3.7 In-Depth Ice Golems Guide - Snowybois - On Hiatus for 3.8

Did this build in delve and was really fun, looking forward to do it again in betrayal as a league starter.

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ziuteczek123456 wrote:

As for War Banner gem, it cleary states YOU have to kill enemies. That's why I consider to try POISON support gem as 6th socket for ice golems. If i'm correct, killing a poised characted always counts as your kill, even though it was done by minions. This may be the way to work around your passive role in killing and get full benefit of a banner. Of course this is still a concept we'll have to test out during actual gameplay.

i'm at work now so i cannot PoB this but if war banner provide enough accuracy to the golems using southbounds instead of commander of the pit and a degen damage it should count the kill as your kill instead of the minion's like when you kill stuff with ignite using totems(you notice it in particular on bloodlines packs cause you take bleed damage stacks)

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Fucrem2 wrote:

Did this build in delve and was really fun, looking forward to do it again in betrayal as a league starter.

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ziuteczek123456 wrote:

As for War Banner gem, it cleary states YOU have to kill enemies. That's why I consider to try POISON support gem as 6th socket for ice golems. If i'm correct, killing a poised characted always counts as your kill, even though it was done by minions. This may be the way to work around your passive role in killing and get full benefit of a banner. Of course this is still a concept we'll have to test out during actual gameplay.

i'm at work now so i cannot PoB this but if war banner provide enough accuracy to the golems using southbounds instead of commander of the pit and a degen damage it should count the kill as your kill instead of the minion's like when you kill stuff with ignite using totems(you notice it in particular on bloodlines packs cause you take bleed damage stacks)

Would giving bleeds to the minions via cursing have this same type of interaction?

War Banner + Generosity with Vulnerability being manually cast would allow you to run brutality > maim. Drop hatred and EE, stay at a similar damage if you ignore the lost shocks. Seems pretty clunky though

I've seen some changes to minons/golems in patch notes. Does this build take any nerf? Or am I good to try it out in betrayal?

Is Fossil Crafted Elder Astral an option?
ex. prefix:
+1 lvl supp gems (elder mod)
flat life (regular mod)
flat+% life (pristine fossil) or phys taken as fire (elder mod)
ex. suffix:
gems supported by maim (serrated fossil)
minion life (bound fossil) [maybe?] or regen (elder mod or pristine)

This would give me some lvls on supp gems plus basicaly a 7L with maim delve mod. Or even 7,5L with maim and minion life. Oh and huge boost to life pool and dmg mitigation if phys-fire mod rolls.

If +1 active skill gem is more important than supp gem then could go Shaper Astral instead of Elder. But I think +1 supp gem lvl means empower gets boosted so we get +1 active anyways. So no point going shaper armor.

Would that be an OK replacement for skin of the loyal?

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yakoob wrote:

I've seen some changes to minons/golems in patch notes. Does this build take any nerf? Or am I good to try it out in betrayal?

Is Fossil Crafted Elder Astral an option?
ex. prefix:
+1 lvl supp gems (elder mod)
flat life (regular mod)
flat+% life (pristine fossil) or phys taken as fire (elder mod)
ex. suffix:
gems supported by maim (serrated fossil)
minion life (bound fossil) [maybe?] or regen (elder mod or pristine)

This would give me some lvls on supp gems plus basicaly a 7L with maim delve mod. Or even 7,5L with maim and minion life.

If +1 active skill gem is more important than supp gem then could go Shaper Astral instead of Elder.

Would that be an OK replacement for skin of the loyal?

Yes, you could absolutely craft a serrated elder armor for a 7L chest piece and it would be freaking insane. How hard is it to isolate the +1 level elder mod prefix like you can with 'cannot roll attack mods' weapons though?

Some quick simming, it's significantly more damage than both the Maul and the skin of the loyal setup. At the cost of some golem life.


Ending up with something like this, but with a +1 gem levels for the golems from either support, active, or other fossils is obscene. https://i.imgur.com/1IXz9ly.jpg

Can you stack a faceted fossil on top of that for +1 dex gems to support the ice golem further?

The dream would be some sort of elder Base, Craft serrated+faceted and end up with...
Prefix +1 support Gems
Prefix +Flat Life
Prefix %Max Life
Suffix Supported by Level 1 Maim
Suffix Str Gems have +1 level
Suffix Anything Else Goes here.

Corrupted with +1 gems >:)

EDIT: You cannot

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Utopian238 wrote:

Can you stack a faceted fossil on top of that for +1 dex gems to support the ice golem further?

Dayum I forgot about those. Yeah that would be awesome.
Do you think bound fossil is worth using for 20-30% inc minion life?
How about patchnotes? Do they affect this build? Or no clue yet?

I would try for your own defensives over a bound fossil. Pristine(i think?) if you're going to use a 3rd for chances at max life.

The ice golems will not die except on reflect maps where they will explode themselves instantly no matter what you do.

The patches hurt us a bit actually, phase run went from 80% nothing looks your way to 50%. And there's a cryptic "Minion damage nerf" that i've heard rumored is about an interaction with inpulsa's but there's no confirmation either way.

Overall I would say we're still in a good place, Bestiary netting was the absolute worst life as a golemancer so we'll see how that goes this time around. Incursions/Delves will be fine.

I've included that chestpiece as my new end-game goal that's too hot to ignore. My gearing is going to be Tabula > Cheap Skin > craft like a madman towards that chestpiece.

https://pastebin.com/qJMqVUdU

That's the latest PoB i'm playing around with. Gonna try MoM this time around.

Really looking forward to giving this build a shot tomorrow. Played flame golems in Legacy and it has been a long while. Read all of the guides and this one seems to be the most straightforward & successful for Uber Elder.

I have a couple questions if you wouldn't mind:
1) In that MoM POB link you just provided it looks like the skills were shuffled quite a bit. Is that just experimenting or are you thinking of ditching Orb or Storms and temp chains in favor of Haste and CoH Lightning Strike?
2) Seems there are no guides since 3.2 for Lightning Golems. Do you happen to know what changed that made it exclusively Ice vs. Flame golems for choices?

Thanks for keeping this up to date in advance of 3.5! I know it is a bit of struggle to get this off the ground as a starter, but with all the new golem gear since I played last I feel like there are at least more avenues to get this in a good place by the end of the weekend.

Hey thanks for the question!

I'm playing around right now with vaal lightning strike at league start just to attempt to proc dread banner which didn't make it into the PoB you imported. Import the latest one I just edited in; I like it better than the last one but make sure you use Vaal Lightning Strike instead of Orb of Storms if you want to proc your banner.


The struggle I'm finding right now is that we need to 'hit' with an attack skill to build charges on dread banner. All of my favorite ways to proc ele weakness were spells... Banner is a great reserve for us even at 0 stacks so i'm honestly just playing around with this and will likely go back to more defensive setups like Orb of Storm/Enfeeble or temp chains. I just want a feel for what banner stacking looks like with lightning strike or shield charge. If anyone else has better ideas for banner charge stacking please speak up!

If you want a tried and true build stick to the original setup without MoM. Stack Life and just reserve the rest of your mana with a dread banner. If you want to follow me down this rabbit hole find an attack skill you like and try to slam your banner in boss rooms.



As far as lightning golems not being utilized I'm afraid i'm not an expert on them at all. I think a big part of why people don't play or theory-craft for them is their damage doesn't sim properly in PoB so it's hard to understand how they interact with other modifiers without making your own spreadsheet. I played them a little back in incursion and they felt fine, but Ice Golems feel better with the new neck solving their movement speed problem.

Thanks for the quick response and those answers make total sense. I just found it odd that there were videos of lightning golems beating Uber Elder in 3.3 and then poof ... they were gone from debate. I figured something major must have happened to put them out of fashion or they were the middle of the road option and people wanted either superior clear or superior single target.

Minion speed used to be ridiculously hard to get when I played golems last, so I am pumped to see how fun things are once fully decked out.

I really like the tree you have for the MoM version. This build doesn't have a lot of active skills and paths around or through so many dual life/mana nodes that it seems like a natural fit. Also has the benefit of pathing through some of that much needed dex. I think I am going to give this a whirl minus the banner elements. I get the feeling they intended those for melee summoners and without an auto target skills like arc or OoS it seems like it might be more hassle than it is worth.

I'm not a smart man. Essence Worm + Vaal Lightning Strike doesn't work because we'll be over-writing our own EE. Looks like we'll be unable to proc our own banners unless we use a brutality setup.