Skill Reveal - Ancestral Protector

I want to see how fast it gets pummeled in the hard pit...

Pop goes the weasel

yay devourer whack-a-mole

but yeah looks fun. Does increased melee range passives, corrupt thingy and that unique increase its range?

Mmm, this feels a little meh. I usually play ranged to be fair but I do so for the ability to move around at a moments notice. So to semi-lock yourself into place as melee seems.. ehhh, I dunno.. not a huge bonus. Your up close and personal with the mobs, so when you have to move which I assume would be often in high level content, you have to move now and then what the totem becomes limp? Waste of mana really.

I feel like I'm jumping to a lot of conclusions since I don't play melee frequently, plus I'm usually optimistic about skills even when they look so-so. I mean it's hard to judge skills without personally using them. But I dunno.. this just feels a little weak.

As a melee, I would want to have my attention on the mobs in-front of me in full focus, I don't want to worry about popping a totem every now and again. But heck that's just my thoughts.

"

Vhlad wrote:

please don't tell me the last marauder ascendancy is whack-a-mole focused :(

rip 95 marauder

thats why i already changed to duellist:

Gladiator
Versatile Combatant

100% of Block Chance applied to Spells

Champion
Inspirational

You and nearby Allies deal 30% increased Damage
You and nearby Allies have 5% increased Movement Speed

Champion
First to Strike, Last to Fall

30% increased Damage when not on Low Life
100% increased Armour and Evasion Rating when on Low Life
Status Ailments are removed when you reach Low Life

Champion
Fortitude

You have Fortify


HYPE :D

Nice, love it. Won't appeal to everyone, but I think it's a cool addition.
But please don't forget to widen your old new features, like Warcries

"

johnnybspes wrote:

Uuuuuh wtf is that? Maybe just a weird skill/weapon combo to use for the demo. It looks like whack-a-mole.

Actually the first thing i thought about. It looks silly and the grafics of this skill (sry GGG) just don't look that great.

What really bothers me is this "melee playstyle promoting" anouncment when this skill actually isn't going to help a classic melee character at all :(.

"

GGG Design & Balance Team wrote:

Hmm... people are complaining about the status of melee in our game beeing underwhelming compared to ranged attackers and spellcasters. What should we do about it?

Wait - i just had a great idea! Why we just put in melee totems which perform melee attacks so melee characters could actually be "playing" as ranged now. Also Kripp had this idea/provided us this idea years ago in one of his videos so it just must be good - brilliant! Lets do this!

major problems with this skill just looking at the video:
- it looks silly and not very powerfull (so many players will avoid it just because of that)
- small AoE compared to other totem alternatives out there - you have to resummon the totem often because it can't move. Most melee characters don't have much extra mana for that.
- does not taunt enemys on hit
- if the totem isn't tanky enough by its own without investment into totem passives it will suck for melee builds which just want it as support.
- why would i get in melee range when i just can summon totems to do the job?
- doesn't synergize with ansestral bond keystone with a "melee character"
- "forces" you to go Hierophant when you actually want to build around it - no other choice
- why would an actuall classic melee character use this? it provides no defenses at all if you go in melee range too - there is no synergy at all.
- Summoning a totem and after that engaging in the fight as melee at melee range is slow and can't compete with other totem charcters or any ranged attacker/caster/traper in clear speed.
- Melee characters are already starved on passive points because they need much more investment into defenses than any ranged build to survive; there is no room for extra totem passives which won't synergize with the playstyle advertised in the video at all.
- if the totem is tanky in endgame by its own without investment and deals significant amounts of damage on top of it - a pure totem build would be absurdly strong against bosses and hard mobs which isn't the primary intention (to aid melee characters) of this skill - a balancing nightmare!
- since it scales of your weapon damage it isn't as cost efficiant and beginner friendly as other totem builds which offer the exact same playstyle

- this skill/this approach doesn't help the melee playstyle at all, it just will make melee pseudo-ranged.



Let me make some predictions: If the damage scaling of those totems will be as broken as Bladefall was this is going to be a popular build (the new flame totem?). If it isn't, this skill will not see much use at all.


Sry GGG but this new totem skill looks like it is pretty failed skill design over all. I hope that just the acutall presentation of this skill was badly chosen and the skill itself is acutally fine - but as hard as i am trying to convince myself i can't believe it.



Hope that the last Ascendancy Classes, which are released tomorrow will be good to fuel my hype for 2.2 again.

Even more proof that the final Marauder is a Totem/Melee Shaman (prolly a Shaman or Priest of the Karui God of War/fire,) and it comes with a whole skillset of Ancestral Totem skills to go with it!

:O

So yeah, looks like they finally released that "Hulk (Melee Attack) Totem" that one guy suggested years back.. :P

This looks hilarious. I don't think I'm going to care much if it's good initially.

Hah! I remember suggesting this during the ascendancy beta and mark said it wasn't technically possible. Though back then I suggested a melee totem support gem, so it would be this skill with the ancestral protector, but it would use linked skills. Maybe that's still not possible.

I like that it exists but think lack of AOE and short duration seem annoying.