Fire Totems

Fire totems mostly focus on dealing additional damage through fire. Most totems in the fire line attack one or more targets with fire damage. The key to using the right fire totem at the right time is understanding what is nearby. A lot of fire totems will draw aggro of things that you aren't engaged into. If they're hostile (name is red) and enter the radius then they'll be attacked. If it is a pulsing type, anything within the radius will be aggro'd. In situations where you don't want this, like boss fights, you may wish to use passive fire totems that boost damage or increase resistance or may just not want to use any at all.

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Totem Tactics/List

The following is a list of totems with helpful tips and tactics to get the most out of them. It's really good reading for any Shaman!

Searing Totem: Attacks one hostile (not neutral unless engaged) enemy for 9 to 11 (rank 1) to 50 to 66 damage (rank 7). This totem is mostly for single target direct damage. It attacks one thing and one thing only within it’s radius of 20 yards. It gains 8% of your total spell damage and can be helpful and dangerous. During boss fights it can do a lot of damage if the Frost Resistance Totem isn’t needed and there are no adds in that fight that need to be crowd controlled. In PvP often times players don’t bother to destroy it while it does some really nice extra damage. It is however a lot of times really dangerous. It will attack anything hostile; including things you currently aren’t engaged. So be sure to only use it in controlled circumstances.

• Duration: 30 to 60 seconds
• Cooldown: Global
• Radius: 20 Yards
• Obtained: Level 10
• Ranks: 7 – Level(s) 10, 20, 30, 40 , 50, 60, 69

Fire Nova Totem: It attacks within a ten yard radius of the totem. It is only used against multiple enemies but does do some pretty good damage. It does fire damage and can be helpful whenever you are fighting something solo with nothing around that may run within the totems attack radius. The totem only attacks once so place it down when you know it’s going to hit something. Does 48-56 (rank 1) to 396 to 442 (rank 5) damage. Pretty decent, although one shot.

• Duration: 5 seconds
• Cooldown: 15 seconds
• Radius: 10 yards
• Obtained: Level 12
• Ranks: 5 – Level(s) 12,22,32,42,52

Magma Totem: Similar to the Fire Nova Totem, the Magma Totem attacks anything in an 8 yard radius every 2 seconds for 20 seconds. It causes A LOT of threat and doesn’t do a lot o damage. It’s not that good except when you know a stealthed Rogue around or against an enemy you already have considerable aggro from. It does between 22 (rank 1) to 75 (rank 4) damage. Doesn’t get an upgrade in the expansion, so it’s pretty bleh outside of unhiding Rogues.

• Duration: 20 seconds
• Cooldown: Global
• Radius: 8 yards
• Obtained: Level 26
• Ranks: 4 – Level(s) 26,36,46,56

Frost Resistance Totem: Very simple totem, within 20 yards it gives your party members extra resistance to frost. Starts at 30, goes to 45, and then ends up at 60. Useful for encounters against frost based enemies. Before the expansion this would be very useful for Naxxramas. Currently instances like Serpantshrine Cavern can find a lot of use out of this.

• Duration: 1 minute
• Cooldown: Global
• Radius: 20 yards
• Obtained: Level 24
• Ranks: 3 – Level(s) 24,38,54

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Flametongue Totem: This totem enchants the main-hand weapons of all players within its radius to do additional fire damage. It’s very useful for Paladins and any melee that can’t enchant their own weapons. Rogues find it useless as they would just rather use their own poison. While out soloing it can provide more damage then some of the other fire based totems though. It does start out at 6.4 to 19.6 and works its way up to 19.4 to 59.7. The damage it adds is based on the weapon swing speed. They must be in your party for the effect to happen.

• Duration: 2 minutes
• Cooldown: Global
• Radius: 20 yards
• Obtained: Level 28
• Ranks: 5 – Level(s) 28,38,48,58,67

Totem of Wrath: A very useful totem that came with patch 2.0. It increases the critical hit and chance to hit of any spells inside the radius (and in your party) by 3%. That’s very useful for instances inside of a caster heavy group. It’s also good for builds that rely on a lot of magic, although while solo you may find some of the other fire based totems doing more damage then this can add. PvP wise it’s useful to plan down near a caster in your party while they are casting.

• Duration: 2 minutes
• Cooldown: Global
• Radius: 20 yards
• Obtained: Level 50 (Talent)
• Ranks: 1 – Level(s) 50

Fire Elemental Totem: Requires level seventy and is on a 20 minute cooldown. It prevents Earth Elemental Totem from being cast. The totem summons a fire elemental that will fight with you (it has a Fire Nova that it’ll cast a few times that does about 700ish damage). It’s useful in some situations, but like the Earth Elemental Totem it’ll attack anything you are actively fighting OR any hostiles in the area. Not only that, but it’ll die if the totem is killed. They also have low HP. Useful for a quick, kinda cheap extra DPS although you may often find another totem to be useful. Good in PvP to annoy people, even if they can kill it really quickly they’ll want to ignore it while it does a good bit of damage.

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