Witch Detonate Dead Leveling Build

Build Introduction

With the sweeping balance changes to every system coming in Patch 0.2, it is nearly impossible for us to have confidence in existing, well tested guides. While we will do our best to get these updated as soon as possible, their current state may leave them unusable. Make sure to regularly check back to see if any changes have been made.

Unleash your dark potential in Path of Exile II and dive into the thrilling chaos as the Witch! Command an army of undead bombs that hurl themselves into the fray, detonating in spectacular explosions that obliterate everything in their path with massive area damage. Wield necromancy to summon jagged bones from the earth, halting foes in a bone-crunching standstill as you carve through the carnage. Choose to evolve into the fiery, hell-raising Infernalist, unleashing torrents of infernal destruction, or the sinister Blood Mage, weaving life and death into a bloody tapestry of unstoppable power.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

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Ascendency

At the end of Act II, you can select your first Ascendancy. We generally recommend you ascend around level 20 or 30. However, this build went through the campaign and into mid-tier maps with no ascendancy so that it can be used for either the Infernalist, Blood Mage, or any future ascendency. Electing to take either ascendancy will enhance the leveling process. If you struggle to ascend on either your first or second ascendancy, complete more of the campaign and return to it once you have leveled some or acquired better gear. At this point in the Early Access, this choice is permanent and should be made with your endgame build in mind! However, it is worth noting that you can choose to respec the nodes within that specific ascendency if you want to alter it later. If you need information about ascending, you can see PatrickHatTrick’s helpful guide here.

Blood Mage

The Blood Mage is an incredibly powerful spellcaster. (Note: If you decide to choose the Blood Mage, it is recommended you do not put any passives into the Blood Mage tree until you have ascended twice, as the life loss from Sanguimancy is reasonably detrimental to us until we can get Vitality Siphon. You should no longer use the Unique Body Armour Ghostwrithe when choosing this ascendency.) Until further ascendancies, power remains relatively docile until things like Blood Barbs and Gore Spike can be acquired. However, these are not required to get through the campaign and into maps. This allows you to choose at a later time if you wish.

1. Sanguimancy—Taking this skill causes a spell to take from our life that is equal to the mana cost. However, this comes with a caveat; we now gain the passive skill of Life Remnants, which grants you life and can “overflow,” allowing you to gain up to twice your standard maximum life.
2. Vitality Siphon—This skill allows you to leech 10% of all spell damage you do. This should be enough to keep our life topped up in any engagement.

Infernalist

The Infernalist harbors her art of death and destruction from the pits of Hell itself. Conjuring a Hell Hound to absorb 20% of any hits you may take while it leaves a wake of fiery destruction.

1. Loyal Hellhound — This gives you passive access to Summon Infernal Hound and allows you to drop Raging Spirits. This opens up more spirit and makes more Skeletal Brute Minions or Skeletal Cleric Minions available, depending on your situation. Socketing the Hellhound with Fiery Death, Martial Tempo, and Ignition will result in explosive behaviors similar to those of the Raging Spirits.
2. Spell Damage and Life Passive Nodes — As the other significant ascendancies cannot help us without having access to a 3rd ascendancy, we elect for life and spell damage. Alternatively, you could choose life and mana if you were lacking.

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General Advice for Leveling

Path of Exile II’s campaign is not for the faint of heart. Remembering interactions with monsters and their skills will take you a long way, and persistence is one of the most valuable traits you can have in this game. Check vendors when you level, as they will restock when you do, to possibly find upgrades to your gear. If you elect to trade, hold onto some Exalted and Divine Orbs, as they are the trade currency standard. If you are new to crafting, visit the Crafting and Currency Overview here.

Looting and selling items is a great way to farm gold. Try always to have a full stash when returning to town. Even if it is gear you won’t use, try identifying rare items (yellow) and look at the stats. You may run into something valuable on the trade market, or if not, sell it in town. The more affixes on an item, the more gold it will be worth. Regarding trading, playing and seeing the market is the only way to learn what is valuable. You’ll be flipping Divines in no time!

Do not skip the side quests on your map! They do drop loot or skill/support gems, which you will need to progress through the campaign.

Do not be afraid to be over-leveled for an area, but be aware that if you are too high or too low, an XP penalty will be assessed until you move onto an area level, also referred to as the Monster Level, typically within +/- 4 levels of your current character’s level. The area level can be seen in the campaign, on your area map, or on the objectives map (“U” Key). It can also be seen in the top right of your HUD throughout the game. If you do not see it on the top right, open your on-screen minimap using “Tab” on your PC or the default button on your console.

This game can and will be punishing at times. The area will reset upon death, and new (non-unique) monsters will respawn. See this as an opportunity to collect more XP and a lesson learned.

NOTE: If you are not Solo Self-Found (SSF), you can elect to trade for an upgrade in your gear. Please remember to look for something with your proper level requirements. Far too many players spend their hard-earned Exalted Orbs in trade for something they cannot even equip yet!

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Gear Progression and Stat Priority

Your priorities for weapons and armour gear when upgrading should be as follows.

Damage scaling is directly tied to the level of our Minions gems. Increasing those levels increases the flat HP of your minions, thus increasing the damage your Detonate Dead does.

NOTE: Boots and Gloves have Body Runes; everything else should have Iron Runes. However, other runes can be used to help fix resistances. Runes are replaceable and can be changed later.

• Wand: The unique Enezun’s Charge Volatile Wand can work great for us! If not, here is a standard wand that can help us through until we find it.
  • Gain #% of Damage as Extra Fire Damage.
  • #% increased Spell Damage.
  • #% increased Cast Speed.
  • #% increased Spell Damage/+# to maximum Mana.
  • #% increased Critical Hit Chance for Spells.
  • #% increased Critical Hit Spell Damage Bonus.

• Sceptre: Omen Sceptre is our best pickup, but any sceptre will work to gain Spirit. Not having enough Spirit will impede our ability to play the build. The Omen Sceptre is best because it ups our ability to strike critically with Malice.
  • #% increased Spirit.
  • #% increased Spirit/+# to maximum Mana.
  • +# to Level of all Minion Skills.
  • Minions have #% increased maximum Life.

• Helm: Opt for an Energy Shield Base; every bit matters.
  • +# to maximum Life.
  • +# to Level of all Minion Skills.
  • +# to maximum Energy Shield.
  • #% increased Energy Shield.
  • Needed Resistance or Attributes.

• Body Armour: The unique Ghostwrithe is an incredibly powerful and standard piece of leveling gear for casters. Until you find or buy one, opt for the following Energy Shield base body armour.
  • +# to Spirit or +# to maximum Life (preferably Spirit).
  • #% increased Energy Shield.
  • +# to maximum Energy Shield.

• Rings: Golden Hoop or Peal Rings are the best choice for us, but if you need the resistances, opt for that base ring.
  • #% increased Fire Damage.
  • +# to maximum Life.
  • +# to maximum Mana.
  • Needed Resistances or Attributes.

• Amulet: We will need a Solar Amulet with high rolls into Spirit. Late in the campaign or Maps, you may elect to anoint your amulet; the recommended and cheap anointment would be Dispatch Foes (Envy, Envy, Paranoia). This gives us a massive boost to our critical strike chance between packs.
  • +# to Spirit.
  • #% increased Spell Damage.
  • +# to Level of all Minion Skills.
  • #% increased Maximum Energy Shield.
  • #% increased Critical Damage Bonus.

• Boots: Opt for an Energy Shield base. Movement Speed is king; it should be seen as a survivability stat. If you find a good pair, regardless of the base type, you should use it until you find something with better stats AND equivalent or better movement speed.
  • #% increased Movement Speed
  • +# to maximum Life.
  • +# to maximum Energy Shield.
  • Needed Resistances.

• Gloves: Opt for an Energy Shield base.
  • +# to Maximum Life.
  • +# to maximum Energy Shield.
  • #% increased Energy Shield.
  • #% increased Critical Damage Bonus.
  • Needed Resistances.

• Belt: A Utility Belt is best for us, but any belt will do if it has these basic stats.
  • +# to maximum Life.
  • #% Increased Flask Life Recovery rate.
  • +# Charm Slots.
  • Needed Resistances.

• Jewels: Looking for Rubies – You will eventually have 4 Jewel sockets on your passive tree. You should get your first around Act 3, so there’s no rush to find or buy them. These mods on a single Jewel are likely more expensive, but they should be extremely cheap individually. Again, the order listed is the order of importance.
  • Minions have 5-15% increased maximum Life.
  • 5-10% increased Area of Effect.
  • 5-15% increased Bleeding Duration.
  • Minions have 6-16% additional Physical Damage Reduction.

NOTE: Several Suffixes are available. If you’ve covered your resistances (75%), use those slots to increase your Critical Chance, Attributes, or Rarity to fill any gaps. DO NOT SKIP ON RESISTANCES!

Charms and Flasks

Throughout leveling, you will frequently find various charms and flasks. Make sure to swap them out for better options whenever you find upgrades. Regarding their stats, here is what to aim for:

• Health Flask: Prioritize those with the “Seething” affix. This applies the heal instantly, albeit a lesser amount.
• Mana Flask: Maximum recovery over the shortest duration.
• Charm: If you get lucky with a Stone Charm or Thawing Charm, use them to counter Stun and Freeze effects, which can be annoying. Otherwise, choose charms based on your current needs or the Boss/enemies you are up against. If you notice poison is problematic, use an Antidote Charm.

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Act I

In Act I, we won’t have access to anything near our mid/end campaign setup until we see level 13 skill gems and level 14 Spirit Gems. However, Detonate Dead will be available come level 7 skills gems. We will use a generic minion setup while building into the same tree.

As you get deeper into Act 1, the gems will shift. I will label them appropriately.

The Gem Setup you should be trying to reach is the following, in order of priority:

Skill	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2
Unearth	Minion Instability	–
Skeletal Sniper Minion	Martial Tempo	–
Flame Wall	–	–
Essence Drain	Arcane Tempo	Controlled Destruction
Skeletal Arsonist Minion (Replaces Skeletal Sniper)	Concentrated Effect	Scattershot
Raging Spirits (Spirit Gem)	Martial Tempo (Take From Skeletal Sniper)	–
Enfeeble (Curse)	Heightened Curse	–

Early in the Act, you will mainly spam your Unearth and let the Skeletal Sniper Minions work from behind. You have the Sniper’s activateable skill to drop poison gas that can be ignited by Flame Wall (If you have three Snipers, you have three activateables). Essence drain is purely additive, allowing you to damage enemies while waiting for Snipers’ cooldowns.

Bossing will require patience and a Thawing charm. Two (2) Act One bosses have a lot of cold damage and will almost always freeze you during an attack phase. This is made evident by the icy look of his and her attacks. Use obvious openings, and only use Unearth if you are safe to do so, as there are likely not many corpses around to summon the minions it calls forth. We will mostly rely on our Raging Spirits summoned through our Flame Wall. They do not take hits or body block for you; they only provide damage output.

By the end of Act 1, you should be anywhere from Level 12 to 18.

For help with bosses in Act 1, visit our bossing walkthrough here.

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Act II

We get access to Detonate Dead and some other gems, which we will take advantage of. Our goal is to start a chain reaction. We try to burst a single enemy down, then detonate the corpse, starting this reaction of corpse explosions. Our best output of damage is still from the Skeletal Arsonist Minion, and we are dropping our Essence Drain to clear up mana consumptions for our new curse, Flammability.

Skill	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2
Detonate Dead	Magnified Effect	Brutality
Skeletal Arsonist Minion	Scattershot	Concentrated Effect
Flammability	Heightened Curse	Inspiration
Raging Spirits	Martial Tempo	Feeding Frenzy
Pain Offering	–	–
Unearth	Minion Instability	–

There is no significant mechanical change in our approach. We use Flame Wall to summon our Raging Spirits, Curse with Flammability, Unearth on packs between fights to garner a following, and Detonate Dead on the first corpse you find in a Fight. Several instances will occur where your Skeletal Arsonist Minion will kill one, and the rest will die to your Detonate Dead. Only Rares and Bosses should need a functional “Rotation” of skills.

This is also when you will be comfortable with timing and damage output. You may run into ludicrously rolled rare monsters with highly toxic mods. EX: Hasted and Mana Degeneration Aura. Try to fight it out, but understand this does happen.

By the end of Act 2, you should be around Level 30 to 35.

For help with bosses in Act 2, visit our bossing walkthrough here.

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Act III

Skills will not change much, but we will add more spirit, particularly for Grim Feast. You will now also see Level 2 Support Gems, and remember that minion health and their damage are scaled behind gem level. Prioritize your Skeletal Arsonist Minion, as they still are good damage for you.

Since this is a leveling build, we’ve minimized the need for Jeweler Orbs early to keep costs low. However, you won’t encounter Level 3 Support Gems until the monsters are at least level 53. Defeating the “Bog Witch” is a significant milestone, granting us an additional 30 Spirit to utilize. The third Support Gem is a bonus; the build will work with just two.

Skill	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2	Support Gem 3
Detonate Dead	Considered Casting (new)	Spell Echo (new)	Magnified Effect
Skeletal Arsonist Minion	Scattershot	Concentrated Effect	Fire Penetration (new)
Flammability	Inspiration	Heightened Curse	–
Raging Spirits	Fiery Death (new)	Martial Tempo	Ignition (new)
Grim Feast (Spirit Gem) (new)	Clarity (if needed) (new)	–	–
Pain Offering	Font of Blood (new)	–	–
Unearth	Minion Instability	Feeding Frenzy (from RS)	–
Flame Wall	–	–	–
Bone Cage (new)	Astral Projection (new)	Brutality (take from DD)	–

With Grim Feast, collecting the “souls” you find on the ground after a minion or an enemy dies is essential. These will spawn upon death regularly and should be seen as a defensive layer. This skill will allow you to collect Energy Shield that “overflows,” giving you twice the standard maximum Energy Shield you can typically have.

The only significant change is our new defensive layer from Grim Feast. Detonate Dead and Flame Wall still conjure our Raging Spirits, but now they, too, have a chance to have their own kind of “detonate dead” of a slain enemy. This will only happen 60% of the time if they are slain under the effect of Ignite from our Raging Spirits with Fiery Death. Purely additive automation to the build, nothing more. You can now also practice crowd control with Bone Cage.

By the end of Act 3, you should be around Level 45 to 50.

For help with bosses in Act 3, visit our bossing walkthrough here.

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Act I – III Cruel Skill Gems

We start dropping Level 3 support gems after Act 3. With that, we can begin to finalize our skill gem setup system. Only once we get access to level 14 Spirit Gems will we begin to gem-cut Skeletal Brute Minion and Skeletal Cleric Minion, but only if we have been able to stack some decent amount of Spirit. Trying to run this with just 1 Brute and 1 Cleric or some mix of just 3 minions will frustrate you and is not recommended. With that, there is no reason to swap Gems or supports until you reach that amount of spirit (250 Spirit or so). The final chart will show you the setup for which to aim.

NOTE: Once you complete Act 3, “Bog Witch,” you will have 60 Spirit. Once you complete Act 6, “Bog Witch,” you will have 100; this is the most you can gain from the campaign. If Spirit is sparse, and you can’t seem to find enough, you can elect to drop Raging Spirits, as the additive damage is just that, additive. However, dropping Grim Feast is a non-starting issue. You must keep this gem to avoid getting folded.

For help with bosses in Acts 4,5 and 6, visit the previous guides for 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

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You have been practicing the same rotation with few changes by this time in the build. This should be the breakdown of the final rotation of skills, as it should start to be finalized by now, minus a jeweler or two.

In dangerous situations, prep the doorway, hall, or chokepoint with Bone Cage and force-move your minions to trigger the fight (this is the “`” key by default; I highly recommend you rebind this to mouse 5 or something similar ASAP). The enemies will be pinned, and you can safely traverse the area, continuing this “area denial” with Bone Cage.

Be aware of your surroundings! You may need to backtrack if a rare or magic mob comes at you with some wild mods on them. Find choke points and use them to your advantage.

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Skill Tree in Act 4 (Act 1 Cruel)

Skeletal Brutes should be your priority when it comes to gem quality! It gives them up to 20% more maximum life! Detonate Dead should soon follow, increasing its explosion radius. Grim Feast is another good quality setup, as it recovers an additional 20 Energy Shield per soul.

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Skill Tree in Act 5 (Act 2 Cruel)

This is when our critical strike damage begins to be very useful, as our Critical Strike chance grows, even more so with a very cheap amulet anointment of Dispatch Foes (Envy, Envy, Paranoia).

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Skill Tree in Act 6 (Act 3 Cruel)

We push to maximize our critical strike chance and add to our physical damage (including some additive bleed damage).

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Progressing into Endgame

This guide aims to help you navigate early white maps but doesn’t cover Atlas passives. Once you hit around Level 75-80 or when mapping feels challenging, you can easily transition into your endgame variant. If you follow this guide without ascending, you now have the freedom to choose from any available ascendancy! I managed to reach Level 81 before I decided to stop. You can find the skill tree attached below.

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Passive Tree Respec

At this time, you will want to respec as many nodes as you can into Strength; it gives you life, and that life is converted to an Energy Shield. Mana is not a significant concern for us. Just be sure not to over-spec, as you will need considerable amounts of Intel to get high-level Blue skill gems.

Skill	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2	Support Gem 3
Detonate Dead	Considered Casting	Spell Echo	Corpse Conservation
Skeletal Brute Minion	Meat Shield	Physical Mastery	Minion Mastery
Skeletal Cleric Minion	Arcane Tempo	Ingenuity	Elemental Army
Soul Offering	Ablation	Font of Blood	Persistence
Bone Cage	Astral Projection	Brutality	Magnified Effect
Enfeeble	Heightened Curse	Focused Curse	Hex Bloom
Sacrifice	–	–	–
Grim Feast	–	–	–
Raging Spirits	Fiery Death	Ignition	Infernal Legion

To be clear, the only major “Required three sockets” is our Brutes. The others are recommended for ease of leveling or if you want to take the build past 81. As the demo video shows, we could complete the campaign and into maps with no ascension and mediocre gear.

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Rotation

By now, you should have acquired or crafted the essential items listed in the Items section. We’ve found that most mobs will fall to a single Detonation of our Skeletal Brute Minion at this stage. Skeletal Cleric Minions should be reviving those Brutes quickly, allowing them to jump back into the fray. There is no benefit to letting your Brutes fight it out for you in the front, as they are not scaled for damage; Detonate them. Protect your Clerics; they keep your damage output “alive.” Bone Cage is always ideal for you and Clerics to keep enemies away from the backline. Preemptive use of Enfeeble on the enemy will ensure they do not hit you or your Cleric’s full bore, if they hit you at all. Flame Wall was dropped, as we should be getting enough Raging Spirits for the additive damage effect with Detonate Dead, which is also a fire skill.

Bossing Rotation: Enfeeble -> Bone Cage -> Soul Offering -> Detonate Dead -> Rinse Repeat. Skip any of these to dodge boss mechanics.

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Path of Building

Path of Building is a program Path of Exile players use to track, decipher, prepare, and sort builds. You can download it by visiting here and choosing the Path of Exile 2 Download link. For more information, visit here.

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Frequently Asked Questions

• How do I scale the damage? Why is Detonate Dead still at level 7?
  • We scale damage based on minion health. We use Skeletal Brute Minions because of their high base HP and scale their health. Detonate Dead skill will always do 20% of their HP, regardless of gem level. However, improving the quality is helpful, as it will add AoE to the explosion. You could level up the gem if you have no mana issues, but the fire damage from it is negligible, and we have other ways to improve AoE while growing the mana cost exponentially. Be mindful of gear upgrades, although +# Level of Minion skills is paramount, increases to spell damage and critical strike are important.
• I feel like I don’t do enough damage!
  • This could be for a few reasons.
    • Your Skeletal Brute Minions are not high enough HP. Scaling minions’ level is the best way to increase their HP (Physical Mastery, Minion Mastery)
    • You could also be missing the Brutes entirely when casting and hitting your Clerics.
    • You have not reached a level to have hit enough of the damage nodes we need on the tree, like Ruin, Potent Incantation, Repulsion, etc. You also get a lot of increased damage from Enezun’s Charge Wand.
    • You may not have access to or have not gotten both Soul Offering and the support gem, Considered Casting. These gems offer MORE damage, not increased, and push the damage relatively high.
• I keep dying!
  • If using the setup as listed in the build, there could be a few different issues. Adding life is still practical, as 50% is converted to energy shield, which should have ample increases. You should also avoid trying to shake hands with the enemy, as you are not expected to be too tanky with this setup. You must be able to dodge the standard mechanics. Check your resistances; you may have missed something and are getting decimated by a single type of element. Did you enable your Grim Feast gem? Ensure you update your gear as you progress, as gear from Act 2 will likely get you killed in Act 5.
• I can’t seem to drop any gear, and I seem to miss every craft!
  • Welcome to Path Of Exile! You are now part of an elite group of players who seem to miss 99% of almost everything we do! Seriously though, I know this is frustrating! However, there isn’t much I can do besides point you to trade or tell you to continue to craft. Perhaps try another crafting technique. Visit our crafting page here for help.
• Where can I go if I have more specific questions?
  • You are always welcome to ask questions in our ARPGVault Discord or visit my Twitch stream!

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Changelog

March 28th, 2025: Guide created for Path of Exile II, Early Access