things, so you do have to be mindful of large explosive spells or hindering spells, because if you get caught in one of such spells, you are guaranteed to die from a hit or two.
Mapping and Bossing
Although you’re able to clear mobs during mapping quite fast, bossing is a major strength of this build. You can kite around the boss and deal a lot of damage, especially in instances where the boss is stunned, where you can unload one or two full clips of rapid shots, quickly whittling down the health bar. Efficient gameplay in the endgame can be achieved by alternating between close-ranged shots such as Galvanic Shards and long-ranged shots such as Armor Piercing Rounds depending on the situation, as this will also increase your damage output as a result of the Full Salvo passive node.
Endgame Scaling and Optimization
Endgame scaling is enhanced through cluster jewels that increaseAttack Speed, Movement Speed, Attack Damage, and Projectile Damage. The build has great options to scale by investing into either pure attack damage or critical hit chance and damage, while benefiting from high-Dexterity gear and critical chance gear to further boost damage.
