10 Best Witch Builds in Path of Exile 3.25

Do you want to create a character in Path of Exile that specializes in spells and magic damage? If so, the Witch certainly is the class for you!

In today's article, we are going to discuss what makes this class different from the others, and why you should think about choosing this over, say, the Marauder.

We are also going to provide you with our top recommendations to help you know which builds are worth your time and investment.

So, join us as we unravel the best Witch builds in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League!

Why Choose the Witch

The Witch is the go-to class when it comes to builds that use spells and deal magic damage. This is mainly because this class has easy access to nodes that boost spell damage, energy shield, and curse effectiveness.

After completing the labyrinth, you can choose between three different ascendancy classes; each with its own specialty.

Elementalist

The Elementalist is the quintessential ascendancy class in Path of Exile that specializes in the elements. She has the power to bring the most out of spell skills that deal elemental damage. Let's talk about why the Elementalist is great.

Normally, elemental ailments like Chill, Freeze, Shock, and Ignite can only be applied if you deal damage associated with a particular ailment. For example, you cannot inflict Ignite if you are dealing cold damage. The same goes for Shock if your build specializes in burning your enemies to a crisp with fire damage.

By allocating some specific notable ascendancy classes that are available to the Elementalist, however, that rule does not apply.

Shaper of Flames is one of the most useful ascendancy nodes in the game. This causes all hits against the enemy to inflict Ignite, which is an ailment associated with fire that deals damage over time.

The Shaper of Storms is amazing as well. This notable ascendancy passive skill grants you the ability to inflict the Shock status effect, which causes affected enemies to take at least 15% increased damage from all sources.

While not as popular as the first two, there is still value that can be gained from the Shaper of Winter. Not only can you Chill enemies regardless of the elemental damage type of your spell, but the said ascendancy node also reduces the action speed of those you have chilled by up to 40%.

If you want to go on the offensive, you have Mastermind of Discord and Heart of Destruction to aid you. The former enhances the elemental Exposure you inflict upon the enemy, causing them to have their elemental resistance reduced considerably. The latter, on the other hand, grants a damage buff that lasts for eight seconds. If you do not have Convergence, your spells are given a 60% increase in AoE.

Survivability is an integral part of any build in Path of Exile. Thankfully, the Elementalist is not all offense as it has access to a node that specifically bolsters your defense too. We are talking about Bastion of the Elements. When allocated, you are protected by a special barrier called the Primal Aegis, which can soak elemental damage before your life (or mana) is reduced.

Even though golems are not popular in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion, the Elementalist is the preferred ascendancy class if you want to go all-in on being a golem specialist.

Elemancer improves the effect of the auras granted by your golems to you by 25%. A lightning golem, for example, enhances your attack and cast speed considerably when you take the Elemancer ascendancy node.

Liege of the Primordial alleviates the need to resummon your golems every time they die. That is because every four seconds, they will be summoned automatically without user intervention!

Choose the Elementalist if you are into builds that deal elemental damage.

Occultist

When it comes to boosting the effects of curse spells and amplifying the damage of cold and chaos skills, then the Occultist has got you covered.

Profane Bloom is a popular notable ascendancy passive skill that greatly improves your map-clearing potential even with budget gear. That is because it causes cursed enemies to explode on kill, dealing a quarter of their max HP as chaos damage to nearby monsters.

Speaking of cursed monsters, Unholy Authority lets you apply an additional curse (similar to "Whispers of Doom" on the passive tree). For the uninitiated, Path of Exile limits you to apply only one curse on the enemy. With Unholy Authority allocated, you essentially get a free Whispers of Doom, freeing up one skill point that you can use to get another passive of your choosing.

Withering Presence is a staple for many chaos damage-dealing builds in PoE that use the Occultist as the ascendancy class. It provides a 15% "more" chaos damage multiplier, which in Path of Exile, means you are getting plenty of it (compared to "Increased" damage mods). This node automatically applies the Wither debuff as well, which causes affected monsters to take increased chaos damage so long as it is active.

Do you want to maximize cold damage? Then taking Frigid Wake is a must! This literally grants 15% more cold damage. However, this serves as a defensive node too. Why? Because it makes you immune to Chill and Freeze, not to mention that monsters you have chilled deal reduced damage over time.

When it comes to the defensive side of things, the Occultist enhances energy shield to a much greater extent compared to the other Witch ascendancy classes thanks to Vile Bastion. For one, this node regenerates 40 energy shield per second right off the bat.

Moreover, Vile Bastion boosts energy shield regeneration by 2% (up to a maximum of 10%) so long as you are attacking enemies within several seconds. And oh, this gives you stun immunity as well!

If you are new to Path of Exile, there is a build archetype where you stack "charges" for maximum benefit. These are Power Charges, Frenzy Charges, and Endurance Charges.

The Occultist is a great choice for Power Charge-stacking builds, specifically, because of Forbidden Power. Typically, a single Power Charge only grants an increased critical strike chance. But Forbidden Power takes it up a notch by enhancing the charge's effects.

So, with each Power Charge, you are also getting a 6% increased area of effect and a 6% increased damage. Thanks to the said notable, you can reach upward of eight Power Charges with enough investment!

Necromancer

Do you want to command an army of the dead? If so, the Necromancer is the perfect ascendancy class for that! With nodes such as Mindless Aggression, Unnatural Strength, and Commander of Darkness, your minions are enough to scare any monster you see on the battlefield.

However, those are not the only things that make the Necromancer great. Aside from the fact that it can boost your minions in more ways than one, this ascendancy class has passive skills that affect you too.

Bone Barrier helps you last longer by providing you with physical damage reduction and life leech (via your minions' attacks). Plaguebringer grants a few things, including more damage, increased area of effect, and reduced monster damage if you have consumed corpses recently.

Speaking of corpses, Corpse Pact and Essence of Glutton help you with both offense and defense, respectively. As you can tell, you do have to consume corpses for their bonuses to take effect.

Offering skills, namely Bone Offering, Spirit Offering, and Flesh Offering, typically only affect your minions. With Mistress of Sacrifice, these skills will affect you as well, albeit at a 50% reduced effect. Still, that is a fair compromise given that these Offering skills will come in handy depending on the situation you are in.

The Necromancer is an incredible ascendancy class if all you want is to destroy every monster in PoE with hordes of minions at your disposal!

Best Witch Builds in PoE 3.25

This is probably what you have been waiting for! In this section, we will reveal our picks for the best Witch Builds in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League.

In this league, each of the Witch ascendancy classes did not receive any changes to their notable passive skills. However, the skills that they use, as well as the support gems they include in their setup, have received adjustments in one way or another. This led to the emergence of new builds, some of which were completely new in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion.

Even though the builds are listed in descending order, you cannot go wrong with any of them. So, without further ado, let's get started!

10. Explosive Arrow Elementalist

+Able to stick multiple arrows to an enemy for massive fire damage

+Does not require any specific items, making it a good league starter

+Elementalist's Shaper of Flames allows the skill to deal damage twice via Ignites

-Totem playstyle might not be to everyone's liking

-Requires crafted items for the endgame

The Explosive Arrow Elementalist has been one of the most popular builds in Path of Exile for quite some time now and the reason is that it just works!

Let's talk about the main skill gem first. Explosive Arrow is a bow attack skill that prompts you to fire arrows at a target. These arrows have an interesting property where they stick to surfaces (including enemies) and explode after a brief period.

Up to a maximum of 20 arrows can be stuck on an enemy before it explodes. You can also achieve a 45% increased skill effect duration if you want to buy more time. However, even with a high attack speed, you cannot reliably stick 20 arrows on monsters at a time, which is why you are going to use ballista totems.

Explosive Arrow, when linked to Ballista Totem Support, allows you to place totems on the ground that will fire the arrows for you. The reason why you do this is that totems just fire significantly faster than you. And, because you can drop multiple totems at a time, you can reliably and consistently stick 20 arrows to nearby monsters.

Now, Explosive Arrow only deals fire damage via the explosion, but did you know that you can take things a step further with the help of the Elementalist? That's right! Thanks to Shaper of Flames, the resulting explosion actually applies Ignites on nearby enemies, causing them to take fire damage over time.

As a result, boosting the damage of this build can be achieved by putting as much fire damage, damage over time, and fire damage over time modifiers on your gear and passive tree.

The Explosive Arrow Elementalist has been a viable league starter in Path of Exile for so many expansions now due to the fact that it does not require any specific gear to work. However, this does not mean that you cannot use any.

Dyadian Dawn is a heavy belt that causes the Ignites you inflict to deal damage considerably faster. Polaric Devastation is an instant damage boost because each attack allows you to cover enemies in Ash. Just make sure that you put Polaric Devastation on the left ring slot.

Eye of Malice is an incredible item for what it gives. With this equipped, you have a chance to inflict Fire Exposure, which reduces the enemies' resistance to fire damage. This is enhanced even further with the Elementalist's "Mastermind of Discord" notable ascendancy passive skill.

If you are happy with the playstyle and would like to use this build well into the endgame, you are going to have to craft some items, particularly the bow and the quiver.

Now, with the addition and removal of nodes on the passive tree, the pathing for this build has changed dramatically. It now looks like a line that crosses the middle of the tree, enabling you to take the Elemental Overload and Ancestral Bond keystone passives.

Panopticon has also been removed from the game in Patch 3.25. Fortunately, some of its effects have been transferred to the Surveillance node, which is situated near the bottom-right of the tree.

In addition, you will be happy to know that the Totem Mastery that allows your totems to taunt enemies that are within their vicinity one second after being summoned has returned in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion.

With the changes GGG has made in this league, the Explosive Arrow Elementalist has become better than the previous expansion and is certainly one that you can try out for yourself in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur!

9. Caustic Arrow Occultist

+Simple "activate and go" playstyle

+Kill enemies with explosions of chaos damage

+Fast map clearer

-Requires certain items

-Must be somewhat near to enemies

If you like playing a build in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur that just runs around the map and kills enemies effectively, then this next build is for you!

The Caustic Arrow Occultist fully utilizes the chaos damage nodes available to the said ascendancy class. But, what truly makes this build work is Death's Oath — a unique body armor that grants the Death Aura.

For the uninitiated, the Death Aura is similar to Righteous Fire but instead of dealing fire damage, you are actually dealing chaos damage. The reason why the Occultist is perfect for this scenario is that this ascendancy class has Profane Bloom, Void Beacon, and Withering Presence.

Profane Bloom causes cursed enemies to explode, dealing a quarter of their max life as chaos damage to nearby enemies. You will use Despair linked to Blasphemy Support so that you won't have to apply the said curse manually. You just have to be close to monsters to apply the chaos resistance reduction provided by Despair.

To amplify that, you have Void Beacon, which essentially causes nearby enemies to suffer a 20% reduction in chaos resistance as well. If that is not enough, Withering Presence applies the Wither debuff on monsters within your vicinity, making them take 6% increased chaos damage per Withered stack (max 15).

Unholy Authority is there to allow you to use another curse spell skill. You can use whatever you want, though we recommend Punishment to give you the power to deal more damage on enemies that are below 50% of their max life.

As for how Caustic Arrow factors into the equation, you fire arrows at your intended targets and finish them off by going near them. The Death's Aura from your equipped body armor should do the dirty work of eliminating them with ease.

Survivability is not the Occultist's strong suit, so how do you stay alive out there? Well, you could wear Viridi's Veil coupled with a Magic Ring on the left slot. This prevents you from taking extra damage from critical strikes. Furthermore, the damage of enemies hitting you is unlucky, meaning, the lower damage out of two possible outcomes is always the one that's applied.

Using a Glorious Vanity (Xibaqua) is also a viable option you could take. This turns the nearest keystone passive to Divine Flesh, which converts 50% of elemental damage taken to chaos damage. Your maximum chaos resistance is increased by 5% as well.

If there is one thing that you should be aware of, it is that this build requires certain items to work, with the main one being Death's Oath. However, they should be pretty obtainable a couple of days into a new league, so this shouldn’t be an issue at all.

That said, the Caustic Arrow Occultist is great for those who want to play a build with a laid-back playstyle.

8. Ethereal Knives of the Massacre Elementalist

+Impressive AoE clear via Ignites

+League-start viable

+Can be upgraded to be a powerhouse

-Some upgrades require a huge investment

-Not as tanky as other builds

The EK Ignite Elementalist has been around the game for so many years now due to its amazing capacity to burn enemies to a crisp.

By utilizing multiple damage conversions, the EK Ignite Elementalist is capable of downing even the most fearsome T17 map monsters.

Where this build shines is that it can run with budget gear, which you can, of course, scale into the endgame by crafting certain equipment.

To understand why this build is awesome, we must first talk about the mechanics at play here. Ethereal Knives of the Massacre, which is a transfigured version of EK, is a spell skill gem in Path of Exile that prompts you to fire multiple knives in a circle. This is an even better version than the original due to the fact that you can hit multiple enemies, especially those that surround you.

Take note that this is a "physical" spell skill gem, so you have to convert its damage to elemental by doing a few things. First, you convert physical damage to cold damage by getting a Watcher's Eye with the "40% of Physical Damage Converted to Cold Damage While Affected by Hatred" and another 40% from Cold Mastery. The other 20% can be bench-crafted on the gloves.

Once you have converted all of the physical damage to cold, you then take advantage of the aptly named Cold to Fire Support to convert a huge chunk of your cold damage to fire damage.

This is where it gets interesting: you equip Gloomfang to provide you with up to 35% non-chaos damage as extra chaos damage. This extra damage, by the way, is added in every step of the conversion. So, just imagine the insane damage output of this build as long as you are able to convert all of your physical damage to cold and fire damage.

Now, the "Ignites" actually come from the Elementalist's Shaper of Flames. When used in conjunction with Shaper of Storms, your enemies will receive huge amounts of damage from all sources.

In terms of gear during league start scenarios, you can equip the Obliteration unique wand for that 40% extra chaos damage. The ability to make enemies explode on kill is a nice bonus and helps with your map-clearing speed immensely, even on a budget.

If you are ready to take this to the endgame, you are going to have to craft a bow with "+1 to Level of Socketed Gems" and "+2 to Level of Socketed Support Gems." The upgrades can be expensive, so be sure to save enough PoE Currency before pulling the trigger.

You will also craft a good endgame quiver to accompany the bow. The Vile Arrow Quiver is an excellent quiver for this build, mainly because of its "15% of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage" implicit modifier. This bow does contain a couple of extra damage mods for good measure. If you are interested in making one, be sure to head to our crafting guide for more information.

Where this build falls short is on the defensive side of things. You could help bolster your defenses by using the Taste of Hate or even a Progenesis, but this build is not as tanky as the other builds on this list.

It is also worth mentioning that Taste of Hate got rebalanced in PoE 3.25. Instead of physical damage taken as cold damage, this unique flask now converts fire and lightning damage from hits to cold damage. This is a rather huge nerf in the sense that you do not reduce the physical damage you take anymore. Because of this, the Progenesis has become more appealing to use from a survival standpoint.

Be that as it may, the Ethereal Knives of the Massacre Elementalist is still worth your time and investment. It can obliterate monsters with powerful Ignites thanks to multiple levels of conversion. Seriously, try this one out. You will never regret it!

7. BAMA Necromancer

+Skill gem summons clones that bombard enemies with a plethora of arrows

+Other minions join in on the fight as well

+Destroy everything with powerful lightning damage

-Build's true potential is only noticeable when properly geared

-Might struggle to survive early on

The BAMA Necromancer (short for "Blink Arrow, Mirror Arrow" Necromancer), is a minion build that utilizes a bow attack skill gem that creates three clones when used. These clones will bombard your enemies with a plethora of projectiles.

As to why there are two skill gems here, there are actually two Transfigured Gems that you will be using here. The first one is the Blink Arrow of Prismatic Clones, which creates a few clones that use Elemental Hit to deal with the enemy. The second is the Mirror Arrow of Bombarding Clones — a transfigured version of Mirror Arrow that creates minions that use Rain of Arrows to dispatch monsters on the battlefield.

The reason why you have two completely different attack gems on this build is that they actually have different cooldowns. Basically, you use one and then the other as part of your main rotation.

Additionally, you do not have to be stuck with the BAMA combo. If you do not want your character to teleport with every use of the skill, you could opt for Mirror Arrow instead of Blink Arrow of Prismatic/Bombarding Clones.

Now, the Patch 3.25 version of the BAMA Necromancer utilizes a couple of Combat Focus jewels. This is to force lightning damage as the only damage your Prismatic minions can deal. This also gives you an easier time to equip your character with the right gear.

Speaking of which, most of your equipment is composed of items that improve minion damage, lightning damage, and life. Thankfully, new armor bases have been introduced in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion, so survivability is improved as a result.

The clones created by BAMA are not the only ones attacking, though, because you are going to need some help from spectres and other minions as well. We highly recommend that you enter any Tier 17 map and cast Desecrate as soon as you drop in. Doing so will summon corpses that are native to the area that you can raise as a spectre to fight for you. That said, there are three different corpses that you need to look for, namely Wretched Defiler, Flame Creator, and Necrotic Bones. These are awesome in terms of overall damage output and map-clearing ability, so if you spot any of them, cast Raise Spectre on them for sure!

In addition, by taking Mindless Aggression, Commander of Darkness, and Bone Barrier from the Necromancer's ascendancy passive tree, all of your minions are capable of taking a beating as a result. The Mistress of Sacrifice gives you added utility by allowing you to gain the effects of Offering Skills as well.

The BAMA Necromancer is a versatile build in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League that changes its playstyle slightly depending on the main attack skill that is used. Whatever version of this build you use, this one will certainly not disappoint!

6. Fire Trap of Blasting Elementalist

+Amazing single-target damage

+Can be put up on a shoestring budget

+Kill enemies in fiery explosions

-Mediocre map-clearing speed

-Takes time to play the build efficiently

Fire Trap of Blasting Elementalist utilizes the transfigured version of the popular Fire Trap skill that many PoE builds use. Unlike its base counterpart, the Fire Trap of Blasting deals more damage to burning enemies. However, the skill itself no longer creates burning ground, so you have to use Flame Surge linked with Arcanist Brand to satisfy the Transfigured Gem's requirement.

Although this build has incredible single-target damage, where it falls short is in its map-clearing speed, primarily because of the absence of burning ground from the Fire Trap of Blasting. That being said, there are a couple of ways to rid the map of monsters.

First, you can use Arcanist Brand to leave burning ground via Flame Surge. Second, you can use Frostblink to deal damage in a targeted location. The initial damage is fine because this only serves to ignite enemies with the Elementalist's Shaper of Flames ascendancy node.

Since the Fire Trap of Blasting is a spell skill gem, its damage is improved a lot when you increase its gem levels. Hence, investing in a specific Replica Dragonfang's Flight with "+3 to Level of All Fire Trap Gems" is a good idea.

On top of that, you want a way to apply Fire Exposure. Fortunately, you have the Eye of Malice for that. When you wear this unique helmet, you gain a 25% chance to inflict Fire Exposure on hit. This can either be achieved by dealing damage with Frostblink or from the Fire Trap of Blasting itself.

Legacy of Fury is another invaluable piece of the build. These unique boots scorch nearby enemies, which reduces their elemental resistances considerably. This causes your skills to become even more devastating since you are essentially dealing elemental damage, to begin with.

While the damage output of this build is good, how does this fare in terms of survivability? Well, it is surprisingly tanky thanks to the Bastion of Elements. This Elementalist-exclusive passive skill protects you from elemental damage thanks to Primal Aegis.

For physical damage mitigation, you could wear the Lightning Coil. This converts 50% of the physical damage you take from hits to lightning damage. It does reduce your lightning resistance, though, so you may want to include a Topaz Flask to address this.

With good survivability and incredible single-target damage, the Fire Trap of Blasting Elementalist is truly one of the best Witch Builds in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League!

5. Ice Nova of Frostbolts Occultist

+Fills the screen with damaging ice novas

+One of the most popular mappers in Patch 3.25

+Power Charge stacker made easy thanks to the Occultist

-Requires knowledge of CoC breakpoints

-Must use POB to ensure certain things

The Ice Nova of Frostbolts is one of the most popular Transfigured Gems in PoE right now due to its interaction with Frostbolt projectiles.

If you do not know, Frostbolt is cast first in this instance to unleash several projectiles. Immediately using the Ice Nova of Frostbolts after that will cause the ice nova to appear at the projectiles' location instead of around the caster. Because of this interaction, you can clear maps quickly and efficiently.

The said Transfigured Gem has been used by many different ascendancy classes, most notably the Hierophant with the newly buffed Archmage Support. So, what makes the Occultist different?

Well, the Occultist version is a Power Charge stacker that heavily relies on Cast on Critical Strike Support to make things happen. That is the reason why Cyclone is also included as part of your main rotation.

Basically, Cyclone enables you to land critical strikes on the enemy quickly for Cast on Critical Strike Support to get activated. Then, Ice Nova of Frostbolts will be unleashed thanks to the said support gem.

Now, casting Frostbolt manually is quite cumbersome, especially if you have to spin with Cyclone as well. To address this, you will use Cospri's Malice – a unique one-handed sword that triggers a socketed cold spell on a melee critical strike. Put the Frostbolt spell here along with Greater Multiple Projectiles Support and Frostbite to reduce the enemy's resistance to cold damage.

To maximize the activation of Ice Nova of Frostbolts, you have to have knowledge of the CoC breakpoints. Without getting too technical, you have to achieve a 52% cooldown recovery rate so that the support gem will activate Ice Nova of Frostbolts more frequently. This can be done by inserting a level 6 Awakened Cast on Critical Strike Support and taking the "+3 to Level of Critical Support Gems" from the Critical Mastery.

Doing the things above only gives you 34%. The other 18% can be obtained from crafting a pair of Shaper- or Crusader-influenced boots. Spam the boots with Orb of Alteration and then use Regal Orb and Exalted Orbs to fill the rest of the mods.

The 52% increased cooldown recovery rate is only part of the equation; you have to make sure that you also have a 10.1 attack rate for Cyclone This is the tricky part because you have to raise your attack speed just high enough in order to get to 10.1 attacks per second. Plug your character in Path of Building (POB) to see this value as the information is not available in the game.

After all of that is sorted out, you will have a character that can destroy any monster that you will encounter while mapping. Make no mistake, this build can take on uber bosses without a problem as well!

If you like a build that is known for its incredible burst damage via critical strikes, the Ice Nova of Frostbolts Occultist is the one for you!

4. Poison Summon Raging Spirit Necromancer

+Viable league starter that transitions well into the endgame

+Minion build that has a unique playstyle

+Causes massive poison damage, especially when fully geared

-May have survivability issues early on

-Upgrades might be expensive depending on market prices

If you have played Path of Exile prior to the Settlers of Kalguur League, you may have heard of the Poison Summon Raging Spirit Necromancer. The community calls it the "Poison SRS" build mainly because it is much easier to pronounce. That said, this build can obliterate enemies foolish enough to get in your way, all while multiple minions are summoned to fight for you.

For starters, Summon Raging Spirit is a minion spell that allows you to conjure flaming skulls when used. Even though these skulls are considered "minions" in the game, they do not have the physical property of your conventional minions. What we mean by this is that enemies cannot target the skulls directly, so any damage that comes from their attacks will be directed toward you or your other minions.

Wait a minute, isn't this build called "Poison SRS?" Where does the "poison" come from in this regard? Well, that is taken care of by the gear that you are going to use.

During league start, you can scour the trade website for the Severed in Sleep — a unique one-handed sword that grants a level 25 Envy Skill. For the uninitiated, Envy is a buff that provides added chaos damage to attacks and spells, which can affect minions as well. Severed in Sleep also enables your minions to inflict Wither on hit, causing monsters to take increased chaos damage.

If you have the PoE Currency, you should purchase United in Dream. This is another one-handed sword that still grants a level 25 Envy skill. But, instead of your minions applying the Wither debuff on monsters, this sword enables them to inflict damaging poisons on hit.

To boost your SRS minion's poison damage, you are going to insert the spell skill gem into The Covenant. This body armor makes it so that your Summon Raging Spirit is supported by a level 29 Added Chaos Damage. Take note that when you do put SRS in the body armor, each time you cast the spell, it will cost life equal to 100% of the base mana cost. For example, if SRS costs 22 mana, the spell would require you to spend 22 HP too.

As far as minion builds go, your main goal is to become quite tanky. This can be difficult in the early game where you do not have access to good equipment yet. However, it gets easier if you are able to get your hands on the Aegis Aurora or the Reckoning. Both are unique shields that have something to offer, so it is up to you which one you prefer. With the Bone Barrier node from the Necromancer's ascendancy passive tree, you gain additional physical damage reduction for every minion that you have summoned.

This build has become even better now because GGG has reintroduced itemized corpses to Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. One of the corpses you should definitely get is the Hulking Miscreation. This allows you to raise a minion that buffs your damage and increases your attack/cast speed as well.

Because the Divine Blessing support gem has been removed in Patch 3.25, you will still use Haste, albeit only the Vaal portion of the skill. If you want to replace Haste entirely, you could swap it for Convocation so that you can reposition your minions on a whim.

So, how is the Poison SRS Necromancer played? Simply run around the map and cast Summon Raging Spirits whenever you come across a pack of monsters. Keep an eye on the number of flaming skulls that you have and make sure that you keep their numbers at the maximum.

Aside from the floating skulls, this build is capable of summoning other minions as well. Use Animate Guardian on a Belly of the Beast if you want more survivability or a Leer Cast if you prefer more damage.

For Raise Spectre, go to any of the new Tier 17 maps and cast Desecrate. Look for the Spectral Leader for that "20% Increased Action Speed" or the Wretched Defiler to help with map clear.

The Poison Summon Raging Spirit Necromancer is still popular to this day, even more so with the addition of the new spectres from Tier 17 maps, as well as other changes implemented in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League.

3. Death Wish Elementalist

+Make minions explode to eliminate enemies

+Good survivability

+Command a legion of minions to do your bidding

-Minion build might not be to your liking

-Needs certain items to work

The Death Wish Elementalist is surprisingly one of the best Elementalist builds in PoE 3.25. What makes this build work is the unique helmet called the Maw of Mischief, which grants the ability to cast Death Wish when equipped.

Death Wish is a channeling skill that affects your minions. At first, this spell buffs the attack/cast speed, movement speed, and damage of up to 13 of your minions. However, when you end the channeling skill or use another non-instant spell, the minions affected by Death Wish will explode, dealing 19% of their maximum life as fire damage to nearby monsters.

As for the minions that you are going to use, you have plenty of options. The primary ones are the spectres you summon by using the aptly named Raise Spectre spell. Since the explosion damage takes into account the life of the minion, using the Bitterbind Point unique shield makes sense. This effectively increases the maximum life of your spectres by up to 100%, making them deal more damage in the process.

Other minions you can include in the setup are golems and skeletons. If you are going for the former, you could take the Elementalist's Liege of the Primordial ascendancy node to enable you to summon an additional golem.

Because your minions will be the ones to do the dirty work, your main goal here is to survive. What you can do is wear the newly buffed Kaom's Heart — a unique body armor that grants 1,000 HP at the cost of not having any sockets.

Defiance of Destiny is another item you can invest in. This unique amulet has been nerfed in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, but its distinct effect still makes it a good option as far as survivability is concerned.

As to how this build is played, you summon all of your minions on the battlefield and use Death Wish on them whenever you come across huge packs of monsters. Take note that ending the channeling skill will cause them to explode, so it may take some time to get used to the playstyle.

However, once you get the hang of it, the Death Wish Elementalist is an incredibly fun build to use in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion!

2. Summon Holy Relic of Conviction Necromancer

+Utilizes a Transfigured Gem meant purely for offense

+Keep yourself at a distance while your Holy Relic minions do the dirty work

+Can take down uber pinnacle bosses with the right gear

-Requires a couple of level 4 support gems that are quite expensive

-Must achieve certain breakpoints to maximize damage

The second to the last entry on our best Witch Builds in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur is none other than the Summon Holy Relic of Conviction Necromancer. If you have read the previous version of our list, this build used to take the top spot. But make no mistake, this build still rocks and can handle whatever content you put it through.

Summon Holy Relic of Conviction is a Transfigured Gem that was introduced a couple of leagues ago. How is this different from the base version, you ask? The transfigured version of Summon Holy Relic no longer heals you. Instead, the Holy Relics will cast a damaging nova spell directly at the monster's location every time you attack with another skill. This is the reason why you are also going to use the Lancing Steel of Spraying.

The Lancing Steel of Spraying only has one role on this build and that is to ensure that you hit anything that you can see on the screen. This Transfigured Gem is better than its base counterpart mainly because you are able to throw a lot more projectiles per cast.

It is important to note that the damaging nova cast by the Holy Relics deals physical damage. To convert that, you will take the Unnatural Strength node from the Necromancer.

When you raise the quality of Summon Holy Relic of Conviction, its cooldown recovery rate is increased by 1%. Why is this important? This is crucial to the success of the build because the cooldown recovery rate actually translates to how many times the Holy Relics cast their damaging nova.

If you have achieved a 52% increased cooldown recovery rate, which is quite doable by wearing the Ashes of the Stars with 30% quality of all skill gems, the Holy Relics will be able to execute five attacks in quick succession. Increase that to 82% cooldown recovery rate, and that said minions can initiate six attacks. The next breakpoint does not matter because you are better off investing in other modifiers, such as increased minion damage, life, and resistances.

The 82% CDR breakpoint is possible by socketing a level 4 Enhance Support (48%) coupled with a perfectly rolled Ashes of the Stars. If you do not have the budget for the said unique amulet, you can opt for Dialla's Malefaction, with the armor having all green sockets. As you can already tell, this build does require some investment if you want to maximize its damage output. But we promise you, it will all be worth it!

Now, by default, Summon Holy Relic of Conviction calls two Holy Relic minions to fight for you. However, you can summon one more by equipping Geofri's Crest. This is mandatory, particularly if you want to eliminate the uber pinnacle bosses too!

Although GGG focused its attention on buffing melee skill gems in Patch 3.25, the Summon Holy Relic of Conviction Necromancer has gotten better as well, though in a different manner.

You see, the company has reintroduced the itemized corpses back to Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. With that said, you can use a level 25 Raise Spectre spell to summon three spectres, namely the Hulking Miscreation, Forest Warrior, and the Perfect Warlord.

The Hulking Miscreation grants a 100% damage buff. The Forest Warrior has the Culling Strike, which instantly eliminates enemies that are below 10% of their max HP. And, the Perfect Warlord gives you some Endurance Charges for improved physical and elemental damage mitigation.

The itemized corpses that have just been mentioned can naturally be obtained as possible rewards from completing Ritual Altars. Alternatively, you can snipe some of them off the PoE trade website.

Aside from that, you can utilize the new shield that was added in Patch 3.25 called the Svalinn. This unique shield allows you to trigger any socketed elemental spell after blocking an attack or spell. You can put pretty much anything that you want on here, but many people use Molten Shell to instantly cast the said guard skill on block.

Having said all of that, the Summon Holy Relic of Conviction Necromancer can do every content in the game thanks to its incredible damage output and map-clearing potential. It is no wonder why this build is one of the most popular in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur!

1. Hexblast Mines Occultist

+Mines output huge amounts of damage even with budget gear

+Gets high damage bonuses by stacking Frenzy and Power Charges

+Turning Hexblast into a Mine skill addresses the slow cast speed of the said spell

+The best Forbidden Sanctum runner in Patch 3.25

-Mine playstyle might not appeal to you

-Although this build is a viable league starter, it does require certain items to take things to the next level

Do you want to blast enemies to oblivion in Path of Exile? If so, then the Hexblast Mines Occultist is for you! You may have heard of a Saboteur version of this build, so how does it differ from this one? Strap yourself in, we are going to explain the differences in a bit.

Hexblast is a chaos spell that deals more damage if the monster you are hitting is affected by hex curses. By utilizing Frostbite/Flammability and Elemental Weakness, monsters that you hit with this spell are sure to die in the most miserable way possible.

But, you are probably perplexed by the use of hex curses that reduce elemental resistance on this build. The thing about Hexblast is that even though it is classified as a spell that deals chaos damage, it actually takes into consideration the enemy's lowest resistance and uses that for damage calculation.

For example, if a monster has 12% fire resistance and 19% chaos resistance, the fire resistance will be taken into account rather than chaos resistance. What does this all mean? It means that each cast of Hexblast ensures maximum damage output.

While Hexblast is indeed a powerful spell on its own, it does have one problem that cannot be ignored; its very slow cast time. You might think that a 1-second cast time does not matter, but in a fast-paced game such as Path of Exile, it feels like an eternity!

Fortunately, there is a way to circumvent that downside and that is by turning the spell into a Mine skill with the help of High-Impact Mine Support. When linked to the said support gem, Hexblast will be unleashed just like any Mine skill in the game. Therefore, you just lay down your mines and detonate them, either manually or automatically (after a brief period).

To maximize this build's potential, you will stack your Power Charges as high as you can. You can use the Void Battery, Malachai's Loop, and Ralakesh's Impatience to get you started. Frenzy Charges can be stacked along with Power Charges by wearing the Badge of the Brotherhood too! Together, you get insane amounts of damage and critical strike chance for Hexblast, making the skill even more devastating.

When you have earned enough PoE Currency, you can purchase the Sandstorm Visage to elevate this build to the next level. This helmet is best paired with a self-crafted Prophecy Wand due to its high base critical strike chance.

With the changes made in Patch 3.25, achieving a 100% critical strike chance is so much easier because the Prophecy Wand (which is the base for Void Battery) now has a base crit chance of 10%. This is, of course, amplified by Sandstorm Visage, making it one of the best upgrades you can get for this build.

Also, if you'd like permanent uptime of one of your auras, you can use Raise Spectre to summon the Perfect Dark Marionette. Opting for this version of the minion causes it to explode on death, dealing damage equal to 5% of its maximum life to nearby monsters. Furthermore, the explosion causes enemies to be affected by Scorch, effectively reducing their elemental resistance to enable your mines to deal even more damage!

The Hexblast Mines Occultist is an interesting build that not only addresses the inherent slow cast time of the main spell, but also makes for a fun experience due to the zoomy playstyle of laying down mines and running around the map.

With the various buffs implemented by GGG in this expansion, it is no wonder why the Hexblast Mines Occultist is the best Witch Build in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League!

Conclusion

The Witch is the class that you should choose if you want to live out the fantasy of being a caster or a summoner. The Elementalist is perfect for builds centered around elemental damage. The Occultist is the go-to option for chaos and cold damage builds. And then, you have the Necromancer, giving you the power to command a legion of minions to decimate the competition.

And there you have it! We hope that you have learned something from our list of the best Witch builds in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League! So, which of these builds are you going to try soon?

With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!