Unwavering Faith - What a Joke

One only need look at Commander of Darkness and laugh their ass off. Whereas Commander of Darkness has a massive impact after one aura, our "glorious" Guardian sits there and gets maybe, what, an extra endurance charge's worth of physical reduction after heavy gear/aura investment? .6% HP regeneration for 3 auras? Commander of Darkness staples a Purity of Elements onto any aura. Unwavering Faith doesn't even manage a measly Vitality.

Who on Earth thought this skill would be worth its salt when the aura change happened ages ago?!

"But when you're running 5 auras..."
...Commander of Darkness would be insane.

Look, I love the flavor and theme of Guardian but even with massive investment it comes out so absolutely behind in all but the regeneration and block notables. Without an innate bonus to the Conduit factor in Harmony of Purpose, it is an absolute dead passive. Would probably make an actual difference if it were something noticeable like "you and your allies gain +1 maximum ___ charge" which gives it distinct flavor and use.

"But, this class is meant to be played with other players"

Except that yet again, Necromancer just craps all over the support capabilities of half the passives in Guardian, which is so depressing. Radiant Faith requires such a massive, MASSIVE build-around for what ends up being a "Super Determination/Extremely Nerfed Discipline" which isn't worth the same amount as something that provides you with effectively a 6% life regeneration rate (30% every 5, yes, I know, it's not perfect) or periodic block-capping coupled with 5% block rate.

Someone, please tell me I'm just reading this wrong and there's Guardians running around with 10 auras making Unwavering Faith godly. Otherwise, I'm inclined to say that Necromancer, in terms of damage support, survivability support, and utility support ultimately just outclasses Guardian in all ways except tanking, which also gets outclassed by Gladiator.

Hierophant and Inquisitor have very, very defined, effective roles and change gameplay massively. Guardian has two notables worth taking and filler for Merciless and beyond. This doesn't feel right compared to the massive gains otherwise in other ascendancy classes. The warcry buff is nice but it is outclassed severely by a cheap fated unique all on its own. Conduit with niche-charge removal isn't worth taking on its own OR in a party. The "defensive/aura" passives are like tacked-on survivability you take for the aura effectiveness nodes.

Tried to love it, tried to love Prayer of Glory, but its like they were afraid to give Guardian "versatility" so they gave it a hodgepodge of material but none exceptional except block and regeneration. This is absurd compared to something like "100% of your block chance applies to spell block." It's like this was a class they were looking at early and didn't want to make it "too overpowered" so it was snipped while they cut loose with the other classes. Wasn't this spoiled really early?

Please, GGG, this class needs to be redesigned and quickly. You'd think that given the proximity to minion nodes as well that there would be some real support for minions outside warcry and 150-350 energy shield, or Determination. Skill effect duration would fit right in with the warcries or something, just, please, I think you should examine this class in greater detail. It tries to do a lot, it ends up doing one thing okay, and those things are ultimately outclassed by many other classes.

Lordy, don't get me started on the Guardian Ascendant skill. It is pretty much everything worth taking all wrapped up an useful, versatile ball, practically making a Guardian Templar a worse Scion. Tack on the Necromancer ascendancy and Guardian Templar is a joke for supporting in comparison.

Am I insane? Am I missing some insane Unwavering Faith build somewhere?

While I agree on the health regen (this is really way too low bonus) the physical reduction is enough.

It is the same as max res - the more of you have it, the better every point of it is. And given that this additional flat reduction is given on top of the armor that Guardian is giving, it is quite noticeable in most cases. Also, many setups have reductions of their own, making the bonus incredibly useful.

Atm, I'm running 20k armor and 7 endu charges. When there is full support Guardian nearby, I'm pretty much physical damage immune. :V

If anything, I'd make the bonus to be less impactful on already stacked setups, and more impactful on those which lack flat physical reduction. The the simplest solution would be making the numbers higher and making the bonus %less damage. 2% less damage per aura would be sufficient, imo.

lol.

grab a 5l shavs on standard, stack auras and see how immortal guardian becomes. there's no denying that necro gives greater boost to dps, but if we're completely honest here the problem in poe hasn't been lack of dps for a long time now.

https://poe.mikelat.com/#Q634pAPd/hR3l.EQeb/9b.G7p/tNrp.vL/xB3l.fTe

that's the setup i use on my standard guardian. +1 lioneye's boots for that lvl 4 enlighten.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAUDAAUtC2EMXw18DjwUcRZvFy8Ziho4GmwajxynHNwdmR2qJKoksCW8Jwso-i9vNuk6UjwtQKBDY0PIRnFJsU5STwRRTFOlValV1lfJWfNcil4TX7BhUmTnZlRmnmhlaPJqAW-ecLtxTXIPcql673zZfVt-bH_GgKSDCYNfg7aExYZghtGMdo8akFWSK5MnlG-XtJrPm7Wdrp48oS-lGKcIrEesqq9stAy3MbiTvorBxcM6xLTE9sauykrK09dq18_ZE9tP37_gw-GI42rqGOq66-7sGO9O74jz3fba9zL3wfjr-Tf60vsJ_QD-SQ==

roughly 5k es with 20k'ish ev/armor as well. the only deaths i can remember came from triple huge atziri flameblast and core maligaro. latter because i didn't max out chaos resi. with a guardian aura stacker around, very, very few things can touch, let alone kill you.

That's pretty much what I was getting at, it requires intense investment or it's not worth it at all. Turning it into a half-way or a flat point would make it a bit better, although the regen really needs a tune-up

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mynameisonlyforthegods wrote:

grab a 5l shavs on standard

I stopped reading when you suggested multi-ex items being required to make a class good
that's your gear

People play on HC and leagues bro

I'm playing Necromancer support right now and I think Guardian is probably 5 times better, but I might be doing something wrong ofc. The only thing Necro might be better at is smashing outgeared content with slightly better damage/speed and slightly longer vaal skills.

But when it comes to difficult content or undergeared pushing, those phys percentages, extra armor, regen, and endurance charges shared by party members come in very very handy. And the ES conversion from mana is simply amazing, when built around.

"

HH_PoE wrote:

"

mynameisonlyforthegods wrote:

grab a 5l shavs on standard

I stopped reading when you suggested multi-ex items being required to make a class good
that's your gear

People play on HC and leagues bro

people also trade, bro, and getting some 3-4 ex from trading can't get any easier. and if you refuse to play the trade game, you honestly don't have an excuse to complain about a relative cheap item like shavs.

"

HH_PoE wrote:

I stopped reading when you suggested multi-ex items being required to make a class good
that's your gear

People play on HC and leagues bro

To be fair i pulled a cheap guardian build , basicaly whent full potatoe with life and auras with blood magic while using redbeak and the Oak.

Lv80: After reservación i ended with 3k hp, around 4x k armor and 8x ress.

Didnt have uber clearspeed but it didnt die easy either, speacialy considering the equipment was terrible, 5c was problably my most expensive ítem.

That being said this asc feels like its nothing but a buff bot, Wish it had a couple nodes oriente to blood magic and self buffs, for instance:

Increased effect of buffs on you based on flat life missing, 50% more mana reservation.