Hey all,
Wanted to share a totem build I’ve been running and having success with so far. It’s obviously going to be a work in progress as I haven’t hit empowered monoliths yet, but it’s a fun build nonetheless.
NO UNIQUES REQUIRED TO PLAY BUILD!
Leveling Friendly
This is currently what I am running.
For clearing, you really only need to drop storm totem and buff it up with Eterra’s Blessing. Drop thorn totem as needed for more aoe or rare monster clears. For bosses, drop thorn totem, storm totem, frenzy and buff up frenzy with Eterra’s for increased attack speed to your other totems. You can buff up your other totems as you feel is needed.
Some interesting interactions…
With the way Eterra’s is built, you will be dropping 2 healing totems if you are at >85% hp. If you use Eterra’s on a totem, the healing totem will prefer to heal the totem until it goes away then heal you. All buffs granted from totems apply to healing totems and they synergize extremely well with this build. With all the healing generated, it is very hard to die unless you get the unfortunate 1 shot. I was able to tank Lagon’s claw attack without taking much damage, if any. His breath attack is still deadly if you follow it and you will be dropped down to less than 25% hp with his big AOE in the center.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be most helpful! Enjoy!
Build Plan/Guide
You want any/all adaptive spell dmg to totems you can find, and primalist and shaman trees provide this. Getting it on equipment is a bit more difficult/hard to find so use it when you are sure you are going for an upgrade and not wasting shards.
Primalist:
Natural Attunement
8/8
Gift of the Wilderness
2/6
Wisdom of the Wild
6/6
Gift of the Wilderness
4/6 - Finish filling it out
Elder Branch
5/5 - Adaptive Spell dmg. You can play around with this using Tempest Maw axe as it releases Storm Sprites that receive buffs via minion dmg increase. They also annihilate packs of mobs stupid fast.
Going dual wield is possible if you want to squeeze out more dps instead of defense.
Hunter’s Restoration
5/5 - Health. Plain and Simple.
Rotbane
1/5 - Totems won’t melt to poison and can be used as distractions for those mobs.
Ursine Strength
8/8
Boar Heart
5/5
Procine Constitution
5/5
2/2 points to place wherever
This grants us some more much needed defense via damage reduction and health regen. We move onto the shaman tree from here.
Shamanic Infusion
8/8
Silent Protector
2/8 (this can be increased/decreased as you like)
Tempest Form can be used here if you are having mana problems, but you really shouldn’t be as all your costs are very low.
Fate Carver
8/8
Ancestral Speed
5/5
Earthen Supremacy
?/8 As many as needed/you can spare.
Protective Circle
?/8 Up to you. You’ll have 7 totems at max always up so plan from there. Healing totems from Eterra’s Blessing apply to this as well and are not accounted for in the aforementioned 7 totems.
Rune of Awe
8/8 - Bread and Butter. Adaptive spell dmg.
Elemental Shrines
8/8 - Mana regen so you don’t need a mana regen skill and can focus only on dmg. More dps, more healing, etc.
Ironbark
1/8 - Totem stun immunity
This is just a basic outline of what you need. From there, I would max out “The Chase” in the BM tree for attack/cast speed for minions.
Playstyle
I’ll record a few videos and upload them here once I figure out how.
Until then…
I play with totems as an offensive weapon in that I will drop them into packs of mobs ahead of me to grab aggro. Storm Totem does wonders for this. Minions inherently have 50% dmg reduction, and with how we are building our totems they are going to be immune to poison and stuns. Drop a ST, cast EB on it for a healing totem to proc and pop up continuously healing it and giving it a HOT via EB. Frenzy totem if needed. Packs should be dead at this point. My totems never die quite honestly. Very handy.
Another use is dropping Frenzy Totem to grant haste via Symbol of Haste in the FT tree. Can also be done with ST via Ancestral Speed node we have put points in via Shaman tree. Fury Leap can be used to clear massive distances if used/positioned right. Yes, it is slow and plodding compared to zoom zoom Rogue or Sentinel (VK), but you can add more movement speed if you don’t like that, but will sacrifice defenses.
Another use is defensively. Drop ST to slow packs via Blizzard or, my personal favorite, proccing Thorn Totems via Tempest Strike for 150 healing each time they are summoned due to the “on death” effect of the Death Rattle ammy. You basically bunker yourself in with TT and cast EB a few times on yourself to proc Healing Totems and HOTs to give yourself massive over heal for about 6 seconds.
Use/abuse EB as much as you can to find fun interactions. Since it’s instant cast, you can cast it on all 7 of your main totems in about 3s to buff them all up and get a healing totem for each.
Updates
9/14/21
I’ve updated the build planner.
Been running lvl 90 monos without any trouble at all. Honestly, you can drop frenzy totem for your haste and storm totem to clear when needed as it will wipe out mobs. Use leap to get around after the haste effects wear off.
Keep in mind, this build is very fluid and am using what I like/enjoy. You can certainly add more moves speed to make it more zoom zoom. Also, please play with your minion attack speed and added damage. I am finding that more attack speed results in more dps rather than adding on %increased damage right now, but can’t get calculations to show my gut feeling to be correct.
Uniques Required
None.
Nice to have
Death Rattle
If going a more cold variant route:
Frozen Eye of Formosus
its cool … ty.