[1.0.2] Freezing Pulse/Life Based Witch (Noob friendly/HC viable)

I agree with the skill tree revamp post... when the skill tree is up that is :)

Bump for Update, I've been playing around on the 1.1.0 skill tree but some input would be great

do you think playing this build as a shadow is better?

I cant help but notice theres only 1 node related to cast speed, wont this have a negative impact on the dps? i recall last time i built a caster the damage went up hugely with attack speed

Yeah I am actually going to be going from the shadow part of the tree. I want to play as a guy for one (and the Shadow reminds me of myself), and also I can sneak up into the +mana on kill nodes to help out a bit with leveling while I make my way towards the witch tree.

Also I plan on going with life nodes, and then layer ES nodes on top of that, and then decide if I want to go one way or the other later in the game.

I am gonna start this from the Templar side, cause i felt like playing an old dude with a stick

great noob friendly guild! as a complete POE noob i want to ask where do i go first?^^ going down the left part or the right cuz i dont have any idea whats more important :) and starting with my noob friends on HC i hope i can reach it^^

Any updates for a new hc league?

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Crazyshi wrote:

great noob friendly guild! as a complete POE noob i want to ask where do i go first?^^ going down the left part or the right cuz i dont have any idea whats more important :) and starting with my noob friends on HC i hope i can reach it^^

I suppose you are starting from the Witch starting zone. In that case, going "left" into templar, or "right" into shadow is not extremely important (for this build). The Templar side of the tree is slightly more tanky, with more resistance and HP nodes and it also provides bonuses for elemental damage. The Shadow side of the tree is more DPS oriented, since it provides nodes for critical hit. However, since this build uses Life and not Energy Shield (most of the ES nodes are located in the Shadow area), there are Life nodes scattered in both sides.

What it'd do if i was starting Witch would be to go left, in the templar side. Building up resists, HP and elemental damage early on is a good idea. Critical hit/dmg for me is more of an end-game stat and can wait. Not that critting hard early game is bad, it's just that if you end up in end-game where the content is quite harsh (especially on HC) with a glass-canon hero that crits a ton but can't tank for shit, you'll probably die very fast. On the other side, not critting a lot will not be THAT bad, since you'll be alive.


All that said, if you are a newbie, i'd suggest staying away from HC. This is a game which can surprise you very badly, if you don't pay attention you can die in 1 hit at times, and sadly there's lags and desync problems. TBH i'd never play HC on an online game, that's not played locally on my PC but has to communicate with a server. If you DO play HC with your friends, you gotta be very careful even no normal difficulty, and carefully read the modifiers bosses have, so as to not nuke yourself on an elemental-reflect boss, or something like that...

GL HF

This is the Passive skill tree that I was planning to use.

But I'am really worried about how to sort out Life Leech. Since I'm hearing reports that the nerfs to leech makes it very lackluster. So maybe I have to get Vaal Pact :(