I'm currently enjoying myself with a totemancer. However, I find there's a huge disparity between this build and other builds, which comes down to only a single fact:
There are too many skills that "need" to be skilled. In the totem tree alone, you have 5 skills to put points into. But that's neglecting defensive passives like Death Ward and Embalming and Jinns for more pierce. So that means you have 8 skills you want to max at first glance. And then one of the totems passives also increase the amount of points you can put into the totems, which means you're way off when it comes to having nearly enough skillpoints to put into everything.
I find this very unattractive to be honest. It looks like you have a choice when it comes to skilling, but in the end all this does is bring only a single skill plan forward while every other choice is rather bad. The Ice totem is useless to skill, because it's good enough with just + skills, but hasn't enough AoE to be worth putting points into. The lightning totem is weak compared to the fireheart totem, even when you max it. So that means those 2 totems will always be left with only a single skill point, which is quite sad imho. The ice and lightning totems are basically only distractions and a trap for players who have no idea what they're doing, or lack experience with that build.
Cons:
- Too many skills to potentially put points into
- 1 totem is too strong to put points into, 1 totem is too weak to put points into
- Potentially trapping players with wrong skillchoices
- It is not apparent which skills you want to put points into and which you don't, which is quite unique for this build since you usually can say at first glance how your skillplan looks like.
- Despite it looking like you have a choice when it comes to planning the skills, there is no such thing.
My suggestion to fix those issues:
- Instead of using 3 different skills for totems, turn them all into 1 single skill
- You could create a new passive skill that creates reanimates, or you could move that portion from Talon's hold and turn it into steady gains which increase with skill levels, not base points, to make it a 1-point skill for a more defensive mechanic.
- Create a toggle skill that gives you the RIP modifier and a buff that doubles the totems damage, but halves the amount of projectiles(Fireheart totem) and the amount of hits (ice totem) from your totems.
This change would make it more obvious where to place your points and how to play. Since the ice totem hits so many times, this build is rather weak for enemies that teleport a lot when struck, which is why this change would definitely improve its boss killer ability. However, thanks to the easily accessible reanimates, you would also become safer in farming areas.
Suggestion No. 2:
- instead of using 3 different skills for totems, turn them into a single skill, but exclude the lightning portion.
- Create a special type of summon that by themselves deal no damage at all and is only empowered while your totems are active. The HP of those summons is equal to the totem life, but they don't receive the avoid from the passive or a bonus from Embalming. The summons deal single target lightning damage when empowered and have a chance to cast a lightning nova on attack, which also scales with the totem skill level. You can summon 1 on skill level 1, and for every 8 points into your totem, you receive 1 additional summon. You also don't get life when those summons kill anything.
- As for the last skill that's left, I don't know. Maybe some 1 minute buff, that gives you some pierce and some energy or something, or creating a pool of blood that slows enemies and reduces their resistances while in there (like Miasma).
Well, this is just some brainstorming for ideas in order to fix that issue.
For those who didn't yet understand the reason behind my suggestions: If you're having a build that has only 1 way to be effective, you might as well make it obvious which skills to put points into instead of tricking new players into thinking there is a choice.
. The damage is so low on that skill and it doesn't multihit..
