"When bound by faith and respect, the flock will overwhelm the wolf"

Guardians are a powerful option for tank/support Templars dedicated to partying, possessing passives with an emphasis on enhancing and protecting a party. 

Forget the power of loot-filter and poe.trade, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned. Forget the promise of Atlas-progress and Challenge League Rewards, for in the grim dark month's ahead there is only the grind.

Quick Jump

• Pros & Cons

• Skill Tree 

• Buildoptions, Totems and Shenanigans

• Gear Setup

• Leveling

• Expectations & POB

Pros & Cons

Pros

• + a great Leaguestarter if you play with your friends
• + can start with minimal Investment and support all Endgame
• + purges the Atlas from Xenos for the Glory of the Emperor
• + doesn't give a damn about physical Damage
• + tanky

Cons

• - Playstyle is not for everyone (but you already knew that)
• - vulnerable to Elemental Damage at the start of mapping
• - not fun to level solo as this build
• - lefthanded

Skill Tree 

Ascendancy

Bandits

This quest is given to you by Eramir in the Forest Encampment after you complete Through Sacred Ground or talk with any of the bandit leaders. There are three different bandit leaders. You can either side with one of them (and kill the other two) to get the respective reward or you can kill all of them to get the reward from Erami - from Gamepedia

Kill all Bandits

Pantheons

The Pantheon List

• Minor God - Soul of Shakari, upgrade asap for Poison Immunity (T13 Desert Spring Map)
• Major God - Soul of Solaris or Soul of Arakaali, depends on Situation

Passive Tree

Buildoptions, Totems and Shenanigans

The Vigil + Vigilant Strike

This combination grants AoE Fortify for You, your Partymembers and Minions, for up to 26 Seconds and it costs you a Jewel Socket. It is by far the biggest Defensiv Boost I can imagin and YOU WANT IT!

Harmony of Purpose + CoH + Elemental Equilibrium

The newly buffed Harmony of Purpos is a dream come true and due to it's on-hit mechanic easily combinable with a Curse on Hit setup and Dual-Curses.

Animate Guardian

A popular Choice to gain 3 Auras more and with the recent changes to Minion Life Support and my Auras I found him to be quite survivable.

See that you can get the Gem to lvl 21, Quality doesn't matter.

Remember: if the Guardian dies, the Items are lost, and switch him off in Labyrinth, Halls of Grandmasters and probably Uber-Atziri.

Here are the usual Itemchoices

• Leer Cast
• Dying Breath
• Victario's Flight
• Kingmaker expensive at Leaguestart, fucks with Cullers
• Lightning Coil because of phys-convertion
• Cloak of Flame because of phys-convertion
• Zahndethus' CassockCreates Consecrated Ground + Chaos Resist
• Ambu's Charge cheap Regeneration
• Death's Oath Fashion Choice
• Dyadus Support Burn-Builds, this Weapon needs to be in the Offhand.
• Southbound for the inc. Life

Otherwise focus on Chaos-Resist and Life on the Gloves and Boots.

Rejuvenation Totem

This Skillgem has the "Aura" Tag and will scale with your Aura Effect and Area Nodes.

It provides great upkeep during early Bossfights and is noticeable even in Lategame.

Devouring Totem

This Totem "leeches" Life & Mana to you, which circumvents the Zelot's Oath Keystone, thus recovering your Life if you run a Chaos-heavy Map or Desecrated Ground.

Decoy Totem

Always a solid choice. Tanky like a Fortress with your Auras.

Scorching Ray + Storm Barrier Support + CwC

Another Way to Support. Reduce Fire Resist and apply a curse while Storm Barrier beefs you up. Only allows for one Curse and doesnt Work with Harmony of Purpose since Scorching Ray does not hit.

Ancient Waystones + Reduced Mana Support + Aura-Totem

This combination (the Supportgem needs to be max Quality) reduces the Manacost of the Spelltotem to Zero. Keep in Mind that a Spelltotem will only ever cast one Aura, so linking multiple Auras has no effect. Also Spelltotems can't be supportet with Generosity!

Vacuum Warchief with Empire's Grasp

Sacrificing heavily on your Gloves-Slot this Setup was fun a few leagues back and was used by Champion-Supports until they came out of fashion! Might need further investment into the Fending Notable to make it great.

Warchief Totem + Faster Attacks + Inc. Area of Effect + Knockback/Blind Support.

Conversion Trap

Your Friends will be anoyed but it is super-fun "stealing" some Aura-Rares or Invincibility-Totems.

Dominating Blow

Gear

Required

Victario's Influence, Prism Guardian, Alpha's Howl + Conqueror's Efficiency

Recommended

Ephemeral Edge, Presence of Chayula, The Vigil

Other Items see sections "Leveling" below

Flasks

I used Rumi's Concoction but didn't really feel it added a lot. As big Elemental hits seem to be the only Danger I would recommend

Bubbling Hallowed Life Flask Of Staunching, Alchemeist's Quicksliver Flask Of Adrenaling + + Topaz, Ruby and Sapphire Flask.

Jewels

Next to the Unique Jewels Watcher's Eye, Conqueror's Efficiency and The Vigil we use Jewel's to fix our Resistances and stack Energy Shield.

• Resistances
• flat Energyshield (Abyss Mod)
• flat Mana (Abyss Mod)
• Intelligence
• % Energyshield
• %inc. Armour if you havent killed recently (Abyss Mod)

Energy from Within and Healthy Mind can be good options too.

Try not to let your unreserved Life drop below ~1200HP. And keep Chaos Resist maxed!

Leveling

As this Build is specifically made to start a League and level with Friends.

Here are a few Items you might consider

• Lvl 04 - The Vigil socket Vigilant Strike and grant your Allies up to 26s Fortify.
• Lvl 12 - Victario's Flight Use while leveling, later your Animate Guardian can wear 'em.
• Lvl 16 - Shaper's Seed Very nice during Leveling and in Labyrinth.
• Lvl 17 - Aurumvorax fixes your Resist's till Endgame.
• Lvl 17 - Solaris Lorica get one around Lvl 31. Once you ascended reserve an Aura with Bloodmagic Supportgem and Beef up your Allies with tons of Armour. Be prepared to skill Zeloth's Oath here and run Disciplin. Your ES is now your efficient healthpool and you need to keep your Resistances maxed!
• Lvl 52 - Victario's Influence as soon as you can, aquire a decent rolled one and dress up.

Fix your Chaos Resistance BEFOR! Rearange your reservations in such a ways, that you do not reserve more then ~50% HP. If need be sacrifice the least popular Dmg Aura.

• Lvl 68 - Prism Guardian higher Level and higher priority then Alpha's Howl. Switch Haste, Grace and Determination in.
• Lvl 64 - Alpha's Howl Enables one additional Aura, have Disciplin and Vitality here.
• In the long run you want one that has the Mana-reduction Enchant for one of your Shield's Auras.

Expectations & POB

POB link: https://pastebin.com/QcSq8h9Q

(If you do not know how to use it, see the instructions below, otherwise please ignore)

• Download Path of Building (link: https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding)
• Copy pastebin URL.
• Launch path of building.
• Click on Import/Export.
• Click Import from Pastebin
• Paste the URL copied in step 2.
• Done!