Spell totems, Skeletons and totem passives

Hi ive searched the forum for some answers to these questions but couldnt find any satisfying

1. Does spell totems damage penalty affect the skeletons damage? If yes, then on to question 2

2. Do totem passive buffs like totemic mastery or shamanistic fury affect the skeletons?

Im doing some theorycrafting for my latest reroll, plan is spell totem+skeletons+blind+minion speed or faster attacks

It's asked pretty often, I'm surprised you couldn't find it here.

1. No, those passives affect your damage when channeling spells through totems, summoning a minion does no damage in itself and nothing that affects your stats will ever affect your minions so it doesn't work.

It would do something if, say, there was a spell that made a big boom and summoned a fire elemental, it would improve 'boom' damage but still woulnd't do anything for the minion.

Same goes for trap and mine passives. Note that damage bonuses and penalties on totem, trap and mine support gem do work on minions, they don't affect you, they affect the skill directly.

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raics wrote:

Same goes for trap and mine passives. Note that damage bonuses and penalties on totem, trap and mine support gem do work on minions, they don't affect you, they affect the skill directly.

Im absolutely clear on the part of it not affecting me. (that is too damn obvious)

What i was unsure about that if i take a totem passive, if it would buff the minion the totem summoned. So to say, circumvent the penalty some bit.

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LadyAlekto wrote:

What i was unsure about that if i take a totem passive, if it would buff the minion the totem summoned. So to say, circumvent the penalty some bit.

No, there's no workaround to it, 'nothing that affects your stats will ever affect your minions unless explicitly stated so' is a hard rule.

You should think of it exactly as I wrote, totem has no offensive properties of his own, only defensive. Totem damage bonus isn't 'totem does % increased damage', it's 'skills have % increased damage when channeled through a totem', offensively speaking it isn't a separate entity, it's you casting spells through it.

You can probably see it the best on frenzy and power charges, skills it casts use any charge bonuses you may have but totem can't have charges of its own, it uses your offensive stats. But it can have endurance charges because it has defensive stats. Same goes for traps and mines.

Hi there,

same issue for myself. Im using raging spirits with spell totem.

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raics wrote:

...those passives affect your damage when channeling spells through totems, summoning a minion does no damage in itself and nothing that affects your stats will ever affect your minions so it doesn't work

But what's the matter for spell totem itself? It says "50% less Damage" not spell damage. Don't get me wrong, I would like it if summoned minions wouldnt do less damage via totem.

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raics wrote:

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LadyAlekto wrote:

What i was unsure about that if i take a totem passive, if it would buff the minion the totem summoned. So to say, circumvent the penalty some bit.

No, there's no workaround to it, 'nothing that affects your stats will ever affect your minions unless explicitly stated so' is a hard rule.

You should think of it exactly as I wrote, totem has no offensive properties of his own, only defensive. Totem damage bonus isn't 'totem does % increased damage', it's 'skills have % increased damage when channeled through a totem', offensively speaking it isn't a separate entity, it's you casting spells through it.

You can probably see it the best on frenzy and power charges, skills it casts use any charge bonuses you may have but totem can't have charges of its own, it uses your offensive stats. But it can have endurance charges because it has defensive stats. Same goes for traps and mines.

Did you got my question? i have NOT spoken about what affects ME, THE CASTER,THE PLAYER CHARACTER, i speak about the effect of the totem and its mechanics.

I do know passives affecting the player, do not affect summons, unless a skill does say so.

Spell totem 50% damage penalty for linked spell, shamanistic fury +16% totem damage.

THAT is what i wonder about.

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Koellsch wrote:

But what's the matter for spell totem itself? It says "50% less Damage" not spell damage. Don't get me wrong, I would like it if summoned minions wouldnt do less damage via totem.

I mentioned that too, supports affect the skill directly. Passive bonuses on tree and gear modify your character stats and then those affect the skill.

So the simple answer i desired would had been "The totem damage penalty does not affect your minions"

Is this correct?

I stated an IF, question 2 was IF question1 equals a yes.

Ill try to repeat in different words what already have been explained:

minions are affected only by passives that have the word "minion" in description. Shamanistic fury +16% totem damage would increase only direct damage of skills your totem deal. "Summoning a minion" is not "dealing damage". Minion does damage, not the totem..

However, support gems affect ANY linked skill directly, so the bonus/penalty from trap/remote mine/spell totem supports will be applied to ANY damage, including your minions damage

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LadyAlekto wrote:

Spell totem 50% damage penalty for linked spell, shamanistic fury +16% totem damage.

THAT is what i wonder about.

Ok, I agree it isn't very intuitive, it goes like this:

- totem casts ice nova
- first supports are checked, they have priority, it finds 50% less damage and 30% less cast speed on totem support, maybe 40% increased cast speed on faster casting and 30% increased area.
- first phase done, we got following stats

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50% less damage
30% less cast speed
40% increased cast speed
30% increased area

- then it checks your stats and finds, 25% inc totem damage, 30% inc spell damage, 20% inc cast speed, 20% inc spell crit, 40% inc elemental damage
- so it finally casts the spell using these stats

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50% less damage
30% less cast speed
40% increased cast speed
30% increased area
25% inc damage (from totem damage)
30% inc spell damage
20% inc cast speed
20% inc spell crit
40% inc elemental damage

- so it finally casts ice nova

Now, if we used summon skeleton instead of ice nova it would do the summoning action using all those stats too, but only the bolded ones will transfer to the summoned minion (and also any minion-specific bonuses you might have).