Hierophants reworked Nerf or Buff?

Totem placement is 90% of the strategy for hard fights. That alone makes it a nerf in those situations. For QOL farming, probably a buff.

We'll see soon.

you can see it as both epending on your build actually

for example
a hybrid totem corpse generation/selfcast corpse detonation
will possibly get a buff
so will nova totems or others with small overlapping aoe
might still not be the strongest i know that myself


now


the builds that really suffer are highly specialized multi-totem-only-casters
but i guess even they can adapt
dont know how it works with the melee totems

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Lykkoith wrote:

The new gem multiplier wasn't considered in the damage calculations... because nodoby changed the setup of the damage totems! If you see a new support gem and you automatically think that it's for your dps totems, then the problem is not that the changes nerf the build, the problem is that you don't know how to optimize your build. If you take bad decisions, you'll get bad results, plain and simple.

- If you have 5 totems and add that support, you'll have 7. That's a 40% more.
- Simply the support that you have to take out from the setup to make room for Multiple Totems, probably gives you more than that 40%
- If not, the own multiplier from Multiple Totems will end the job.

So why in the hell would you put that gem into your main setup? It's common sense. Let me explain with colours (Sesame-Street incoming):
A. You get a passive that adds you more damage the more totems you get. It counts all your totems and affects all your totems, main ones or support ones
B. You have a gem that allows you to have more totems, but greatly lowers the damage of the supported totems only

Used wisely, you're dropping the damage from your support totems (if they do any damage, in the first place), what is negligible if it even exists. And in exchange, you're raising the damage of your true dps sources! Even if your support totems deal damage too, they'll get a (surely) 30% less from MultipleTotems at lv20, and then regain 21-27% more from the new passive (depending on how wisely you play). Losing a 3-9% damage on supports to gain 21-27% on main totems... it doesn't look like a nerf to me.

And on top of this:

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arknath wrote:

-Survivability: Far higher since you place the totems faster(3 clicks instead of 5) and can move. You also end up with 1 more total totem than before the patch for extra regen/mana regen and if you choose to go for decoy totems for support you take way way less damage. Yes, even from end game bosses since the 10% damage reduction still applies even if they don't feel obliged to hit the decoys)

-Clear speed: Higher for those that couldn't oneshot all mobs with 1 totem before. Now it is 1 click move on even for them.

Understand it or don't do it, but if you aren't capable of at least maintain your dps with these changes, then you shouldn't play totems at all.

I like how you're getting insulting with this just to defend these changes.

It's clear there is POTENTIAL to increase damage, at the cost of slotting multiple +2 supports.

It's also clear that you're underplaying the loss of a totem that would normally be achieved after the second lab, which has a drastic impact on ease of leveling said setup.

It's not a buff to remove a max totem and replace it with a minor multiplier per totem.

It IS a buff to have the option of increasing max totems besides ancestral bond....

Also, you have to be cautious about trusting PoB. PoB can only be as accurate as the person inputting the information.

But here's the thing, you're taking say a 6 link totem setup that would use other slots for cwdt-immortal call-increased duration-etc and travel power with a faster casting/faster attacks etc and having to throw totem supports but you're already burned out on sockets.

Give up the ic, you increase risk of death but increase damage.
No way to give up the travel unless you put it in on the swap but that's really inconvenient.

If access to the craft is relatively easy, then sure it becomes a non-issue. But I'm guessing it won't be that simple.

Now that patch notes are out, it is more or less confirmed that the balance blurb said it all.

I think most of you are missing the point.

It is a clear ascendancy nerf to toteming.

Part of it is to force brand use (a totem is being sacrificed to make brands sell better).
Yes, you ARE supposed to read that nerf as big hint to take the new brand thing (+1 brands).

Secondly, and even more people are missing this, Scion beginning to looking like the better totem character now.

What does the Hiero offer? +1 totem.
The new "drop 2 at once" is to be avoided like the plague and has lost the life and mana regen bonus.

What does the Scion-Hiero offer? +1 totem.
And some side choices that suddenly look a lot better than the Templar-Hiero offering, depending on how potent-in-practice that brands turn out to be. Which is where this will really be decided. Scion acendancy vs +1 brand.

Why drop2 is a horrible thing is blatantly clear to anyone who mains totems. Plus there are some totems that you would never want to doubledrop next to each other, e.g. searing bond, even if we could ignore that it is a monumentaly bad idea to make them easy targets like that.

+1 totem. That is it, that is all you are getting from either "totem ascendancy". The rest is gear and nodes (and gem that is horrible for main totem), but none of that is Hiero-exclusive whether templar or scion.

And with more +totem sources, it bears some considering whether you should just play witch/elementalist... you'd only be 1 totem behind but get some useful compensation.

Again, depends on how brands turn out, just see some interesting stuff a elementalist could do with the spiritual aid node, +1-2 golems and a bunch of damage/penetration vs +1totem and +1 brand.

I see some have been throwing in 'ancestal bond' as well, when trying to downplay the severity.
To which i say 'brands'. You won't be doing damage with brands when you take ancestral bond. Rendering the new brand notable for the templar-hiero useless if you take it.

Templar-Hierophant toteming has been hit hard. This can not be denied.
How well you/we can adapt, comes down how good brands will be in practice.
But Toteming as it was... well, it isn't, not any more. Less totems also means less bang for your points spent totem nodes. This is not a happy situation. Having to gear around it comes with its own opportunity costs.

Bottom line, true Totemplar'ing is nerfed to make room for brands.
It could have been done differently. Brands could have been an alternative, but no, totems had to suffer funnel people into it using them out of sheer desperation.

It might be a good combo, we don't really know yet, but it makes me sad.
Sad for the loss of totems, sad for it not being a choice.

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SeCKSEgai wrote:

It's also clear that you're underplaying the loss of a totem that would normally be achieved after the second lab, which has a drastic impact on ease of leveling said setup.

Assuming storyline enemies stop dying from a light fart in their general direction. And I'm talking really light, it's no greasy thanksgiving fart that busts the seams off a sturdy pair of jeans, something more in the vein of eating a bit too much broccoli flavored cotton candy.

Objectively speaking there's not even 1 insult on my previous post. Maybe someone is getting offended because others don't think like him? Or is it the classical strategy of "I have no reason, so I'm going to attack the person instead"?

Since your first statement on the post is a lie, I see no reason to keep reading, but I did. Sorry if I misunderstood something, because actually I overlooked more than reading. What made me laugh again is the fact that you still think that you need many +2 supports to be effective. Obviously you read what you want, so do I.

Marking your own words, PoB is only as accurate as the one using it. If you really think that you need that, you're not accurate at all.

But once again, I'll not win nor lose anything! I will enjoy my smoothly buffed totemancer for next league, if yours isn't buffed... deal with it. It's your fault anyway, so... xDD

It's a nerf until you're able to get that +1 totem item, which who knows how long into mapping that will take. Whoever RNGs into the +1 totem veiled mod will be able to print money early league.

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Lykkoith wrote:

Objectively speaking there's not even 1 insult on my previous post. Maybe someone is getting offended because others don't think like him? Or is it the classical strategy of "I have no reason, so I'm going to attack the person instead"?

There's no reason to attack someone over misinterpretation. If anyone has gotten more aggressive with their posts it isn't me.

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Lykkoith wrote:

Since your first statement on the post is a lie, I see no reason to keep reading, but I did. Sorry if I misunderstood something, because actually I overlooked more than reading. What made me laugh again is the fact that you still think that you need many +2 supports to be effective. Obviously you read what you want, so do I.

Basically this is you saying that you're the good guy and I'm the bad guy but even though I'm the "bad guy" you still read my post... except really didn't.

Kinda silly.

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Lykkoith wrote:

Marking your own words, PoB is only as accurate as the one using it. If you really think that you need that, you're not accurate at all.

User error - Pepcak.
PoB still relies on the user to have an advanced understanding and one can inadvertently skew their own numbers by activating buffs/debuffs or implementing numbers that aren't correct. It also doesn't help that its a brand new patch so their could be errors in PoB's calculations.

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Lykkoith wrote:

But once again, I'll not win nor lose anything! I will enjoy my smoothly buffed totemancer for next league, if yours isn't buffed... deal with it. It's your fault anyway, so... xDD

Frankly I think you'll end up disappointed, but it also depends on the content you run. If you're running low/mid maps, you don't need great numbers. If you're talking shaper guardians and beyond, then the numbers start to really matter.

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raics wrote:

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SeCKSEgai wrote:

It's also clear that you're underplaying the loss of a totem that would normally be achieved after the second lab, which has a drastic impact on ease of leveling said setup.

Assuming storyline enemies stop dying from a light fart in their general direction. And I'm talking really light, it's no greasy thanksgiving fart that busts the seams off a sturdy pair of jeans, something more in the vein of eating a bit too much broccoli flavored cotton candy.

It's not about wave-clearing, its about boss fights with mediocre gear, fewer links etc when you don't have the luxury of a plethora of jewellers and fusings.

You're all flying right past the subtle mega-nerf, to be around the same dps we're forced to use a shield thus we will get the hidden 3% REDUCED MOVEMENT SPEED!!!

But in all seriousness I play HC and I'm gonna be sorely missing that 5% hp regen and 2.5% mana regen (edit: Not mentioned in changes but they are keeping this, saw in PoB, thank god)