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Iron Golem
Irongolem

Class: Necromancer (Diablo II)
Required Level: 24
Skill Tree: Summoning Spells
Requires: Clay Golem, Blood Golem
Active
Cost: 35 Mana

Summon a powerful Golem at the cost of a metal item. The Golem takes the properties of the sacrificed item.

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

Iron Golem is a Necromancer Skill in Diablo II. It creates a minion from a metal item that fights for the Necromancer.

Lore[]

Iron Golem D2Res

Iron Golem as seen in Diablo II Resurrected

While many mages spend their lives devoted to studying the transmutation of base metals into gold, the Necromancers have always had a somewhat different approach to transforming metals. Through complicated arcane rituals and great mental concentration, a Necromancer can summon forth a Golem from common base metals. The construct takes on the properties of the original source material, including any magical effects or other properties the original metal might have possessed.

General Information[]

Iron Golem transmutes a metal item into a grotesque iron automaton that serves the Necromancer. The skill is targeted on a metal item lying on the ground, which is magically refashioned into the Golem. Much like other Golems, the Iron Golem accompanies the Necromancer and battles his enemies using its iron blades. But unlike other Golems, which are destroyed when the player exits the game, Iron Golems persist between games, magically respawning to rejoin the Necromancer by his side. Iron Golems inherit properties of items from which they are created, allowing Necromancers to tailor their Golem to suit their needs. Unlike other Golems who may struggle to cause damage later in the game, this peculiarity preserves the viability of Iron Golems for much longer, provided the Necromancer has access to powerful items from which to fabricate the Golems.

Iron Golems can be constructed from items of any quality, even non-magical items. Such items must be sacrificed when fashioned into an Iron Golem, as they are irreversibly destroyed, calling for careful and prudent use of the skill. The Golem will receive the additional Damage listed on weapons, or the Defense listed on armor. Currently Golems do not receive the damage benefit for using two-handed weapons. Thanks to the ability of Iron Golems to gain the traits of whatever item they are made from, they are potentially the best Golems for dealing damage in the game, while still discharging their defensive role as a durable target to distract enemies.

The Golem's defensive utility is further boosted by its sharp spikes and barbs that repercuss attacking enemies. Enemies landing physical blows on the Golem suffer damage in return by the Golem's personal Thorns aura. Although the aura only affects the Golem itself, it improves with higher skill levels, causing more damage to be returned with each blow.

One can only create Iron Golems from metal items, and cannot make them from Clubs, Wands, Crystal Swords, Gloves, Belts, Throwing Weapons, Staves, Bows, Crossbows, Quest Items, Jewelry, Leather Armor, common and leather Boots, and all variations of these items.

Saving powerful Rare and Magical Items one doesn't wish to sell, use or trade to create Iron Golems is a popular tactic. Some magical item properties are not transferred to the Iron Golem, such as Chance to find Magical Items and Mana Steal. Items with Knockback should be avoided, as enemies knocked back by the Golem will tend to draw it behind enemy lines, where it is vulnerable to being surrounded, trapped and destroyed. Iron Golems gain the abilities of Socketed Gem, Rune and Jewel weapons.

The main purpose of Iron Golems lies in giving the Necromancer a customizable fighter. Sacrificing an item with Crushing Blow or Open Wounds will result in an Iron Golem capable of administering powerful anti-boss effects with each strike. Using something with a chance to cast spells on each strike (for example, Stormlash for Static Field) will result in an Iron Golem unleashing potent spells in combat. A polearm with the Insight Rune Word will yield a walking source of Meditation, freeing the Necromancer's mercenary's hands to wield something else. Extremely expensive and rare items can also be used, such as the Beast Rune Word for Fanaticism. Iron Golems will stay around from game to game, moderating the sacrifice of a rare item, although they (and the item they embody) are still permanently lost if they are destroyed or their master is killed.

Metalgrid, a unique amulet, allows any class to summon high-level Iron Golems. However, the Golem produced from this amulet does not carry over to new games and is instead destroyed on exiting the game. Instead, the summoner is reimbursed with the gold value of the item used to create the Golem.

Skill Progression[]

Mana Cost: 35
Damage: 7–19 / 11–30 / 12–33
Attack Rating: 80
Hit Points: 980
Gains additional damage or defense from the item that created it

Level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Damage Returned 15 21 27 33 39 45 51 57 69 81 93
Defense 175 210 245 280 315 350 385 420 455 490 525
Level 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 25
Damage Returned 105 117 129 141 153 171 189 207 225 ?
Defense 560 595 630 665 700 735 770 805 840 1015

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.

In Diablo II: Resurrected, the "Thorns damage" description display is arguably broken (since v2.4 up to v2.7 at least). The official docs state that "Thorns no longer return a percentage of damage when hit. Now thorns will deal a flat amount of damage when the aura-effected targets are attacked", which is consistent with the Skills.txt file showing the relevant base and per-level values as 0. However, the description retains the old "Thorns damage" line, and no exact value of the flat returned damage is given explicitly. The value can be determined by reading Skills.txt or modifying the SkillDesc.txt to display the value for this skill, and is also arguably quite low in comparison to earlier game versions.

Trivia[]

  • Iron Golems created out of an Ethereal Item are translucent.
  • In early versions of the game, especially on non-official servers, one of the ways of provoking other players involved using Iron Golem as a means to destroy powerful items. Players boasting the ownership of a powerful item were sometimes tricked to temporarily drop it on the ground, letting malicious Necromancers turn it into an Iron Golem before its owner could reclaim it. Similarly, well-geared players would sometimes pretend to give away powerful items near poorly geared players, transforming them into Iron Golems before the poorly geared players could pick them up.
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