I tried it as supplementary DPS tool on my ranged primal strike shaman, and I tried it on my vitality conjuror, don’t really notice it contributing in either case (and Vitality Conjuror is basically the best case scenario for the skill - you can get absurd levels of -vitality% resistance; and casting the totem doesn’t interrupt a no cooldown spam skill so it’s not a DPS loss to cast).
As it stands, it’s a skill that doesn’t really have a purpose. Awkward cast range, poor actual range, effectively requires ramp up (need all 3 totems up), terrible single target DPS, bad AoE DPS (all it really clears is trash, and everything source of AoE in this game clears trash with a sneeze), and absolutely no utility. It’s not even a good devotion proc skill, it doesn’t work on so many of them.
Compare it to Devastation or Doombolt - both are skills that actually do damage for similar point investment.
Various suggestions:
Dramatically boost single target damage, remove the chaining effect. A lot of the caster builds involving Shaman suffer in the boss killing department,that could be its niche.
Give it utility. Knockdown, debuff, slow, a buff aura. Maybe have it do skill disruption on targets hit. Perhaps have it produce a circle barrier that blocks or stuns enemies from passing. Hell, have it automatically zap enemy projectiles out of the sky.
Or, alternatively, give a nullification cast effect. No reason Arcanists should be the only way to strip buffs/auras from enemies.
Quality of life - boost the cast range. There is really no reason it should be this short.
Wackier ideas:
4. Maybe make totems produce a high damage ground effect between them. Reward positioning totems.
Give totems a secondary spell they cast once or twice in their life time that does any of the above. Or something even crazier - for example, zap the player to shave off several seconds off their cooldowns.
Just give it aaaanything. The skill is tragically bad for no reason.
I agree. The points are best spent elsewhere, since 3 totems account for barely 20% of your dps at high levels.
Maybe a charge mechanic like savagery would be nice. Like increasing the damage by 15% every attack with a cap at 100%? This would also make the skill more interesting since you would want to keep the monsters in the range of your totem instead of kiting and resummoning them.
Rest assured, you are not alone. I suggested a totem pole with 3 totem parts on 1.0.0.5 patch thread, and maybe even make those totem parts amplify the damage range, like pole with single totem part deals 1000-3900 damage, 2000-6500 with 2 parts, 3000-9000 with 3 parts (Edit: sorry with 1300% Lightning damage, I was looking at my tooltip). They can increase CD per rank if needed.
Of course, I won’t refuse if they offer me a rail gun instead…
I would LOOOOVE to see this, realistically you only get two totems in such a position, creating an arc between them would give the skill a great flavor and make it much more useful and fun to use.
Even if they somewhat radically redesigned the transmuter to play around this mechanic… Perhaps remove the cooldown and remove the auto cast effect to allow you to build a sort of totem laden danger zone
I can’t agree. I play with elementalist and STorm-Totem is one of my Skill with one of the highest DMG output which clears most of the masses i fight. Storm Totem also isn’t really meant to be used for Range. I go in, (Meele Build) use Storm Totem as well Wind Devil, then attack with Savagery and use Primal Strike, most of it already cleared out after that. For range before i engage i mostly use Mortar Trap. My build isn’t finished yet, also if it works like i hope, with Whirlpool when i get it, my totems will slowdown the Enemys while they are attacked from it, but i’m quite happy with Storm-Totem and don’t see where it really needs rework. Not everythings needs to be an oneshot-wonder to be usefull!
/Edit: However i see why Range-Classes have Problems with it. You have to keep the Enemys within the Range, which is as an Meele Build not that hard. If you got really hit hard, the good point about ST(as well Wind Devil) its still keeps making Damage, even though you ran away to recover. However as Rangebuild the Totem will be problematic, due the fact that you change your Position often, which is why i understand you point to an dagree. But still, it doesn’t makes the Skill useless, only not good for your Build/Playtype…
I like this idea. There’s already tech to do this. The aether balls that pop when you kill scarecrows create arcs if you let three or more get together at once. Reuse that tech for storm totems. Would be awesome.
Not sure about this but it serves me well since I am playing a rifle Thuderous Strike Elementalist.
Any time I run into a tough group or a hero, I would just keep the 2 totems up while I run circles around them. It helps that I have Elemental Storm linked to them.
