New support gem: Golem / Construct

Turns a skill into a minion that uses that skill. Life and damage increase with gem level. Life and damage influenced by minion passives. Golem size increases with life. Quality grants attack and cast speed increase of 1% per 1%.

Can raise only 1 at a time. Does not need a corpse to summon. Does not die until killed (no timer). Skill has a cool-down similar to traps but longer.

Works with melee attack skills and minion support gems. Additional support gems work as they would for the skills linked to Golem.

What do you you all think? If you like the idea please post to help get it noticed.

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Edit 6/08/12:

Should be called Construct to fit in with the established theme of Vaal Contructs.


Edit 13/12/12:
(Shamelessly copied from page 2 to get it more attention)

As a further thought; a golem/construct could be significantly differentiated from being just a walking totem by having a limited (but regenerating) mana pool for its skill use and a default attack for use when unable to cast. Additional supports could equip the golem/construct with a weapon making it compatible with further skills and altering its behaviour.

For example:

Golem:

Basic attack:
Melee - bare fists dealing basic damage.

Compatible skills:
Spells, curses, auras, mace/hammer/staff attacks.

Behaviour:
Beats stuff to a pulp with bare fists, periodically using its linked skill if mana is available. If more than one enemy is within range of its linked skill, it will always use that if mana is available.


Golem + Golem Claws
(Claw quality increases attack speed)

Basic attack:
Melee - clawed fists dealing added damage.

Compatible skills:
Spells, curses, auras, all melee attacks.

Behaviour:
Beats stuff to an even bloodier pulp with clawed fists, periodically using its linked skill if mana is available. If more than one enemy is within range of its linked skill, it will always use that if mana is available.


Golem + Golem Darts
(Dart quality gives increased range and area effect)

Basic attack:
Ranged - shoulder mounted dart gun, lower damage than a bow but compatible with all ranged attack skills.

Compatible skills:
Spells, curses, auras, mace/hammer/staff attacks, all ranged attacks.

Behaviour:
Stands its ground firing darts at enemies within dart range. If an enemy is within range of its linked skill it will always use that if mana is available.


Golem + Golem Claws + Golem Darts

Basic attack:
Ranged - shoulder mounted dart gun, lower damage than a bow but compatible with all ranged attack skills.

Compatible skills:
Spells, curses, auras, all melee and ranged attacks.

Behaviour:
Stands its ground firing darts at enemies within dart range. If an enemy is within range of its linked skill it will always use that if mana is available. If an enemy is within melee range and mana is not available for its linked skill it strikes out in melee (claws do more damage than darts).


For all behaviour cases:
When linked to auras or buffs the golem only uses its linked skill if not already activated. When linked to curses it only uses its linked skill on uncursed enemies. The rest of the time it follows basic attack behaviour.

I'd like to build on this and maybe take it one step further.

Support Gem: Construct

Converts a Totem into a mobile Construct. Constructs are able to make melee attacks.

Currently you can link most spells to totems and they'll just sit there spamming. With this, you could link any spell or attack to a totem then to a construct, and it will move about attacking/casting at enemies. You could also do things like:

* Grace/Vitality/Determination-Totem-Construct: In multiplayer, send it forward to give your tanks additional protection while you nuke from range
* Rejuvenation Totem-Construct: Healer follower.
* Decoy Totem-Construct: Tank follower.
* Enduring Cry-Totem-Construct: Another tank follower with more survivability.

At one point, Chris said that they wanted to implement minions travelling with the player before adding one minion that they had designed. I think they even mentioned minions persisting through relog. This was a long time ago, so I am not sure the statement still stands. Anyways, this got players thinking they had something like the D2 Iron Golem in mind. I think a golem support sounds cool, depending on how they implemented it. I certainly hope we see non-undead minions. Maybe constructs, since we see a glimpse of constructs as a concept in Act 2.

Anyways, minion update is 0.9.12, so maybe once that comes around they will reveal some more minions. That said, open beta will probably have the most promise in this category.

D2's iron golem was very cool, though I never really enjoyed it to its fullest because of the risk of losing a great item to a cheap death. I always ended out using clay for its expendability and slowing effect.

I love the configurable nature of skills in PoE and would really love a golem I could tweek to my preferences.

There was talk that minion skins will be a cash shop purchase so no doubt non-undead minions will be available. Personally I really want a massive mean looking bone golem with a few bloodied half rotten fleshy chunks.

A support skill that allowed minions to use offensive skills/turned an offensive skill into a summoned minion would be amazing. Right now I don't feel a huge amount of desire to try something that's really heavy on minions, but something like that would make me pick it up instantly.

Regardless if there is a big load of minion stuff coming in 9.12, I'll look forward to it and I hope at some point in the future a skill like this is implemented.

This is a really great idea, As in D2 I played Summon necro and support blast monkeys stand on the Iron Golem, was a great direction. I can't think of any game currently that allows the tweaking of pets to such a degree as suggestions made in this thread.
That said I believe if steps were made in this direction It would open up a mind boggling amount of new player builds and not to mention the most important part, fun.

This sounds fun. It'd be great to see it in the game.

Construct = Melee
Totem = Spell

+1

I actually love this idea.

Being able to run totems and constructs as a Technomancer would be awesome.

As an extension of this idea, a Sentry support gem that turned ranged attack skills such as Puncture into a stationary mechanical bolt thrower would be nice. Then you'd have:

Totem - spell
Sentry - ranged attack
Construct - melee attack

I like the name variation to fit in with established themes in the game, so long as I can still get my massive mean looking bone contruct with bloodied half rotting flesh motifs.

Edit:
Then again, I'd also like it if my golem/construct could throw fireballs.
:)

That would be great. We need caster minions :) And it is better than a usual 'caster', cause it will use the skill that I want.