Path of Exile 2 (POE 2) is an action role-playing game (ARPG) developed and published by Grinding Gear Games. It's a direct sequel to Path of Exile, one of the most popular free-to-play ARPGs, known for its deep and complex gameplay systems, vast world-building, and strong focus on player-driven economy and progression. Path of Exile 2 featuring fast-paced combat, character progression, and loot-based mechanics. It emphasizes player skill, choice, and the collection of powerful items while exploring large, interconnected worlds. Players will create characters by selecting from various classes and customizing their skills, attributes, and equipment. Collect powerful weapons, armor, POE 2 Currency Orbs,and items to improve their characters. It will also have a player-driven economy with trading and crafting systems, allowing players to buy and sell items in a robust marketplace.

The Path of Exile 2 Infernalist Witch, a pure minion league starter, embodies the destructive power of a dedicated summoner, commanding an army of fiery allies to devastate foes. This guide outlines an endgame-viable build, focusing on fire synergy, minion scaling, and resilient defenses, suitable even for Solo Self-Found (SSF) play.

Build Philosophy and Overview

The core of this Infernalist build revolves around an aggressive minion playstyle, leveraging the Witch's Ascendancy to amplify minion damage and survivability. The primary damage dealers are Skeletal Arsonists, who hurl explosive fire bombs, and Raging Spirits, summoned by fire spells to relentlessly pursue enemies. Supporting minions like the Infernal Hound, Skeletal Clerics, and Skeletal Warriors provide crucial utility, defense, and debuffs.

This build emphasizes maximizing Spirit, a resource vital for sustaining a large minion army, alongside stacking Energy Shield (ES) for robust defenses. The design aims for a balance between overwhelming offensive power and comfortable survivability, allowing players to tackle most endgame content. While it may not break speed records, its consistent damage and tankiness make it a reliable choice for progressing through challenging encounters.

How the Army Works: Core Mechanics and Playstyle

The Infernalist minion build operates on a simple yet effective principle: empower your minions and let them do the heavy lifting. Your main interactions involve strategically casting spells to buff your minions and debuff enemies.

Flame Wall: This is your foundational spell. Cast it frequently around enemies. Projectiles from your Skeletal Arsonists passing through Flame Wall gain significant flat added fire damage, drastically increasing their output. Crucially, Flame Wall also serves to summon Raging Spirits, adding another layer of damage to your offensive barrage.

Pain Offering: A powerful damage multiplier, Pain Offering sacrifices one of your minions (ideally a disposable Skeletal Warrior from a Rattling Scepter) to grant a substantial buff of increased attack and cast speed and "more" minion damage to your entire army. Use this on cooldown for maximum damage uptime, even during general mapping.

Flammability: For tougher rare enemies and bosses, apply Flammability to reduce their fire resistance, making them more vulnerable to your minions' fiery onslaught.

Grim Feast: This skill is your primary defensive buff. Activating Grim Feast provides a significant boost to your Energy Shield and enables rapid ES recovery when you pick up the small light blue orbs dropped by slain enemies. Maintaining this buff is crucial for survivability, especially when facing dangerous encounters.

Movement and Sustain: The playstyle involves constantly moving, allowing your minions to engage enemies while you reposition and cast your buffs and debuffs. For ES recovery, beyond Grim Feast, simply picking up orbs or using a life flask when your ES dips will provide sustain.

The general combat loop involves: positioning your Flame Wall, casting Pain Offering, applying Flammability to priority targets, and letting your empowered minions decimate everything in their path while you manage your defensive buffs.

Key Active Skills (Gems)

Skeletal Arsonist: Your main damage minion. Link with Feeding Frenzy (for aggro and damage), Multiple Projectiles (for increased area coverage), and Immolate (for additional fire damage against ignited enemies).

Flame Wall: Utility and Raging Spirit summoner. Link with Faster Cast (for smoother spellcasting), Wall Fortress (for increased defense), and Mobility (for repositioning).

Raging Spirits: Supplementary damage. Link with Additional Accuracy (to ensure hits), Elemental Focus (for raw damage, sacrificing ignites), and Added Fire Damage.

Pain Offering: Minion buff. Link with Expanse (for increased area of effect), Increased Area of Effect, and Rage Fountain (for faster cast if available).

Summon Infernal Hound: Defensive and debuffing minion. Link with Meat Shield (for survivability), Strip Away (to apply fire exposure), and Fire Exposure. This minion also offers 20% damage mitigation for you.

Flammability: Curse. Link with Curse Effect and More Duration.

Grim Feast: Defensive utility. Link with Clarity (for mana sustain if needed).

Skeletal Cleric: Support minion. Link with Cooldown Reduction (for faster revives), Minion Mastery, and Elemental Army (for elemental resistance and damage).

Skeletal Warrior: Debuff utility. From a Rattling Scepter. Link with Maim (for physical damage reduction), Blind (for enemy accuracy reduction), and Culling Strike (to finish off low-health enemies).

Passive Tree and Ascendancy

The passive tree prioritizes Energy Shield and Minion Stats. Nodes that grant increased minion damage, minion life, minion accuracy (such as "Fear of Death"), and minion attack/cast speed are highly sought after. Since the build largely foregoes direct life investment on the tree, ES nodes become your primary source of survivability.

For Ascendancy, the Infernalist offers powerful tools for a minion commander:

Beidat's Will: This crucial third Ascendancy point provides a significant boost to your maximum Spirit (around 50 extra), allowing you to summon more powerful Skeletal Arsonists and effectively scale your overall minion army size. This is a major power spike for the build.

Chaos Inoculation (CI): This fourth Ascendancy choice is recommended for endgame. It sets your maximum Life to 1, making you immune to Chaos Damage, but requires a substantial investment in Energy Shield to compensate for the lost life pool. Ensure you have a robust ES pool before transitioning to CI.

Gearing Priorities

Your gear choices are paramount to scaling your minion army. Prioritize the following stats:

+ Levels to Minion Skill Gems: This is arguably the most impactful modifier for minion builds, significantly increasing their base damage and survivability. Look for this on Scepters, Amulets, and Helmets.

Spirit: This resource dictates how many powerful minions you can summon. Seek Spirit on Scepters, Amulets, and Body Armour.

Life and Energy Shield: Boost your raw defensive layers. Since the build eventually transitions to CI, Energy Shield becomes the primary defensive stat.

Resistances: Cap your elemental resistances (Fire, Cold, Lightning) at 75% as a fundamental defensive layer. Chaos resistance becomes important if not playing CI.

A Rattling Scepter is highly desirable for its ability to grant Skeletal Warriors, which can be sacrificed by Pain Offering. However, any scepter with high +minion levels or Spirit can serve as a strong weapon. Prioritize upgrades that offer these core stats over specific base types.

This Infernalist Witch build provides a rewarding and powerful path through Path of Exile 2, allowing you to dominate the battlefield with your fiery legion.

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