I Santa Cruz <| sep |> im doing exactly all that , it works fine on relatively slow mobs that die to degen before they can reach you . Killing bosses is also rather easy , kinda like essence drain , which in my opinion is very similar to Ray . The real problem lies with fast enemies , or enemies that pop right on top of you while you are channeling or flicking , the ray has no knockback , no slow or chill or hinder , no stun , no leech , absolutely nothing to stop the horde of a rushing mobs that will stunlock and instagib you the moment they reach you . Unlike Ray , Essence drain can be cast from longer distance , doesnt require channeling , gives life regen and simply deals way more damage . Killing single mob with ED and then killing the rest with contagion takes less time than killing the whole pack at once with Ray . Even with prolif and shitton of cast speed Trickster with all possible cast speed nodes jewels , cast speed on gear , haste vaal haste it still takes too long to channel to max stacks for damage to feel on par with ED .