A noobs questions about totems :)

Hi,

I just started a dual totem templar, lvl 27 so far, and I have some questions about totems. I'm quite a noob at this game, so I need some help to understand this build. :)

1) I see, the spell totem will cast any spell I link with it, but does the totem itself gain bonuses from my health, casting speed, spell damage, and elemental damage ? Will it have more healh (maybe energy shield as well), cast faster, and do more damage ? Does it matter if I link a lesser multiple projectile (or maybe chain) support gem to it ? Will it fire 3 fireballs / arcs / whatever instead of 1 ?

2) What's the difference between elemental damage and spell damage ? If I cast a lightning spell, is 5% spell damage bonus and 5% elemental damage bonus the same exact thing ? I mean, it's a spell, and lightning is elemental. So do spell damage bonus and elemental damage bonus both increase my totem's damage ?

3) I'm using wands so far, but I've seen templar maces with +x% elemental damage on them. Are those any good for this build, or should i stick with wands ? I mean, is 20% elemental damage bonus on a templar mace better than 15% spell damage bonus on a wand ? What's the difference ?

4) Does armor worth anything for a totem templar ? I Kinda like energy shield better, because it refills itself. Should I use witch items with only energy shield on them, or is it a bad idea, and a quick way of suicide ?

5) Does the physical damage on my wand (or mace) effect the damage of my spells (or totems) ? I mean, if I have a wand with greater spell damage bonus, but way less base damage, should I stick with that one, or choose the one with higher base damage, but lower spell damage bonus ?

By the way, this is my build I am going to use, I guess you're familiar with this one already. :) Kinda just the first one I found on Google.

1. Your totem casts the spell basically with your stats so everything that would affect the spell when you cast it also affects the spell when it is used by the totem. Examples would be Cast Speed, Critical Strike chance, spell damage and so on.
The totem however doers not profit from stats that directly affect you like health, armor or energy shield.
Support gems affect the spell used by the totem in the exact same way as they would without the totem.

2.Elemental Damage affects all sources of elemental damage also attacks which deal elemental damage spell damage - obviously - only affects the damage dealt by spells.
In many cases like spark, arc, fireball and so on it's the same thing.

3. These aren't maces these are scepters which are really good for totem builds if your DPS is better with the wand however you are free to use it.

4. It's pretty much up to you many people like to roll armor/es hybrid equipment but others including myself prefer a pure ES build which is perfectly fine.

5. No, the physical damage of the wand doesn't affect the totem in any way. Only it's mods affect the totem.


The build you've posted isn't really good I'm to lazy to go into detail right now but you will find much better ones here on the forum.

Thanks a lot, that was awesome. :)

Just one more : How does the game calculate my dps on the character sheet ? Does it mean my auto-attack dps, or does it calculate spell damage and casting speed bonuses as well ? I mean, does a higher character sheet dps mean higher spell damage, or are those two things separated ? Does my weapon damage afect my spell damage at all ?

Simply press C and then select the skill you want to have the DPS values shown for the game takes every possible stat affecting the certain skill into consideration when it coems to calulating your DPS.

But well for totems it's a bit messed up especially for spark totems so don't trust the DPS value too much ;)