Making your costly Aura Iron Golem more survivable against Iron Maiden (Q/A Pls Read)

[XtremeTiramisu]

Bringing your whole army including your beloved choice of an aura iron golem down to Chaos Santuary or to Worldstone keep level 3 can be a headache sometime becouse you often run into numerous obelivion mages that casts iron maiden to your whole army.

If your costly iron golem is lucky enough not to die instantly by iron maiden and your reaction is quick enough to teleport away to a safe zone follow by opening a tp to send your guys back for healing, you may be lucky enough to safe your costly iron golem. But doing this every once often can still be quite risky and it's not quite effective enough to make your iron golem more survivable against iron maiden.


Let's suppose the job of an iron golem is not considered to be one of the damage dealers in the army but more as a supporter for its beneficial aura such as Meditation from Insight. I personally have my iron golem made from a "NON-Ethereal" CV Insight not only becouse the cost is low but the weapon damage is also significantly lower than eth counterpart. Why have I chosen to make an iron golem from a non-eth insight? Let's discuss the details in the next section.


Now here is one question I would like all of us to join together and discuss about:

Definition of Iron Maiden:
Damage dealt is damage received; % damage returned to the attacker which is iron golem in this case.

Suppose we make an Insight golem from a "non-ethereal" NORMAL class polearm such as a Volge or Scythe, etc. that gives 4 open sockets. Non-ethereal normal class polearms mean the least amount of damage dealt and least amount of damage received back to your beloved costly iron golem. Is this theory correct?


I think this theory I've just written is correct but I cannot be 100% positively sure without you guys' agreement. I'm 100% open for discussion and I would like your thoughts on this.


Much appreciated,
XT

[Poppis]

You are right.

Voulge is the best weapon for aura golems with 13,5 average damage.

EDIT. Of course Voulge can only get 4 sockets, so if you were refering to using Obedience, then Scythe would be your choice.

[XtremeTiramisu]

Thanks Poppis.
I've my Insight iron golem made from an "eth" 4 sock voulge. I know that non-eth voulge would be even better for less damage dealt and less damage received from iron maiden but I just like my iron golem to appear Ethereal, god like ;)
I'll have my golem mastery maxed and with plus skill items from my necro, it should be able to survive under iron madien while attacking becouse of its low dmg and high life.

As for Obedience, I've made one in an Eth 5os Thresher and my Merc is using it. Obedience is a great Merc weapon but not a good choice for iron golem becouse it doesn't give an aura and its high dmg will likely make you lose your iron golem due to iron maiden.

I'll play more with my current iron golem and let you guys know how it goes under iron madien condition.

[Poppis]

Ah mixed up Obedience and Pride.

And Pride is 4 socket too... :ashamed:

Anyway, I would love to hear if the "Insight"voulge golem can survive IM.

PS. I started thinking about this low damage Insight weapon thingy, and was wondering. AFAIK, if an item is "low quality"(cracked, damaged etc) then it cant get the same amount of sockets as the normal quality item, right? Anybody know how many sockets you lose there, is it just max-1? If so, then could a low quality Scythe be even better choice. Im not sure how much the different low quality prefixes lower the damage, but just 2 points lower max damage would bring Scythe to 13 average damage, thus making it the best mana golem weapon.:thumbup:

And then just keep rerolling it until you get lvl 17 Meditation, 200% ED, 180% Attack Rating and +1 Critical Strike.:crazyeyes:

[XtremeTiramisu]

Yeah, I rerolled 3 times to get level 16 meditation and 201%ED with 1 critical strike if i remember correctly before use it to make my Ethereal Voulge Insight iron golem. The weapon max dmg is under 100, like 93 or roughly there. An non ethereal normal class 4os polearm would be an even better choice but I just like my iron golem to look god like as in the meaning of the word "Ethereal". ;)

Either a Voulge or Scythe gives lower dmg in normal class polearms. Please note that Voulge gives max socket of 4 but Scythe gives max socket of "5". So if you want to use socket quest to socket a white or grey eth polearm, you'll end up getting a 5os Scythe, and item level applies in this case. The horadric cube info page has info on low quality items and I don't think low quality items can get max socket.

Another note I want everyone to be awared of is don't use socket quest to socket a white or grey eth polearm that you found in normal difficulty. I forgot about the background on item level relative to its max # of sockets. I wasted 1 socket quest I've to socket an Eth Voulge that I found in normal difficulty and I only got 3 sockets. The Eth Voulge that I found in NM gave me 4 sockets.

This is the same for any open socket flail that you would find in normal and nightmare difficulty. Don't bother to look for any 4os crystal sword or flail in normal diff as it will only have max of 3 sockets.

XT