Hey everyone. I’m returning to the game from the pre-release days, but i’m a bit confused on some of the leveling builds i’ve seen floating around.
Both Icyveins and Maxroll suggest using Healing/thorns totems in conjuction with Spriggan form to level for both Shaman and Druid, but i’m confused because neither build seems to take a way to manage rage. The guides say “try to always stay in spriggan form”, but realistically, I shift to Spriggan, cast a few totems, and i’m out of rage. Neither build takes any points to reduce the cost of totems or to regenerate rage, so I’m not sure how this build is supposed to work.
Way back when, i played a spriggan that used shooting vines to regenerate rage, but that doesn’t seem to be included in any build, so i’m not sure if it’s viable.
Not knowing what build you are looking at, I’d say it’s probably in the playstyle that you maintain rage in them. They probably have certain nodes selected so that you use certain skills at the right time to generate rage.
Just a guess, so I’d say watch the video or read the details in their build if those are available.
Also, it might depend on your level when you start being able to get to the skill nodes to maintain the rage.
Yeah, i’ve looked at all their passives & skill trees, and don’t see ANYTHING related to rage generation or mana cost reduction. The only video they have is a low level one for before you start using spriggan form, so that’s not very helpful either.
This thread peaked my interest and then I remembered it was a video game forum.
Anyway…
You have this node in thorn totem:
And you also summon 3 totems at once with Spriggan Form’s bottom right node, so you get a huge spike of rage when your totems die or are replaced by new ones.
I feel like that’s still not as much as it costs to summon them in the first place, but I haven’t gotten that far in the tree yet, so maybe it will be enough.
As Iceberg pointed out, you need to have the node to regain mana on unsummon. Then you switch to Spriggan, summon your totems (you also need to have the skill node that summons 3 at once) and keep resummoning them before they unspawn.
Spriggan has to treat totems as turrets (like necro did with flame wraiths). Especially with higher cast speed, you actually do more damage by constantly summoning totems than by letting them lying around shooting every now and then. And this is because they immediately shoot when they’re summoned.
That sounds like it makes sense, maybe i’ll stick with it. It’s a shame i couldn’t find a leveling or endgame build around the shooting vines, i remember it being super fun and powerful.
Equip Tears of the Forest (amulet) and Eterra’s Path (boots) to get infinite rage in spriggan form… Also, every time you switch to spriggan form you get a full bar of rage, so you can just switch back and forth to refill your bar.
I haven’t come across either of those items, maybe that’s the missing piece.
There’s a 6s cd on Spriggan form when you exit, so it’s not as simple as just switching in and out, but that’s what i’ve mostly been doing.
with 3/4 points into the Rage when resummoned talent, and points into the talent that summons 3 at once, i can stay in spriggan form for about 20 seconds at a time. I’m surprised the build doesn’t go 4/4 into the rage refund, but it’s definitely getting better.
I almost think using 4 points to get rage when vines attack would be more useful than spending 5 points for extra healing effectiveness, unless that also increases their damage.
They’re higher level but you don’t really need them. The secret to this build really is to just keep summoning totems with the passive node to regain mana and the skill node to summon 3 at once.
Because then each totem will give you 12 mana with it maxxed and you summon 3 at once, so you also unsummon 3 at once, which is 36 rage which you get back.
And you can do this as soon as you can get those points.
When I did Shaman totems (back in 0.9.2) the person doing the guide specifically said it was enough for them at 3 points, but if you feel you need it (especially earlier on before you get the belt) you can put 4.
When I tried leveling a beastmaster recently with this I did put 4 points because it made everything easier and 1 point won’t make much difference elsewhere for your DPS.
Summoning 3 Totems costs 27 rage (Thorn Totem is 18 + (18*50%) = 27, so you’re break even at 3/4. Which is where those Uniques that provide rage regen come in. Go to 4/4 until you get the uniques and then pull the point out
One thing to note as well, is that when using transformations, you can maximize your damage by spending all your mana in human form, and then transforming because it gives you a full rage bar. So you cast a ton of spells, transform, and get all your mana back as rage.
