[2.4.2 - Theory Crafting] Scorching Ray - "Archon" Witch Build - Help appreciated

If only taming isn't league restricted .BTW we need to now the dmg of achieving way before planning it on a new league. If the dmg is OK I would go into the new league with this. Otherwise I' ll go on vortex, or flameblast elementalist as always

How is it even possible to have a +3 staff, the Taming and GG ES gear and not know that added fire, (a support gem available to 6/7 classes as the first support rewarded), adds fire to and only scales from physical damage?


Anyway, i'm going Quad Fire Golem, and will be using Scorching Ray to provide some hopefully quite serious fire pen to them.

Im looking for good ways to curse too however, because the ray wont be taking care of it, and i dont really want to spend time with other debuffs, i want to scorching ray debuff all the time, and use it to direct the golems.

You stated you're going to try OoS - how exactly? SR is not a lightning spell, so you're not getting much in the way of extra procs. Also for EleOv it seems to me the base 5% is quite low in this case of no lightning skills. Seems to me something like a cwdt-ice spear will prolly work better. Would be nice though if you got it to work - ideas?

Same goes for other methods really, i'd like to not reserve my mana for blasphemies on a summoner (hybrid). I wont be doing hits or shocks for HoT/HoI cursing. I feel i dont really have the time for manual curses or something like ice nova-coh, even when it also provides EleEq. I also think cramming all that into a cwdt, maybe with aoe, would be way too many sockets - as would any spectre that could curse for me.
Pretty much the only thing that seems alrightish is setting up a Vengeance-CoH, with AoE, and make sure it procs EleEq via some flat damage or a lightning golem. Sounds kinda clunky as well though.

@Toverkol: Good Point. Never thought about the added Fire indepth. And I have 2 +3 Staffs to be honest and Acuity and and and ...

But how can you not know, that OoS easily provide EO and is good for EE? Seems to me everybody knows about that. ;)

Also: I think you meant Quad Fire Totem? Right? Than your post makes some sense.

Not really that impressed with the way how the skill behaves,nevertheless i'll try ci sr totem occultist just for kicks.

The build will be sth along the lines of

But in reality who knows how the spell will actually function and feel within the game it self,so i am certain adjustments will happen.
If it feels alright,i might actually go lowlife and try to push ability to sustain RF as well,should be a huge damage boost on top,the only downside is,i might have to move to std,might not be able to pull off proper lowlife on current league.

Will be going for Scorching Ray,Elemental focus,controlled destruction,faster casting,increased burn,increased duration or rapid decay,not really sure how my totems will like rapid decay,so i really need to see the traverse speed and what i can live with.
As for auras,apart from the obvious disc and tri-curse,i have really no idea,depends how it will go.
So yeah,if everything works out fine,my end build will be lowlife rf sr dual totem occultist.

The only reason i am not going selfcast is because i never liked incinerate/flameblast because you give up in my opinion way too much mobility.

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StorgutBorsit wrote:

@Toverkol: Good Point. Never thought about the added Fire indepth. And I have 2 +3 Staffs to be honest and Acuity and and and ...

But how can you not know, that OoS easily provide EO and is good for EE? Seems to me everybody knows about that. ;)

Also: I think you meant Quad Fire Totem? Right? Than your post makes some sense.

hehe touche :)

I've used OoS for thing like pcoc/eo/ee in the past, but it was always with lightning skills, on characters that had around 10 crit using something like base crit support along with it.

And yes im planning a Quad Golem Elementalist with Dual Clayshapers, hoping Scorching Rays debuff is worth it. I know its probably hipster trash that ends in yellow maps, but i've been interested in making one ever since that hammer was released. Never got around to it, because people call it marginal, and there was other stuff to try. I'm hoping the fire pen stacks from scorching ray help it enough to be somewhat competitive with other summoners. Elsewise it was a nice distraction before the 2.5.0 patch hits and i'll build something more powerful there.

The concept is solid,but you will have to go necro to keep those four little buggers alive,the claty shaper was introduced for double-buff,the idea was that those summons them selves would never be able to pose a proper threat to mobs,we still don't know how much damage and what abilities actually do,all we know is that they act as regular summons that have unique skills.
If i were you,i'd just go for srs sr and then switch to quad golems to see how it feels,tho chances are,it won't be any good without at least classical summoner setup backing it up.

Thing is i did all of those in the past, but maybe ill keep an item free for the new soul eater jewels and a few spectres, really dont want 'm to steal the show though.

Think i'd rather stay elementalist and just refocus a bit more on dot/fire damage if the golems arent working out. Could cut one or both of the Clayshapers for some spell damage weapons, and maybe diversify the golems to get a bit more buff out of them. Necro would also mean -1 golem.

Defensively Necro doesnt really bring the golems much, i see a few life nodes and 20 all res. Considering im not planning any other minions apart from a guardian the other nodes dont really do much, and the offering would be flesh anyway. Flesh does sound quite good for scorching ray, however, the Golem node in and of itself seems to give just as much fire damage and elemental defense for the golems, if not more.

I'm not sure if Mastermind of Discord will work, using an OoS as Storgut advocates would give another bunch of fire pen, and legitimate casting it more. The wording is a bit ambiguous though, usually fire pen only works on hits, but the wording says "damage penetrates" instead of "hits penetrate". Prolly wont work, but ill give it a go, and else respec into the reflect nodes that also offers a tad of damage.

Okay, switched from +3 Fire Staff to Double Doryanis. Huge Difference.
Also, as suggested by many here, Taming and Emberwake didnt work at all. But OoS works pretty neat, due to Shaper of Des and Beacon of Ruin OoS spreads all kind of Ele Ails to enemys making them very Vulnerable.

So far I tested on Torture Boss and Double Cateau Boss. I am at 3.5k Fire Damage at first Stage of SR.
Its fun.

I get 6500 degen at level 15 first stage (13+2 with empower) in a 6l with controled destruction,elem focus,rapid decay,reduced duration,empower and double doryani.

from level 13 to 15 using empower you gain 1000 degen, so let s say it s minimum 500 degen/level (but it goes probably higher at each level gained like PA) at level 20 it mean 9000-10k degen with my skill tree wich is not made for the skill (I just took all elem damage nods in templar + fire nods from witch.) Without ele overload.

Seem kind of weak on bosses with resistances tho



Probably +1 6l chest + double doryani+ele overload would boost dps even higher on a build made for the skill.



Just slapped

and get now 8k+degen with 6l level 15gem without ele overload

I wouldn't recommend Elementalist - or Witch at all. Inquisitor or Chieftain is how you do Scorching Ray. Here's my build for reference - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1768775

Other possibilities include Trickster for a CI variant or Guardian for a low-life variant. Anyway, hope that link gives you some ideas, even if you don't want to go that particular route.