Spell Totems and hit effects, etc?

Do I gain benefits from my spell totems doing certain things?

Such as... If a totem crits, will I gain Elemental Overload?

Or, even, 1) is laying the totem considered casting a respective elemental spell for purposes of the Elementalist skill Mastermind of Discord, or 2) even better, is it considered me casting a spell each time my totem does that spell?

Oh, also another question...

If I give it Faster Casting support, does that increase the totem cast itself, the rate at which the totem uses the spell, or both?

No, if it says 'when you' or 'if you' then it generally won't work on totems or traps. I say generally because there are a few outdated descriptions like the Equilibrium one that do not use 'you' in the strict sense, though.

You don't cast a totem, you place it so cast speed will only affect the spell.

Hmm? Well that's strange. Decoy Totem has a faster cast time when I place Faster Casting into it.

Either way, ugh, this totally makes me have to rethink the build I wanted to try.

I wanna do Scorching Ray + Flame Surge (was debating Incinerate, I suppose it's still in the air). I originally wanted to cast the Ray myself and put Surge on a totem, but the totem cannot grant me Elemental Overload. So that makes me need to put Ray on the totem, and manually cast the Surges. Which is fine & all, but... well, that means my primary spell can crit. Which means, perhaps I shouldn't go Overload at all. Maybe I need to go crit. I kind of feel like Overload is bad, because going crit is always going to be more DPS. Do you think that's an accurate assessment? Or, at the very least, in the case of my build that I'm trying to do?

Well, you got a bit of a problem there, crit is always more damage if you can invest in it properly but only one of your spells can crit which means it isn't worthwhile and EO would be better.

So, you got three options, cast when channel, selfcast surge + totem ray and the third one is selfcast ray + totem surge with an external generator like orb of storms. Cast when channel would probably be the least hassle and most effective overall because you lose the least time on doing other things even though your damage will be lower.

Oh, I forgot about Cast While Channel.

Does it cast only every time my channel "ticks," or would it cast as frequent as its own cast time allows? (Basically, I'm asking if packing a Spell Echo would effect the non-channel's frequency.)

Hmm...

Additionally, I'm going pure Life. Do you think I should get a 6S staff to 6-link whichever Totem I decide on? Or is that still not worth it compared to MH + OH?

Bahhhh, I really didn't wanna end up gearing for crit. Lol, I did consider an awkward thing like Orb of Storms to generate EO for my self-casted Ray, but... well, it's actually not even too bad of a thought, since casting it would trigger the fire resist penetration from Mastermind of Discord... Hmmmmm......

But yeah. My main is an Assassin, and I invest very little and get rewarded with 95% crit chance, lul. So, going over and playing an Ele (though I didn't ascend yet), I feel awkward building crit but probably having to settle for 50-70% chance. Mostly, I didn't want to have to use a Critical Strike Chance support gem, and scatter all over the skill tree for Crit Mult nodes. Ugh... I dunno.

I have a lot to consider though, lol.

Totems use your offensive stats, which is why your passive nodes and support gems affect them. However, any charges or other procs generated by the totem's hits go to the totem, not you. Totems can only have endurance charges (their max frenzy and power charges are zero), and I guess proc effects on your tree or gear do not benefit the totem either.

Cast while channeling triggers at set intervals as long as you channel. It's totally disconnected from the channeled skill's ticks. I don't think cast speed or echo affects it either.