Animate Guardian needs to get the Melee buff totem treatment.

So i did a fresh SSF minion run this league just to test out the feel for zoo/poison minions. And i gotta say Animate guardian honestly really need to get the melee totem treatment.

I get the exact same feeling from having to use that damn minion. It feels so damn clunky. Oh you are trying to run this map and your AG is one of your main sources of aoe clear with asenaths? oh well too bad cause he will get shredded and die in this t17map. It just feels so overall bad to use the damn thing. Every damn build gotta have one in it like melee did with buff totems cause if you don't you are gimping yourself like crazy.

Sure i had to run ritual to get corpses for spectres which was not fun at all but still it didnt get close to as annoying as the damn AG did in terms of straight an unfun mechanic. I love minions and have tried different versions of it and that's the same thing i dislike about all of them, the dependency of animate guardian be it for clear or just all the buffs it gives you.

Atleast make it permanent with a cd when it dies or something. I'm so tired having to spend 50% of the time watching the dudes damn HP bar so he does not get randomly burst down. Cause it's just so tedious to refarm all the gear.

I have personally given up on minion qol of life in general for poe 1.

It may not be the main reason ill probably leave the game behind for its sequel but it is right up there.

I never quite understood why GGG ever thought it was good to force pseudo hardcore mechanics on a predominantly softcore player base.

Especially as the game has become progressively more complicated and less balanced with each content update.

Most of these issues are solved in poe 2 already anyway. And I wonder if the AG will even be in poe 2. It is such a blatantly obvious standin for the d2 merc system that at this point GGG could cut out the middle man and give us a proper mercenary.

That being said the only builds that NEED the AG are the objectively shit minion builds and are usually composed of skills that have very clearly been left behind in the poe 1 zoom zoom design space.

Aint no one expecting anything of value from zombies skeletons.. or even golems in 2024

Not when you can make a 100% pure spectre summoner with wraith lord
Or play cast on hit build with holy relic and also blast the whole screen
Or SRS... or hell animate weapon.

Just play one of those until poe2 lands and forget about the guardian.

guardian is actually pretty damn bad.

the players' greed is also pretty damn bad - any option that exists has to be squeezed in. build making right now is a literal POB checklist chore collection

AG is one of these chores, and because it is a VERY complex skill, it can check several boxes (fortify, ailments, clear etc)

thus, it is mandatory. no ifs or buts - it is 100% mandatory.

ok, so it is mandatory, you bought all the uniques (expensive, because all AGs use the ~same stuff) and it is all fine trough 97 maps

but on map 98th someone squints, bad detonate dead or few too many green Ritual balls - and he is gone. we all been there

(ofc it happens WAY more to people who are allergic to minion defences but like to complain about minion survivability)


that sudden death syndrome cannot be avoided when his survivability is linear but incoming damage is exponential. at some point no matter the investment - AG just dies


get rid of this skill. add SOME of its most comonly used tricks to other skills (like +1 fortify per zombie or whatever) and call it a day.

most necromancers DO NOT NEED it. they want it, they can utilise it, but AG is not necessary (any trick it can do - you can get elsewhere, but just for higher price)


just remove it. Divine Blessing was dumb, AG is as well.