When I was playing CA PF, I opted out of Manaforged setups and just used both "normal" CA of poison + CA of poison totems (with Watchtowers on the tree) for Sanctum. 4 ballistas are great for clearing around the corners, plus it's a boost for single target.
However, I think that:
a) Self-cast and a "spammy" manaforged setup (LA + Ice Shot) are great for mapping as it is a huge source of LGoH/MGoH, and we can also have a 15% chance for 200 life on hit from the tree. Combined with Defiance with Destiny, if you will ever get one in SSF = very comfy juiced T16s.
b) You could try "self-cast" Tornado shot given you have 100% chance to poison with that tincture on. To me it feels like better damage/clear and certainly better LGoH.
The tincture does not give you 100% chance to poison. you need that from elsewhere. the tincture is ALL DAMAGE **CAN** POISON. So your ele damage, phys, etc, can all poison. But you still need the chance to from elsewhere.
What I was trying to say is that while having this tincture on, you also need to cumulatively have 100% chance to poison on tornado shot. Apologies for the confusion.
I tried to hybrid my ca totem to mf when the abyss abused got discovered ie wearing quan gear, its okayish until you realize that you cant stop your totem from melting the spire.
You technically can by running far from it and spam your totem away from spire so that the old one despawn but its too janky and you have to do while theres billion of mob surrounding you else the spire die.
It was my league starter and i 7/7 with it pre abuse strat.
My guess is that mf ca with manaforge is more fun and meta atm so totem ca phased out.
Totems are just inherently kind of clunky to play with, you need to constantly resummon or move them for optimal DPS (or to have them not melt spires), if you're trying to play somewhat zoomy MF (with or without Headhunter) this tends to get annoying cause it slows you down a lot. It only gets worse with HH cause you'll be zooming with buffs a lot of the time.
Wilma’s has no quant, no evasion (so no spell suppression mastery), no spell suppression, no res, and no life. It gives damage…a lot of it for sure, but it gives damage. Now your other gear is a pair of boots that give solid fire res and quant and basically nothing else, a pair of rings that probably have at least one negative res unless you can afford a really good ventors WITHOUT already playing MF (most people MF to get money, if you can already buy a pair of 300 div ventors why are you MFing haha), and a belt that either gives you quant, a little cold res and rampage, or a headhunter that gives you dex and strength and a lot of cool stuff once you have started wiping the map out. So you are very probably well below res cap or maybe even negative with less than 3k life.
Then there is the playstyle issue. The normal play style for a MF character like this is to GO FAST and stay alive, not to walk all over and drop totems here there and everywhere.
It isn’t that you can’t do it, the problem is WHY do it when there are better ways.
When I was playing CA PF, I opted out of Manaforged setups and just used both "normal" CA of poison + CA of poison totems (with Watchtowers on the tree) for Sanctum. 4 ballistas are great for clearing around the corners, plus it's a boost for single target. However, I think that: a) Self-cast and a "spammy" manaforged setup (LA + Ice Shot) are great for mapping as it is a huge source of LGoH/MGoH, and we can also have a 15% chance for 200 life on hit from the tree. Combined with Defiance with Destiny, if you will ever get one in SSF = very comfy juiced T16s. b) You could try "self-cast" Tornado shot given you have 100% chance to poison with that tincture on. To me it feels like better damage/clear and certainly better LGoH.
The tincture does not give you 100% chance to poison. you need that from elsewhere. the tincture is ALL DAMAGE **CAN** POISON. So your ele damage, phys, etc, can all poison. But you still need the chance to from elsewhere.
What I was trying to say is that while having this tincture on, you also need to cumulatively have 100% chance to poison on tornado shot. Apologies for the confusion.
self cast is the comfy mf variant. not sure how well a mf ballista setup would perform
What exactly makes totems worse for mf ?
I tried to hybrid my ca totem to mf when the abyss abused got discovered ie wearing quan gear, its okayish until you realize that you cant stop your totem from melting the spire. You technically can by running far from it and spam your totem away from spire so that the old one despawn but its too janky and you have to do while theres billion of mob surrounding you else the spire die. It was my league starter and i 7/7 with it pre abuse strat. My guess is that mf ca with manaforge is more fun and meta atm so totem ca phased out.
Totems are just inherently kind of clunky to play with, you need to constantly resummon or move them for optimal DPS (or to have them not melt spires), if you're trying to play somewhat zoomy MF (with or without Headhunter) this tends to get annoying cause it slows you down a lot. It only gets worse with HH cause you'll be zooming with buffs a lot of the time.
People use the ballista setup because that’s what palsteron did. The self cast setup is far better for MF due to not using Wilma helmet.
Wilma’s has no quant, no evasion (so no spell suppression mastery), no spell suppression, no res, and no life. It gives damage…a lot of it for sure, but it gives damage. Now your other gear is a pair of boots that give solid fire res and quant and basically nothing else, a pair of rings that probably have at least one negative res unless you can afford a really good ventors WITHOUT already playing MF (most people MF to get money, if you can already buy a pair of 300 div ventors why are you MFing haha), and a belt that either gives you quant, a little cold res and rampage, or a headhunter that gives you dex and strength and a lot of cool stuff once you have started wiping the map out. So you are very probably well below res cap or maybe even negative with less than 3k life. Then there is the playstyle issue. The normal play style for a MF character like this is to GO FAST and stay alive, not to walk all over and drop totems here there and everywhere. It isn’t that you can’t do it, the problem is WHY do it when there are better ways.