Morphyne's Scorching Ray Totem Chieftain [SC/HC Viable]

Introduction

What's going on ladies and gentlemen. If you're not aware, GGG has added three new skill gems to the game. One of those being an intelligence based gem called Scorching Ray that is a channeled beam of fire that will burn enemies that stand within the ray of fire. Enemies that will move from the beam will continue to take damage but will stop taking damage after a duration. So imagine having two of them going at once and not dealing with elemental reflect. Sounds amazing and honestly, that's why totem builds are so popular in Hardcore difficulties. Scorching Ray damage scales from not only fire damage to increase the total burn damage, but also scales with elemental damage. Scaling the two isn't the only way to increase it's total damage, we also need cast speed, lots of it too. Cast speed not only helps with the mobility of the skill, it also helps burn faster which in the end means more dead people. In this build, we can also focus on DoT to help increase the damage which we will be speccing for in the passive skill tree.


Why Chieftain?

The chieftain ascendancy is by far one of the best for totems. It offers increased burning damage, total increased fire damage which makes us happy, killing burning enemies gives us a chance to obtain endurance charges which in the end means more defense, and other little tid bits that makes chieftain a beast for this set up. You could also roll with the Templar too, but it's a much different build and I feel like the chieftain is the best choice.


Pros

-We are tanky!! A lot of life, %200 from the passives alone, also armor based and have a decent amount built for end game maps, this includes our totems as well. No reflect makes them tankier!
-Great mobility. Since our totems will be doing most of the work, our only job is to throw a searing bond down and stand out of bad stuff.
-Not a very expensive build. The gear isn't too demanding, although a Kaom's Heart would be much preferred.
-Can do any map mod.


Cons

-GGG's released version of Scorching Ray and using it with totems has a little bit of a bug. The beam will stay in place as if it's not detecting enemy movement, but the beam is still doing damage to surrounding enemies even though it's stuck in place.
-End game we might need to carry a mana potion seeing as we don't have any good way of obtaining mana without using one.
-Our biggest weakness in maps is chain, so try to plan on staying a distance from totems if planning on running maps with chain.




Passive Tree

Our only objective when beginning at the start is to get to ancestral bond as quickly as we can. Grab some totem damage on the way to make it better for more damage as you go along.


Bandits
Oak - Alira(passive) - Oak




Gem Setup

The gem setup is as follows. Since we will be speccing for dual curses, we can utilize flammability for extra penetration, and vulnerability for more damage over time.


Chest or Staff:
Scorching Ray > Spell Totem > Controlled Destruction > Elemental Focus > Rapid Decay > Empower

Helmet: Blasphemy > Flammability > Vulnerability > Arctic Armor

Staff or Chest: Searing Bond > Elemental Focus > Rapid Decay > Increase Burning Damage (Others if you have 5 or 6-link)

Gloves: CWDT > Immortal Call > Increased Duration > Vaal Lightning Trap

Boots: Leap Slam > Faster Attacks > Fortify > Blood Magic





Gear Setup

Rare Helmet - Lots of life/dual res/armor% and rating
Weapon - Searing Touch Staff. There are others that can be used but Searing Touch feels so right.
Chest - Belly of The Beast/Rare Chest with lots of life + Armor. Kaom's Heart is preferred best.
Rare Gloves - Life/dual res/Armor% and rating
Belt - Doryani's Inventation with %fire damage
Rare Boots - Life/Dual res/Armor% and rating/Movement speed
Rare Rings - Fire Damage/life/dual res/Dex
Rare Amulet - Fire Damage/life/dual res/Dex

*Note* You will need dex in order to use rapid decay for a 6-link set up.

Current Gear



Jewel Setup

-Totem Life!!
-Player Life
-Fire Damage
-Totem Damage
-Damage Over Time


Flask Setup

Witchfire Brew - Ultimately the biggest boost of damage with a flask and will go quite nicely with this build.
Granite Flask - Extra tankiness.
x2 Life Flask - Cause you know, you need life sometimes.
Quicksilver Flask - Extra mobility which is always nice since we will be moving around a lot.
Mana Flask - We will most likely need one on our bar since we are not using any type of utility to keep our mana up. We however have a decent amount on the passive tree so we many not need it.



Conclusion

This build is awesome for league starting, maybe a little slow start to gain all the items you need to get to the damage you need, around level 30 however it gets much better and it's smooth sailing from there. Would love to hear feedback to anyone who would like to share an opinion or compliment. Stay safe out there fellow exiles!







Arctic Breath Elementalist Build
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1832063

Vortex Ignite totem Build
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1828077



Changes and Updates

11/18/16 - Added a new passive tree to accommodate the endurance charges we gain from the ascendancy node, Ramako. Also took away some cast speed in the passive tree for an additional endurance charge seeing that we gain plenty of cast speed from passives already.

11/18/16 - Changed the Bandit line-up to gain an additional endurance charge from Oak in Merc difficulty for more phys defense.

11/18/16 - Made changes to the "Cons" section.

11/18/16 - Added "Current Gear" Section.

11/19/16 - Made some more changes to the passive tree, taking away some of our cast speed that we get from the totem nodes. In addition, replaced them with the totem nodes that give our totems more life % and more resistance for better tankiness in fights. I felt this was a necessary change and our totems still turn rather quickly.

12/8/16 - Cleaned up some of the text and updated it into patch 2.5.0

Reserved for upcoming patches and expansions.

I'm looking forward to chieftain scorching ray too. Let's hope it works out. :D

Edit 1: Would fire penetration or empower be better than increased burning damage?

Edit 2: Just re-read skill description, seems like increase burning may be required afterall.

Edit 3: If the totem can track fast enough, probably can drop faster casting for empower.

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kelongngu wrote:

i'm looking forward to chieftain scorching ray too. Let's hope it works out. :D

So far so good! Lvl 42, and things are dying very quickly and its quite enjoyable too! :D

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kelongngu wrote:

I'm looking forward to chieftain scorching ray too. Let's hope it works out. :D

Edit 1: Would fire penetration or empower be better than increased burning damage?

Edit 2: Just re-read skill description, seems like increase burning may be required afterall.

Edit 3: If the totem can track fast enough, probably can drop faster casting for empower.

Yes fire pen would be a wasted gem slot seeing as fire pen is being capped out at a certain limit and since flammability is being used to hit that cap, we do not need it. Tracking fast enough is not the reason why faster casting is needed. Faster casting helps the beam get into different stages more quickly which in the end is more damage. But if we calculate that we can reach stage 8 quickly enough, then we can then drop it for empower.

Cool! You're going totem and I'm going self-cast - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1768775 I guess time will tell which is the best route. However...

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The chieftain ascendancy is by far one of the best for totems. It offers increased burning damage, total increased fire damage which makes us happy, fire damage leeched as life for more defense, fire penetration, totems will be immune to fire so no worries on the elemental reflect front, and other little tid bits that makes chieftain a beast for this set up. You could also roll with the Templar or the Elementalist too, but those are much different and I feel like the chieftain is the best choice.

I'll just point out that the Chieftains' fire penetration node as well as his fire leech from that node doesn't do anything for this skill. Likewise, the skill is already reflect-proof thanks to being a DoT and hence further reflect-protection is pointless. Hope you haven't taken that ascendancy node yet.

Most of the Elementalists' nodes are also useless for this skill. The only ascendancies that work well with it are Inquisitor, Chieftain and Trickster. Guardian can also be used for a low-life version.

"

Exile009 wrote:

Cool! You're going totem and I'm going self-cast - https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1768775 I guess time will tell which is the best route. However...

"

The chieftain ascendancy is by far one of the best for totems. It offers increased burning damage, total increased fire damage which makes us happy, fire damage leeched as life for more defense, fire penetration, totems will be immune to fire so no worries on the elemental reflect front, and other little tid bits that makes chieftain a beast for this set up. You could also roll with the Templar or the Elementalist too, but those are much different and I feel like the chieftain is the best choice.

I'll just point out that the Chieftains' fire penetration node as well as his fire leech from that node doesn't do anything for this skill. Likewise, the skill is already reflect-proof thanks to being a DoT and hence further reflect-protection is pointless. Hope you haven't taken that ascendancy node yet.

Most of the Elementalists' nodes are also useless for this skill. The only ascendancies that work well with it are Inquisitor, Chieftain and Trickster. Guardian can also be used for a low-life version.

Very great point. It never came to mind that since the skill is a DoT we don't have to deal with ele reflect. I haven't specced into the ascendancy node yet, so thank you for pointing that out. :D

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kelongngu wrote:

Edit 1: Would fire penetration or empower be better than increased burning damage?

Scorching Ray does not hit so there's nothing to penetrate, if I understand the mechanics correctly.

"

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kelongngu wrote:

Edit 1: Would fire penetration or empower be better than increased burning damage?

Scorching Ray does not hit so there's nothing to penetrate, if I understand the mechanics correctly.

I believe you're correct, something to think about.

This build looks great, i will defiantly try it in Breach season