Spell Totem

I think the OP or the post after it should be updated, or a sticky should be made, to once and for all consolidate the answers to the basic totem mechanics questions.

For some reason the OP of the Mechanics Thread doesn't think adding a section on totems is a good idea but by reading all of these posts it definitely is.

Anyway, it's VERY simple...

A totem casting a spell or using an attack is EXACTLY THE SAME as YOU casting a spell or using an attack.

Totems use YOUR OFFENSIVE STATS/PASSIVES/MODS (crit, ele damage, whatever, etc). Same goes for support gems effects (faster cast, fork, chain, whatever, etc), they WILL work on Spell Totem because they would work on YOU.

Totems use THEIR OWN DEFENSIVE STATS. They have their own health, armor, evasion, and resistances. Usually, quality will increase the health of totems. I believe Decoy has higher health/armor than the other totems.

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nugstash wrote:

why doesnt it work with fire trap?

Traps are not spells. This is also why +Spell Damage doesn't effect Traps, with few exceptions, like the secondary explosion damage of Fire Trap. I assume it's because the game thinks of the explosion as a spell being cast by the trap. The trap itself is not a spell though so a totem can't cast it.

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SevenStrikes wrote:

With that being said you can verify if a support gem is working with your skill(s) by checking for the colored letters on the spell for example [R] [Y] on (spell X)

I hear this a lot but this is not always correct and I would not recommend relying on this.

I have seen every combination I have ever made show the little "support squares" on the hotkey tooltip, even if they are NOT actually affecting the skill.

For example, Added Fire Damage on Ice Nova doesn't work but it still shows the red "F" on the Ice Nova icon.

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Mark_GGG wrote:

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nieth79 wrote:

The thing is: there is a discrepancy there, i'm using SPORK and i have a spell totem with spark and loads of passives that increase cast speed. The result is a little odd:
If you check the spell with the second method it shows ONLY the cast speed from the faster casting gem linked to the SPORK:
-30% from the totem
+36% from the faster casting
= net result shown there is 6% increased cast

That's not a discrepancy, that's how skill popups work. The skill has 6% increased cast speed, which is added to your cast speed bonuses. The skill shows what stats the skill has on top of yours. That's fundamentally how skill popups work.

Hopefully this makes sense to you.

Mods from gear DO show up on hotkey tooltips. +5-7 Fire Damage would show up on the tooltip. +5% Cast Speed DOES show up on the tooltip as well, the "Cast Time" of the spell in the top right corner changes. So these things are all reflected on the hotkey tooltip.

The 6% cast speed shown on the tooltip is different though, yes it's calculated into the "Cast Time" the same way gear cast speed is, but it's shown there on the tooltip because it's coming from another gem linked to it somehow.

I've looked through this thread and other relevant threads but I can't seem to find the answer to my question. I'm new to the game and am looking at "end-game" and the style of dual spell totems + traps with a defensive templar intrigues me. My question is this, with Ancestral Bond, do I need TWO spell totem gems and/or TWO skill gems to have two totems out? Or can I just link in ONE spell totem gem with ONE skill gem and other support gems and cast the skill twice and it makes two totems?

how much hp does a spell or decoy totem have at lvl 1? at lvl 5? at lvl10?

Can i gain a power charge when i wear Voll's Protector and my spell totem land a crit hit?

I feel there are certain aspects that are frustrating with totems and needs tweaking. I've been playing dual totem since CB and currently have a lvl80+ dual totem witch so I probably been spending tons of time with totems - or you can assume I'm a noob and advise me how I can utilize totems better.

Seems to me that totems dies very quickly to spells particularly fireballs and those slow moving freezing pulse from sea witches. It is very frustrating when I'm meeting a pack of casting skeletons with fireballs and they kill my totem in 1 hit. With the slow speed of totems, it then becomes a game of me spamming more totems which gets off one shot before dying to fireballs. It gets worse with those multi-projectile fireball spamming curtains in Lunaris. There are no difficulty involved, just A LOT of time getting totems up over and over again to kill a mob.

Nowadays I stand in front of my totems to protect them from the fireballs.

Totems can withstand physical hits etc rather well, but somehow REALLY weak to fireballs. Can we relook into it so that at least they should withstand 2-3 fireballs before dying at high levels?

+1 Totems are shit now. Overnerfed, and get 1shot. Don't even bother playing my level 65 templar because it's just terrible.

I see two problems with totem: it gets too much damage (ele damage really kills totem way to fast) and Quality on the Gem worth NOTHING.

So change the quality into sth. like: The Totem takes 2% less damage per Quality.
Or ".. takes 1% less Phys. Dam and 2% less Ele. Damage per quality"

Or give it more life with Quality and give the Double Totem Keystone a survivability Buff, for example: "You can cast one Totem more, you can´t deal damage with own spells and Totems copy your Elemental and Chaos Resis. Values"

This would make survivability Gear way more important for totem builds :)

Recently made a Double Totem character, and found it to be just awful. I specced out of it almost immediately after picking it up. I really loved the Trap sin of Diablo 2. This was clearly not that.

The damage is pitiful. The damage hits are just too big in that you can't realistically apply Shock(I was a spork user - still am just not with totems), killing things took a very long time, and the totem died too easily. I took 1 point out of ancestral bonds and nothing else and was killing at least twice as fast.

The primary reason you would use a Totem to fight is for safety. You can drop a totem in a place a player couldn't realistically survive, or that it would be too unsafe for you to be. The problem with this is a huge majority of the time it either won't fire(at all), get stunlocked by ranged mobs, get frozen, or just instantly die. Even sprinkling Skeletons around did nothing to alleviate this.

It does less damage than a player, even with 2 totems. It generally can't stunlock white mobs, making it worse than a player casting it. It generally can't even handle fighting things that a player would mop up with ease. I died more with Ancestral bonds than without, due to being able to stunlock the enemies I hit. All around spell totem, or ancestral bonds, feel like they need a buff.

So here's my request: When using Ancestral bonds, simply have 20% added damage, (or) casting speed,(or) make totems unstunnable/unfreezable, (or) three totems, or make totems untargetable. Totem by itself is amazing as is. It's especially great for Elemental Equilibrium builds, but as a primary source of damage it fails terribly. Giving less damage, Less survivability, Less status effects, and worst of all: slower clearing speed.