"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 that is viable in both hardcore & softcore. Extremely cheap with TONS of upgradable options for end-game. If you are looking for a top tier league starter build, it's maybe suitable for you.

Quick Jump

• Pros & Cons

• Build Enabling/Enhancing Items

• Defence & Utility

• Skill Tree 

• Gems Setup

• Gearing & Stat Priorities

• Leveling

• Expectations & POB

Pros & Cons

Pros

• A Powerful league starter build.
• Viable in both hardcore & softcore.
• Extremely cheap with TONS of upgradable options for end-game.

Cons

• - It may not be suitable for some demanding players.

Build Enabling/Enhancing Items

This build only needs a weapon with increased attack speed where the optimal choice would be a Brightbeak. Outside of this we are using gear with as much life & resistances on as possible which makes the chest piece choice very easy & rather logical, it being a Belly of the Beast!

Other options are jewels that grants your minions taunt on hit which is not required but very useful.

Defence & Utility

Since we are using a Brightbeak Leap Slam is insanely fast and with the massive ammount of life regen on a very high life pool we are regenerating over 1000 HP / second with just decent gear!

Outside of the obvious we have a very basic CWDT setup as well as consistent Blind & Maim on the enemies via our secondary minions (Holy Relic & Herald of Purity)

Skill Tree 

Ascendancy

The priority is very straight forward for this build.

You start with taking up the minion oriented nodes which starts of with: Radiant Crusade, after this you take the second minion node which is: Unwavering Crusade. 

Once this is done you have 3 generic options. The following are nodes selected based on personal preferences & playstyle.

Harmony of Purpose, Time of Need, Bastion of Hope

Bandits

This quest is given to you by Eramir in the Forest Encampment after you complete Through Sacred Ground or talk with any of the bandit leaders. There are three different bandit leaders. You can either side with one of them (and kill the other two) to get the respective reward or you can kill all of them to get the reward from Erami - from Gamepedia

Kill all Bandits

Passive Tree

Gems Setup

Dominating Blow

- Dominating Blow, Minion Damage, Ancestral Call, Multistrike, Melee Physical Damage, Added Fire Damage

Note

Ancestral Call is mainly used to make things easier whilst lvling so you don't have to move up to a rare before he's dead.

For a more optimal setup in the later stage you should switch both Ancestral Call & Added fire for these gems:

Melee Splash & Melee DMG on Full Life

Herald of Purity

- Herald of Purity, Maim, Minion Damage, [OPEN]

Note

I generally want to use a Portal gem in the open socket but anything will do. (keep track of the % reserved by Herald of Purity if you use a 3rd support gem though!

Mobility

- Leap Slam, Fortify, Faster Attacks

Cast When Damage Taken

- CWDT, Immortal Call, Increased Duration, Convocation

Holy Relic & Golem

- Holy Relic, Increased Area of Effect, Stone Golem, Blind

Smite Buffer

- Smite, Generosity, Hatred, Faster Attacks

Note

Generosity is there for both Smite & Hatred allowing the aura part of the ability to be augmented for your minion army!

Gearing & Stat Priorities

The base items of this build really doesn't matter as we don't care about the base defensive stats such as armour(str), evasion(dex) or energy shield(int). So instead the base items will follow the stat priority listed in this guide.

However, the attribute requirement of the items will base how hard it is to chrome (color) which will be the only thing we will think about when planing our gearing.

So, if you need 4 blue sockets in an item the recommendation is to get an item that has Energy Shield (int) base or a hybrid base which includes Energy Shield (int).

By using this chrome calculating website: Github you can easily track how hard it will be to chrome the colors you need.

Recommended Unique Items

• Brightbeak
• Belly of the Beast

Recommended LvLing Uniques

• Wanderlust
• Goldrim
• Tabula Rasa
• Brightbeak

Defensive Stats

• Life
• Mana
• Resistances
• Strength

Offensive Stats

• Minion Damage
• Minion Attack Speed

Flasks

• 1x Seething Divine Life Flask of Staunching
• 1x w/e Divine Life Flask of w/e
• 1x Writhing Jar
• 1x w/e Sulphur Flask of w/e
• 1x Ample Quicksilver Flask of Heat

Note

You can use any extra utility flask instead of multiple life flasks if you feel comfortable, options that are good are; Resistance flasks, Stibnite, Granite, or Basalt.

Jewels

Same as the offensive stats unless you need defensive stats, then mix or follow that.

Leveling

• Leveling skill-tree, 37 points
• Leveling skill-tree, 51 points
• Leveling skill-tree, 88 points
• Finished skill-tree

This build can with Dominating Blow from lvl 28 reach Blood Aqueducts in about 6h fairly easily. However, I felt it to be faster to simply focus on Herald of Purity & Smite. This can easily be combined with a Holy Relic as well as with a pack of pack of Zombies which comes down to a matter of personal preference.

The idea is to link your Smite this way

- Smite, Ancestral Call, Melee Physical Damage, Added Fire Damage

And your Herald of Purity like this

- Herald of Purity, Melee Splash, Melee Physical, Minion Damage

This in combination with a Blind linked to our Holy Relic makes leveling extremely smooth & efficient.

Since the end-game gear for this character is solely focused on high life with capped resistances, so does the leveling! However, it is recommended to use a 1H weapon with proper damage during the lvling sequence till you hit about lvl 70 in which case you can easily switch to Dominating Blow and a Brightbeak. Obviously this can be done earlier if you so wish but without extensive knowledge and/or experience with this type of build I wouldn't recommend switching before that.

Expectations & POB

POB link: https://pastebin.com/3XezCHvi

(If you do not know how to use it, see the instructions below, otherwise please ignore)

• Download Path of Building (link: https://github.com/Openarl/PathOfBuilding)
• Copy pastebin URL.
• Launch path of building.
• Click on Import/Export.
• Click Import from Pastebin
• Paste the URL copied in step 2.
• Done!