Storm totem damage problem

[failure]

i play 55 lvl elementalist and i put almost all skillpoints into "storm totem" and "stormcaller's pact", i maxed them and above, but i still have very low damage output comparing to my other builds - around 3k - 7k per totem, which gives 10-30k damage if i place 4 of them.

what i have for now:
- storm totem level 26/16 (maxed out), with 2.5 cooldown delay, 5 at a time (but typically i use 4)
- 800% lightning damage increase total
- stormcaller's pact 17/12
- elemental storm - for lowering resistances
- few other constellations for additional damage
- 747 spirit attribute

what's the problem:
for current location i have enough damage for simple monsters, however i feel that with increased monster level i kill them slower and slower, and i don't see any other way to raise my damage even more, so that amount will be not enough for next difficulty level i think.
i encounter monsters that have 40k hp and they die very slow, and those are just regular monsters, not heroes or bosses.

is it okay for this build or i do something wrong?

[MedeaFleecestealer]

Far as I know Stormcaller's Pact only affects you, it doesn't affect the totem. If you're not actually hitting things with your weapon then you're getting no benefit from Stormcaller's.

[Percello]

More spirit, I guess, but you probably won't see much of a difference. Only other options are to get better gear.

[Matthew]

Storm totem isn't an entire build. It is only 16 point investment.

The most obvious other skill to add to it is maelstrom since presumably you are using the RR from wind devils anyway. Maelstrom, unlike the base skill, acts as a separate attack meaning they stack with multiple wind devils.

Since you have demo as 2nd, stun jacks is the other obvious pairing. Skyfire grenado another potential skill.

The benefit of all those skills listed above is that they all have cooldowns, so you just line them up one after another. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. Allows you to layer multiple skill damage.

[failure]

what's RR?

[failure]

does "stormcaller's pact" work on "wind devil"?
is there any sense to replace storm totems by wind devil then?

[failure]

is mortar trap with Heavy ordnance an option? (since it has lightning damage in it)

[MedeaFleecestealer]

Originally posted by bogon:

what's RR?

Resistance Reduction.

[Matthew]

Yes, both totems and wind devils scale off of player stats. Just not attack/cast speed. Their attack rate is fixed.

RR is resist reduction. The 2nd node on wind devils, raging tempest. You should be using that if you aren't already.

When I play a build like this, I just cast storm totem and wind devil back to back. Then run around, or use an attack, or whatever. Then cast both again. On bosses, you can have a combination of several totems and maelstroms all stacking on the same target.

The base wind devil skill doesn't stack so it is typically only worth keeping 1 point.

Try and get some electrocute duration if you don't have any already. The base duration on totems and maelstrom is only 2 seconds, and ideally you want to get that up to 4-6 seconds or so.

[Matthew]

It has been a long time since I've used mortar trap, but it should be fine. There are items like this https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/9141 which seem to be exactly what you are trying to build.

[madrigal]

Originally posted by MedeaFleecestealer:

Far as I know Stormcaller's Pact only affects you, it doesn't affect the totem. If you're not actually hitting things with your weapon then you're getting no benefit from Stormcaller's.

Stormcaller's does affect the totem by the percent increases, but it's unclear to me if the flat electrocute damage is applied. The increase damage is significant, but it's still not big damage compared to some other skills. I have Hand of Ultos devotion bound to it and that makes it powerful, but not enough to use by itself.

The flat damage is hard to figure, because Stormcaller's has a 3 sec duration and Totem has a 2 sec duration. It's strange because I have an item with a flat bleed damage, and it does apply to the totem when I use it on a dummy. It's very hard to figure out what's happening with some of these skills.

[Matthew]

Flat damage is only added to skills which list a weapon% amount. Or specifically states it is added to pets/allies.

Your bleed wasn't added by the totem, it was added by your devotion proc, which has a minor weapon% amount.

The main reason why you want stormcaller's pact is for the crit% damage, but the lightning/electrocute% also is helpful. DoT damage needs crit% to scale. Totem is only about 50% DoT, but this is far more relevant for maelstrom which is mostly electrocute damage.

But, as stated up top, totem isn't meant to be a full build alone. It persists for a duration and is meant to be used alongside one or more additional skills.