Guardian Ascendancy got 2 new nodes, which buff the new Herald of Purity by a huge amount. Basically you can change the tree a bit, pick the two nodes and Herald of Purity in a 4L (maybe essence crafted, so it could get a potential 5L) and carry maps on your own at a slow pace. In this case, you would lose ES and Mana for sure, and the pure support skills would suffer. Only do this, if you can't find a carrier or if you are in love with minions! 

Some skills, for example, Vaal Grace, Haste etc. can be used instantly now (while moving).

Vaal Skill Prevention time is now increased by skill effect duration -> Vaal Grace can't be used permanently anymore.

Shield Charge doesn't scale with local attack speed modifiers on your weapon anymore. So Prismatic Eclipse is probably the way to go.

Guardian Aura Support Builds Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • + Extremely high offensive and defensive boost
  • + 7-10k ES affordable (& ~1.2k life)
  • + Very budget-friendly (you can start with a budget of 10c)
  • + Very easy to get your Endgame equipment ready (more details in gear section)
  • + Offers better defenses and offenses than a support with Shavronne’s Wrappings
  • + Extremely good defenses vs chaos damage (a lot better than Necromancer -> Explanation in "How to deal with chaos damage")

Cons:

  • - No regen maps are very annoying to run
  • - Gameplay is for some player not as smooth as Shavs support because chaos damage bypass ES -> have to take care of your life pool very rarely
  • - Need necessarily 3 uniques to get going (Alphas Howl, Prism Guardian, Victorious Influence)
  • - No curses anymore in the base setup, since I always had a curser with me - You can easily swap in 1 Curse, 2 Curses are possible as well if you take Whispers of Doom

Skill Gems and Aura Setup

Skill Gems Setup

  • Body chest: Wrath – Anger – Hatred – Clarity (lvl 1, higher if you get more mana with levels) – Flame Dash
  • Helmet: Purity of Ice + Purity of Fire + Purity of Lightning + Enduring Cry
  • Shield: Discipline, Haste, Grace
  • Boots: Vaal Haste + Vaal Discipline + Increased Duration – Bone Offering
  • Gloves: Stone Golem + Animate Guardian + Minion Life + Minion and Totem Elemental Resistance
  • Weapon: Shield Charge + Fortify + Faster Attacks

Aura Setup

Guardian Gear Detailed Explanation

  • Body Chest: Victario's Influence (at least 5s)
    The Blasphemy is only used if your carrier doesn't need Hatred or another damage Aura. Otherwise, don't use Blasphemy!
  • Boots: Sin Trek (try to get a high ES roll)
  • Sword: Epheremal Edge or Prismatic Eclipse (3x green socket)
  • Shield: Prism Guardian
  • Helmet: Alphas Howl
  • Gloves: Rare ones with high ES + Chaos Resistance
  • Ring 1: Rare Ring with Chaos Resistance and Energy Shield
  • Ring 2: Chaos Resistance, Energy Shield
  • Amulet: Chaos Resistance, Energy Shield, Increased Maximum Energy Shield OR Presence of Chayula (not needed, just Quality of Life) OR Blood of Corruption (Immunity to Elemental Damage - Vaal Aura)
  • Belt: Bated Breath or Ascent from Flesh or a rare Crystal Belt (Lot ES + Chaos Res) - craft if with Essence of Envy
  • Jewels: Conqueror’s Efficiency + Healthy Mind + Rare (Abyss) Jewels (eg. Energy Shield, Mana, Resistances, Dexterity, Chaos Resistance) OR Watcher's Eye (Gain 10-15% from Mana as extra ES) <- super expensive OR corrupted Jewels with reduced mana reservation (just some endgame possibility)
  • Flasks: 
    Divine Life Flask with immunity to Bleeding and instant recovery on low life
    Stibnite with immunity to Shock
    Ruby Flask with immunity to Ignite
    Quartz Flask with immunity to Curses
    Quicksilver

Animated Guardian

Due to the high life regen gained by Guardian Ascendancy, you can use an Animate Guardian which offers a decent offensive boost and is nearly immortal. On my road to 100 my Animate Guardian only died twice, and I did really crazy double Beyond maps.

Setup:

  • Helm: Leer Cast
  • Staff: Dying Breath
  • Boots: Victarios Flight
  • Chest: Ambu's Charge
  • Gloves: Southbound

Skill Tree and Progression

You can fully spec to support on lvl 70.

You can basically level with any spell, but I recommend you to search a friend for leveling together, since leveling support solo is rather slow.

  • Lvl 14: Grab the dmg nodes at the start and pick some life. You can lvl with Lifespring or +1 Fire/Cold/Lightnings Gems wand (eg Frost Bolt + Added Lightning Damage + Arcane Surge)
  • Lvl 25: Grab the Witch nodes, go for Elemental Overload if you're leveling solo. 
  • Lvl 40: Travelling continues.. nothing interesting
  • Lvl 49: Travelling continues.. nothing interesting
  • Lvl 62: Getting some Aura nodes and ES
  • Lvl 70: from now on you can go full support, and should equip all the required items - Take one Healthy Mind if you feel comfortable with, otherwise take it in higher levels
  • Lvl 83: Getting some ES, Mana - Use one Healthy Mind close to Devotion
  • Lvl 90: Take another Healthy Mind next to cruel Preparation
  • Lvl 100: Grabbing the most efficient mana nodes

Aura Setup while lvling

Take Anger as early as possible.

Otherwise Auras like Haste, Discipline and Purities may be useful while lvling.

Bandits

Kill them all.

Ascendancies

  • Normal: Radiant Faith
  • Cruel: Unwavering Faith
  • Merciless: Harmony of Purpose
  • Uber Lab: Bastion of Hope

Pantheon

  • Major: Soul of the Brine King
  • Minor: Soul of Shakari - You can swap it out with Soul of Abberath on Burning Ground Maps (Never did it, just a Quality of Life)

Guardian vs. Ascendant (Necromancer) vs. Occultist

Here we have a little Rundown on the Features one can expect. The Values are for 140% inc. Aura effect on 6 Auras and 90% inc. Aura effect on the other six. All Buffs affect Allies.

Guardian

  • + Offers very high defense for yourself and especially the party (High flat ES, 9% to max Elemental Resistance, physical damage reduction, life regen)
  • + Good speed and damage for the party 
  • + Very easy to gear -> only requires cheap uniques and rares and no crafts to reach the full endgame potential
  • + Best defense vs. chaos damage (because of MoM) -> Coruscating Elixir is not needed!
  • - Not as much speed as the Ascendant(Necromancer)

Ascendant (Necromancer)

  • + Offers average defense for yourself and the party (7% to max Elemental Resistance, physical damage reduction, Flesh Offering)
  • + Very good speed and damage for the party 
  • + Mediocre to gear -> requires an expensive crafted helmet
  • + Good defense vs. chaos damage (Coruscating Elixir can be used)
  • + Has 2 curses in the base setup
  • - Doesn’t feel as smooth to play as the Guardian (way worse defense) 

Occultist

  • + Offers very high defense for yourself and the party (8-9% to max Elemental Resistance, curses)
  • + Good speed and damage for the party 
  • + Easy to gear -> only requires cheap uniques and rares and no crafts to reach the full endgame potential
  • + Good defense vs. chaos damage (Coruscating Elixir can be used)
  • + Has 4 curses in the base setup
  • - Reduced Curse Effect Map Mod is kinda rippy 

How much damage and defense do I actually offer?

Auras

  • Hatred: 83% of Physical Damage added as Cold Damage
  • Wrath: 328 Lightning Damage for Attacks, 48% more Lightning Damage with spells
  • Anger: 275 Fire Damage for Attacks, 222 Damage for Spells
  • Purities: 7-9% on all max elemental resistances
  • Grace: 5160 Evasion
  • Discipline: 423 Energy Shield
  • Haste: 30% Attack & Cast Speed & 16% Movement Speed
  • Vaal Haste: 56% Attack & Cast Speed & 23% Movement Speed

Ascendancy

  • 375-750 Energy Shield (depends on your level, in the 90s you only get Mana)
  • ~1600 Armour
  • 1,8% Life Regen for you - 3,4% Life Regen for the party
  • 6% Phys Reduction for you - 14% Phys Reduction for the party
  • Charge Sharing and Endurance Charge generation
  • 10% spell block & block for allies and partially 50% block for you + stun immunity on block

Animate Guardian

  • Increased Damage: 33%
  • Increased Cursed Effectiveness: 18% (nice if you play together with a curser)
  • Increased Movement speed: 10%

Note: Aura Effectiveness 82%, with Generosity: 131%