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

Sorry if this has been answered, I did a search on here, reddit, and google and couldn't find an exact answer.

My question....do the flame golems "magma orbs" shotgun? Or is it 1 hit per attack instance?

Every flame golem setup I see uses GMP. I just got the jewels to run multiple golems and wanted to use flame golem in a conc/minion damage helm as supplemental DPS for bosses and such.

Am I gimping myself w/o GMP because the golems attacks shotgun? Or am I doing right by no GMP/LMP and going more spell/ele damage? ATM I'm using echo/controlled destruction/minion damage.

Again, sorry if this has been covered, but a link or some info would be awesome.

Thanks!
"
furycury82 wrote:
Sorry if this has been answered, I did a search on here, reddit, and google and couldn't find an exact answer.

My question....do the flame golems "magma orbs" shotgun? Or is it 1 hit per attack instance?

Every flame golem setup I see uses GMP. I just got the jewels to run multiple golems and wanted to use flame golem in a conc/minion damage helm as supplemental DPS for bosses and such.

Am I gimping myself w/o GMP because the golems attacks shotgun? Or am I doing right by no GMP/LMP and going more spell/ele damage? ATM I'm using echo/controlled destruction/minion damage.

Again, sorry if this has been covered, but a link or some info would be awesome.

Thanks!


The AoE damage overlaps. This is true for everything in the game as far as I'm aware. Projectile damage can't shotgun, but AoE can overlap.

However, it sounds like you aren't fully investing into the flame golem, so your charge recovery on Magma Ball won't be that great, so you're probably fine going for overall damage between the 3 abilities, rather than focusing on Magma Ball like a full Flame Golem build would.
Last edited by Shiverwarp on Jan 5, 2018, 11:02:16 PM
"
zahlanzi wrote:
I'm sorry if this has been asked before but is there a sizeable difference of damage between necro and elementalist golemancer? Which is more damage?

Necro golemancer will run all golems of the same element, no mixing, correct?

I am thinking of switching to necro just for the better survivability.


Hello :)

With high level char, good gear and 5-6x harmonies Necromancer ascendancy nodes gives roughly 20% more damage to all minions. Thats same as 4+1 Golems which ends up also as 20% more total minion damage.

However Necro has lots of defensive and utility nodes. It has better base to be customized for own playstyle. You can go full block, cast manual Offerings to boost your own movement speed even use other minions with Golems.

I have done lots of mixing in Pob with necro, ele with 4-6 Golems mixing different types with 9x Harmonies but have not found mix that provides high enough total damage boost to run ele or mix of Golems. After certain point adding "increased" damage from different sources like Harmonies just wont increase minion damage that much compared to the cost.


"
As i finally got some luck (got bisco's collar in a vorici daily at lvl 55, sold em for 14.8 ex). So i will give golemancer another try ...

As i never reached endgame in several seasons (essence was first), always stopp around 82-87 as it takes to long to reach higher levels imho ;) so my highest map tier was 10 i think, even never reached lvl 20 for a gem :D

Anyway just a short question about the body armor skin of the loyal, as it isn't possible to change colors later on:

@mika why do you have 2 green sockets in your sotl? Is that intended or just because it was cheaper to get? Slower projectile support seams weird instead of ele focus or cont dest.?!
Additional: Overall it should be 3b 1g 2r? Or 2b 1g 3r? Conc is blue, but fire pen is red.

BTW the gear recommondation is a little bit outdated or not? crystal belt was good, but with the new abyssal slot a new belt should be better imho?! What about any of the new items available?


Hi and gz on Bisco ^^

For the armor i'm running 2r2g2b as I'm lazy grinder and still poor in league XD. Its good and cheap entry level armor that loses about 20% total damage compared to better and more expensive colors. 2r1g3b is gives best DPS when using totem to trigger Elemental Equilibrium for letting the damage go through. 3r1g2b is best for lazy playstyle when totem is not up all the time, as it deals more damage to mobs with high elemental resistance.

New items are pretty hard to add to default guide as they are heavily rng based and their supply / prices can be extremely shifting. If you want to try newest combination you can check my league char : Flame_Gollums_Precious

I'm running heavily modified version using 4x Golems, 3x Tukohama Vanguards and 1x Animate Guardian. I'm not using Victarios shield but rather doing max block with spell block shield, with storm burst -> cast when channeling -> desecrate -> bone offering. This combo applies both EE and keeps Bone Offering up as long as I press it. Build still has only 2x buttons which are shield charge and the Storm Burst.

This variant has been extremely safe as it runs -75% Temp Chain, 75%/75% block and has high EHP. Golems clear trash mobs in few volleys and TVs melt bosses in few seconds. Animate Guardian applies second curse, slows enemies even more and heals Specters 6% second, so I don't have to use non-ES items like "Skullhead" to keep them alive.



I'm very interested to hear if you have found any in interesting ideas / items for the build ^^

"
Hey Mika2salo,

Thanks for the guide and for the reply, much appreciated. Wow, 30% that's still pretty decent. Hmm, given me something to think about. I might end up using Empower and Cont Destruction, still plenty of time to think on things and test em.

Just leveling up now, rip spec solar guard build heh.


Hey and thanks for support ^^

Yep, the 600% increased crit really starts to show compares to their low base crit (5%).

The specs are by no means bad, and I recommend trying them with the Golems. Tukohama Vanguards especially really complement Golems clearspeed with their excellent single target damage. The default build is safe and proven, and provides great base for creating own mix of skills and minions. The league is minion playground after all and build can be shifted to the way of the items that you can find ;)


"
Sorry if this has been answered, I did a search on here, reddit, and google and couldn't find an exact answer.

My question....do the flame golems "magma orbs" shotgun? Or is it 1 hit per attack instance?

Every flame golem setup I see uses GMP. I just got the jewels to run multiple golems and wanted to use flame golem in a conc/minion damage helm as supplemental DPS for bosses and such.

Am I gimping myself w/o GMP because the golems attacks shotgun? Or am I doing right by no GMP/LMP and going more spell/ele damage? ATM I'm using echo/controlled destruction/minion damage.

Again, sorry if this has been covered, but a link or some info would be awesome.

Thanks!


"
The AoE damage overlaps. This is true for everything in the game as far as I'm aware. Projectile damage can't shotgun, but AoE can overlap.

However, it sounds like you aren't fully investing into the flame golem, so your charge recovery on Magma Ball won't be that great, so you're probably fine going for overall damage between the 3 abilities, rather than focusing on Magma Ball like a full Flame Golem build would.


Hey and great answer :)

The damage really overlaps and shotguns in that manner.

I have been seeing lots of mixing Specs and Golems in other threads, but it seems like gimping both in the way its done there. Golems even with high level and 6l item with just 2x harmonies do very little damage as their cooldown will be terrible, Specs are losing valuable damage jewels and player 4 links in the helmet.

More optimal way to do the mix should be running high number of Harmonies to let Golems cast magma orbs as often as possible. With high level and enough Harmonies, Golems can easily replace Solar Guards as they have nearly identical moves, but 1,5x aggro range with Primordial Might gem compared to SGs. Primordial Might was great addon as it really fixed Golems terrible AI. If GGG ever releases aggressive AI jewel for Spec, SGs will be almost identical to FGs.

As Spec slot wont get wasted on some SG + TV combo, the build can be mixed with 3x Tukohamas Vanguards just to kill rares / bosses. TVs do extremelty high damage even in 4 link if using Soul Weaver and high level summons. Their trash mob clear speed is however terrible, so mixing them with Aggressive trash clearing Golems makes for best combination imho.
[3.12] Flame Golem 101 - Complete Guide To Golemancy, All Bosses Down, Necro, Elementalist
https://tinyurl.com/y8k9fa2f
Last edited by mika2salo on Jan 6, 2018, 5:18:33 AM
Hello mika2salo and everybody,

I decided to play this build in the abyss league and so far I can say, this is the second best build under my play time in POE (~2300 hours).
Very good guide, very detailed and understandable!

I would appreciate if you take a look into my account and review it... maybe you find some mistakes...

I have 2 questions about this build:

1, For the animate guardian weapon I decided to use https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/The_Tempestuous_Steel, because the new abyss jewels have hinder mods, so maybe the +30% elemental penetration better option?

2, You mention the Infernal Mantle and my question is, this armour mods (inc. fire dam + chaos dam + spell dam on low mana) affect the golems too, not only me? If so, this armour will provide better damage for the golems? What is count as "low mana"? Mine atm is 305 out of 1131.

Thanks.
@szmegma Low Mana is the same as low health = below 35%
"
Mydgard6 wrote:
As i finally got some luck (got bisco's collar in a vorici daily at lvl 55, sold em for 14.8 ex). So i will give golemancer another try ...

As i never reached endgame in several seasons (essence was first), always stopp around 82-87 as it takes to long to reach higher levels imho ;) so my highest map tier was 10 i think, even never reached lvl 20 for a gem :D

Anyway just a short question about the body armor skin of the loyal, as it isn't possible to change colors later on:

@mika why do you have 2 green sockets in your sotl? Is that intended or just because it was cheaper to get? Slower projectile support seams weird instead of ele focus or cont dest.?!
Additional: Overall it should be 3b 1g 2r? Or 2b 1g 3r? Conc is blue, but fire pen is red.

BTW the gear recommondation is a little bit outdated or not? crystal belt was good, but with the new abyssal slot a new belt should be better imho?! What about any of the new items available?


OMG, I read this post and 1 minute later i got a biscos in a Zana lvl 5 mission.

My skin of the loyal is 3r 2b 1r with empower lvl4 and summon flame lvl 21 gems. The dps is awesome.
Last edited by kasEz on Jan 6, 2018, 10:46:01 AM
"
mika2salo wrote:
For the defenses, I think Shaper will kill you in one slam with or without Immortal Call as it wont trigger cause you get killed with one shot. Chimera fight has so long pause between attacks that Immortal call will end before next one, but there are bosses where it is helping ofc a lot.
Actually, no. One of the nice things about slotting CWDT-ImmortalCall is that you can swap CWDT for Increased Duration and tank the Shaper Slam with it.

For the Chimera fight, Endurance Charges combined with Increased Duration will give you ~2 seconds of invulnerability, which is enough to clear most if not all the smoke clouds.


"
Raising block chance actually takes just high level Bone Offer and Rumis flask :
- 35% + 20% = 55%

Spell block will also be almost 45% :
- 35% + 10% = 45%

Rest can be added by using Rainbowstrides, new spell block rare amulets or new spell block shield without Necro Aegis.
Exactly my point. Block requires you to build around it and in some cases make sacrifices to do so. Rumi's may not always be up. With Rainbowstrides, you're potentially giving up an extra 100 ES or 100 Life on a good rare. Rare amulet tends to mean less stun immunity. A defensive shield is a major cut in DPS. I'm not saying these are bad sacrifices, but block/Bone Offering, like most other defensive tech in this game, is not free. Nor is it the be all and end all of defense.


"
Elemental immunity to Golems is not very useful after GGG decided to end the whole "kill-bosses-while-dead" bug. I'm not saying it was the only reason to go to Elementalist, but it was used pretty widely.
This is inaccurate. Elemental immunity allows you to skip basically all minion survivability nodes, which means more passive tree flexibility (more EHP, more DPS, etc.).

"
Hoever GGG said that they are redesigning Elementalist soon, so there is lot of hope that Elementalist can be equal choise for Golemancer in near future ;)
As far as pure golem builds go, ELE is already more or less an equal choice. Since 3.0, Necro Golems+Spectres might be have the edge in softcore.


"
mika2salo wrote:
"
zahlanzi wrote:
I'm sorry if this has been asked before but is there a sizeable difference of damage between necro and elementalist golemancer? Which is more damage?

Necro golemancer will run all golems of the same element, no mixing, correct?

I am thinking of switching to necro just for the better survivability.


Hello :)

With high level char, good gear and 5-6x harmonies Necromancer ascendancy nodes gives roughly 20% more damage to all minions. Thats same as 4+1 Golems which ends up also as 20% more total minion damage.

However Necro has lots of defensive and utility nodes. It has better base to be customized for own playstyle. You can go full block, cast manual Offerings to boost your own movement speed even use other minions with Golems.

I have done lots of mixing in Pob with necro, ele with 4-6 Golems mixing different types with 9x Harmonies but have not found mix that provides high enough total damage boost to run ele or mix of Golems. After certain point adding "increased" damage from different sources like Harmonies just wont increase minion damage that much compared to the cost.
As noted earlier, I do not believe your Elementalist tree is optimized, which is why you don't see much difference. As such, the info you're passing to players may not be entirely correct unfortunately. I don't mean to be rude, but going by your own posts earlier in this thread, you haven't actually played as Golementalist outside of limited testing based off of your NEC setup. I highly recommend giving it it a more extended look to get a better picture of the Ascendancy.


"
Shiverwarp wrote:
"
tomatopotato wrote:
Regarding your observations on cast speed vs. cooldown, I agree it could definitely use some more looking into. The charges theory sounds interesting, but a little weird to me. If it were true, then Magma Ball output should start strong with full charges and eventually putter into cyclical bursts as the golem charge state goes back and forth between 1 and 0. That's not something I've observed in-game. I guess it would make sense if golems went back to full charges instead of just 1 after cooldown, but that wouldn't be consistent with Desecrate for example. I wish I could contribute more, but digging deeper into POE game mechanics isn't something I want to do over this winter break, so I'll just wish you success in your testing :x (P.S. I also did some very rudimentary Harmony cooldown testing here. Feel free to check it out if you're interested.)


I am absolutely convinced it is a 3 charge system, with 1 charge replenished per cooldown.

Your video actually further confirms this. With 10 Harmony's and a base golem your golem appears to have a slower cast speed than the cooldown, so if it's kept at range, will always attack with Magma Ball.
Hmm... in order to safely come to that conclusion, I believe we have to be able to reasonably eliminate other possible explanations. Honestly, I really want you to be right about the charges, as it would be one less thing for me to think about. But for accuracy's sake, forgive me for playing devil's advocate for a second.

If we assume Magma Ball is on a 3-charge system and 1 cast costs 1 charge (like traps, Frost Wall, etc.), then we can establish an upper limit for number of casts within a given time frame. For example, with 15 Harmonies, Magma Ball cooldown drops to 1.85s (assuming perfect 15% Harmonies). I ran a test in Reliquary to confirm (good call on using this as testing area btw). The test was 96 seconds, so we can expect the lab golem to shoot a maximum of 53 Magma Balls in that span (96/1.85 + 2 charges from being full at the start; rounded down). In my test though, the golem got in 71 shots.

The shots seem to come in groups of 3 quite often, as you noted earlier. Towards the end you'll also notice a couple volleys that are interrupted when the golem attempts to move into melee range. While in transit, you'd assume that charges are filling back up and the golem should have a full barrage ready to go for the next round. There's a point though where it shoots 1, moves away, comes back and shoots 1, and pauses before resuming the expected 3-shot volley (around 1m07s).

That would seem to indicate that Magma Ball might work through active/inactive states rather than charges.



⚡ Lightning Golems:
/1902593
⛄ Ice Golems:
/1914382
Last edited by tomatopotato on Jan 6, 2018, 11:26:51 AM
"
tomatopotato wrote:
Hmm... in order to safely come to that conclusion, I believe we have to be able to reasonably eliminate other possible explanations. Honestly, I really want you to be right about the charges, as it would be one less thing for me to think about. But for accuracy's sake, forgive me for playing devil's advocate for a second.

If we assume Magma Ball is on a 3-charge system and 1 cast costs 1 charge (like traps, Frost Wall, etc.), then we can establish an upper limit for number of casts within a given time frame. For example, with 15 Harmonies, Magma Ball cooldown drops to 1.85s (assuming perfect 15% Harmonies). I ran a test in Reliquary to confirm (good call on using this as testing area btw). The test was 96 seconds, so we can expect the lab golem to shoot a maximum of 53 Magma Balls in that span (96/1.85 + 2 charges from being full at the start; rounded down). In my test though, the golem got in 71 shots.

The shots seem to come in groups of 3 quite often, as you noted earlier. Towards the end you'll also notice a couple volleys that are interrupted when the golem attempts to move into melee range. While in transit, you'd assume that charges are filling back up and the golem should have a full barrage ready to go for the next round. There's a point though where it shoots 1, moves away, comes back and shoots 1, and pauses before resuming the expected 3-shot volley (around 1m07s).

That would seem to indicate that Magma Ball might work through active/inactive states rather than charges.


With so much cooldown reduction, I think you would be more likely to get good results for a comparison if you really up the cast speed so that they will use up the charges (If they are charges) as quickly as possible. Maybe running minion speed, faster casting, and spell echo.

If it's active/inactive states (perhaps with a max 3 casts per active state?) then that would mean, with high cast speed, you would get a bunch of volleys at a time, then a period of waiting, then as many volleys as possible again.

If it's a charge system, they will use up all the charges quickly, then there will be a wait period before they fire a single ball (Or 2 with spell echo), and a wait period, then single ball, and repeating.

The golem AI is not consistent, they won't ALWAYS try to use magma ball no matter what if it's up, sometimes they'll putz around trying to get in melee range even though they could magma ball. You can see this in my gif as well, where it will shoot one magma ball, stop for a little bit, and continue shooting.

As for the difference in cooldown you're seeing, I have no idea. I simply took the cooldown from PoB and assumed it to be true. I would try testing with a golem that has no cooldown reduction, and then with more cooldown reduction afterward.

If your test is accurate, that means with your cooldown reduction, the cooldown would be around 1.39 instead of 1.85, so base cooldown of around 4.45. This doesn't really match with my tests with no cooldown however, where you can see the golem cast a Magma Ball every six seconds after the initial 3.

This makes me suspect that there might be some weirdness with the way cooldown itself is calculated?
Last edited by Shiverwarp on Jan 6, 2018, 1:56:56 PM
how important is lvl of golem? like is empower worth over another dmg gem?
"
Shiverwarp wrote:
With so much cooldown reduction, I think you would be more likely to get good results for a comparison if you really up the cast speed so that they will use up the charges (If they are charges) as quickly as possible. Maybe running minion speed, faster casting, and spell echo.

(snip)

If your test is accurate, that means with your cooldown reduction, the cooldown would be around 1.39 instead of 1.85, so base cooldown of around 4.45. This doesn't really match with my tests with no cooldown however, where you can see the golem cast a Magma Ball every six seconds after the initial 3.


I'll give it another try when I get home. I'm quite certain 1.39 isn't a correct figure though. Just for my sake, POE cooldown with 225% reduction:

100 / (1 + (total reduction/100))

100 / (1 + (225/100) = ~31%

~31% of 6s = ~1.85s (a figure matched by POB)

Just as a word of caution, my test doesn't show a cooldown of 1.39. It merely shows 71 shots in 96 seconds. What conclusions we draw from that are a different matter. At any rate, it does indicate that it's probably not a normal 3 charge system (if it's a charge system at all). If it is indeed a charge system, then I believe it indicates that each successful cooldown grants more than 1 charge in return. If not, then it is either active/inactive states where golems fire balls based on their cast speed or some other non-charge based system.

Also of note is that the golem (with 0 Harmony) sometimes only fires 2 shots to start before settling into the 1 per 6s pattern. Another oddity that I can't seem to reconcile with a 3-charge system.
⚡ Lightning Golems:
/1902593
⛄ Ice Golems:
/1914382

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