An Actual Scarlet Witch Guide

Despite being one of the most popular yet complex characters, there isn't actually a guide that explains how to get the most out of Scarlet Witch.  Most guides contain little more information than "use these items and skills, good luck."  With this guide I'm hoping to change that and bring some order to the chaos.

If you are unconcerned with optimisation, then this section might not pertain to you, but I recommend reading it anyway.  Scarlet Witch is a very complicated hero that has to keep a few extra things in mind in order to hit her full potential.

Chaos Overload - Scarlet Witch's most important feature is that when her chaos energy (spirit) maxes out, she enters Chaos Overload.  This removes all randomization from her skills.  Every attack will deal the maximum amount of damage possible and the chaos effects will always activate.  This is the key to Scarlet Witch's damage output.  She has skills such as Hex Bolt, which has a base damage range of roughly 15-2800 damage.  Chaos Overload changes that average damage output from 1407.5 to 2800.  That's double DPS.  Therefore, we want to maximize our time spent in Chaos Overload.

Spirit - Scarlet Witch indirectly scales from spirit because more spirit means more time spent in Chaos Overload.  We want to get as much as possible without sacrificing other damage stats.

Cost Reduction - The main vehicle to reach Chaos Overload is her signature power, Unmake Reality, which will always fill Scarlet Witch's energy gauge.  Therefore, we want to use it as much as possible.  Cost reduction reduces the cooldown of this skill.  It starts at 40 seconds and can go as low as 20 seconds without the signature cooldown cosmic artifact affix factored in.  That means that it is important to get to 50% cost reduction, which is also the maximum amount possible.  Anything beyond 50% will have no effect on Unmake Reality's cooldown.  This is a breakdown of my recommended way to get there:

It's possible to avoid the 12 extra energy investment and instead have a 21.3 second cooldown on Unmake Reality in exchange for 780 critical damage from investing in Intelligence instead of Energy.  The important thing is not to sidetrack too much for energy because each point of energy represents lost critical damage.

Power Duration - We need about 40% here for permanent uptime on Beasts from Beyond and Ravenous Binding.  This also helps with the uptime on the proc from Cybernetic Implant.  More is better since it leaves more wiggle room.

Clearing Trash

As long as Chaos Overload is active, using Chaos Rift will literally instantly kill anything with a white, blue, or yellow name, unless it's crowd control immune or during Cosmic Trial.  It's that simple.

 

Bosses

Open with this one time:  
Then  >  >  >  >  >  >  > 

The first thing you should do is to damage the boss with your teleport skill, Chaos Shift, one time.  We want to use our signature, Unmake Reality, as soon as possible, but in this game an enemy has to be attacked over a prolonged period to trigger the "when in combat, your abilities cost 15% less spirit" cosmic artifact affix.  For whatever reason, teleporting into something bypasses that.  This shaves six seconds off of the first signature use without wasting time or negatively snapshotting damage over time abilities.

Use Unmake Reality followed by the damage layers:  Beasts from Beyond, Chaos Rift, Ravenous Binding, and then a second Chaos Rift.  The reason for casting Chaos Rift twice is that the first row talent, Reality Shred, allows for two Chaos Rifts to stack and damage the same target.  Hold down Chaotic Hex and use Chaos Blast and Hex Sphere together whenever Hex Sphere comes off cooldown.

That's a lot to keep track of, but don't worry if your timing with Chaos Blast isn't perfect.  It's not a huge DPS loss to use it more than necessary.  If all of this is too complicated then use Chaos Blast as your filler and Iron Maiden to complete your hotbar.  This is a DPS loss, but there are also fewer buttons to press and keep track of.

 

 

 

 The main things to say here are Reality Shred over Bad Luck in the first row because Reality Shred has the possibly unintended side effect of allowing Chaos Rift to double stack on a target.  In the third row, Command Chaos can be taken over Positive Outcome for a notable damage increase, but it will leave Scarlet Witch squishy.  It's up to you the player to determine how much dodging you are willing to do.  The alternatives in rows two, four, and five are generally weak or not helpful.

 

(Fair warning in advance, Scarlet Witch is probably the hardest character in the game to gear).

Slot 1 
 Fragment of Twilight (Recommended) - It's a big friendly stat stick.  What else is there to say?

Brotherhood of Evil Mutant's Gloves - This is the more useful of the two personal slot 1s since it doesn't rely on procs that do random things.

Slot 2
 Mark of the Nexus Being (Recommended) - The cost reduction roll here is very important as each 0.25% off of the maximum roll represents an extra 0.1 seconds on Unmake Reality's cooldown.  That costs one energy, or 60 critical damage, to make up.

Slot 3
Majestic Cape (Recommended) - The ideal affixes are critical hit, critical damage, base damage to mental powers, and the yellow 'cosmic might' affix that adds attack speed and attack damage.  The regular affixes are the most important here and represent more DPS than two good affixes with 'cosmic might' due to how unreliable that proc is.  This is a difficult item to acquire, so be prepared to settle for one that maybe has energy, intelligence, brutal strike, and/or brutal damage instead.

Brotherhood of Evil Mutants Cape - This isn't really a bad unique at all especially since it has power radius and cost reduction.  It's just that Scarlet Witch can easily get over 70% base damage from a good Majestic Cape which is more damage than this can provide.

Slot 4
 Genoshan Royal Slippers (Recommended) - The power duration roll is important here.

Slot 5
 Essence of Jinn (Recommended) - Make sure to get nine energy because that alone is 1440 damage rating and, in Scarlet Witch's case, represents less energy investment to get the best possible cooldown on Unmake Reality.  The energy is tied to the base damage roll anyway.  Don't forget the power duration roll matters also.

 Chthonic Headdress - If you're stuck using this, then you will need God of Mischief on your uru to make up for missing the power duration on Essence of Jinn.

Insignia
 - Critical hit and critical damage is the best affix combination and more important than the insignia itself.  Unless you play a lot of Black Bolt chances are you don't have the ideal Oracle insignia.  Wasp is the more attainable back-up option.  

Ring
 Cosmic Ring (Recommended) - +3 energy and brutal strike is ideal here.  +3 intelligence is basically the same thing but requires making up the energy elsewhere if maximum Unmake Reality cooldown is desired.

 Stone of Jordan - The simple translation of the text on this ring is "Add 370 spirit."  Now, spirit is very important and this can allow permanent Chaos Overload.  However, Scarlet Witch is starved for stats and this item lacks them.  Also, this doesn't drop, so acquiring it might not be possible depending on how the server you're playing on functions.

 S.H.I.E.L.D. Graduation Ring - This is a compromise between a cosmic ring and Stone of Jordan, but it lacks defensive stats and provides less DPS.

 Sling Ring of the Kamar-Taj - This is the defensive option to take if more survivability is desired.

Uru-Forged
 Bowazon (Recommended) - Provides much needed critical hit and brutal strike.

 God of Mischief - If you're under 40% power duration, probably from not having Essence of Jinn then you probably will have to use this to make up the difference.

 River of the Soul - This is a stopgap for better runewords.

 Cybernetic Implant (Recommended) - Scarlet Witch will proc this a lot and the 300 spirit is a pretty big deal.

 Improved Arc Reactor (Recommended) - This can be hard to acquire depending on your access to anniversary items.

 Hand of Doom (Recommended) - This hero hurts for critical hit and brutal strike.

 Gem of the Kursed (Recommended) - Same reasoning as Hand of Doom.

 Advanced Reserve Electrical Generator (You Might Need This) - If you're missing a lot of cost reduction, then use this over Gem of the Kursed.

 Bullseye's Deck of Cards - This is worth mentioning because it can be purchased and is one of the higher damage options.

 A.R.M.O.R. Supercharged Power Cell - Same reasoning as Bullseye's Deck of Cards.

 Mental Focus Headband - This is not a good damage artifact, but it's worth mentioning that the increased power radius can help prevent certain bosses from walking out of the area of effect of Scarlet Witch's spells.

 Siege's Targeting System - This sounds good on paper but don't bother.  The proc is way too unreliable.

Other Usable Artifacts:
    

 

 Mind Gem.  Deep Thought - 150 points.  This is spirit and cost reduction.
Time Gem.  Temporal Loophole - 200 points.  Attack speed matters a lot and Scarlet Witch can't easily get it elsewhere.
Reality Gem.  Energy - 150 points.  Eight attributes for 150 points is a good return.
Power Gem.  Strike Through - 150 points.  Last +1 to all bonus.
Mind Gem.  Deep Thought - 50 points.  Finish this node.
Mind Gem. Mental Focus - 150 points.  Solid damage returns.
Reality Gem.  Energy - X points.  If you're missing a few points of energy to max out Unmake Reality's cooldown.
Mind Gem.  Intelligence - Everything else.  This is where you will dump your infinity points after covering everything else.

Optional:
 Space Gem.  Gravity Well - 50 or 150 points.  Health is the best defensive stat because it scales the medkit.  This is the place to increase TTL if necessary.  I recommend 50 or 150 points because anything more is usually too much and sitting at 100 points means that 50 more points is +1 to all attributes.  That's almost the same as spending 50 points on +2 intelligence anyway.

1000 infinity point 1:33 TTK.

1000 infinity point clear of Odin's Palace Terminal in 1:04.

1000 infinity point clear of Times Square Terminal in 2:09.

High infinity point clear of Times Square Terminal in 1:33