Golems

[Gaza0469]

I have only used a BoneMancer before, I am going to create my very first Zookeeper.

The aim is to have in Hell 5-10 revives available whom I will ressurect every 2-3 minutes, 6-8 mages to help out the revives, 1x Iron Golem to act as tank , and an Act 2 NM Offensive Merc to amp up their damages. In the background I will be casting Iron Maiden to help troops.

I want to build a super golem, and was thinking that Iron Golems sound the best.

(1) Do Golems go with you if you exit a game and make a new game? Or do u have to re-spawn them for each game?

(2) Which Item mods are the most desirable? What are good items to turn into iron golems?

My build will look like this :

20 Skeleton Mastery
3 Raise Skeleton ( only to help level up early on)
20 Skeleton Mage ( will be using 4-6 mages later on)
5 Sumon Resist
5 Revives (main source of cannon fodder)

10 Iron Maiden

Rest of points in Golem

something like :

20 Iron Golem
15 Golem Mastery
1 in each of Blood, Clay and Fire

Does this sound viable?

Thanx for all help

[Myrakh-2]

(1) Do Golems go with you if you exit a game and make a new game?

Iron Golem stays, until
- it dies
- you cast another golem
- the game randomly discards it
- you still have a skillpoint in IG

[Gaza0469]

Iron Golem stays, until
- it dies
- you cast another golem
- the game randomly discards it
- you still have a skillpoint in IG

Thanks Myrakh.

sorry, but what is IG?

So the general rule is they stay till they die, however battlenet can get rid of them occassionally - its just that I dont want to waste elite items if they die easily, or if they didnt goto the next game.

Has anyone maxed out a golem? are they worth spending points in ?

[Myrakh-2]

sorry, but what is IG?

Iron Golem.

Has anyone maxed out a golem? are they worth spending points in ?

I say 1 point in clay to use and iron as a prereq for revives only, but that's me.

IG isn't the greatest uber mega ultra hyper killer skill, but I believe there are a few people using it. So I guess "viable" is more a matter of how much resources/time/skillpoints you are willing to sacifice for a themed build like that.

[Kendu]

With this sort of build you will be facing an uphill battle. IM (Iron Maiden) is not nearly as effective for necros as it is for oblivion knights. IG (Iron Golem) is only effective if you pick a good item, but their thorns aura is nearly useless. One good thing about IG is that i think you can make an elemental immune one, but then it owuld not be able to kill. I don't think you can really call this build a zookeeper because that would imply having a zoo of minions which in your case would be 12-19 minions. If you want a challenge then this will certainly be one because you will have trouble killing stuff.

If you want to try a different type of summoning necro, other then skellimancer, then try making a Lord of Mages, or a some kind of hybrid. You could also try a themed elemental build of Poison/Mages, use fire golem and doom merc, and maybe full trang set. That build could be good if you could get your hands on the new Infinity runeword.

[rickcarson]

If you want to try a different type of summoning necro, other then skellimancer, then try making a Lord of Mages, or a some kind of hybrid. You could also try a themed elemental build of Poison/Mages, use fire golem and doom merc, and maybe full trang set. That build could be good if you could get your hands on the new Infinity runeword.

Well, other than the Iron Maiden and Large dumpage of points into Iron golem, its a pretty standard Lord of Mages.

I wouldn't spend 3 points on skellies, I'd just pay the 3k gold to get a +2 wand instead of the +1 wand you start with. Spend a tiny bit more and you could probably get one with + Amp.

If twinking, use the Infernal set instead.

For a Zookeeper, try dumping massive points into Revive after you have maxed Skeleton Mastery and gotten Magi to 19. Though I like to put a point into Revive at level 30.

So the basic outline at level 30 is Max Skeleton Mastery, one point in all other summons except Fire Golem. Use whatever random curse your best gear gives you (eg Confusion, Decrepify, Amp or whatever).

Spare points into Mages. Once you hit level 30, alternate between Mages and Revives. Still using whatever random curse your gear gives you.

Your Iron Golem will be better than your Gumby (one point in each) so you will use IG most of the time, but against bosses he'll die, so make sure you have Gumby hotkeyed. If you can get about +6-7 to summons then Gumby starts getting as good as Iron Golem, so switch over.

If you miss the slow effect, make the Iron Golem out of a cheap weapon with +1-2 cold damage.

In normal and nightmare Mages beat everything except Bosses and other area attack elemental damage types. Gumby + crushing blow Revives beats bosses.

You will have a hard time getting started in Hell, so its good if you have other people to generate the first corpses. Of course, if you're playing with other people, they won't be happy with you if you have 40+ minions running around all over the place.

[Dazuni]

The way that iron golem works is that as if they are holding the item that spawn them. Effectively, in 1.10, this means that you can make Iron golem out of aura providing item and they will give you, and other minion the aura.

Yes the cost of for such is usually high, and the death rate of iron golem usually means that you will not be able to have such golem with you all the time. So lets just sees it as a extra aura for necromancer. That is until you see that umber cheap rune word that gives you meditation. I think it is called insight. Ral tir tal sol.

Now on to the issue of keeping the golem alive, I think there was a way to make iron golem umber in 1.09, that is to create it in 8 players game, using good armour and have a druid oak sages on, this is make iron golem with x000000000 hit points. I am not sure if this trick would still work in 1.10, but I will let someone else take over on this.

Other wise you just have to keep iron out of the way. bone wall is a skill that you can block it from the mob, but keeping it out of harm usually take even more effort.

[Pherdnut]

To sum up. None of the Golems are good killers, although I imagine an IG with crushing blow and a high attack bonus might be kinda helpful for taking down bosses but mods like that can be expensive. People say they aren't very survivable either, but if you invest a few points in Golem Mastery it does add a lot to their health and plus skill items will continue to upgrade its health whereas the synergies won't. The best deal is probably still 1 point in clay and golem mastery though. Gumby dies sometimes but he is easy to ressumon and remains an effective tank with minimal point investment as long as you're getting a few plus skills in your summons.

Using Insight for an IG sounds cool. However, I think for most summoners a more ideal combo would be to have a Prayer Merc with it since this will both heal your army with prayer and the synergy bonus to meditation while recharging your mana at an astounding rate, allowing you to CE and Revive at your leisure. What you might want to try is putting a few more points into mastery for more HP and whichever golem synergy adds to attack (Clay, I think) so you can use cheap weapon runewords like Black to give your IG some boss hitting power. You might want some extra skellies for that build though, since you will be losing a fair bit of physical power from using a caster-oriented polearm for your Merc.

[Gaza0469]

Thanks to everyone for their feedback.

Gumby - thats the clay golem isnt it?

I might just put 10 points there, and 10 in mastery.

I will use the remaining points to amp up my revives + curses.



So no one has ever made an effective golem? They all die easily?

Thats pretty crappy.

LOL

The aim was to have a tank golem that could get the first few bodies, then I could just revive the bodies and wouldnt need the golem again.

[rickcarson]

Thanks to everyone for their feedback.

Gumby - thats the clay golem isnt it?

Correct.

I might just put 10 points there, and 10 in mastery.

Better would be 12 in Gumby, 8 in Mastery

So no one has ever made an effective golem? They all die easily?

Oh no, its quite easy to make a practically unkillable Golem.

Thats pretty crappy.

They are crappy, but not because of their defense. Gumby is very very good against the Prime Evils. But as a distraction. You and your merc actually have to provide the killing power.

The aim was to have a tank golem that could get the first few bodies,

Tank, yes, absolutely.

... get the first few bodies... umm... maybe not.

then I could just revive the bodies and wouldnt need the golem again.

I like the Golem because its one more thing the monsters have to get through to get to me.

Your plan with the Revives is good, but you need to realise that every now and again (say, once every 15-30 minutes) they will all disappear all at once.... even if you didn't summon them all at the same time.

So while Revives are 'tëh übër', you need to have a backup plan for creating bodies in place all the time.