The manifesto mentioned that Scorching Ray is getting a buff from 696.3 base DPS at level 20 to 780.7, which is roughly equivalent to a level 21 gem currently. Scorching Ray is solidly out of meta, but has a small contingent of fans on the totem side of things (me included). Previously Soul Mantle was nerfed to remove its extra totem, but this 12% more damage buff is making that a bit less of a pain now, and Skin of the Lords is a really great option now. With the nerf of Defiance Banner, there is also an option to simply not run it and instead run Vaal Righteous Fire for more burst DPS.

For those out of the loop, SR totems is actually a very solid build that is capable of nearly all the content, and can push out about 25M+ DPS while staying relatively sound defensively. It's not a giga-tank, though it is possible to build it as such, and while the clearspeed is merely mediocre, it's nowhere near as bad as you would think it would be. The beams sweep back and forth rather quickly, and trash enemies die nearly instantly.

For those curious as to how an SR totems build is built, here is my updated PoB (originally from 3.16) I'm planning on running next league: https://pastebin.com/qwNxJzpE

Please note the above PoB is for an endgame character, and I'll be perfecting a leaguestart version in the coming days and also after patch notes. Will also likely make a Youtube video on it.

Amulet is ideally an Ashes of the Stars to get more Phantasmal Searing Bond totems and thus more damage from Ritual of Awakening, though a simple +1 Fire or +1 Intelligence skill gems amulet works more than fine before farming up enough currency for an Ashes.

Also for those curious as to what my last iteration of the build looked like in action, here is a youtube video from my channel from 3.16: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9LPIcCQ7yw