Summoning ice golems was a signature move of frost mages. The inherent weakness of mages in close combat had driven them to develop various magical methods to compensate for this vulnerability. Techniques like summoning elementals, constructing golems, creating elemental golems, and reanimating corpses had all emerged from this need.
Ice golems fell into the category of elemental golems. They required less energy than elementals and could form physical bodies, but they were as slow and clumsy as snails compared to elementals. Because of their clumsiness, frost mages rarely used them on the battlefield.
An aura warrior or a specialized assassin could easily evade ice golems and kill the mage. Instead, spending a bit more to summon an ice elemental was a better choice.