Ranged Attack Totem

Has anyone tried RATs since 2.0? Do they still suck?
Their placement speed is miles better, the Damage penalty reduces with Gem levels, Totem nodes are pretty decent now (still not great, but you take what you can get), plus Totems in general are far tougher than before. I had a lot of fun running Rain of Arrows Totems, with Blink Arrow for additional mobility and a bit of Damage output. Felt like it can be good-but-not-great if it wasn't a build made by a mediocre player, maybe even legit good.
I had a bunch of Jewel access; having good Bow/Totem Jewels would probably be pretty significant. Rain of Splinters also has a lot of potential for different Skills, of course; +2 Projectiles, ~40% Reduced Damage.
sadly still not good enough, the damage penalty is harsh.
cant justify using this over other things like incienrate/flame totem.

it definetly has potential but no real reason to use this over attacking yourself with a bow/wand especially since in 2.0 reflect is less of a problem.
Last edited by voodoojin on Aug 16, 2015, 12:23:21 PM
Hi, I have a question about ranged attack totem.

If I insert a "increased 5% Attack Speed with Bows" jewel in my passive skill tree, will it increases the attack speed of ranged attack totem by 5%? (like "increased 5% Attack Speed")

Thanks.
Last edited by dukilupp on Sep 11, 2015, 5:13:39 AM
Same old question:

Is there ANY bow skill with Atlas patch out that would be currently better to use with RAT/totem nodes than just using it yourself instead?
- I didn't say half the shit people quote from me - Albert Einstein
Last edited by neurolergic on Sep 9, 2016, 5:55:37 AM
@GGG Can you please re-evaluate the penalties? Especially compared to the changes to spell totem?
Come on GGG, try giving some love to that gem! Meta or not, what pourcentage of people uses that skill? Four persons out of several thousands? Buff it please!! :(
This is a whole new game now that I know there is a feedback/suggestions forum and that the mods are active in it, good on you for that, by the way.

To my suggestion/question: Why are the Ranged Attack Totems limited to bows and wands? Would ranged "melee" attacks like Spectral Throw be too op with totems?
The reason I am actually asking now is that I think it would be awesome to be able use totems together with the new Shattering and Lancing Steel.
Just thought I'd post on this support gem since I've tried desperately to find a build based on RAT that doesn't just suck. There are a number of problems with it.

I've tried a Hierophant build, and quite honestly, it cannot work, especially with the fewer totems in 3.5. To use this gem, you must do Scion (Deadeye/Hierophant). This gem *does* get a benefit from a gem-specific item: Skirmish, Two-Pointed Arrow Quiver. The only reason to use this quiver is that you get a free totem. Free, that is, until you realize how much DPS you're giving up by using this thing that actually gives your totems mana leech. This item was forgotten by the devs years ago.

There is a RAT build that I've been playing a lot recently that is pretty fun. I've been hesitant to put up a build guide because it seems kinda fragile (that is, it could easily be inadvertently nerfed into oblivion), and requires some rather pricey stuff to make it work. So that said, I will put up a guide for 3.6 *if* some of the mechanics/items don't get hit with the nerf bat.
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Mark_GGG wrote:
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Anuthutantrum wrote:
Its outdated that this is restricted by the Non Melee weapons as we now have Melee projectile attack skills like Spectral throw.

Please update this to co-incide with the new attack skills.
It's not outdated. That wasn't done for no reason previously, it was done because it's necessary for the totem to work with skills that can be both ranged and projectile, such as frenzy, elemental hit, or puncture. The addition of spectral throw doesn't change anything about that.

We are looking into finding other ways to cause correct behaviour on those skills, but we can't remove that restriction until that's done, and that's not a simple task.


Since this post was made almost six years ago there's been no visible changes to make ranged attack skills that don't use bows or wands such as Spectral Throw, Spectral Shield Throw, and now Viper Lash usable with Ranged Attack Totem.

As such I have a proposition to end the issue of these skills not working with the totem once and for all.

Please rename the totem to "Ranged Weapon Totem Support."

Then people will stop expecting it to work with ranged attacks that use melee weapons just because it's a "ranged attack" totem and those skills are ranged attacks.

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