How to get started with Diablo 4 Season 7’s Witchcraft Powers

Diablo 4 Season 7 is the Season of Witchcraft, where for the next three months players get to live out the Taissa life goals established in the title’s base campaign storyline by wielding the witchcraft of Hawezar. These powers are “a strange sorcery [that] has risen form the crags and bogs of Sanctuary,” and they are your wonderful, horrifying weapons to unleash against your enemies.
But unlocking the powers you want for your build is a bit of a process, and there are numerous powers to unlock and combine in different ways to best effect. But we’re here to help you get started: here’s everything you need to know to get started with your own power combinations in Diablo 4 Season of Witchcraft.
Heed the call of the Witches of Hawezar, a Coven that is bound by the deep magic oozing from the swamps they call home. The Coven are the protectors of the Tree of Whispers, who discovered its many captive Heads are missing. The Tree forgets no oaths and forgives no debts, and these Heads have dues to pay till the end of days. However, these missing Heads have been set loose—free to carry out their own hunt—travelling across Sanctuary to seek bodies and reclaim what was once theirs.
How to unlock Witchcraft Powers in Diablo 4 Season 7
Season 7’s power system takes a lot of inspiration from Season 2’s Vampiric setup. The initial steps is really straightforward:
- Complete Gelena’s initial quests in Gea Kul, which sends you to the Tree of Whispers area.
- Talk to Gelena at the Tree; she’ll explain what’s going on with the lack of decorative craniums.
- Earn your first 25 Restless Rot (this season’s currency) and go check out one of the three Altars of Witchcraft when prompted by the seasonal questline. Wait — where are all the powers? I only see six or so.
And this is where the “bit of a process” mentioned earlier comes into play. You see, the rest of the Witchcraft Powers — other than some that are lost to the Coven — are unlocked through the Coven’s Favor rep board, which you progress through by completing Whispers (frankly, a beautifully-integrated process to the Seasonal gameplay). You’ll see more and more powers in the available for purchase from the Altars after earning a “More Witchcraft” tier reward. Sadly, the Lost Powers are only unlocked at rare Forgotten Altars, found “within random dungeons throughout Sanctuary.”
How to equip and level up Witchcraft Powers
Once you purchase a Witchcraft Power, the process becomes straightforward. The dedicated “Witchcraft” screen (found in your Character sheet) opens with the Altar purchase screen, so you can immediately slot your new powers for use in your adventures. You also use this view to upgrade your purchased powers. Upgrade costs increase as you level — Rank 2 is 25 Restless Rot, Rank 3 is 70, and so forth.
Each regular power can has an icon in its bottom-right corner to indicate its school — Eldritch, Psyche, Growth & Decay, and Lost. They can all level up to rank 21 and receive an improvement at a specific rank. For example, Poison Frog attacks Pull and Taunt at Rank 5, but Soul Harvest doesn’t receive its big improvement until Rank 9.
What are the Unique Witchcraft Powers?
Each school of Witchcraft has a Unique Power that gets slotted in the very center of your board. You can only have one Unique power equipped for use at a time, but they are correspondingly strong and all earn their additional effects at their max, Rank 5. These power sare:
- Eldritch’s Doom Orb
- At Rank 1, an ominous orb of pure Eldritch energy circles you, damaging any enemy it touches for 400% Fire damage. Doom Orb may launch itself at distant enemies before returning.
- At Rank 5, kills or damage to Bosses empower the orb’s damage by 5%. After 100%, the orb explodes dealing 5,200 damage to nearby enemies before reforming 3 seconds later.
- Each rank increases the damage done.
- Psyche’s Vengeful Spirit Servant
- At Rank 1, every 19 Seconds, a Vengeful Spirit Servant appears for 6 seconds. While active, all damage taken is instead taken by the spirit. Vengeful Spirit Servant deals 750% damage.
- At Rank 5: When the Vengeful Spirit’s Life is fully depleted, it rushes towards up to 8 enemies dealing 2,000 Shadow damage.
- Duration increases and cooldown decreases with every rank.
- Growth & Decay’s The Cycle
- Dealing any damage with your skills has a 15% chance to grow a flower from the ground. When an enemy is near, the flower deals X Poison damage to that enemy over 5 seconds. If an ally is near, the flower Heals for 6% Maximum Life. The flower withers away after use. A flower may grow once every 2 5 seconds per enemy.
- At Rank 5, the damage and healing affects all enemies or allies near the flower.
- Each rank increases the damage and healing done.
- Lost’s Piranhado
- When an enemy is afflicted by both a Hex and an Aura Effect, a Piranhado is summoned pulling enemies towards it and dealing X Physical damage over 12 seconds. May occur once every 20 seconds.
- At Rank 5, Piranhado moves itself towards nearby enemies.
- Each rank increases Piranhado’s duration.
The best Witchcraft Powers to use in Diablo 4 Season 7
But the absolute best part is figuring out which Witchcraft Powers to use. Now, my default advice is to play what looks fun, but a little direction never hurts, so I’ve highlighted a few standard powers below for you to test drive as you’re getting started in the season!
- For summoners — Grow. Whenever you cast your Ultimate, your summoned friends (Servants, Minions, and Companions) will literally grow on screen and deal bonus damage for the next 15 seconds. At Rank 11, they also gain 100% Critical Strike Chance while enlarged. This is going to equate to some ridiculous DPS, especially as you build up your cooldown reduction — more Ultimates, more gigantic Skeletons or Wolves.
- For the glass cannons — Poison Frog. Starting out, this little buddy applies a 3-second poison DoT on attack, but “explodes violently” on death to do additional instant Poison damage. However, they shine at Rank 5, when the frog both taunts enemies for 1 second while the attacks pull enemies towards it. Bonus — it’s one of the first Powers you can unlock at the Altar.
- For a hefty damage boost — Purging Touch with other any Eldritch power. You’re going to spend a lot of time in Head Hunts, and this power increases the damage of other Eldritch Powers against Headrotten. There are extra powerful combinations when you start unlocking Lost Powers like Breath of the Coven or Occult Gems like Voice of the Stars, which apply the Eldritch tag to Witchcraft Effects and your Ultimate Skill, respectively.
- For the ones who forget to heal — Aura of Siphoning. Again, we’re starting with just some damage, specifically an “aura of decay” that deals 80% Poison damage to enemies every second, but at Rank 10 every time that damage goes out, you’re healed for 1% of your Max Life.
- For literally everyone — Soul Harvest. Whenever you use a skill with a cooldown, your primary stat increases by 3% per monster for 5.5 seconds, with the duration increasing for each rank. Primary stats break down as:
- Barbarian — Strength
- Druid — Willpower
- Spiritborn and Rogue — Dexterity
- Sorcerer and Necromancer — Intelligence
So grab your broomsticks and get ready. Diablo 4 Season 7 is here, and we’ve got some heads to hunt. See you in Sanctuary!
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