The Witch is the most forgiving class to league-start in Path of Exile 2, and the reason is simple: minions tank the screen while you stay safe at the back. For a fresh league when you don't have currency, an established loot economy, or time to theorycraft, the Infernalist minion build is the path of least resistance. You hand Skeletal Arsonists and an Arsonist-heavy army the job of dealing damage, and you spend your attention on survival and loot. Here's how to set it up so the campaign and early maps feel smooth rather than punishing.

Why Infernalist minions for a league start

Three things make this start reliable. First, minions scale off gem levels and support gems, not off rare gear with perfect rolls, so you stay strong even while wearing campaign trash. Second, the Infernalist's Hellhound gives you a free permanent companion that grants life regeneration and a movement-speed aura when it's near you, which smooths out the early game where regen is scarce. Third, the ascendancy node Beidat's Hand and the demon-form options give you a damage and survivability ceiling later, but you can ignore all of that and still clear Act 1 to 3 comfortably with the baseline kit.

Compared to a self-cast spellcaster like a Spark Stormweaver, minions don't punish you for standing in the wrong spot. You will die far less while you learn boss patterns, which is exactly what you want in the first 48 hours of a league when nobody knows the new mechanics yet.

The leveling skill plan

Your first real minion is Skeletal Warriors from the Act 1 reward, but the build's engine is Skeletal Arsonists, which you pick up shortly after. Arsonists throw fire bombs that clear packs from a safe distance and ramp your single-target damage on bosses. The standard early setup looks like this:

  • Skeletal Arsonists as your main damage, linked with Minion Damage, Fire Penetration, and Feeding Frenzy once you have the sockets.
  • Skeletal Warriors or Skeletal Frost Mages as a meat wall to body-block and apply chill, keeping ranged minions alive.
  • Raise Zombie (the persistent reanimated corpses) early to pad your minion count before you have spirit for more skeletons.
  • Flammability as a curse to shred enemy fire resistance, multiplying your whole army's damage for one gem slot.

The resource you're actually budgeting is Spirit, the reservation stat that caps how many persistent minions you can field. Prioritize Spirit on your weapon and gear, and grab Spirit nodes near the Witch start on the passive tree. More Spirit means more skeletons, and more skeletons is more damage and more bodies between you and danger.

Self-cast skill for utility

You're not entirely passive. Keep Unearth or Bone Cage handy to generate corpses for resummoning after a wipe, and slot Contagion + Essence Drain as a backup damage-over-time package if you ever lose your army to a boss slam. That backup matters: the single biggest minion-build pain point is rebuilding your skeletons mid-fight, so having a damage source that doesn't depend on live minions saves runs.

Passive tree and defense priorities

Don't overthink the tree on day one. Head toward the minion clusters in the Witch/Sorceress section, pick up the obvious minion damage, minion life, and Spirit notables, and grab life and elemental resistance along the way. Specific early priorities:

  • Resistances first. Cap fire, cold, and lightning resistance to the campaign penalties as you go. An undercapped character dies to map mods later no matter how strong the minions are.
  • Minion life over minion damage early. Dead minions deal zero damage. Survivable skeletons are the difference between a smooth clear and constant resummoning.
  • Spirit notables to push your skeleton count up. This is your real damage scaling in the campaign.
  • Energy Shield + life hybrid on the Witch side is fine; you mostly want enough buffer to survive a stray hit while your minions reposition.

For the ascendancy, take the Infernalist path that grants the Hellhound and lean into the fire and minion nodes. Save the demon-form transformation for when you understand its life-degeneration tradeoff; it's a power spike, not a beginner crutch.

Gearing on a budget

Look for three stats and ignore almost everything else early: +levels to minion or spell skills, Spirit, and resistances. A scepter with +1 or +2 to minion gem levels is a bigger upgrade than a flashy rare with a big number you don't need. On boots, chest, and rings, prioritize res and life until you're capped, then add minion damage and movement speed. You do not need a single expensive item to finish the campaign on this build, which is the whole point of picking it for a fresh economy.

When to grind it out, and when a boost makes sense

The Infernalist campaign is genuinely smooth, and most players should just play it; the leveling is part of learning the league. Where the time-for-money trade gets reasonable is the back third of the campaign and the early endgame grind, where progress slows and the fun-per-hour drops. If you only get a few hours a session and you'd rather spend them in maps than re-running Acts, a campaign carry or a leveling boost to get to maps is a sensible shortcut. Likewise, if you want to skip the early currency drought and jump straight into crafting a real minion setup, buying a starter stack of currency saves a lot of slow Trade-window grinding. Just don't outsource the part you actually enjoy. If learning the new boss fights is the reason you're here, play those yourself and only buy your way past the filler.

Set up this way, a Witch Infernalist gives you a league start that survives mistakes, scales on gem levels instead of luck, and lets you focus on the new content instead of fighting your own character.