What is the use of Damage over Time?

Hello.

I've been wondering this for a couple of years, what is the use of Damage over Time in a game that pretty much requires you to kill enemies as fast as possible instead of waiting for them to die by a DoT?
Two years ago i had a DoT build but i either finished the enemies off before the DoT could actually do any damage or they died slowly because i didn't do enough instant damage because some passives were in DoT nodes.

So can anyone explain to me why there is a DoT build at all?
I'm trying to give a DoT a second chance but so far i can't come up with any good reasons as to why i should.

Thanks.

My Essence Drain / Contagion build causes white packs to die in about 200 milliseconds via DoT. I think that qualifies as "as fast as possible" Since it can deal this damage while I'm moving.

I think the problem is twofold:
1. dots feel a bit weird in a game where many other builds are flashy and explode all over the screen and dots don't do this (espacially not contagion + essence drain).
2. dot builds often need very specific stats and/or uniques to pick up in speed. So leveling a dot build can be pretty painful because you need to get the passive order right and determine a good timing to switch to the actual dotting.

I like the gameplay of an essence drain / blight / contagion occultist witch, as long it is for mapping on yellow maps and not higher. But this is just for my character, because I know other player even do much higher content with it. But to farm currency like in old days at merciless act4 first map left side it is really fun to blow entire screen in one big explosion to hell just by setting a chaos skill at them that spread out from kill to kill. With the correct wand for it, the chaos killed enemies explode on an on.
My character for this is chaotica
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Gannicus2491/characters
but the character as far away from what it even could be, when it is done by a better player than me. I try to take only selffound item, but sometimes it is not enough.
Chaotica is a selffound items carrier.

DoT build can be great, i have a problem with the single target damage with essence drain contagion, but I am sure this could be fixed.

^ I feel compelled to point out your links for ED mostly don't work, added chaos only buffs the initial hit, spell echo is undesirable because it lowers the DoT damage and fixes you in place for really no reason and faster casting as well is a bit too far.

for a 5l you want ED - Efficacy - Controlled Destruction - Void Manipulation - Swift Affliction, if you are having issues with your primary target exploding from occultist/ your wand you can switch a green for pierce, though i'd recommend getting pierce from a jewel slot or gear if possible.

put a level 8 arcane surge with your contagion/increased area too and it will proc everytime you cast contagion to buff your following ED's cast speed and damage.

as for single target you pretty much have to use blight, the new vaal blight is pretty awesome itself but alelopathy or whatever they are called are pretty legit too. If you want a good ED character to compare to check out spidermanbutwithcurses on my profile and just ignore the beast league shit, I just about ran out of things to trick that character out with and managed shaper just fine.

thx for the info, I had this character some leagues ago and because it went to standard, I did not give him enough love as I should. But every good idea is heard and welcome. I will try your advice. With the new vaal mechanics, I guess there are good chances to make it better, too.

Good luck man I hope you enjoy it, I find ED occultist one of the most satisfying and safe playstyles its well worth tweaking even if its single target will never set the world on fire.

Good luck man I hope you enjoy it, I find ED occultist one of the most satisfying and safe playstyles its well worth tweaking even if its single target will never set the world on fire.

Again thx, I ran out of chromes to get the 2 green sockets, but in the end I could have at least one green socket, so I added swift aff. support gem. Also I removed spell echo and faster caster, what gave me big boost for essence drain. Further I added the arcane surge to the increase area-contagion at my weapon to gain the boost of arcane surge, what I am levelling to level 7-8, I think i should.
With about 3700 life it is squishy but also 3500 ES are helping to prevent getting one hitted. It will not be a big boss endgame hero, but it is a very fun playstyle at lower maps.
When I played the character it looked a little different, but then with a complete reskill choice I looked some guides to find out what to look for and organized my tree with looking for chaos nodes. While with 3.3 I would get another chance for total reskill.
So your advice helped me and maybe this or next league again, I should do some ED Contagion build again. With all the shapers items nowadays and the temple mods, it might be interesting.Gl to all