Path of Exile 2: New Class Reveal - All Witch Skills and Mechanics (2024)

GGG has revealed gameplay for the Witch in Path of Exile 2. While they stated that most classes in the game will have access to different kinds of minions, if you want to be an overlord who can control an army, the Witch is probably the class you’ll want to pick.

Path of Exile 2: Witch Mechanics

In PoE 2, most minions will not require manual summoning. You’ll be able to use items like the one above, which will give you skills that can summon minions and, more importantly, Spirit. Spirit is a resource you’ll be able to spend in order to increase the size of your army. You’ll be able to see your Spirit bar above your mana.

On the skill screen, you’ll be able to tweak the composition of your army, choosing between the various minion variants available to you.

When minions die, they will be revived automatically, so long as other minions haven’t died recently. This means that before each battle, most of your minions should be brought back to life.

GGG has also added a dedicated button, which will let you control your minions more precisely. It lets you command your minions to attack specific targets, move to specific locations, and even open doors and chests for you.

On top of that, many minions also have command skills that are dependent on the type of minions you have summoned, for example, a Skeleton Sniper, and shoot out a cloud that poisons enemies standing in it.

Path of Exile 2: Witch Skills

Unearth

Unearth is a unique spell added to PoE 2, which sends out a wave of bones. If it goes over corpses or kills an enemy, it spawns bone constructs, which are relatively squishy and don’t live for very long but are able to dish out some great damage.

Contagion

This skill should be quite familiar to PoE players, as it has been carried over to the Witch’s kit in PoE 2. Contagion is a curse-like spell that applies aDoT debuff to enemies.

If an enemy marked by Contagion dies, it spreads thedebuff to nearby monsters, creating a spiraling effect. Exclusive to PoE 2, if you then proceed to raise a minion from the monsters that died from Contagion, they’ll carry the disease and spread it even further, similar to a plague.

Bone Storm

Bone Storm is a channeled skill that creates a deadly volley of spikes. The longer you channel this skill, the more damage it does.

Offerings

Offerings are a type of skill that lets you impale one of your minions on a bone spike in order to buff your other minions.

Profane Ritual

Profane Ritual is a skill that consumes corpses in a small area to provide a power charge, which can power up some of your other spells.

Bind Specter

This skill lets you capture the spirit of a defeated monster, allowing you to summon it as a minion. The possibilities with this are endless, as you’ll be able to capture all non-boss monsters in PoE 2. The spirit cost will depend on how powerful the monster is. If the specter dies, just like any minion, it will respawn after a short period of time.

Path of Exile 2: All Witch Minions We Know So Far

Zombies

Zombies make great meat shields in PoE 2, as they are very tanky minions. Zombies require corpses to be summoned and do not revive automatically after being slain.

Skeletal Warrior

Warriors are basic minions that are usually used as meat shields too.

Skeletal Sniper

Snipers are skeletons with bows that keep their distance and deal moderate damage. Their command ability allows them to shoot out a cloud that poisons enemies standing in it.

Skeletal Arsonist

Arsonists shoot out fireballs similar to mages in the previous game. Their command skill allows you todetonate minions that are low on life for some extra damage.

Skeletal Storm Mage

Storm Mages shoot out lightning and shock your enemies in battle. Their command skill makes them cause a lightning storm right where your minions have died.

Skeletal Cleric

Clerics are pretty straightforward, as it does exactly what it sounds like. They are able to heal all of your minions and keep them healthy.

Skeletal Reaver

Reavers are melee minions that can deal a ton of damage. Their ability allows you to enrage them, increasing their attack speed and damage, while slowly killing them.

Summary

The Witch in Path of Exile 2 seems to have received some amazing quality-of-life updates catering to her unique necromancer playstyle. Her variety of minions and active play style will bring a lot to the game and make minion builds fun even for people who are not too fond of them.

Stay tuned for more PoE 2 content and in the meantime check out everything we know so far about Path of Exile 2.