i honestly really miss melee totems

just to start, while i totally understand and completely agree that they needed a change because dealing with the melee buffs from them where too unsustainable game health wise. i really wish they didn't take the nuclear option. i'm someone who used to play pretty much only ancestral warchief for the better part of 6 years. so it was really gutteral to see the one ascendancy that supported said playstyle be gutted in a "rework" and the archtype left to rot, only then for it to be taken out the back and shot in the head.

i completely understand why it was done, and on one hand i kinda agree. but when the alternative solution was quite litterally changing a single line in the skill text from

"(8-18)% more Melee Damage while Totem is Active"
to
"(8-18)% more Melee Totem Damage while Totem is Active"
and likewise to the protector. it just makes me feel very bitter overall at the change. especially when the compensation is a shitty pair of unique boots that only allows up to a 5link??? just feels like salt in the wound.

its been long enough that im no longer upset or mad. im just sad, i miss my go to league starter existing. even if it was nerfed and wasnt as good as it used to be (it was quite good, before making actually good optimizations, i was still running a astramentis and hitting 30million shaperdps with like 7.5k life). atleast i would still have it around as a extremely cheap starter. but i suppose things come and go in a game like this, either via viability or in this case being outright possible.

i suppose this is just a longwinded post of me missing the golden days.
"hopefully one day melee totems will be back" i say while huffing my copium

wonder if anyone else feels the same, though i know alot of fellow totem players outright quit once the chieftan changes went live. so im guessing not alot, as the general sentiment was hoping that totems got outright removed.

i dont know how to close shit, so thanks for reading what is basically a longwinded rant

You can still have all the ballista killer totems you want though, so yeah typical crap, however, with balance pass in 3.25 and the large amount of damage scaling added to most melee gems, the totems aren't really necessary.

They were fun though

I miss them too. They were great for some builds to level with. I wish they’d come back.

I didn't like melee totems because it forces you to use up links on your gear to keep up optimal damage whilst playing "melee". Melee totems could be fine if thery're gatekept behind Ancentral bond or something. I don't want to play duelist for example and be forced to use melee totems because of damage FOMO.

I wish they'd come back as a stand alone skill rather than a mechanic to buff your melee damage. They were a neat idea in concept.

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Sabranic_SilverDeth#2793 wrote:

I wish they'd come back as a stand alone skill rather than a mechanic to buff your melee damage. They were a neat idea in concept.

+1

I miss my Warchief totem builds (unarmed, only damage was done by the totems) RIP :(

Yeah, funny to say that now, because I did not find them particularly fun to use, but I think they were serving a purpose, and now there seems to be a bit of a gap, with spell, defensive and projectile totems available, but not melee.

I think they were good in the levelling process for melee in the first few act's as well.

There certainly was problems and they needed to be changed, but perhaps there was/is a way to rework them so the clunkyiness and mandator process of setting them up before attacking isn't so much of a chore.

Maybe if there was a way to have them not providing all the buffs to your main skill, but still available to do proxy damage based off your weapon. So if you are attacking without them up, your damage isn't gimped, but the still provide some flat benefit to your build and crowd control when you drop the totem to help.

It's also a bit strange that the big Karui warrior does not have a natural offensive totem option now while the characters to his left and right on the tree do.

well..

totems were replaced with Banners. GGG did not consider them as stand-alone entities, they did care about the buffs only. bit sad given you could make a very solid totem melee builds in the past - in fact, there are LOTS of hints in itemisation that support this - now extinct - playstyle. all the totem placement speed jewel rolls, Lethal Pride mods, even influence mods related to totems

Banners need a SERIOUS overhaul - it is completely unacceptable that the only way of playing with them is to setup Warcry Pump because natural Valour generation is non-functional. without this trick (Valour on Warcry + Autoexertion*2-3) you can complete an entire map and not have your banner charged


Earthsbreaker support boots are cool but they are non-viable to build around: forced Ancestral Bond + 4 link main skill is an inexcusable joke, even their low price and double-corrupt potential does not change that

so yeap, totems were fine - the buffs were not