Witch Minions, totally unplayable

I was like everyone here, struggling to make minions work until a little way into act 2 when I spotted it.

There's a sorceress passive that lets fire damage spells create raging spirits. Switching from my initial attempt to use chaos DoT/poison cloud stacking into a fire based summoner has made a HUGE difference. Damage now feels fine, and clearing packs is pretty easy with 2 arsonists throwing volleys of 3 bombs each, with detonate dead cleaning up. Ember Fusilade initially, now Fireball, plus solar orb, all spawn a reasonable amount of raging spirits. They don't do a lot of damage each (Tooltip says 1-22 damage base) but they do inherit all your minion bonuses, can't take damage, and you can have 10 at a time.

With the Hellhound and a couple of skeletons from a scepter holding the front, they do it well enough that the only scare is enemy types that charge at you. Now I'm starting to dig into the big resistance clusters for minons having completed act 2, it should get smoother still.

I don't know if any of this is optimal mind you, I'm sure there's a lot of better ways to do it, but act 2 went by much faster than act 1.

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MrSmiley21#1051 wrote:

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Yoluun#7665 wrote:

Later on, there are a lot of ways to build. Right now, I'm 49 in Cruel act1 with 240ish spirit. I'm running an autobomber SRS + arsonists. I can literally just afk run through where I'm going and it literally murders everything without trying. Flammability + Incin with exposure gives a lot of +dmg for boss fights.

I'd like to see some gameplay footage of that, along with the passive tree and skills/support gems.

Autobomber is what I'm looking for, that's what necromancers and golemmancers did in PoE1, and I want a similar type of thing in this game.

Here's a super quick video I just recorded. It's interesting because you'll see that the build performs better when the mobs are harder as your stuff dies - otherwise it slows down a bit. I also didn't bother using curses or anything so you can see the loop itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9QUPh3_OQg

But in essence, you're using cast of minion death to fuel a loop with SRS + instability + infernal legion.

EDIT: also don't be like me and accidentally take any minion regen nodes - it makes the worse like this clip because your SRS spirits dont die fast enough

I agree, so far the minions are basically as good as having wet noodles as fighting companions. They die way to fast, in boss fights they are useless, I just have to run away non stop dodging mechanics. Its basically a kiting simulator at this point.

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Yoluun#7665 wrote:

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MrSmiley21#1051 wrote:

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Yoluun#7665 wrote:

Later on, there are a lot of ways to build. Right now, I'm 49 in Cruel act1 with 240ish spirit. I'm running an autobomber SRS + arsonists. I can literally just afk run through where I'm going and it literally murders everything without trying. Flammability + Incin with exposure gives a lot of +dmg for boss fights.

I'd like to see some gameplay footage of that, along with the passive tree and skills/support gems.

Autobomber is what I'm looking for, that's what necromancers and golemmancers did in PoE1, and I want a similar type of thing in this game.

Here's a super quick video I just recorded. It's interesting because you'll see that the build performs better when the mobs are harder as your stuff dies - otherwise it slows down a bit. I also didn't bother using curses or anything so you can see the loop itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9QUPh3_OQg

But in essence, you're using cast of minion death to fuel a loop with SRS + instability + infernal legion.

EDIT: also don't be like me and accidentally take any minion regen nodes - it makes the worse like this clip because your SRS spirits dont die fast enough

Alright, here are better videos after unbricking it.

Quick gameplay clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PvoeSXHAC4

Mechanic clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS3dq7s036s

I'm also struggling with the minions.

For starters, I went blood mage that really doesn't have any synergy whatsoever with minions from what I've noticed. I wasn't expecting it to be a complete departure.

Another problem I'm having is most of the minions are simply too weak. There's a reason everyone's using arsonists. It's because all of the other demons are underwheling. Which says a lot when even arsonists are still quite low damage.

I'm a fresh POE player and never played part 1 so I realize a lot of my problems are growing pains and needing to learn to play, but the witch is quite underwhelming right now. Especially with Bloodmage and how it has no synergy with the way most people want to play a witch; with minions.

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Yoluun#7665 wrote:

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MrSmiley21#1051 wrote:

Here's a super quick video I just recorded. It's interesting because you'll see that the build performs better when the mobs are harder as your stuff dies - otherwise it slows down a bit. I also didn't bother using curses or anything so you can see the loop itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9QUPh3_OQg

But in essence, you're using cast of minion death to fuel a loop with SRS + instability + infernal legion.

EDIT: also don't be like me and accidentally take any minion regen nodes - it makes the worse like this clip because your SRS spirits dont die fast enough

Alright, here are better videos after unbricking it.

Quick gameplay clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PvoeSXHAC4

Mechanic clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS3dq7s036s

That looks nice, I have a similar build but it isn't as smooth as yours, would you mind showing your passive tree / items ?
I'm also using Profane Ritual (Unleash / Fast forward) + Raise Zombie to increase even more the DPS on the Tankier Rares

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Sanchezxdd14#6360 wrote:

So im "playing" this build, taking any minions node, right now im at lvl 18, but its absolutely unplayable, minions doesnt do damage, doesnt get aggro, they die constantly, and when they die, you die, because you have no other option than run.

I understand that im doing bad choices with the build, maybe i should not get that nodes, maybe i should get another supp gems, maybe i should focus on get that gear and that playstyle.

Clearing areas its nonsense, tons of time wasted.

I really like the game, and i want to like it like i did with POE 1, but its getting harder every hour.

Right now im doing a pause, hope it clears my pov.

My man, witch is very good you made the right choice. I'm lvl 22 and im just rolling through, bosses can be tough ofcourse, but i don't think I could be happier with the game so far. Its excellent. diablo 4 sucks. just use unearth on mobs and bonestorm on boses (when you got time). i like skel warrior and arsonist .... good luck hommie!

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Enyxx#4718 wrote:

That looks nice, I have a similar build but it isn't as smooth as yours, would you mind showing your passive tree / items ?
I'm also using Profane Ritual (Unleash / Fast forward) + Raise Zombie to increase even more the DPS on the Tankier Rares

Honestly I find the Raise zombies not necessary - too much spell casting.

Tree wise, I use something like this

https://poe2db.tw/us/passive-skill-tree/AAAABgEBdB5xmi5FWkesTBoilrPAtjQSg0mdBtuj7cfwVypZJQ7v60beZ-FuhQrn8LUWeQOuvSn24KIFmYgYega9qB8YW1bDuLhAktojF4NMnQjxkoHYOXgPGn4CTLwJzBd21PlWfbM95aUz-w827-v01cYgqiUscIWXtdq94xCv9afKVV2D6CGU2a0L5tUQLIO6EnXBuYa9Q03_ML21cdxUZgouT6QgpaQH7mKYPG8qV3kFpzphhj-YfZ9PVCQ7_qzfo7FvneiVONQNc_g514y4M0Pyv8BsCjTmWKNGNRKMCM7i6r6Gg1_ucq04m_8AAA==

Item-wise, I don't have anything that interesting. At about 240 spirit. That's about it? Haven't even capped resistances yet.

"

Yoluun#7665 wrote:

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Enyxx#4718 wrote:

That looks nice, I have a similar build but it isn't as smooth as yours, would you mind showing your passive tree / items ?
I'm also using Profane Ritual (Unleash / Fast forward) + Raise Zombie to increase even more the DPS on the Tankier Rares

Honestly I find the Raise zombies not necessary - too much spell casting.

Tree wise, I use something like this

https://poe2db.tw/us/passive-skill-tree/AAAABgEBdB5xmi5FWkesTBoilrPAtjQSg0mdBtuj7cfwVypZJQ7v60beZ-FuhQrn8LUWeQOuvSn24KIFmYgYega9qB8YW1bDuLhAktojF4NMnQjxkoHYOXgPGn4CTLwJzBd21PlWfbM95aUz-w827-v01cYgqiUscIWXtdq94xCv9afKVV2D6CGU2a0L5tUQLIO6EnXBuYa9Q03_ML21cdxUZgouT6QgpaQH7mKYPG8qV3kFpzphhj-YfZ9PVCQ7_qzfo7FvneiVONQNc_g514y4M0Pyv8BsCjTmWKNGNRKMCM7i6r6Gg1_ucq04m_8AAA==

Item-wise, I don't have anything that interesting. At about 240 spirit. That's about it? Haven't even capped resistances yet.

After scratching my head for a while, un-equiping and re-equipping everything did it. I'm not sure what was the bug, probably an issue around spirit reservation, but that what was breaking my loops ! :D
Thanks for the passive tree tho !
I'm actually a Gemling legionnaire, so if any read that I went all the way from the bottom through the left and took Mass Hysteria / Deadly Swarm and will probably forego the rightmost nodes, we'll see if the qual/lvl and slots / res is worth it, but for now it works like a charm.

"

Alright, here are better videos after unbricking it.

Quick gameplay clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PvoeSXHAC4

Mechanic clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS3dq7s036s

Thinking about something very similar to this, but losing the autobomb and creating the raging spirits myself using firewall with spell cascade/echo. Then letting cast on minion death create a frostwall, and use cold skelemages.

Reason being, I like freezing stuff.

Currently running MoM for extra tank, but think I'll switch that off and go more ES Regen. Problem is life Regen is very difficult to get.