Witch early is F weak

Currently a2 im struggling at end boss,very very low dmg.On my monk and sorc i blasted through these,i'm using online guides for everyone so nothing fancy.
I know witch gets stronger at later levels but holy fuck it is depressing to play rn.

I found witch way easier early on than merc. Though maybe that was because it's the second char and I could afford to blow hundreds of gold on equipment.
She does have a potential issue with mobility, though, due to not having as much cast speed early on.
Wonder what the average verdict on the early game for classes is.

I don't like how you're almost forced to use SRS. Non SRS witch feels awful.

Youre using flame wall with fortress and arsonists? Cuz that builds busted good for me and im in a2

even srs+arsonists are bleak to other classes. My second rtun with witch was much more successful than 1st - i just skip all minion staff until 58+ levels.

How to level witch:
1. strugle to the city with worst starting gems;
2. get sparks asap - they oblitirate screens.
3. get flamefall asap - spars even stronger.
4. srs is next level step - cast 2 walls to get 10 srs, cast sparks, repeat;
*also you can use enfeeble.
5. get detonate dead (a2, 22 lvl, 7lvl gem) -> sparks 1st, detonate dead after someone dies.
6. get sacrifice (58lvl, 14lvl spiritgem), respec into mass minions with meatshield to detonate dead them.
DONE.

PS: i have 92 infernalist with 20+9 gemlvl 6link 16 archers, and my best clearing tool is still lvl7 detonate dead with 0 spellpower.
The minions do little damage, little aoe and are very clunky - they are slow, the refuse attack enemies you are not looking at, they prefer to stuck in doorways etc.
And they cost spirit - you basically softlocked out of meta-gems and auras because you will lose your firepower.
And there is no other ways to scale them other than +minion levels and quantity (+spirit). Getting +5 scepter suffix requires 81 ilvl base (t16), and 1/81 chance to roll. You also want at least 50%+ spirit preffix (3/79 chance to roll). Combining just only those 2 stats it's 1:2133 to drop it on t16+ maps.

It's just better go full caster/ranger build atm.

Witch is actually better in every way early on than a pure sorc. Why?

Well first you have nodes that boost minion damage AND spell damage, just about the same amount as a sorc gets. The reason this matters is even if a sorc uses SRS.....they do significantly less damage because of the better witch nodes.

You can literally ONLY use SRS as a witch and go pure caster early on. No difference between them and sorcs as far as spell potential (other than SRS rocking for witches).

That being said, you can grab a sceptre and wand (focus and wand for sorc) and still have high spell damage. The sceptre can have skeleton warriors with instability and meat shield on them, and you can use detonate dead on them for high damage (on top of your own high spell damage).

Then go infernalist after the first trial and get your free doggo, which not only does good damage, but takes damage for you.

Long term once you start getting spirit on more equipment etc, and especially once you get the +spirit node in your ascension, you can float a decent minion army, but you don't need to take a ton of minion nodes to make it pay off.

Once you get clerics, you don't need the nodes that make minions resummon as fast anymore. More max health is nice, and there are a few easy nodes to get, but other than the reduced spirit cost node towards the top of the map, you don't need to specialize in minion nodes that much to make it work.

That means you can mostly build your character like a sorc, focusing on high damage. You still end up with lots of nice distractions that can actually do good damage with your minions, but it's more like just a really strong side bonus lol.

Damage potential from spells between witch and sorc is very close, even late game, depending on how you build your character. The difference is witch has more/better minion options. SrS alone stays relevent through the whole game, and adds significant damage compared to a pure sorc. You could literally NEVER take any minion nodes other than the beggining damage/spell damage nodes by witch, and SRS would STILL be a great advantage/bonus late game.

Witch can be one of the easiest plays through the early game (act 1). Just need a decent wand with +spell damage and +elemental damage of your choice (believe fire is actually the easiest to get +skills on with a wand, and it works well in combo with SRS). Try and get body armor with spirit on it if you can but it's not the end of the world if you can't. Same with ammy. More spirit is nice but it's not mandatory at all. Focus on 1 element (or two if you really want).

Arc early on is extremely easy to destroy everything with, especially in combo with orb of storms. Another good combo, better for bosses than arc, is frost bolts and cold snap. Cast a bunch frost bolts and cold snap em on the boss.

Use the reduced AOE + damage support and no crit + damage supports on cold snap and it's DPS gets to be like 3500 or something crazy even in act 1. It'll destroy bosses fast.

Arc by itself (especially if you focus on lightning damage a bit in your tree and on your eq), can just walk through the first 3 acts while you blast everything away. If it's a huge group (dreadnaughts etc), drop an orb of storms (surrounded by a wall of fire with fortress..which gets your SRS out) and everything is blown away.

Basically Witch has everything Sorc has, but more. Only big diff is it's harder (but not impossible) to use the staves with spells on them. You can still use it, just no other summons (or very few if you have spirit on your armor/ammy) besides SRS.

Still staff with with SRS is >>> Sorc with same equipment.

So Witch is basically always better, and it has significantly better ascension bonuses. The doggo alone is like a free spell that ignites everything while reducing damage you take significantly. Compare that to any of the sorcs first or second choices from ascension. There is no comparison between Witch ascensions and sorc (Blood mage is also insane in combo with a crit spell build....not focusing on minions very much, but just like before, you still have SRS.

Anyway witch is sick.

guys hes following guide its easy 1:1 comparison