"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. 

This build go low life with 8-9 Auras. And also use a Host Chieftain and Carnage Chieftain to produce frenzy and power charges for us and our minions. Lastly a animated guardian gives us and our minions some nice damage and speed boosts.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• + 83 Fire, 83 Cold 84 Lightning Max Resists
• + Positive Chaos Resist
• + High Physical Mitigation
• + High Evasion
• + Fast and Mobile
• + Crazy Total DPS
• + 9K+ Energy Shield
• + Can AFK during Delve Checkpoints
• + High Regen and leech.
• + Can run any map mods

Cons

• - not for ever player

Skill Tree

Ascendancy

Radiant Crusade

Unwavering Crusade

Radiant Faith

Bastion of Hope until you get a Presence of Chayula then switch to Unwavering Faith

Bandits

Kill All

Pantheon

Major: Soul of Solaris
Minor: Change as required, generally I use Tukohama for Bossing and Garukhan for mapping

Passive Tree

Gems Setup

Dominating Blow - Melee Splash - Multistrike - Melee Physical Damage - Minion Damage - Vaal Summon Skeletons

Haste - Hatred - Purity of Ice

CWDT (lvl 7) - Immortal Call (lvl 9) - Enfeeble (lvl 10)

Animated Guardian - Summon Lightning Golem - Summon Holy Relic - Minion Life/Clarity (Switch depending on gear)

Raise Spectre - Blood Magic - Purity of Fire

Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Fortify

Discipline

Purity of Lightning

Herald of Purity - Linked in Faster Attacks Fortify setup if Mana allows.

Vitality - If using Minion Life Supported Helm

Gear

Overview

Chest

Basically Mandatory for Low Life, the gold standard.

Main Hand

70% Increased damage for us and Minions, High Attack Speed, another minion.

Alternative Delve League

Using a bound fossil you can craft increased minion damage and Auras from your Skills grant 2% increased Damage to you and Allies. This should work out better than the Scourge claw.

Off Hand

The perfect shield for this build, High Resists, some dexterity we need and allows us to reserve all our life with +leveled Gems.

Gloves

Provides a massive energy shield boost, huge evasion and accuracy boost, increased damage, mana and they are cheap. The plus 2 to Aura Gems is a nice bonus and lets us have a lvl23 Purity of Fire for the extra max resist. Budget option is to just not have the corruption.

Boots

Great all round boots, high ES, Stats, and 30% movespeed.

High End Helm

High end helm will be a High ES, +level to minion gems, Socketed Gems supported by minion life Elder Helm. This free's up a socket allowing us to add in Vitality. Working on getting one of these!

Budget/Alternative Helm

Can't go wrong here. Crazy ES, Chaos Res and +1 to socketed gems.

Belt

Basically a Abyss Belt with High Energy Shield, any missing strength, and covering the rest of your resists.

Amulet

Cannot be stunned, Insane ES boost, 60% Chaos resist. The Gold Standard for LL.

Budget/Alternative Amulet

Amulet with +Maximum Energy Shield, %Energy Shield, Missing Resists, Missing Stats.

Ring 1

Something like the above, +3 would be even better.

Ring 2

Nice ES boost and +2 Level Unset Ring

Flasks

Enchantments

Boots: 2% Regen

Gloves if not corrupted: Commandment of the Grave, Commandment of Reflection or of spite at any level

Helm: Lots of options here. Dominating Blow extra Rare is probably the most fun. +1 Sentinels for HoP is great as well. Holy relic effect and Lightning Golem 100% buff not bad either.

Leveling Guide

Recommended Uniques

• Goldrim

• Tabula Rasa

• Wanderlust

• Wurm's Molt

• The Screaming Eagle x 2

• Blackheart x 2

• Sidhebreath

• Brightbeak

• Belt of the Deceiver

• Violent Dead

• The Gull

LVL 1

Equip: Tabula Rasa, Goldrim, Wanderlust, 2 x Blackheart

Smite – Onslaught

Raise Zombie

LVL 4

Smite – Onslaught – Summon Phantasm on Kill – Ancestral Call

Raise Zombie - Ruthless

Summon Holy Relic

LVL 8

Equip: 2 x Screaming Eagle, Wurm's Molt

Smite – Onslaught – Summon Phantasm on Kill – Ancestral Call - Added Lightning Damage – Added Cold Damage

Summon Holy Relic – Minion Damage - Added Lightning Damage - Added Fire Damage

Raise Zombie - Ruthless - Minion Damage - Maim

LVL 10

Leap Slam

Level 18

Smite – Elemental Focus – Summon Phantasm on Kill – Ancestral Call - Added Lightning Damage - Elemental Damage with Attacks

Raise Zombie - Minion Damage – Melee Physical Damage – Minion Life

Herald of Purity - Minion Damage - Melee Physical Damage - Ruthless

Leap Slam - Faster Attacks

Level 20

Equip: Belt of the Deceiver, Mainhand Brightbeak

Level 24

Hatred

Herald of Purity - Minion Damage

Complete Normal Lab at least before switching to Dominating Blow

LVL 28

Dominating Blow – Minion Damage - Melee Physical Damage – Melee Splash – Ruthless – Vaal Summon Skeletons

Raise Spectre – Minion Life

Be sure to grab the carnage chieftan spectre from act 2 old fields.

May need to drop minion damage from HoP if manna is an issue.

LVL 32

Leap Slam – Fortify - Faster Attacks

Raise Spectre – Minion Life – Blood Magic

Upgrade offhand screaming eagle to the Gryphon.

Level 38

Equip the Gull

Final Links will be:

Dominating Blow – Minion Damage - Melee Physical Damage – Melee Splash – Multistrike – Vaal Summon Skeletons

Leap Slam – Fortify - Faster Attacks

Raise Spectre – Minion Life – Blood Magic

Raise Zombie - Minion Damage – Melee Physical Damage – Minion Life

Summon Holy Relic – Minion Damage - Added Lightning Damage - Added Fire Damage

Hatred

Herald of Purity

CWDT - Immortal Call

Level with this until you have the required uniques, have finished act 10 and have finished at least merciless lab.

Expectations