2.2 Ascendancy "Please Go Into The Light" updated - Righteous Fire Totems Hierophant

Overview
Things that RF Totems' DPS IS AFFECTED BY:
*Increased Burning Damage
*Increased Fire Damage
*Increased Area Damage
*Increased Damage Over Time
*Increased Totem Damage
*Increased Elemental Damage
*Increased Totem Life
External Effects that help RF Totem DPS:
*Elemental Equilibrium (-50% to fire resist, good for bypassing "Curse Immune" rares and bosses)
*Flammability Curse (range of values, ~40% fire resistance reduction [and more if curse effect nodes are picked up])
*Elemental Weakness Curse (range of values, for ~30% fire resistance reduction)
*Vulnerability Curse (33% flat Damage over Time buff)
Gems that affect RF Totems:
*Elemental Focus (mandatory)
*Increased Burning Damage (mandatory)
*Concentrated Effect
*Increased Area of Effect
*Item Rarity
*Rapid Decay (affects totem duration)
*Less Duration (affects totem duration)

Things that don't affect RF Totem DPS:
*Everything Else

There is a lot of flexibility to this build, as with most builds.
Let's get into it!

ExileCraft Skill Tree

PoE Official Skill Tree

Leveling:
1. Head for Totemic Mastery.
2. Head for Ancestral Bond.
3. Using RF, and the extra Searing Bond totem, proceed to Holy Fire.
4. Travel nodes to Witch AoE Blast Radius via Life.
5. Pick up Templar Life area, Constitution life wheel, and head to Templar AoE Amplify.
5a. Ascend to Hierophant and choose Totem Pursuit of Faith.
6. Head to Elemental Equilibrium.
7. Proceed into Marauder area and grabbing life nodes.
8. Fill out Shield Block for defenses and add as much life as possible from efficient 5% nodes.
8a. Take Ascension to Ritual Awakening if wanting to use multiple totems.
9. Fill out remaining points as required. See the spoiler at the bottom for details.

The main damage totem is Righteous Fire(RF). RF totems do not stack or overlap. It's one burn. With enough AoE nodes from Templar and Witch area, they can form an Olympic Chain of doom for mobs, a burning pathway that they have to enter to reach your character.

While leveling, and before your Ascension in Cruel, you will have a maximum of 3 totems. After Ascension, you will have a maximum of 5 totems. This is thanks to the Searing Bond update that allows you to have an extra Searing Bond totem out, in addition to the 2 Ancestral Bonds.

Here is the play style:

1. Place Searing Bond totem
2. Place RF totem near enemies (Searing Bond will apply immediately, and after a short delay, RF will cast.)
3. Place Shock Nova/Ice Nova totem near enemies.
4. Maneouver past enemies and apply curses.
5. Re-apply RF totems to kill stragglers.

Only the strongest "degen" will apply, meaning RF will override Searing Bond. They do not stack. This also counts in party play.

*The AI of the enemies will tend to attack the first item they see; in this case, they will bum-rush the totems. Bosses and Exiles tend to move around too much, and you will need to recast RF on their new positions. Try to anticipate their next location.
*Watch them burn! If they are not burning fast enough, drop a Shock Nova/Ice Nova totem between the RF totems to activate Elemental Equilibrium. You need only to wait for one cast before replacing it with RF totems. Watch for the pink bubbles below the monsters.
*Elemental Equilibrium note: You cannot have any Adds xx-yy Fire Damage to spells items in your gear slots.
*Use your body position to guide stragglers through the RF ring. Also can use body position to apply Flammability or other curse linked to Blasphemy.
*If they are not burning fast enough, try to curse them with Flammability. If still not burning fast enough, dual-curse with Elemental Weakness. (requires specific tree nodes or +1 to Number of Curses equipment.
*You have 10 seconds until the pink bubbles disappear. You may need to recast Shock Nova/Ice Nova totem to refresh the EE duration. This is only a problem for fast-moving monsters.

For this version of the build, you will need to grab the Elemental Equilibrium (EE) keystone on the skill tree. This will be activated by placing a Shock Nova/Ice Nova totem in the totem cycle. Your own character's skills will NOT activate EE. However, your totems will. Since RF is not a "hit" it will not activate the +25% fire resistance from EE, but the Shock Nova/Ice Nova totem will, lowering monster resists by at least 50% (more from the curses explained below.)

The best curse is Flammability. Added to the -50% debuff from EE, you can get around -90% to monster fire resist. The lower, the better! To drop it down more, add Elemental Weakness. This curse will negate the +25% boost to lightning you gave, making EE more party-friendly. It will also subtract more resistances from the monsters. It is funny to watch how this build affects the Rogue Exile "Igna Phoenix".

The interaction between RF and Spell Totem is tricky to understand, but the real damage dealing part is the 50% health per second "degen." The totem itself is the thing that burns, so it needs to have as much Totem Life as possible. I have always seen totems as the safest build in Temporary Leagues, especially as a (mostly) self-found player, and these totems are super tanky.

The skill tree itself only has a few Totem Life nodes, but in 2.0, Jewel Sockets become an additional method of increasing Totem Life. There is one Jewel, specifically, that enables up to 30% Increased Totem Life based on Strength nodes in the radius. It is called Spire of Stone, and its Totem Life effect is 3-skill-tree-nodes-worth. Placing it near the Constitution life wheel is effective, and gives 21% Totem Life.

For most of these gems, Higher Quality is generally "better" but some are more desirable than others.

There are so many options for this build. I have outlined a few for your consideration.

March 2016 edit:
I have updated this section with more options and fixed a few errors. Note that Curse on Hit does not work with totems like Shock Nova, so you cannot instantly apply curses and elemental equilibrium with one device.

***** - Should get as high quality as possible
* - Quality doesn't matter

MAIN LINK
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(1 - Righteous Fire)* (no effect as far as I know)
(2 - Spell Totem)*** (faster placement)
(3 - Increased Burning Damage)***** (minor increased fire damage boost)
(4 - Increased Area of Effect)***** (minor increased area damage boost)
(5 - Concentrated Effect)***** (increased area damage boost, large sacrifice on clearing area however)
(6 - Elemental Focus)*****

If you have to drop 2 gems, I would lose Concentrated Effect and Increased Area of Effect as they are kind of reliant on one another to work. You'll still get good damage from Elemental Focus and Increased Burning Damage, and when you can 6-link, you will appreciate the addition of Conc. Effect and Inc. AoE.

Drop these totems by enemies, and watch them be drawn to their doom.

Good placement looks like this:



Until you have a high AoE, this is harder to use than Flame Totem or Searing Bond, which will both benefit from the same nodes on the skill tree anyway, so go ahead and use them if you feel like you can't get good coverage.

I don't even bother and just go for it as soon as I get Ancestral Bond, as I feel the placement and timing requires a lot of practice. In fact, I just suck it up and use Concentrated Effect in the main link ASAP to really get that damage up, and let Searing Bond take care of the trash mobs.

ELEMENTAL EQUILIBRIUM LINKS
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Don't really need the shock chance from Innervate or Lightning Pen, since this isn't actually doing much damage. We just want it to tag a large area of monsters and bosses with Elemental Equilibrium.

(1 - Shock Nova or Ice Nova)
(2 - Spell Totem)
(3 - Increased Area of Effect)
(4 - Reduced Mana or Blood Magic)

OTHER LINK SETUPS
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(1 - Decoy Totem)***
(2 - Minion and Totem Elemental Resistance)*
Once you get Ancestral Bond, you can plop this right beside your RF totem, and watch the mobs burn like moths to the flame. Usually, an RF totem close to the mobs and the Decoy slightly behind it will attract the mobs through the RF circle, which is ideally where you want them.

(1 - Cast When Damage Taken (Level 5 or 6)*)
(2 - Immortal Call (Level 8)*)
(3 - Molten Shell (Level 12 or 13)*)
(4 - Decoy Totem)
Just a minor increase to Armor and survivability, especially if you use Enduring Cry. Auto-drops totem, which may or may not be beneficial.

(1 - Cast When Damage Taken)
(2 - Molten Shell)
(3 - Phase Run)
(4 - Enfeeble)
Another option, and one I prefer for my playstyle, is linking Enfeeble and Phase Run. Whenever you are hit, you gain Molten Shell, gain the Quartz Flask effect of not being blocked by enemies, and they are instantly cursed with Enfeeble. Works best in a Dual-Curse or more skill tree. You will need to focus on Dexterity on gear to activate a decently-leveled Phase Run.

(1 - Cast When Damage Taken)
(2 - Molten Shell)
(3 - Summon Skeletons)
(4 - Enfeeble)
Gives you some temporary tanks to distract mobs while you escape.

(1 - Cast When Damage Taken)
(2 - Molten Shell)
(3 - Temporal Chains)
(4 - Enfeeble)
This will overwrite your offensive curses, unless you are running a 4-curse setup. Significantly weaker against curse-immune maps and bosses.

BUFFS
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Purity of Fire*
This aura is an absolute requirement, as it will allow your totems to "Burn Longer." Also, makes you basically capped for fire resistance for the rest of the game.

Purity of Elements*
Again, helping the totems stay alive through their burn time from monster DPS and spells. Also a pretty solid buff for yourself, helping you gear through the early difficulty levels. I ditched this for AA in later playtests, and then returned to it as a required aura in the build. You must be over-capped in the 200% range to avoid the negative effects of the self-curses from Soul Mantle or from Hexfont mobs.

Blasphemy*
Your choice on linking this to curses will depend on your playstyle and your needs. I find that it is useful to apply Temp. Chains or Enfeeble, as you should not be approaching monsters to apply Flammability. Blasphemy and Purity of Fire will take your mana reservation to 60%. That will leave you with just enough for Arctic Armor at 95%.

Arctic Armour*
This defensive buff will help keep fire damage to a minimum, as well as helping with physical mitigation when the build focuses on armour. If you take this, you may need to operate your Shock Nova/Ice Nova and Curses on Blood Magic.

CURSES and BLASPHEMY
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Blasphemy*
Your choice on linking this to curses will depend on your playstyle and your needs. I find that it is useful to apply Temp. Chains or Enfeeble, as you should not be approaching monsters to apply Flammability. Blasphemy and Purity of Fire will take your mana reservation to 60%. That will leave you with just enough for Arctic Armor at 95%.

Flammability*
This is the main curse, taking away fire resistance is crucial for quick clearing speed. Self-Casted with the AoE nodes from the tree will almost cover the playfield with one cast.

Elemental Weakness*
This is the secondary offensive curse, which nullifies the "buff" from EE on monsters for party play and reduces resistance to fire even further. If taking Whispers of Doom, this is super helpful.

Vulnerability*
Adds ~30% increased damage over time (which is a more "reliable" increase in the early levels, or if you decide to do a 4-curse setup!)

Enfeeble*
This is a CWDT or defensive curse that is a requirement for survivability.

Temporal Chains*
This can either be inserted in a CWDT setup or self-cast on fast-movers. Also increases debuff duration on monsters. Decent but situational.

OTHER GEMS
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Enduring Cry*
This can be used in the beginning stages of the build as a taunt to draw baddies through the circle, but also feeds Immortal Call.

Abyssal Cry*
Can be used to destroy bodies so they will not be raised from the dead or detonated, makes a cool "popping" sound.

TESTER LINK SETUPS
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(1 - Bear Trap)*****
(2 - Increased Mine and Trap Damage)
(3 - Multiple Traps or Increased Duration)
(4 - Blood Magic, or Reduced Mana, or Multiple Traps)
I haven't been able to get this link set up yet to try it, and it is theorycraft at this time. I'm including it as an option for rooting fast-moving rare mobs, snakes, Ghosts, whoever is flicker striking all over the place, etc. Luckily it only is used in rare cases and only costs 150~ or so Dexterity.

(1 - Spell Totem)
(2 - Flame Surge)
(3 - Faster Casting)
(4 - Iron Will, Increased Critical Strikes, Increased Critical Damage, Added Lightning Damage)
This is another possibility to increase your effective DPS against burning mobs (since RF totems don't overlap damage-wise).

Desmos.com chart links:

I have created a new chart that is a bit more complicated, but allows for better estimation values as your curses level up (as well as adding the 50% reduction from Elemental Equilibrium.)

https://www.desmos.com/calculator/6jvyvdbtt6

The black lines are Spell Totem base life levels for 10(bottom) to 18(top).

F = flammability curse gem value in percent
E = elemental weakness curse gem value in percent
Q = elemental equilibrium application (flat set to 50%)
m = base totem life from skill tree (51%)
t = variable totem life (from Soul Mantle, jewels, Spire of Stone bonus)
d = additive damage modifiers from skill tree, gear, gems, jewels, Self-Flagellation jewel buff (if using Soul Mantle), Hierophant "Damage on Kill" temporary buff
u = damage reduction per totem if Hierophant multiple totems keystone is taken (steps of .1. Assume a value of .4 for normal play.)
v = vulnerability curse gem value (should be set to 33 if testing out vulnerability to compare effectiveness)
g = Multiplicative addition to the burn from Elemental Focus and Concentrated Effect.

Adjust the F, E, t, d, u, g values to suit your character's current state of gear, gem levels, and tree to find a worst-case scenario with a stubbornly fire-resistant 75%, but curseable monster. Overcapped and curseable monsters can be simulated by changing the main formula from (.75 - (F + E + Q)) to something like 1.25 or even 1.5 if you think monsters can overcap to 150% resists. Remember, monsters can be negative on resistances, and that can be simulated by entering values less than .75.

The y-axis is the base life of the totem.
The x-axis is the estimated DPS for the totem.

Double-clicking on a black line where it intersects with the red line will display my estimated DPS as well as the totem's final adjusted life value.

I charted out the math and found that Increased Totem Life (the amount you have from jewels and other items is represented by the "t" slider) does increase DPS by a significant amount, but increasing actual damage multiplier (represented by the "d" slider) has a better return on investment, point-wise. Try it out: if you increase totem life by 50% (i.e. Soul Mantle) and leave Damage increase at 200%, the red line tilts a bit. But if you get an extra 50% Damage Increase and leave Life where it was, you will see the red line slant rightward faster.

This is important because you want to get that totem life as high as possible, but it's very difficult to get more than 40% extra on jewels. So focus on damage, but try for totem life as well!

If you can manage to increase both Totem Life and Damage Multiplier, then you can see a large increase in DPS provided by the totems.

With 400-500% increased damage coming from gear, jewels, and the skill tree, the build is able to produce a reliable 20,000 DPS AOE burn with basically no gear investment.

You will notice a bunch of nodes that are available to be taken but are not. These are "Flex Nodes" that are up to the player to fill.

FLEX NODES

* Penetration does not affect RF or Searing Bond. So don't worry about that. The damage buffs that also include Penetration are still worth grabbing.
*At least two jewel sockets are taken, one reserved for Spire of Stone, but they are just single-point spends en-route to keystones anyway.
*Life or defensive nodes can be taken in place of:
-Jewel sockets
-Minor AoE nodes
-Shamanistic Fury cluster (sacrifice totem drop speed and a good chunk of damage)
-Also, this tree is built for approx. level 70. So you may still enjoy up to 10-20 additional points to place as you decide!
*This build can also accommodate Whispers of Doom. If you like the style, you'll want to go for Dual Curses for added DPS (Flammability and Elemental Weakness).
*Witch Fire nodes are best efficiency, but not the ignite ones (they don't affect RF totems.)
*I loved my third build that had Unwavering Stance, but it is a few points down and I found that Phase Run and good flask usage could fill in if you'd rather take DPS nodes.

JEWELS
The ideal jewels are Carved(Totem Life), Shaman's(Totem Damage), and Fire Damage. However, any other jewels that have Blasting (Area Damage), Entropy (Damage over time), etc. Basically any jewel that adds to the list above or has preferential stats for your character's deficiencies (resists, life, rarity, etc.) My build utilizes 2-3 jewel slots with a possibility of 6 if really pushing it. That will depend on your jewels, of course. 3 Offensive and 3 Defensive might be worth the extra 9 skill points...