Anyone else loving the new magma totem :)

[blast3r]

So the whole 'Generates no threat' thing.. Does that mean you can drop the totems without doing a single point of damage to the mob and it wont target the totem?

Would make life a lot easier if it does!

Yes. Mobs won't target the totems and kill them. It's fantastic for PvE as well as PvP. I was running my newbie DK through Sethekk halls last night and Magmas have definitely improved how fast I can kill groups. One note for PvE-- if a magma totem kills a mob and a player hasn't done any damage to it, you'll get no XP credit for the kill. (Totems are pet-like in this regard, you need to do SOME damage to it).

The technique I was using to powerlevel my DK was:

Grab some mobs, Thunderstorm them to keep them pushed back, pull another group or two, drop 4xMagma totems, then spam chain heal to keep everyone's health topped off while magmas burn away the mass of mobs. TS is important so that all the mobs get some damage from players, even if magma does 90% of the killing.

Anyhow, I'm loving it.

Before TS we had no real way to AOE farm. So glad they gave that spell to us! And the improved magma totem is just sweet.

[pinotnoir]

I thought about using wrath totem with the magma. But will it make dps more than just dropping 5 magmas instead of dropping 4 + wrath? I have no way to test it out unless I install recount. Anyone know the answer to this?

[Hachoo]

Theres no way the wrath will make the other 4 do more additional damage than just dropping a 5th magma totem... if a magma totem conservatively does 600 damage per tick without wrath, and say 650 damage per tick with it (probably not even that much extra), then dropping 1 extra magma would be 600 extra damage per tick, but dropping a wrath instead would be 200 extra damage per tick. Even if wrath raises the damage of magma by double that you're still better off dropping an extra magma

[Dominian]

Theres no way the wrath will make the other 4 do more additional damage than just dropping a 5th magma totem... if a magma totem conservatively does 600 damage per tick without wrath, and say 650 damage per tick with it (probably not even that much extra), then dropping 1 extra magma would be 600 extra damage per tick, but dropping a wrath instead would be 200 extra damage per tick. Even if wrath raises the damage of magma by double that you're still better off dropping an extra magma

So you drop 5 magmas and just stand there?

Or do you actualy chain lightning/thunderstorm/whatever

[Varmon]

Magma totem now gets 10% of your spellpower per pulse, so ToW will add 28 damage and +3% crit to the pulse of each totem. Personally I would always drop a ToW as i'm casting spells and what not...but in a situation where your just AOE farming non elites and casting spells isn't worth it, all magma would be more DPS

[emesis]

Post trimmed for redundancy with previously expressed comments.

If AoE farming and doing nothing else when magma is down, it's better to drop 5 magmas.

If instancing/casting other spells during the time, ToW + 4 magmas is much better.

I don't really AoE farm, so I just changed my fire totem drop to 1 ToW + 4 magmas with the 3.0.8 patch.

[Hachoo]

Theres no way the wrath will make the other 4 do more additional damage than just dropping a 5th magma totem... if a magma totem conservatively does 600 damage per tick without wrath, and say 650 damage per tick with it (probably not even that much extra), then dropping 1 extra magma would be 600 extra damage per tick, but dropping a wrath instead would be 200 extra damage per tick. Even if wrath raises the damage of magma by double that you're still better off dropping an extra magma

So you drop 5 magmas and just stand there?

Or do you actualy chain lightning/thunderstorm/whatever

I play 4 shamans not 5, and if I am strictly trying to AoE down mobs, which is the situation I described, I would much rather have the extra magma totem than a ToW. I want max aoe damage spread across all mobs if I'm trying to AoE. I don't drop magmas unless I'm purposefully trying to aoe something down for a reason and I don't PvP. The only time I use magma totems as of now even post patch is the bats in drak'tharon and prince keleseth. (and liberally in CoS)

[Dominian]

Theres no way the wrath will make the other 4 do more additional damage than just dropping a 5th magma totem... if a magma totem conservatively does 600 damage per tick without wrath, and say 650 damage per tick with it (probably not even that much extra), then dropping 1 extra magma would be 600 extra damage per tick, but dropping a wrath instead would be 200 extra damage per tick. Even if wrath raises the damage of magma by double that you're still better off dropping an extra magma

So you drop 5 magmas and just stand there?

Or do you actualy chain lightning/thunderstorm/whatever

I play 4 shamans not 5, and if I am strictly trying to AoE down mobs, which is the situation I described, I would much rather have the extra magma totem than a ToW. I want max aoe damage spread across all mobs if I'm trying to AoE. I don't drop magmas unless I'm purposefully trying to aoe something down for a reason and I don't PvP. The only time I use magma totems as of now even post patch is the bats in drak'tharon and prince keleseth. (and liberally in CoS)

Well i agree with dropping 4 out of 4 or 5 out of 5 if the point is strictly to aoe

But usualy when i aoe i need to healmyself aswell and tow counts towards healing done aswell!