Volatile Dead is good with out full dps investment and synergies very good with necromancer ascendancy by constantly consuming corpses. This PoE 3.11 Witch Volatile Dead Necromancer Facetank Build is very tank, you can face tank at least 95% of the game with ease.

Quick Jump

Pros & Cons

  • + tanky. Can face tank at least 95% of the game with ease.
  • + good clear.
  • + uses a lot of synergies
  • - to feel good, needs significant tree progression and with it higher level (at least 80)
  • - strong gear requirements. Not SSF friendly.
  • - without Corpse Pact rolling, roots the character in place for at least 1.3 sec, when VD is used.
  • - boss dps is not top tier

 

Skill Tree

Ascendancy: Plague Binder -> Corpse Pact -> Essence Glutton -> Mistress of Sacrifice(alternatively Commander of Darkness).

Pantheon

Major: Solaris, 2nd upgrade, Capture Eater of Souls, very important.

Minor: Shakari, can be swapped for anything else, accept Ryslatha.

Bandit: Help Kraityn. Alternatively kill all.

Passive Tree & PoB

Path of Building Link: https://pastebin.com/Cjzg10fZ

PoB minimum base tree - https://pastebin.com/XMazHVLe


 

 

 

 

Gems Setup

Volatile Dead - Spell Echo - Arcane Surge - Concentrated Effect Elemental Focus - Fire Penetration

CwDT lvl 20 - Bone Offering - Curse of choice(Flammability, Elemental Weakness(if playing with poeple who use other elements), Enfeeble)

CwDT lvl 1 - Unearth max lvl 8 - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Greater Volley

CwDT lvl 1 - Desecrate max lvl 7 - Wave of Conviction max lvl 7 - Combustion

Leap Slam - Faster Attacks - Fortify

Clarity, Vaal Righteous Fire, Desecrate, Herald of Ash.

Optionally Aspect of the Spider from gear. If it is used, Clarity should be lvl 1 extra HP pool is more important, then gained mana regen. 

 

Gear Setup

Necessary Gear 

Pledge of Hands: This staff gives very good mana boost, while providing good damage as well.

Cloak of Defiance: Great mana and mana regen boost, extra 10% MoM, saves 1 point on the tree by not needing to allocate MoM keystone.

Scold's Bridle: Automates most of the stuff. Makes play self cast VD actually nice.

Atziri's Foible: Huge mana boost. Budget anoint is Dreamer notable.

Leather Belt

+45 to maximum Life
Grants Level 20 Aspect of the Spider Skill
+52 to Strength
+99 to maximum Life
18% increased Flask Mana Recovery rate
22% increased Mana Recovery rate
+60 to maximum Mana

Increased mana recovery is the important mod here. Flask recovery rate is not needed.

Mana Flask

Immune to Curses during Flask effect
Removes Curses on use
25% reduced Duration
Flask Effect is not removed at Full Mana
Flask Effect does not Queue

Enduring prefix is the important part. Suffix can be something else.

Watcher's Eye

6% increased maximum Energy Shield
6% increased maximum Life
5% increased maximum Mana
+32% to Critical Strike Multiplier while affected by Anger
10% of Damage taken from Mana before Life while affected by Clarity

Clarity jewel with extra MoM.

Militant Faith Timeless Jewel

Limited to: 1 Historic
Radius: Large
Carved to glorify 6146 new faithful converted by High Templar Venarius
Passives in radius are Conquered by the Templars
4% increased Area Damage per 10 Devotion
4% increased Elemental Damage per 10 Devotion
Historic

Damage rolls or resist are a nice bonus. Need to be careful with those jewels, they can transform important Notables into something useless. But also may transform not used Notables into something very nice. Best slot for it is between Witch and Templar, right under MoM. Alternatively scion start slot can be used, i use it myself, since this jewel i have bricks Essence Extraction for me.

Great Gear to have

Omeyocan: 20% Dodge and Spell Dodge is amazing. Permanent Onslaught is very nice too.

Transcendent Spirit: Socketed in Ranger area, this jewel provides nice mana boost and 10% movement speed for extra mobility. This item is not optainable in leagues anymore, only as legacy version. Split Personality unique jewel with mana and life roll is actually much better in that socket now.

 

Leveling Suggestion

Tree Progression

1. Straight to Elemental Overload.

2. Quick Recovery.

3. Straight to Heart of Flame.

4. Straight to Phase Acrobatics.

5. Fill up necessary life and mana nodes as shown in base PoB

6. Fill up rest of the nodes.

Progression in PoB - https://pastebin.com/qMKVgjVH

Gear and Gems

Acquire 2 Pot's Pen wands.

Till lvl 12 anything goes to kill mobs.

At lvl 10

Clarity(if no -mana cost items avalible)

Flame Dash - Arcane Surge

At lvl 12

Poet's Pen:
Wand 1: Unearth - LMP - Combustion
Wand 2: Volatile Dead - Added lighting - Combustion
Barrage

At lvl 16

Barrage replaced by Frenzy
Herald of Ash
Wand 1: Desecrate - Spell Cascade
Wand 2: Volatile Dead - Spell Cascade - Combustion

At lvl 18

Wand 2: Volatile Dead - Spell Cascade - Concentrated Effect
Frenzy - Faster Attacks - Combustion - Culling Strike

At lvl 24

Curse

At lvl 68
Can swap to staff.