The Ultimate Golem Guide

As a Necromancer you enjoy the power of commanding an undead army. Having a regiment of skeletal mages and warriors feels awesome, but as you push into level 20 you might start wondering if there’s more. Luckily, you’re close to unlocking the Necromancer’s most powerful minion, the Golem.

Unlike other skeletal minions, which unlock instantly at their respective levels, Golem access is locked behind a quest that is only visible once you reach level 25. Upon reaching level 25 you will be prompted to discover the art of Golem creation. That’s right, you don’t just summon your Golem for the first time, you build it. The quest you’re looking for is called “Call of the Underworld”.

How to Complete the Golem Quest

Step 1 Pray at the Shrine of Rathma

“Call of the Underworld” will first prompt you to go pray at the shrine of Rathma in the Fractured Peaks. The quest will mark it on your map so don’t worry about having to search for it.

Step 2 Speak with the Spectral Presence

After praying at the shrine, you will summon Maltorius the Master Necromancer. He will speak to you a bit about the lost art of Golem creation, and ask you to embark upon a journey to rediscover it.

Step 3 Collect Unbroken Bone

Maltorius will ask you to collect materials for your Golem. Suddenly a number of skeletons will spawn in the marked area surrounding the shrine. Killing them has a chance to drop unbroken bone. You’ll need to collect 12 unbroken bones to advance the quest. Note that you might kill all the skeletons in the area before collecting enough unbroken bone. Do not worry as they will respawn within a half minute at most, so just keep walking up and down the area.

Step 4 Find the Cave Containing the Vile Artifact

Maltorius will then mark an area on the map, head over to it and look for a cave. The cave will appear similar to the entrance of a cellar. Simply run over to the marked area until you find the entrance to the cave. You’ll know you’re close when your character exclaims “There it is”.

Step 5 Enter the Bitter Cave

Simple step here, just hop into the cave.

Step 6 Open the Jar of Souls

Upon entering the cave you’ll see a statue with a jar sitting in its hands. Maltorius will tell you to go over to it. You’ll need to interact with the jar. This can be a pain as the spot to interact with it is a bit small but try your best to stand directly in front of the statue.

Step 7 Fill the Jar of Souls

Once you’ve interacted with the jar, enemies will begin to appear around it. Simply kill them and collect their souls much like the soul jar world event.

Step 8 Speak with Maltorious

Maltorius will talk a bit more about Golems and have you repeat a pledge, the quest will then end, and you’ll be rewarded with a rare necromancer-themed amulet and the ability to summon Golems.

How to Use Golems

Golems can be summoned with a unique summon Golem skill, you do not need a corpse to summon them and they can remain on the battlefield indefinitely. However, they have a 16-second cooldown period after dying. Using the Golem skill while a golem is summoned will activate the Golem’s active ability.

What Do Golems Do?

Golems serve as awesome frontline tanks for both you and your army. They are a melee minion and despite their size can move surprisingly fast. Golems can also put out decent AOE damage. Golems have active and passive abilities. The Golem's passive and active and its further bonuses change depending on their specialization.

Bone Golem

The Bone Golem's active ability taunts nearby enemies forcing them to attack the Golem. You can choose one of two specializations for the standard Golem. It can either shed a corpse every time it takes 10% of its health as damage, or it can add max health and boost the amount of thorns it inherits from your character. This golem can be sacrificed to gain +10% increased attack speed.

Blood Golem

The Blood Golem active makes it drain blood from nearby enemies healing it for a percentage of its max life per enemy drained. The Blood Golem can be further specialized to either absorb 15% of the damage you would take, or it can gain 25% damage reduction and gain 50% increased damage. It can be sacrificed to increase your maximum life by 13%.

Iron Golem

The Iron Golem active makes it rush forward slamming the ground dealing massive damage and stunning enemies hit. The Iron Golem can be specialized so every fifth attack fires out a shockwave dealing damage, or its active slam attack can make enemies vulnerable for 3 seconds. The Iron Golem can be sacrificed to grant an additional 38% critical strike damage to your character.

Golem Build Synergy

Golems have some awesome build synergy. First off, they are a must-have in any summon-oriented build. It can be tough because they do take up an additional skill slot, but the value they provide to any build is insane. One synergy we recommend is running bone storm which will also cast on your golem, Hulking Aspect which allows your golem to spawn corpses on attacks, the Osseous Gale Legendary Aspect which allows bone storm to consume corpses extending its duration, and the bone golem corpse specialization. This will allow your golem to generate corpses and keep a high uptime on your bone storm granting a ton of damage mitigation.

In Conclusion

Golems are an awesome addition to your army and with a number of different ways for them to synergize with different builds understanding how they work is incredibly important. Check out our top builds page for some high-tier ways to run Necromancer and maximize your control over the undead!