If you’re diving into Path of Exile 2’s Rise of the Abyssals league, let me tell you straight — the Witch Infernalist minion setup is wild. Not your run-of-the-mill summoner here. It’s more like you’ve got front-row seats to a constant firework show. You send in packs of skeletal pyros and ghostly bombers, and they just tear through crowds before you’re even close enough to see what dropped. No more finger-cramping spam casting or standing toe-to-toe with bosses. You hang back, watch the chaos unfold, and rack up loot. It’s honestly up there with my favourite builds in years of ARPG grinding, especially once you’ve got it rolling with some decent PoE 2 Currency behind it.
The real meat of it comes from the Infernalist ascendancy. It cranks your minions into overdrive with Unholy Might, loading them up with extra chaos damage. Sure, Necromantic Conduit feels like a pain early on thanks to the mana drain, but you’ll fix that quickly with a few key passive points. Once Pain Offering is in the mix, it’s ridiculous — enemies just melt. The core squad starts with Skeletal Arsonists linked to Minion Damage and Feeding Frenzy so they’ll go hunting for trouble. For big targets, you drop in some Vaal Guard Bombers via Bind Spectre. I like having Skeletal Brutes around for the Intimidate debuff, and Skeletal Frost Mages for those rare moments when you actually need to slow things down.
The passive tree’s about as straightforward as it gets. Start near the Witch node cluster grabbing every bit of minion life and damage you can. You’ll hit stuff like Profane Commander and Relentless Fallen — these are must-haves, no skipping. As your horde grows, you’ll bank more Spirit and mana sustain. Endgame’s when you start pumping points into Energy Shield so you’re basically a commander in an impenetrable bunker. For jewels, chase anything ticking the boxes of minion damage, chaos scaling, or that tasty +1 to Maximum Number of Spectres.
Gear isn’t expensive to kick things off. Any sceptre with +1 to Level of all Minion Skill Gems does fine, plus a body armour stacked with life and resists. As drops and trades ramp up, slap on Bones of Ullr boots for extra Spirit and an Enfolding Dawn amulet to power your Arsonists. Later, Ventor’s Gamble rings pour in Spirit and pair beautifully with a Darkness Enthroned belt loaded with abyss jewels. Always get resists sorted first, then pile on gem levels, Spirit, and flat minion damage.
Playing it feels effortless but exciting. You push through maps at speed while explosions pop off-screen. Boss runs are a simple loop — land your curses like Despair, trigger Pain Offering, direct your squad, and watch the health bar plummet fast. It’s a build that nails both visual impact and raw efficiency, and it chews through anything Rise of the Abyssals throws your way. Once you’ve seen an entire screen chain-detonate thanks to your crew, you’ll get why I switched and never looked back — it’s that good. And if you want to stack your endgame potential further, grabbing a few smart trades when you poe2 divine orb buy can make all the difference.
