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

Just wanted to say thank you to this build/guide.

I'm still getting used to being efficient with RF totem placement, but I just finished merc lab and am lvl 74 and it has been a huge improvement so far.

Even after the buff to yellow beasts I still miss catching them because I deal too much damage lol

I've been playing on HC with your build, lvl 78 atm, but im still using soul mantle and 1 kikazaru ring(only using it bc i was lazy to find something else on poetrade), tho im using flasks to take off the curses. I know you don't recommend Soul Mantle on HC, but i got it while lvling and bc of its ability its pretty much 5L atm. Do you even recommend using flasks to take off the curses? Or should i get another kikazaru and have the 20% effect from a lot of curses? (i thought it would be risky having the 20% on hardcore) Since i remove curses with flask and don't use the curse jewel, i was thinking on swaping off the kikazaru for Pyrar or life/res ring, thoughts?

Should i get rid of Soul Mantle right now and get another 5L? I was thinking on saving currency to get a Skin of the Loyal.

Thanks for your guide man, ive been having a blast!

You can completely scrap kikazarus and self-flagellation and use rares (or uniques) instead IF you use ~2 curse removal flasks (preferable some with roughly 3 uses like a stibnite).

Soulmantles totemlife is a great dps source for rf, the lvl 20 spelltotem as well (equivalent to a lvl 20 spell) besides being a extra link. Its just too good to not use i would say :x

If you use flasks instead of kikazarus you need to 'learn' the playstyle and it can be safer than using kikazarus.

Its counter-intuitive with the curse on totem death. You can place your bunch of totems on a red beast... run around and 10 sec later you get cursed with 5 potent curses at the same time with no clear indication when it happens. You need to keep that in mind all the time or you end up with something like 40 eleresistance or full potent vulnerability + projectile weakness or other desdly combinations.

This will never happen with a 100% flaskuptime, but sometimes (i) would forget about the fading totems while backtracking, looting etc.

Using kikazarus enables you to run curse maps, which is a huge plus.

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kunni wrote:

Using kikazarus enables you to run curse maps, which is a huge plus.

Those also get removed by flasks. For the most part it's a reasonable approach, i see the biggest problem in endgame bossfights or multiphased ones where flasks can run out.

Kikazaru is more offensive due to self-flag and for the lazy ones

i got a wise oak bismuth flask and i was wondering if the increased damage worked on totems with it. fire resistance is my highest resistance currently so in theory it should work right? or does the uncapped thing mean i have to actually have my resistances below the cap?

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IANF1 wrote:

i got a wise oak bismuth flask and i was wondering if the increased damage worked on totems with it. fire resistance is my highest resistance currently so in theory it should work right? or does the uncapped thing mean i have to actually have my resistances below the cap?

penetration does not work with dots

My gear so far. I'm having some survivability issues with my RF totems, especially on Elder maps during those portals. Is there anything that I can do to improve them?

I'm also having some self-survival skills but I don't have Uber Lab yet but I'm not sure in what departments I can improve my gear further without expending tons of currency.

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Hiwashi wrote:

Spoiler

My gear so far. I'm having some survivability issues with my RF totems, especially on Elder maps during those portals. Is there anything that I can do to improve them?

I'm also having some self-survival skills but I don't have Uber Lab yet but I'm not sure in what departments I can improve my gear further without expending tons of currency.

I would try out enfeeble over temporal chains, worked out way better for me against hard hitting mobs. Especially kitava herald dudes from Null Portals which just leapslam and almost ignore the TC effect.

A decoy totem on a portal also does a good job ;)

Thanks for the advice, I'll try out enfeeble.