By the way, by "Ameteur Gamer", I DO mean that I'M the ameteur. Hope I didn't mess with your mind there.

Golems, golems, golems... speed-demon lovers probably avoid them like the plague. However, if you've ever faced Rockgeiger (C Rank, I believe), you'll know they've got SOMETHING going for them.

Power, power, power, power, POWER!!! That's what the golem does best. If you give them a high-power sub-breed (Dragon), they'll get great gains in power. If you give them a low-power sub-breed (Tiger), they'll get great gains in power. See a pattern? From my limited knowledge, these guys are great for that.

Defense and life are *usually* pretty good. It depends a lot on the sub-breed. My Golem/Arrowhead, obviously, did great with defense and life, and my Golem/Durahan did very well, too, from what I saw (didn't finish raising it). However, my Golem/Tiger was much, much less impressive...

This brings me to the weaknesses: Skill and Speed. If you have enough defense, the low speed isn't a problem, but that skill will always be there. I tried to "cheat" around this by getting a high skill sub-breed (Tiger). Then I found the flaw in my plan - taking time to work on Skill means LESS time working on Power, Defense, and Life. Plus, I tried to keep his Int. above average for errantries, and his speed at an ACCEPTABLE level. In the end, I came out with a rather well-rounded golem. Well-rounded with all fairly low stats, that is. Oops.

If you're an ameteur like me, I'd say, go Golem. If you only work on their good stats, they'll come out pretty strong (REALLY strong, Power-wise), and you can get fairly far without a special training method. Plus, Golems seem to have that intangible "luck" quality, for better or for worse. Yes, it's annoying when Rockgeiger walks up to your Blue Kato and Slaps him to death on his first try, but on the (Da)flip side of the coin, there are few joys in life greater than landing an Uppercut on that D rank pixie when you're golem's barely grown at all. Even better is when that crazy Charge you threw in knocks Hyoue off his feet and onto his back, and then, when your Tornado Attack manages to get Arculon? Break out the party hats!

I really, really like golems... hehehehe...

very nice review daflipp.

i like golems too. i have had a champion battle rocks[golem/durahan] and pure golem, and had a very good dao[golem/bajarl] who fell just a bit short against the big bosses, but did unlock zillas for me.

my advice to golem trainers is to treat them gently as babies. dont battle them early[in fact, like the tv show character, golems have a tendency to dislike battle]. dont go on expeditions early. golems tend to stay infants fairly long if treated gently, and you could do worse than to build up skill 1-3 points at a time for their entire infancy.

skill, skill, skill. take the time to build up skill, even thought they gain it slowly. eventually, you'll gain power and def 15 and 20 points a crack[at light and heavy drills, respectively] so your golem will be strong and tough. you will be happy you spent so much time on skill when your guy is still able to hit folks at the higher levels.

power will eventually get very high. at your golems peak, spend a little power and add a little speed. even if he only dodges one additional blow in a 4 monster tourney, that could make all the difference.

as daflipp mentions, get charge. someone can chime in and tell me which errantry charge comes from. this is your highest % attack, and it does good damage too. this should be your bread & butter move at the higher levels.

here is a stat pattern which is achievable using a judicious mix of heavy and light drills, and without excessive battling or errantry:

lif	pow	int	ski	spd	def
600	900	150	500	250	900

ive had better, ive had worse. but these totals - a 3300 composite - are not out of reach even of a relative beginner, and can be sufficient to get you to the invitationals.

good luck raising the gentle giant of the mr2 world - the noble golem!

I see my monster reviews aer catching on. ^_- How flattering! (teasing, Daflipp).

Seriously, though, Golems aren't as crippled in skill as some of the critters (*coughcoughGABOO*) are, so working on it for a while, like Locke said, is actually a good idea. However, I must admit that bothering with intelligence on a golem is really a time-waster, since they have no real frightening intelligence attacks going for them.

Tremor. Ooo. I'm shaking in my boots.

Something I like to do with Golems, though, is go for their hit techs as fast as you can. Sure, they only (ONLY?!) do C-class damage, maybe D, but when you have a power of 800, C-class damage is _still_ enough to slap the taste out of most critters mouths.

I'll be adding Golem into the mix for my next big Battles Strategies post. Should be alongside Pixie, Baku, Ducken, and maybe Jell.

Hey... these dudes are pretty good! I figured I'd raise a pure golem to combine with an End bringer or Bakky to get Angolmor or Mariomax. Turning into a pretty good monster. 800 POW and working on DEF (currently 450+) at 3yrs3mos. Due to an inadvertant file erasure, I know Tiny will hit 3rd stage at 3y11m,so he's doin great! Got charge,knocked out everyone but Ofrey thru C Class,plus one wimpout. I just might have to raise a buncha these!