Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2) brings exciting new content to the beloved Path of Exile universe, introducing new mechanics, revamped skills, and more depth to the game's complex build diversity. One of the standout hybrid builds you can experiment with is the Permafrost Witchhunter, a build focused on elemental cold damage, freezing enemies, and freezing both the environment and foes to the core. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to create and optimize your Permafrost Witchhunter in PoE 2. You will be able to Poe 2 trade more effectively and adapt to this gameplay faster.

Overview of the Permafrost Witchhunter Build

The Permafrost Witchhunter build focuses on combining the Witch and Hunter ascendancies, bringing together both elemental cold damage and freezing mechanics to deal devastating damage while freezing enemies in place. The main feature of this build is the ability to freeze enemies with powerful cold spells and trigger a permafrost effect that allows for continuous area control and devastating damage over time.

The Witch part of the build adds strong elemental spellcasting, particularly cold-based skills, while the Hunter element focuses on enhancing physical and elemental damage as well as supporting your crowd control and debuff abilities.

Key Features of the Permafrost Witchhunter Build

Freezing and Slow Effects: With cold-based spells like Frostbolt, Ice Nova, or Cold Snap, you'll be able to freeze and slow enemies in their tracks, rendering them incapable of fighting back or escaping.

Elemental Damage and Scaling: As a hybrid build, it offers exceptional scaling of both cold elemental damage and physical damage, using passive skill trees and ascendancy nodes to increase the damage potential of both aspects.

Mobility and Defense: The build includes elements of high mobility and evasion, combined with defensive layers such as Frost Shield and Ice Ward, allowing you to survive in the toughest of encounters while still dealing high damage.

Choosing the Right Ascendancy: Witch vs Hunter

Witch Ascendancy: Occultist (Elementalist)

The Occultist ascendancy is a natural choice for this build, as it offers synergy with elemental cold damage, frost-based effects, and curse mechanics. Key features include:

Forbidden Power: This node increases your elemental damage, and when combined with curses and other damage modifiers, it allows you to boost cold spellcasting immensely.

Frostbite Curse: This curse can be applied to enemies, making them take increased cold damage and have reduced cold resistance. It's an excellent tool for amplifying your damage output.

Hunter Ascendancy: Deadeye (Or Raider)

The Deadeye ascendancy excels in boosting projectile damage, critical chance, and elemental damage. In this build, you'll likely lean toward Deadeye to synergize with projectiles like Frostbolt or Ice Shot.

Point Blank: This node increases the damage of your projectiles when you're close to enemies, which is ideal for dealing massive cold damage at mid-range.

Far Shot: This increases the damage when you're attacking from a distance, adding flexibility to your playstyle.

Alternatively, Raider can be a good choice if you want more focus on evasion, speed, and frenzy charge generation. Frenzy charges are important for scaling cold damage and can make a huge difference in increasing your overall damage output.

Core Skills for the Permafrost Witchhunter

To make the Permafrost Witchhunter build work, you need to select the best skills that combine cold damage, freezing effects, and projectiles. Below are some key skill recommendations:

Frostbolt

Frostbolt is a fundamental cold spell in PoE 2, which fires a cold projectile that can pierce enemies. The Permafrost Witchhunter uses it to trigger freezing effects and deal cold damage at range. It synergizes well with the Deadeye ascendancy for additional range and power.

Ice Nova

Ice Nova can be used to deal area cold damage around you. It works well with cold-themed builds due to its freezing potential. Since this build requires you to freeze as many enemies as possible, Ice Nova offers crowd control and significant damage to a wide area.

Cold Snap

Cold Snap is perfect for freezing enemies in a large radius and dealing substantial cold damage. This skill helps you trigger instant freezing on your enemies, buying time for you to attack or reposition.

Ice Shot

Ice Shot creates freezing projectiles that freeze enemies over a larger area. It works well with Point Blank from the Deadeye ascendancy and is effective at controlling the battlefield by slowing and freezing enemies from a distance.

Frost Shield / Arctic Armor

Frost Shield gives you additional defense by reducing incoming elemental damage. It's a defensive skill that works well with your high-speed movement and frost-based attacks. Pair it with Arctic Armor to further reduce the damage from enemies.

Passive Tree and Key Passive Points

As a hybrid build, the Permafrost Witchhunter needs to balance offense and defense while maximizing cold damage and freezing effectiveness. Here's how you should approach the passive tree:

Cold Damage Nodes: Focus on cold spell damage nodes in the Witch section of the tree. Look for Elemental Damage with Spells, Cold Damage, Freeze Chance, and Increased Projectile Damage to boost your frost-based damage.

Projectile Nodes: If you're using projectiles like Frostbolt or Ice Shot, invest heavily in Projectile Damage, Critical Strike Chance, and Pierce Chance to improve the performance of these skills.

Evasion and Life: Since the build is fragile at times, focus on Evasion, Life, and Energy Shield to keep you alive while dishing out your cold-based attacks. Defensive nodes from Raider and Occultist ascendency provide crucial evasion, defense, and regen.

Frenzy Charges and Crit: Frenzy charges from Raider ascendancy will help you achieve high damage with critical cold spells. Pick up Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Multiplier on the tree to boost your overall DPS.

Here's an example of key nodes you should aim for on your passive tree:

Cold Hearted Calculation

Elemental Focus

Heart of Ice

Projectile Damage

Wicked Ward (Energy Shield)

Phase Acrobatics (Evasion)

Gear Recommendations

When it comes to gear, you'll need to focus on items that enhance your cold damage, boost freezing effects, and provide survivability.

Weapon

A Wand or Bow is the ideal choice, as they provide bonuses to elemental damage and projectile skills. Look for Wands with added cold damage, spell damage, or increased critical strike chance. For Bows, focus on Cold Damage with Attacks, Elemental Damage, and Projectile Speed.

Chest

Light armor or Hybrid armor with Energy Shield and Life should be prioritized. If possible, seek increased Cold Damage, Energy Shield, and Life. Adding Elemental Resistances will help you survive in higher-level content.

Helmet

A Helmet with increased Cold Damage and Critical Strike Chance or Critical Multiplier will give a big boost to your offensive power. Consider also seeking Elemental Resistances to cap your resists.

Rings/Amulet

Cold Damage and Critical Strike are the key stats for your rings and amulet. Aim for Increased Cold Damage, Critical Strike Multiplier, and Energy Shield or Life as secondary stats.

Flasks

Quicksilver Flask (for speed) and Divine Life Flask (for healing) are essential. Consider Diamond Flask for critical chance increases and Silver Flask for Frenzy charge generation.

Leveling Tips for the Permafrost Witchhunter Build

Leveling as a Permafrost Witchhunter should focus on using basic cold spells like Frostbolt and Ice Nova, combined with Frost Shield for defense. Early on, focus on gearing up with items that give increased elemental damage and cold spell boosts. As you ascend through the game, you'll unlock the powerful ascendancy skills of Occultist and Deadeye, which will significantly increase your damage output and defense.

Conclusion

The Permafrost Witchhunter build in Path of Exile 2 is a highly rewarding and versatile choice for players who enjoy controlling the battlefield with cold-based damage while freezing enemies and dishing out devastating elemental attacks. By combining the best aspects of Witch and Hunter, this build offers a unique blend of offense, defense, and crowd control that will carry you through the toughest challenges PoE 2 has to offer. If you want to get stronger faster, having enough cheap Path of Exile 2 Currency will help you.

By following this guide and optimizing your gear, ascendancy choices, and passive tree, you'll have everything you need to create a powerful Permafrost Witchhunter build and dominate your enemies with freezing fury.