The Summoner witch

I am around level 53 and I would like to share my opinion on the witch and these invocations.

I managed to make it to Act 2 of Cruel Mode, and tried other classes after that. I find that invocations are expensive in spirit and do almost no damage compared to the points I put into them. I have +187% increase with points in the tree and I don't feel it at all in game.

Skeleton Warriors: They're just cannon fodder who take damage and try to agro monsters, they have no order.
Low damage, not super tough, no area damage.


Skeleton archers: The damage is not crazy, they are single target, their order does little damage and must be activated manually. I quickly stopped playing with it.

Skeleton ice mage: I don't find them crazy, just their order which is a little better than the previous ones but I quickly stopped playing them.

Reaver skeletons: they are very fragile, their damage is not great and their order makes them even more fragile.

Grenade Launcher Skeletons: I only play with them, they can fire several grenades with a support gem, they do area damage, and with the number of skeletons I can summon it does a little more damage than the others. They don't do much damage but they're the best I've found.


The skeleton brutes: I expected a lot from them, and in the end they cost a lot in spirit for a mediocre result, they take damage quite well, but nothing more. They have no orders, their damage is ridiculous, no area damage.


The lightning skeleton mages: I expected a lot from them too, but in the end, no damage, no HP, and their skill is useless, you can only use it on dead skeletons, so you don't choose neither “when” nor “where” used it.


Exhumation: This is quite useful for overwhelming opponents, but when there is no corpse the spell is useless, especially against bosses.

In general I am disappointed by the summons, I would say that the developers have made sure that they are as less powerful as possible, is this to avoid ending up like POE1 with a lot of people who play summons? Is this a balancing problem?
For the moment the boss fights are rather "simple", I let my summons hit the boss and I run everywhere dodging, and I kill the bosses with attrition, but they take a long time to fall, even very long. I have more problems with normal monsters or elites, I have trouble killing them given the low damage and doing a level takes a long time, even more so if I die and have to do everything again.

Even though I take a lot of points in the talent tree to increase the damage, I don't think it feels that way. The monsters' "orders" are under-exploited, it's a good idea but it doesn't work, either the monsters have skills that are too situational, or that do little or no damage and don't really synergize with the gameplay. For example we could give an order and the skeleton warriors could make a charge by knocking down the enemies in front, the brutes could hit the ground and do big damage in AOE, the skeleton archers instead of making poison, could make a rain of arrow, and depending on the number there would be more salvo or a larger area of ​​effects.


I am not a professional player, I have already played quite a few hours of POE1, which allows me to have a slightly more solid base than new players, there is a way to better optimize the stuff or play better, make a better build. But my feelings for the moment on the summon witch are disappointing.
I also take into account that there is no ancestry like the necromancer and this must play on the build.

Hi shichibukai44#0512

Next friday 29/aug; there will be a major update to the game and im also looking forward to seeing the changes in action - playing a Necromancer Witch is my favourite class.

Also hoping to see a Summoner focused Ascendancy in the future - maybe it could give more spirit points or allow us to summon exclusive ascendancy minions.

Cheers