Golem

[Michael Nuggets]

im not sure what i should get an iron golem or a clay golem

i want the iron golem to be made with a perfect pride for the concentration aura (level 20) so my skellies will rock but then when he dies ill lose a valuable resource and a maxed golem mastery with 1 point into IG the golem only has 7k health do you think he will die often?

[JayhawkFan]

sooner or later he will. a perfect pride is exspensive enough. why dont u put the pride on ur merc. auras stack on him.

[THRiLL KiLL]

i found the best combo with auras is:

beast on the nec (akol for prebuff)

and infinity on the merc.


i found the killing speed with pride, alot slower then with infinity (in hell)

[Michael Nuggets]

so i should give the pride to my merc and then say make a mana golem or should i go clay and forget the mana?

and what is AKOL?

[SirBeetle]

I'd stick with clay or make cheap insight iron golems. Clay is useful for it's mass health and it slows targets. For the merc, go infinity or insight. I tested with pride a lot and I absolutely hated it.

AOKL is Arm of King Leoric, I absolutely love the wand. You either go with a beast or aokl.

[NumtyDoo]

the problem with pride is that once you get to hell your greatest killing speed comes from merc getting 1st body and you blasting CE chains. pride makes skellies stronger, but nerfs your merc pretty bad so that 1st kill takes longer.

Infinity is my personal favorite because it has high damage and crushing blow. Conviction from infinity helps merc and skellies hit more often, almost doubles mage damage if your using mages, and boosts CE damage close to 50%.

I would take an insight over a pride because of the damage, your merc is still gonna get that first kill faster with insight than with pride, and the mana boost will help in casting lots of CE.

[Dirkw]

Whatever the gear on your merc is, getting the first few corpses should never be a problem. Just move to the cold plains and take down a few fallen. After that, raising an army with an Iron Golem made out of insight is a walk in the park.

I've tried making IG out of a law bringer as well, but the sanctuary aura doesn't really do that much and the knockback is typically a little redundant IMO, seeing as how teleport + curses give enough crowd control already.

Having said that, Infinity does a lot more for your army than Pride ever will. Besides that, it will give you a good source of crushing blow, especially together with guillaumes. This makes killing any boss or monster very much faster.
Next to that, the Conviction just opens up a lot of possiblities. While it is true that for instance Souls aren't naturally the best revives, when you've got 20 of them spamming their Lightning attacks supported by conviction and lower resist... It really, really owns. In the same manner, Skeleton Mages will be way more effective at taking down physical immunes when supported by conviction.

[Hellblade]

the ONLY iron golem with a useful aura that's least likely to die is a 45+resist all 400+defense ethereal Exile.

But you'd want 20 points in Golem Mastery and BLood golem just to be sure you're not wasting the valuable item

[Dirkw]

And even then, you would only have to die once to Nihlatak's CE (which just happened to me today), and bam, gone is your golem.

20 points in golem mastery would also only be needed if your +skills are lacking. Otherwise, the golem won't die, unless it's because of IM or very careless play. I have found that the IG isn't ever noticably damaged during combat, let alone close to death. This comes from experience running WSK, Nihlatak area, and all other parts of act 5, either in 1p or 8p games.

the ONLY iron golem with a useful aura that's least likely to die is a 45+resist all 400+defense ethereal Exile.

The one that's least likely to is always just.. one ;)

[THRiLL KiLL]

Whatever the gear on your merc is, getting the first few corpses should never be a problem. Just move to the cold plains and take down a few fallen. After that, raising an army with an Iron Golem made out of insight is a walk in the park.

I've tried making IG out of a law bringer as well, but the sanctuary aura doesn't really do that much and the knockback is typically a little redundant IMO, seeing as how teleport + curses give enough crowd control already.

Having said that, Infinity does a lot more for your army than Pride ever will. Besides that, it will give you a good source of crushing blow, especially together with guillaumes. This makes killing any boss or monster very much faster.
Next to that, the Conviction just opens up a lot of possiblities. While it is true that for instance Souls aren't naturally the best revives, when you've got 20 of them spamming their Lightning attacks supported by conviction and lower resist... It really, really owns. In the same manner, Skeleton Mages will be way more effective at taking down physical immunes when supported by conviction.

add beast to the mix and there is a world of difference =) you will see that the skellys hit more often and take things down faster.. i wish i could see what the hit fpa changes for them =)

[Dirkw]

Beast is nice :) I just feel like I don't really need more damage from the skeletons, since telestomping instakills pretty much every single target already. After that, it's just a mess and CE finishes off anything that my army, for some reason, won't kill.

I feel that in one player games, Beast would just be overkill and in multiplayer games, there's bound to be some players that have some damage enhancing auras with them. Also, enhanced damage will be less and less effective per point as you get more of it, so yeah I'd just prefer a more sizable army than another aura.

The only reason I would consider using beast is the IAS, since it also works for mages, but I'm not sure how much impact it would eventually have.

[Hellblade]

have to agree with dirk, once you think it's safe then your time to die is at your door step

[NumtyDoo]

I have done the same. I used to use beast, but found that I could 1 hit kill everything without it up to a 4 player game. So it really wasn't helping at all except for Baal might die 1 second faster. So I switched to HoTO. The plus skills for CE range and keeping prebuff skellies from poofing, fcr for tele, and resists are hard to beat.

[glisses]

if i reli hafta make an iron golem i would make an insight out of it. i won't feel that much of a pang when i lose it.

only when you're on ladder.

[sangfagel]

the ONLY iron golem with a useful aura that's least likely to die is a 45+resist all 400+defense ethereal Exile.

But you'd want 20 points in Golem Mastery and BLood golem just to be sure you're not wasting the valuable item

LOL!
Just look at states:

15% Chance To Cast Level 5 Life Tap On Striking - useless and even annoying
Level 13-16 Defiance Aura When Equipped (varies) - - that´s good
+2 To Offensive Auras (Paladin Only) - useless
+30% Faster Block Rate - useless
Freezes Target - disaster
+220-260% Enhanced Defense (varies) - ok
Replenish Life +7 - ok
+5% To Maximum Cold Resist - perfectly useless on golem since they have no resist cap.
+5% To Maximum Fire Resist - useless as well
25% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items - useless on golem
Repairs 1 Durability in 4 Seconds - useless on golem

... and you must pay for it Vex + Ohm + Ist + Dol, which you are going to lose since it WILL die.

Look at it:

+180-220% Enhanced Damage (varies) - doesn´t matter
+50% Damage To Undead - doesn´t matter
50% Chance Of Crushing Blow - rocks!
All Resistances +20 - rocks!
+25 To Strength - doesn´t matter
+2 To Masteries (Barbarian Only) - doesn´t matter
+3 To Mace Masteries (Barbarian Only) - doesn´t matter

If you socket this weapon (Bloodtree Stump) with +15 all resists jewel, its resists will be as follow:

Poison - absolute immunity (can´t be broken)
Lightning - absolute immunity
Cold - 95% (assuming 60% from SR)
Fire - 95%

This thing is as cheap that you can buy all mule account of it for price of ONE exile and still keep your Ohm and Vex runes for better use :rolleyes:

[LozHinge the Unhinged]

My summonancer is having fun with a Windhammer IG. E.g.

Windhammer
Ogre Maul
Two-Hand Damage: 251 to 346
Durability: 42 of 60
Required Strength: 225
Required Level: 68
Mace Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x197c78aa
+227% Enhanced Damage
60% Increased Attack Speed
150% Damage to Undead
50% Chance of Crushing Blow
33% Chance to cast Level 22 Twister on striking

Never a dull moment there! :grin::thumbsup:

[sangfagel]

saknar resists ... that´s it^^

[i am war]

if you are just general mfing then use:
head:shako/ptopaz
amulet:2necro skill/other useful mods
body:enigma
weapon:hoto
sheild:spirit
switch:cta+spirit/lidless
gloves:trangs for fcr
belt:arachs for fcr/1 skill
boots: war travs for mf
rings: 2x 10%fcr/other usefull mods

also i use blood golems for general mfing as they heal you if you get damaged, and if i mf baal or other act bosses i make an iron golem out of an ik maul for the crushing blow, it helps killing a tonne, also if my ig dies il use a clay for slowing effect, but blood is most useful for general uses..

theres my 2 cents :p

[Michael Nuggets]

well still my question remains unanswered i ask Iron Golem or Clay golem

[NumtyDoo]

I don't have a mana issue so I use clay. Slow from clay golem is nice on bosses. IG requires that you max golem mastery, Clay only takes one point freeing up points for DV, Mages, or bone armor. After +skills a 1 point clay golem will have more HP than an IG with maxed mastery, so less casting. I guess it depends on equipment providing enough mana for your play style, if so, go clay, if not, get a mana golem.

[chien]

Insight Iron Golem is good. Make it in crappy polearm and make sure he won't kill himself under IM :) I only have 1 pt in Golem mastery (before +skill gear). Unlimited mana for teleporting and CE is nice :) He survives pretty well so far.

Chien

[Michael Nuggets]

hmmm you know what i think ill go for the mana golem so thanks guys

[NumtyDoo]

keep in mind that your mana golem will die or poof now and again, so you will need to keep a couple insights as backup.

[paul leung]

although i have made many necro,i never use ig,just wonder what happen to ig when exit game?or do u need to do something so it can be carry to next game?

[THRiLL KiLL]

it acts just like your merc.. i doesnt poof till you die..

however sometimes it poofs for no reason

[chien]

Will it poof even I have nigma to regroup the army from time to time? I haven't experienced once yet so far.

Chien

[NumtyDoo]

I don't know how often it happens, but there are reports on the forums of peoples Ig's randomly poofing for no reason, even with tele. Of course he will die now and again, and he dies every time you do.

[Michael Nuggets]

are insights expensive? for the IG?

[chien]

No insight is cheap. It is just annoying to find another 4OS voulge (or burn another socket quest).

Chien

[jasonmazzy]

ok I have a fishy, so not sure where to put my points. lvl 52 I believe (maxed skellmast skellies 1 point in prereqs added rest into ce which isnt maxed) I made an iron golem out of an almost used up eth baranars, and norm baal killed his *** quickly. totally pissed I used that. but w/ all my + skills its only 6 mast 6 iron golem. thought he would be tougher tho.

[Greyeagle]

ok I have a fishy, so not sure where to put my points. lvl 52 I believe (maxed skellmast skellies 1 point in prereqs added rest into ce which isnt maxed) I made an iron golem out of an almost used up eth baranars, and norm baal killed his *** quickly. totally pissed I used that. but w/ all my + skills its only 6 mast 6 iron golem. thought he would be tougher tho.

First, don't expect an iron golem to kill things. It won't. The most useful purpose I've heard of for iron golems is to provide an aura, such as insight, or add some crushing blow. Crushing blow weapons are fairly common, and some are junky enough that you would just sell them anyway.

Second, iron golem won't be real durable until you get some good +skills or a high level of golem mastery, or both. Bosses in particular can be tough on a golem, as can oblivion knights who cast iron maiden. Thus the suggestions of low damage voulge's and such.

Also, points in the iron golem skill won't raise the life of the golem at all.

[chien]

I only have 1 point each in IG and GM. I do have ok +skills (+16 with gears). So, they are @ lvl17 now. My IG died once due to my careless play in CS runs. He is quickly surrounded by Urdars or whatever baddies with big CB and killed :( I've done many boss runs (baal/meph...), my IG never got killed so far as I have 14 Skeletons/12 mages/merc/sometimes some revives around.

If you have enough +skills, I think I can live with 1 pt in IR/GM for using a insight IG. If you want to make IG with an expensive RW/item, you might want to make it stronger.

my 2 cents :)

Chien

[Michael Nuggets]

so i should put only 1 point into IG and 20 into GM?

[Greyeagle]

so i should put only 1 point into IG and 20 into GM?

If you want to increase the life of the iron golem that is the typical point investment. That combined with +skills and a low damage weapon means that you will have more time to react to iron maiden.

[Michael Nuggets]

oh ok thanks i thought i should put 20 into ig then 1 into gm so thanks i could haveing messed up my golem huh