Rabbi Loew didn't think it would lead this way

[librarian]

Heiho,

this is an attempt to explain some of the more techical stuff about Golems, since I'm not aware of a reliable english source about that topic. You won't find anything exciting new here - at least it shouldn't be new, because nothing has changed recently. It is based on patch 1.11b files, but there were only minor changes regarding Golems since 1.10 release, so it applies there as well.
It is my first attempt to write some really lengthy posting in English, so feel free to complain about wrong semantics, syntax, spelling or use of metaphors not commonly known. Of course feel also free to correct me, if I tell actually wrong stuff ^^
Why Golems?
Well, I like them :-)

It's also a opportunity to give you some very basic approach to the *.txt files and how to do researches with them, especially about the cryptic formulas inside of some of them. If you really care about it you'll sooner or later enter the Phrozen Keep. It's tons of interesting stuff to read there. Sometimes the magnificent modding guys have a somewhat different approach, since they most of the time want to change things, not explain the ingame effect in unmodded game. [Disclaimer]: this is not a complaint. I've gotten a lot of friendly support there :-)

If you want to check the stuff I've written by yourself you'll need the appropriate *.txt files and a spreadsheet editor of your choice, which must be able to manage huge CSV tables. MonStats.txt, a file already invented in versions prior to 1.10, was in fact splitted in two files from 1.10 on and further, because the columns exceeded the capability of certain spreadsheet editors. Just for looking MS Excel will do, or OpenOffice, or NeoOffice. Actually there are fast little applications for that purpose at PK's Filebase which will do the job much better. They're almost all Windows/DOS based, though :-(
Most of the txt files, at least the gameplay related ones, are explained thoroughly in articles of their own, which you can find in PK's Fileguide Section.
There is an rar-archive of all extracted txt files from 1.11b Patch mpq, so you don't need to extract them yourself. However, I won't split that file, so you'll have to load about 300kB.

Recommended reading is PK's Formula Guide by Xeno and Kingpin. It looks a bit scary at first glance, but I hope you'll feel at home very fast.
Fortunately I could rely on a german formula guide by Red Havoc ^^
The german one lists this enlightening Ruvanalian Posting at the Phrozen Keep as further reference. I'm afraid Xeno's guide still has the wrong lnXY function in it.


<span style="font-family:Arial Black">---------------------------------
1) some files and what they do
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MonStats.txt/<span style="color:#CC66CC">MonStats2.txt
Every unit which is not a player character or an object is covered here. So are Golems, at least some of their abilities. Most of MonStats2.txt controls just the graphics of units and won't interest us here en detail. Just keep in mind that it exists.
PK MonStats.txt Fileguide

<span style="color:#CC33CC">PetType.txt
This small file groups the pets. So here's the place where regardless of class is controlled if some pets exclude each other, like Druid's Wolves or Necro's Golems. Regarding our Golems here is controlled that you can only have one at a time, and that it doesn't matter if your ability to summon one is native or from that sodding crossclass-skills business.
PK PetType.txt Fileguide

<span style="color:#CC33CC">Skills.txt
In this file the actual skills are covered, all the damage and synergy and mana stuff, the required cLvl, the prerequisite skills. Regarding our Golems here is the place where it says that you can only have one FireGolem at a time and what exactly it'll do.
Of greater interest in our discussion will be the calculation fields, like'<span style="color:#FFFF33">passivecalcx', '<span style="color:#FFFF33">calcx' and the Parameter fields '<span style="color:#FFFF33">Paramx'. The describers in '<span style="color:#FFFF33">Paramx Description' fields are more of a commentary character. Note that the parameters can be used not just in the row of a given skill but from another skill's row as well (in fact, from another file as well).
PK Skills.txt Fileguide

<span style="color:#CC33CC">SkillDesc.txt
This file controls the decriptions of all skills in the game. That is, what text appears on several places like the skill tree, the spell board etc.
We won't need this to an extend, just keep in mind that calculations done in Skills.txt must be done here the same way so the various ingame text displaying matches what really happens.
PK's SkillDesc.txt Fileguide

<span style="color:#CC33CC">SkillCalc.txt
You may think this is a very important file, but it isn't. Actually it's just more of a commentary file, and the formulas in there are not quite correct, since they don't cover floor and ceiling functions or omit a substraction.


some files we don't need here:

<span style="color:#CC66CC">MonSeq.txt
We would need that file to discuss Druid's Grizzly and his Smite attack sequence animation. I'm still at the very beginning of that mind-boggling animation business, so I'm glad our Golems don't use any sequences ;-)

<span style="color:#CC66CC">MonEquip.txt
In this file some units get their equipment. We would need it for discussing Valkyrie's or Shadow's gear. But none of the Necro pets has gear equipped.

<span style="color:#CC66CC">MonProp.txt
If our goal would be discussing the Druid's Ravens, here is the place where their blinding ability is stored. The Necro's pets don't have properties assigned from that file.



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2) related Skills
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Golem Mastery

We can't discuss Golems omitting the Mastery. As you may know it's a passive skill and boosts our Golem's life, Attack Rating and Velocity. There are no calculation fields filled here, just some parameters.
So you really don't see here how much boost you get from spent points in GM, even if the describers indicate it. This is the very first example of the aforementioned way the rows interact with each other. In fact, as we will see soon, the boni GM gives to each Golem are the same. It is not needed to be this way from the techie approach. Every Golem could get varying bonus from GM in a modded scenario.

<span style="color:#C0C0C0">Player's Note: usually you spend one point here and let your equip do further increasings.
Golem Mastery is no auralike effect, it affects the Golem's quality while he's summoned and doesn't change Golem's quality while he is alive.



Summon Resist

So let's cover the other Golem related passive skill to come over with it. SR gives your Golems (and Skeletons) a percentage boost of prismatic resistance. Other than GM it is actually a formula in <span style="color:#FFFF33">passivecalc1, which reads as '<span style="color:#CC6600">dm12'.
Oh well, I've never heard of a mathematical function called 'dmXY'.
Indeed this is a D2 specific shorty for a 'diminishing returns' effect. We could use SkillCalc.txt to look what it actually means, but as written above it is not very accurate since floor [ ] and ceiling { } functions are omitted. So I'll give you modder's more precise formula instead. dmXY actually means
<span style="color:#CC6600">dmXY = { (Y-X) * [110*lvl / ( lvl + 6 )] / 100 } + X
and the figures X and Y relate to the ParamX and ParamY of this row, in our case Param1 and Param2; lvl refers to the actual skill level (including boni from equip). Param1 is 20 and Param2 is 75.
On sLvl1 we would get
{ (75 - 20) * [110*1 / (1+6)] / 100 } + 20 <=>
{ 55 * [110/7] / 100 } + 20 <=>
{ 55 * 15 / 100 } +20 <=>
8 + 20 <=>
28
This is the percentage of boosted resistance at sLvl1. Feel free to check other sLvl figures.

Summon Resist works pretty much like an aura to your Skeletons and Golems. That is, it's effect will change automatically when you're using a Skill Shrine, changing gear and so on.

<span style="color:#C0C0C0">Player's Note: usually you spend one point here and let your equip do further increasings. At sLvl6 SR increases the resistances by 50% already.

Another Player's Note: SR increases resistance of Skeletons, Skeleton Mages and Golems. However, gained immunities don't show correctly on the life bar which you'll see with active Unsummon Skill or on a hostile pet. Heavy testing indicated that there is no immunity penalty when Lower Resistance and/or Conviction is applied to pets which became immune via SR (or, for the sake of completeness, Salvation).

And Last Player's Note: Revives don't get a profit from SR. I don't know yet where this is controlled, so just believe ingame testings.

[librarian]

<span style="font-family:Arial Black">---------------------------------
3) Golems in general
---------------------------------
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You can only have one Golem at a time, regardless of what Golem it is and how you've summoned it. All Golems may be summoned in a town, will stay on your side through the acts and are able to open doors. Once created the Golems stay as is untill they're gone (killed/replaced/resummoned/poof). That is, your worn gear while summoning determines the sLvl of Golem as well as the applied sLvl of Golem Mastery.
All Golems have a <span style="color:#FFFF33">threat of 11, thus the same as a player char (and more than most other units), also they're treated as the same size like players (medium). Their <span style="color:#FFFF33">AI delay is 15 Frames in every difficulty. They have a <span style="color:#FFFF33">damage regeneration factor ° of 3 and a <span style="color:#FFFF33">Melee Range of 1. With exception of the Blood Golem you can't leech on them, since the other Golems have <span style="color:#FFFF33">drain set to zero. However, if it's cursed with Life Tap you'll be able to leech from any hostile Golem.
Golems are treated as monsters regarding some tech aspects. So they'll have different base life, base defense, base attack rating and base punch damage in the three difficulties. They all have a chance of 5% for doing a <span style="color:#FFFF33">Critical Hit.
<span style="color:#FFFF33">Velocity is the same in walking or running mode.
All Golems have block chances, but they lack blocking animations and haven't <span style="color:#FFFF33">NoShieldBlock set to true, so this is of no use in unmodded game. Golems also lack GetHit mode, so they won't suffer Stun or Knockback.

A1 and A2 are two independent alternative attacks a unit may use.
The base damage I'll list is the minimum <span style="color:#FFFF33">A1 damage in Norm and the maximum <span style="color:#FFFF33">A2 damage in Hell. Since the base punching damage is pathetic it's IMHO a waste of space to list A1 and A2, each min and max, for each difficulty separately.

° regL/s = Lmax * dreg / 4096 * 25
regL/s: regenerated life per second
Lmax: maximum life
dreg: the damage regen factor




<span style="font-family:Arial Black">---------------------------------
4) Clay Golem
---------------------------------
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MonStats.txt


baselife in Norm_NM_Hell: 65 _ 140 _ 240
base defense in Norm_NM_Hell: 20 _ 21 _ 22
base AR in Norm_NM_Hell: 40 _ 66 _ 92
base damage in Norm_NM_Hell: 2 to 11
physical resistance: 25%
lightning resistance: 20%
cold resistance: 50%
velocity (r/w): 8 => 5,3yd/s



<span style="color:#CC33CC">Skills.txt

'<span style="color:#FFFF33">aurastat1: <span style="color:#CC6600">item_slow'; '<span style="color:#FFFF33">aurastatcalc1: <span style="color:#CC6600">dm34'; '<span style="color:#FFFF33">auraevent1: <span style="color:#CC6600">damagedinmelee'
Ok, this means the same slowing property you find on some items is applied to every enemy who touches the Clay Golem. We've already covered the meaning of the dmXY function, the assigned parameters here are Param3=0 and Param4=75. On sLvl1 CG slows enemy by
{ (75 - 0) * [110*1 / (1+6)] / 100 } + 0 <=>
{ 75 * [110/7] / 100 } + 0 <=>
{ 75 * 15 / 100 } + 0 <=>
12%
The AS list 11%. This difference seems neglectible, but you get 11% when you don't do ceiling function.

<span style="color:#FFFF33">'passivestatX': this is where the figures from Golem Mastery are used.
<span style="color:#CC6600">velocitypercent: skill('Golem Mastery'.dm34)
This indicates you've to go to the Golem Mastery row in Skills.txt and use Param3=0 and Param4=40 from that row to calculate velocity increase. Also you'll have to use skill level from that row's skill, not Clay Golem's skill level.
<span style="color:#FFCC66">velocity% = {40 * [110 * sLvlGM / (sLvlGM + 6)] / 100}

<span style="color:#CC6600">tohit: skill('Golem Mastery'.ln56) + (lvl*par8)
Uh-oh, something new here. We know already that the first part of this formula uses Golem Mastery figures. lnXY is actually not a logarithmic function, but again a D2 specific shorty for a linear <span style="color:#CC6600">X+(lvl-1)*Y function.
<span style="color:#CC6600">par8 in the second part of the equation simply refers to <span style="color:#FFFF33">Param8 in the actual row (Clay Golem), and <span style="color:#CC6600">lvl means sLvl of Clay Golem while casted (including equip's boni).
Looking for the parameters we get
<span style="color:#FFCC66">tohit = (25 + (sLvlGM - 1) * 25) + (sLvlCG * 20)

<span style="color:#CC6600">damagepercent: par2 * (lvl - 1) + (skill('FireGolem'.blvl)*skill('FireGolem'.par8))
Now it becomes really scary, you think? It's not so bad, just look what we have done so far.
<span style="color:#CC6600">par2 refers to <span style="color:#FFFF33">Param2 from our actual Clay Golem row, <span style="color:#CC6600">lvl to sLvlCG including boni from equip. The last part of the formula refers obviously to the Fire Golem row's plain <span style="color:#FFFF33">Param8, which is 6. In the middle part we see a new term called <span style="color:#CC6600">blvl. This is actually the synergy effect, and you know synergies only work with hard invested points aka base level (further referred to as bLvl). There you are.
Looking for the parameters we get
<span style="color:#FFCC66">damage increase % = 35 * (sLvlCG - 1) + bLvlFG * 6

<span style="color:#CC6600">armorclass: skill('IronGolem'.blvl)*skill('IronGolem'.par8)
See, you feel at home already. This is the synergy from hard points in Iron Golem and his Param8, which is 35. So the actual formula reads as
<span style="color:#FFCC66">defense increase = bLvlIG * 35

At last the Clay Golem is the only Golem which gets increased life not only from GM and Blood Golem, but also from his own sLvl. This is covered via column <span style="color:#FFFF33">calc1:
<span style="color:#CC6600">hp% adjustment: (100+(par1 * (lvl - 1)))*(100+skill('Golem Mastery'.ln12) + (skill('BloodGolem'.blvl)*skill('BloodGolem'.par8)))/100-100
Don't run away, it's really nothing new here. First part refers to a plain parameter in our actual Clay Golem row, second part covers bonus from Golem Mastery with reference to GM's row, and third part gives credit to the Blood Golem synergy.
So look up Param8 at Blood Golem's row (it's 5), and this will result in
<span style="color:#FFCC66">hp% adjustment = (100 + (35 * (sLvlCG - 1))) * (120 +(sLvlGM - 1) * 20) + (bLvlBG * 5)/100 - 100

Now, that hasn't hurt a bit, has it?

And of course nothing is for free nowadays and your Golem will cost some Mana. The Column '<span style="color:#FFFF33">mana' gives the starting mana cost and the column '<span style="color:#FFFF33">lvlmana' gives the amount of additional mana per sLvl. But this figure is modified through '<span style="color:#FFFF33">manashift', which gives some extra precision. The '8' in this column represents a factor 1 (a seven would represent a factor 1/2, a six 1/4 and so on).
This results in
<span style="color:#FFCC66">Mana Cost = 12 + 3 * sLvl

We won't discuss <span style="color:#CC66CC">AnimData.d2 and related animation business here, so just for completeness the base attack speed of a Clay Golem is 17fpa. This is only enhanceable with a Fanaticism aura and won't become faster than 12fpa.



<span style="font-family:Arial Black">---------------------------------
5) Blood Golem
---------------------------------
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<span style="color:#CC33CC">MonStats.txt


baselife in Norm_NM_Hell: 201 _ 338 _ 637
base defense in Norm_NM_Hell: 90 _ 98 _ 106
base AR in Norm_NM_Hell: 60 _ 104 _ 148
base damage in Norm_NM_Hell: 9 to 41
magical resistance: 20%
poison resistance: 20%
velocity (r/w): 9 => 6yd/s
leechable 100% in every difficulty (though modified through global leech penalties on Nightmare and Hell)


<span style="color:#CC33CC">Skills.txt

<span style="color:#FFFF33">auraevent1, auraevent2, auraevent3 call the damage and heal sharing functions when the Golem does melee or suffers melee or missile damage

<span style="color:#CC6600">velocitypercent: skill('Golem Mastery'.dm34)
This indicates you've to go to the Golem Mastery row in Skills.txt and use Param3=0 and Param4=40 from that row to calculate velocity increase. Also you'll have to use skill level from that row's skill, not Blood Golem's skill level.
<span style="color:#FFCC66">velocity% = {40 * [110 * sLvlGM / (sLvlGM + 6)] / 100}

<span style="color:#CC6600">tohit: skill('Golem Mastery'.ln56)+skill('Clay Golem'.blvl)*skill('Clay Golem'.par8)
This is really the same like with the Clay Golem, it just refers to that one's row (and Golem Mastery, like above), further here only the base level (without equipment) from Clay Golem is called, since it's a synergy.
<span style="color:#FFCC66">tohit = (25 + (sLvlGM - 1) * 25) + (bLvlCG * 20)

<span style="color:#CC6600">damagepercent: par4 * (lvl - 1) + (skill('FireGolem'.blvl)*skill('FireGolem'.par8))
Again the same construct as with Clay Golem, just par4 is of course a parameter in Blood Golem's row (accidentially it's actually the same figure like par2 for Clay Golem, don't be confused here).
<span style="color:#FFCC66">damage increase % = 35 * (sLvlBG - 1) + bLvlFG * 6

<span style="color:#CC6600">armorclass: skill('IronGolem'.blvl)*skill('IronGolem'.par8)
Really the same one like in Clay Golem, because it's just the synergy
<span style="color:#FFCC66">defense increase = bLvlIG * 35

<span style="color:#CC6600">hp% adjustment: skill('Golem Mastery'.ln12)
This part only covers bonus from Golem Mastery with reference to GM's row.
So this will result in
<span style="color:#FFCC66">hp% adjustment = (120 +(sLvlGM - 1) * 20)
note that he doesn't get a bonus from his own synergy!

<span style="color:#FFCC66">Mana Cost = 21 + 4 * sLvlBG

Blood Golem's base attack speed is 15fpa and can increases up to 11fpa under Fanaticism.

His life stealing ability seems partly hardcoded, since he has parameters listed but no function. Or I've become blinded by all that huge tables ... it should be called by the aforementioned auraevent triggers, but I haven't dug deeper yet.
At least the first two parameters refer to his minimum/maximum life steal. The other parameters are constants, so it's maybe ok to list them here on as-is base.
<span style="color:#CC6600">10% of damage the Blood Golem suffers is transferred to the caster char.
25% of caster's self-healing is transferred to the Blood Golem (note: Healer in town and Wells work like with other pets)
30% of stolen life are transferred from Blood Golem to caster char.
Heavily testing indicates that there is also an Overflow. That is, when Blood Golem doesn't need his 70% of the stolen life there is more transferred to the caster if needed. Same vice versa.

<span style="color:#C0C0C0">Note: life steal is not life leech, it's enough for the effect to actually hit, thankfully the punching damage doesn't figure in here. Stealing works as a percentage from enemy's actual life, so you'll get really an effect out of that despite the awesome punching damage of your Golem.
Second note: Blood Golem doesn't steal life with thorny effects anymore since 1.10beta release, still valid in recent patch 1.11b.

[librarian]

[Fragbait]

Hi!

First off, thanks a lot. That's some awesome post there.

On a second look, this:

sLvl23 to sLvl28 refer to EMinLev4 and EMaxLev4:
Fire Damage = 12 * sLvl + 10 to 13 * sLvl + 27
sLvl19 and better refer to EMinLev5 and EMaxLev5:
Fire Damage = 13 * sLvl + 10 to 14 * sLvl + 27

seems a bit odd. Shouldn't it be sLvl29 or better for the last two lines? Maybe just a typo, or I'm a bit confused.

Also, the damage calculated seems way too low: My slvl 28 FG displays around 700-800 fire damage (I can't recall exactly), and 12*28 + 10 to 13*28 + 27 would only be 346-391 fire damage, so roughly 1/2 of the displayed damage. Is this really true? LCS or myself being confused again?

Anyhow, thanks a lot for the info, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Greetings, Fragbait

[librarian]

Heiho,

what I've listed is his 'native' punching fire damage, what the ingame description lists is his 'native' fire damage enhanced with the additional attack fire damage from the according Holy Fire sLvl. This is determined in <span style="color:#CC33CC">SkillDesc.txt :-)

It lists
<span style="color:#CC6600">edmn+sklvl('Holy Fire'.ln56.edmn)*sklvl('Holy Fire'.ln56.par5)
for displayed mindamage and
<span style="color:#CC6600">edmx+sklvl('Holy Fire'.ln56.edmx)*sklvl('Holy Fire'.ln56.par5)
for displayed maxdamage
SkillDesc.txt refers to the ParamX and other Parameter columns in Skills.txt. So first edmn and edmx parameters are taken from the actual Fire Golem row in Skills.txt, then the via ln56 defined skill level of Holy Fire is taken to edmn and edmx of the Holy Fire row and applies Param5 of Holy Fire row as factor, which is called '<span style="color:#CC6600">damage to attack multiplier' and is a plain '6'.

Code:

edmn/edmx parameters for Holy Fire

EMin      2     EMax      6
EMinLev1  1     EMaxLev1  1
EMinLev2  2     EMaxLev2  2
EMinLev3  3     EMaxLev3  3
EMinLev4  5     EMaxLev4  5
EMinLev5  7     EMaxLev5  7

Yes, in SkillDes.txt the function works with 'sklvl' instead of 'skill' like Skills.txt. I guess that happens when as a programmer you work on a variety of files with slightly, but not exactly the same contents and calls.

<edit>
oh, and the other one <strike>is</strike> was indeed a typing spello ...
<edit#2>
... and I should've guessed that the code thing doesn't work with tabs ...
<edit#3>
corrected code layout
</edit_all>

[bigeyedbug]

Heiho,

I haven't had time to read it yet, but I want to immediately compliment you on the clever title.:P

Since you asked, your English is quite good by the way--better than that of some native speakers. :whistling: You do have a little bit of an "accent", but I've always enjoyed that as part of your writing style.

I'm looking forward to reading this in depth.

[librarian]

Heiho,

Since you asked, your English is quite good by the way ...

uh, thanks a lot. I'm always afraid of using false friends (words which looks same as German ones but with completely different meaning in English, there's quite a lot of them), using German metaphors in English wordings or, worse, English metaphors and phrases I'm not aware of while simply translating my thoughts.

Regarding the SkillDesc.txt business with FGs fire damage I want to add another tidbit.
You see SkillDesc.txt refers only to ln56 for Holy Fire, without the 'min' function. So your FGs damage display ingame is quite accurate with a FG sLvl up to 23.
Whenever and whyever you want to buff Fire Golem beyond sLvl23 both the displayed punching fire damage as well as the pulse damage from Holy Fire list wrong figures, because the display doesn't care about the capped sLvl30 aura.
This is the effect I've written about at the very beginning. The function in SkillDesc.txt is not the same as the function in Skills.txt, or more correct, the actual sum of the two independent functions of Fire Golem's native punching damage and added Holy Fire aura punching damage defined in Skills.txt.

[Munkay]

Great post Librarian. So far it's been a joy to read - the edit's make referencing this text an absolute breeze. I look forward to getting to know more about my Necromancer's favorite little buddy.

Cheers,

Munk

[crayhorse]

Great post! Can you boil all those numbers down to some player's advice? Which golems are most effective in which situations and which one's aren't? What's the most effective way to play a pure golemmancer?

[librarian]

Heiho,

Can you boil all those numbers down to some player's advice? Which golems are most effective in which situations and which one's aren't? What's the most effective way to play a pure golemmancer?

I always was shy to give such recommendations, and since I'm fairly out of game by now even more so ;-)
Reason is also, since LoD release items became more and more important with every patch. So nowadays you may build, with lots of efforts and virtual goodies, a Golemancer who is at least viable in Nightmare. But put the same effort into any slightly-more-mainstream-build and you'll get a killer.

So you'll find technical values in this thread to compare effectiveness on your own.

Continue if you still want to read a personal-IMHO-YMMV-statement of _my_ own ...

Basic principle of the game is to kill your enemies. Relying mainly on your golems to achieve that goal means relying on their damage output, both in terms of punching damage and in terms of secondary damage achievable via supporting skills.

The punching damage of _all_ golems is neglectable, and they're all far too slow. Forget Clay and Blood completely here. Yes, this statement includes support via AD.
In terms of items you may gain some extra bang by summoning Iron from a worthy weapon. Nowadays indeed you may read some stuff about summoning Iron from a Faith runeword weapon. Which is crazy, since you may even loose him in some dungeon corner without enemy contact. Add some situations when actually enemy contact will kill your golem and you'll see you're forced to have an assortment of Faith weapons in stash just to keep your build at the core of its idea. Faith is an extraordinary example, but the idea's main flaw stays same when building a Golemancer with Iron focussed on other goodies inherited from the iron-summoning item, like Crushing Blow, other damage modifiers and actually any other property.
Now there's thorns damage, too. Well, firstly thorns damage works only when the golem is bullied in melee, with physical damage. It's completely worthless against ranged and/or elemental attacks. Iron's thorns state doesn't add with a Thorns aura, so it's only way of enhancement lies in support via Iron Maiden or Amplify Damage. Still no means against ranged/elemental attackers. Sadly, later on even a significant part of your enemies' melee damage will be elemental, too, and quite a bunch of enemies is also physical immune, so blast it.
Plus the disadvantage of needing an (identified metallic) item on the ground to resummon a new Iron Golem if the former has deceased.

The highest punching damage is achievable by the Fire Golem. As you can derive on your own the values are still pathetique compared to even a bare-handed hireling. The cap on the native HFi aura is no nice touch, too, so even a high score in summoning skill points from equip doesn't give proper benefit.
Might aura does near to nothing, since the main punching damage is fire.

Using a Thorns aura with any but the Iron Golem, plus adding a Spirit of Barbs, plus amplify cursing still has the same disadvantage as listed with Iron Golem, except that you can resummon the other golems at your ease. Still ranged /elemental foes will cause trouble. Lots of.

As you may see, I'm not exactly in favor of a golemancer build.

So what's the use of golems, anyway?
They're supporting minions in all the term's truth. Each golem is capable of bringing down your first corpses in areas much below your actual level, so your LoM/Overlord build can gain some first corpses to build his army (which is still of some importance in Classic with no hireling around, with a hireling at your side this one will work much faster and is not forced to visiting Blood Moor when your actual playing ground is Act4).

The Clay Golem is the most versatile of all Golems. He gains tons of hitpoints even on sLvl1 with skill-adders from equip, he slows down your enemies, he's cheap to be resummoned. Actually he should be used like an eleventh curse. You don't use him like a Valkyrie, always toddling around your character. You summon him most frequently again and again where he's urgently needed, on top of your enemy's head, at an uncovered flank which sprouts surprisingly enemies you haven't expected, as a scout forward into unknown territory, whereever.

The Blood Golem has almost no use nowadays, since thorns damage doesn't make him and you almost invulnerable anymore. He may still be of use to gain some Hitpoints back, but since red and even purple flacons are so common and their effect so much faster you actually don't need him and his special ability anymore. He may be ok in low-mid cLvl, if Clay doesn't last long enough against nasty bosses and Prime Evils, but of course he's more risky there because of the two-ways-health-connection.

The Iron Golem is the coolest Golem ever. Disadvantages are listed above, but I think usage of Iron gives you extra style credit. That said and done he's too weak in boss battles and due to the need of an iron item on the ground you'll fall back to summoning another golem very quickly in emergency cases.

The Fire Golem would need some redesign to actually gain the glory he promises. Plus he costs an awful amount of mana to resummon, so compared to Clay you can't spawn him as frequently. But as a Valkyrie-alike compagnon he's just too weak. Even as a monster magnet he is surplussed by any Attract'd / Confuse'd monster or just a simple Bone Wall.

So the most effective way of playing a Golemancer is to avoid it. You'll end in nursing your hireling to bring down some corpses and then CE-chainblowing stuff away, and the golem will be a graphical show-off of wasted skillpoints. Just because anything a golem is specially capable of is already available and viable with sLvl1 + equip.

Again speaking of equip, especially LoD/1.1x-wise, you may achieve upt o fifty-something points in a summoning skill. About forty or so will come as allskill or allsummoningskill then. Now do some math and compare the punching damage output of any golem with the punching damage of a single Skeleton with RSk and SkM at about sLvl40. Having those Skellies maxed doesn't mean you have to run around with full army all the time. Indeed if you want to try some unique build you've never seen on bnet max out the Skels, but use only one of them all the time plus any golem you like. This is a build which seems very similar to a Golemancer with the advantage of a minion who can actually beat something. Plus the fallback safety of summoning more Skels if things become a hairy mess.

Means
Summoning:
RS 20 (but summon just one at a time)
SkM 20
GM 1
SR 1
CG 1
BG 1
IG 1
FG 20 (example, this is maybe ok against occasional PIs)
RSM 1 (opt, opt more, summon just one)
Rev 1 (opt)

P&B:
Teeth 1
CE 20 (opt, but in terms of efficiency nothing beats a maxed CE)
BA 1
BW 1 (opt more)
BP 1 (opt more)

Curses:
AD 1 (+equip, without equip adders set to five for easier targetting)
all other curses 1 (opt to taste)
Dec 1 (safety)
LR 1 (more than 11 including equip is basically pointless)

Might hireling.

[CelticHound]

Summon Resist works pretty much like an aura to your Skeletons and Golems. That is, it's effect will change automatically when you're using a Skill Shrine, changing gear and so on.

Hmm. That means that if I use one set of items to summon and wear another set while playing, having Summon Resist on my summoning gear doesn't help at all. That's new to me.

-- CH