Best Early Game Witch Spells in Path of Exile 2 – Destructoid
Starting off Path of Exile 2 with a Witch can be a rewarding experience assuming you’re using the most useful early-game spells. The best ones allow you to rip the life from your foes while your undead engage the enemy head-on.
Strongest Early Game Witch Spells in Path of Exile 2
Despite all classes sharing access to the same passive tree, each one starts at a different location that typically favors their standard playstyle. By choosing the Witch, an Intellect class, you’ll begin life around Minion Damage and Mana-related nodes, and using skills that reflect these nodes is ideal.
Skeletal Warrior
Skeletal Warrior is one of the first skills a Witch will have access to, and its usefulness in the early game cannot be understated. Skeletal Warriors have high health pools and can block attacks, making extremely valuable tanks for you while you cast from the backline. What’s more, Skeletal Warriors have a naturally higher threat, meaning enemies will more often than not ignore you in favor of your undead minion. You’ll need to make use of the Spirit resource to summon Skeletal Warriors, but even having one out near the beginning can be enough for you to get your casts off, uninterrupted.
Essence Drain
Early-game witches are all about undead minions and Chaos Magic, and Essence Drain fits the Chaos department. As a spell, Essence Drain launches a small chaos bolt at whatever you’re aiming at. If the bolt connects with an enemy, it will begin to drain life from them, dealing massive Chaos AoE (Area of Effect) damage while it is active. Essence Drain has no inherent cooldown, so it is the perfect go-to spell for any situation where you need to cast offensive magic against the enemy.
Unearth
Despite Witches being all about using minions in the early game, you really don’t have enough Spirit to create that undead legion you’re probably wondering about. Skeletal minions require significant amounts, and in the early game, you’ll only be able to summon one or two. That’s where Unearth comes in. This spell lets you summon a hoard of undead scorpions from the corpses of foes it hits. It launches in a cone in front of you, summoning the beasts all at once if several corpses are hit at the same time. While these creatures are quite weak, you can have a hoard of summoned at any given time, making it perfect for supporting you while you cast.
Skeletal Arsonist
In terms of raw DPS, the Skeletal Arsonist is difficult to compete with for an early-game Witch. This minion requires even more Spirit than the Skeletal Warrior, but if you can summon it, you’ll get a pet that will dish out high AoE fire damage at a constant rate, allowing for better wave clear.
The true power of the Skeletal Arsonist lies in its special ability to detonate other undead minions under your command. This ability hits extremely hard, and it is a potent tool for a young up-and-coming Witch looking to dish out some death and destruction.
Flame Wall
Just because you’re playing a Witch doesn’t mean you have to stick to casting Occult spells all the time. Enter Flame Wall, one of the best spells in Path of Exile 2, and it’s available early on as well. Flame Wall dishes out significant Fire damage while also applying a guaranteed Ignite to any targets that are foolish enough to walk through it. Even better, if you, or your minions, are using projectiles of any kind, if they pass through your Flame Wall, they’ll be buffed up with additional Fire damage. I’m an end-game Witch, and I’m still using Flame Wall as one of my main abilities, so don’t underestimate it.
Spark
In terms of raw damage, Spark pretty much outclasses every other early-game spell due to its sheer natural AoE power. Its damage is no joke, and its tiny mana cost makes Spark an incredibly valuable option for any Witch. The Witch’s greatest weakness is AoE at the start, so take Spark to make sure that weakness is properly covered.
Contagion
Returning to the Occult spell set, Contagion functions similarly to Essence Drain in that it is a potent DoT (Damage over Time) spell that rots away the enemy. However, unlike Essence Drain, Contagion does much less damage to a single target, but when that target dies, it spreads to all enemies nearby. Every time it spreads, Contagion gets a big damage boost, spreading endlessly until everything in the vicinity is dead or dying. It is a great AoE primer spell for setting up wave clear for the Witch and functions well when combined with Spark.
