Path of Exile 2: Best PoE 2 Witch build

Here’s the best Witch minion build, emphasising curses, skeletons, and Occult magic

Image credit:Grinding Gear Games

Looking for the best Witch build in Path of Exile 2? As the Witch, you’ll raise skeletal minions to subdue all enemies in Path of Exile 2 . The Witch serves as the only class in the game that starts with a small army at her disposal, and this army will only grow in size and power with every level.

Maximising the Witch’s potential, then, is a delicate act of amplifying your minions as much as possible while ensuring that they’re hardy enough to do their job as meat (or rather, bone) shields. In this guide we’ll give an explanation of the best Witch minion build for Path of Exile 2’s Early Access, breaking down the most useful skills and support gems to raise hell.

Best Witch build in Path of Exile 2

If you want to build a Witch minion build, you can’t go wrong with the following Minion Infernalist build. This collection of skills emphasises the Witch’s strength of building up a heavy array of summons, and then taking the Infernalist Ascension to make those summons blow up with fire magic.

Burn it all down, burn it all down! |Image credit:Grinding Gear Games

This build’s only downsides are its squishiness and heavy reliability on Spirit. But the Witch is a squishy class in general who needs Spirit more than anyone else in the game, so this shouldn’t come as a massive surprise. Be sure to equip gear that maximises your Energy Shield and Spirit (a good Sceptre is essential; see our how to get more Spirit guide for more on this) and seek out armour that boosts Intelligence or offers modifiers to your minion stats.

Witch minion build: Best skills

There are several Witch skills that can work with a Minion Infernalist build, as long as you manage to get some fire magic in there and some summons. The following ten have been my personal mainstays:

Unearth

Unearth is a favourite that I always grab for my first Uncut Skill Gem. This lets you deal AoE damage in the form of exploding bone bursts, and you can also spawn minions from corpses that look like cool bone scorpions.

Skeletal Sniper

You have many options when it comes to summoning skeletons, but Skeletal Snipers are the ones to go for in the early game. They’re obviously less up close and personal when compared to Skeletal Warriors, and cost more Spirit, meaning that you’ll likely only have one at a time. Skeletal Snipers deal great damage though, especially via their Gas Arrows.

Skeletal Arsonist

Once you reach the mid-game, you can start replacing your Skeletal Snipers with Skeletal Arsonists, who are friendly molotov-chucking bony guys. They’re great for offering up some AoE minion damage, while your Skeletal Snipers are better at single targets.

Pain Offering

This Vlad the Impaler-esque skill summons a bone spike that gives all nearby minions a buff of 40% increased attack and casting speed. This morbid totem is itself a minion, and can thus be targeted and destroyed - but while it’s up, it’s a great way to bolster your forces.

Bonestorm

Bonestorm lets you create a storm of bony spikes in the air and then release them at enemies. This is a reliable AoE projectile skill, and shrapnel from the Bonestorm lodges itself in the bodies of your enemies - meaning that your minions will deal additional damage right after you pop this.

Detonate Dead

Detonate Dead works perfectly with the scorpion minions summoned by Unearth. You can also use it on any of your skeletons, and it’s especially fun for your Skeletal Arsonists to ensure that even if their molotovs miss, their self-destruct will deal damage in the end.

Flame Wall

Flame Wall might be a skill that’s popular with early game Sorceress builds, but the Witch will also benefit mightily from it, especially considering that she has the Infernalist as one of her Ascendancy classes. Aside from serving as a fiery buffer between you and your foes, Flame Wall can also ignite the Gas Arrow fired by your Skeletal Snipers.

Raging Spirits

You’ve got Flame Wall, now supplement it with Raging Spirits, which becomes available when you get Uncut Spirit Gems around level 10 or so. Whenever this is active, any fire spell you cast will summon little flaming skulls who will attack nearby enemies. This means Flame Wall becomes all the better, and the ranks of your minion army continue to increase!

Vulnerability

Vulnerability curses all nearby targets and makes hits against them ignore a portion of their armour. This has good synergy with Pain Offering - set up the bone spike to make your minions hit harder, then pop Vulnerability to have their attacks shred the opposition.

Summon Infernal Hound

Finally we have Summon Infernal Hound, which is a skill that you’ll obtain after you get your Ascendancy and dip your toes into the Infernalist’s fire attack-centric Passive Skill Tree. Your hound will ignite enemies near it and take a portion of hits meant for you - the perfect ultimate minion for a raging Infernalist!

Witch minion build: Best support gems

While the Witch may be a beginner-friendly class, you won’t last long against big bosses like this fellow if you don’t supplement your skills with the right support gems. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Grinding Gear Games

To support this build, you’re going to want to equip support gems that supplement minion attacks and tweak the effects of your magic. Try the following out:

Martial Tempo

Martial Tempo will be needed for your Skeletal Snipers to make ’em shoot faster. It’s a good support gem for any skeletal minion, honestly, and works well with Last Gasp.

Last Gasp

Now that your bone Skeletal Snipers are shooting faster, make them slightly hardier with Last Gasp. The trade-off is that they deal less damage, but since we’ve supplemented their DPS with Martial Tempo, it works out okay in the end.

Feeding Frenzy

Once you’ve gotten Skeletal Arsonists to fill out your ranks, equip Feeding Frenzy to make their bombs more effective, dealing 30% more damage. They’ll also take 20% more damage, but that’s no bother, because you can always blow them up with Detonate Dead.

Arcane Tempo

Use Arcane Tempo to supplement your own spells - specifically Bonestorm, which needs to be cast as rapidly as possible to turn the space in front of your Witch into a projectile hell.

Persistence

Persistence is simple - it makes any skill that has a duration last just a wee bit longer. Use it with Pain Offering to make your bone spike stick around beyond its typical expiration date.

Ablation

Ablation’s another possible support gem for Pain Offering, though it’s riskier than Persistence. It sacrifices a portion of your health to increase the effects of a buff. Equip it if you feel confident in your minions’ ability to protect you while the bone spike is up.

Magnified Effect

Magnified Effect makes any AoE skill larger. This is a superb choice to complement Detonate Dead, since there’s nothing like making the most of your skeletons by upping their blast radius!

Fire Infusion

You’re an Infernalist, so you’ve got to have Fire Infusion, which will amplify attacks to deal more fire damage at the expense of cold and lightning damage. This gem can go well with a number of skills, but try it alongside Unearth for an explosive side effect as you rip open the ground in front of you.

Fortress

Fortress takes any spells that generate in a line and switches this up to a circle. Circular targeting is generally a bit easier in Path of Exile 2, where enemies are coming at you in tight corridors, and this works especially well with Flame Wall.

Immolate

Use Immolate on the flaming skulls generated by Raging Spirits to get them to deal extra fire damage against already-ignited enemies. This is a great way to supplement the strength of your little Ghost Rider-esque buddies.

Now that you know the best way to raise your skeletal forces, go out there and show your foes what a true Witch is capable of. For more on the mechanics that power Grinding Gear Games’ epic ARPG, see our guides to the Passive Skill Tree , Attributes , and crafting . We’ve also got a look at the best character class for beginners , as well as a list of what to do first if you’re just getting started with Path of Exile 2’s early game. And if you’d like to learn how to take your class to greater heights, see our guide on how to Ascend via the Trial of the Sekhemas .

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

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