Ranged Attack Totem

I've tried this recently with dual RAT + puncture in a 6L setup. Awful dps, sadly. Now I have to sell enough stuff to fund a 115 point respec, sigh.

P.

Hi, the problem is that you are making puncture weak and wasting extra shots. Use something that is an aoe of sorts like ice shot, light arrow, or poison arrow ( but this one has same problem as puncture).

Range Attack Totem + Attack (Rain of Arrows) + Culling Strike

Will the Culling Strike effect of 10% life the enemy dies ????

Range Attack Totem + Curse on hit + Curse (whatever) + Attack gem..

Will it curse the ememies?

Ranger Attack Totem + Attack + Mana leech

Will it leech mana for me?

Whats the best combo for rangers using this skill?

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Range Attack Totem + Attack (Rain of Arrows) + Culling Strike

Will the Culling Strike effect of 10% life the enemy dies ????

Ranger Attack Totem + Attack + Mana leech

Will it leech mana for me?

for these two questions:
yes
no

So even though Totems aren't technically affected by Auras... If I have Haste on, since it increases my attack speed, does the totem also get increased attack speed?

Same with if I have frenzy charges on me? Does that also boost totem speed?

Okay, here's one thing about the skill that really makes it under perform versus Spell Source totems.

A totem takes about 2 seconds to cast. Increased Cast Speed% lowers that amount. So whenever you take cast speed, that improves the damage and clear speed of a pure totem character substantially.

However, the Ranged Attack Totem doesn't receive that same dual bonus with increased attack speed.

My reasons for why the % Less Damage penalty incurred by Ranged Attack Totem should be lowered 20-30% can be found here in my thread: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1201660

In that thread I give very specific mathematical examples on why this particular Support Gem performs very poorly.

Ok, so I built a RAT character and overall this is no where near as weak as everyone makes it out to be, at least damage wise.

The biggest flaw I find with this gem is that the totems have a mind of their own, shooting at the closest target. So if mobs are coming from anything more then a 45 degree cone directly in front the effectiveness of the totems begin to plummet.

Crit is a must I find to help cope with the above issue. A high crit chance means the totems can be more independent of each other and you will not have to rely on them to cooperate together as much. There is only one build style that I find works.

Running a Soul Mantle also makes a massive difference in output but still the totems rely on massive amounts of crit to be super effective late game. Though your DPS output increases because of a third totem your micromanagement also goes up quite a bit.

I have some other support ideas to test with this build that may alleviate the above problem.

TLDR: RAT are no where near as weak as everyone says (limited build choices here) as a primary damage source. Their true flaw is their natural ability to attack the closest target so when mobs are surrounding the totems are not synergizing together well.