It's time to face the fact that Totems are a failed mechanic.

Dominus: Prepare to meet your doom exile!
*casts totems*
Dominus: Prepare to meet your doom totems!

Rather than a direct nerf, Ancestral Bond should cause players to share status aliments with their totems. Shock, chill, freeze, ignite, bleed, etc.

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Basically everything you EVER propose, is something that would make me hate the game.

1. That's the honest truth. I loathe almost every change he makes. I am allowed to express that as well.

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The number of players that would quit playing if GGG listened to you is extraordinary.

Also completely true. The flip side is there may be some players who quit if GGG doesn't listen to him.

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You've had several high level players state this already in this thread, and you guys just continue to ignore that fact.

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You cry and cry about them and shav's and MF, and never get that you can't do them all at once.

That's again, just stating a fact. I can go and dig up and link all the threads if it will make you feel better. I won't do it until I'm at work tomorrow though, I won't waste my time on it, only the companies.

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You guys don't like playing sporker?

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You guys want to get shit that you like to play buffed?

Again, clearly talking to the people want to get shit nerfed. != personal attack.

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it's always the same people trying to get shit nerfed that they've never even taken to the end

See my response to the two above. It is always the same people trying to get things nerfed. Pure fact. Not personal attack.

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thank God the dev's don't ever respond to this shit and mostly ignore you guys.

Devs pretty much ignore all complaints. If you read that as me meaning the devs just ignore them, then yes that is my mistake.

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Grouping someone with a group, then going off on how that group is wrong in every way, ignorable, and ignorant is an insult.

!= personal attack, and yes they are ignorant (about this issue) and wrong in every way.

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Your entire post was "You're wrong, I'm right"

Agree with this.

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and also "you're not allowed to participate because I say so". GGG gets to decide who is allowed to participate in discussions, not players.

Do not agree with this. They are welcome to participate in the discussion, they should simply have knowledge and experience with the issue before they start trying to get things changed. I expressed this politely the first few times I posted in this thread, but when they continue to ignore FACT, I will be more forceful. If I walked back into the kitchen of a restaurant and said "Hey, I've never made that dish before, but you should change this and this" they'd tell me to get the fuck out of there. It's no different. Play the content (We are BETA Testers and if you still want this or that changed, fine. To want to change things you've never tried is ignorant. There is no other word in the English language that accurately describes it.

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reboticon wrote:

@Scrotie - I don't understand what you are saying with the picture. Maybe it's because I can't focus on anything but Fishburnes glorious jaw. Spell it out for me.

1. You can't get IIQ or IIR from passives.
2. MF stack character only cares about IIQ and IIR.
3. Therefore MF stack character doesn't care about gaining levels.
4. Therefore MF stack character effectively doesn't have a death penalty.

"

Necrogue wrote:

Dominus: Prepare to meet your doom exile!
*casts totems*
Dominus: Prepare to meet your doom totems!

Rather than a direct nerf, Ancestral Bond should cause players to share status aliments with their totems. Shock, chill, freeze, ignite, bleed, etc.

What we basically need is a replacement to the "can't deal damage by yourself" part. Stuff like shared status ailment is a good start, but not quite strong enough.

"

ScrotieMcB wrote:

"

reboticon wrote:

@Scrotie - I don't understand what you are saying with the picture. Maybe it's because I can't focus on anything but Fishburnes glorious jaw. Spell it out for me.

1. You can't get IIQ or IIR from passives.
2. MF stack character only cares about IIQ and IIR.
3. Therefore MF stack character doesn't care about gaining levels.
4. Therefore MF stack character effectively doesn't have a death penalty.

OK, but see you are doing it again. Exactly what I said in my post. You are blurring the line between people who play Totem for MF, and who play totem to gain levels. You can't lump them all in there together.

Totem is absolutely the best for farming. If this thread was JUST ABOUT THAT, I wouldn't have a problem, but throughout this whole thread several people act like you can just stack crazy MF and go run maps, and you can't. Draw the distinction.

I feel like the mere existence of "totem builds" is proof enough that totems are broken. Were totems developed with the intention of players literally using totems to play for them, or were totems intended to be support entities? I'd like to think that totems were meant to be support entities, and that any attempt by players to make builds that would use them for primary damage would be bound to struggle. That being said, I have never made a totem build, and I really don't know much about them.

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Perfect_Black wrote:

I feel like the mere existence of "totem builds" is proof enough that totems are broken. Were totems developed with the intention of players literally using totems to play for them, or were totems intended to be support entities? I'd like to think that totems were meant to be support entities, and that any attempt by players to make builds that would use them for primary damage would be bound to struggle. That being said, I have never made a totem build, and I really don't know much about them.

Totems are support... until you pick up Ancestral Bonds and give up the ability to deal damage yourself.

"

3. Therefore MF stack character doesn't care about gaining levels.
4. Therefore MF stack character effectively doesn't have a death penalty

And thats why we need them to balance differently between leagues because that argument only applies for Standard and Anarchy.

I'll try this one more time, now that I've gotten some sleep. Allow me to pose a question:

How does nerfing totems benefit YOU. It's guaranteed to upset all the people who have spent hundreds of hours building a totem build, but how does nerfing them make YOU happy? You won't get better drops. If you think you will because it means drop rates will be increased, 1. you are wrong, 2. get the drop rates increased first. Do you see what happened when there was that big push to get Kaoms nerfed? Instead, all life builds got nerfed. So how will nerfing totems benefit you? Schadenfreude?

Nerfing totems would benefit no one worth benefiting.

Altering how Ancestral Bond works, and making totems a lot more fun to play around with would benefit the game as a whole.

"

reboticon wrote:

I'll try this one more time, now that I've gotten some sleep. Allow me to pose a question:

So how will nerfing totems benefit you? Schadenfreude?

That's a good question and there is a simple answer of high complexity, because the simplest ones are like that.

It's that nagging feeling you're missing out on something. If you don't use totems one question will tickle your subconsciousness constantly, what if I did use them? Would I be handsome, would I be rich? It's pretty much the same with magic find, people are bothered by options just beyond their grasp, that's what the word 'tantalizing' is for.

Might be best if totems cost nothing or had a symbolic cost to place but drained your mana to cast, that would augment your dps but induce severe resource and build issues. Totem users would have to be built as a serious mana-whores like druids from Might&Magic which would also limit their aura number. That said, we wouldn't have troll cost situations either, where your souped-up flame totem costs 200 mana and a pretty much superior incinerate totem 30.

On the sidenote, many still use them for support, got a hybrid Lightning Strike - Detonate Dead shadow that uses flame totem just to induce blind.