Witchhunter High Velocity Rounds/Poison/Bleed Build

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So I started this League wanting to make a shotgun build work and while I did get through early maps with it the boss damage started falling off around T6/T7. So I swapped to High Velocity Rounds but kept the overall goal of the build the same and have found it to be great. I'm clearing T15s/T16s without issue and kill bosses in under 15-30 seconds.

Maxroll - https://maxroll.gg/poe2/planner/w697h0lp

  • Clearing: Toss out Gas Grenade and then shoot High Velocity Rounds. Things will melt as Herald of Plague spreads poisons around. Honestly if the map has no monster defense modifiers like Evasive, Armoured or HP you can skip Gas Grenade. Flash Grenade is there for CC.
  • Bossing: Same as Clear. Just keep the boss in Gas Grenade Cloud and shoot HVR. I'll throw down Artillery Ballista too just so it's doing it's thing but it doesn't really matter. Try and time your Emergency Reload on the shot that Consumes Armor Breaks. With 3 stacks of poison+bleed bosses just melt.
  • Defenses: Sorcery Ward is in a much better place than it was before and I feel like I actually have a second layer of defense now, instead of just being mostly Evasion with a little Armour. In POB I have 6,650 Effective HP but it doesn't seem to be counting base Sorcery Ward shield or the 50% increased effect and faster recovery from the final Sorcery Ward node Ceremonial Ablution. On "Safe" T15/T16 maps I won't die unless I do something stupid and even on maps with things like Ele pen or Extra Monster Damage I can take hits without getting one shot.

The build also still has room to grow DPS wise with stuff like Precision Salvo, Fast Acting Toxins, Ricochet and Several Bleed notables all accessible within a handful of points. I'm thinking of investing into Nourishing Ally though because I'm rocking an Extra Physical Damage Aura/All Damage Shocks Quadrilla but the thing dies every 5 seconds. It's not LS and can't clear entire screens with a button press but I'm having fun with it.

Feedback is welcome!

Comments

FlySociety12

Very nice, I'm running the same building but just levelling through the campaign with it. Would be keen to see how this performs against all the end game pinnacle content.

FlySociety12

Nice build, levelling a witch hunter myself following something very similar. How do you feel it will perform on endgame pinnacle? No snakebite gloves?

phly1

Is the bleed in the room with us?

On a serious note, your only source of bleed is Lacerate on HVR, nothing to supplement the bleed on your passive tree. You're probably better off with another support gem like Close Combat.

Also, an interesting choice not to run Snakebite for this build. Check out Neato on YouTube, he runs a similar build on his WH this league. I don't think adding bleed to the build is worth it at all. If anything, I would push for more crit to help with bossing. Maps just melts with gas grenade and it doesn't require much investment. https://youtu.be/SBobXjWWBE0?feature=shared