Animate Guardian

Silly me, didn't read the description throughtfully. Thanks for the feedback.

I'm currently running this skill among a few others as one of the main skills of my summoner build on Ambush. I'm using it in a 5L with Weapon Elemental Damage, Multistrike, Melee Splash and Faster Attacks. I then swap out Faster Attacks for Animate Weapon and Melee Splash for Increased Duration so I can run a 4L Animate Weapon. With this I'm running Anger, Wrath, Haste and Clarity and cursing Elemental Weakness, along with having 75% minion damage and 27% minion health from the passive tree. Note that I am currently NOT using Necromantic Aegis (I need a high ES shield to be able to run Arctic Armor and all those auras while having enough mana leftover to animate weapons). It's a core skill of the build, because when soloing I need it to be able to kill stuff to get some weapon drops for me to animate, which is what the real strength of the build is. Yes, I have to swap back and forth the gems each time when loading into a map or when loading from Lunaris 2 to 3, but meh I don't really mind.

I've summoned him with a 2.1 speed foil, Zahndethus' Cassock, a high block chance rare shield with high armor and some decent life/resist rare helm, gloves and boots.

Conclusion: It's pretty much annihilating everything. With Flesh Offering up, the attack speed is completely out of control and when combined with the scaling through WED and Multistrike the damage is really high. So far I've been using this AG setup in maps up to level 72 and have used it while Piety farming as well. Whenever I feel like the map mods or monsters are dangerous I use Bone Offering and get him to spawn a lot of Consecrated Ground because of the chest, which gives him pretty good passive regen, while his life leech from the passive tree and Animation flasks do the rest.

I've had a few occasions where it has come very close to dying, but those occasions have only been situations where actual players could have died too. Substantial Physical + Powerful Crits Blackguard charge, packs of Lightning Thorns, Temple Piety's Lightning Storms, Soul Eater Carrion Queen spawned from a huge Strongbox pack, etc. With good reaction time I have been able to either quickly turn around and run, causing it to either run with me or teleport to me, or unequip my gem to save it.

So far I have only encountered one weakness which is really hard to prevent, and has caused him to die his only death so far after actively using him in this 5L setup above level 65 or so: Corrupting Blood. With this insane attack speed it just stacks far too quickly and there seems to be no way to save it once it starts attacking: it pretty much dies in a second or 2-3. After its death I have been very careful and usually instantly unequip the gem when I see a Corrupting Blood Nemesis. I even get my map buddies to shout out on Teamspeak now :D

To summarize: I absolutely love it. With the proper passive build, active skill gems used to properly support it, along with attached support gems to the skill itself it can be a very good supportive guardian when summoned from good gear. It's like I said earlier a very important core to my build and it actually does pretty good damage.

EDIT: Now done maps up to 75, still only 1 death. Unequipped gem at Maze Vaal though just to be sure.

The only problem is, zombies can do all that and more without the need of babysitting them constantly.

So add another zombie to the mix... one with a kickass look.

Currently, I'm a level 42 Summoner Build trying to fit this in somehow.

I like the skill and the idea, but I have two major concerns about it.

1) It's doesn't feel that strong. We have a skill that can raise somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 zombies, 20 skeletons or 4 spectres. So for an entire skill to only summon 1 creature makes it seem like that creature should be pretty strong (obviously not broken).

2) I understand the need for a penalty, but losing all the items that you put into a guardian can be really disheartening when you've spent the time to make a great guardian. I feel like a stats penalty to the guardian that lasts some extended amount of time would be less disheartening than losing everything put into it.

So far I love the game and the build and I want to find a way to utilize this summon as well, but I'm having a hard time with it's current functionality.

So there is a general misconception of the guardians roll in the game .

This roll is NOT uniform through out.

at the beginning of the game the guardian is best used as a tank because he is the only minion who has access to block before level 24. Also life on items can actually have a large impact on the guardian.

he can also be used for dps too since you can use the rustic sash whet stone 2 hander on a staff to give him good damage and some block as well.

He is there basically to make up for the short comings inherent to all the other summons , Ie they dont have the benefit from your passives , they have low implicit resistances and you dont have many supports for them.

One decently equipped guardian can easily get all of that by just throwing on any old rare.
HOWEVER.


once you get necro aegis and both offerings ( and your first auras) it is your zombies and the temp minion of choice that will do the leg work. 6+ zombies will be better than even the best guardian once you have the ground work in place . this is an inescapable fact that only gets more true as you level up.

this is when your guardian goes from damage dealer and tanker to dedicated support.

It is at this time that you actively invest in your guardian with unique items. The right combination of unique items is going to turn him into a monster.

leer cast over 3 specters and 9 zombies is equal to gaining 2 extra minions, and the guardians personal dps is a joke anyway.

throw in a decent block item like say the crest of perandus and if you use nerco aegis he basically has implicit 70% block chance with almost no investment on your part.

combine that with the zanherus cassock and basically every third hit will cause him to fart out an aoe that heals your other minions by 4% life regen.

if you feel real creative , you can throw on the dying breath that stacks with leer cast for an additional 18% damage bonus ( 2 more zombie minions worth right there)

the best part is you can use a 3link on your shield (minion life increased aoe) and the guardian is done. If he gets hurt swap weapons and back and he spawns at your feet.

Ok, I think I might have encountered a bug, not sure. I have used Animate Guardian before, I'm a CB player. I have white items on the ground, under the level required by the skill and I cannot summon any of them, no weapons/armors. Anyone has any idea what is going on?

L.E.: Seems if you have the option to hold down a key to pick up items you can't summon the guardian just by pressing the shortcut, need to hold alt down as well.

I've really enjoyed using this skill. I think it's a great concept and from what I've seen, has some great little niche uses.

Really though... If there was just a way to see what his stats were, to see what you had him currently equipped with. It would be a thousand times better. I'm not just missing something on that am I? There's not a secret menu or command?

Well, after having my last one die during a loading screen (seriously, why are minions still active while changing areas?), I've pretty much shelved this skill. Its not fun baby sitting a pet, and I seriously doubt this will change any time soon. Too much risk vs reward as usual.