What affects totem damage?

[TwoTonTuna]

Sources on the internet are pretty conflicting, based on my initial searches. Can anyone shed light on what, exactly, increases the damage of totem skills?

[ex_IllusionisT]

Increases to totem damage on the passive tree, and + level to melee on weapons or amulet.
Totems scale the best with gem level.

[Detergent]

Hold down shift when hovering over passives. It will show how much dps the passive adds to each skill.
If you're using Shockwave Totem, it shows up as just "Slam".

Stuff like Increased melee damage and increased physical damage shows its increasing Shockwave Totem.

[Drake]

Attack totems scale with any non local weapon mods. So attack passives will works (totem or otherwise, like physical damage will work too for a physical attack totem).
Attack damage and attack speed on glove rings etc. will work too.

+x level of gems will work, on any item.

Increased elemental damage with attacks will work on totems as well, even on weapons.

What doesn't work is flat damage, accuracy and weapon flat damage on weapon because totems have their own weapon. Everything else works because totem cast your skills.

Spell totems are easier, they work just like spells. So they use your stats.

[Dwane Dibbley]

Every skill gem has tags that tells you in which categories it belong and so what affect it. Each totem might have different tags.

[Drake]

Originally posted by Dwane Dibbley:

Every skill gem has tags that tells you in which categories it belong and so what affect it. Each totem might have different tags.

Attack totem are special cases. Tags don't tell you everything. Technically totems use your skills and stuff for offencive stats. But some totem use their own weapons, so your stats are applied to their weapon and not yours, which can make it tricky.

[ARIUS]

Originally posted by Drake:

Attack totems scale with any non local weapon mods. So attack passives will works (totem or otherwise, like physical damage will work too for a physical attack totem).
Attack damage and attack speed on glove rings etc. will work too.

+x level of gems will work, on any item.

Increased elemental damage with attacks will work on totems as well, even on weapons.

What doesn't work is flat damage, accuracy and weapon flat damage on weapon because totems have their own weapon. Everything else works because totem cast your skills.

Spell totems are easier, they work just like spells. So they use your stats.

How do you know that elementall attack damage on your weapon applies to totem damage? There is no calculation on totem info dameg (slams) and also i dont see any difrance. Please answer for that thx :)

[Detergent]

Hes talking about the affix "#% increased Elemental Damage with Attacks" found on weapons. Its a global stat that is applied to your character rather than being local to the weapon only.
So it will work.

Something else to look into. I hear Hrimnor's Hymn unique 2h mace works with totems.
"Slam Skills you use yourself cause Aftershocks"
Not sure if thats a bug or if its even true. Something worth checking out tho.

[Drake]

Originally posted by ARIUS:

Originally posted by Drake:

Attack totems scale with any non local weapon mods. So attack passives will works (totem or otherwise, like physical damage will work too for a physical attack totem).
Attack damage and attack speed on glove rings etc. will work too.

+x level of gems will work, on any item.

Increased elemental damage with attacks will work on totems as well, even on weapons.

What doesn't work is flat damage, accuracy and weapon flat damage on weapon because totems have their own weapon. Everything else works because totem cast your skills.

Spell totems are easier, they work just like spells. So they use your stats.

How do you know that elementall attack damage on your weapon applies to totem damage? There is no calculation on totem info dameg (slams) and also i dont see any difrance. Please answer for that thx :)

Because I use an ancestral totem molten blast build and spent an hour testing exactly which mod and passive worked on the totem.
So yes, global mods like increased elemental damage on attacks work.

[qsnoopyjr]

Best increase to totem damage is +Melee skills.
An increase is a huge difference it beats out the other stats.

After that go for ATTACK SPEED.

If your totems do not sound like a machinegun, you better rethink your gear and tree, moar ATTACK SPEED.

[ARIUS]

Originally posted by Drake:

Originally posted by ARIUS:

Because I use an ancestral totem molten blast build and spent an hour testing exactly which mod and passive worked on the totem.
So yes, global mods like increased elemental damage on attacks work.

And what about shock totem? i use Avatar of Fire and all i can do is fire dmg in all sources. Still elemental damage on attack on a weapon applies to it? And if YES the last big question is: What about soul gem in a weapon whih gives 30% elemental damage on attack - its not an affix - its a rune slot thing - how that works?

[serotoninpack]

D2 was pretty clear with the skill explanations... POE devs, however, like scratching in the left ear with the right left foot.

[Dwane Dibbley]

Originally posted by serotoninpack:

D2 was pretty clear with the skill explanations... POE devs, however, like scratching in the left ear with the right left foot.

D2 also had like .5% of complexity of PoE. PoEs tags on skill are still great. PoE is far beyond simple "stuff hurts" and "stuff hurts more".

[TwoTonTuna]

Originally posted by ex_IllusionisT:

Increases to totem damage on the passive tree, and + level to melee on weapons or amulet.
Totems scale the best with gem level.

Originally posted by Drake:

Attack totems scale with any non local weapon mods. So attack passives will works (totem or otherwise, like physical damage will work too for a physical attack totem).
Attack damage and attack speed on glove rings etc. will work too.

+x level of gems will work, on any item.

Increased elemental damage with attacks will work on totems as well, even on weapons.

What doesn't work is flat damage, accuracy and weapon flat damage on weapon because totems have their own weapon. Everything else works because totem cast your skills.

Spell totems are easier, they work just like spells. So they use your stats.

Okay, so based on what you guys said, these are what I assume affect totems:

1) Level of the gem is the biggest contributor to base totem damage
2) Totem-specific passives on the skill tree (e.g. +10% damage dealt by totems etc.)
3) Damage-type passives on the skill tree (e.g. physical damage for totems that deal physical damage, melee damage for totems that deal melee damage, projectile damage for totems that deal projectile damage etc.)
4) Damage-type passives on your equipment (e.g. +50% physical damage will also affect physical damage of totems)
5) Elemental-damage bonuses apply to both you and your totem, assuming the totem deals damage matching the element
6) Attack speed bonuses from equipment and the skill tree will affect both you and your totems

There's just one thing I'm not so clear on.

If damage-type passives on the skill tree affect totems, then why do the ballista totems of my witch hunter deal so little damage? I built the WH to be a glass cannon, picking up as many projectile damage nodes on my tree as I can. If damage-type passives affect totems, then my ballista should be doing more than just shaving a sliver of health from regular mobs.

[Drake]

Originally posted by TwoTonTuna:

Originally posted by ex_IllusionisT:

Increases to totem damage on the passive tree, and + level to melee on weapons or amulet.
Totems scale the best with gem level.

Originally posted by Drake:

Attack totems scale with any non local weapon mods. So attack passives will works (totem or otherwise, like physical damage will work too for a physical attack totem).
Attack damage and attack speed on glove rings etc. will work too.

+x level of gems will work, on any item.

Increased elemental damage with attacks will work on totems as well, even on weapons.

What doesn't work is flat damage, accuracy and weapon flat damage on weapon because totems have their own weapon. Everything else works because totem cast your skills.

Spell totems are easier, they work just like spells. So they use your stats.

Okay, so based on what you guys said, these are what I assume affect totems:

1) Level of the gem is the biggest contributor to base totem damage
2) Totem-specific passives on the skill tree (e.g. +10% damage dealt by totems etc.)
3) Damage-type passives on the skill tree (e.g. physical damage for totems that deal physical damage, melee damage for totems that deal melee damage, projectile damage for totems that deal projectile damage etc.)
4) Damage-type passives on your equipment (e.g. +50% physical damage will also affect physical damage of totems)
5) Elemental-damage bonuses apply to both you and your totem, assuming the totem deals damage matching the element
6) Attack speed bonuses from equipment and the skill tree will affect both you and your totems

There's just one thing I'm not so clear on.

If damage-type passives on the skill tree affect totems, then why do the ballista totems of my witch hunter deal so little damage? I built the WH to be a glass cannon, picking up as many projectile damage nodes on my tree as I can. If damage-type passives affect totems, then my ballista should be doing more than just shaving a sliver of health from regular mobs.

4 5 and 6 :
It depends on the totem. If the totem says it uses its own weapon then local weapon mods don't work on the totem.

The local weapon mods are increased physical damage, increased attack speed and all flat damage mods, all on your equipped weapon. So if you want to add flat damage, it needs to be on rings or gloves etc.

About ballista totems, just upping damage might not be enough, you need to put out 4 totems, get a lot of attack speed for them, and a good support setup, like for example, artillery is slow and ripwire doesn't have a good damage multiplier, so you need to counter that. I also think a meta skill like ancestral warrior totem is missing for the crossbow.

Personally I think ancestral warrior totem with molten blast is way better at doing projectile damage than ballistas.

[TwoTonTuna]

Originally posted by Drake:

About ballista totems, just upping damage might not be enough, you need to put out 4 totems, get a lot of attack speed for them, and a good support setup, like for example, artillery is slow and ripwire doesn't have a good damage multiplier, so you need to counter that. I also think a meta skill like ancestral warrior totem is missing for the crossbow.

Personally I think ancestral warrior totem with molten blast is way better at doing projectile damage than ballistas.

I posted this thread because I plan to build a gemling legionnaire that uses a crossbow in one weapon slot and a mace in the other. Ripwire and stun/oil grenades will pin baddies in place, while the artillery and ancestral totems will do the actual killing. Heck, I'm even considering slapping on dark effigy totems to go with contagion/gas grenades for the lulz.