Ultimate Guide to Ice Golem

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Hey guys it’s Ash and in this post, I’m going to teach you guys everything you need to know about the Ice Golem and more! I like to describe the Ice Golem as a 2 Elixir mini-tank that targets buildings and has the ability to slow down nearby units upon death. My favorite cards in game are cheap cards that offer a lot of utility, such as the Ice Spirit and Zap. And I believe that the Ice Golem is another very important and very good utility card that will play a major role in this game.

Ice Golem Clash Royale Information

Clash Royale Ice Golem Guide

Summary

  • Players will be able to unlock the Ice Golem from Frozen Peak (Arena 8).
  • The Ice Golem targets building only. He is a melee troop. Based on his Elixir cost, he has great HP but small damage.
  • He is an excellent mini-tank that deals a small splash damage upon death (which can’t even take out Skeletons) and slows down everything nearby 35% for 3 seconds (same with the Ice Wizard)
Hit Speed Speed Deploy Time Range Target Cost Rarity
2.5 sec Slow 1 sec Melee Buildings 2 Rare

Strategies to Using Ice Golem

On offense

To start off, the Ice Golem is not meant to be an offensive threat. He’s one of the weakest units in the game, dealing only 28 damage per second at Level 7, even weaker than a Lava Hound. He has a slow down effect that activates after his dies. The slow down effect lasts for 3 seconds and has a radius of 2 tiles. He is a support troop that excels in defense. I’ll show you guys some key examples of how to use the Ice Golem as a defense later. But first, let’s talk about how you can utilize him on offense.

You can ignore a lone Ice Golem, as he will barely do any damage by the time he reaches your tower. However, you should almost never ignore any threat behind an Ice Golem. A 4 Elixir combination with Goblins behind an Ice Golem can take down a whole Arena Tower.

The Ice Golem is a very slow troop, but you can push him with fast troops like the Hog Rider, Prince, Dark Prince, or Goblins to make him travel faster.

ice-golem-guide-1

Another very good way to use the Ice Golem on offense is by splitting Three Musketeers. You want to split your Three Musketeers of course to prevent them all getting hit by a Fireball or Poison, and since the Ice Golem is a very cheap mini tank, you will have the Elixir to support two of your Musketeers with it, and also have enough Elixir to support your other the other Musketeer with an Ice Spirit. This 12 Elixir combination is more deadlier than a 12 Elixir split Three Musketeer combination with Miner or Knight.

Lumberberjack and Ice Golem are also a very fun combination because the Lumberjack is of course a very fragile unit, so you can complement his speed behind an Ice Golem, pushing the Ice Golem faster. So imagine a combination of Ice Golem in front of Lumberjack, and then a slow troop like the Balloon behind them. If Ice Golem dies, he’ll slow down every unit, including the Arena Tower within his 2 tile radius. Allowing your Lumberjack to do more damage and Balloon to get to the Arena Tower quicker. And then when your Lumberjack dies, the Balloon will not only move faster, but also drop his bombs quicker.

Remember, the Ice Golem isn’t very tanky, he has less hit points than a Knight, so he’s definitely no substitute for a troop like a Giant. He’s best used defensively, So let’s now talk about his huge defensive potential.

His slow down effect lasts for 3 seconds, slowing them down by 35%, similar to an Ice Wizard. However, one important thing to note is that the slow down effects of Ice Golem, Ice Wizard, and Poison do not stack. A Poison Spell slows down all units by 20% within its radius. So if you have your Ice Golem inside your Poison to defend with too, then his slow down effect will slow down all units within it by 35%, which will mask the Poison Spell’s effect.

Another thing to note is that he does not reset the target of units with his slow down effect. The effect will not reset the charge of Inferno Tower, Sparky, nor Inferno Dragon. And one very important thing to note is that the Ice Golem’s slow down effect will also slow down air units but it will NOT inflict any damage onto them. A Golem’s death damage also has no affect air units.

  • The Ice Golem’s death damage will not kill any unit in the game. Not even Level 4 Skeletons from a Level 4 Skeleton Army.
  • Ice Golem’s death damage + Poison will NOT kill Musketeers or Wizard. However, Fireball + Ice Golem’s death damage WILL kill Musketeers or Wizard.
  • Ice Golem’s death damage + Poison or Fireball will NOT kill Barbarians.

On defense

Now let’s talk about the Ice Golem’s best defensive attribute, and that is kiting. The Ice Golem is the best “kiter” in the entire game for his cheap 2 Elixir cost. Making super deadly on defense.

Let me give you some examples of his amazing ability:

  • Say your opponent has a troop such as the Mini Pekka, Prince, or Mega Minion behind his Giant, which most players commonly have. You can use the Ice Golem to safely kite away the Mini Pekka while you safely kill the Giant with your own Mini Pekka.
  • Got a Prince charging onto you? Fear not, just use the Ice Golem to kite it away. By pulling the Prince to the center, both Arena Towers will target it and then the slow down effect will slow it down. The Prince won’t be able to even touch your tower!
  • Got a Pekka coming at you? Fear not, just use the Ice Golem to kite it while using an air troop to take them down.
  • Got Barbarians coming at you and you don’t want to waste a Fireball? Use the Ice Golem to distract them away from your weakened tower.

Ice Golem Advanced Tactics – Kiting and Pushing

Hello fellow clashers! This is usc1313 and today, I bring to you some of the uses for the newly released Ice Golem showcasing its various capabilities by itself as well as combined with other cards. KairosTime featured my video replays with some awesome commentary in his most recent episode of Kairos Coaches!

Ice Golem is a fantastic card because it offers something completely unique when compared to every other card in the game. With 1100 HP and the ability to target buildings, there is finally an official ‘Mini Tank’ in the game. These two aspects give it the unique ability to kite units reliably for only 2 elixir. With correct placement, the Ice Golem is fabulous as dismantling pushes and separating units. It’s large HP pool also makes it excellent at damage mitigation and prevention.

Optimal Placements of Ice Golem:

  1. The square closest to the river should be used for kiting troops behind tanks.
  2. The square towards the middle of the map should be the placement for kiting troops not behind tanks.

Take a look at the screenshot below for more details.

optimal-ice-golem-placements

Elixir Collector Defense: While not an ideal counter for Miner, the Ice Golem provides enough of an HP pool to prevent the Miner from dealing any damage to an Elixir Collector. An important part of this is the positioning of the Ice Golem. It is better if it is placed so the Miner pops up in front of it so the Ice Golem pushes it as it walks away.

Musketeer + Ice Spirit Defense: It is common to toss an Ice Spirit in front of a Musketeer in order to cycle your deck. This push can deal serious damage if not dealt with correctly. An Ice Spirit is rendered useless in this situation, and the Ice Golem provides a much more reliable counter.

Barbarian Defense: Timing and placement are crucial for this technique. The Ice Golem needs to be planted 4 tiles from the river and 1 tile into the opposite lane in order to pull 3 of the Barbarians.

Prince Defense: This technique is extremely hard to pull off and negate all damage. Due to the AI of the Prince, the path it took (down into range of both towers after it killed the Ice Golem) is not a regular occurrence. For a more consistent counter, adding an Ice Spirit, Skeletons, or any other distraction units is a safe way to negate all tower damage. This also works with: Lumberjack, Mini P.E.K.K.A., Knight, Valkyrie, and Dark Prince, but I included a replay in the video for the Prince because it is the hardest to do.

Lava Pups Defense: Lava Pups can be a tricky troop to deal with if your deck is light on AOE spells or Air Defense. The Ice Golem provides a meat shield for your tower, saving your tower health and preventing you from dropping a more costly troop like a Valkyrie or Giant. A big key is dropping it as late as possible so the Pups closest to the tower do not target the tower instead.

Giant Skeleton Retargeting: This strategy works with any troop. The Ice Golem shifts the position of the unit, forcing it to retarget. If used correctly, it can save thousands of damage from your tower by retargeting big threats off of your tower.

Double Prince Defense: An Ice Golem combined with any ranged troop can completely negate damage from a Double Prince Push. If you add an Ice Spirit in, you can negate all damage onto your troops to set you up for a better counter attack.

Giant Mega Minion Defense: This push has gained popularity due to the difficulty of targeting a Mega Minion directly over a Giant. The Ice Golem solves this problem by drawing the Mega Minion into the other lane, leaving high DPS troops free from harm to melt the Giant. The key is in the placement of the Ice Golem. It needs to be placed directly at the river to draw the Mega Minion away from the Giant as soon as possible. The earlier you draw away the Mega Minion, the sooner you can place down your Mini P.E.K.K.A.

Lava Hound Mega Minion Defense: An experienced Lava Hound player will play the Mega Minion on the border of the map to prevent it from being lured. This can be countered by using the Skeletons to draw the Mega Minion close enough to your Ice Golem to kite it into the other lane. It is key to place Ice Golem as late as possible so the Mega Minion locks on before it walks away.

Giant + Musketeer + Mini P.E.K.K.A: This is just an example of using the Ice Golem to buy time. It stalls the Musketeer and Mini P.E.K.K.A. as well as giving the Valkyrie extra time to take out the support by absorbing shots from the opposing troops.

Giant + Prince + Mega Minion: This is a perfect example of how to dissect an opponents push. The crucial timing in this example is not dropping the Mini P.E.K.K.A too early, otherwise the Mega Minion and Prince will ignore the Ice Golem. The spacing of the defending troops also takes away the opportunity for a valuable Poison.

 

What do you think about the Ice Golem? How will you use him? Please share your opinions!