Diablo 2 Best Golem For Necromancer Guide

Last Updated on September 7, 2026 by Samuel Franklin

The best golem in Diablo 2 (and Diablo 2: Resurrected) will fight alongside the Necromancer while offering damage and utility. With different golem options it can be difficult to decide which to use and where to invest your limited Necromancer build skill points. This guide includes what each golem does, possible uses and tips to maximise their effectiveness.

With thousands Diablo 2 hours as the Necromancer (my favourite solo class) I recommend players use either the Clay Golem or Iron Golem with a comprehensive guide to all golem options below.

Table of Contents:
– The Best Golem For Necromancer
– All Golems Overview
– General Golem Gameplay Tips

What Is The Best Golem In Diablo 2?

The best golem is the Clay or Iron Golem depending on your progression and preferences. The Clay Golem is the ideal default choice given their durability and enemy slow debuff. However, if you can build powerful runeword items the Iron Golem can be a significant ally with utility or damage but must be kept alive to maintain this benefit.

All Golems Overview

Golem	Level Unlocked	Specialty
Clay Golem	6	Durable and slows enemies. Highly recommended default option.
Blood Golem	18	Life leech focused to provide additional survivability to the Necromancer.
Iron Golem	24	Inherits stats (and auras) from items they are created from. Recommended when you have strong items available.
Fire Golem	30	Durable and Holy Fire aura. Useful for poison necromancers or initially in Nightmare difficulty for their high health pool.

General Golem Gameplay Tips

Players can only summon one golem at a time and provide a supporting role to other summons or skills. Golem AI functions similar to Diablo 2 mercenaries and will follow players (occasionally getting stuck) while attacking enemies within a short range. If your golem does get lost or stuck Necromancers can recast their golem spell, use teleport obtained through items or a town portal to move the golem to your location.

Generally additional skill points in your golem skills are not worthwhile due to the low boost they provide per point to mana cost, damage, hit points and the unique element of each golem. Similarly Golem Mastery which increases life, speed and provides a slight boost to attack rating and Summon Resist is not recommended beyond a single invested point. Players will naturally gain some extra ranks in these skills from any +skill gear which is sufficient.

Clay Golem

The first available golem at level 6 which specialises in slowing enemies and has a high health pool. The enemy slow percentage debuff of this golem also improves the survivability of your other Necromancer summons which makes the Clay Golem flexible, durable and generally considered to be the best Diablo 2 golem for most Necromancer builds.

Blood Golem

Once a highly popular option when paired with Iron Maiden this was changed in Diablo 2 patch 1.10 that changed the Blood Golem from the best to the worst option. Available from level 18 onwards the Blood Golem links itself to your Necromancer’s life and prior to patch 1.13 this meant you would actually share in the damage taken (but could not be killed from this).

In the current version of Diablo 2 (and Diablo 2: Resurrected) the Blood Golem serves solely as a healing utility unit with damage converted into life for both the golem and the Necromancer. In practice though the low damage of golems means it is not useful and you are losing the utility from another golem instead.

Iron Golem

The Iron Golem is available at level 24 and uniquely requires an item to summon while gaining the properties of that item and deleting it. This includes Ethereal items which results in a translucent Iron Golem and a possible option for strong Ethereal items during a normal playthrough that you wouldn’t use otherwise. Given the loss of item the Iron Golem persists across games although does not survive the player’s own death. Given this combined with the AI of golems I don’t recommend using Iron Golem until you are high level and have a reliable method of giving your Necromancer Teleport as it is a risky investment if they get surrounded by enemies or get stuck which can sometimes result in them disappearing.

The real strength of the Iron Golem is with various levels of runewords that offer auras with utility or defensive power that can benefit all your other summons. Insight is one popular choice for those wondering what item to use on their Iron Golem given the mana regeneration for Corpse Explosion or bone skills while freeing up your Act 2 mercenary for an alternative weapon for higher damage.

Other options although costly on runes are Beast, Faith or Pride and items with high crushing blow can also be used to summon an Iron Golem that deals high damage. If you do use the Iron Golem path I recommend some additional skill points in Golem Mastery to prevent losing your item investment and potentially extra points in Blood Golem for the life per level synergy.

Fire Golem

The last golem unlocked at level 30 which takes a significant amount of mana to summon. The Fire Golem has the Holy Fire aura for additional damage, makes them explode on death (or unsummon) and heals from fire damage dealt to them. The Fire Golem health value also changes based on game difficulty (Normal, Nightmare or Hell) unlike the other golems that gain health with additional skill point investment.

While not the most useful golem available to the Necromancer the Fire Golem is a decent ally in Normal and Nightmare with his aura that attracts enemies towards them. Another niche use is in a poison Necromancer build where you’ll have many enemies left with low health where the Holy Fire aura can kill enemies not immune to fire.

Written by

Samuel Franklin

Samuel Franklin is the founder and lead editor of the Games Finder team and enjoys video games across all genres and platforms.

Sam has been playing the Diablo franchise for over two decades where he has commanded both spells and steel against the growing army of the Burning Hells. His favourite games in the action RPG series are Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 which he grew up playing with friends while completing Hell difficulty with every available class. The dark setting and lore continues to bring him back to the franchise with each subsequent game release where he regularly plays as the Sorceress themed class for the ability to control the battlefield with chilling area of effect abilities and teleport away from danger.