Decoy Totem builds.

I had believed my current setup to be the best I could offer:

Decoy Totem 20% -> Minion and Totem Elemental Resistances 20% -> Enhance -> Faster Casting

But I totally overlooked Empower! I'm just not sure what I would want to take out.

Naturally, Faster Casting is the only thing that doesn't actually add to the totem's survival, so you might think that. However, the totem actually has a sizable cast time, and it also takes a second before it taunts anything. So if you're in the middle of a battle, you can easily end up taking some unwanted damage because you're "stuck" casting Decoy Totem. I've found Faster Casting lets you get out an evasive skill real quick so that you can remain untouched while the totem gets the taunt out.

However, I also believe that perhaps the single biggest contributor of totem HP is the actual level of the gem. So perhaps, at minimum, Enhance should be swapped for Empower, if it is an accurate assessment that +2 skill levels would be more life increase than +16% quality. But since I can't find any solid info on the matter, I actually cannot know for sure one way or the other.

And at that point, if we assume we swap Enhance for Empower... What becomes better? Enhance, or the "utility" of Faster Casting?

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Thoughts?

Empower does the same thing as enhance: increase Decoy Totem's life. So, if you need both health-boosts for your totem to live as long as you want it to, use Empower. Else, use Faster Casting.

Yes, I know they both do the same thing, but I highly doubt they do it at the same level.

And even still, I'm asking what people's thoughts are on using 1 gem slot on Faster Casting anyway, giving up some amount of life boost. Ie, can Decoy Totem last a decent bit against the strongest of bosses while not having one of these survival gems.

:/

I don't think you read the thread, no offense.