The Witchhunter – Mercenary Crossbow Build focuses on precise and ruthless attacks, leveraging the Mercenary Ascendancy’s unique mechanics like Culling Strike, Decimating Strike, and Concentration manipulation to dominate enemies. The build centers around a crossbow as the primary weapon, utilizing both raw physical damage and calculated debuffs for maximum efficiency. This guide provides a foundation for players looking to customize their own powerful Witchhunter experience.
Ascendancy Nodes
1. Weapon Master
- Converts 20 Passive Skill Points into Weapon Set Skill Points, enabling specialization in crossbow-related passives to enhance damage, utility, and flexibility.
- Early investment here optimizes the build’s focus on crossbows and ensures a streamlined passive skill allocation.
2. Pitiless Killer
- Grants Culling Strike, instantly killing enemies at specific health thresholds before hit damage is applied:
- Normal enemies: 30%
- Magic enemies: 20%
- Rare enemies: 10%
- Unique enemies: 5%
- This node ensures rapid clearing of weakened enemies, especially in high-density encounters or against tough bosses.
3. Judge, Jury, and Executioner
- Enables Decimating Strike, removing 5%-30% of a full-life enemy’s health before damage is applied.
- Perfect for initiating fights against tough enemies or bosses, ensuring a significant advantage before sustained damage is applied.
4. Witchbane
- Introduces the Concentration mechanic:
- Enemies have maximum Concentration equal to 40% of their life.
- Break enemy Concentration on hit based on damage dealt.
- Enemies regain 10% Concentration per second if they take no hits for 5 seconds.
- Concentration affects enemy cooldown recovery, scaling down to 50% less recovery at zero Concentration.
5. No Mercy
- Deals up to 30% more damage to enemies based on their missing Concentration.
- Synergizes perfectly with Witchbane, amplifying damage as enemies are worn down.
6. Obsessive Rituals and 7. Ceremonial Ablution
- Unlock Sorcery Ward, a passive skill manifesting a barrier to absorb elemental damage.
- Ceremonial Ablution improves the ward’s effectiveness and recovery, bolstering survivability.
8. Zealous Inquisition
- Grants a 10% chance for enemies to explode on death, dealing 100% of their maximum life as physical damage.
- Doubles the chance against undead and demons, enabling devastating chain reactions in specific encounters.
The Four Best Witchhunter Ascendancy Nodes for This Build
1. Weapon Master
- Effect: Converts 20 Passive Skill Points into Weapon Set Skill Points.
- Benefits: This enables further specialization in crossbow-related passives, directly enhancing the build’s focus on maximizing crossbow damage and utility.
2. Pitiless Killer
- Effect: Grants Culling Strike, a crucial mechanic for this build.
- Benefits:
- Instantly eliminates enemies below certain health thresholds.
- Synergizes with skills like Armour Piercing Rounds and Explosive Grenade Launcher, ensuring swift clearing of both individual targets and groups.
3. Judge, Jury, and Executioner
- Effect: Enables Decimating Strike, which removes a portion of an enemy’s full life before damage is applied.
- Benefits:
- Greatly enhances the build’s effectiveness at quickly taking down tough enemies and bosses.
- Prepares targets for a finishing blow from Culling Strike.
4. Witchbane
- Effect: Creates a powerful damage loop when combined with Judge, Jury, and Executioner.
- Mechanics:
- Judge, Jury, and Executioner removes a significant chunk of the enemy’s health at the start of the encounter.
- This initial health reduction impacts the enemy’s Concentration pool, as Concentration is directly tied to their maximum life.
- Witchbane’s effect—breaking Concentration on hit—ensures that subsequent attacks weaken the enemy further, reducing their cooldown recovery and paving the way for continuous damage.
Primary Skill: Armour Piercing Rounds
A core skill for breaking enemy defenses and setting them up for quick execution.
- Support Skills:
- Culling Strike: Instantly eliminates enemies within the health thresholds.
- Ammo Conservation: Provides a 40% chance to avoid consuming ammo, enhancing sustained damage.
- Additional Accuracy: Improves hit consistency, crucial for armor breaking.
- Faster Attacks: Boosts attack speed for rapid clearing.
- Increased Area of Effect: Expands the skill’s reach, increasing efficiency in mob encounters.
Secondary Skill: Explosive Grenade Launcher
Used to supplement Armour Piercing Rounds with AoE damage and Culling Strike synergy.
- Support Skills:
- Culling Strike: Ensures enemies are finished off when weakened.
- Inspiration: Reduces mana costs for frequent use.
- Added Fire Damage: Increases damage output by adding fire damage.
- Faster Projectiles: Improves grenade travel speed and safety.
- Area of Effect: Enhances explosion radius, improving effectiveness in groups.
Additional Skills
- Herald of Ash: Deals AoE fire damage explosions on overkill, synergizing with fire-focused damage.
- Discipline: Provides additional Energy Shield for survivability.
- Arctic Armour: Mitigates incoming physical damage.
- Flammability: Reduces enemy fire resistance, boosting fire-based damage.
- Sniper’s Mark: Enhances critical damage and generates Frenzy Charges.
- Plague Bearer: Adds chaos damage potential, scaling poison effects.
Equipment
Recommended Gear
- Weapon: High-damage crossbows with mods that increase critical strike chance, attack speed, or physical damage.
- Armor: Focus on Energy Shield and resistance.
- Unique Items:
- Widow’s Heart Bow: If transitioning to bows for versatility.
- Abyss of Embers: Synergizes with bleed-based mechanics for an alternate build path.
Passive Skill Tree Suggestions
- Prioritize Projectile Damage, Critical Strike Chance/Multiplier, and Life/Energy Shield nodes.
- Use Weapon Set Skill Points from Weapon Master for crossbow specialization.
- Incorporate nodes enhancing survivability (e.g., resistances, evasion, or Energy Shield).
Gameplay
Offensive Strategy
- Open with Armour Piercing Rounds to break enemy armor and soften them for Culling Strike.
- Use Explosive Grenade Launcher to handle groups and push enemies into Culling Strike thresholds.
- Cast Flammability and Sniper’s Mark on tough targets for amplified damage.
Defensive Strategy
- Stay mobile with Dash to avoid incoming damage.
- Maintain Discipline and Arctic Armour for defensive layers.
- Utilize Sorcery Ward to mitigate elemental damage in tough encounters.
Strengths
- High damage output with efficient enemy clearing.
- Versatile mechanics for boss fights and mob control.
- Synergistic skills providing reliable survivability.
Weaknesses
- Reliant on proper positioning and timing.
- May require adjustments for endgame bosses with unique mechanics.
- Dependence on specific unique items and passive tree allocation.
Conclusion
This Witchhunter – Mercenary Crossbow Build is a strong foundation for tackling Path of Exile 2 content. While highly optimized for damage and utility, it’s intended as a base build to be tailored to individual preferences and playstyles. Experiment with gear, passives, and skill setups to create a build uniquely suited to your Path of Exile journey!
