they do come with 100% poison resist and 50% lightning resist. and if you get a item with resist on it you can get pretty solid resist on them.
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I did some experimental runs with a beast IG today. Diablo wipes out the IG in 2 fire nova casts 
need to learn how to teleport around these but tricky…
Changing the merc’s helm to flickering flame did wonders though… but even then, any metalgrid IG based build is not really worth it.
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I think this is just going to be a niche use case. Which is fine.
Some few scenarios where Metalgrid Iron Golems will be used:
On something cheap for aura. IE Insight.
On something durable for specific benefits. IE Medusa’s Gaze for a fire character using Flickering Flame in the party.
Fire Druid is probably the most likely. Flickering Flame grants high fire resistance aura making the Medusa Golem have high resists (it comes with Cold Resist). Meanwhile Oak Sage with CtoA grants high life pool. Purpose of Iron Golem is to get hit and trigger Lower Resist.
Rattlecage maybe? Hit causes Monster Flee and Crushing Blow?
Hmm… maybe Stoneraven? Kelpie Snare?
Yeah, not a lot of options.
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ethereal two handed elite lawbringer for decrypify and damage against undead on wind druid / summoner druid. cheap enough to not worry to much should he die. some def reduction and life leech on it too.
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Here is a simple solution. Have insight be on a shield. No need to touch metalgrid coding. I can use akaran targe 45res insight to make i.g. problem solved.
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yea. that would be nice. would be cool if the indestructible mod would make iron golem indestructible also.
Hmm… Insight on a shield would prevent dual wielding (compared to suggestions to put it in a sword) and would make an Insight Act 3 Merc possible.
It would be an alternative to Spirit shield, what with the 35% Faster Cast, giving Fire and Poison Resistance instead.
Enhanced Damage on a Shield though… for much much cheaper than a Pheonix.
It would immediately become best in slot shield for a Javazon I’d think. At least it would solve the mana use issue.
Basically, this would be a big buff to the Act 3 Merc, Javazons, and potentially casters who need mana regen more than they need +2 Skills.
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All 1 point summons should be as durable as a naked A2 merc at the very least…
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Could use a hint of extra durability, but it’s hard to draw the line.
A very tough IG would mean death to the Mara’s Amulet; 2 skills vs 17 Meditation for example is a no brainer.
But I agree that on it’s current state its borderline useless.
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Play necro if you want durable golem :). Metalgrig was never supposed to cast strong golem.
Frankly the Necromancer Golem synergies are all messed up. Even without Golem Mastery Clay Golem has more life (because its life goes up each level), while Fire and Iron Golem has less and have a fixed amount of life regardless of level.
I have a thread where I suggest skill changes, and for the Necromancer section I suggested changing the way Golem synergies work:
Right now, you have Golem Mastery which gives life, attack rating, and run walk speed to each Golem. You also have synergies to each golem from the various other Golems. That is way too many synergies for Golem builds when you can only have one golem out at a time. It should be set up so that you only have 40 points into your Golem builds. 20 in the Golem of your choice, and 20 in Golem Mastery. That way you then have points left for other skills to support your golem. Of course, only the Clay Golem is currently balanced to work this way.
The easiest way to do this would be to move the current synergies: +20 Attack Rating (Clay), +5% Life (Blood), +35 Defense (Iron), and +6% Damage (Fire) to per each point Golem Mastery. Of course, that would buff the Clay Golem quite a bit. However, the only thing in there that really powers up the Clay Golem is the +5% Life (base damage for Clay is too small to be helped by damage increase). Thus, I recommend adding +20 Attack Rating (Clay), +35 Defense (Iron), and +6% Damage (Fire) to per point in Golem Mastery, while buffing the base Life for Iron and Fire Golem by +100%. (IE what you would get from 20 points in Blood Golem). Neither Iron nor Fire Golem will be broken by this (as they are both still less than what the Clay Golem is without that buff), heck I’d even consider increasing their base life by 150% to make them similar to the Clay Golem in total life. It would take a small step towards making the other Necromancer Golems viable. It would also help out the survivability (but not the damage) of the Iron Golem on items (Metalgrid, etc) as that has suddenly become relevant this patch.
Not asking for a strong iron golem. Just tough enough that solo is possible. So three solutions here:
- make metalgrid i.g stronger
- Allow insight on shields. Shield with resis 45 would increase its survivability without changing the existing coding much.
- Make ig less aggro.
I think the best solution is the first. There is already an issue with Golem synergies. There are just too many of them. It takes 100 points to fully synergize a Golem. It makes no sense to do that, so no one does. But only Clay Golem is really balanced around not synergizing. The other Golems are underpowered without synergies.
EDIT: There seems to have been a change. I got the numbers below from D2Planner 3 days ago (I usually use D2Planner when on forum as my source since my computer struggles handling running the game and a browser at the same time). But now the numbers on D2Planner have changed with huge life increases for the Blood, Iron, and Fire Golem. Was this a change in game, or was D2planner just incorrect and only recently updated?
Clay Golem has 175 Life at level 1, and gains 61 life per a point in Clay Golem. Giving it 1338 Life at level 20.
Blood Golem has 388 Life at level 1, and gains 77.5 life per a point in Blood Golem. Resulting in 1862 Life at level 20.
Iron Golem has 595 life. No matter the level of the Golem.
Fire Golem has 613 life. No matter the level of the Golem.
There are two ways to increase the life of Golems. Blood Golem gives +5% life per a point to the other Golems. And Golem Master gives +20% life per a point to all Golems.
Thus, with 20 points in Blood Golem:
Level 20 Clay Golem gets 2677 Life (more than the Blood Golem).
Any Level Iron Golem gets 1190 Life. (Lower than Clay without synergies).
Any Level Fire Golem gets 1226 Life. (Lower than Clay without synergies).
I think the Blood Golem synergy that gives Life should be distributed to the base life of the Iron Golem and Fire Golem, and the synergy should be removed. That would help bring the unsynergized Fire and Iron Golem more into line with the unsynergized Clay Golem. It’d also help with the Metalgrid fragile Iron Golem issue, by basically doubling the base life of the Iron Golem.
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Insight is already on too much stuff, i feel like people dont even know how to play without it anymore.
Just because there is golem on metalgrid doesnt mean it supposed to be strong for everyone. Its good for necro and thats it.
Think about it this way. Diablo 2 is great because of its complex builds. There are so many trade offs. But there are only a couple meta builds and they mostly require one shield: spirit.
I do understand your concern for power creep. But at the cost of a metal grid i.g. players lose 2skills and 20fcr. That is hugggge loss. The trade off is real.
The last thing i want is to have players all carrying spirits. Thats not a definition of a game that allows diverse builds. If the builds are predictable, then it is no longer interesting.
There seems to have been a change to the Golem numbers. I got the numbers in my previous post from D2Planner 3 days ago (I usually use D2Planner when on forum as my source since my computer struggles handling running the game and a browser at the same time). But now the numbers on D2Planner have changed with huge life increases for the Blood, Iron, and Fire Golem. Was this a change in game, or was D2planner just incorrect and only recently updated?
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You plan on making that every game? 
Golems are worthless regardless of class. They do no damage and their survivability requires a massive points dump for 1 lackluster skills.
In fact, Blizzard just nerfed Blood Golem this patch by reducing the LL in hell on an already worthless golem that does virtually no damage to being with…
Interesting. A boost in life is welcomed but the important part is resistance. Couple elemental projectile hits and it dies . So d2r team has taken the effort to fix the i.g. summon from items. Why not make it actually useful?
Once again, i would really like to see
- insight on shield
- i.g. elemental resist bump.
nope. it’s probably a good thing that it’s weak. if the golem was that strong. it would probably be mandatory for most builds occupying the amulet slot. now you probably mostly only use it until you find something better. just shame that the level on metalgrid is so high.
pretty strange that they nerfed the blood golem. maybe they are planning some other changes to blood golem that’s not yet ready for ptr?
they should just let all the golems equip one item. different item types depending on what type of golem you use. and remove the death penalty on them. just make the equipped item persist through golem death.
Considering metal grids high lvl requirement, the IG is far too weak. At its current state, it good up to nightmare, which is laughable for an ammy with such a high lvl requirement. I mean, who in their right mind would ever use this?
As mentioned above, the diversity and trade off is what makes diablo great. Look, i am willing to give up 2skills and 20fcr for a mana battery.
I think thats a huge trade off that deserves a robust battery pack.