AD: Amplify Damage;
CE: Corpse Explosion.

Hello forum,

First post here but I have actually played d2x before, more than 10 years ago, and I am now leveling a necromancer on bnet ladder following a successful build I had back then. The reasoning is as follows:

* Amp Damage (AD from now on) reduces physical resistance by a hard 100%; moreover, it breaks physical immunity but in this case it is only a fifth as effective; as such, the amount of monsters which are still physical immune after that are extremely rare;
* Thorns returns damage back to the attacker; but if the attacker, on top of that, is subject to AD, then it is subject to that much more damage back;
* CE deals half physical and half fire damage; AD will make that half physical part that much more effective.

The build I therefore do is a summoning build, along with an act 2 mercenary and a golem and, of course, revives.

In my previous experiment, I crawled my way to Act 2 nightmare (using Iron Maiden on tough bosses) so that I could get a combat merc which has, precisely, Thorns as an aura. But with the "latest" patch (nearly 5 years old now... Gosh it's been a while), there is, unfortunately on ladder only, a very nice little runeword: Edge (TirTalAmn). On bows, this runeword grants to the wielder a level 15 Thorns aura... I could make this bow in Act 5 normal and it (Thorns + AD) proves just as effective as I remembered. I am not used to running but when I have revived blood lords, they kill stuff so fast that I have to run to keep up...

Anyway, there is the case when I do not have any revives and I want my merc to live, so I am looking for what the best golem type is for that build. Right now I use a clay golem, and here are the pros and cons I can see for each type of golem:

1. Clay golem

Pros:

* Has the most life
* Slows down enemies (good for self survival)
* Cheap mana cost

Cons:

* Deals little damage (and so does its owner)

2. Blood golem

Pros:

* Heals itself when it hits, and its owner
* Reasonable mana cost
* More damage than the clay golem, but

Cons:

* Nothing to write home about past normal difficulty

3. Iron Golem

Pros:

* Inherits a s*load of properties from the item it was created from (including auras!)
* As such, can be a very, very powerful asset...

Cons:

* ... Which you'll have to babysit
* Very expensive to make
* Bultin thorns aura not as powerful as that of Edge

4. Fire Golem

Pros:

* Immune to fire -- heck, it heals itself with it
* Holy Fire-like aura to boost
* Very decent damage

Cons:

* Damage is fire only -- useless against fire immune monsters
* Hugely expensive mana cost (40 + 10*n where n is the level of your skill)!
* Not as much life as a clay golem


Which one would you have?

This post was edited by notfge on Apr 24 2021 03:37pm