Decoy Totem

I was curious as to why there will be a 4 second cooldown on this gem in the new patch. This seems like an extraordinarily long cooldown that is not consistent with any other totem.

It already takes time for the first pulse to even effect the monsters, plus cast time...this is effectively a 5second interval between next/last pulse with seemingly no way to reduce this limit at all. With the removal of taunt from bosses as well, this seems like it has very little to offer that compared to ranged attack/spell totem has to offer. Plus these are both getting a pretty massive buff. I just would like some clarity, or to become aware of how this was so abused that it had to have a CD that nearly as long as it takes to cross some areas.

Bosses really need some kind of taunt resistance (not immunity), so they get to ignore the totem at least some of the time. It's one thing to go through a boss fight without getting hit, but it's a bit game-breaking when the boss is unable to even target you.

(Decoy Totem also trivialises Elreon's 'defend the relic' missions, but that's probably not such a serious balance issue.)

Another thing is that taunted mobs (including bosses AFAIK) deal 10% less damage to everyone who isn't doing the taunting, and the effect lasts a while even if the totem dies. So it's a nice little defensive buff even if the totem gets killed very quickly.

Lastly, Decoy Totem may be the easiest taunting machine, but the taunting power of a Chieftain totem build with Tukohama and rapid-firing skills (20% chance to taunt on hit) is potentially even more broken. He can just stand there constantly summoning primary skill totems to render himself untargetable without losing any DPS time.

"He can just stand there constantly summoning primary skill totems to render himself untargetable without losing any DPS time."
What a load of nonsense. There's more than enough stray projectiles in any fight that being stationary with 2 totems up for any more that a second can become lethal very quickly.
With the taunt, you're dodging projectiles, without the taunting ability, you're kiting everything because mobs run right past your totems and target you 75% of the time.

This totem should have its spell tag removed, as Enduring Cry (the skill the totem uses) is no longer a spell. I can't use this totem while wearing Gruthkul's Pelt for that reason. I feel like this was overlooked in the 2.0.0 warcry patch.

Decoy Totem does not work with the new Multiple Totems support.


even though it says and shows it does:

It only summons 1.

I think this is a consequence of some skill charge changes a while ago

I think skills that have cooldown implicitly have a charge count to (of 1) and now skills that create multiple (like +1 traps thrown on gloves, minefield, and now multiple totems/hierophant) consume multiple charges of the supported skill so you can't actually double decoy totem.

Could we get an actual amount of life that the totem has? Due to having the alternate quality 'Totems Explode on Death, dealing (0–40)% of their Life as Physical Damage' I was wondering if it could be turned into a build. Currently it's impossible to see how it would scale into the later stages of the game. Also what mods does this physical damage from explosion scale with?

I searched both the forums and the Wiki (for possible patch notes) and I did not find any reference to my question so I hope it's not a duplicate one.

Since decoy totem (and the rest of the totems as a matter of fact) has a duration, is affected by totem specific duration nodes and global increases and reductions to skill effect duration as well, should't it have a duration tag?

I can speculate that totems and totem skills are 2 separate entities but even then the taunt skill used by decoy totem should have a 3 second duration as stated in the Wiki page for taunt¹.

In addition, decoy totem is related to taunt, again according to the Wiki page for taunt² and the one for decoy totem³.


¹"Taunt causes an affected enemy to focus aggro – spells, attacks and movement – on the character that inflicted it for 3 seconds."

²"The following active skill gems are related to Taunt:

Skill gem Str. Dex. Int. Lvl.
Decoy Totem yes N/A N/A 4
"

³Decoy Totem summons a totem that taunts nearby monsters to attack it.

I just wanted to leave this feedback here since I discovered it during a build I am presently playing.

My Decoy totem presently has a CD recovery of 3.1 second.

This actually feels like a tremendous improvement with this small change. A Single second difference with this skill feels like night and day between encounters.

Thus would recommend Setting the baseline cooldown for the skill gem at 3 seconds (if you are to keep the cooldown at all to begin with). From an enjoyment standpoint, it feels better.