Melee builds and ancestral totems

Currently the only way to make a balanced melee character do good enough damage to be somewhat comparable to the much better ranged options available is by making use of the really strong buffs ancestral totems provide.

While in a bubble their bonuses are amazing, the practicality of using them as a non-totem build does not reflect that. They will die to any kind of degen or elemental damage. And there is no reasonable way to get resistances. No alternative quality, no totem or melee mastery. Meat shield no longer works on totems and the 2 totem resistance nodes are in opposite sides of the tree but that still wouldn't make them survive chaos damage.

Now while this is all completely fine for totem builds since they both travel to totem nodes naturally and are constantly summoning totems anyway. It really hurts melee to have so much of your damage be unreliable and not really usable while moving.

Now I'd suggest either removing the totem buffs and giving some compensation back or creating an option to enable melee players to keep their totems alive, maybe a keystone that makes your totems do 0 damage and take 0 damage or a node cluster that increases ancestral buffs/melee damage and gives totem resistances. There are plenty of ways to achieve the goal, just wanted to give some options.

Yes its annoying. I dont like having to play Totems on pretty much every Melee or i miss out on the very strong buffs they provide.

On Top of the Part that they die it just doesnt feel right... it is not fitting for melee builds to be bound to totems to get the best damage output imo.

I would really like to see them just remove the Buff Part from Ancestral Totems and Buff every Skill that used them.

Yea its kinda weird. I feel like I am missing out on so much if I dont pop my ancestral totem down. But, its just so bad compared to other totems. It has limited range and just gets destroyed in higher content.

Unsure as I only used it for the start of the league. And this league start might be an unfair example with how crazy AN mobs were on day 1.

I was going to make a thread like this or probably have like 5 years ago but... yeah I 100% agree. I personally tried to invest into totem defensive nodes and they still struggle to survive. Only really useful on boss fights where you can toss them to the side and burn down the boss.

My suggestion would to add new totem support gems.


Totem Tanky Support

One should be generaly buff to the tankiness of the totem. This will allow them to survive even against very tough enemies or even mobs of enemies on the screen. I'm talking like a level 20 gem giving high levels of phys reduction and resists up to 90 even chaos damage. Whatever the numbers are, this support will make sure they survive.

Unique totem supports

The next supports could be a new type of totem support where you can only have 1 equipped.

One of these would offer your totem the ability to take incoming damage dealt to you and take it instead, similar to the 5% mastery buff it currently has but be like 5-15% at level 20.

Another support would allow your totem to activate 1 aura this can include things like blasphemy/curse auras. Very nice supportive totem that allows for some build flexibility. Gain more damage, a curse, defense.. it's got it all. Actually now that I'm typing this, maybe the first one isn't nearly as good as this one... lol. I'll leave it up as a suggestion anyway.

And maybe the last one is a more offensive style totem that causes it to deal more damage and heal you for some of the damage it causes. Either as a regen, leech, recovery, whatever.. can be a nice way to gain access to recovery.

New Keystone

Maybe add a new keystone where your max totem limit is 1 but the totem spawns on your character model and travels with you. Not the totem itself but the spirit that the totem spawns. May have to add sometype of less duration to it.


I honestly believe this would make melee feel so much better in the totem playstyle archetype. I'd love the keystone probably the most but the others are all needed to make this a more active playstyle. Which also helps going into PoE 2 to allow melee to make better use of more 6 link opportunities.

Yes. I mostly agree on all that has been said here. I am not even bringing up any buffs to melee as I want this to be focused on totems being so much of our damage budget and feeling really bad to play with on a non-totem build.

+1

I tried removing totems from my build because of the time it took to cast them, but I have found my way back. It still isn't good but it is better than the alternative.

I would be good with a totem that could be auto-cast but allowed for no totem damage. Some mirror to Ancestral Bond.

yeah 100%


imo they need to remove these totems giving buffs to players melee skills and just buff melee skills in general both to compensate and because melee is still seen as garbage.


why am i using totems on every melee build? it feels so silly, its kind of ruined how it feels to be melee cause you got this weird thing of also being a totem build on literally every melee char. its just odd, them not just doing their own damage but giving you a damage buff? nah, that needs to go, its such a bad thing for the melee playstyle. forget making them more tanky or trying to find a way to make it work and make it easier to use, that you have to use them on every melee build is an abomination that should not be in the game.

i shouldnt have totems or golems or any other weird little gimmick that has no real place in a melee build on my melee builds because for some reason they buff MY damage. just no.


those things should only do their own damage, and that should only be significant if they are fully supported with gems and invested into passively.

Add a support gem which allows you to carry your totems on your back like a banner.
Must be a chad character to use this skill gem.

It's been complained about countless times and judging by Chris last talk during the 3.20 release they are looking for ways to fix this. Soo, better be prepared for melee nerfs incoming because you can bet your ass that they will remove the buffs without proper compensation after they are done thinking how to fix it.