Hi
I did a lot of tempest totems with my cold wereraven as primalist.
There was that one time I died within a second from clicking the tempest totem.
I am pretty sure it was from the crystal on the floor from the cold boss from the tempest totem that somehow one shotted me (shotgun ?).
I don’t mind if they do some damage, but maybe not one shotting your character 
The build : Primalist, Level 100 (GD 1.3.0.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
I have not yet seen that issue and there are many damage spikes but you have 8 % phys res… I would say that demands on phys res have increased since FoA. And armor alone even if it is nice does not have to be sufficient.
Also your DR is only 20 % and no perma damage absorption. I would clasify the build as squishier…
My build is fine
I can facetank the dread except those attacks that you have to dodge on all builds
Maybe you have to theorycraft more and you will realise that there is a wild range of lvl of defensives.
Some builds are most likely too tanky and will most likely receive a nerf at some point
At best I was thinking changing pants for the craftable that has 5% physical resist
But either way, that change nothing about this thread and the cold damage spike i received, again within a seconde from clicking the totem, ennemies didn’t even start to hit me yet within that time frame