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

So i´ve tested a ci occultist RF totemer up to lvl 80 so far, took the gear, tree and jewels and slammed it into Path of building. I added 12 levels and skillpoints and copied one jewel (because one jewelsocket got specced in the process. This way i can compare the stats better.

Pastebin link to my life based Chieftain character
Pastebin link to my ES based Occultist character

The best thing is to open two path of building clients.

Both have NO FLASK active.
Both have Elemental Equilibrium on the enemy
Both are cursed with all curses (lvl 20)
Chieftain has endurance charges active
Enemys are NOT shocked
Elemental overload is up and Curses are on the enemy

Both use the same RF setup in a soulmantle (rf + aoe + conc + ele focus + rapid decay + totem resi)
Occultist (my current version) cannot use searing bond totems due to the manacost (115 mana, like 65 free mana)

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Offense

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Chieftain Stats:

613236.7 RF DPS against non bosses
112782.3 SB DPS against non bosses
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726019 combined DPS against non bosses

372213.3 RF DPS against Shaper/Guardians
68454.9 SB DPS against Shaper/Guardians
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440668.2 combined DPS against Shaper/Guardians

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Occulstist Stats (Enfeeble, Temp Chains, Flammability):

585267.3 RF DPS against non bosses


333277.2 RF DPS against Shaper/Guardians


Occulstist Stats (Ele Weakness 20/20, Vulnerability, Flammability):

1104470.3 RF DPS against non bosses


398651.7 RF DPS against Shaper/Guardians

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without changing anything on the character it´s a difference of:

24% more dps against normal monsters for the Chieftain
32% more dps against Shaper/Guardians for the Chieftain

with the most offensive occultist curse setup:

52% more dps against normal monsters for the Occultist
10% more dps against Shaper/Guardians for the Chieftain

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In most cases the Chieftain deals more damage, a berserker can even top that. The only case where the occultist deals more damage is with the offensive curse setup of Ele Weakness 20/20, Vulnerability and Flammability against normal enemys.

This is a setup i wouldnt use while mapping, because the defensive curses help the ci build a lot in maps

In general, the dps of RFT is not huge between both, searing bond makes the biggest difference. Investing points into mana reservation might be an option to use SB on the occultist.

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Utility and Defence

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Chieftain vs Occultist

- Totem Placementspeed | 61% vs 46%
- Totems | 2-4 vs 2-3
- Totem survivability | awesome vs shiiiieeet
- Ele Overload | yes vs yes
- Elemental Equilibrium | yes vs yes
- AoE Tree | 26% vs 26% (can get 12% aoe enchant relatively cheap)
- Decoy Totem (taunt, 10% less damage taken) | yes vs no (stat requirement, needs a str belt)
- Panic Button | Forbidden Taste Flask vs Vaal Discipline
- Endurance Charges | 3-6 auto generation/EC vs none (EC stat requirement, needs a str belt)
- Fortify | possible vs possible - needs enough free mana for shield charge and to sacrifice cwdt shenanigans
- life regen | high vs medium (path of building shows unrealistic values somehow)
- recovery | Regen only vs ES Recovery + Regen
- total life pool | Good vs exceptional with big investment
- rf castspeed | 1.23 sec vs 1.19 sec
- statissues | dex vs dex + str (harder to get with rings/amus being uniques, especially str)
- resistissues | none vs medium with tradeoffs (purity instead of blasphemy, resistjewels)
- mapmodissues | chain, noregen vs chain, noregen (mana), curse immune, curse effect

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Conclusion

Occultists Wicked Ward is extremly powerful (obviously).
Coupled with Enfeeble + Temporal Chains + Chill effects from cwdt the char is near immortal as long as you don´t let you cat play the game.
The big benefit is the higher healthpool against oneshot mechanics.

On the other side the es recovery needs to start (1.7sec no dmg taken) and stuff like uber izaro can wreck you if you get hit once very hard and he follows up, you got some ignite or random arrows on you to hinder you to recharge.
I havent played any meaningful boss yet, but i dont expect then to be way harder or way easier.

The price for CI is way more expensive! You can basically pay as much for one piece of es gear like the total life gear costs :P

Its way harder to obtain good es gear especially if we loom forward to 3.0 (thats why i compared this gear and not top gear in every slot).

My es version relys on good jewels and is very weak in curse immune maps or curse resistant bosses. Without the curses that es recovery takes a huge bummer

The life version has a easier time gearing up, is way cheaper and deals more damage.

It can be pretty tanky and the use of decoy totem (which is easier to use and tankier) can cheese many fights.

It cannot endure those heavy bursts but if he survives on, forbidden taste backs the char up.

The occultist has benefits for party play with triple curse and can even transition into a real curse supporter with 2x doedres, a high es chest and maybe even + curse boots/chayula.

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Occultist is NOT budget and harder to play until she has good gear. The intention of the guide is to give you a easy and cheap build to play, which is the life version.

You can invest in a ci version, it will cost more and grant some more defence but less offence.

I would rather invest the currency in another ci build (or any build) that requires much currency and go for the lifebased route instead, which is a better char to start a league, farm currency and bosses, unlock the atlas etc.