Thorn totem and Thorn Burst projectile hit question

[xByteCode]

So I was looking over the skill tree for Thorn Totem and Thorn Burst and both have nodes that reduce the spread of the projectiles; Rising Moon and Focused Fury for thorn burst, and Unhallow Core and Spriggan Hearts for thorn totems.

The question is, with the reduced spread, can the thorn projectiles shotgun an enemy if close enough to the enemy, to allow multiple thorn projects to hit at the same time? So basically can more than 1 thorn projectile hit from the same cast of Thorn Burst or Thorn Totem?

[thomzon]

I think not, but wondering the same and never got a clear answer

[SlaserX]

Yes, and it’s the only thing that saves Thorn Totems. I use that and the heat seeking node on the totems, and they all aim and fire (and seek) one mob (if there’s only one mob) to smack them for a ton of damage. Without the heat seeking node, or the cone fire node, you will be haemorrhaging potential DPS.

[xByteCode]

So it looks like Guided Thorns (press alt) kind of confirms that Thorn Totems do not shotgun enemies. It specifically states that multiple thorns cannot hit the same enemy. I was wondering why it was doing so little damage compared to companions like the sabertooth.

Seriously though the wolf companion and the sabertooth companion do way more damage compared to thorn totems and I have not even spec’ed into companion skill trees. And in my passives I have try to mainly take Attunement passive nodes (Natural Attunement, Shamanic Infusion) and mine and minion spell damage (Wisdom of the Wild).

I think Thorn Totems should shotgun enemies. Specifically if you spec into the Unhallow Core and Spriggan Hearts nodes. Maybe a damage increase? I am not sure, but Thorn Totems needs some help.

[fknflo]

I could not make thorn totem do any appreciable amount of dps no matter how good my gear was. I like the idea of it, but it needs some serious buffs.

[Kotli]

If I remember correctly I read Totems scale with minions bonuses. So really the only use of them IMO is as support to apply extra poison DOT stacks in my opinion.

[xByteCode]

While it is true that Thorn Totems scale with minion damage, they also scale with totem and attunement. Their abilities also scale from Physical and Spell damage. But through the skill tree you can spec into poison and cold damage

[xByteCode]

So I found a targeting dummy next to the stash in the Council Chambers. I spec’ed into all of the nodes that reduce the spread of Thorn Burst and it only shows 1 damage number for each cast, while standing right next to the target dummy. So Thorn Burst also does not shotgun like Thorn Totem.

It is such a shame too. The skill itself is pretty cool, but the damage is lack luster compared to other options for the Primalist.

[Telzen]

Thorn totems seem pretty damn good to me so far. Remember that you get 2 of them straight away and that you can just summon them in the middle of groups. Also since you can set them up and then continue to dps with other abilities they can’t be allowed to be too crazy.

My primalist already feels op compared to my mage, because the mage sits here and can use 1 ability at a time while my primalist can have companions doing damage, totems doing damage and also himself doing damage all at the same time.

[Fetznfritz]

I m playing totem atm without wolf or the other compagnions.
Lightning Totem is much better than thorns.
Also play leap with lightning which alltogether looks reallly cool and is fun to play.

But atm i m only lvl 29 and played 2 Runs Monolith, that was easy. My 3 thorn totems are more for CC than for DPS. I dont think this is good in Arena.

Overall i cant see a really good Shaman totem Build so if u guys have some advice thx for it

In Alpha i ve made it to Wave 168 (lvl 64 char not really good geared) but its more diffycult now.

[Elgareth]

Huh. I was sure they could shotgun stuff… my dps increased considerably once I got the cone reduces If they don’t, they definitely should. Make it a node with some damage oder fire rate reduction maybe…

[Gandhar]

Totems individually dont shotgun but every totem you spawn can hit the same target if there is only one around.

This means 5 thorn totems can fire five projectiles into an eemies ass if only one enemy is near, like a boss for example.

Thorn burst dont shotguns as well. That skill get its main DMG buff with the spell-dmg-per-totem-spawned passive.

[Briggs]

I’m doing a thorn totem/burst build with focus on minion damg and minion phys dmg on gear, and they’re doing work! Went for the 5 totems instant cast and poison, it’s the most powerful build i’ve played so far, my first arena I got to wave 80 something as lvl 40 something, after just finishing the story. Only died because i didn’t pay attention, wich is the real danger of playing with totems that rips through anything, afk mode kills you.

[Elgareth]

Update after playing with totems and burst as druid:
It’s completely fine that they don’t shotgun. The skills feel weak early on, but they become powerhouses even without shotgunning.
But I think because they don’t shotgun, the cone reductions are more nerfs than buffs for both skills. Maybe add a “X additional thorns can hit the same target” into the cone reduction nodes to make them useful, but they would probably need a damage reduction like 25% or something to not make it overpowered.