Ancestral Bond

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FcknGroovin wrote:

I would like to make a suggestion.

The Ancestral Bond debuff effect that "you cannot do damage yourself" ONLY applies WHEN you have 2 totems active at the same time. This allows a character the diversity to attack, cast spells IF they choose too when only a single totem is active, and if they bring up a second then they get the debuff. It preserves diversity as well as keeping the dual totem debuff in effect.

Agree.

But then skilling Ancestral Bond is useless because you don't get any benefit. Why skilling dual totem when you play with one only to deal dmg. Every Key node preserves a benefit without ancestral bond.

I cant get a single mob down when he regenerates or something else because the totems dont deal enough damage. They even can't freeze rage mobs.

And @ the point with curses... For me it feels like 1/3 of all rare mobs in merciless cannot be cursed. So the curses dont help to increase you dmg output in this cases.

Playin a dual totem char isn't real fun @ the moment and the keynode is pretty useless now when u don't use a horde of these freakin minions.

Honestly I feel like having AB should let you place 3 totems instead of 2.

Reason:

IF I deal 100 damage with a skill, and put it on a totem, then the totem will deal 40% less damage. So you can now deal 100 yourself and 60 via totem.

if you drop 2 totems and have AB your damage goes down to 60X2= 120. you deal less damage overall than casting yourself!

And you can run around like a pansy while your totems cast away.

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sweetaction wrote:

Honestly I feel like having AB should let you place 3 totems instead of 2.

Reason:

IF I deal 100 damage with a skill, and put it on a totem, then the totem will deal 40% less damage. So you can now deal 100 yourself and 60 via totem.

if you drop 2 totems and have AB your damage goes down to 60X2= 120. you deal less damage overall than casting yourself!

This isn't really all that accurate... the math is perfectly correct, but to have one totem, plus casting it yourself you'd have to use a lot of gems. (whole different sets; one with spell totem, one without) This may not seem like an issue if your just doing 3L, but when 5/6L come into issue this is a separate issue.



To many of those who think there is something wrong with Ancestral Bond and it needs to be changed... respectfully it sounds like your quite wrong - your upset that the skill doesn't work how you think it should, not for what it can do.

When I use two spark totems it's true that I do 120% dmg of what I would casting spark myself. (Less actually, b/c I'd have another linkage not spent on my spark). However AB lets me

A) Place them and then debuff (double curse) I could do this otherwise, it's much easier with AB.
B) Makes me far less likely to be targeted. With Spark, delivering myself at higher level would be very dangerous, letting me avoiding being target'ed is of incalculable value. 2 totems makes many bosses trivial. it's very easy to throw another totem out when one drops and the boss just keeps turning from totem to totem.
C) 2 totems casting = far more sparks than stronger sparks from just me. This means it's far simpler to shock stack.
D) I can push content by placing totems around packs, behind a pack bottleneck-ing a doorway, etc. The strategy is really endless.

TLDR: AB works fantastic but like many keystones taking it before you are prepared to has detrimental effects. Built to and used correctly, it is very powerful and defines your build and strategy on several levels, not just casting the totem twice.

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sweetaction wrote:

Honestly I feel like having AB should let you place 3 totems instead of 2.

Reason:

IF I deal 100 damage with a skill, and put it on a totem, then the totem will deal 40% less damage. So you can now deal 100 yourself and 60 via totem.

if you drop 2 totems and have AB your damage goes down to 60X2= 120. you deal less damage overall than casting yourself!

Thats true and it's something we all need to weigh up before taking a passive node like AB.

If you have the mana to support self casting and don't need the additional defense that a 2nd totem provides then it's quite viable to forego something like AB.

Personally I prefer the AB node to 1 totem and self casting because I enjoy the play style of dual totems. Also means that total mana and mana regen are less of an issue allowing more flexibility in getting other mods on my gear, (like IIQ and IIR).

By the way, does "directing" Zombies via a spell still work if you have ancestral bond up, or is that reliant on actually dealing damage?

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Cronos988 wrote:

By the way, does "directing" Zombies via a spell still work if you have ancestral bond up, or is that reliant on actually dealing damage?

You summon zombies, they attack and do damage. So you can use the summoning skills with AB.