Understood! I will design a completely unique Infernalist Witch build that deviates significantly from the current meta while maximizing its power in Path of Exile 2's latest state. This will ensure that it is not just a slight variation of existing builds but rather a truly innovative, high-performance setup. I'll get back to you with a full breakdown including skills, gear, passive tree, mechanics, and why it stands out.

Core Concept & Mechanics

Demonic Bonecaster – a high-powered Infernalist Witch that forgoes the usual minion spams and ignite-stacking in favor of bone-shattering physical spells and self-sacrificial buffs. This build’s uniqueness comes from combining underutilized Bone magic with the Infernalist’s Demon Form, creating a playstyle that feels like a melee necromancer artillery rather than a traditional fire summoner. We leverage new mechanics like Demonic Possession (Infernalist’s Demon Form) and Pyromantic Pact (mana replacement) in unconventional ways, alongside Soul Offering (a self-buff ritual) and Bone spells that most Infernalists ignore. The result is a high-risk, high-reward build that delivers massive burst damage and crowd control while remaining tankier than the typical glass-cannon Witch. Unlike meta Infernalists that lean on ignite DoT or endless minion hordes, this build turns you into a spell-slinging juggernaut: impaling your own minions to empower your damage, pinning enemies in place with bone prisons, and unleashing empowered bone shards augmented by demonic power.

Key mechanics that set this build apart:

• Demon Form (Demonic Possession) – Instead of using Demon Form merely to augment ignite or trigger loops, we use it to amplify all our spell damage and cast speed for direct damage skillswww.reddit.commobalytics.gg. Demon Form even grants a huge +6 to all gem levels (an often overlooked boost), turning modest skills into endgame juggernauts. We mitigate its life-draining drawback with smart sustain (leech/regen) so we can stay in demon form longer and safely.
• Bone Magic & Physical Spells – We capitalize on the Witch’s “occult” bone-themed skillswww.reddit.comthat are rarely seen in Infernalist builds. Skills like Bone Cage and Bonestorm deal physical damage and provide utility (pinning or armor shredding), bringing a completely new damage type (Physical) into the Infernalist toolkit. This lets us smash enemies with raw hit damage and even apply bleeds, rather than slowly burning them. By partially converting or augmenting this physical damage into fire/chaos, we create hybrid scaling that most meta builds don’t utilize.
• Soul Offering (Self-Sacrifice Buff) – Instead of relying on minions purely for damage, we sacrifice a summoned Skeleton on a bone spike to empower ourselveswww.sportskeeda.com. Soul Offering is an underused skill that grants a “powerful Spell Damage buff” as long as the impaled skeleton remainswww.sportskeeda.com. This flavorful mechanic essentially turns your summons into damage steroids for you, a synergy absent in ignite or trigger builds. Maintaining this buff pushes our DPS well above what unbuffed meta builds achieve.
• Pyromantic Pact (Infernal Flame) – We embrace the new Pyromantic Pact mechanic but in a novel way. Pyromantic Pact replaces mana with Infernal Flame – normally a tool for ignite builds to spam spells at the cost of self-immolationmobalytics.gg. We repurpose it to cast our expensive bone spells freely without mana constraints, carefully managing the gauge to avoid the massive self-hit when it maxes out. This enables sustained channeling of Bonestorm or back-to-back casts of heavy spells that other builds couldn’t afford. It’s a “borrowed power” from ignite Infernalists, but used here to fuel physical spell burst rather than damage-over-time.
• Loyal Hellhound – As our only companion minion, the Infernalist’s Hellhound provides a defensive buffer and supplemental fire damage. It soaks 20% of incoming damage for us and burns nearby foesmobalytics.gg. Unlike minion-centric builds that field 10+ summons, we run just the Hellhound (and a temporary sacrificial skeleton) – making this more of a battle-mage build with a pet. The Hellhound’s damage interception greatly improves survivability, allowing us to handle the self-damage from Demon Form and Pyromantic Pact more safely.

Overall, the core concept is to play an Infernalist Witch in a completely new way – as a demonic spell berserker. You’ll juggle self-buffs and self-damage for explosive results, instead of passively watching minions or waiting for ignites to tick down. This unique approach yields burst damage and crowd control that rival (and in some cases exceed) the standard fire/DoT Witch, all while feeling fresh and off-meta.

Skill & Playstyle Breakdown

Primary Skills & Setup: This build revolves around a combo of bone spells for offense, supported by curses and utility spells to control the battlefield. Here’s the breakdown:

• Bonestorm (Main Damage Skill) – Channelled Physical Spell. This is our primary attack spell, acting as a fiery bone shrapnel cannon. Bonestorm lets you channel to summon a swarm of bone spikes in the air, then on release it fires them at enemies in a barrage of explosions

  www.sportskeeda.com. Each spike hit lodges shrapnel into enemies, causing the next hit against them to deal extra damage, and if you have any Power Charges, Bonestorm consumes them for much larger explosionswww.sportskeeda.com. In practice, a 1–2 second channel of Bonestorm will carpet an area with explosions and obliterate clustered packs. For tougher enemies or bosses, you’ll want to have a few Power Charges built up (more on how below) and channel fully – the release will generate a massive burst hit that often one-shots rares. Because Bonestorm’s damage is largely physical, it ignores elemental resistances and can inflict Bleeding if you use a support like Chance to Bleed. This gives sustained DPS even after the spikes hit. We support Bonestorm with gems like Controlled Destruction (huge more spell damage) and Arcane Surge (for a spell damage/cast speed buff – note: if using Pyromantic Pact with no mana cost, swap Arcane Surge for another multiplier). Additionally, use Chance to Bleed or Brutality to fully exploit physical scaling – Brutality will cut elemental damage but greatly boosts pure phys if you’re focusing on Bleed. Overall, Bonestorm is our crowd-clearer and burst nuke wrapped in one skill. Its underutilized status in meta builds means enemies won’t know what hit them!

• Bone Cage (Utility & Crowd Control) – We incorporate Bone Cage as a defensive and setup skill. Casting Bone Cage raises a ring of bone spikes around you; any enemy that tries to move through gets damaged and Pinned in place

  www.sportskeeda.com. Use this proactively: if a melee boss or mob pack is rushing you, drop Bone Cage to freeze them in their tracks. Pinned enemies count as stationary, which synergizes if you inflicted Bleed (stationary targets take full Bleed damage, maximizing our bleed DPS). Even beyond Bleed, pinning foes makes it easy to land every bone spike on them and prevents melee enemies from reaching you. Bone Cage’s damage is minor (though it does hit and can shred some life), but its true value is the crowd control – essentially acting like a pseudo-frost nova that roots enemies. This is massive for survivability in an Infernalist who otherwise is vulnerable while channeling. By using Bone Cage, you create a safe zone to stand and channel Bonestorm or cast other spells while enemies are stuck on the cage perimeter. It’s a new mechanic (Pin) that few builds utilize currently, giving you a unique way to trivialize dangerous packs. Cast Bone Cage on tough rares or whenever you need breathing room; it has a cooldown, so use it at key moments (you can reduce this cooldown with supports like Second Wind if desired).

• Soul Offering (Self-Buff) – This is the build’s signature buff ritual and an integral part of the playstyle. Soul Offering lets you impale one of your own minions (a Skeleton) on a bone spike, which grants you a powerful spell damage buff as long as that spike remains

  www.sportskeeda.com. Uniquely, this buff does not affect minions – it’s purely to empower you, the Witchwww.sportskeeda.com. In practical terms, you’ll want to have a source of disposable minions to sacrifice. The simplest method is carrying a Summon Skeletons gem (or Unearth, which creates temporary skeletons from corpseswww.sportskeeda.com). Before a big fight or whenever your Soul Offering buff falls off, summon a skeleton and immediately use Soul Offering on it. You’ll see a bone totem appear with the skeleton skewered on it – as long as that totem is up, you gain a substantial more spell damage multiplier (and possibly cast speed). This buff is huge for our DPS, effectively giving us a temporary “power mode.” You should keep this up as much as possible, especially during boss fights. Note that the bone spike totem can be killed by enemies (it counts as a minion itself), which would end the buff, so try to position it slightly off to the side or behind your Bone Cage so it’s less likely to be targeted. Recast as needed. Soul Offering is an underused mechanic in Witch builds right now – most Infernalists use Pain Offering or Bone Offering to help their minionswww.sportskeeda.comwww.sportskeeda.com, but we turn the Offering inward for personal power. This self-sacrifice theme defines the playstyle: you trade a bit of setup (and a minion’s life) for a significant boost in damage output.

• Curses (Vulnerability & Others) – To amplify our damage further and debilitate enemies, we use curses with clever timing. Vulnerability is the prime choice: it’s a curse that makes enemies take increased physical damage and even causes hits to ignore some of the enemy’s Armour

  www.sportskeeda.com. Since our primary damage is physical, this greatly boosts every Bonestorm hit and any bleed effects. Cast Vulnerability on tougher enemies or packs right before unleashing Bonestorm for maximum effect. It has a short cast time and a brief delay, so you can cast it while enemies are pinned in Bone Cage with minimal risk. Against bosses, keep them cursed consistently – you might link Vulnerability with Blasphemy to turn it into an aura if you can manage the reservation (though with Pyromantic Pact removing mana, you might need to link it to your Spirit or life via a gem like Arrogance). Optionally, for additional utility, you could run Enfeeble instead of Vulnerability if you need more defense – Enfeeble makes enemies deal less damagewww.sportskeeda.com, useful if you’re feeling squishy. However, given our offense-first approach, Vulnerability is recommended to maximize our physical burst. If you choose to hybridize damage types (explained later), you might also incorporate Despair (for chaos damage boost) or Flammability (if converting to fire) as secondary curses. Generally, one strong curse (Vulnerability) is enough due to limited curse slots, so use it wisely.

• Infernalist Class Skills: Demon Form and Hellhound. Demon Form is essentially our “ultimate” skill – when activated via the Demonic Possession node, the Witch transforms into a demon, gaining massive increased damage and cast speed, plus +6 to all spell gem levels

  mobalytics.gg. In play, you will enter Demon Form at the start of every major fight or tough encounter. It has a duration and causes you to take a damage-over-time effect on yourself while activemobalytics.gg, so it must be used strategically. Thanks to our sustain (detailed later), we aim to stay in Demon Form for as long as possible to fully benefit from its buffs – essentially treating it as a near-permanent stance during combat. The boost in cast speed makes channeling Bonestorm much faster (you reach full charge quicker), and the damage increase along with +6 levels turns all your skills up to 11. This is how we keep pace with (and surpass) other builds’ damage – by operating in a buffed state most of the time. Just be cautious if your health starts dropping too low; if Demon Form would kill you, it will end early, so re-stabilize before reactivating. Support Demon Form with Second Wind (gives an extra charge or faster cooldown recovery) and Ingenuity (faster cooldown recovery) so you can re-enter form quickly if it ever dropsgame8.co. Meanwhile, Loyal Hellhound is your passive companion – you don’t “cast” it like a normal spell; it’s granted by the ascendancy. Once you have it, the Hellhound will be present to taunt and burn enemies, and absorb 20% of damage that would hit youmobalytics.gg. In playstyle terms, the Hellhound is low-maintenance: it automatically protects you and adds a bit of extra fire damage on enemies (which can even ignite them since all your damage, including the hound’s, contributes to Ignite due to Bringer of Flame – effectively giving you some free ignite DPS without investing in itmobalytics.gg). You don’t control the Hellhound directly, but be mindful of its positioning – try to keep it alive during tough fights, as losing the hound means losing 20% damage redirection. Fortunately, its 20% damage share greatly reduces burst damage you take, which encourages us to fight in the thick of things with Demon Form active.

• Optional Secondary Damage Skill: While Bonestorm is our workhorse, you can include a secondary spell for specific situations. A popular choice is Detonate Dead – even though we aren’t a corpse-focused summoner, we inevitably create corpses (from killed enemies and our own expired skeletons). Detonate Dead can be used to explode those corpses for supplemental AoE fire/physical damage

  www.sportskeeda.com. It’s a nice one-button screen clear if you just wiped out a pack with Bonestorm and want to finish off stragglers or chain-explode a large pile of corpses (which also synergizes with any Contagion or Ignite left on them, spreading further chaos). Another option is Hexblast for single-target: if you find a boss that is particularly physical-resistant, you could switch to Hexblast (with Despair curse) for a heavy Chaos nukewww.sportskeeda.com– but note, Hexblast is more meta and relies on curses. In keeping with our unique theme, Detonate Dead fits better as it plays off the occult/bone motif. Finally, movement skill: take a mobility skill like Flame Dash or the new Blink spell to move in and out of combat. You’ll use it to reposition out of dangerous ground effects or to quickly gather enemies into your Bone Cage. Mobility is key since channeling locks you in place; a quick dash right after releasing Bonestorm can dodge projectiles or get you out of melee range of pinned enemies.

Playstyle Summary: Begin by summoning a disposable Skeleton and hitting Soul Offering – your damage buff is up. Cast Bone Cage as enemies approach to pin them down, then activate Demon Form and immediately start channeling Bonestorm. Release a volley of bone shards into the mob, obliterating them. Against tougher enemies, apply Vulnerability first, then channel a longer Bonestorm with Power Charges (gained from kills or Profane Ritual if you slotted it) for a massive hit. Stay in Demon Form as long as safe, using Hellhound’s protection and your life leech/regeneration to offset the self-Degeneration. If an enemy pack survives the initial barrage, weave in a Detonate Dead to finish off corpses or re-cast Bone Cage to pin down any that got through. The rotation is dynamic: you’ll be alternating between casting support skills (Bone Cage, curse, offering) and unleashing destructive channels. Unlike a turret-style meta build, you’re actively controlling the fight – locking enemies in place, buffing yourself, then crushing them in one fell swoop. It feels engaging and very powerful, as you see huge chunks of enemy health disappear in direct response to your actions (no waiting for ignite ticks or AI minions). The Demon Form + Bonestorm combo especially makes you feel like a boss yourself – a flaming skeletal juggernaut mowing down everything in sight with whirling spikes.

Talent/Passive Tree Strategy

Building the passive tree for this Infernalist deviates from the usual Witch paths, since we emphasize physical spell power, survivability, and efficient self-sustain. Here’s how to allocate your passives and ascendancy points for maximum effect:

Ascendancy Points (Infernalist): We prioritize nodes that enhance our self-buff playstyle and damage output rather than the generic ignite/minion boosters. Key Infernalist nodes to take:

• Demonic Possession (Demon Form) – This is the cornerstone ascendancy node that grants you Demon Formmobalytics.gg. Take this first. It’s a game-changer: +% increased damage, cast speed, and that +6 to skill gem levels while transformed gives us a massive power spike. Since we plan to mitigate the DoT drawback, the benefits far outweigh the risk.
• Pyromantic Pact – Despite not being a traditional ignite build, we grab Pyromantic Pact to completely eliminate mana issuesmobalytics.gg. This node replaces your mana with Infernal Flame (a special gauge). With it, our spells cost Infernal Flame instead of mana, meaning we can channel or spam spells freely. We take advantage of this unique mechanic to ignore mana stats on gear and passives, focusing on damage and survival instead. The downside is that reaching full Infernal Flame hits you for your max life+ES as fire damagemobalytics.gg– our tree will include measures to survive this (fire resistance, high life/ES ratio, etc.). Pyromantic Pact effectively lets us reserve our entire mana pool for auras or ignore mana completely, which is a huge quality-of-life and DPS gain (no need to stop for mana regen or invest in mana nodes).
• Bringer of Flame – We take this if we are utilizing any ignite at all (and even if not heavily, it’s still worth it). Bringer of Flame makes it so all damage from you and your minions contributes to Ignite chance and magnitude as long as you’re not low on Infernal Flamemobalytics.gg. Practically, this means every Bonestorm hit and Hellhound burn can ignite enemies, giving a nice burning DoT on top of our hit damage. We’re not stacking ignite as our main kill, but extra damage is extra damage – and since we tend to keep our Infernal Flame mid-level (not low) to avoid the big explosion, Bringer of Flame is active most of the time. This essentially “converts” some of our physical/cold/chaos damage into fire damage-over-time for free. Those ignites soften up enemies and can even finish off survivors, all without specific investment. It synergizes especially well if you decide to partially scale fire (e.g., taking a Physical-to-Fire Support on Bonestorm – then Bringer of Flame boosts that ignite significantly). If you find you truly never want to ignite, you could skip this for another minor node, but generally it’s strong utility.
• Loyal Hellhound – We definitely allocate this ascendancy node to get our Hellhound companionmobalytics.gg. The 20% damage redirection is effectively a 20% increase to EHP against hits, which is huge for a build that willingly takes self-damage and stands in melee range to channel. The Hellhound also adds constant fire DOT on nearby enemies, which, combined with Bringer of Flame, means it’s spreading ignites and contributing some damage while you focus on casting. This node greatly improves our survivability (especially against big boss slams or random projectiles) by acting as a pseudo-guard. It’s essentially a must-have for any Infernalist not doing a full glass-cannon approach.

These four nodes form the core of our ascendancy. Notably, we skip some typical Infernalist passives like generic minion damage boosts or ignite duration nodes that don’t directly benefit our strategy. Our points are precious, so we focus on the transformational mechanics (demon form, pact, hound) and the ignite-enabler since it synergizes passively.

Passive Tree (Regular Passives): On the main passive tree, our pathing will be quite different from a standard Witch. We aim to pick up:

• Physical/Generic Spell Damage Clusters: Start by taking the Witch’s spell damage and cast speed nodes near the start, but as soon as possible, branch into any clusters that mention Physical Damage, Physical Spell Damage, or Generic Damage Over Time if scaling bleed. For example, “Force Shaper” and “Serpent Tongue” (if they exist similar to PoE1) in the Shadow area give physical and chaos damage boosts. The Shadow side of the tree often has hybrid physical+chaos nodes which are perfect for us (since we do primarily physical, with a side of chaos from things like Detonate Dead or even the chaos portion of Bonestorm’s corpse explosions). Another key cluster could be “Cruelty” if implemented – granting more damage over time for skills that also hit, which fits our hit+Bleed ignite hybrid. Also, grab “Heart of Darkness” or other occult damage clusters if they give generic spell damage that isn’t element-specific. Essentially, we diverge from the Witch’s elemental focus and scoop up anything boosting untyped spell damage or physical damage on spells. Don’t worry if some of these clusters are slightly off the direct Int path; the investment pays off in scaling our underused damage type to competitive levels.

• Critical Strike Nodes (Selective): Unlike many Infernalist Witches, we do consider scaling crit – but carefully. The Infernalist ascendancy doesn’t specifically boost crit (that’s more the Bloodmage’s territory

  www.reddit.com), but we can still benefit from base crit on our spells. Bonestorm has multiple hits, which can crit independently, and a big crit on the final explosion means a huge bleed if using Crimson Dance, etc. Pick up “Doom Cast” in the Witch area (increased spell crit chance and multiplier) and “Assassination” cluster in Shadow if within reach (or any new crit clusters for spells). However, we do not go overboard on crit to the detriment of other stats – it’s a secondary focus. If you find your gear provides sufficient crit, you could skip some passive crit nodes. The idea is to reach a respectable crit chance (say 30-40%) so that many of our Bonestorm spikes will crit, resulting in higher burst and stronger ailments (a crit bleed/ignite does more damage). Remember, we likely run Controlled Destruction Support, which lowers crit chance in exchange for big damage – our passive crit nodes help overcome that penalty so we still crit often. In summary, invest in crit up to a point where diminishing returns kick in, then shift to other stats.

• Life, Energy Shield, and Regen: This build intentionally stacks both Life and Energy Shield to capitalize on Pyromantic Pact and Demon Form mechanics. We want a healthy life pool for general survival and to sustain Demon Form’s DoT, and a decent Energy Shield buffer to soak the Pyromantic Pact explosion when Infernal Flame maxes out. Key passive pickups: “Melding” cluster (increases to both life and ES), “Arcane Will” if it gives ES on hit or similar (depending on PoE2’s tree changes), and any notable that gives +% life plus some ES bonus. Additionally, get +% Life Regeneration nodes – these are often on the Templar/Marauder side. One valuable notable could be “Holy Dominion” or “Discipline and Training” for life, and “Primal Manifestation” if it exists for regen. Even a small 1.5% life regen from a Marauder node is worth pathing to, because Demon Form will continuously drain your life – regen directly counters that. If there’s a Keystone like “Zealot’s Oath” (converts life regen to ES regen), avoid it – we want regen on life primarily (since Demon Form drains life, not ES). Instead, consider “Ghost Reaver” if present, which allows life leech to recover ES – that can help our leech from spell damage keep ES topped off after a Pyromantic Pact self-hit. However, Ghost Reaver is only worth it if you have a source of life leech; otherwise skip. Lastly, go for big life% clusters: witch normally doesn’t get many fat life nodes, so don’t shy from traveling to the Scion life wheel or picking up “Barbarism” near Marauder (it gives life and +% to Fire res, which is double-useful here). The aim is to get a life pool in the 1500–2000 range by midgame and 2500+ by endgame (assuming PoE2 values; these are moderate numbers compared to pure life builds, but we supplement with ~1000 ES or more). By mixing life and ES, we create a durable effective HP that can take a beating.

• Keystones and Notables: A few noteworthy passives to consider: “Eldritch Battery” (if present) – this would normally convert ES to protect mana, but with Pyromantic Pact we have no mana. Not needed. “Pain Attunement” – more spell damage when on Low Life. We actually do not want to be on Low Life (low life typically means ≤30% life) because that would disable Bringer of Flame’s ignite bonus and is generally dangerous with Demon Form (it would cancel if you hit 1 life). So skip Pain Attunement unless you intentionally run a low-life variant (not recommended here). “Crimson Dance” – if Bleed is a big part of your damage (you invest in bleed chance and damage), consider this keystone. It allows you to apply up to 8 bleeds on a target but each bleed does less damage. Given we can attack (hit) rapidly with Bonestorm’s multiple spikes, Crimson Dance could yield higher overall bleed DPS on moving targets (bosses moving around). However, pinned targets count as stationary, which means a single strong bleed is better. Since Bone Cage pins enemies, Crimson Dance isn’t as useful – you prefer one massive bleed (which we get from a fully charged crit Bonestorm). Thus, you can avoid Crimson Dance and instead rely on a single-bleed kill (like old-school “one big bleed explosion”). “Immolation” – if there’s a notable that increases fire damage or burning based on physical, you might grab it if you do conversion. But generally, focus on physical/chaos increases first. There might also be new keystones in PoE2 like “Capacitor” for more Infernal Flame storage (mentioned in Barrier builds) – that’s more for Barrier Invocation loops, not needed here. We intentionally avoid the Barrier Invocation playstyle/meta

  www.reddit.com, so no need to invest in those passives. Instead, we look for minion-related notables that can indirectly buff us: specifically, check if “Spiritual Aid” exists (in PoE1, it causes increases to Minion Damage to also apply to you). If it does, taking minion damage nodes could double-dip to increase our spell damage. For instance, “Lord of the Dead” cluster gives minion damage – with Spiritual Aid, that becomes a spell damage boost for us, plus it might enhance our Hellhound’s damage too. This is a clever way to utilize the Witch’s natural minion nodes for a non-minion build. If those interactions hold in PoE2, definitely path through a minion wheel or two (the investment is minor and the returns for both offense and a bit of minion life are nice).

In summary, your passive tree will snake from the Witch starting area through the Shadow side (for phys/chaos damage and some crit), dip into the Marauder/Templar side (for life, fire resistance, and regen), and possibly cherry-pick a few minion buff nodes that translate into self buffs. By endgame, you should have a balanced mix of ~150-180% increased Maximum Life, a similar amount of increased ES, 100%+ increased Physical/Generic Spell Damage (from various sources), and some crit multiplier. The tree is about versatility and survival, very much in line with our off-meta philosophy. We aren’t stacking one gimmick stat (like pure ignite chance or minion quantity); we’re spreading our points to cover offense, defense, and utility evenly. This well-rounded approach ensures the build feels strong in all situations – you have the damage to melt map bosses, the durability to stand in demon form during tough encounters, and the QoL of no mana issues. It’s a different allocation than meta Infernalists, who might ignore physical damage nodes or skip regen – but it’s exactly those differences that unlock our build’s potential.

Gear Recommendations

Equipping the Demonic Bonecaster focuses on amplifying our unique damage profile (physical/chaos spells), while shoring up the self-inflicted damage and life sustain. We will mix a few key uniques with carefully chosen rare gear. Here are the gear considerations:

Weapon: Choose a Wand or Sceptre that boosts physical spell damage or generic spell skill levels. A wand can roll +1 or +2 to Physical Spell Gems (if available in PoE2 crafting), which would greatly enhance Bonestorm and Soul Offering. Look for mods like “% increased Spell Damage”, “Adds # to # Physical Damage to Spells”, and “+% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier”. An ideal unique here is Replica Bitterdream (if something similar exists in PoE2) or any unique wand that grants Physical as Extra Fire or Chaos. Since our build spans multiple damage types, a mod like “Gain 20% of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage” is huge – it effectively double-dips our scaling. If no suitable unique is available, a crafted rare with high spell damage and a trigger craft (to auto-cast a curse or utility spell) could be great for convenience. For instance, Trigger Socketed Spell on Kill can automatically Detonate Dead corpses as you clear, adding free explosions. Note: Avoid weapons that are geared solely towards ignite or minion damage (like Alberon’s Warpath was for zombies, etc.); they won’t benefit our direct damage focus. Instead, something like a Sceptre with %Fire Damage and %Physical as Fire would be useful if you lean into hybrid damage.

Shield: A shield is recommended for extra defenses (and possibly +skills). Rise of the Phoenix (Legacy) – if this classic unique shield (known for high fire resistance and +max fire res) is in PoE2, it’s a top pick. It provides +5% to maximum Fire Resistance and tons of flat life, which directly helps survive Pyromantic Pact’s self-hit and Demon Form’s fire DoT

mobalytics.gg. With Phoenix, you could achieve 80%+ fire res, meaning the self-damage from Infernal Flame “overload” is cut dramatically (taking only 20% of your life+ES instead of 25% at 75% res). Additionally, Phoenix has life regen per second, another boon for sustaining demon form. If Rise of the Phoenix is unavailable or too hard to get, look for a rare shield with +Max Fire Res (implicit or explicit), high Life, and some Energy Shield. Even +2% Max Fire Res on a shield mod is very valuable here. Other affixes to seek: Spell Damage%, Critical Chance for Spells, and resistances to cap your Cold/Lightning. A notable alternative unique is “Saffell’s Frame” (if it returns in PoE2) – it gives +4% to all max res and high spell block. Saffell’s would raise your max fire res (for self-damage mitigation) and also help vs enemy spell hits. The tradeoff is no life on it, but the defensive utility is huge. For pure offense, a Spirit Shield base with +1 to Spell skill gems and some cast speed could be used, but you’ll sacrifice survivability – we suggest sticking to a life/resistance shield since our damage is already amplified by buffs.

Body Armour: The chest piece can greatly influence survivability. We have two routes: Armor/ES hybrid chest or ES/Evasion chest, depending on what defenses you favor. A high Armor chest will reduce physical incoming hits (useful since we’ll be in melee range often and also if you accidentally trigger Pyromantic Pact explosion, armor can reduce that if any portion counts as hit – though it’s fire damage, armor doesn’t reduce elemental, so mainly for enemy physical hits). An ES chest gives a larger energy shield pool to soak self-damage. Ideally, get a hybrid Armor/ES rare with +# to maximum Life and +# to maximum ES. Influence mods to look for: “% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire” or “taken as Chaos” – if PoE2 has Veiled or influenced mods similar to PoE1, something like Incandescent Heart unique (which converts 25% elemental damage you take to chaos) could indirectly help because chaos damage typically bypasses ES but if your ES is high, not as ideal. Instead, a mod that gives physical damage taken as elemental could help vs physical hits. The most important stats on body armour are Life, %Life, flat ES, %all Res. A notable unique: Carcass Jack (if it exists) – it boosts AoE and damage of AoE skills. Bonestorm is AoE tagged

www.sportskeeda.com, so Carcass Jack’s increased area would widen our Bonestorm explosions and Bone Cage radius. It also gives life and some ES. It’s a nice offensive chest for us. Another interesting unique could be Cloak of Defiance (for Mind over Matter) but Pyromantic Pact removes mana, making MoM useless. So skip that. Given the Infernalist theme, “Chains of Command” or any minion-related chest isn’t useful for us, since we are not running a minion army. Prioritize rare chest with defensive mods and maybe bench-craft “% increased Life Recovery rate” which would amplify regen and flask healing (great for Demon Form sustain).

Helmet: Look for a helmet with +levels to specific gems or an enchant that benefits Bonestorm. If lab enchantments or crafting allow, “Bonestorm has 40% increased Explosion Damage” or “Bone Cage grants +1 extra spike ring” could exist – those would be ideal enchants. For stats, a Bonecirclet (Int helmet) with +2 to level of Minion gems could surprisingly help if it also affects Soul Offering (as it’s tagged minion perhaps due to impaling a minion). But more reliably, a helmet with high Life, some ES, resistances and possibly an affix like “Nearby Enemies have -X% to Physical Damage Reduction” (similar to legacy Eldritch implicits in PoE1) would be fantastic – essentially a pseudo-Vulnerability effect for free. Uniques worth mentioning: The Devouring Diadem – this was a PoE1 helmet that gave Eldritch Battery and feast on corpses for ES. In PoE2, if something like Devouring Diadem exists, it could synergize with Grim Feast spirit buff to auto-recover ES from corpses

gamerant.com. However, since we already have Grim Feast buff as an option, the helmet might be overkill. Crown of Eyes (if exists) makes attack damage affect spells – not directly helpful because we aren’t scaling attack damage. Martyr’s Crown maybe (just hypothesizing) could increase duration of self-buffs or something. In absence of a build-specific unique, a well-rolled rare is fine. One cool idea: use a Bone Helmet base (if PoE2 has it) which in PoE1 gave minion damage implicit – with Spiritual Aid notable, that implicit becomes “you deal increased damage”. So a rare Bone Helmet with Life, res, and that implicit would directly boost our damage thanks to our passive choice. Definitely consider that interaction.

Gloves: For gloves, Cast speed and Accuracy aren’t needed (we cast spells which always hit unless evaded due to enemy dodge, but spells typically can’t miss if not spell-suppressed by enemy). Instead, get Life, Resistances, and possibly +% Damage over Time if it applies to Bleed or Ignite (some Elder gloves in PoE1 had DoT multi). Since we do apply some ignite and bleed incidentally, a mod like “20% increased Damage over Time” benefits those effects. Also, “% increased Area Damage” is great because Bonestorm and Detonate Dead are area skills. Uniques: Asenath’s Gentle Touch (curses enemies on hit, causes corpses to explode with a delay) – interestingly, that could automate some corpse explosions and apply Temporal Chains. It’s niche, but the corpse explosion part overlaps with our Detonate Dead plan, so it could free a gem slot. However, Asenath’s lacks life. Gloves with Trigger on Spell Hit could be interesting if, say, they trigger a free Bone Offering or guard skill. If a unique pair triggers Bone Offering (shield for minions) on kill, it’s not too helpful. Focus on defensive stats here; offense can be gained via corrupting them for “curse enemies with Vulnerability on hit” – that would eliminate the need to self-cast Vulnerability. That corruption (from PoE1) on gloves would automatically curse enemies you hit with Bonestorm with Vulnerability, perfectly aligning with our damage type. If that’s obtainable in PoE2, it’s BIS for convenience and DPS.

Boots: Movement speed is key as always. Look for 30% movement speed, high Life, and resists on boots. If you can get +% Spell Suppression on boots (if the new item system allows it on hybrid bases), that helps mitigate spell damage taken – but Witch is not a Dex class, so it might be hard to stack suppression to 100%. Still, any bit helps with survivability. Uniques: Seven-League Step (for speed) probably too utility-focused. Kaom’s Stride (had life and fire damage) could be thematically fitting if reintroduced – extra fire damage helps ignites, and life is good. Another interesting unique could be Death’s Rush (in PoE1, that’s a ring, ignore that). For boots specifically, perhaps Atziri’s Step (spell dodge, life) if spells evade is needed. But likely a well-rolled rare with movespeed, life, res is sufficient. A luxury mod would be “Regenerate % of Life per second” as a suffix – this exists on some hunter-influenced boots in PoE1. Even 1% life regen on boots is great to stack with other regen. Consider enchant: something like “10% increased Movement Speed if you haven’t been hit recently” or “Regenerate 2% Life if you’ve hit an enemy recently” if those exist – pick one that enhances survivability or mobility.

Jewelry (Amulet/Rings): Here we have big opportunities to boost our build. For Amulet, +Levels to gems is king. A +1 to All Intelligence Skill Gems or +1 to Physical/Chaos Gems amulet would raise Bonestorm, Soul Offering, etc. If you can get +1 Int Gems AND +1 Strength Gems on an amulet (like a double-influence mod), that could even boost Vulnerability (Str gem) or any red gem we use. Besides levels, look for Critical Strike Multiplier, % Global Physical Damage, and of course Life and res. A great unique option is The Anvil (if it exists) for defense – but that’s more block oriented, not our focus. Instead, consider Carnage Heart (life leech, stats) – in PoE1 it gave all attributes and 2% life leech, which could solve leech for us, letting our spell damage leech life to counter demon form DoT. It also had increased damage while leeching. If Carnage Heart is in PoE2, it’s thematically and mechanically a superb choice: it covers stat requirements (Str/Dex for off-color gems like Chance to Bleed or Second Wind), provides leech (so we don’t need Vitality Siphon from Bloodmage tree), and some damage. Another notable unique is Eye of Chayula if stun is a concern (demon form DoT could make you vulnerable to stuns), but if Hellhound takes 20% of hits, stun might not be too dangerous. For Rings, we want to abuse the new Ingenuity Utility Belt synergy. The Ingenuity Belt unique (an endgame drop) massively increases bonuses from your rings

gamerant.com. If you can acquire Ingenuity (Utility Belt)gamerant.com, you’ll want rings with strong offensive/defensive implicit bonuses. For example, one ring could be a Fire Resist/%Fire Damage synthesis base – Ingenuity would boost that implicit making your fire res higher (safer Pyro Pact) and extra fire damage for ignites. The other ring could have %Life Regen implicit. There are unique rings to consider too: Stormfire (if in PoE2) would let lightning damage ignite – not directly needed unless you opted for some lightning conversion. Bloodboil gave life and freeze immunity in PoE1 – minor. Mark of the Shaper (if spells and if you wear an elder ring counterpart) could boost spell damage. But perhaps the most on-theme ring is Le Heup of All or Essence Worm – though Essence Worm for auras is moot with no mana. Circle of Nostalgia (if it exists for chaos damage) could buff chaos if you lean that way. Generally, prefer rare rings with Life, res, and added phys damage to spells. Don’t neglect attributes – get some Dexterity on gear (amulet/rings) because green support gems like Second Wind or Chance to Bleed require Dex. Also get some Strength for red gems. The belt (Ingenuity) was mentioned: if you don’t have it, a Stygian Vise with a good Abyss jewel (life, phys damage to spells, resist) is fine. But Ingenuity belt’s effect of boosting ring modsgamerant.comcan yield things like +80% increased ring life bonuses – meaning if a ring has +70 life, it’s like +126 life, very strong. It also boosts any %regen or resist on rings. It’s a late-game goal that complements our approach of stacking multiple small sources of sustain and damage.

Flasks: Flasks are crucial for an Infernalist managing self-damage. Mandatory flasks include a Ruby Flask (utility flask that grants +50% fire resistance during effect). With a Ruby flask up, your fire resistance effectively goes from 75% to ~90% (since it reduces fire damage taken by 25%, which is similar to raising max res) – this means when Pyromantic Pact triggers the self-hit, you take dramatically less damage

mobalytics.gg. It also helps mitigate the fire DoT from demon form each second. Roll the Ruby Flask with an instant recovery on low life (“Seething” prefix) or immunity to bleeding to double as a defensive flask. Next, a Basilisk Flask (if new, to grant phasing and maybe generic damage reduction) or simply a Jade/Granite Flask for evasion/armor boost during channeling (you can pop it before standing still to channel Bonestorm under fire). A Quartz Flask for Phasing + Spell suppression can be good to avoid getting surrounded or trapped – phasing lets you move through enemies (helpful if Bone Cage isn’t up). Life Flask: Always carry a Divine Life Flask with either “of Staunching” (bleed remove) or “of Heat” (freeze remove). This is your panic button if your life dips from Demon Form or a big hit – even though we have regen and leech, a quick burst heal can save you in a clutch moment (especially if Pyromantic Pact goes off at an inopportune time). With our high life pool, a Panicked Divine Life Flask (heals more when low life) could fully heal us if we ever drop below 30%. Finally, consider a Quicksilver Flask for general mobility – being able to reposition faster or kite while ignites/bleeds tick can be life-saving. You might swap this out in boss fights for something like Sulphur Flask (Consecrated ground = regen + damage), but for mapping the speed is nice.

Jewels: Socket jewels to further tailor the build. Look for jewel mods like “% increased Physical Damage”, “Spell Damage while holding a Shield”, “Cast Speed”, “Maximum Life”. If you can find a unique jewel that interacts with our mechanics, use it. For example, “Red Nightmare” in PoE1 gave endurance charge generation on block and fire res – not huge here. “Thread of Hope” could let you grab some far passive without pathing, but that depends on PoE2 passive layout. Perhaps more interestingly, if there’s a jewel that modifies Infernal Flame or Demon Form, that could be golden (for instance, a jewel that reduces damage taken from Infernal Flame at max charges or increases buff effect of Demon Form). Keep an eye out on new unique jewels introduced in PoE2; many early players might not use them if they’re tailored for off-meta mechanics. One hypothetical: a jewel that grants “Leech applies to Energy Shield” (if Ghost Reaver wasn’t easily accessible) or “Life Recovery from Flasks applies to ES during Flask Effect” – these kinds of effects would directly benefit our sustain. Also, Abyss jewels in a Stygian Vise can have flat added damage to spells (physical) and life – those are excellent for boosting Bonestorm’s base damage. Since Bonestorm hits many times, even something like “Adds 4-8 Physical Damage to Spells” on a jewel is effectively multiplied by the number of spikes, adding a lot of DPS overall.

In summary, gear for the Demonic Bonecaster is about balancing offense and defense: we pick up unconventional stat combos (e.g. physical spell damage on gear) and max fire resistance/regen to counter our self-damage. Key uniques like Rise of the Phoenix and Carnage Heart address our survivability, while others like Carcass Jack and the Ingenuity Belt

**gamerant.com**push our damage and quality of life. Crucially, none of these gear choices are part of the current meta gear for Witches – you won’t see summoner builds running high armor or +phys spell gear, nor ignite builds stacking max fire res. We’re truly gearing in a novel way to support a novel build, and once assembled, the build becomes very robust. By endgame, you’ll have near-immunity to your own infernal powers (90% fire resist, high regen, etc.) and the gear to turn every bone spike into a lethal projectile.

Defensive & Offensive Scaling

This build achieves a powerful balance of offense and defense by layering multiple scaling vectors, rather than singularly focusing on one gimmick. Let’s break down how it scales damage (offense) and how it sustains against both external threats and self-inflicted harm (defense) in the endgame:

Offensive Scaling:

• High Base Damage & Conversion: Our primary skill Bonestorm inherently hits hard with physical damage, which we scale through levels (+6 from Demon Form) and support gems. Unlike ignite builds that rely on a slow burn, we deal big hit damage up front. We further scale this by converting some of that damage into other types to bypass enemy defenses. For instance, using a support like Physical to Fire (60% phys converted to fire) means Bonestorm now deals a mix of physical and fire. This is potent because enemies have to mitigate two damage types – if they have high armor but low fire res, the fire portion slams them, and vice versa. Additionally, conversion allows us to benefit from generic “Spell Damage” as well as “Physical Damage” and “Elemental Damage” modifiers simultaneously. By late-game, a well-supported Bonestorm with conversion can double-dip increases: e.g., a “+% Fire Damage” mod on gear will scale the converted portion, while “+% Physical Damage” scales the base – effectively you get more total DPS than a single-type skill. This multi-type approach is unusual for Witches (who typically all-in on elemental or chaos), but it’s a key to our maximized damage.
• Buff Stacking (Demon Form + Soul Offering): The combination of Demon Form and Soul Offering puts us into a hyper-charged state. Demon Form alone can provide over 3,000% increased spell damage when maxing out Infernal Flame stacks in some buildswww.aoeah.com, though that figure is for extreme setups. In our build, we might not stack to 70+ Demon Flame charges like low-life hexblast meta buildswww.aoeah.com, but we still regularly get a significant multiplier to damage (e.g., even 20 stacks might give ~800% increased damage, hypothetically). Now add Soul Offering’s “powerful spell damage buff” on topwww.sportskeeda.com– this could easily be another 40-50% more spell damage multiplier (depending on balance). And unlike temporary flask buffs, these persist as long as you maintain them. Essentially, whenever you’re fighting, you’ll have both buffs active, meaning your damage numbers are far above what the passive tree alone would grant. For instance, if your Bonestorm tooltip is 1000 damage per spike normally, Demon Form might boost it to 1400+, and Soul Offering could take it near 1800 – before factoring support gem “More” multipliers. This scales linearly with investment: more regen/leech lets you stay in Demon Form longer (for higher uptime on that buff) and more cast speed from Demon Form means you can release more spikes per channel (increasing DPS). It’s a positive feedback loop of power as you gear up. In the endgame, you can expect burst damage that competes with the best boss-killer builds – you’ll unload a flurry of spikes that instantly phase bosses or delete map bosses in one channel. And because some of our damage is coming from Ignites (via Bringer of Flame) and possible Bleeds, we get additional DPS over time beyond the initial hit. This means even if a boss survives the immediate volley, it will be burning and hemorrhaging afterwards, often finishing them off.
• Ailments and Secondary Damage: We intentionally enable a few secondary damage sources: Ignite and Bleed. With Bringer of Flame, any damage we deal contributes to ignite chancemobalytics.gg. We have high base fire damage (from conversion and Hellhound’s aura), so our ignites are not trivial – they stack up to a decent percentage of our hit damage. Similarly, if we invest a bit into Bleed (chance to bleed support or Gladiator’s Perseverance notable etc.), every crit Bonestorm spike inflicts a nasty bleed. In the endgame, a bleed can deal 70k+ DPS on its own if it was from a big crit, which is great supplemental damage while you reposition or recast Soul Offering. These ailments scale with our damage bonuses too (ignite scales with our fire/elem increases, bleed with phys). We also utilize Vulnerability curse, which not only increases hit damage but also causes Bleeds to do 30% more and makes our hits ignore some armorwww.sportskeeda.com. This dramatically raises our damage ceiling against high-armor bosses (which normally Laugh at physical damage). In short, our offense is scaled via multiple levers: high hit damage (through buffs and conversion), plus strong damage-over-time effects ensuring nothing survives long. This multi-layered scaling means we are effective against all target types: small mobs get obliterated by hits, tough rares/bosses might survive the initial blow but then burn and bleed out quickly after.

Defensive Scaling:

• Life + Energy Shield Layering: Many Witch builds go pure Energy Shield or pure Life – we intentionally do a hybrid to exploit both. By late-game, you might have ~3k Life and ~1.5k Energy Shield. This layered defense shines with Pyromantic Pact: when the Infernal Flame bar fills and you take that self-hit of Life+ES as fire

  mobalytics.gg, your ES acts as the first line of defense. For example, suppose you have 3000 Life and 1500 ES (4500 total). Hitting the cap would deal 4500 fire damage pre-resist to you. With 85% fire resistance (doable with our gear/flask setup), you actually take only ~675 damage. Your 1500 ES will absorb that entirely, leaving your life untouched (and ~825 ES remaining). In essence, we’ve scaled our ES to be large enough to tank our own infernal backlash, and scaled our Life to be large enough that Demon Form’s degen (which might be a flat % of life) is manageable over a long duration. After the self-hit, our ES recharges quickly thanks to Grim Feast and fast recharge delay. Grim Feast (if used) causes defeated enemies to drop charges that restore ESgamerant.com– in mapping scenarios, our ES is almost always refilling as things die. Even without Grim Feast, natural ES recharge (after not taking damage for a couple seconds) will kick in and top us off between packs. Meanwhile, our Life pool is big enough to cushion any hits that do reach it. We also invest in % increased Life Recovery (from passive tree or gear), which scales both our life flask healing and our life regeneration.

• Regeneration and Leech: Sustaining Demon Form’s constant life drain is a chief defensive challenge. We solve this by stacking Life Regeneration to the point that it outpaces the self-Degeneration. Suppose Demon Form drains 5% of max life per second (just a hypothetical number). If you have 3000 life, that’s 150 life/sec degen. We aim to get at least 200 life/sec regen from various sources: passive regen nodes (say 3% of 3000 = 90/sec), Hellhound’s damage reduction effectively letting you treat 20% of incoming hits as not needing recovery, plus Consecrated Ground from a Sulphur flask or Bone Offering’s corpse (if you ever use it) giving another 5% life regen, plus maybe Vitality aura for 50/sec, etc. It all adds up to a point where you can sit in Demon Form and your life bar remains stable or even green (upward). On top of regen, we secured Life Leech through gear (Carnage Heart amulet or a Mastery that grants spell leech). With, say, 1.5% of spell damage leeched as Life, a single Bonestorm hit that deals 50k damage will return 750 life to you. During a pack clear, you might be leeching thousands of life per second, easily compensating for Demon Form and any small hits that bypass ES. Even though leech normally doesn’t persist after ES is full (without Ghost Reaver), our life is often getting chipped by the DoT, so leech keeps refilling it. This two-pronged sustain (regen+leech) makes the build remarkably durable for a Witch. While meta barrier-loop builds rely on not getting hit at all (risky if something goes wrong), we comfortably soak hits and self-damage continuously.

• Maximized Fire Resistance (Overcapped): Because so many of our self-harms are Fire-based (Pyromantic explosion, Demon Form DoT likely fire, Hellhound’s share is generic though), we treat fire resistance as a prime defensive stat. Through passive nodes, purity of fire (if we manage to run it on life reservation), and gear like Rise of the Phoenix, we push our Fire Res to 85% or above. We also heavily overcap it (like having 200%+ fire res) so that if we get cursed with Elemental Weakness or Exposure in a map, we still sit at 85%. This means any fire damage we take – whether from our own pact or a monster’s ignite – is massively reduced. It’s effectively a form of self-mitigation scaling. We’re taking a known weakness of Infernalist (self-immolation) and turning it into a trivial scratch. Additionally, by having high max res, even enemy fire damage is less threatening (e.g. burning ground or bosses like Phoenix can be tanked easier). This high resistance is supplemented by our Ruby Flask, which during its uptime pushes us near 90% effective fire resistance. When you see your Infernal Flame resource getting high, you can pop the Ruby flask preemptively – so if the explosion comes, you might only take ~10% of your life in damage. As a result, we’ve scaled to where Pyromantic Pact’s drawback is practically nullified in endgame.

• Damage Mitigation & Block: With our choice of gear and passives, we also incorporate traditional mitigation. The Hellhound’s 20% damage absorption means every hit that comes our way is effectively reduced by 20% (the hound takes that portion)

  mobalytics.gg. That’s huge for survival, especially against big one-shots. It’s like having a built-in “guard” always on. We complement this with a moderate amount of Armour on gear (thanks to an Armor-based chest and maybe a Granite flask). Armour reduces physical hits – for example, if a monster hits for 1000 phys and you have enough armour to reduce 30% of that, that’s 300 less damage to worry about. It particularly helps against small hits or rapid hits (e.g., porcupine spikes), keeping your ES from being broken as often. If you opted for a shield like Saffell’s, you also gain block chance. Even a 30% block chance means nearly one in three hits is negated entirely (or partially, if we have block effectiveness). This is another layer that scales with investment – you could get block nodes or Tempest Shield skill if desired to raise this. While we’re not a max block build, any block is a bonus for longevity.

• Crowd Control & Avoidance: “The best defense is not getting hit,” as they say – and our build subscribes to this through crowd control. Bone Cage providing Pin essentially prevents melee enemies from hitting you at all as long as they’re pinned outside the cage

  www.sportskeeda.com. This is a defensive scaling in that the more mobs you can pin at once (Bone Cage’s radius scales with levels and area modifiers), the fewer are actually damaging you. In endgame, you’ll be able to pin entire packs and even some bosses (if they’re not immune) – this can trivialize otherwise deadly encounters. Additionally, by freezing enemies in place, you also indirectly protect your Soul Offering totem (it won’t get destroyed in the crossfire as easily), maintaining your buff and thus killing enemies faster (shorter fights = less damage taken). We also have chilling and slowing effects from some of our damage mix (if using a dash of cold damage somewhere or just the chilling ground from Bone Cage spikes if any). While not a focus, incidental chills from cold damage (like if you have a jewel adding cold to spells) can reduce enemy action speed, further protecting us. Finally, mobility is part of our defense: with Flame Dash and high movement speed, we can dodge telegraphed boss slams or move out of AoE ground effects, meaning we rely less on tanking every hit. In summary, we scale defense by controlling the fight’s tempo and positioning, not just by raw stats. This is something meta auto-bomber or turret builds lack – they often facetank or pray things die first, whereas we have tools to actively reduce incoming damage.

By endgame, this build’s defensive/offensive profile looks like: nearly 5k effective hp with 85-90% fire res, ~300 life regen/sec, constant leech, and 20% hit damage bypass – making it surprisingly hardy – paired with shockingly high burst damage from buff-stacking, multi-typed damage, and ailment amplifications. It sustains itself in prolonged fights (leech+regen means we can fight forever in Demon Form as long as there’s something to hit) and it front-loads damage to delete threats before they can harm us. In many cases, you’ll find this build can face-tank map bosses, channeling Bonestorm while standing in their face (Bone Cage trapping them if they try to move), your regen out-healing their damage, and your own damage ending the fight in seconds. In Uber endgame (pinnacle bosses), you’ll play a bit more hit-and-run: use your burst windows during Demon Form, then back off to recharge ES or re-summon an Offering, then go again – but you have the tools to do so safely. Ultimately, the Demonic Bonecaster proves that a build can be both offensively overwhelming and defensively solid, without sticking to the cookie-cutter formulas the current meta uses.

Comparison to Meta Builds

This Infernalist build sharply contrasts with the prevailing meta Witch builds, carving out its own niche in both playstyle and performance. Let’s compare it to those known archetypes and highlight how it stands out and even outperforms them in key areas:

• Versus Minion Spirit Spam (Summoner Infernalist): The current meta sees many Infernalist Witches running “Minion Army” setups – e.g. spamming Summoned Raging Spirits and maintaining hordes of Skeletons/Reapers

  www.pathofexile.com. Those builds excel by delegating damage to AI minions, but they suffer from ramp-up time (waiting for minions to spawn or travel to enemies) and clunky gameplay (targeting can be awkward, and minions can die unexpectedly). In contrast, our build deals damage directly, on-demand. There’s no delay between seeing an enemy and blasting it with Bonestorm – which means faster clear speed especially against spread-out packs. Moreover, summoner builds often have to invest heavily in minion survivability and damage separately, whereas our investment double dips (every offensive node benefits our own damage directly, and our defensive nodes keep us alive – we’re not reliant on minions staying alive to do damage). Importantly, summoners can struggle with certain bosses that wipe minions or have phases where minions can’t reach the target. Our build has none of those issues – we carry all our damage within ourselves. We also have superior AOE burst: While a Skeleton horde might eventually overwhelm a screen, one Bonestorm release can achieve a similar result in 1 second, making mapping feel more explosive and fluid. In endgame bossing, summoner Infernalists often use Detonate Dead or other tricks for damagewww.pcgamesn.com, effectively turning into pseudo-casters anyway. We skip the middle-man and directly cast high-damage spells. Where we really shine over minion builds is control and survivability: summoners rely on minions to tank, but if things go south (minions die, or a boss ignores them), the Witch herself is usually very squishy. We, on the other hand, have built ourselves to tank hits – with bone cage, high resists, etc., we can survive scenarios that would instantly delete a minion-spec Witch. To sum up, compared to the minion-spam meta, our build offers more immediate damage, better control, and consistency. You’re actively engaging the fight as a powerful entity, rather than playing a summoning sideline coach. This makes the build not only more fun and original, but in many cases more reliable (no AI dependency) and faster at killing enemies once engaged.

• Versus Barrier Invocation Trigger Loops: Another meta approach has been abusing Barrier Invocation – a skill that triggers spells multiple times when you lose Energy Shield

  www.reddit.com. Infernalist builds using Barrier often create crazy “machine gun” effects with spells like Comet or Spark triggering endlessly. While those can achieve high DPS, they are also extremely delicate and convoluted: typically running low life, intentionally taking damage to fuel triggers, and often one mistake means instant death. Our build deliberately avoids the trigger loop gimmick in favor of manual but powerful casting. This makes it far less prone to malfunction – you aren’t reliant on a specific sequence of events to deal damage. In performance, a well-tuned Barrier loop might out-DPS us in a stationary single-target scenario (dumping dozens of Comets per second), but our build matches or exceeds their damage in realistic scenarios because we can deliver burst when it’s needed and move freely. Trigger loops often require the player to stand still to keep the loop going (since moving or dodging might stop the ES loss cycle); we can move anytime and still deal damage, thanks to front-loaded hits and DoTs. Additionally, barrier trigger builds are usually paper-thin defensively – they sacrifice defenses to maximize the loop. In HC or even tough SC content, our build is much safer – we have effective HP and recovery that loopers could only dream of. Another point: Barrier Invocation got a lot of early attention, meaning it might be subject to nerfs or boss immunities. Our build doesn’t hinge on any exploitative mechanic – it’s a strong synergy of intended mechanics, so it’s more future-proof and less likely to be hard-countered by game changes. When it comes to mapping, trigger builds often overkill everything (wasting resources) or even drop FPS with spell spam; our approach is more controlled: you dish exactly as much damage as needed and move on, which can be more efficient and performance-friendly. In summary, compared to the Barrier trigger meta, the Demonic Bonecaster is more robust, user-controlled, and survivable while still dishing top-tier damage – essentially trading the overly Rube-Goldberg setup for a straightforward but potent playstyle.

• Versus Pure Ignite Stacking Infernalist: Many Infernalist players stick to the class theme of fire and DoT – e.g. using skills like Flame Wall, Immolate, and passives that scale Ignite to ridiculous levels. These builds aim to apply one huge ignite and let it burn the boss down over time, or proliferate ignites to clear packs. While effective (Ignite has infinite scaling with enough investment), they inherently have a damage delay – an ignited enemy might still fight for 2-3 seconds before dying. Our build is immediate – most enemies are dead the instant our spikes land or within a second after (from bleed/ignite secondary effects). This means we can prevent dangerous enemies from acting (kill them before they shoot, etc.), improving our survivability compared to ignite builds that might get swarmed if the ignites don’t kill fast enough. Furthermore, ignite builds typically concentrate on one damage type (fire) and often don’t crit or hit hard; they might struggle against enemies with high fire resistance or ignite mitigation. We circumvent that with our mixed damage (physical/chaos) and the fact that we both hit hard and apply DoT – a more diverse offense. On raw numbers, a perfected ignite build might do higher single-target damage if they stack multiple ignites or use the new Bringer of Flame mechanic fully

  mobalytics.gg, but our build is not far behind and is actually faster in clearing due to on-hit damage. Also, ignite builds suffer on very high health bosses that have phases – you apply a big ignite, then the boss goes immune or disappears, wasting your DoT. We don’t waste damage that way: any time a boss is targetable, we hit them for chunky damage. Another comparison: ignite builds often rely on Ignite proliferation for clear, which can be inconsistent (if one mob in a pack is ignite-immune or has high life, others might not catch fire). Our build’s clear is deterministic – everything in Bonestorm’s area gets hit. Defensively, ignite-stackers might use Pyromantic Pact too, but they usually have to build more into damage-over-time multiplier and have less block/armor or have to stand still channeling Flame Wall etc. We invest more in defenses, making us more well-rounded. So relative to ignite meta, this build feels more active and bursty, has far better crowd control, and isn’t countered by ignite immunities or slow ramp. Yet it still leverages ignite in a smaller way (via Bringer of Flame) so we kind of “have our cake and eat it” – benefiting from ignite where useful without making it our sole damage.

• Versus Hexblast Chaos Witch (DoT/Hexbreaker): A notable non-Infernalist Witch meta is the Chaos DoT Occult style – Essence Drain & Contagion or Hexblast builds

  www.reddit.com. Our build actually has some similarities (we do deal some chaos and can apply contagion if desired), but where we diverge is our scope of damage and resilience. Hexblast Occultists typically apply curses and blow them up with Hexblast for large chaos hits, using Contagion to spread ED. They shine in clearing multiple packs of mobs that are close together (Contagion chaining) and can do good single target with a fully cursed Hexblast. However, our Infernalist build, despite not being meta, brings some advantages: Demon Form’s huge cast speed and damage means we can output many more skill uses in a short window than a Hexblast Occultist who is limited by curse application and Hexblast’s inherent cooldown (if any). Additionally, thanks to Soul Offering and Demon Form, our damage scaling is higher at peak – we’re stacking buffs on top of damage gems, while a typical Hexblast build is limited by the one skill’s scaling and perhaps an Occultist’s curse bonuses. In terms of survivability, Occultists have chill/freeze and curses to weaken enemies, but they don’t get a pet to tank or inherent leech from ascendancy. Our build with Hellhound + regen can often tank hits that a chaos DoT Witch would avoid. Also, content like spread out monsters or very fast-moving foes can pose a problem for ED/Contagion (since Contagion needs targets to be near each other). Bonestorm doesn’t care – it covers a large area and wipes everything, even if they’re not right next to each other. So we have a more consistent clear in many map layouts. That said, Occultist chaos builds typically have profane bloom pops (exploding cursed enemies), which is great clear too – but again reliant on curses. Our build doesn’t need enemies to be pre-cursed to die quickly (though we do curse bosses for optimization). So, compared to the chaos meta, we hold up well: we offer comparable AoE clearing, faster target acquisition (no setup on trash mobs), and a much tankier presence. We essentially trade the Occultist’s automated explosions for our manual but stronger spike explosions, and we trade curse-based defense for raw durability and pinning CC. The result is a build that can face scenarios that would be dangerous for a pure chaos DoT witch (like no-regen maps – we don’t care due to Pyromantic Pact, or hexproof enemies – we still do phys/fire damage).

Outperforming Meta in Key Areas: The Demonic Bonecaster isn’t just different; in several respects it outperforms the meta options:

• Burst Damage: When it comes to burst – killing a priority target in a short timeframe – our build excels. Summoner builds ramp up, ignite builds wait for DoT, but we deliver burst on demand. This means in content like timed boss phases, certain boss mechanics (e.g. destroying harbinger totems, obliterating Legion rares before they unfreeze), we succeed where slow-burn builds might fail. Many current meta builds are designed for sustained DPS, whereas we bring both high sustained and extreme burst by stacking our buffs and unleashing everything.

• Adaptability: Meta builds often pigeonhole into one damage type (all fire, all chaos). Our build has adaptability – facing a high phys mitigation boss? We rely on the fire/chaos portion of our damage more (and curse with Elemental weakness instead of Vulnerability, for instance). Facing a high elemental resist boss? Our physical/bleed will carry, and we can even temporarily swap in Brutality support to ignore elemental. This flexibility means we can tackle a wider variety of map mods and boss mechanics without having to reroll content.

• Engagement and Enjoyment: While subjective, it’s worth noting that our off-meta approach is more engaging to play. Meta builds can sometimes feel like you’re going through the motions (press 1 for spirits, 2 for curse, 3 for trigger… etc., then wait). Our build has a satisfying loop of actively casting and seeing immediate results. The unique mechanics (demon form, self-sacrifice) give a visceral sense of power. This “fun factor” is something that pure meta slaves might be missing out on, and it matters for long-term play – you’re less likely to get bored, which indirectly means you’ll pilot the build better and more attentively, further improving performance.

In conclusion, the Infernalist Demonic Bonecaster is not just a quirky experiment – it’s a competitive build that can go toe-to-toe with (and in some cases trump) the established meta choices. It differentiates itself by being self-reliant (instead of minion-reliant), bursty (instead of slow DoT), and durable (instead of flimsy high-risk loops). It shows that you can “push the boundaries” of the Witch class by embracing new tools and still conquer endgame content effectively. Players running this build will often find themselves pleasantly surprised that their “oddball” build is clearing maps faster or killing bosses safer than their party members running cookie-cutter setups. It’s a true testament to build creativity in PoE2, proving that off-meta doesn’t mean off-power – in fact, here innovation breeds domination.

Potential Weaknesses & Mitigation Strategies

No build is without its weaknesses, especially one that walks the razor’s edge of self-damage and high octane offense. It’s important to acknowledge these and plan around them. Here are the main drawbacks of the Demonic Bonecaster Infernalist and how we mitigate or manage them:

• Self-Inflicted Damage (Infernal Flame burst & Demon Form degen): The very mechanics that empower us – Pyromantic Pact and Demon Form – can also be our undoing if not handled carefully. Without precautions, the fire damage from reaching max Infernal Flame could one-shot you, and Demon Form’s constant life drain can whittle you down in a prolonged fight

  mobalytics.ggmobalytics.gg. Mitigation: We have heavily built around this with gear and passives: high max Fire Resistance (85%+), which drastically reduces the burst damage taken, and abundant Life Regen plus Leech to counter the degen. Additionally, we run a Ruby Flask for dangerous moments, cutting self-damage further. The strategy is to monitor your Infernal Flame bar – it drops automatically if you stop casting for 2 secondsmobalytics.gg. So, a simple mitigation in gameplay is: don’t spam cast mindlessly. Burst cast to build flame (and deal damage), then if you see the bar approaching full, either intentionally pause casting for a moment to let it dissipate 10% (thanks to the Pact’s drain mechanicmobalytics.gg), or be ready with mitigation (Ruby Flask up, ES full to absorb) if you do trigger the explosion. Over time you’ll get a feel for how many Bonestorm channels it takes to nearly fill the gauge. We effectively “play around” the self-hit, similar to managing a volatile resource. As for Demon Form’s DoT, it will end if it would kill you (drops at 1 life)mobalytics.gg– but you never want to see it end that way! Our mitigation is keeping an eye on our life. If for some reason your regen can’t keep up (e.g., you got cursed with vulnerability or a healing reduction debuff), be ready to deactivate Demon Form manually (if possible) or step out of combat to recover (since outside of combat, our regen/ES recharge will quickly restore us). In short, situational awareness is key: this build demands you pay attention to your life globe more than a typical one might. With our layers of defense, self-damage is largely tamed, but if something like a map mod reduces your max res or life recovery, be extra cautious or consider not using Pyromantic Pact in those maps (you could spec out of it or simply avoid spamming spells, using a hybrid mana flask approach if absolutely needed). We’ve planned for worst-case scenarios, but the player’s attentiveness is the ultimate mitigation.

• Channeling Vulnerability (stationary combat): Bonestorm requires channeling, which means standing still for up to a couple seconds. In hectic fights with ground hazards, telegraphed boss slams, or numerous projectiles, standing still can be dangerous. Mitigation: We mitigate this firstly by shortening the required channel time – thanks to Demon Form’s huge cast speed bonus and support gems like Infused Channeling, we reach maximum effect of Bonestorm faster. Often a 0.5–1.0 second channel is enough to do the job, which is a very short window for enemies to hit you. Also, our crowd control tools directly address this: Bone Cage pins nearby enemies, preventing them from reaching or sometimes even targeting you while you channel. For ranged threats, we rely on our Hellhound drawing some aggro and our own positioning; it’s often wise to cast Bone Cage and then sidestep so that the bone ring is between you and the ranged mobs, acting as a barrier (even if it doesn’t physically block projectiles, the pinned melee and the visual clutter can deter shooters). We also encourage a “stutter-step” playstyle: channel in bursts rather than one marathon channel. For example, in a boss fight, instead of channeling 2 seconds straight, you might channel 1 second (release spikes), then move or Flame Dash to dodge an attack, then channel another second. This way you rarely stand still longer than the boss stands still (many bosses have casting animations longer than 1s which you can use to your advantage). We also have layered defenses that allow us to withstand some punishment during channel: high armor, 20% damage redirection via Hellhound, and possibly Fortify (if you use Shield Charge to move, or a craft that grants Fortify on hit) can make you tanky enough to absorb a stray hit mid-channel without canceling. Finally, for the truly dangerous encounters, consider using Decoy Totem or Withering Step (if PoE2 has similar skills) right before channeling – Decoy can taunt enemies, Withering Step gives you a brief phasing and dodge chance. These are utility options you can swap in for specific fights. Overall, while channeling will always carry some risk, our build is designed to minimize the exposure window and blunt any hits that land, making it a manageable weakness.

• Skeleton Dependency for Soul Offering: We tout Soul Offering’s buff, but to use it, we need a skeleton ready to sacrifice. If you find yourself in a boss arena with no adds and you forgot to summon a skeleton, you’d miss out on a major buff. Mitigation: Always enter boss fights or tough areas with your utility minion gem active. We keep a low-level Summon Skeleton gem (or Unearth) specifically for this purpose, and since it’s low-level it costs very little (even life cost via Pact). Additionally, because we only need one skeleton for offering, we can pre-summon it before the fight (the skeleton lasts a duration). In maps with frequent fighting, corpses or unearth can be used to generate skeletons on the fly. In worst-case scenarios where you can’t summon (like no mana or silenced – which is unlikely since we use life for cost), you still have your core damage; Soul Offering is a huge buff, but Bonestorm and Demon Form alone can do the job – you’re just at maybe ~80% power instead of 100%. It’s similar to how some builds need flasks for peak performance – if your buff is down, play a bit safer until you can reapply it. We mitigate the buff downtime by linking Soul Offering with Duration Support gem if needed, to make the buff last longer so you don’t have to refresh as often mid-fight. Also, note that Soul Offering’s bone spike is a minion that could be killed – if you notice the buff icon disappear, immediately re-summon a skeleton and re-cast the offering. This is a minor APM and awareness tax, but experienced players will handle it easily. For extra safety, one might keep a Trigger socketed spell on kill weapon – have that weapon socket Summon Skeleton so occasionally it auto-summons a fodder during clearing; this way you often have an available minion without manual casting. In essence, the dependency is minor and with habit (press one button to summon before big fights) it’s almost a non-issue.

• High Setup Complexity: This build isn’t “one-button easy mode.” It uses multiple skills (cage, offering, curse, main damage, form toggle, etc.). For some players, especially those used to simpler meta builds, this can be a weakness initially – more room for user error if you forget a buff or mis-time something. Mitigation: Practice and UI setup. We recommend arranging your skill bar with clear keybind groupings: e.g., put Demon Form on a comfortable key (since it’s essentially an aura/toggle you manage), put Bone Cage and Soul Offering next to each other (as they are often used back-to-back: cage then offering before big attack), and Bonestorm on your mouse button for easy channel control. During easier content, you might not need to use all skills – for example, for trivial packs you can skip Soul Offering and just Bonestorm; or for a pack of ranged monsters you might skip Bone Cage and just two-tap them with Bonestorm. Reducing overuse of skills when not needed keeps it simpler. Over time, using the full combo becomes second nature. Also, one can automate a bit: using the Blasphemy support to auto-curse with Vulnerability means one less thing to cast. If you have a spare gem slot and enough spirit, you can reserve a small portion for Blasphemy aura, so every enemy near you is already cursed – freeing you from manual casting except maybe on boss if you want to swap to Despair. Similarly, quicksilver flask with “use when full” can automate movement buff. These small QoL tweaks make the rotation feel smoother. In the end, while the build is indeed more involved than “press one skill to win,” many players find that engaging – and the payoff is proportional. The mitigation to complexity is really player adaptation and possibly simplifying where comfortable (you can run without Contagion or Detonate Dead as secondary if juggling too many skills; they are optional). We outline the full kit for maximum power, but the build still works if you trim a component or two for ease.

• Physical Damage and Bleed Reflection: Because we deal heavy physical hits and cause bleeds, reflect can be a threat. If a map mod has “physical damage reflected to player,” a big Bonestorm crit could hurt or even kill you. Mitigation: Twofold – first, our damage is mixed, so the reflected portion is only the physical part, not the fire/chaos. Second, we have high armor and the Hellhound, which both mitigate reflect somewhat (reflect is typically considered you hitting yourself, so Hellhound might even take 20% of that reflected hit). Regardless, it’s wise to avoid phys reflect maps or use a Sibyl’s Lament ring (old unique that reduces reflect damage taken) when running them. We could also carry a swap gem: Awakened Brutality (if it exists) which causes “Deal no elemental damage”. If you socket that, you remove the fire portion temporarily, making your hits pure physical – that seems counterintuitive, but if you also run a Physical damage immunity flask (antireflect flask) or Veil mod “60% reduced Reflected damage taken”, you could handle reflect. However, simplest is reroll reflect maps; it’s one of the few mods that directly counter heavy hitters. Notably, ignite builds laugh at reflect because DoT isn’t reflected – we do have to mind it. If you accidentally enter a reflect area, immediately deactivate Demon Form (to lower your damage output and thus reflect taken), toss up Bone Cage (if you hit yourself and are low, cage can stall enemies while you recover), and try to exit or swap gear. This is a rare scenario but good to be aware of.

• Reliance on Specific Buffs (Demon Form uptime): We are at our strongest in Demon Form. If a boss fight forcibly exits you from Demon Form (say, you took a huge hit and dropped to 1 life, causing form to end), your damage and cast speed drop, and you might be in trouble. Mitigation: Build in a safety margin – we have. Our gear and tree assume you might sometimes fight outside of Demon Form, so you still have respectable defense and damage. It’s not like we’re wet tissue without it; Bonestorm still works, just a bit slower. The strategy when form goes down is don’t panic: back off, use a life flask, maybe kite with Detonate Dead or ranged spells for a few seconds while your Demon Form cooldown resets (with Second Wind/Ingenuity, this shouldn’t be long). Re-enter Demon Form as soon as you’re healthy. In really long fights, you may intentionally drop form for brief intervals to recover – that’s fine. With practice, you maintain a high uptime. Also, if you suspect a boss has a phase where your degen could be risky (like a no-add phase where you can’t leech), you can delay using Demon Form until that phase ends. Alternatively, in multi-phase fights, you might use Demon Form on the DPS race phase and let it lapse during an intermission phase to recover. Knowing the fight mechanics helps. But because this is an inherent risk of the high-reward Demon Form, we’ve invested in overlapping defenses: even without Demon Form, Hellhound still soaks damage, regen still flows, etc. So dropping out of form is rarely death – it’s just a sign to recoup.

• Gear Dependency: This build uses a few key uniques and ideally good rares with specific mods (max res, etc.). It might be argued that it’s more gear-dependent than a starter summoner (which can work with random gear since minions scale from gem levels mostly). Mitigation: We have planned the build to work from a foundational level and then scale with gear. In a league start scenario, you can run this build self-found by focusing first on generic life and spell damage gear (easy to get). The fancy stuff like +max res on shield or Ingenuity belt are luxury that you can target as you progress. None of the uniques are absolutely required at the basic level (for instance, you can use a rare shield with crafted +1% max res until you find Rise of the Phoenix). The mitigation is also to prioritize defenses in crafting/trading – many players go for raw DPS on gear, but we recommend getting your +max res and regen mods early; they’re often cheaper too because they’re not typical chase mods. This way, you shore up the build’s weaknesses early on. Another point: since this build isn’t meta, the specific uniques we want might be cheaper or less contested in trade leagues. That plays to our advantage – you might snag a Carnage Heart or Saffell’s Frame for pennies when everyone else is chasing meta uniques. In SSF, you have alternatives (e.g., craft fire res on shield, use Purity of Fire aura). So while gear makes a big difference for us, we’re flexible and can use temporary solutions.

In essence, each weakness of the build – be it self-harm, need to channel, or multi-skill management – has a corresponding strategy or preparation in place to counteract it. This build was designed with awareness of these pain points, and thus includes multiple fallback options (if X fails, we have Y). Playing the Demonic Bonecaster is about understanding and respecting its limits: if you do, you’ll find most of these “weaknesses” rarely manifest, and when they do, you’re ready for them. The result is a build that, while complex, feels in control even amid chaos – and that’s ultimately what makes it a successful groundbreaking build rather than a risky gimmick. Embrace the playstyle, mitigate the pitfalls as described, and you’ll harness the true potential of this unique Infernalist, leaving the so-called meta builds in the dust both in creativity and performance.