Either I am doing something wrong, or the witch is kind of weak.

Hello all, so I have played most of the characters so far, different builds too, yet I am confused about the Witch. I have tried her as a summoner, lightning, fire, ice witch too, she feels very weak compared to everything else I built.
Lightning get's it's spells very late, nova ain't that great and spark really needs a fork or totem to work well, arc was a fun/useful skill but I got it pretty late. When she was lvl 31 her DPS was lower than my ranger at lvl 19...hell my ranger was even tankier than her.
Summoner witch is very weak early on, I heard it gets better later but I got bored halfway..
Fire Witch is the one I like the most, mostly because I just like fire..yet it's damage/utility is still not impressive.
Ice Witch was the strongest I have tried so far, lot's of utility and AoE, decent single target DPS too.

So my question is...am I playing everything except Ice Witch wrong, or are they really that underpowered?

Also, they really need to add some more gems, sure witches can choose any spell of any element they want, but it's still very limited.

A lot of builds dont shine till later on.... Summoner for example after the 30s gets super easy. Just hang in there.

As soon as you get the Spell Totem and combine it with Summon Skeletons, Summoner rocks hard. But yes, the journey to that point can be sometimes a hard and boring one.

I really liked the fire Witch, yet she scaled horribly =/ I run slow, and have to spam fireballs, used freezing pulse against resistant enemies. My ranger goes through most things without sweating, yet the fire Witch feels like she's getting burned by her own fire.

Depends on what build you decided upon. I am playing a Cold Crit Witch (still not taken CI lv50) and i have been vaporizing kind of everything with 1-2 casts of Freezing Puls+Greater Multiple Projectiles+Faster Projectiles+Increased Critical or Ice Spear/GMP/FP. With 30+ crit change and 350%+ critical multiplier it is kind of almost easy. Of course you have to be on the move constantly, not sitting there and taking hits.

Currently i am farming with amazing eaze the Dead Thicket in Act 2, which is full with Chaos dmg spitting snakes - no problems, 1 run takes me 7 min max (on cruel).

Remember, you can have dozens and dozens of differently played builds and all of them can be strong and most importantly FUN.

Good luck!

Witch is arguably one of the strongest characters in the game currently, especially with the totem build.

"

grimwald wrote:

Witch is arguably one of the strongest characters in the game currently, especially with the totem build.

That's about as far as balls from the truth as you get, at least in my experience.

A well built ranger is far stronger imo. And that's not even including other classes.

I'm running a lightning witch currently, with spell totem running shock nova, and I'm casting spark/arc.

The problem is, arc is retardedly weak. They need to double it's damage and make it chain one more time to even make it comparable to what an easymode LMP lightning arrow ranger can do. I know because I've tried.

I don't have chain for arc yet so it might get better, and shock nova totem isn't too bad per se..... but I have to kite all over the place already in act 1 cruel, and if i take 5 or 6 hits I'm dead. I'm honestly thinking of rerolling a shadow soon because this is way harder than it should be at act 1 cruel.

First, Arc is not a primary DPS spell, it's a shocking spell, best used with lightning penetration, crit and speed to stack 3 shocks ASAP. In other words the purpose of Arc is not to kill stuff, it's to help your main DPS skills kill stuff. Meanwhile Shocking Nova is a terrible spell for a totem unless you use it with Concentrated Effect, but even then that's suboptimal. And if you don't mix cold with lightning then you have zero control over mobs, no wonder you're getting owned.

Meanwhile a bow lightning ranger needs to kite as much as a lightning witch, and will have to work much harder to not got oom. Have you looked at Dex cold skills? Nothing even remotely comparable to the Int side. Hint: classes are not supposed to play exactly the same.

It's not the witch class it's you.

Witch seems really weak to me as well.
Started a ranger yesterday and it already feels more powerful than my witch.

Doesn't help that most of the class defining skills (spell totem, LMP, GMP, reduced mana) require you to sacrifice a goat to the random gods or be half way through the game. The gems seem all over the place as well. why as a fire witch do I need to put stats into strength just to increase fire penetration?

Ranger gets multiple projectiles for free at the start.. why can't the witch.

(I will never be interested in whatever the most popular build is)

Witch is very powerful when played right, and different builds hit "critical mass" at different times.

I'm running a lightning build and playing with a group, I do more damage than the other two party members - a templar and ranger - put together, easily.

Shock is retarded good on bosses if you stand next to them. I one shot rare mobs when I crit in solo play with it.