[3.14] Flame Golem 101 - Complete Guide To Golemancy, ✔️All Bosses Down, ✔️Necro, ✔️Elementalist

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Damdidou wrote:

Hi i wanted to know if the build was Solo Self Found friendly because i want to play this build in SSF (hardcore maybe) for legion

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This build relies on stacking unique jewels that aren't vendor rewards so IMO I wouldn't say it is SSF friendly. Not to say you can't play it in SSF but it would almost certainly be your 2nd or 3rd build. No reason not to keep your eye out for the Primordial jewels that make this build tick and if you do manage to drop / chance the 3 jewels to make the Anima Stone and then a few extra Primordial Harmonies then you can definitely give the build a shot. Until that point you can definitely play a Necro Spectre build using Solarguard Spectre's and then transition to golems when (or more likely if) you get the requisite jewels.

It is fairly Hardcore friendly seeing as the golems are pretty much un-killable and you don't really have to worry about reflect at all. Boss damage with TV spectres is decent. You don't have any leech mechanics so you have to try and focus on just not getting hit most of the time but with a high level temp chains that tends to be pretty doable as long as you are already aware of boss mechanics. It's not a massive slow on bosses but it is godly for normal mobs and the bosses are still slowed enough that dodging some attacks becomes easier.

Build can be made fairly tanky if you want to focus on that but the normal league variant is probably going to have 8k - 9k EHP assuming a reasonable level of gear. The ice golem variant may be a little safer if you are able to get a abyss jewel with #% chance for minions to taunt on attack since ice golems only use attacks. Flame golems can make use of #% chance to blind on spell hit though or you can craft shaped gloves with a global chance to blind and then something like your Storm Brand + CoH setup will probably maintain a fairly high blind uptime.

The typical build does rely on having a Skin of the Loyal in the correct colours (well, a few variations) which I don't know if that would be achievable in SSF. A high ES Vaal Regalia does pretty well though, you'll just lose some golem damage / life with not having a +1. Although maybe you could craft your own ES regalia with +1 if you do a lot of crafting.

TLDR: Not especially SSF friendly. Hardcore viable if you know what you are doing with minion builds.

Hello :)

Harvey said is well. Build relies on so many hard to self find unique items, that I cant really recommend it for SSF. Part of leveling can maybe be used as it relies on zombies and Specters, which you can get from passives. If you happen to have Bones of Ullr in SSF already, you can try to maybe cook some kind of summoner from the build base.

For HC, I can't really recommend it but some players have tried it and reached even lvls over 95+. However they have heavily modified the build, so default setup could be too low on defense for HC. However I have heard that occultist variant is very relaxing to play as MF farmer in HC, if you don't enter too high maps. You can run any mods and focus mostly on collecting loot thanks to huge ES regen and 10k+ EHP (HP + ES)

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Chris just confirmed Necro Aegis has just been moved on the passive tree.

RathPith op confirmed!

[Edit: At what point does adding minion life as an actual link start becoming worthwhile?? Especially on something like an elder helm. Minion dmg + minion life + conc effect or +3 might actually be a viable alternative to just using a skin of the loyal. ].

Hey :)

Wow, that's great to hear! \o/

Do you mean at what point minion life gem would win other support in DPS boost with new Rathpith?

Normally minion life support is taken to make sure that Specs stay alive in boss fights even when they are not max tier. However with Soul Weaver, Necromancer doesn't really need the support that much.

You can already swam Golems to helmet and Specs to armor, but Golems scale easier with levels of gem. Especially if you happen to have +1 corrupted Sotl, I would not swap them. With Tabula rasa or normal Sotl, you can check with PoB which setup gives more total DPS from the Specs.

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Timmeh519 wrote:

Much love. <3

<3 <3

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mika2salo wrote:

Normally minion life support is taken to make sure that Specs stay alive in boss fights even when they are not max tier. However with Soul Weaver, Necromancer doesn't really need the support that much.

You can already swam Golems to helmet and Specs to armor, but Golems scale easier with levels of gem. Especially if you happen to have +1 corrupted Sotl, I would not swap them. With Tabula rasa or normal Sotl, you can check with PoB which setup gives more total DPS from the Specs.

Oh yes, I think I mostly thought that having the flame golems in a 7-link helm of Conc Effect + Minion Damage + Minion Life instead of having them in a Skin of the Loyal. It likely wouldn't be as good as a corrupted +1 Skin of the Loyal but it might be far more easily attainable in league for players not rolling in currency. I'm sure SotL will pull ahead once you start talking about lvl 4 empowers and 21/20 flame golems but again, not everybody ever gets to that point of gear. It does potentially then open up the chest slot as well to some other options.

Hopefully the ES changes to items mentioned in the Dev Manifesto aren't too severe. Since the Skin of the Loyal requires having high ES elsewhere on your gear I guess this will hurt the build a modest amount in terms of survivability. Again, more for players who aren't able to afford the top-end bits. Seems like MoM is also getting "adjusted" so using that as an alternative early on may even be pretty bad now too.

At least if the ES spell caster meta is getting pretty drastically hit in this patch I now have some hope that Rathpith won't be ridiculously expensive!!

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mika2salo wrote:

Golemancer gear prices have been lowering quite fast. I hope I can make some nice finds next week when I plan to gear for higher tier maps. I think you can get good EHP and resistances even with MF if you dont go too wild with quantity.

Yep, Golems are not the fastest for MF but have their own play-style in everything they do. Relaxing and click-free is very nice especially in longer sessions. I got pretty nice Q / R in standard with my Golemancer when I used legacy quantity gem in Golems and let TC Specs deal most of the damage. I think I had over 100% Q / 150 R with legacy rings, amulet and some legacy MF gear.

Hey Mika,

I remembered you asked about how I was getting on with trying that MF golemancer. Anyway, league ended so spent the little currency I had on a chest for the WiP character I had and then cannibalized some older MF gear from other characters. All stuff bought cheaply in legacy league mostly.



I mostly run low tier maps so it's just for running some map layouts I like at the end of a league or when I get bored of the temp league.

A bit more info below for you Mika:



Good luck in the new league!!

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Oh yes, I think I mostly thought that having the flame golems in a 7-link helm of Conc Effect + Minion Damage + Minion Life instead of having them in a Skin of the Loyal. It likely wouldn't be as good as a corrupted +1 Skin of the Loyal but it might be far more easily attainable in league for players not rolling in currency. I'm sure SotL will pull ahead once you start talking about lvl 4 empowers and 21/20 flame golems but again, not everybody ever gets to that point of gear. It does potentially then open up the chest slot as well to some other options.

Hopefully the ES changes to items mentioned in the Dev Manifesto aren't too severe. Since the Skin of the Loyal requires having high ES elsewhere on your gear I guess this will hurt the build a modest amount in terms of survivability. Again, more for players who aren't able to afford the top-end bits. Seems like MoM is also getting "adjusted" so using that as an alternative early on may even be pretty bad now too.

At least if the ES spell caster meta is getting pretty drastically hit in this patch I now have some hope that Rathpith won't be ridiculously expensive!!

Hello :)

I will be doing some Helmet <-> Armor swap testing when we get patch notes out. Leveling varies per person, so in some cases it makes lot of sense and others less.

For example if you can get Anima stone + Harmonies early on the league but don't have currency for Sotl. Then it makes sense to put Main skill in 6-7 link helmet.

But if you can get jewels and Sotl at about same time, it becomes trickier. It depends on gems level, access to high tier Specters, support in helmet that you can get, etc. Best way to check is using PoB imports and check the damage. Golems in armor and Specs in helmet is pretty much safety line for good placement.

GGG has given access to pretty high tier ES crafting per item, so I'm not that worried about ES nerf. If Sotl gets to about flat 200 ES range, Vis Mortis luckily works nearly as good. +1 Spec balances 20% damage loss from Sotl +1 level nicely. +1 corrupt Vis is about same as Sotl ATM, but with +1 Spec added.

I'm also hoping that Rathpith will be cheap to test out the new Necromantic Aegis :P

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Hey Mika,

I remembered you asked about how I was getting on with trying that MF golemancer. Anyway, league ended so spent the little currency I had on a chest for the WiP character I had and then cannibalized some older MF gear from other characters. All stuff bought cheaply in legacy league mostly.

Spoiler


I mostly run low tier maps so it's just for running some map layouts I like at the end of a league or when I get bored of the temp league.

A bit more info below for you Mika:

Spoiler


Good luck in the new league!!

Hi :)

That's very nice gear! With about 100% quantity, there is significant change on currency drops from map already. But your right that upgrading from your point will cost a lot.

It's like you put X currency to Q / R and start running. After a while you want to upgrade but X = X2, so you need to grind for double cost. After you get significant upgrade you grind again and next upgrade is X4 but increase is much smaller. It's kinda endless cycle.

Thanks! Good luck for the league as well o/

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So far info about league has been pretty good.

Necromancer
- Necromancer Aegis included in the Ascendancy now
- Rathpith potentially very powerful DPS boost for the build
- Access to Wicked Ward (ES regen won't stop from damage)

Occultist
- Wicked Ward removed from Ascendancy but added to skill-tree as own node (close to path, so Necromantic Aegis node will most likely go there. Some other goodies coming to old Wicked Ward most likely so buff?)
- Necromantic Aegis removed (some DPS lost, but shield will give tons of EHP [HP + ES] now)

Elementalist
- Access to Wicked Ward (ES regen won't stop from damage)
- Necromantic Aegis removed (some DPS lost, but shield will give tons of EHP [HP + ES] now)
- Boss shocking was removed (Build doesn't use it, so doesn't affect it)

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UPDATE

GGG changed Flame Golems projectiles, so they don't cause FPS drops anymore!

How excited are you for Rathpith testing this league Mika? It looks absolutely amazing for flame golems/TVs.

Here's to hoping Necro-Aegis gets moved to the upper left

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Utopian238 wrote:

How excited are you for Rathpith testing this league Mika? It looks absolutely amazing for flame golems/TVs.

Here's to hoping Necro-Aegis gets moved to the upper left

Hello :)

I'm pretty excited for the Rathpith as it seems to be amazing DPS boost. GGG also fixed standard stash tabs after 2 years, so I can continue pushing delve deeper. Golems projectiles don't lag anymore, so GGG pretty much fulfilled my wishes.

If Rathpith works, I might even try Flame Golems + Solar Guards as they can also crit compared to Tukohamas. 4x Flame Golems + 4x SGs should be pretty devastating damage with Rathpith.

I guess Nerco Aegis could replace Puppet Master if it's not added as it's own new node. Puppet is pretty much placeholder atm for something useful. It could also be gated behind Mistress of Sacrifice, which would make nice chain as it would first give 50% block chance from Bone Offering and then extra block from Necro Aegis?

How do you feel about multi-strike changes with Ice Golems?

Slowing the attack speed bonus will lower DPS somewhat, but I don't think as much as it might seem at first. Ice Golems can 1-shot normal mobs even in high tier maps, so slower attack wont slow clear speed that much.

They are, however 100% dependent on multi-strike for their functionality. If they don't have multi-strike, they won't chain multiple cartwheels and their horrible AI will start casting projectiles and whatnot between cartwheels. I guess GGG won't be touching multi-strikes functionality when linked to Ice Golems, so they should still be safe.

Removing NA from non-Necro variants will slow both their movement and attack speed, so Haste should be excellent aura to support them with Generosity.

However for Necro variant I think I will be replacing Haste with Temporal Chains + Enhance + Blasphemy. The setup is just too good to pass and without it enemy / whole pack can leap attack offscreen and kill instantly. Aspect if Spider works well with Temp Chains as bosses have reduction to TC, but aspect works better against them.

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mika2salo wrote:

How do you feel about multi-strike changes with Ice Golems?

Slowing the attack speed bonus will lower DPS somewhat, but I don't think as much as it might seem at first. Ice Golems can 1-shot normal mobs even in high tier maps, so slower attack wont slow clear speed that much.

They are, however 100% dependent on multi-strike for their functionality. If they don't have multi-strike, they won't chain multiple cartwheels and their horrible AI will start casting projectiles and whatnot between cartwheels. I guess GGG won't be touching multi-strikes functionality when linked to Ice Golems, so they should still be safe.

Removing NA from non-Necro variants will slow both their movement and attack speed, so Haste should be excellent aura to support them with Generosity.

However for Necro variant I think I will be replacing Haste with Temporal Chains + Enhance + Blasphemy. The setup is just too good to pass and without it enemy / whole pack can leap attack offscreen and kill instantly. Aspect if Spider works well with Temp Chains as bosses have reduction to TC, but aspect works better against them.

I think we'll have to wait and see what happens with multistrike support. The extra damage on successive hits is good and hopefully a fair tradeoff for the lost attack speed multipliers, as long as they can't cancel out of the animation to cast an icicle should be okay. If they start casting breaking out of the attack animation for cyclone however, then they are completely dead as a build. The icicle just does nothing and every moment they spend doing it is completely worthless.


If NA does move to Necro Elementalists will be playing the Bow version of the build with Maloney's which is still fine, just much harder to hit necessary movement speed nodes. The plus side is you get 3 more jewels to work with.

If anything i'm more concerned about the shock nerf. We are exactly the type of build that this nerf was aimed at. Getting a free 20% more multiplier and proliferation from a storm brand gem and a point in beacon of ruin with no other investment into spell/elemental damage.

I expect the elementalist versions will be better off going paragon of calamity now for the extra defense.



I'll be playing the Necro variant this league to give it a feel, will be interesting to see what kind of hybrid tree can be made with access to wicked ward on the main tree. With the new +flat es -%es and extra es wheel on the upper left changes they mentioned skin of the loyal gets a slight buff.

It may even be worth going ES as elementalists now too and taking zealot's oath to apply stone aura buffs to your ES, we'll just have to see what the tree looks like.

I am also going to give fire golems a try at some point this league to see how it feels with the projectile changes. Multiple league buffs in a row they seem to be in a much better place than they were in 3.5. I agree solar guards+flame golems looks really strong. They both benefit from projectile weakness as well but i'm not sure it's worth losing the defensive curse.

Well, Witch start ES nodes just got destroyed! :(

Rather than giving increased ES they now give 10 flat ES.

I guess that you will just path through the minion nodes now or just come out the right hand side. However that is effectively a loss of 38% increased ES.

However, other ES nodes seem to be unchanged.

The new ES nodes by Witch / Templar seem lackluster being 5% ES + 8% mana for us. Notable is 10% / 10%. Not sure we would pick them up unless having the extra mana made casting golems viable through stacked aura's.

Anyway, it's definitely a bit of a blow to our overall survive-ability but can probably be largely fixed by dropping a jewel socket to grab more ES nodes if required.

Looking forward to seeing your thoughts Mika & others.

[Edit: Necro aegis not really moved at all. Just now sits in the same location but pathed off to the right rather than to the left.]

Hej,

playing another golemancer, but is this still viable due to the changes?