Infernalist Witch - Pure Minion Build In-Progress (Scuffed Video Guide Attached)

TLDR: Minions feel bad early on but get much better after getting a few nodes. Get +Levels to minions and get Vile Mending on the tree

Feel free to join me on Twitch, I just started on there and I stream for a few hours Wednesday - Sunday and all day Monday - Tuesday
https://www.twitch.tv/the_emodan

If you have any questions feel free to ask on here, twitch, or youtube and I will try to answer them the best i can

This is going to be first build guide hopefully the first of many. A little background for me, I have been playing Poe1 since beta and it is probably my favorite game. Ive clocked in around 10k+ hours and i mainly focus on Minion Builds and Off Meta builds utilizing interactions with unique items, so when Poe 2 was announced I was already locked in on playing minions.

Most of the things in this guide is in the video that you can check out here:
P.S. The sound is not the best quality as I am still trying to setup things for streaming
Day 2:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxgEo4K4orQ

Updates




Lets get into it
Currently Level 75 with 2 days and 8 hours played at the time of writing this

Pros
+ Minions Do All The Work
+ 3-4 Button Playstyle
+ Can Apply Every Status Effect (Shock, Ignite, Poison, Bleed, Chill, Freeze)
+ Can Freeze or Stun And Break Armor Almost Instantly
+ Can Sustain Minion Instability
+ Can Focus More On Defenses
+ High ES Sustain

Cons
- Minions Feel Bad Early On In The Campaign Until
- Need Minion Life + Vile Mending On The Tree Before They Can Survive
- They Don't Hold Aggro (This may be an issue with mob AI and not the minions)
- They Have Collision With Each Other So they Can Block Corridors and Small Passages


Skill Tree and Skill Gem Setup


Rush to grab Vile Mending and early minion life nodes and faster revive time

FAQs:
What is the goal of this build?
I wanted to create a template the can easily be modified to suit anyone's minion playstyle and expanded as more minion skills come out.
What should I use for my 4th and 5th support?
I would recommend trying out different supports for now, as I have not been able to get jeweler orbs to drop for me and they are quite pricey at the time for writing this. I will try to get an update when more info comes out or until I come into a wealth of currency and I'm able to freely test skills.
Can I use "X" Minion instead?
Yes, my goal is to have a guide that can easily be used for different minion playstyles.
Why don't you use Skeletal Arsonist ?
While they have better aoe damage I felt the projectile speed/animation was far slower than both Frost & Storm Mages, also since we only have the ability to socket in one type of support it would be slightly harder to min-max both the Arsonist and the Infernal Hound.
Is there any uniques I can use?
Unfortunately there isn't any endgame uniques for minions in the game but for leveling i would recommend Necromantle until you get Skeletal Cleric and Bones of Ullr until you get a good pair of boots with #% movement speed and life.
What stat nodes should i get on the tree?
The tree is gong to be slightly different for everyone as you should focus mainly on int but grab dex/str when needed for gear and skills.


Gems - These are all interchangeable as you see fit
Melee
Skeletal Warrior(From Sceptre): Lacerate - Brutality - Maim
Skeletal Brute: Impact Shockwave - Exploit Weakness - Discombobulate
Skeletal Reaver: Corrosion - Envenom - Martial Tempo
Range
Skeletal Frost Mage: Cold Penetration - Scattershot - Glaciation
Skeletal Storm Mage: Controlled Destruction - Conduction - Coursing Current
Skeletal Cleric: Minion Mastery - Arcane Tempo - Ingenuity
Buff
Pain Offering: Font of Blood - Meat Shield - Ablation
Grim Feast: No Gems
Debuffs
Contagion: Magnified - Chaotic Freeze - Hinder
Vulnerability - Heightened Curse - Hex Bloom - Focused Curse

Playstyle
- Use Pain Offering often to buff your minion damage, They will get instantly revived once the duration is over by the cleric.
- Cast Contagion to proc freeze and hinder, you only need to cast this on one mob in the pack because every time it spreads the duration gets reset
- Cast Vulnerability it will do the same thing as Contagion
- Make sure to keep up all three skill when fighting Rares and Bosses

My Rotation:
1. Pain Offering
2. Contagion
3. Skeletal Reavers's Active Skill
4. Repeat Step 1 - 3
If fighting Large Packs, Rares, Bosses
5. Vulnerbility
6. Skeletal Frost Mage's Icy Explosion


Gear
Minimum Stat Requirement
Str - 54 (Lvl 78 Sceptre)
Dex - 45
Int - Highest Priority Put Everything Into This Stat

All Gear Should Be Energy Shield Based
Focus mainly on Life and getting the stats for gems and gear and try to get resistances when possible. For your weapon look for +level to minions

Helm: Life / ES - Stats - Resistances - +Level to Minions
Chest: Life / ES - Spirit - Stats - Resistance
Boots: Movement Speed - Life / ES - Stats - Resistance
Gloves: Life / ES - Stats - Resistance
Rings (Spirit Base): Life - Resistance - Stats
Amulet: Stats - Life - +Levels to Minions - Resistances
Weapon (Rattling Sceptre): +Level the Minions - Allies %Increased Damage
Shield (ES Based): Life/ES - +Level to Spells - Stats - Resistances


Ill update this guide later as its late at the time of writing this and give a better explanation for my gem choices I will put in a recommended leveling guide after some more testing.

Trying this out now since mine got nuked, whats your leveling skill of choice?

Are snipers not good? I don't see a mention... that's what Ive been using.

"

Xylezzz#1071 wrote:

Trying this out now since mine got nuked, whats your leveling skill of choice?

So the first time through I was using just minions and unearth
But now that i have played a bit I would recommend
Flamewall: Unleashed - Magnified Effect
Skeletal Arsonist: Acceleration - Scattershot
Raging Spirits: Fire Infusion - Martial Tempo

Raging Spirits may carry you all the way to endgame, I have not tried this leveling method yet, but I will be try out different leveling styles this weekend and can give you a better answer.

"

Are snipers not good? I don't see a mention... that's what Ive been using.

I used them for a while mainly for the active skill Poison Gas clear felt better while leveling but i took them out and replaced them with the Skeletal Reavers and Frost Mages because the Reavers have more Life and attack faster and the Mages adds more debuffs with their ability to freeze

I don't know if it's a bug, but Conduction - Coursing Current won't do anything, because Skeletons don't shock anyone anyway, only from command skill, never saw shock proc otherwise.

nice approach here...pain in the butt at the beginning...but something to check out later...lets just pray to the nerf god.

Love this.

I was using something similar but this gave me some ideas..

Last Gasdp on reavers is a good stopgap until you get Priest

Looks nice i play flame Wall/arsonist atm but do not like flame Wall at all so gona try this =) how many of each minion you use?

"

tosabia#9665 wrote:

Looks nice i play flame Wall/arsonist atm but do not like flame Wall at all so gona try this =) how many of each minion you use?

1 Skeletal Brute
4 Skeletal Reavers
2 SKeletal Frost Mages
2 Skeletal Storm Mages
1 Skeletal Cleric
2 Skeletal Warriors
1 Infernal Hound

Looks like a fun build. Can you update the mobalytics? seems to be down for some reason.