Holy Flame Totem

I honestly cannot bring myself to keep playing a build dedicated to Flame Totems. I'd just have to respec a few points and go back to Fireball + GMP.
The problems with Flame Totems are numerous, however, the most notable are:

1) The Range. Why would I bring myself to use Flame Totem when it's outranged by every ranged mob in the game? Sure, this can be solved by using Faster Projectiles, however, it's barely noticeable because the totem acts as a flamethrower: More damage at closer range. Having to recast one of the most expensive skills in the game whenever I encounter a ranged mob or whenever a mob simply takes a few steps away is a big problem.

2) The mana cost. I understand this is a pretty unique totem and I was prepared for huge mana expenses, however, holy fucking shit. With only GMP and Faster Casting, this Totem comes in at a grand total of 300+ mana per totem. Per. Totem. That's pretty ridiculous. I had plans of upgrading my Searing Touch to 5/6L it but not with those mana costs. With a Reduced Mana Gem kept at same level, it's about 180 mana per totem. That's still quite a lot.

3) The damage. I understand that Flame Totem shoots projectiles at a ridiculously high rate. That's not a problem and it offers lots of defensive options. However, the shotgun mechanics of the totem hold it back from truly shining. If I were to respec the dual totem passive and staff whack the mob, I would kill it faster with a Lvl 13 Unique Staff than Flame Totem would at lvl 13 at max range. That's pretty pathetic. If it were changed to have better scaling damage at range, it would be better.
As it stands now, almost any cold damage that hits the totem will permafreeze it since totems in general have bad health. Usually it's not a problem and it's to be expected but when the entire skill itself is based off shotgun damage, it's a pretty huge problem.


All in all, it's a very unique idea and I enjoyed it a lot. However, at Act 2 Merciless, it's becoming too much of a liability than an asset and it's fucking annoying.

nice skill for a ethereal knives shadow. deals good damage and is good for taunting enemies. But to be honest it shouldnt exist for one single reason. There is a spell totem hgem and there is a flame totem. But i want to wield a flamethrower myself!!! come on GGG give me FLAMETHROWERSPELL!!!

edit: i just combined this thing with lmp... i am not quite shure of something because my internet is lagging around 1500ms atm... can the 3 projectiles the totem has with lmp actually hit the same target? that would be rather powerfull

edit2: just noticed something interesting... in theory this skill is bound to be better with a caster shadow then with any strenght class
the reason: flame totem deals many litle instances of fire damage. a crit with fire damage will inflict a 4 second burning status ailment dealing 1/3 of the damage as a dot. The Shadow has the most crit multiplier nodes in his range which apply to spells. with a lot of damage instances and some crit increase it is very unlikely that one of them wont be a crit. but since enemys can only have one burn stack, the increased crit multiplier of the shadow will change to otherwise low burn damage into a rather high and almost guarantied amount...

I'm playing dual flame totem marauder, level 68.

Flame totem need more love for sure. It is great skill overall but it need bust.

Damage is too low, increase damage effectiveness by few % would be great.

Range is okey later on, but at start it is terrible.

Totem life seams to be okey, in most of cases. Only problem is cold damage and freez.

Mana cost is too high. I use Flame Totem + Grater Multiple Projectiles + Faster Casting + Added Chaos Damage + Added Lighting Damage and skill cost is 493.

So main problems is damage, mana cost and frame rate kill. Flame Totem kill fps.

And why point blank gem don't support it? :<

does not point blank gem supports flame totems dmg ?

No, flame totem ignore point blank gem.

is that intended or is it a bug? cause point blank should work with projectiles and flame totem shoots projectiles?

projectile =/= projectile attack


i had a lvl 70 dual flame totem templare with ~800 dps with GMP. i would say the dmg is fine....the main problem was everyone i partied with complained about lag!

So the listed range at the start was around 2000, maybe a bit less, and I'm at level 56 now and it's at 4100. However, there is currently no noticable difference in range. It seems to be about the same.

Ignite = fear (on humans, apes and other) .. flame totem is near 100% ignite because the fast cast.
The Problem is, enemys run in my totems becommes Ignite and run far away. (Act 2 Forest is so stupid to play with flame Totem.)