If you are trying to avoid cookie cutter builds, I can definitely vouch for my current setup, a hybrid incinerate/firetrap/molten shell build, which you can read about more on the poe witch forums. Uses ghost reaver passive with incinerate/ gmp/ lifeleech/ manaleech (4L), two fire traps with increased AoE (3L), and molten shell. It's definitely more challenging than something like a summoner or dual spork build, but it requires different abilities for different situations, which makes gameplay way more fun in a game that otherwise seems boringly built around spamming a single skill.
Pros:
- All you really need are a 4L and a 3L. I have a 5L and use an item rarity gem as the fifth.
- You become essentially indestructible against big melee hitters. This is by far the biggest perk of this build. Once my incinerate has hit 4th stage, I am basically invincible (unless something freezes me - dream fragments wru). I comfortably tank endgame maps versions of kole and brutus, while wearing farming gear and basically sucking (dont bother popping granite flasks or other sensible things)
- Keep a couple firetrap gems linked to increased area of effect and you should be fine against casters, and elemental reflecters. As a witch, its nice to have zombies out to keep melee elemental reflect mobs busy while you lay down traps.
- Build allows you to reserve easily half your mana pool or more, without needing to invest into many mana nodes (important, as clarity and purity are essentially requirements). Incinerate linked to mana leech means you almost never have mana issues. The exception would be a 'smothering/stasis' map with high fire resist mobs that refuse to swarm near you. However, firetrap is one of the best dps/mana ratio abilities there are, and with some patience and accuracy these maps should also not be an issue
- Requires a lot of movement and some situational awareness. Depending on who you are, this could be considered a Con. IMO, makes the game a lot more fun than say a dual spork or summoner build where you go afk, come back and collect loot. Makes fighting otherwise annoying mobs (like undying alchemists and puncture archers) fun and skill based, since you alternate weaving around and tossing fire traps at a free moment.
Cons:
- Requires eye of chayula, which is getting cheaper, around 5-6gcp if you're patient. As a plus, if youre CI the downside of chayula doesnt effect you.
- Clarity aura is basically required. Purity too depending on where you are at and what your other gear is like
- Not the best in parties because of the slow ramp up on damage and the fact mobs tend to scatter
- Requires a lot of movement and some situational awareness.
- Archers sometimes cause me a problem (Fuck burning/explosive arrows and puncture) but as long as you're pro with the dodges and pop a quicksilver it's usually easy to take them out with a couple firetraps at most.
Nodes:
You can find the trees at the poe forums pretty easily, but the main nodes include some basic fire nodes, lots of ES, and CI.
Naturally, like any spec that largely skips life nodes, This build requires CI. The exception would be if you have shavronne's wrappings. The main advantage to shavronne's with respect to this build is pain attunement, which is pretty huge. Without pain attunement, an emphasis on maximizing spell dmg is also important.
It's also fairly easy to find someone selling a chest with more ES than shavronne's as well - since all you need is a 4L you can probably find a 700-800 ES tri-res chest for a few gcp, maybe an exalt at most. With the amount of ES you get with a CI build and the ES node past CI, it is pretty easy to reach 8k ES without disc aura, and if your mana pool is big enough, 9k+ ES with disc up.
- Personally, I run with all farming gear all the time. I am pretty sure my highest resist is around 35%, with purity up! I could easily get to 8k ES but don't because of the gimped farming gear I use. I don't mind because I enjoy the challenge and its fun seeing loot explosions on the screen. Even with this shitty setup, I am surviving up thru lvl 72 maps so far, with my few deaths being entirely avoidable (usually involving me not backtracking when I should have). If someone actually geared sensibily, their survivability with this spec should be excellent.