Golemancer help

[Origin]

I'd like to make a Golemancer and I have some questions about it.

What golem synnergies should i max? I'm planning to use the Iron Golem, will i need points in blood golem for him to stay alive? How about AR? Will hitting things be a problem? Should i max mastery and clay golem? About items, are there any mods that are particularly good when you make an IG?

Also apart from the golem and curses I was thinking of using corpse explosion as it has no synnergies and is hence cheap. How would that build fare vs bosses tho? It would pretty much be only my golem vs the boss since i can't in most cases corpse explode it. Would that work at all or would it be hopeless to think i could take on some bosses?
Is there any other skill i could use instead to attack? The bone spells all have too many synnergies it seems to be used in this build :/

Also I'm wondering if golems suffer the same resistance penalty as characters in nm and hell?

[Mad Mantis]

A pure Golemancer in 1.10......, if you pull it off you are indeed a great Necro. Unless you are going to be making a kind of hybrid, it will be very difficult.

Let's first take a look at the Golems. If you put 20 Skill points into CG, BG, IG, FG and GM then your Golems will be like this:

Clay Golem Level: 20
Attack: 940
Defense: 800
Life: 4590
Life: 8032 (N)
Life: 12622 (H)
Damage: 17-44
Damage: 17-53 (N)
Damage: 26-61 (H)
Attack Bonus: +400
Slows Enemies: 63 percent
Mana Cost: 72

Blood Golem Level: 20
Life: 1005
Life: 1940 (N)
Life: 3185 (H)
Attack: 960
Defense: 820
Converts 138 percent damage to life
Damage: 53-141
Damage: 79-203 (N)
Damage: 88-238 (H)
Mana Cost: 101

Iron Golem Level: 20
Life: 1836
Life: 3570 (N)
Life: 5880 (H)
Damage: 15-41
Damage: 24-66 (N)
Damage: 26-72 (H)
Attack: 980
Defense: 840
Thorns damage
435 percent damage returned
Defense Bonus: +700
Mana Cost: 35

Fire Golem Level: 20
Life: 1878
Life: 3678 (N)
Life: 6078 (H)
Attack: 1020
Defense: 900
Absorbs 88 percent fire damage
Damage: 10-27
Damage: 15-39 (N)
Damage: 18-47 (H)
Fire Damage: 401-449
Holy Fire 34-36
Mana Cost: 240

If IG is alone and taking the full brunt of the assault he will have a hard time surviving. His HP are not that high and neither are his damage and his AR. The only advantage your Golems have are their resists. Like all Necro summons they do not suffer resistance penalties.

The killing of Act Bosses will be very difficult. You only have one Golem and one Merc. I don't think it can be done. But if you are still determent to make a Golemancer, I will see if I can help you come up with a reasonable hybrid build.

[Origin]

hmm i guess i could use dim vision tho to make him stay alive? and as soon as i have one corpse i could amp and atract and corpse explode.
i understand act bosses must be near impossible tho :/
what are the options for hybrids?

[Mad Mantis]

Normal monsters will not be a huge problem. But before you get one corpse you will be bored. The Act Bosses will be impossible.

As for a hybrid. You could get a Poison Necro with a strong Golem. Or a Skellimancer with a strong Golem. Maybe a Bonemancer, but your Bone Skills will suffer a lot.

[Tinfoot]

As a Golemancer going thru it all, Hard Core....

I offer you this... its not easy, its about the Dim Vision spam. In doubt? Lay some on it. That corner seems mighty angry? Spam Dim and run, run, move...


and spam some more Dim Sum.


Your Merc and your Golem is your only line... if it breaks thru - decrep it, slow it down and move. Let it fall on your golem, stay behind.

Don't bother with Iron Golem nor less... its the Fire Golem, for nothing is better than whipping out the fire pecker out if the first goes limp. You canna do that with Iron Golem.

Play Clay - then Blood - then lay down an Iron Golem on a sweet piece of armour as it will last you all up to Meph - at that point, it will die... so spam Clay.

Keep on the Iron Golem (armour) for its just meat - forgo the attack... thats what the Merc is for. And as soon as you get Fire Golem, forget the rest.....

But Dim Vision is the key to playing Golemancer, let them take on the hordes one by bloody one.... if you personally want to attack, then play Bone or Druid shapeshifter ;)

~runs away~

[malathion]

Agreed with above. If you want to have some fun with a unique build, this is for you. If you want to be a cold blooded killing machine, you should find another build.

[Anidem]

Actually your best bet might be the clay golem\holy freeze merc equipped with bramble. rotate between amp and Life tap to keep the merc alive.

[Tinfoot]

I just lost my HCL Golemancer in NM act 4 to Diablo :( but it was my own fault for breaking my own rule of being methodical....

However, I did come across some issues...

1) Really the only Act Boss I had a major problem with was Norm Diablo (and NM Diablo since I died to him :p ) And its with (2) that is a secondary reason that I died (my primary reason is me being dumb... I should have NOT tried to solo Diablo, but surprisingly enough, norm Baal wasn't really that tough, so I got cocky as well as mildly drunk - a fatal combo for Hard Core LMAO)

2) I was using Poison Nova, and thinking about it, if you do want to use an offensive, Bone Spear/Spirit may be more appropiate for a Golemancer. Arreat Summit doesn't list radius for PN, but at a skill lvl 6, it's spread still forced me to get closer to the mobs than I normally would want to... in this case, much to close to Diablo. LOL I always had used Bone Spirit or Spear with other Necros, so this was my first experience with Poison Nova... Others who use PN will better than I be able to tell if the radius does actually increase. If so, next time I use it, I would pump PN alot heavier alot earlier :p

3) I was using Dim Vision for crowd control, which actually did a fair job in keeping crowd control. As mentioned, Golemancers are vunerable with only a Golem (I used FG) and a Merc, so I found very neccessary to Dim everything I could to allow my two goons knock each one in succession. Tell truth, I never used Attract or Confuse to any major degree, so honestly I can't say if Dim Vision is truly the most efficient... but I am going to try Attract my next Golemancer.

4) As mentioned in other threads, Golems are not powerhouses with Damage compared with other sources, and I still found my Pally Merc remaining as my primary punch - it worked out, however, as my FG's holy fire tended to aggro the mobs while he picked them off... but Merc's have a nasty tendency of dying very quickly against Act Bosses. Anidem's suggestion about "clay golem\holy freeze merc equipped with bramble. rotate between amp and Life tap to keep the merc alive" actually seems a very interesting take... I may try that as well in the next incarnation.

5) I had a pretty "standard" stat build, 47 str, base dex, with 3/2 point ratio going into vit and eng respectively. I rarely had to use a mana potion in norm - But NM did indeed eat up the mana, especially if I had to re-cast FG, along with revives and PSN... I was quaffing mana potions regularly in a pack boss battle). I was untwinked, however, so for those with the equipment would naturally have less a mana problem.

All in all, these are just very generic observations as I am not much of a number-cruncher but always found unusual character types fun. I dinna lose much off my necro (tho I do kinda greive for my lost Torch of Iao (sp?)), being "untwinked" and practice of muling often when I found something cool. I would certainly play a Golemancer again although I would take a slightly different approach... Definately not a avatar of total destruction, but aside from my silliness with Diablo, he held himself fairly well.

Next up, gonna make a HC "cleric" pally! :D