[3.6] Milky's Scorching Ray Totems (updating process)

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Andizlack wrote:

On another note, I never really did understand the love whirling blades gets. Lessening your DPS for a movement skill, even if it's marginal, doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but everybody has different priorities.

I used it on my FP Inquisitor, and found it to be a great dodge skill. You can use it to get out of dangerous AoE effects quickly, dodge leap/charge attacks (like Izaro's) etc. So its primary function is to improve your survivability rather than increase your clear speed. However, as Milky mentioned above, high dex requirements on Daresso's may be a problem. So it's just an option I'm considering.

shieldcharge works similar and is even better to trigger Fortify. But some Block% dagger, advancing fortress or similar in one hand can work for whirling blades

Yeah, same with lightning warp. If you link it with faster cast and less duration, it becomes really fast, and you can actually travel further than you can with shield charge / whirling blades. Not to mention being able to go through doors, avoid traps, teleport across holes in the map, etc. Plus you wouldn't have to tweak your gear just to gain access to 1 movement skill, so definitely give it a shot imo, if you haven't before!

After the Turmoil Race i will update the guide for 3.0 as much as possible. The final patchnodes might change a few things and some. stuff can only be updated in 3.0 (new uniques, updated uniques for excample).

Overall not much changes.

We have new/updated supportgems with will most likely replace old ones.

Mind over Matter should be set in the build except Tukohamas Fortress is used (which has the bloodmagic property).

The skilltree hasnt changed for the the build, some nodes just got better.

Despite the nerf of the RF gem (20% less damage), the overall damage will be higher than in 2.6 due to many other buffs

good , i will try it.

I Finally start Theorycrafting for 3.0

Currently i am testing different skilltrees in Path of Building with several classes (and post those links when i am done).

Those tests are made with the Chieftain and Ascendant.

Chieftain and Berserker are too similar to add the Berserker as well. Chieftain is the chilled, well rounded class and berserker with the higher dmg and burst heal (and mana for MoM). But in general the Skilltrees/Gear aren´t different from each other. So if i am done, just change the class if you wanna toy around :P

What am i testing?

Mainly Dps setups for Shaper/Guardian DPS (where it really matters) for the chieftain.

I wanna make different pathings like ignoring Ironwood and the whole way down and use dualcurse again (without tukohamas fortress ofc) and more jewels instead.

Test if Ascendant can reach similar dps.

and other things


What have i discovered so far?

70459.6 RFT dps in a 6link soulmantle without any class or skillpoint (or jewel) allocated :P


The 20-30 life implicit on str shields (tukohamas, lioneyes..) are really nice

A question just came to my mind: how the hell do you level Vorici when playing an RF totem build? He's one of the most important masters, and I've always had trouble leveling him because his missions require a lot of finesse. And RF totems seem to be a very indiscriminate weapon. Is it even possible to complete missions like "kill the target but leave the guards alive" with this build?

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DGTLDaemon wrote:

A question just came to my mind: how the hell do you level Vorici when playing an RF totem build? He's one of the most important masters, and I've always had trouble leveling him because his missions require a lot of finesse. And RF totems seem to be a very indiscriminate weapon. Is it even possible to complete missions like "kill the target but leave the guards alive" with this build?

i havent played a single build that has a easy time with his quests :P

"kill the target but leave the guards alive" doesnt exist anymore. You just have to keep at least 1 alive ;)

splitting the pack up with decoy totem is the best choice here.

I never had a problem leveling him to lvl 7 (and didnt care afterwards in templeagues)

OK here are some Path of Building links again, will add them tomorrow to the guide and write probably more about it:

First step, if youre interested, download path of building. After installing and opening the programm go into "import/export Build" > "import from pastebin..." > paste the link in the popup window.

All links have the same gearsetup with little differences based on my 2.6 character.

I updated the shields with the new 20-30 life implicit.

versions that have dualcurse use a lvl 20/20 Elemental Weakness in addition to Flammability

For anything non Bloodmagic skilled a Lioneyes Remorse Shield is used

Missed implementing some Clarity in the gemsetups which might be mandatory or useful at least. In MoM builds there is room for one (defensive) blasphemy curse as well.

All versions use the same amount of Skillpoints except the Ascendants use 5 Skillpoints more, since they get em for free.

All versions don´t use Ancestral Bonds because a soulmantle is planned in for every version. Ancestral Bond is not useful for Guardians/Shaper. For mapping its great and just 1 point, so add it if you want 3 totems (and a trap)!

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Chieftain with Bloodmagic

https://pastebin.com/z5qKQCB8

Best option with Tukohamas Fortress (which has Bloodmagic). Used this in 2.6.

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Chieftain with Mind over Matter

https://pastebin.com/bDsxFZek

Basically the same as the first one, just with mind over matter

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Chieftain with Mind over Matter, No Ironwood but a AoE/Curse/Mana focus

https://pastebin.com/PPAviy0t

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Ascendant with Mind over Matter and Ironwood

https://pastebin.com/Rqqeg20K

Guardian/Chieftain.

Necro is better than Chieftain in my opinion, but the Alternative start is a big benefit in this version

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Ascendant with Mind over Matter, No Ironwood but a AoE/Curse/Mana focus

https://pastebin.com/fdTBmE8F

Guardian/Necromancer.

The necromancer grants nice chaos resists, some damage and phys damage mitigation. The skill effect duration is not bad either for longer oos, enduring cry regen, vaal lightning trap...

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Ok lets compare a bit.

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DPS

Surprisingly the dps on Shaper/Guadians is VERY SIMILAR between all versions. 460000 dps on 4 of the 5 routes, just the Bloodmagic one got 480k with his 40% inc dmg shield (tukohama).
The difference between the other is below 1%!

In maps the difference is bigger.

The dual curse builds are stronger in maps for dps in theory, but you rarely curse while mapping.

Mapmods like less curse effectiveness or curse immunity hurt even more.

The non curse focused versions have a more stable dps in that case. However with the mapmod that increases enemy resistances the curses get handy on tougher enemys.

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Defence

The dualcurse versions can easily swap in Enfeeble for Elemental Weakness and even use it on Blasphemy (and sacrifices the cwdt setup). The dps suffers from that, but shouldn't be noticable until t15 maps.

Liferegen is around 200 hp/sec higher for the Chieftain (~33%) due to the liferegen per endurance charge.

Everything that pathes down to Ironwood has more armour and life, while the other ones more mana and manaregen for mind over matter.

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Utility

First the Curse focused builds have more aoe.

Chieftains have automatic endurance charge generation, take 8% less damage and have tankier, fire immune totems.

The Scions 5% more block and require less resists (just 135).

Defensive wise the difference shouldn't be too big between 8% less dmg vs 5% block, immunity to curses (instead of 80% reduction) and even chaos resist with the necro.

The scions extra skillpoints can be used for dmg/castspeed totemnodes, shamanistic fury or other stuff to close up with totem placementspeed and castspeed of rf.

Scions totems cast rf quicker while chieftains totems are placed faster.


The chieftain is more chilled to play. Doesnt require to watch endurance charge, the totems rarely die or loose life.

The scion needs to do more stuff all the time to have the same benefits.

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Conclusion

Chieftain with Bloodmagic

Is the way to go for Tukohamas Fortress. I recommend it for someone who likes to play only one char in a league and invest much into that character.

Chieftain with Mind over Matter

Can easily be shifted into the Bloodmagic route (4 respecc points). Its the most solid route to take. It doesnt care much about curse related mapmods and is easy to play. Its the overall best choice to build the guide around and for new/lazy players :)


Chieftain with Mind over Matter, No Ironwood but a AoE/Curse/Mana focus

If you know what you´re doing this is a good choice. The curses can be flexible between offensive/defensive ones. Deals the same damage as the other ones with 2 offensive curses, but less with one defensive one swapped in. Curse related mapmods hurt a lot. The aoe of rf is slightly bigger, but the difference is not that huge after the aoe changes. Mana for MoM is slightly higher while the lifepool slightly lower. It evens out.


Ascendant with Mind over Matter and Ironwood

Not a big fan of that one, mainly because of the Chieftain subclass


Ascendant with Mind over Matter, No Ironwood but a AoE/Curse/Mana focus

i like this way more because of the necromancer subclass. If you play in partys this is probably the best choice on the build since it grants the most utility with two flexible curses, conduit, the unique subclass auras etc. If i play a scion, this would be the tree i would use.

Thoughts on hierophant version of this build for 3.0? With the MoM buff doesn't hierophant have the ability to get some solid survivability+utility dps from its ascendancy?

Also thanks Milky for keeping this guide updated before 3.0 hits.