Animate Guardian

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Vipermagi wrote:

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RorschachR wrote:

In traditional RPG games, archers or mages add damage while the fighter tanks.

'Traditional'? Do you mean games such as Dungeons and Dragons, where Fighters are your bread-and-butter damage output? Or do you mean 'traditional MMOs' where groups use a trinity setup (tank/DPS/heal)? Pretty big difference there, and PoE is definitely more inclined towards the former.

High level parties don;t use fighters for damage output, they just banshee's wail or have asuper-buff cleric :P

so far most effective combo I've found for the guardian is necro aegis on a decent str+int shield for the resists and block then either twin claws or claw+ a second str+int shield to give even more resists, last one made it from merveil to a swarm of sparkling mages in chamber of sins, he even managed to solo the great white beast and gneiss for me.

I have to admit though that the base life of the guardian is a bit low and his accuracy is fucking terrible, missing 3 out of 4 swings on white zombies that are 4 levels below me is just retarded.

maybe add a + base hp (effected by skill level) per piece of equipment effect onto the guardian so the more we give it the stronger it gets? or allow us to give them accessories a coral amulet and hp belt would greatly improve a guardian's survivability compared to what it is now, and definitely give them some accuracy % increases, at high levels a increased accuracy support may not be enough if its suffering this much at early levels on easy to hit enemies.

I've the GEM on 12 and give my Guardian rare Items to fight. But... he dies dies dies...
Simply the Skill sucks!

So you see my point, which clarified the previous post by someone else. This isn't a tank, this is DPS assuming there is something else to tank for you. Just cast it on a 2h weapon and wait for it to die. Adding more gear is mostly irrelevant, it will die fast anyway. If you're fighting far below your level and you gave it high level items, maybe it will live a little longer. This isn't a "guard" at all.

"... increases the damage of your *other* minions... " and someone complained that this spell gives no passive benefit to your other minions. Yes it does, it attacks while the other minions distract the mob.

It isn't worth the hotkey slot or the micro management. I liked the idea of putting it in the alternate weapon and summon when ready. Maybe if I had 2h to go to boss, then 1h + shield for boss and put this skill in the shield... *maybe* it would be useful. For 3-10 seconds.

Not sure what could have been the impetus was behind nerfing this skill. It already sucked, so it needed to be rendered into a waste of a gem slot because...?


It can't tank (even with a heavy investment in ES)
It can't deal damage (2 river monkeys in normal are sufficient to give a decked out level 5 AG the fight of its life)
It can't choose targets in a rational way (run off to die against an enemy 2 screens distant)


What was the point of this skill since Decoy Totem exists? I'd rather have phase run back than this garbage.

Animate Guardian has the "potential" to be a great skill........but right now it needs some major work, as well as a more defined role.

Zombies - Superior DPS and Tanks

Skeletons - One of the best forms of Crowd Control when put on a totem, a good meat shield that is used to get a Summoner rolling

Spectres - Extremely versatile. You can grab DPS or Support minions.

Animate Weapon - While at the moment the mechanics are too clunky, they do have somewhat of a niche spot, being free temporary damage, that scales very well with auras such as wrath and anger unlike Skeletons.

So what role was Animate Guardian suppose to serve? If it was tank, its pretty lacking, having very little ways of holding aggro and being extremely suicidal at the moment. On top of that, the items are non-refundable. This makes the risk vs reward too high, and severely hampers this skill from being viable.

The Guardian really needs to drop the current items when it dies, otherwise it simply isn't worth a spot when compared to other minions. The current iteration makes it very unfavorable to use any decent gear on it because

1) It'll miss out on stats as your leveling the gem and trying out new supports.
2) Suicidal AI.
3) All gear lost on death.

This gem really has potential. Imagine if the AI was reworked, and if you could reclaim the items on death. Now, most of the risk is gone, your able to freely use it as your leveling the gem or switching supports, and it would open up SO many possibilities.

Imagine a Support Guardian, wearing items such as Leer Cast and Asenath's Gentle Touch. Or perhaps a tanky one, using Crest of Perandus for high block + LL and Zahndethus' Cassock to combo for life regen.

Anyways, hopefully this gem along with animate weapon are not forgotten along the wayside as new patches come out. One of the great things about this game is customization, and if Animate Guardian was properly reworked, it could open up so many ways to customize your own personal minion.

MAKE BLUE UNIDENTIFIED ITEMS POSSIBLE TO SPAWN FOR YOUR ANIMATED GUARDIAN

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Moose65 wrote:

1) It'll miss out on stats as your leveling the gem and trying out new supports.

Actually it appears that the guardian doesn't get reset on skill gem level or support swap.

So you won;t lose out on stats, you can use it form level 1 to 100 if you tried REALLY hard to keep it alive.

I m a templar summoner lvl 55.
Animate Guardian is decent but he dies all the time at unique mobs (And I do run purity and the support gem for resists).

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Autocthon wrote:

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Moose65 wrote:

1) It'll miss out on stats as your leveling the gem and trying out new supports.

Actually it appears that the guardian doesn't get reset on skill gem level or support swap.

So you won;t lose out on stats, you can use it form level 1 to 100 if you tried REALLY hard to keep it alive.

I meant he'll miss out on his gem bonuses as hes leveling, or support bonuses if you try to place a different one after hes summoned. Makes a huge difference if your wanting to use decent gear on him.