Identity
Infernalist is Witch's demon-fire caster Ascendancy: it replaces your Mana with a resource called Infernal Flame that fuels a self-damaging demon transformation (Demon Form), while a summoned Infernal Hound companion and a suite of fire/chaos conversion notables round out the kit. It's a high-risk, high-reward Ascendancy — the better you manage Infernal Flame, the harder you hit; mismanage it and you take the overflow as Fire Damage yourself.
Keystone
Pyromantic Pact — Your maximum Mana is replaced by maximum Infernal Flame, and you gain Infernal Flame equal to twice your Mana. You gain Infernal Flame instead of spending Mana for skill costs. If you haven't gained any Infernal Flame in the past 2 seconds, you lose 25% of your current Infernal Flame per second. Reaching maximum Infernal Flame deals your maximum Life and Energy Shield to you as Fire Damage, then resets Infernal Flame to zero. (This decay rate has been tuned twice — it started at 10%/sec, was raised to 50%/sec in patch 0.2.0, then lowered to the current 25%/sec later the same patch cycle; some older guides still show the outdated 10%/sec figure.)
Notables
- Altered Flesh — 20% of Cold Damage taken as Fire Damage, 20% of Lightning Damage taken as Fire Damage, 20% of Physical Damage taken as Chaos Damage.
- Beidat's Gaze — Reserves 25% of your Life; grants +1 to maximum Mana per 6 maximum Life.
- Beidat's Will — Reserves 25% of your Life; grants +1 to maximum Spirit per 25 maximum Life.
- Beidat's Hand — Reserves 25% of your Life; grants +1 to maximum Energy Shield per 8 maximum Life.
- Demonic Possession — Grants the skill Demon Form: while active, 12–25% increased Cast Speed (scaling with skill level), 0.8–18.5 Life loss per second per Demonflame stack, and 3% more Spell damage per stack. Demonflame is capped at 10 stacks by default.
- Mastered Darkness — Demonflame has no maximum, removing Demon Form's default 10-stack cap. (Some sources describe this node as capping Demonflame at 10 instead — that's a mix-up with the base skill's own default cap; this notable is the uncap, not the cap.)
- Bringer of Flame — All damage from you and allies in your Presence contributes to Ignite Chance and Magnitude. (This used to only apply while on "Low Infernal Flame" — that gating condition was removed in patch 0.2.0; the effect is now unconditional.)
- Seething Body — Gain Elemental Archon when you cast a Spell while on High Infernal Flame; Elemental Archon doesn't expire while you stay on High Infernal Flame; you lose it on reaching maximum Infernal Flame. (This node used to grant a flat "gain X% of Damage as Fire Damage" instead — that clause was removed entirely in patch 0.4.0 and replaced with the Elemental Archon mechanic described here.)
- Loyal Hellhound — Grants the skill Summon Infernal Hound, and allows 1 Infernal Familiar. (An earlier version of this node also redirected 20% of Hit damage to your Hellhound's Life before you — that redirection was removed in patch 0.2.0; the node no longer has a damage-redirection clause.)
- Grinning Immolation — Become Ignited when you deal a Critical Hit, taking 15% of your Life and Energy Shield as Fire Damage per second; 50% more Critical Damage Bonus. (Buffed from 30% more Critical Damage Bonus in patch 0.2.0.)
Practical notes
- Pyromantic Pact's 2x Mana-to-Infernal-Flame conversion means gear/passives that boost maximum Mana double as Infernal Flame scaling — worth weighing against direct Life/ES investment.
- Bringer of Flame and Seething Body both reward staying on High Infernal Flame rather than avoiding it, which cuts against the instinct to keep Infernal Flame low to avoid the Pyromantic Pact explosion — this Ascendancy wants you riding close to the edge, not playing it safe.
- Mastered Darkness is close to a must-take once you're intentionally stacking high Demonflame counts — without it, Demon Form's damage and Cast Speed scaling caps out at 10 stacks regardless of how aggressively you build around it.
