Holy Flame Totem

dont know whom to hear.

Today i checked in cruel - flaming totem (with added lighting damage) without static blows, and with them.

It seems that monsters became to die faster, so the combination works.


But i m not sure, because of fire flames i cant see if monsters have shock status or not.


So i still not sure what is more effective with [flaming totem + greater mult projectiles + faster projectiles]:

+added lighting damage or +fire penetration ?




and about new skill - incinerate. I m not sure that its better then flaming totem. I mean flaming totem takes only one slot, and incinerate+spell totem takes two slots, which means less space for supports.

And second - incinerate starts to make full dmg only after firing at same target without switching, but targets move, so its not very well.

Right?

They are not being shocked. Easiest way to tell is on the boss of the Ledge. If you are shocking it it's very easy to tell. I'm a lvl 73 flame totemer. On the merciless totem boss (who is 20 levels below me) I couldn't shock. On the Cruel version (30+ levels below) I could. (Both with static blows and the other +10% node)


Flame totem just does terrible damage. I'm the highest DPS flame totem that I've seen at 1709.9 DPS with lesser and it's still terrible damage.

sad, i really love this visual beauty - shit tons of fire with greater multiple projectiles.



Then, what is your advice to use as a totem?

only sparks?
New incinirate? if its ok to use incinerate plz explain why, because i think its similar to flaming totem.


The only things i see then to use EFFECTIVELY with totem is freezing pulse and sparks?


P.S. dual curse is must have for dual totem user or not?
i m planning smthng like this build: click

but i have some doubts about it, and the main problem is that i cant choose main skill for totems - flaming totem, incinerate, fireball, freezing pulse?
As an addition i m using bear traps, i think they are must have for totemist?

2 questions, please!
1) Does faster casting make the flame totem cast faster or make me summon the flame totem faster?
2) Do auras work with flame totem? For example, if i use Haste aura, does it increase flame totem casting speed?
Thank you in advance!

"

nguyen259 wrote:

2 questions, please!
1) Does faster casting make the flame totem cast faster or make me summon the flame totem faster?
2) Do auras work with flame totem? For example, if i use Haste aura, does it increase flame totem casting speed?
Thank you in advance!

1) as i know it affects both. So for sure it becomes casting flames faster, and as i know you casting totem faster too.
2) totem is spell, Haster increases cast speed. So of course yes.

"

Vipermagi wrote:

Of note; Auras do not affect Totems. However, they use Skills with your stats, and since you cast faster with Haste, so do they. This is a pretty great thing, because it means you don't have to be anywhere close to your Totem to have it benefit from the Aura :)

This is awesome! I hope it works as you said! :D
I need some feedback on my setup as well: Flame totem + Faster casting + Faster projectile + Fire penetration + LMP. I don't really like Knockback since it pushes enemies out of totem's range and makes totems damage inconstant.

Hey guys,

I tested out flame totem a little bit and I would suggest to lower the early Mana costs. I'm a Flame Totem Marauder and I did skill 15% mana reducage nodes at the beginning. But 66 Mana at lvl 1 is just to much to handle (especially with faster projectiles and LMP). It's nearly impossible as a marauder to get enough mana to make a build around the flame totem (in the early game).

Lets compare an ice spear spell totem build and a flame totem build in early and late game:

- Lvl 8 Ice Spear + Spell Totem = 45 Mana
- Lvl 1 Flame Totem = 66 Mana

- Lvl 15 Ice Spear + Spell Totem = 80 Mana
- Lvl 15 Flame Totem = 96 Mana


Flame Totem should start around 45 Mana and scales up fast in mana consumption. The lvl 20 mana consumption should be 90 Mana. 45 is more then enough in the early game, because most people will (or must) use lesser multiple and faster projectiles anyway, which greatly improves the mana consumption. But right now this skill is just to expensive, especially because the damage of flame totem got nerfed in a patch. So it's not good as an early game skill and as a support skill it won't work good too, because you need some mana for other skills as well (curses, attacks etc.).

This would make flame totem useable in early game and would still consume enough mana in late game.

Interaction between Flame Totem and mobs is fairly broken due to LoS.

I've been killing bosses with solely this skill:
Find a wall, get the boss on one end and yourself on the other.
Cast flame totem around the corner, boss and flame totem fire at eachother.
Recast flame totem when it dies, if boss runs towards you, run around a corner so he stops chasing.
Cast flame totem around the corner, rince and repeat.

I killed brutus and merveil this way. Brutus didnt even breathe at me and merveil never bothered to cast anything because she had no LoS.

This is somewhat an exploit really as the boss does not act as he should (you are literrally in no danger on dieing the entire encounter).

Not sure if other totems have this issue too, but it should be addressed.

Simplest way is that the caster of the totem is revealed for 3 seconds (or something) after casting it. This means you cant hide behind corners while spamming totems.

Well, that counts for all totems. I did Merveil with ice spear totems from my witch with the same tactic.

But compared to other totems its much harder to have enough mana to endlessly cast flame totem, especially when you are an Ancestral Bonds user.