Ancestral Bond

This keystone no longer benefits its user. I agree that totems needed a nerf and I also agree that the move to "no damage spells with 2 totems" was a good one. Unfortunately the negative synergy is too much IMO.

With one totem you do an effective 142% dps (simplifying massively)

With two totems you do 84% dps

As much as totems bring in the way of extra health and casting support, the dps nerf is too much. I think we need to lose the casting speed nerf when choosing this keystone.

This would give an effective damage of 120% dps

Less than with only one totem but with the benefits of two totems. Don't get me wrong, having two totems is very strong, I can curse and summon with much more freedom, but damage is king and a drop of 142 to 84 is way too much for a keystone that is so far off the beaten track for most classes. At the moment the keystone is a bad choice.

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That is, assuming you do literally nothing when you have two totems out.
By dumping the whole "dealing damage" aspect of combat on totems, you get more time to cast debuffs... Which can massively improve damage output. Additionally, you can still deal damage with Traps and Mines.

As I said "casting support." Whilst it is helpful having two, the truth is you can curse and lay traps anyway, it's just a bit easier with 2 totems. Worth a massive damage nerf.. a bigger nerf than anything else I have seen in the game?

And so much less damage than using 1 totem with curses while spamming a buffed ice spear/spark.

so is it working as intended for poison arrows cloud to do damage, i would like to know before i try and spec into it that way

I'm playing an AB marauder, mainly using Shockwave Totem for damage but also using Flame Totem, Bear Trap, and Fireball mines situationally. I'm using Hatred and The Magnate unique belt to boost Shockwave Totem and Bear Trap damage.



I really enjoy this playstyle. It would have worked just as well before the passive was changed, but it wouldn't have been as fun without some kind of limitation. I think the basic idea of the keystone is fine and I hope GGG doesn't cave to players who aren't interested in trying new builds.

That said, I feel like AB is really watered down by Bear Trap and Fire Trap, which are effectively direct-damage spells. I just said as much in the Bear Trap thread. Remote Mines are as direct as it should get with AB.

Finally, it would be nice if skills like Dominating Blow that work by placing a debuff on an enemy just before it dies were given a boost to make them a little more reliable when used with AB. Skill/debuff duration bonuses should affect these debuffs (assuming they don't already) and the base duration of the debuff should scale with the speed of the skill that placed the debuff.

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Vipermagi wrote:

But it's not a flat-out damage nerf.

If you have one Totem and lay Traps and all that, you will deal less damage than with two Totems and Traps. Period.

In a theoretical future where there are significant Trap nodes on the tree, there would be a massive point sink (and therefore forfeited potential) at least since these two stats are on separate sides of the tree.

I'm Currently playing a Templar based on elemental hit, ranged totem, ancestral bond, quill rain (3.11 attack speed), Elemental Equilibrium and weapon Elemental damage. That should give me massive damage against single monster and be alright against multiple opponent (using chain as needed) but I'm not even dealing 1/3 the damage dealt by my friend's character who just took Elemental equilibrium some spell damage node and ONE totem spamming spark (with GMP and fork like I suggested him). Plus he's doing AoE damage.

Ancestral bond (or totem) should get a serious boost

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Erikulum wrote:

ranged totem

There's your problem. It's Ranged Attack Totem that's terrible, not AB.