Aether based Drain Essence doesn’t really work well as main skill. If you analyze the Necro tree, it’s better at Vitality than Aether.
Arcanist is the only class with strong primary Aether based skills which you can build around. For a Necro based caster, go Vitality with another secondary classes would be a better bet.
Just look at Drain Essence branch at max rank:
[SPOILER]60 Aether @ 16
74 Vitality @ 12 (Decomposition)
83 Vitality Decay / second @ 16
Assume 0.2 second per tick (150% cast spd),
Base DPS = 300 Aether + 370 Vitality + 83 Vitality Decay
Vitality outperform Aether by 50% (300 to 453). And also if you mainly scale Aether, most of Siphon Souls Vitality dmg will be wasted.[/spoiler]
If I’d build a Necro caster around Drain Essence and Siphon Souls, I’d scale Vitality and go Shaman (which I’d prefer) or Occultist as secondary class.
Shaman playstyle (skill rotation) without transmuted Storm Totem (Note: I’d drop Siphon Soul for VitaStorm totem…):
Wendigo Totem -> Devouring Swarm -> Siphon Soul -> channel Drain Essence
Occultist playstyle:
Curse -> Siphon Soul -> Sigil -> channel Drain Essence
Moreover, there are great Vitality devotion procs like Twin Fangs, Wendigo’s Mark, Scale, Hungering Void and Rattosh which are all better than Aether proc (Arcane bomb’s sluggish arming with 2 sec cooldown… though Arcane currents is ok-ish).
Imagine with Shaman, your enemy is hit with -80% vitality debuff (Devour + Rattosh) while you’re draining them in a Wendigo Totem with constant proc of devotion skills. You’ll be doing at least 3 times Vitality damage than what you’re doing now with Aether. On top of that, your sustain in battle with massive leech and Wendigo totem will be insane.
Theoretical base Vitality DPS of above Ritualist at max rank with 150% cast spd:
[SPOILER]Drain Essence = 370 Vitality + 83 Decay = 453
Siphon Soul = (262 Vitality + 126 Decay) / 2 = 194 (divided by 2 cuz up time is half)
Devouring Swarm = 65
Wendigo Totem = 78
Twin Fangs = 221 (assume 1 proc per sec avg. Also ignoring pierce dmg and weapon dmg)
Wendigo Mark = 240
Rattosh = 140 (vitality only)
Base Vitality DPS = 1391
With Hungering Void up and 2000+% Vitality scaling, that’s over 30K raw DPS without counting +skills, skill modifiers, crit, enemy negative resistance and other damage types. And it goes even higher with VitaStorm Totems![/spoiler]
If I had to stick with Arcanist, I would scale Vitality, max Devastation and convert fire to vitality (with Decree of Malmouth, Lifeblaze Mantle and Darkflame Chestguard). Vita meteors will rain down onto enemies while I drain them dry!
