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

So after some testing I think i'm giving up the Scion build. It can do pretty much any content, but it's pretty squishy and dieing doesn't contribute much in the way of a fun gaming experience. The Necro takes a small damage reduction, but it's a lot smoother to play.

i've been playing with the different offering builds (bone/spirit) and i've replaced the guardian with Vanguards since the guardian kind of sucks in a lot of situations. I like the playstyle of the spirit build, however it doesn't really help me vs what normally gets me, and that's the 1 shots. Block is superior in that regard. However, you can make so many corpses and to simply extend your block value seems like a waste of potential.

Right now i'm running something very similar to Shiverwarp, it's a level 1 CWDT-Spirit Offering-desecrate and then desecrate-CWC-storm burst-bone offering with a totem for unearth. The idea is that since you can only have 1 offering effect you at a time, but a ton of dead bodies that tend to go to waste with bone offering, when you take a hit, spirit offering procs giving you the heal, but you're up with your block on bone offering from the channeling immediately after. It doesn't make you immortal or anything, but it seems more useful than the other CWDT combos, especially since unlike the other ones it also effects the pets.

"

Aboba wrote:

So if I'm understanding the charges piece correctly, you need to get your cool down rate to below the cast speed of 6 (3 x Spell Echo) magma balls.

I can achieve this exactly with 10 perfect harmonies, assuming golems and I both have 3 frenzy charges and commander of darkness and no other cast speed mods.

The lower the cooldown the better. In your case, it means that you will have another charge by the time they've used up the initial 3, but after the 4th volley, they will start being restricted again by the cooldown.

It isn't realistically possible to have them gain a charge fast enough for Magma Ball to be permanently off cooldown, sadly. But we still want them to be using it as often as possible.

The real take away from the Charges is that cast speed will falsely inflate your DPS number in Path of Building. It also makes Convocation more important for bosses so that you can pull your golems back away to reset them to using Magma ball again once they've regained charges from using Melee abilities.

"

SVNihilist wrote:

So after some testing I think i'm giving up the Scion build. It can do pretty much any content, but it's pretty squishy and dieing doesn't contribute much in the way of a fun gaming experience. The Necro takes a small damage reduction, but it's a lot smoother to play.

i've been playing with the different offering builds (bone/spirit) and i've replaced the guardian with Vanguards since the guardian kind of sucks in a lot of situations. I like the playstyle of the spirit build, however it doesn't really help me vs what normally gets me, and that's the 1 shots. Block is superior in that regard. However, you can make so many corpses and to simply extend your block value seems like a waste of potential.

Right now i'm running something very similar to Shiverwarp, it's a level 1 CWDT-Spirit Offering-desecrate and then desecrate-CWC-storm burst-bone offering with a totem for unearth. The idea is that since you can only have 1 offering effect you at a time, but a ton of dead bodies that tend to go to waste with bone offering, when you take a hit, spirit offering procs giving you the heal, but you're up with your block on bone offering from the channeling immediately after. It doesn't make you immortal or anything, but it seems more useful than the other CWDT combos, especially since unlike the other ones it also effects the pets.

The CWDT Spirit offering was actually my initial foray into using Spirit Offering, I talked about it a bit earlier in the thread and made a gif.

It's definitely a strong middle ground, but it felt a bit fiddly in practice. Having spirit offering in CWDT level 1 meant that when I was at my most vulnerable and wanted block, say while dodging away from something, if I got snagged by a stray hit, I'd gain a little bit of ES, but then lose all my block, and be forced to stand still to CWC if I wanted the block back again.

I tried to remedy this weakness by using it in a level 20 CWDT with Spirit offering -> Bone Offering, so I'd always have bone offering up, but level 20 CWDT meant the spirit offering gain was minimal, because it would so rarely go off. It could soften blows by a few thousand, but often it would end up being triggered at an inopportune moment anyway.

Now perhaps a level 1 bone offering in a level 1 cwdt might be the best middle ground, along with the regular CWC level 20 Bone offering, but losing 10% block chance is a tough ask, especially when it is already quite tough to cap block while using Necro Aegis. You would have to be constantly re-applying bone offering after getting hit.

"

Shiverwarp wrote:

The CWDT Spirit offering was actually my initial foray into using Spirit Offering, I talked about it a bit earlier in the thread and made a gif.

It's definitely a strong middle ground, but it felt a bit fiddly in practice. Having spirit offering in CWDT level 1 meant that when I was at my most vulnerable and wanted block, say while dodging away from something, if I got snagged by a stray hit, I'd gain a little bit of ES, but then lose all my block, and be forced to stand still to CWC if I wanted the block back again.

I tried to remedy this weakness by using it in a level 20 CWDT with Spirit offering -> Bone Offering, so I'd always have bone offering up, but level 20 CWDT meant the spirit offering gain was minimal, because it would so rarely go off. It could soften blows by a few thousand, but often it would end up being triggered at an inopportune moment anyway.

Now perhaps a level 1 bone offering in a level 1 cwdt might be the best middle ground, along with the regular CWC level 20 Bone offering, but losing 10% block chance is a tough ask, especially when it is already quite tough to cap block while using Necro Aegis. You would have to be constantly re-applying bone offering after getting hit.

Yeah, I thought it might have been touched upon. It's a hard ask to read through 170+ pages of this post though. Another problem with it is it's so much more involved than the build normally is when you're tracking your offerings for what you gain from the combo. I think i'll drop it just because of the hassle it adds.

EDIT: So after some testing I actually like your suggested middle ground. You have to give up totem, but you go like this: Main hand will have CWDT-Desecrate-Spirit Offering then offhand will have CWDT-Desecrate-Bone Offering at level 1. This will trigger the spirit offering and then immediately trigger the bone offering. The Bone offering will have less block, but you can reapply your main Bone Offering through the channeling chain once you reposition. This makes it a bit more automated and fluid. Basically you're trading off 7% block for 14% minimum ES heals after you take a hit.

I'm curious though, does spirit offering exceed your normal max ES? In that case a health build would get way more out of this setup.

Also I found a Watcher's Eye that had double mods in Discipline. 6% chance to block spells and +30 ES on hit with 6% to HP and ES. Might play around with it, you'd lose damage from a lost harmony but it beefs up some of your defenses.

"

SVNihilist wrote:

Yeah, I thought it might have been touched upon. It's a hard ask to read through 170+ pages of this post though. Another problem with it is it's so much more involved than the build normally is when you're tracking your offerings for what you gain from the combo. I think i'll drop it just because of the hassle it adds.

EDIT: So after some testing I actually like your suggested middle ground. You have to give up totem, but you go like this: Main hand will have CWDT-Desecrate-Spirit Offering then offhand will have CWDT-Desecrate-Bone Offering at level 1. This will trigger the spirit offering and then immediately trigger the bone offering. The Bone offering will have less block, but you can reapply your main Bone Offering through the channeling chain once you reposition. This makes it a bit more automated and fluid. Basically you're trading off 7% block for 14% minimum ES heals after you take a hit.

I'm curious though, does spirit offering exceed your normal max ES? In that case a health build would get way more out of this setup.

Also I found a Watcher's Eye that had double mods in Discipline. 6% chance to block spells and +30 ES on hit with 6% to HP and ES. Might play around with it, you'd lose damage from a lost harmony but it beefs up some of your defenses.

I would never expect anyone to have read every post here haha.

Only problem I might possibly forsee with your new setup might be running out of charges on Desecrate with two CWDT proccing it. But it should work quite nicely. Just make sure you use Unearth in your CWC instead of Desecrate. You probably don't need more than one corpse, since it is CWC and easy to re-apply.

And yes, spirit offering does exceed your normal max ES. But it's also multiplied by your energy shield % increase bonus, so I'm pretty sure a 50/50 split is still ideal to get the most out of spirit offering.

Nice jewel, I would definitely use it personally!

EDIT: Also RIP, Died in Uber Lab while getting carried on the Floor Spike + Sawblade trap set. I think I've lost at least half my characters to uber lab traps, it's very frustrating. Was just about to do Yellow Elder too. Had just finished up the guardians. Oh well, next character! Been meaning to play Molten Strike.

Shiverwarp - That sucks about Uber Lab, def a PITA for Hardcore players. Do you have a screen shot of your gear before your RIP linked on one of these pages?

Was thinking of playing your defensive build but might not have a great reference point now for gear/flasks/jewels.

I'm not "true" golemancer with just 3 flame golems
but if you had to pick one,what helm would you socket your golem gems in


Yes i realize +3minion+30% would be winner but i simply have just these 2.
Do golems even burn things?

Having a great time with this build so far at level 84. Only just got my anima stone - prior to this i was just running 2x clayshapers as I was too eager to wait and stick with specters/zambies. After equipping the anima and the victarios shield w/ necro aegis the build has really come alive. I've been on the fence using shield charge as a move skill, I think I prefer having leapslam so I can yolo into a pack to curse them all then jump back out, and have the ability to climb ledges. Right now I'm using a phasing flask to serve the same purpose with shield charge, and have movespeed crafted on it, but still may go back.
My golems are only level 18 0 quality right now, and I have plenty of points still to get so I've still got a ways to go! Enjoying every bit of it. Thanks for the build!

Anyone try Mind over Matter in this build?

"

Nirvanatone wrote:

Shiverwarp - That sucks about Uber Lab, def a PITA for Hardcore players. Do you have a screen shot of your gear before your RIP linked on one of these pages?

Was thinking of playing your defensive build but might not have a great reference point now for gear/flasks/jewels.

Ah my bad, I usually delete my characters after they die, I didn't think people would be looking for my setup. Luckily I went to sleep just a little after, so I can still link you the gear!

Also tree: http://poeurl.com/bIMK

Biggest difference is not taking any of the actual minion nodes except the regen one (Which is really only for AG) We don't need the extra res since Spirit offering gives 30 all res. And getting more jewels is better than the minion nodes anyway. Maybe I would consider getting the cast speed ones, but not sure what I would cut.



I was aiming to get the Pantheon upgrade for Soul of Abberath and then switch out the Ignite immunity for Poison immunity. In fact it's probably already better with the Spirit Offering version to go for the Poison Immunity.

The single Ghastly Eye was just me testing movement speed on golems, life is the only other relevant stat.

I talked about my Golem gem setup a little earlier in the thread, but just to reiterate and expound: Empower only has more damage at the very peak (Level 4 Empower in +2 gem skin, and of course golem life. And since I found my golems never died, I went for more damage) Conc effect instead of Controlled Destruction is more relevant to Boss size. Clearing felt exactly the same with both, but I'm pretty sure Conc effect is better for small and large enemies (Large enemies will get hit by all balls no matter what, and small enemies are likely to only be hit by one ball whichever you use) and medium sized bosses Controlled destruction is better to get more overlap in the AoE damage.

"

Revanroi wrote:

Anyone try Mind over Matter in this build?

Probably doable. Just drop the Discipline aura, and swap out ES nodes for mana/health nodes. You'd probably want to use a different helmet than Vertex, unless you wanted to also somehow path and pick up EB

"

Aboba wrote:

So if I'm understanding the charges piece correctly, you need to get your cool down rate to below the cast speed of 6 (3 x Spell Echo) magma balls.

I can achieve this exactly with 10 perfect harmonies, assuming golems and I both have 3 frenzy charges and commander of darkness and no other cast speed mods.

"

The lower the cooldown the better. In your case, it means that you will have another charge by the time they've used up the initial 3, but after the 4th volley, they will start being restricted again by the cooldown.

It isn't realistically possible to have them gain a charge fast enough for Magma Ball to be permanently off cooldown, sadly. But we still want them to be using it as often as possible.

The real take away from the Charges is that cast speed will falsely inflate your DPS number in Path of Building. It also makes Convocation more important for bosses so that you can pull your golems back away to reset them to using Magma ball again once they've regained charges from using Melee abilities.

Hello :)

Lowering the cooldown is very effective way to boost damage as the Golems can cast new orbs faster and not enter melee range. Aiming at 6-7 Harmonies should be enough to keep Golems casting magma orbs fast enough to not enter melee range. Altering the tree for more jewel slot for Harmonies could boost damage, but at the cost of survivability elsewhere.

Faster cast speed is also very important as Golems wont just stand after they spend their last Magma Orb charge, but will cycle through other attacks as they can build charges to 3x different attacks faster than they can spend them totally. Faster casting means more different attacks in certain time and increased DPS even if its not only Magma Orb casting.

"

So after some testing I think i'm giving up the Scion build. It can do pretty much any content, but it's pretty squishy and dieing doesn't contribute much in the way of a fun gaming experience. The Necro takes a small damage reduction, but it's a lot smoother to play.

i've been playing with the different offering builds (bone/spirit) and i've replaced the guardian with Vanguards since the guardian kind of sucks in a lot of situations. I like the playstyle of the spirit build, however it doesn't really help me vs what normally gets me, and that's the 1 shots. Block is superior in that regard. However, you can make so many corpses and to simply extend your block value seems like a waste of potential.

Right now i'm running something very similar to Shiverwarp, it's a level 1 CWDT-Spirit Offering-desecrate and then desecrate-CWC-storm burst-bone offering with a totem for unearth. The idea is that since you can only have 1 offering effect you at a time, but a ton of dead bodies that tend to go to waste with bone offering, when you take a hit, spirit offering procs giving you the heal, but you're up with your block on bone offering from the channeling immediately after. It doesn't make you immortal or anything, but it seems more useful than the other CWDT combos, especially since unlike the other ones it also effects the pets.

"

The CWDT Spirit offering was actually my initial foray into using Spirit Offering, I talked about it a bit earlier in the thread and made a gif.

It's definitely a strong middle ground, but it felt a bit fiddly in practice. Having spirit offering in CWDT level 1 meant that when I was at my most vulnerable and wanted block, say while dodging away from something, if I got snagged by a stray hit, I'd gain a little bit of ES, but then lose all my block, and be forced to stand still to CWC if I wanted the block back again.

I tried to remedy this weakness by using it in a level 20 CWDT with Spirit offering -> Bone Offering, so I'd always have bone offering up, but level 20 CWDT meant the spirit offering gain was minimal, because it would so rarely go off. It could soften blows by a few thousand, but often it would end up being triggered at an inopportune moment anyway.

Now perhaps a level 1 bone offering in a level 1 cwdt might be the best middle ground, along with the regular CWC level 20 Bone offering, but losing 10% block chance is a tough ask, especially when it is already quite tough to cap block while using Necro Aegis. You would have to be constantly re-applying bone offering after getting hit.

"

Yeah, I thought it might have been touched upon. It's a hard ask to read through 170+ pages of this post though. Another problem with it is it's so much more involved than the build normally is when you're tracking your offerings for what you gain from the combo. I think i'll drop it just because of the hassle it adds.

EDIT: So after some testing I actually like your suggested middle ground. You have to give up totem, but you go like this: Main hand will have CWDT-Desecrate-Spirit Offering then offhand will have CWDT-Desecrate-Bone Offering at level 1. This will trigger the spirit offering and then immediately trigger the bone offering. The Bone offering will have less block, but you can reapply your main Bone Offering through the channeling chain once you reposition. This makes it a bit more automated and fluid. Basically you're trading off 7% block for 14% minimum ES heals after you take a hit.

I'm curious though, does spirit offering exceed your normal max ES? In that case a health build would get way more out of this setup.

Also I found a Watcher's Eye that had double mods in Discipline. 6% chance to block spells and +30 ES on hit with 6% to HP and ES. Might play around with it, you'd lose damage from a lost harmony but it beefs up some of your defenses.

"

I would never expect anyone to have read every post here haha.

Only problem I might possibly forsee with your new setup might be running out of charges on Desecrate with two CWDT proccing it. But it should work quite nicely. Just make sure you use Unearth in your CWC instead of Desecrate. You probably don't need more than one corpse, since it is CWC and easy to re-apply.

And yes, spirit offering does exceed your normal max ES. But it's also multiplied by your energy shield % increase bonus, so I'm pretty sure a 50/50 split is still ideal to get the most out of spirit offering.

Nice jewel, I would definitely use it personally!

EDIT: Also RIP, Died in Uber Lab while getting carried on the Floor Spike + Sawblade trap set. I think I've lost at least half my characters to uber lab traps, it's very frustrating. Was just about to do Yellow Elder too. Had just finished up the guardians. Oh well, next character! Been meaning to play Molten Strike.

"

Shiverwarp - That sucks about Uber Lab, def a PITA for Hardcore players. Do you have a screen shot of your gear before your RIP linked on one of these pages?

Was thinking of playing your defensive build but might not have a great reference point now for gear/flasks/jewels.

R.i.p your char :/

I really enjoyed your detailed and informative posts. Can you maybe leave gear on the char that died in the HC to let other players interested in the links / items to check them easily ;)

If you want to really use both Spirit can Bone Offerings, you might use the Spell Totem + Unearth + GMP as Shiverwarp posted earlier. New elder / shaper rings can spawn "lightning damage added to spell and attacks" which triggers EE from the unearth and can replace Ball lightning totally. Unearth totems is kinda bad at spreading EE to packs, but provides tons of corpses steadily.

"

I'm not "true" golemancer with just 3 flame golems
but if you had to pick one,what helm would you socket your golem gems in

Verified

Verified


Yes i realize +3minion+30% would be winner but i simply have just these 2.
Do golems even burn things?

Hi :)

The second one seems better as the Golems don't do very much burning damage. I would however buy helmet with ES base and minion damage + conc effect as both links works with Flame Golems and midrange helmets cost only 10-20c on league.

"

Having a great time with this build so far at level 84. Only just got my anima stone - prior to this i was just running 2x clayshapers as I was too eager to wait and stick with specters/zambies. After equipping the anima and the victarios shield w/ necro aegis the build has really come alive. I've been on the fence using shield charge as a move skill, I think I prefer having leapslam so I can yolo into a pack to curse them all then jump back out, and have the ability to climb ledges. Right now I'm using a phasing flask to serve the same purpose with shield charge, and have movespeed crafted on it, but still may go back.
My golems are only level 18 0 quality right now, and I have plenty of points still to get so I've still got a ways to go! Enjoying every bit of it. Thanks for the build!

Hey and thanks for support ^^

Leapslam is very nice movement ability. It's bit slower than Shield Charge, but move over edges like mentioned. In earlier league when I just shaped linear maps Shield Charge was clearly better, but now that you have to do all maps for Elder items the ability to cross ledges is much more useful that faster movement speed.

Your profile is private, but if you want to boost damage in early maps for reasonable price :
- Skin of the loyal (2r2g2b)
- Level 21/0 Flame Golem
- Empower 3

This trinity makes Golems almost immortal while hugely boosting their damage. You should bet whole set for less than 1 ex.

"

Anyone try Mind over Matter in this build?

Hi :)

I haven't really tinkered with Mom after latest nerf to increased mana after the node. Discipline and Temp Chains reserve so much mana, that the left over mana will be pretty minimal. It may be doable if you are familiar with Mom builds, but as I haven't used it much I can't say if it should be tried or not :/

*EDIT*

"

Ah my bad, I usually delete my characters after they die, I didn't think people would be looking for my setup. Luckily I went to sleep just a little after, so I can still link you the gear!

Thanks for sharing the items! ^^