SIGN UP

I want to get information about activities, sales and personal offers

or continue with social networks

twitch google steam reddit discord
Already have an account?

LOG IN

Remember me Forgot your password?

or continue with social networks

twitch google steam reddit discord
Not a member? Sign up now
Back

A Detailed Guide On How To Craft The Golembrand Witch In Path Of Exile 3.23

Feb 05, 2024

I'll guide you through the process of crafting a Golembrand Witch - a remarkably adaptable and straightforward minion build in Path of Exile 3.23. With no prerequisite gear necessary, it serves as an excellent choice for a league starter or as a foundational build for those eager to experiment with the latest transfigured spell gems.

Stock up on plenty of POE Currency to successfully finish this captivating build.

A Detailed Guide On How To Craft The Golembrand Witch In Path Of Exile 3.23

How It Works

You’ll have 4 Golems. However, they’re just buff bots and get automatically resummoned if they die. That’s what I meant earlier when I said it was a minion build. Originally, I was going to use Storm Brand of Indecision. If you do choose to use that, just know that your damage will struggle to push deep into the endgame. Instead, you can swap over to Penance Brand, particularly the new Penance Brand of Dissipation, and immediately steamroll Elder Slayers and Pinnacle bosses. In fact, you could even make a fire or a cold variant of this build, but this guide is only going to focus on the primary lightning version.

Damage & Resistance

The key to your damage is having a gigantically overpowered lightning exposure and applying it easily on every single cast with Wave of Conviction. Not only do you get the inherent exposure from Wave of Conviction, but your ascendancy Mastermind of Discord will further lower enemy resistances by another 25%.

Path Of Exile 3.23 Mastermind of Discord

You can head to the Wildwood and pick up Charms that will push another 7% per Charm. As you’re also using lightning skills, you can toss down an Orb of Storms with Hextouch to apply conductivity without ever having to cast it yourself. Basically, nothing will ever be able to resist your lightning damage with this build.

Defensively, this build has far more toughness and sustain than it has any business having. You will have immediate mediocre armor total, but the massively added physical damage reduction from your Chaos Golem buff will make you a very tanky caster.

Gear

Then we will discuss POE Items. You’re going to be wearing Templar armor with a caster shield and either using Wand or Scepter. You’re still going to want to find all the traditional caster stats like increased spell gem level, added lightning damage, and increased damage. However, the main stat that you’re going to want to chase is increased cast speed. Your brands are your primary source of damage, and you want them firing as often as possible.

Swiftbrand Support

If you’re using Penance Brand of Dissipation, this actually brings up a very weird conflict with the Swiftbrand Support. If you were using Storm Brand or Armageddon Brand, Swiftbrand is an automatic include because it simply equates to more damage at the cost of needing to recast the brand more often. Penance Brand of Dissipation is different, because of the innate energy mechanic.

The vast majority of your Penance Brand damage is going to come from pulses at 20 energy. Swiftbrand will get you to 20 energy faster, but it has a disproportionately harsher penalty on the duration of your brand. Your damage ramps up much faster, but you get proportionally fewer activations at 20 energy.

Path of Exile 3.23 Swiftbrand Support

The key to understanding Swiftbrand with Penance Brand of Dissipation is knowing your damage uptime. If you are in any situation where you can just sit mostly still and cast your rotation, then Swiftbrand is a great choice and it will significantly increase your damage. On the other hand, if you’re doing something like a long boss fight that requires a lot of movement, then it’s best to drop Swiftbrand because you’re not going to maintain the necessary uptime to make it worth using.

Support Gems & Auras

Besides Swift brand, which you will want to use, you will also use the physical to Lightning, faster casting, lightning penetration, and Spellblade Support on Wave of Conviction. You’re going to use physical to Lightning, Arcane Surge, and Innervate on Orb of Storms. You’ll use Hextouch and Conductivity. You also have an optional fourth link here that honestly doesn’t really matter. You could put something like a minion support on your Golem or something on Orb of Storms, or leave it empty. It honestly doesn’t make much of a difference, so I just use increased AOE on there.

You also get to aura stack, though you won’t get to add in your final aura until you’ve gotten an Enlightened gem. You’ll use Clarity, Zealotry, Determination, and Herald of Thunder. The reason that you’re using Zealotry instead of Wrath is because the added crit helps smooth out Elemental Overload, and the consecrated ground is just great to passively generate.

Early Gameplay & Level Up

If you want to play a Golembrand Witch, all you really need to do is just make a Witch and start playing. Early on, you can use pretty much whatever Lightning spell you want, whether it’s Lightning Tendrils or Spark. Whatever you’re going to want to get, Orb of Storms after you finish the Breaking Some Eggs quest. Once you hit the Cavern of Wrath, swap out your original Lightning spell so that you have Arc, Storm Brand, and Orb of Storms.

Path of Exile 3.23 Breaking Some Eggs quest

But one thing that’s a little unfortunate in this build is that you don’t get Wave of Conviction until Act 2, Penance Brand until Act 3, or your Golems until Act 4. Early on, this build feels like a very generic and honestly pretty mediocre caster. But then, it just turns on right as you head into Act 5. Because of that, you do kind of want to focus on your damage early, because your damage can be quite mediocre.

Passive Tree

To level up your passive tree, take the left-hand path out of the witch starting area and then cut in to take Arcanist’s Dominion. Go up to take Lightning Walker, then head across to the left and down to the Templar area to take Discipline and Training, Holy Dominion, and Light of Divinity. Cut over to take the Runebinder keystone, as well as the Runesmith cluster. Take Quick Recovery, Heart and Soul, and Practical Application. Before you develop upward, you’re going to want to go all the way to take Commander.

As soon as you get those Golem skill gems at the end of Act 4, you want to summon 3 Golems right away. Once you have that Golem Commander, then you’re going to want to develop the left-hand side and go up to take Spiritual Aid. Then cut in on this side to take Elemental Overload. Once you have Spiritual Aid, Elemental Overload, and your Golems, now is the time to focus on your defense. You can take Faith in Steel, Sanctum of Thought, and then cut down to take Combat Stamina and the less crit damage taken Mastery. Then cut in to take Constitution and Iron Will.

Now, you’re going to want to get your auras going. Develop up and take the Sovereignty cluster. Then develop and take Deep Thought. But more importantly, take the Mastery, which gives you 12% increased mana reservation efficiency.

The build is fully set up, so you can choose to simply fill in the rest of the build as you’d want.

Ascendancies & Wildwood

For your ascendancies, you’re going to want to take Liege of the Primordial first to get that third Golem. Then, Elements are second so that you can summon all 4. Whether you take Bastion of Elements or Mastermind of Discord for the third is actually up to you. The choice is just whether you want defense or offense first.

Path Of Exile 3.23 Liege of the Primordial

For the Wildwood, you’re going to want to head in and follow blue wisps to get to the Primal Huntress so that you can use Charms. I haven’t had enough experience using all the different charm effects to fully test this, but I regret focusing on the increased effect of golem buff Charms.

You’re going to want to get at least one charm that has Power Charge on critical. But then you’re also going to want to push and find Charms that further empower your exposure. This is the stat that I should have been seeking out when I started finding charm arms. Also, note that these Charm effects stack with your ascendancy Mastermind of Discord.

Final Thought

The beauty of this build is just how much borrowed power level you get from having those 4 Golems active. You get a giant boatload of free stats, and because of that, you just dive right into the endgame.

For anyone looking to test out the new transfigured brands or other transfigured spell gems, anyone who’s starting Affliction League late, or anyone who’s just looking for a nice comfy easy build with zero required pre-farm, this Golem brand Witch is perfect for you.

Tags:

Next: How About This Tornado Shot Deadeye Build In Path Of Exile 3.23?
Previous: Follow These 8 Strategies To Conquer Act 1 In Path Of Exile 3.23
Connecting to online customer service, please wait.

.