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Clay Golem
Claygolem

Class: Necromancer (Diablo II)
Required Level: 6
Skill Tree: Summoning Spells
Active
Cost: 15 Mana

Raises a Golem from the earth to fight for you.

Damage Type: Physical
Synergies: Golem Mastery, Summon Resist, Blood Golem, Iron Golem, Fire Golem
Other Stats: Summon; Only one Golem of any type can be active at a time
Clay

Clay Golem is a Necromancer Skill in Diablo II, and first of the Golem skills. It creates a humanoid being that fights for the Necromancer.

Lore[]

Clay Golem D2Res

Clay Golem as seen in Diablo II Resurrected

While it is fairly simple for a Necromancer to animate dead tissue, it is another matter entirely to instill the spark of life into inanimate objects. The Clay Golem is the simplest form of this complex art, creating a servant directly from the earth to serve the Necromancer. The intense drain this places on the psyche of the caster only allows him to maintain a single Golem of any type at a time.

General Information[]

Synergies[]

Clay Golem produces a mysterious being from the earth itself that follows the Necromancer and fights his enemies. The Golem advances on monsters and strikes them in hand-to-hand combat. Its strength lies in its remarkably high life, which makes it excel at withstanding enemy attacks and drawing the attention of monsters to itself, thus protecting its master. Although its attacks deal insignificant damage later in the game, they greatly slow opponents (including Act Bosses), further tempering threats to the Necromancer. Provided the Necromancer has other means of dealing damage, Clay Golems can act as the Necromancer's "tank".

Investing more points into Clay Golem slightly increases their damage and attack, but particularly their life and ability to slow opponents. Like Skeletons, a Clay Golem contributes to the Necromancer's excellent crowd control and exceeds at trammeling enemies with its slowing ability, particularly when aided with Decrepify and a source of cold damage. An enemy slowed by each of these encumbrances can barely move, which greatly reduces its ability to cause damage. The effect is particularly apparent against Act Bosses, whose threat is distinctly curtailed when slowed. Clay Golems recover quickly and can sustain large amounts of damage before being destroyed. Even when destroyed, they can be easily replaced.

Clay Golems have three major drawbacks. First, they cause very little damage on their own. Poison and Bone Spells and Skeletons are all good sources of damage that supplement the distraction a Clay Golem offers. Secondly, in total, only one Golem can be in service at any time. As such, they cannot be deployed en masse and will also compete with Blood Golems, Iron Golems, and Fire Golems for skill points (although investing in more than one Golem grants mutual benefits through synergies). Finally, while Clay Golems sport the most life of all Golems, Necromancers may prefer other Golems to suit their skill set.

Golem Mastery increases the speed and life of all Golems. Clay Golems particularly benefit from the bonus life they receive from this skill, though the speed bonus is usually not very necessary, as Golems keep up decently well when following their master. Golem Mastery also grants a small bonus to all Golems' attack rating.

Skill Progression[]

Defense: 100

Level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Mana Cost 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45
Life 275 371 467 563 660 756 852 948 1045 1141 1237
Damage 3-7 4-9 5-11 6-14 7-16 8-19 9-21 10-24 11-26 12-29 13-31
Attack Bonus 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260
Slows Enemies 11% 20% 27% 33% 37% 41% 44% 46% 49% 51% 53%
Level 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Mana Cost 48 51 54 57 60 63 66 69 72
Life 1333 1430 1526 1622 1718 1815 1911 2007 2103
Damage 14-33 15-36 16-38 17-41 18-43 19-46 20-48 21-51 22-53
Attack Bonus 280 300 320 340 360 380 400 420 440
Slows Enemies 54% 56% 57% 58% 60% 60% 61% 62% 63%

Known bugs[]

Due to an error in SkillDesc.txt, which has existed since Diablo II and is still present in Diablo II: Resurrected, the value of Defense shown is based on the total Iron Golem skill level instead of the base Iron Golem skill level. However, the actual calculation uses only the base skill level, which means the actual value will be either equal to or lower than the one shown. This affects all Golems receiving the Iron Golem defense bonus.

Trivia[]

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This section contains facts and trivia relevant to this article.
  • Of all Golem types, the Clay Golem is closest to the original concept in Hebrew mythology. As God created Adam from the earth, so the creation of golems from clay is symbolically similar to the creation of Man.
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