Ancestral Totems Dead? How do we think they'll implement the change?

Nerf of strength stacking, Battlemage's Cry, and Redblade Banner. Warcries buffed (teasers show you can get a ton of exerts.) Totems no longer give their old buffs. All melee skills rebalanced with 30% more attack speed and 30% more damage baked in on average - less for the better skills.

They have 30k words to work with in the patch notes so let's hope it's good.
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DiabloImmoral wrote:

They have 30k words to work with in the patch notes so let's hope it's good.


1k of changes and 29k of how they don't apply to ruthless on each skill
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Phrazz wrote:
Sadly, this is the kind of decisions GGG often gets wrong.

Ancestral Warchief and Protector gave you a combined buff of 20% MORE Attack Speed and 18% MORE damage, even more with the Vaal version. With Clustrel Jewel buffs and Panopticon, we're talking around 50% MORE damage and attack speed. That is in practice double the damage of any melee build. It goes without saying that all melee users felt forced to use them.

Now, will GGG give melee a 100% MORE damage buff? Of course not. I sadly suspect they won't be buffing melee at all, other than a few buffed notables on the tree, giving you a bandaid "increased damage" buff here and there. But it's pretty clear that they WILL remove the totems, or at least the buffs.

What should they do? Well, they shouldn't give melee a 100% MORE damage buff, that would be too much. But a 20-30% MORE damage multiplier across th eboard would be fair in my eyes. But one of the best actors in history said it best in one of the greates movies of all time: "This is just a shitty pipe dream".. They will sadly fuck this one up. And if not? Well, color me surprised.


I dunno, Phrazz. An average of 75% MOAR damage baked into the gems themselves and massive reworks to tons of melee-centric mechanics seems like it might actually make up for the loss of totems. Heh. Heck, get enough +Gem level on a melee skill and you very well might reach that 100% MOAR mark.

Even if I honestly miss the idea of melee totem builds in themselves, where you actually use the Ancestral Totem as a primary damage focus. Not as much as I'll miss my dearly departed Raider, but eh. Such is the price of progress I suppose. Heh.
Ancestral totems haven't died. They have returned as temporary banners that don't die and the passive tree conveniently gave you multiple new wheels to imply that this banner progression is now mandatory for endgame melee damage.

Can we have bow builds jump through multiple temp buff and convoluted mechanic hoops to do competitive endgame damage? I don't think they would like it.
Last edited by mnieradko on Jul 18, 2024, 5:53:26 PM
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1453R wrote:
I dunno, Phrazz. An average of 75% MOAR damage...


Yeah, this is crazy. I'm almost drooling. Being wrong tastes good.
Sometimes, just sometimes, you should really consider adapting to the world, instead of demanding that the world adapts to you.
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mnieradko wrote:
Ancestral totems haven't died. They have returned as temporary banners that don't die and the passive tree conveniently gave you multiple new wheels to imply that this banner progression is now mandatory for endgame melee damage.


Oh for frag's frickin' sake, if this isn't proof that it's actually factually impossible to make TRU MELEE people happy I don't know what is.

It's simply not okay for ANY other skill to work with melee AT ALL, because then they become "mandatory" and thus absolutely awful. Heavens forbid you actually use your sockets for things that make your build better. Warcries are "mandatory" and thus the worst thing ever. Banners are "mandatory" and thus the worst thing ever. Doing anything whatsoever except clicking one single button one time to hit one enemy with a weapon is Simply Not Cool.

Absolutely dumb. There is no reason that supporting/augmenting skills can't exist, and their existence doesn't make them 'Mandatory'. Melee's damage just more-or-less doubled by default and the new endgame bases and quality system makes defenses easier to acquire than ever.

What the actual hell does Grinding Gear need to do for TRU MELEE people to finally admit that melee is bloody fine?
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1453R wrote:
Warcries are "mandatory" and thus the worst thing ever. Banners are "mandatory" and thus the worst thing ever. Doing anything whatsoever except clicking one single button one time to hit one enemy with a weapon is Simply Not Cool.


Have to second this.

Just the massive buff to melee skills alone, should make the "mandatory" word disappear. The buff has made warcries and banners LESS mandatory, but they are there as an investment option if you CHOOSE to implement them into your builds, ENCOURAGING an active playstyle.

What made the totem buffs so out of place, was the fact that they died by one hit, and for them to really be a buff over time, you had to re-summon them all the time and micromanage their placement. Warcries don't die. Banners don't die. And both of them are 4275 more interesting than a couple of stupid, squishy totems.

The immense offensive and defensive tools that melee has received - inherently - should alone make the archetype(s) A LOT more viable. It has been needed for years and is finally here.
Sometimes, just sometimes, you should really consider adapting to the world, instead of demanding that the world adapts to you.
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1453R wrote:


Oh for frag's frickin' sake, if this isn't proof that it's actually factually impossible to make TRU MELEE people happy I don't know what is.



The head dev implies they don't want convoluted temp buff gameplay so they remove a system doing that and replace it with another and then put in passive wheels to emphasize that these things are "mandatory".

Calm down bro. I look forward to spamming my banners while I keep taking dirt naps from offscreen damage since the defensive changes for "TRU MELEE" are a joke this patch.

We can laugh together as the same "TRU MELEE" builds die repeatedly from the same unavoidable things in endgame as they do now.
Last edited by mnieradko on Jul 18, 2024, 6:41:09 PM
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mnieradko wrote:
The head dev implies they don't want convoluted temp buff gameplay so they remove a system doing that and replace it with another and then put in passive wheels to emphasize that these things are "mandatory".


Are you aware how many passive wheels there are on the passive tree? Do you feel that Stance Skills are mandatory? They have wheels. How often do you spec into those? What about Warcry wheels? 'Most' non-slam builds aren't really taking a lot of those wheels wither, and often stick to one warcry of choice. There are also a few mana wheels in the south part of the tree, how often do you take those?

Options are good. We'll just have to wait and see how "mandatory" Warcries and Banners are. I didn't feel they were mandatory before on a lot of builds.
Sometimes, just sometimes, you should really consider adapting to the world, instead of demanding that the world adapts to you.
Well, I guess I was dead wrong on this one.

I do feel like banners are just replacing totems, but I don't think either are, were, or will be, mandatory.

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