[v6d] Keeper of the towers [Totemancer]

The keeper of the towers
Intro
If you want a strong build that is good for farming and not very gear dependant, (meaning you can stack a lot of MF!) then this may be for you. None of the gear used is expensive and allows plenty of options for customisation.

Pros
• Not as gear dependant as some builds
• Fast killing speeds
• Immortal Minions*
• All six elements of damage available
Cons
• You are fairly fragile be careful (more on this later)
• Can hit sprite limit
• Requires a sizable amount of skill switching which some may not like
• Not good for speed runs of small areas as it requires some time to reach full potential and kill speed
[size=9]*A note on immortal minions, certain conditions will still kill them, Death spiral, glowing blobs and Baals minions death curse and probably a few more that ive missed

Stats
Strength – 200 – 250 points
You may think I am mad putting points here but I like to be able to equip items easily, especially since crafts can require between 400 – 650ish strength
Dexterity – None
Absolutely none, not required
Vitality - None
See Dexterity
Energy – Everything that doesn’t go into strength goes here
More energy = more damage from your totems

Skill Layout

Skillplan Tower Keeper (Necromancer, 2012 v005)

Brief overview
Smax Rathmas Chosen, Embalming, and shadows
1 point in Bend the Shadows and grave yard
And 25 points into Fireheart and Stormeye totems

Equipment
Gloves and Boots
Honorific items are your best friend here, you will want to get -100% enemy lightning and fire resists as it doubles the damage of your totems, for very early game make tem in T1 leather items as they have no level requirement. If you feel your damage is ok stick on a pair of rabbits feet:

Rabbit's Foot
Boots (6)
Defense: (185-212)
Durability: 29
Required Strength: 77
Required Level: 43
40% Faster Run/Walk
+(351 to 400) Maximum Stamina
(14 to 15)% Chance of Uninterruptable Attack
(351 to 400)% Extra Gold from Monsters
(66 to 75)% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Socketed: 4

Honorific gloves are still your best bet unless you get a really nice rare
Later game use crafts (ornate for lightning and fascinating for fire) if using a number of crafts try to balance fire and lightning (i.e. two ornate and two fascinating)

Weapon
Preferably use a wand you will find out why in a minute, a good rare with +skills and spell damage is a good option or you can use this:

Ghoul
Level 43
Lem
+(3 to 4) Extra Shadow Minions
+(1 to 2) to Necromancer Skill Levels
+(21 to 25)% to Cold Spell Damage
+(1 to 5) to Frostfire Wave
+5% to Experience Gained

Make it in a T1 wand of your choice with the Double MO bonus from mystic orbs and boost your cast rate with MOs.
Note: frostfire wave is what the frost claw totem shoots its fairly powerful but unpredictable on what it will target.
Late game se if you can get this:

The Prestidigator
Bone Wand (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: 74 to 80
Durability: 60
(Necromancer Only)
Required Dexterity: 85
Required Level: 100
+2 to Necromancer Skill Levels
+(31 to 40)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(31 to 40)% to Lightning Spell Damage
+(11 to 14) to Elemental
+(11 to 14) to Thunderstone
(21 to 25)% Bonus to Energy
Reduces all Vendor Prices 5%
Socketed: 2
Requirements -50%
Ignore elemental you wont need it, Thunderstone on the other hand is a good single target destroyer

Vizharan
Wand (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: 69 to 71
Durability: 12
(Necromancer Only)
Required Dexterity: 166
Required Level: 100
Indestructible
+(2 to 3) to Necromancer Skill Levels
+(4 to 9) to Tainted Blood
+300 Defense
+(41 to 50) to all Attributes
All Resists +(21 to 25)%
Damage Reduced by 5%
350% Extra Gold from Monsters
50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Level 4 Lionheart (20 Charges)
Socketed: 2

If you can get one of these, have it on switch, after reading some posts and suggestions it has been said that with out defense from Death ward, this character is squishy, your + all skills from other items will boost tainted bloods TCD and poison resist (not regen, that requires hard points) and Lionheart charges will boost defense further, not currently sure to what levels will update when i find one!

Shield
Rare with +skills until you get to level 78 and have a Kur rune then this:

Nahual
Level 78
+Kur
10% Chance to cast level 4 Gift of the Wild when Struck
+2 to All Skills
15% Faster Run/Walk
+(4 to 14) to Defender Spirit
+(2 to 12) to Greater Manifestations
+(201 to 250)% Enhanced Defense
+(31 to 40) to all Attributes
Increase Maximum Life and Mana (21 to 40)%

This is an absolute beastly shield, you can summon 9 defenders which are poison immune and use the retaliate paladin skill (5/4 Damage!) their physical damage won’t carry on the retaliate nova but RC magic damage does and being PI they are immortal* to boot! Anything non magic immune dies incredibly quickly. (small note, when you level up all but 3 will die for some reason)

Armor

Rare T6 or Crafted armor with +2 skills, if using crafts use fascinating or ornate shrines (fire and lightning respectively) or if you can find one:

Crystalshroud
Scale Mail (Sacred)
Defense: (3573-4962)
Durability: 14
Required Strength: 393
Required Level: 100
+(1 to 2) to All Skills
-25% Slower Run/Walk
+(16 to 20)% to Spell Damage
+(101 to 150)% Enhanced Defense
20% Bonus to Energy
20% Bonus to Vitality
All Resists +(51 to 60)%
Decrease Maximum Durability -75%
Requirements -25%
Socketed: 6

Belt
Aerin Orbiter
Belt (6)
Defense: (1044-1390)
Durability: 43
Required Strength: 288
Required Level: 48
30% Faster Cast Rate
+(27 to 30)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(27 to 30)% to Lightning Spell Damage
+(27 to 30)% to Cold Spell Damage
+(131 to 150)% Enhanced Defense
+(36 to 40) to Energy
All Resists +(18 to 20)%
Magic Damage Reduced by (18 to 20)
Socketed: 2

Cant beat this early game, Later use a craft or:

Ashaera's Armor
Belt (Sacred)
Defense: (1351-1403)
Durability: 43
Required Strength: 529
Required Level: 100
+(21 to 25) Energy Factor to Spell Damage
+(21 to 30)% to Spell Damage
(11 to 15)% Bonus to Energy
+500 Defense
All Resists +(21 to 30)%
Damage Reduced by 10%
Socketed: 2

Helm
Cannonball rune word early game,

Cannonball
Level 19
+Ral
1% Chance to cast level 6 Celerity on Attack
40% Faster Run/Walk
+(6 to 10)% to Fire Spell Damage
5% Chance of Crushing Blow
+(101 to 150) Maximum Stamina
Level 5 Blast Wave (5 Charges)

Later:
Thinking Cap
Skull Cap (Sacred)
Defense: (1076-1240)
Durability: 3
Required Strength: 243
Required Level: 100
+3 to All Skills
+(31 to 40)% to Spell Damage
+(183 to 316) Defense
Increase Maximum Mana (21 to 25)%
All Resists +(21 to 25)%
Decrease Maximum Durability -90%
Socketed: 4
Requirements -50%

Jewelry
+ to skills is very useful here on both rings and amulet, try and get good spell damage as well (dragon roll in hatred before level 50 and you can get +1 skill rings and +2 skill amulet in act 2) MO with buff duration MOs to further increase RC duration. If you can find 1 or 2 adrenaline rings have fun and socket the rest of your gear with what ever you need!


I have only listed some equips here as this build is very customisable read through the documentation and take your pick!

Sockets:
All armour sockets should be filled with Perfect sapphires (unless running Adrenaline rings) this will boost RC duration to around 4 – 5 minutes.

General play style:
Summon a few shadows, summon ONE defender and RC him, wait 10 seconds and summon another defender, then RC him as well, make a third if you wish and then proceed to go kill something, i don’t use sacrifices as the timer interferes with RC summon two fire totems and three lightning (note, after you complete LC2 you gain an extra totem on your class charm), use BtS to move around and don’t jump into the middle of huge packs, jump to the edge of a pack and run a small distance away, your immortal minions run at the pack while totems provide support, you run the other way in case any AoE attacks land near. Frequently summon anther defender and RC him even if you have 9 of them, it ensures that it doesn’t wear out in the middle of a fight!
Here is the way i bind my keys, feel free to set your own method up if you want.

A-summon Shadow
S- Bend the Shadows
Q- Summon Defender
W-Rathmas choosen
Mouse wheel up- Stormeye Totem
Mouse wheel down- Fireheart

A word of warning while your minions are immortal or have massive HP you are as squishy as a jelly baby although you will have high HP due to Embalming and Shadow aura it will dissapear quickly if you dont pay attention, a few monsters to watch out for are:

Trap Rats
Be careful when fighting these as they are magic immune, if your totems are busy pounding somthing else your defenders can inadvertantly kick them in your direction and they will target you! dont be afraid to run away resummoning your totems is easier then retreving your corpse and be carefull in WSK i have found rooms with multiple packs of them (definately an oh shit moment!)

Mutilators
These brutes have a spread shot that pierces all your minions to hit you try to duck and dive and you can fit through gaps in it, the main problem with these is in the river of flame when they are out of your totems detection range and across part of the river, good luck trying to BtS across when the monster density is so high that there is no space to summon a shadow to use as an anchor

Glowing Blobs
these veterans seem to cause more problems than any of the others (infact they are the only ones i have seen alive and not just an evil eye on the floor) they can kill your defenders, i dont know what they use but i always seem to loose a few when they are around.

Witches
I hate these things sometimes, you`ll have many minions and reanimates about that you wont even hear that noise they make to be aware of them. The first you will probably know is that cackle they make like a deranged ex and "you have died press Esc to continue" as they target a minion and you get caught with the edge of their Pawnce. If you suspect a witch is near use a shadow as bait toward the edge of the screen and the BtS passed as quick as possible (cool down between pounces is about 5 sec) before they come for you, Oh and they will kill RC`d minions too.

Challenges
In this section i will describe how i overcame the challenges it may not be the easiest way but it worked for me.
Anyways:

LC0
The very first challenge you will do and you will do it before venturing into the Den of Evil. READ YOUR STATUE it tells you what to do to summon Volrath the Vile. When you do summon him (at Level 5) do it in an open area with as few natural obsticles as possible and no enemys near (there shouldnt be youve just been leveling up) as as soon as you summon run a short distance upwards, he spawns with a ring of traps that make him invunerable and uses death spiral, this starts at the right and rotates clockwise, there is no let up it just goes round and round so keep moving. Using the Scythe you started with proceed to hit the traps while dodging the death spiral (normal attack will do) each will require a few hits so dont worry if you need to stop attacking and run from his beam, eventually when all traps are down start hitting Volrath himself, keep dodging the beam and dont let it get to close as you will be near him there seems to be a bit of splash near the casting point which will kill you. when he dies he will drop an Apple, some gold and a gold Gem, cube the gem with the apple to get the Harkon Gem. If you die so will Volrath but he wont drop anything and the traps remain and you have to start again, kill the previous totems before reattempting or you just make a lot of hard work for yourself.

LC1
When you reach level 50 head to Tran Athulua to collect your sunstones, you wont have your defenders here so be careful and expect to die once or twice (especially when crossing that very narrow passage), proceed slowly and spam shadows ahead of you to entice small groups of amazons towards you, your totems will shred them, watch out for guided chain if will rip your shadows apart leaving you vunerable, keep dodging it until it dissappears if it hits it will probably hit lock you, dont be afraid to run away, resummoning your totems is easier than retreiving your corpse. when you kill a priestess cube the sunstone with a TP and ID scroll while under the effect of swirlies (lasts 30sec) and cube that with your Sunstone of the Elements to recieve the bonuses, (and being level 50 we benefit straight away!). On a side note you may wish to TP and go to town before cubing sunstonesn there is nothing more annoying than having your inventory and cube open, moving items about and a lone Amazon decides to kill you before you can hit Transmute!

Marco said RC + Defender wont trigger their retaliate nova because RC gave 100% avoid.
Are they still can proc it?

The ultimative version, I think this still work in 2012 version.

Hello... good see new guides, and of 1 totemancer necro...

You don't need max RC, unless you wish sick magic damage(wich btw has an cap in 25000), so RC can be 1 point wonder...You need Nih runes, for buffing the RC duration...

On1 question: If RC gives 100 avoid, how is supposed wich defender spirit does retaliate, wich is only activated by being stuck???
Also, if you plain use inmortal minions, and totems only as support, I think wich VK necromancer build is better with RC as uber, DFT as support and Ennead skill as autocast, cause in Dest you are being hited....I tell you, my old necro can't farm Duncraig, cause necromorbs all time target me, and as RC means 0 def.....some avoid is useful. VK + Def spirit maybe an good idea for crowd control, I don't think in that option before...May wich I give an try to this char....

MUS01 wrote:Hello... good see new guides, and of 1 totemancer necro...

You don't need max RC, unless you wish sick magic damage(wich btw has an cap in 25000), so RC can be 1 point wonder...You need Nih runes, for buffing the RC duration...

On1 question: If RC gives 100 avoid, how is supposed wich defender spirit does retaliate, wich is only activated by being stuck???
Also, if you plain use inmortal minions, and totems only as support, I think wich VK necromancer build is better with RC as uber, DFT as support and Ennead skill as autocast, cause in Dest you are being hited....I tell you, my old necro can't farm Duncraig, cause necromorbs all time target me, and as RC means 0 def.....some avoid is useful. VK + Def spirit maybe an good idea for crowd control, I don't think in that option before...May wich I give an try to this char....

if i am now wrong, defender spirits can use retaliate without being struck as my experience and it should be like that, they use retaliate everytime no need to be struck...

and if you really need buff duration adrenaline ring can help a lot with %200 buff duration + %5dr and 1 skill is good too...

good guide,if i have time i want to try in sp...

edit: i checked now and might be wrong about reteliate part, they ret so often because they dont have def stats maybe... confused

Defenders retaliate is now on attack so it does definately work with RC, tries a variant using dft and howling but kill speed was poor agains MI mobs.
Thanks stoya totally forgot about jewelry will up date that soon. (damn hate my luck sometimes 3 unique ammys dropped before all blood hangmans!!!)

@MUS01 though magic damage cap was 50000? i am using saffires for one simple reason, MO space, Nih requre level 100, saffires 18, a level 60 craft can still have 30 MOs compared to 10.

Thanks for the feed back everyone keep it coming

Arc_Razer wrote:Defenders retaliate is now on attack so it does definately work with RC, tries a variant using dft and howling but kill speed was poor agains MI mobs.
Thanks stoya totally forgot about jewelry will up date that soon. (damn hate my luck sometimes 3 unique ammys dropped before all blood hangmans!!!)

@MUS01 though magic damage cap was 50000? i am using saffires for one simple reason, MO space, Nih requre level 100, saffires 18, a level 60 craft can still have 30 MOs compared to 10.

Thanks for the feed back everyone keep it coming

yes you are right dmg cap is 50k for rc. hope you can find double adrenaline ring for buff duration would be insane %400 lols.. and i really want 1 summ barbie guide too...

Well at least in theory they shouldn't use it, or the DP ray shouldn't kill 1 minion when touches it, but my minions dies with those instant kill effect. I suppose wich DFT ele dam is carried in the retaliate nove. Sill, I think wich totems are wasted in that days....What do you think about that???
Also, RC as uber, with the build in that guide is suicidal...I think wich that necro don't survives Duncraig or TA..
Marco give time ago RC as skill in 1 X-bow...The real need in this moment is RC in Wand(or Stave), as oskill. Totemancer is an weak build now:
-Whithout RC, veterans, or in ubers stages, your minions/totems are raped....Then, you will follow them,
-With RC, your minions survives, BUT the collateral damge(AOE) kills you, giving the same result. Also, if you back a little for dodge damage, etc, minions instead tank the monster wich is attacking them, follow the necro, giving as result an total disaster. We need change a bit the minion AI, or give RC as oskill, cause at moment is an great skill in theory, but in game is very hard to use properly cause game mechanics don't flavour his use.

Also time ago, I suggest to Marco wich change the Def spirit Reataliate mechanic to 1 on attack skill, like DarckWarden model reataliate, with an CD or each 3-4 attacks, but he says me wich he don't modify the skill. Really, we need his words in that.

! Awesome , i like it. I have never thought about combining these items that way Gz for that build

I'd suggest putting [Totemancer] in the title.

For a moment I thought "What, another Fortress guide?"