Scorching Ray

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Vipermagi wrote:

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Zaanus wrote:

You could say it's a totem skill, except incinerate would be 10x better as a primary totem skill and that's not even really used.

Or even just Flame Totem, that ol' classic.

Scorching Ray is a bad main-Totem skill because it doesn't meaningfully stack - a single Totem can hit the stack cap pretty quickly and any Totems beyond that don't do anything for your damage against bosses. Quite a solid support totem though.

I think a tiny thin laser would be a much better spell effect for this is actually useful for. If it's going to be a fire themed wither totem skill and never a bride, then it doesnt need to be spamming half the screen with fx spam.

Currently I've been playing with this skill on my current level 37 RF Guardian, since I could pick up the skill, I switched it with Freezing pulse which did a lot more damage however this looked "cooler" also I wanted to enjoy it after it being pushed back so many times. At first the damage was rather low however once I got some increased fire damage and increased burning damage also some supports finally in Act 2 the damage was much nicer. I could just spin to win leaving everything to burn except the mighty strong monsters. Currently at my level I'm able to support RF and use my Ray Overall I'm enjoying the skill however RF does feel like it inflicts more damage.

I have Scorching Ray linked with Increased Duration to allow the burn to last longer. As well as Faster Casting to swipe around with it. As well as Elemental Focus and Controlled Destruction. I want to say my last link would be either Iron Will, or Increased burning damage. Currently leaning towards Iron Will because it's vastly superior due to the current Strength I have.

One thing I did notice in the tool tip is that it displays the amount of dps the skill does in the explanation text, however the little dps chart at the top displays something entirely different. Which one is the correct one?

I wanted to point out that in some cases the character will start the channeling animation, but instead of firing Scorching Ray, it'll cancel the starting animation and start it again, over and over.

It makes it pretty awkward in some situations where you want to fire it towards a boss or pack and your character will just do the derp dance with his hands. I don't truly know what's the cause of it, sometimes it happens when i attempt to cast it close to some terrain (which doesn't necessarily need to be blocking it, from what i've gathered).

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Vipermagi wrote:

So, according to the most recent news post, multiple Rays should stack.
It sure as hell didn't feel like it to me, and that's with two totems and a hardcaster (co-op). Guess I am incredibly insanely blind.

They don't stack read it again: They’ll all apply their damage over time based on their individual stages, but the total Fire Resistance penalty from all of the debuffs on a particular enemy cannot exceed -24%.

So basically each beam has it's own counter of debuff but debuffs do not stack.

I like the skill so far while leveling (mid cruel currently) but I have legacy 6L Searing touch so I could use it from scratch so I am not sure how good it will be in fresh league.

Current findings:
1) Gem quality - currently the quality adds no difference to clear speed and it's one of the most useless quality bonuses IMHO and almost not visible. It's possible to get to situation when you can't see mob shooting at you and you ray back to direction back with 20% quality and you still don't reach the mob.
2) Defense - it would be nice if the ray would be wider at the source point so it would cover like 2-3 mobs next to each other if they are directly in your face to have a bit better chance to deal with close mobs.
That being said if there will be in the future defense support gem it may help or solve the issue.
3) Lab traps - ray can't pass the spike trap why? It's a flame beam not a projectile which you may expect to get stuck.

I just tried doing uber lab on a lvl 87 RF chieftain with scorching ray and Im sorry but its just painful. You cant stand in one place long enough to deal a good amount of damage because without any leech or recovery you can stand still. Kite is useless because you dont deal any damage that way and decoy totem wont survive long enough.

i dont understand the "dmg is so low" fraction...
i must say its while leveling atleast for me is nearly onj par with the old blade vortex, didnt play it since the stack rework tho.
normal a4 piety and malachay where dropping so freaking fast on a 4link wasent even funny. specced 0 pints in dmage till then and piety did have the chance to make 1 half turn before she died..
malachai was extremly easy aswell.
now im at merciless atm and usually 1 stack of burn is enough to even kill white bears and high hp whites
for rares i have to stand still for maybe 2 seconds and then they are dead
still not invested in dmg skillpointwise...
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAUBAAHcAecD7gSzBS0GDgthDF8UIBkuGj4aVRynHNwdviftKPopLimLMtEzhzWSNuhBh0PIRUdFnU8EU1JTpVZIVw1boF8_YSFko2jydO18Dny4gDCCB4LHhNmE75itmuCbbp7Nn8uiAKcIpzCnVa2Nr2y3PriTwGbE9sauz37SIdgk2L3ZYdrB2t3fhuvu7w7wH_Gs8kH56P4K?accountName=Blackknight1605&characterName=LickingLamaLazor this is my tree at lvl 58
using atm a tabula with Scorching ray, controlled destruction, elemental fokus, rapid decay, burning damage and a lvl 3 empower
the empower gem was used at merci difficulty and is by no means mandatory, i just tried it on a 5link without empower and the damage is still really fu... good
the faster cast gem is not needed at all in my opinion since its kinda enough if you get it on both wands when dualwielding while leveling.
i plan on using righteous fire when im about lvl 75 for another huge dmg buff but im quite statisfied with the damage elemental equilibrium and elemental overload give
with de ele overload buff i get a bit over 3k burn dps per stage and im not using a damage curse ( playing with blasphemy enfeeble
if u want to check out my gear my characters name is LickingLamaLazor

just made 2 clips to see the damage difference while leveling without empower on weaver since my character is only lvl 60 atm

6 link with empower
https://youtu.be/GB3XWD2ajis
4 Link without empower
https://youtu.be/cHxnCJasmxY