Golem Buffs

Problem: Golem usage seems abit underwhelming outside of specific Minion & Golem builds (And even then, golem builds are very rare and underplayed), and even if we see usage outside of those builds, the golems die really easily and really fast, making them inefficient to run without investing 2-3 more survivability support gems along with them (Meat Shield, Elemental Army, CWDT etc.), which in most cases has an opportunity cost not worth taking.
Solution: Added additional survivability stats to all golems

I'm suggesting adding the following inherent stats to all golems:

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40% Increased minion life
Regenerate 1% of life per second
+15% to all elemental resistances
+15% to chaos resistance
+7% additional physical damage reduction

I believe these defensive stats would not affect existing golem/minion builds that much, since the golems are already nearly immortal in these builds, but these stats would greatly benefit other archtypes that wish to add in a golem to their arsenal of buffs/utility application with only 1-2 gem slots to spare.

EDIT:
Either that or strip golems entirely of their "Aura" buffs, transfer those buffs to the Elementalist ascendancy nodes and reworking them, making them a unique Elementalist Golemancer archtype (Hopefully reviving that archtype).

A node for example:

Liege of the Primordial
+1 to maximum number of summoned golems
Grants you and your golems the following buffs per summoned golem:
1% Additional physical damage reduction
0.3% of life regenerated per second
15% Increased damage
15% Increased critical strike chance
15% Increased accuracy rating
2% Increased Attack and Cast speed

You diagnosed the wrong problem. The BUFFS aren't the problem: they are extremely powerful already and can be scaled even further.

What has become the problem is the lack of golem survivability. It's hard to justify a gem slot for a golem, when 90% or more of the time it will be dead and requires micromanagement. You can throw it on a cwdt setup, but even then it competes with cwdt guard skills for time and ends up being dead 90% of the time.

Decking out a golem in Elemental Army and Minion Life takes too many gem slots that most builds do not have.

Changing the golem BUFF won't do anything to change these things above and will do nothing to change golem usage. Changing the golem life / defenses will do all that, regardless of the buff.

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jsuslak313 wrote:

You diagnosed the wrong problem. The BUFFS aren't the problem: they are extremely powerful already and can be scaled even further.

What has become the problem is the lack of golem survivability. It's hard to justify a gem slot for a golem, when 90% or more of the time it will be dead and requires micromanagement. You can throw it on a cwdt setup, but even then it competes with cwdt guard skills for time and ends up being dead 90% of the time.

Decking out a golem in Elemental Army and Minion Life takes too many gem slots that most builds do not have.

Changing the golem BUFF won't do anything to change these things above and will do nothing to change golem usage. Changing the golem life / defenses will do all that, regardless of the buff.

I guess you're right, but even with granting them more reliable survivability, the buffs arn't THAT great to consider adding them to your build, aspecially gem heavy ones. So I think they need both a buff to their bonuses AND survivability, I'll edit the thread. Thank you for your input.

Every single buff granted by golems IS great as it is right now. Any more power and they would feel necessary to every build, which is an entirely separate problem.

Chaos Golem = better than an extra endurance charge which is minimum 2 passive points to get.

Ice Golem = Critical chance AND accuracy, with a pretty huge 30% accuracy bonus at that.

Stone Golem = possibly the weakest base buff for most builds, but still worth a lvl 10 vitality aura in value, pretty darn good. And when scaled with %regen from teh tree, can be pretty exponentially powerful. Plus this is the only golem with a meat-shield like base behavior with a Taunt attack.

Flame Golem = the weakest of all of them, this needs a rework or some kind of secondary buff.

Carrion Golem = MASSIVE buff to secondary minions.


The only buff that can be argued to be "weak" is the Flame Golem.

Don't forget that these aren't auras, nor should they be. These are small buffs granted by a minion that does OTHER things as well. Golems can cull, golems can blind, golems can apply exposure, etc. And now, golems can even GAIN an aura with the new blessing support thing. The ONLY real issue with golems is their inability to survive outside of minion builds that spec into minion survivability nodes, or elementalists that get elemental damage immunity. Golems have INCREDIBLE utility otherwise.

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jsuslak313 wrote:

Every single buff granted by golems IS great as it is right now. Any more power and they would feel necessary to every build, which is an entirely separate problem.

Chaos Golem = better than an extra endurance charge which is minimum 2 passive points to get.

Ice Golem = Critical chance AND accuracy, with a pretty huge 30% accuracy bonus at that.

Stone Golem = possibly the weakest base buff for most builds, but still worth a lvl 10 vitality aura in value, pretty darn good. And when scaled with %regen from teh tree, can be pretty exponentially powerful. Plus this is the only golem with a meat-shield like base behavior with a Taunt attack.

Flame Golem = the weakest of all of them, this needs a rework or some kind of secondary buff.

Carrion Golem = MASSIVE buff to secondary minions.


The only buff that can be argued to be "weak" is the Flame Golem.

Don't forget that these aren't auras, nor should they be. These are small buffs granted by a minion that does OTHER things as well. Golems can cull, golems can blind, golems can apply exposure, etc. And now, golems can even GAIN an aura with the new blessing support thing.

The suggested additional buffs arn't that crazy, and are subject to changes/balances. I'd just like to see them utilized more since they add an additional layer of customization to builds.
Missing Phys dmg reduction or DoT dmg? slap in a chaos golem
Missing some mana sustain? use a Lightning golem
Lacking life regen and some movespeed? add a Stone golem.
Customization is what PoE is all about.

Yes....but adding too much is a real problem, almost worse than if they did nothing at all.

You are not wrong in saying that the buffs you originally proposed are not all that crazy OP. BUT the philosophy behind why you think they are needed is flawed. That is all the point I was trying to make.

You want the buffs to be "bigger" because you presume the buffs they provide now are too small. Which they really really aren't. And you forget about all the other things that you can make your golems do if you really want them to. You talk about wanting more customization? You can run a 6L golem...there's your customization. The golem can be dps, it can be utility, it can be an uber tank, it can be many different things....while also giving a decent inherent buff.

It is not that the golem isn't useful that makes it unused. It is the investment required to keep it alive.

Well if golems were solid and survivable with zero investment, they'd be immortal god golems in a necromancer build. I don't think that's a situation we want to end up in.

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Miathan51 wrote:

Well if golems were solid and survivable with zero investment, they'd be immortal god golems in a necromancer build. I don't think that's a situation we want to end up in.

But that's precisely why their buffs shouldn't be increased, but their survivability should be. They SHOULD survive outside of elementalist builds with minimal investment: they are golems, it is thematically in the character of a golem to be a walking wall. The utility they provide unsupported is small, but you can sacrifice gem slots to make them more usable, but never overpowered. The problem is they are like flimsy pieces of paper to every build except an elementalist, to the point of not being usable at all no matter what.

Making them completely immortal beings (not what I'm asking for) right from the start wouldn't even cause "immortal god golems" to be a problem, because golems aren't providing you with massive ridiculous gainz to begin with. They shouldn't ever act like yet another 25/35/50% aura that everyone HAS to have in their build to be successful.

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jsuslak313 wrote:

Yes....but adding too much is a real problem, almost worse than if they did nothing at all.

You are not wrong in saying that the buffs you originally proposed are not all that crazy OP. BUT the philosophy behind why you think they are needed is flawed. That is all the point I was trying to make.

You want the buffs to be "bigger" because you presume the buffs they provide now are too small. Which they really really aren't. And you forget about all the other things that you can make your golems do if you really want them to. You talk about wanting more customization? You can run a 6L golem...there's your customization. The golem can be dps, it can be utility, it can be an uber tank, it can be many different things....while also giving a decent inherent buff.

It is not that the golem isn't useful that makes it unused. It is the investment required to keep it alive.

Edited the thread again, scrapped the additional offensive buffs entirely. Balanced now?
Though it kind of leaves the whole "Golemancer builds are almost non-existent" issue alive.

golems problem need better survivability to actually fulfil their suggested role, but they are also kinda a trap anyway as even if their defences were good having a pet is a major survivability liability for most characters which will override the defensive bonuses.

I almost think we need a support that just makes them invul but unable to interact with anything, but that's just free power for any build with 2 sockets spare.

Its a tough one but really I think they are about right where they are, useful if you have a way to make them useful but useless otherwise.