Path of Exile 2 brings new opportunities for creative and powerful character builds, and one standout option is Pohx's Permafrost SSF Witchhunter. This build revolves around freezing enemies and leveraging powerful explosions to clear large packs with ease, while also delivering significant burst damage on single targets. Let’s dive into the key aspects of this build, how it performs during leveling, and the POE 2 Currency intricacies of weapon swapping that make it so seamless.

Core Concept: Freeze and Explode

The primary focus of the Permafrost Witchhunter is freezing enemies using cold-based damage and then triggering devastating explosions. By freezing your enemies, you set the stage for massive area-of-effect (AoE) clear speed with skills like Cold Snap or Frostbolt. These skills are further enhanced by the use of passive nodes like Permafrost, which increases the effectiveness of your freezes. Once enemies are frozen, they become vulnerable to explosion effects, creating a satisfying chain reaction that clears entire screens of monsters in seconds.

For single-target damage, you will rely on skills like Frostbomb or Ice Spear, with the core strategy being to freeze a target and then use Frostbomb to trigger a massive burst of damage. This synergy is incredibly effective for bosses, where freezing your target for long enough to unleash the full potential of your burst damage is critical.

Leveling Strategy

Leveling with this build is a smooth experience, especially early on. The Frostbolt skill offers fantastic AoE damage during the early acts, while the Cold Snap and Frost Bomb skills scale well as you progress into later stages of the game. A recommended passive node for leveling is Deep Freeze, which significantly improves your ability to freeze enemies across large areas. This allows for efficient monster clearing without having to worry too much about high-level damage scaling just yet.

As you advance, you’ll want to invest in the Permafrost and Frostbite clusters to further enhance your freezing capabilities, building towards your endgame setup.

Weapon Swap Mechanics

One unique feature of this build is the weapon swap mechanic. At various stages, you’ll swap between different weapons to optimize your damage output. The build makes excellent use of this system, allowing you to adapt to different situations on the fly. It’s important to understand how this mechanic works in this build to ensure that your transitions between weapons are seamless.

In the early game, weapon swapping allows you to boost your AoE clear speed with specific weapon affixes, while later in the game, you’ll focus on increasing your damage output for boss fights. The switch from Cold Snap setup to Frostbomb for high burst damage becomes second nature once you get the hang of the system.

Survivability

Though the build can be squishy at first, you’ll eventually gain access to a 4k+ bubble of protection via Energy Shield, similar to traditional builds that rely on Energy Shield for tankiness. This shield helps protect you from all sources of damage, making the build significantly more survivable in the late game. However, you’ll still need to keep positioning in mind, as the early squishiness means you can easily get overwhelmed if you’re not careful with your positioning.

Conclusion

Pohx's Permafrost SSF Witchhunter is a buy POE 2 Orbs fun, explosive, and fast-paced build that excels at freezing enemies and causing them to explode for satisfying AoE damage. While it may start off squishy, the combination of Energy Shield protection and powerful freeze mechanics ensures that it transitions well into the late game. Make sure to understand weapon swapping, as it is crucial to optimizing this build's performance, and enjoy the fast-paced, high-impact gameplay of one of Path of Exile 2’s most exciting Witchhunter setups!