Summoner Fire Witch Guide (video included)

I'm ~lvl 30 and I have clarity and can chain cast firestorm as much as I want. If I see my mana start to go down a little too much, I level up my clarity gem (only when needed!).

Thanks for this build. I was thinking of going pure fire but I don't think I want to kite enemies that much. They are very fast in this game, so, meatshields it is!
Next level I am going to get minion instability! It was delayed for me because I went through the spell crit first to get to the fire portion.

I made a CI-version of this build. I was able to take more damage nodes once I didn't have to worry about health and chaos resist.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMBB2MR2xpsHNwqjSqYLJwzdjbFNthI50kbVytr220Zc1N_xoIQh2WIQI9GkDOTJ5eFm6GcLZ2upqynCK-3uJO_l8BUwfPJPdDQ2CTZC9-w7FXxbPIe-oAfAkmyAuOiozvhu9YRUH0Y7IrBxSy_kjg4G5HP5BGIG--FEmkXHHF54venKzdmLKam6zeD6rrr7oRIPI4Bb1fJNAqLeuaBVa5Eq4-m


What do you guys think? Too squishy? Could I maybe alter it to be more efficient?

Tubesssbm, a couple thoughts on your build.

You take all the extra burn damage nodes, but don't get any crit chance at all. This means your fire spells will very rarely be critting, so most of the time all that extra burn damage is wasted. Might want to try to add some crit chance if you really want the burn damage nodes.

Something like this maybe:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMBVysHY3NTa9t9GOyK37CCEEGWBUKusyycSRuvt4dlnC0fAjbFNtjxbOxV2CSnCNkLKpj6gJ2uGmymrIhAkDOPRtDQm6FI5_fXzLwQl0QEqsSFYMBU5oERULvWO-FtGcHzgh6IQsHFLL_yHRJpFxxxeewYw22P-k-_Q1Qd2V76_Kudo9A5F9h_xhzckye_l8k98h43Ziympus3g-q6iBvvhYP34venKw==

Though this build doesn't even have the resist nodes that you do, so it's even squishier.

Just a thought.

Hey VoidMoon, I have some thoughts and suggestions about your build, as well as a couple questions.

First off, I think they way you suggest leveling this build is inefficient. Why go straight to MI when they don't explode on being one shotted? (They don't) Why focus first on minion nodes if you know your minions aren't going to be very effective until later levels?

This is how I've been leveling my fire summoner:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMB37CCEAelAuNJsiycSRuvt4dlnC1XKx8CNsU22PFs7FU=

This way, you've got solid fire damage right from the start for your leveling. I have a 30ish cold crit witch, and even thought I was taking spell damage nodes she was a pain to level. I can't imagine trying to level a witch using cold pulse without some spell damage.

Going straight for fire damage like that, I was able to use fire spells and level with no problems at all. After that, I started building into the minion nodes.


Anyways, I have a couple questions about endgame play with your build. You said that the biggest danger to your character is reflect elemental damage mobs right? If you're only using fire, why go for the resist nodes that don't affect your fire resist? Are there other situations where you're finding elemental damage that's not fire dangerous?

Also, I wonder why you spec into life nodes rather than ES nodes. If you drop one node of 3 8% healths, you can take 32% increased ES, like this:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMBB2MI9A2NES0R2xZvGYUabBzcIvQkPCSqJ6kqjSqYLJwxiDN2NsU22DbpOBtI50kbSTpJUVSuVcZXK1ptYqxrF2vbbAttGXNTeQN8g33Sf8aCEIdliECOvo9GkDORz5I4ksGTJ5eFm6GcLZ2uoW2mrKcIp1yvt7iTv5fAVMHzyT3N-s9l0NDWndgk2QvfsONq5BHsVfFs8XbyHvqA_c-Leqcr4vc=

Is there some reason this trade-off isn't worth it? I imagine late game you're probably using almost entirely pure ES gear, right?

Thanks for any thoughts man! I ask these Q's mainly because I still haven't leveled a character into the later difficulties yet (I'm an alt whore) so I don't really know what to expect.

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KaptainKimchi wrote:

Tubesssbm, a couple thoughts on your build.

You take all the extra burn damage nodes, but don't get any crit chance at all. This means your fire spells will very rarely be critting, so most of the time all that extra burn damage is wasted. Might want to try to add some crit chance if you really want the burn damage nodes.

Something like this maybe:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMBVysHY3NTa9t9GOyK37CCEEGWBUKusyycSRuvt4dlnC0fAjbFNtjxbOxV2CSnCNkLKpj6gJ2uGmymrIhAkDOPRtDQm6FI5_fXzLwQl0QEqsSFYMBU5oERULvWO-FtGcHzgh6IQsHFLL_yHRJpFxxxeewYw22P-k-_Q1Qd2V76_Kudo9A5F9h_xhzckye_l8k98h43Ziympus3g-q6iBvvhYP34venKw==

Though this build doesn't even have the resist nodes that you do, so it's even squishier.

Just a thought.

I didn't take the crit nodes, because I find that between flammability and a chance to ignite support gem my firestorm is lighting plenty of people on fire. I've looked at how crits are calculated and I feel like speccing into crit might not be worth it unless you can pour a significant amount of points into crit. That being said, perhaps a little bit of crit could help min/max my dps.

Edit:

I found out minion damage doesn't affect minion instability and modified my build to take some crit stuff.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMBB2MR2xpsHNwqjSqYLJwzdjbFNthI50kbVytr220Zc1N_xoIQh2WPRpMnl4WboZwtna6nCK-3uJO_l8BUwfPJPdDQ2CTZC9-w7FXxbPIe-oAfAkmyAuOiozvhu9YRUH0YwcUsv5I4OBuRz-QRiBvvhRJpFxxxeeL3pys3Ziympus3g-q66-6ESDyOAW9XyTQKi3rmgVWu5CKOZPemtvqIQvId

Hows this look? I'm still a little unsure if it will be beefy enough for the higher difficulties. I'm also not sure if taking crit is worth it or if I should just go for spell damage.

Ahhh, fair enough, I didn't think about a chance to ignite support gem.

To be honest, you'll need someone more experienced than me to comment on your survivability, I'm pretty new as well, haven't been in the higher difficulties yet either.

Guys, I'm now running a heavy summoner build with arc now. I'll be making a new post tomorrow.

I look forward to it. The sooner the better, imho.

How do you feel about taking fork over pierce? At higher levels the damage reduction is more or less gone, and you can hit targets with 5-6 fire balls if you hit them right.

I would think fork gives far higher DPS than pierce would

I started out following this build and when i came across Arc gem i replaced freezing pulse just to try it out and i fell in love with Arc hehe. So i poked around a little in your lvl 70 build, replacing fire with lightning and came up with:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMBB2MI9A2NES0R2xZvGYUabBzcIvQkPCSqJ6kqmCycMYgzdjbpOBtI50k6SVFUrlXGVytabWKsaxdr22wLbRlzU3kDfIN90n_GghCIQI6-j0aQM5HPkjiSwZMnm6GdrqFtpqynCKdcuJO8n7-XwFTB88k9zfrPZdDQ1BnWndkL37DjauOf5BHxdvIe-oD9z8G05Ox2EX6vLR-NGeAS3YzmTNlftYU=

My questions now are:

Would it be viable going lightning instead of fire?
If so, should i change the build i linked?
What gems should i link with Arc?

Thanks for any constructive responses :)