Totem Hybrid Necromancer

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ChuckNoRis
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first of all i'd like to say that it's nice for someone to take interest into writing down an updated totemancer on this new forum (i have no intention in updating my old one and add it back to the compilation) , even if it's a well known build for veterans , many new joiners have always questioned about it . We have a few other builds in the same situation that are well known even if there's no longer a written guide about them , maby someone has time to get those too back into being popular.


Totemancers are great as starter builds because they can do great with cheap gear untill mid - end game , where crafts and set items are enough to take him untill the toughest ubers , where he gets into trouble and needs some respecs/better gear ;it may also become boring after some point when all this jumping and summoning gets too much , when the build goes from "wow" to "meh", reason why i decided to ditch him . For those who haven't played this build before it may be quite entertaining ; melting faces is somethimes what people want to see .

there are at least 3 ways to play a totemancer , all of them hybrids

1. a hybrid that is keeping very few (maxed) shadows alive , just to benefit from their aura, while you are the one who does the tanking (goes for death ward uberskill/may go for deathlord too for extra stats and dealing with the elemental immunes) , with not much gear investment for minion life but rather focuses on spell damage/minion damage (totems benefit from both ways of increasing the damage) and high defence for you to tank better (totems gain enough life so that you won't have to focus on that -also ,embalming does not boost their HP )


2. a hybrid that uses minions to do the tanking while the totems deal the damage , with you staying safe behind your army . this one requires fat summons and heavy investment into %minion life because shadows and jinns are not actualy tanky minions (they are crapy in terms of tanking) . this requires maxing the rampagors at least untill end game where you can spend less points/leftovers here, as they will also handle the elemental immunes with their poison attacks .

For end game, in order to avoid the increased damage taken for your minions ,you may use another teleport source instead of BtS if you just need to get the job done -> 2s teleport from the Rathma's Supremacy (you may use Jitan's gate untill then , if necessary, or trade your switch gear for Pax Mystica -HC tip ) .

3. a hybrid mix of totems , the malice tree/oskills and summons (shadows ) , where the totems remain as 1-pointers in end game while you focus on spell damage to boost your other main spells and minion life for more durable meatshield

For all those hybrids , the shadows are a "must have" because they provide a great boost to your damage . The only sad part about having a large army is having to raise it back whenever it dies , and that slows you down -it's the downside of all summoners - but iirc this was going to be fixed in sigma .

When going Hardcore with a totemancer i subscribe at picking Death ward instead of Jinns as you gain more chances to stay alive (you can gain more than enough -enemy resists from gear ). Also , a lightning arena amulet for extra crowd control . It's all about increasing your chances of stayin' alive

@Vizjun it can be done with this setup too, all you need is very high movement speed and fast fingers . The cheapest way to do it (no matter the build) is to wear at least 1
Ring of Disengagement
Ring of Disengagement
Ring

Required Level: 1
Item Level: 1
1% Chance to cast level 8 Celerity on Kill
+(6 to 10) to Strength
+(6 to 10) to Dexterity
+5 Maximum Stamina
and kill stuff at the entrance untill you may burst away with celerity and then run straight to MCS (this also requires knowing the map and the position of the MCS . you may add the map or a picture for this to help beginners) . one proc lasts enough to get there and purify the MCS , take the charm then save&exit .

@Laz can also be done with any setup if you get a source of constant high movement speed (wolf stance/wild and free ->those 2 are the more expensive options for also doing Vizjun). you just need to keep running and dodge stuff , and only stop to purify .


if tl;dr -> it's a good guide for beginners to look at . Congrats
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Marco
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Jaedong wrote:god i hate fucking deathlord on totemancer, half minion life for more def? sounds really bad trade to me


need to read skill descs more carefully. deathlord doesn't halve minion's HP, it halves your %minion hp stat, which is a huge difference. if you have 0% minion hp, deathlord penalty has no impact.
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Crash
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I'll have to test out vizjun to see if it's doable. Otherwise, I know it's very easily done with melee necro.

Embalming really doesn't affect totems? And why would totems like Fireheart and Frostclaw benefit from +%Minion Damage..? They don't deal physical output.

Thanks for the input too. Few people cookie'd you, so it's nice for other people to read as they skim through comments and the guide. Much appreciated.
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ChuckNoRis
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no , embalming does not boost the totem's HP , just your HP and your "moving" summons . zero points into embalming / with points into embalming

the totems benefit from %minion damage the same way that you gain more damage for let's say rampagors poison attacks . the %minion damage bosts all their types of damage , not just the physical . equip/unequip any item with %minion damage and look at how the numbers change , both for minions and totems .

writting the guide without having the game installed in order to make the tests has it's downsides :)
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Crash
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ChuckNoRis wrote:no , embalming does not boost the totem's HP , just your HP and your "moving" summons . zero points into embalming / with points into embalming

the totems benefit from %minion damage the same way that you gain more damage for let's say rampagors poison attacks . the %minion damage bosts all their types of damage , not just the physical . equip/unequip any item with %minion damage and look at how the numbers change , both for minions and totems .

writting the guide without having the game installed in order to make the tests has it's downsides :)


Memory writing is tricky for someone with bad memory :(

I think it won't change my guide much but they are certainly nice facts to point out. Thanks for that.
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Jaedong
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well its "only" 50% of hp stats, i have actually no necro alive to check but how much is the hp of f.e. shadows without item stats?
because most of the hp should come from minion stats, lets say u have 300% minion hp including embalming
which means minions have 400% hp, deathlord reducues it back to 250% total hp compared too 400% which is alot
so its actually not THAT BIG of a difference
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cowking
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Yeah but losing ability to cast is like -50% dps. Really bad trade in SC.

ChuckNoRis wrote:the totems benefit from %minion damage the same way that you gain more damage for let's say rampagors poison attacks . the %minion damage bosts all their types of damage , not just the physical . equip/unequip any item with %minion damage and look at how the numbers change , both for minions and totems .

writting the guide without having the game installed in order to make the tests has it's downsides :)


This is false.

Also iirc, rampagor poison damage doesn't go up with minion damage. Otherwise it would be far too easy to hit 1 mil damage or something silly like that.

:)
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Jaedong
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cowking wrote:Yeah but losing ability to cast is like -50% dps. Really bad trade in SC.

ChuckNoRis wrote:the totems benefit from %minion damage the same way that you gain more damage for let's say rampagors poison attacks . the %minion damage bosts all their types of damage , not just the physical . equip/unequip any item with %minion damage and look at how the numbers change , both for minions and totems .

writting the guide without having the game installed in order to make the tests has it's downsides :)


This is false.

Also iirc, rampagor poison damage doesn't go up with minion damage. Otherwise it would be far too easy to hit 1 mil damage or something silly like that.

:)


both as cowking says, it doesnt
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Seekers
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Rampagor Poison Damage isn't affected by +%Minion Damage, here are screens (1 minion dmg MO)
Before:
Image
After:
Image

+%Poison Spell Damage also does not affect rampagor damage, will test with Clvl but for now only factor seems to be Slvl.

Totems are NOT affected by embalming or +%minion life; however tests with MOs show that totems are also not affected by +%minion damage (This might be display bug?): Same as before (1 Minion dmg MO)
Before:
Image
After:
Image

Again, these might be display errors, but alas, no way to test that.
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Jaedong
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how is that a bug?
if they are not affected by minions life, why should they be affected by minions dmg?
they are no minions