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- 2Skill Bar
- 3Specializations
- 6Usage
- 7Encounter-specific Tips
- 7.1Forsaken Thicket
Oct 05, 2019 Here is my Guardian Guide, Solo Build for Open World PvE, PvP, WvW. Beginner's Friendly, easy to use, insane damage, Longbow & Greatsword. Subtitles Available Join.
- Welcome to the Stamina Warden Build PvE “Guardian” for Elder Scrolls Online. Make sure to bookmark the link as I will keep updating the build for each new Update of ESO. The Stamina Warden Guardian Build is optimized for Trials, Dungeons, Blackrose Prison Arena and Maelstrom Arena.
- In Midgard, in the North, it is believed that Ymir’s skull is the sky, his flesh the earth, and his blood the sea. Though, these claims could merely be the boasting of proud Odin and his brothers, who take credit for slaying the first jotunn and fashioning the earth from his body parts.
- The Shepherd, Hybrid Warden PvP Build by Fengrush 'The Shepherd' Updated: Harrowstorm DLC, Greymoor Chapter Type: Non Champion. Hammer of Justice, Stamina Warden PvP Build by Fengrush.
Overview
Guardians are a powerful option for tank/support Templars dedicated to partying. They can specialize in Auras, granting several auras to their party. Guardians have the option to play as a minion-based build as well. Heyhey, last league I made a build guide about my Necro Support using Victarios Influence @ HC. For 3.1 I messed around with the skill tree and created a Guardian Version of the build, which is in my opinion a huge success. I already hit lvl 100 with it @ Abyss HC on Rank 2 overall. The Hybrid Firebrand (also Quickness Firebrand or Quickbrand) provides permanent Quickness for the party while dealing high DPS. It plays very similar to the Power Dragonhunter with the addition of Firebrand mantras and tomes. Thanks to those the build is able to adapt to various situations with Stability, Resistance, reflects and pulls.
- A hybrid DPS/support build for Dragonhunter. While this build deals very low damage compared to the more popular Dragonhunter - Power DPS, it has an extremely easy rotation which provides Protection to 5 players and minor heals from . This makes it a viable choice for new raiders and struggling groups that for whatever reason are unable to bring .
Skill Bar
Weapon Variants
- Shield provides a knockback, which can be useful for helping with pushing (e.g. seekers on VG).
- Greatsword can be used instead of Scepter/Focus for an AoE pull with .
Skill Variants
Healing Skill
- can be used to blind mobs that can knockback (Sabetha and Gorseval) or deal a lot of damage (Xera).
- can be used to help nullify niche mechanics, such as Slothasor's shake attack.
Utilities
- can be used to have a higher supply of Retaliation to keep up the extra damage and crit bonus from Radiance.
- can be used for even more Retaliation if needed, like when chronomancers are not with the group at Deimos.
- can be used to block big hits like the knockback from Gorseval, the timed bombs from Matthias or the shockwave from Deimos.
- provides additional CC if needed.
- or if projectile defense is needed.
Elite Skill
- Use to help slacking Mesmers keep up Quickness. It can also be nice at bosses where the group is split, such as Sabetha when doing cannons or Matthias in general.
Specializations
Variants
- Take if there are no other power DPS to benefit from the shared 216 power of .
Zeal Variant
- Zeal can be used instead of Radiance for better personal DPS but at the cost of the damage buff from . Usually not worth running (as you can just play Dragonhunter - Power DPS instead) but included for the sake of completeness.
Equipment
6xConsumables
Food
- Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup+100 Power+70 Ferocity+10% Experience from Kills
Utility
- Furious Sharpening StoneGain Power equal to 3% of your PrecisionGain Ferocity equal to 3% of your Precision+10% Experience from Kills
Usage
Opening burst:
- Start on Scepter/Focus with precasted.
- Autoattack until is available
- After you swap to hammer just spend the rest of the fight autoattacking. Cast , , and whenever available.
- Video example
Notes
- Be very careful not to interrupt your auto attack chains - has a much longer cast time than the first two parts so it should be easy to track when you're finishing a chain.
- and share a cooldown and so should always be available to cast at together.
- Dodging does not interrupt your auto attack chain.
- Only swap to Scepter/Focus if the ranged damage is needed.
- While on Scepter/Focus you should cast , , and off cooldown; fill with autoattacks.
- Use as often as possible to share the damage buff through .
Breakbar
- (used inside your enemy's hitbox)
- 20Virtue: Burn foes every few attacks.
Activate: Hurl a spear of light that passes through foes. Enemies struck become tethered and receive conditions periodically.Justice (6s): Periodically applies burning as long as you are within range of the caster.Burning (active effect) (2s): 262 DamageNumbers of Attack to Trigger: 5PiercesRange: 1,200can be used for CC if needed. You will lose the uptime on .40Pull all enemies tethered by the Spear of Justice to you, breaking the link. This ability's recharge is separate from that of Spear of Justice. - adds Slow to all your traps, dealing 100 more breakbar damage with each second. This is both soft CC and hard CC.
- pulls and applies Slow on your target.
- deals 100 breakbar damage and renders enemies immobile.
Encounter-specific Tips
Forsaken Thicket
Spirit Vale
- Use and to keep the Seekers away. In an emergency you can also knock them away with Shield. Keep in mind that you also knock away enemies when you start to revive somebody which can be useful.
- You might want to save for the breakbar.
- can block all the blue AoEs.
- is a good gap closer as well as a strong heal, use it wisely.
- In the split phase, protection helps the more squishy classes a lot when you pull the blue guardian on top of the green one and there are two heavy hitting aura ticks for a few seconds.
- Play Dragonhunter - Power DPS here as your symbols are largely useless.
- You can use Shield of Courage to share aegis for his knockback attack.
- can hit you quite hard due to Retaliation from Gorseval. To negate that you can use , which allows you to output DPS in the CC phase without losing the Scholar Rune buff.
- can be used to immobilize Charged Souls.
- In case people can't go up to destroy cannons, use to quickly reach a launch pad.
Salvation Pass
- is useful against the slublings.
- can block everything at Slothasor which is especially useful when he does his shake attack, as many have trouble dodging it. It can also block the fear that Slothasor applies after the CC phase which is valuable, especially for the last CC phase at 10%.
- If needed, you can pull slublings with your . Keep in mind that it pierces, so multiple slublings can be pulled with it if used optimally.
- Play Dragonhunter - Power DPS here as your symbols are largely useless.
- You can take the role of the main reflect in this fight; however, you have to keep in mind that the cooldown of is 30 seconds-the same as Matthias' invulnerability bubble. Thus, you need decent Alacrity uptime and must cleanse chill as fast as possible if it is applied to you.
- A way to always have up in time without having to rely on Alacrity is replacing Radiance with Virtues and using .
- On a sidenote, all of Matthias' attacks in abomination phase have longer cooldowns. Accordingly, you don't have to worry about not having up in time.
- In the phase from 40% until the end blocks become very valuable. A well timed Aegis can block the undodgeable timed bombs. The same principle applies to the damage from the ghosts, which is blockable but not dodgeable.
- Swap to Can't find such trait 'Protective Impact'! Please refer to our trait index for this fight so you don't accidentally eat a projectile you need to reflect.
Stronghold of the Faithful
- Play Dragonhunter - Power DPS here as your symbols are largely useless.
- Consider playing Guardian - Power DPS here as there isn't much damage pressure and burst damage is important on this fight.
- You can assist in pushing the orb into the rifts by pulling them with . Be careful with it though, as the impact of the spear hitting the orb will push it away from you a tiny bit before you can pull it in.
- You can use everything you have including for CC without any drawback since after each CC phase,there will be some DPS downtime.
- You can share aegis with to help your team when the room is filled with small AoEs before the last burn phase.
- Your pretty decent ranged damage with Scepter allows you to assist with clearing shards and standing on the buttons surrounding the big shards that you have to destroy both before the fight and when you get teleported to the other platform.
Bastion of the Penitent
- can be used for mobility.
- You can use to block red circles or body block shards.
- Consider playing Guardian - Power DPS here as this fight is pretty much a DPS golem without any damage pressure.
- You can use to share aegis and block the explosions from adds.
- Consider playing Guardian - Power DPS here as there isn't enough damage on this fight to warrant sacrificing all your DPS for protection.
- You can bring Can't find such trait 'Hammer of Wisdom'! Please refer to our trait index for more CC. You can also consider .
- Consider playing Dragonhunter - Power DPS here as there isn't enough damage on this fight to warrant sacrificing all your DPS for protection.
- You can share aegis to block Deimos's pizza attack or Mind Crush.
Hall of Chains
TBD
Updated for Patch 3.8
The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo
Estimated budget: high
| Guide notes |
| November 4, 2019 -Updated for Patch 3.8 November 5, 2019 -Added gameplay video |
Guardian is one of the best Tank/Support Classes in the Path of Exile. This build is based on maximizing your Maximum Mana and converting it to Energy Shield, which allows us to reach nearly 20,000 Energy Shield via Guardian's Passives, and Watcher's Eye Jewel. On top of that, by using Memory Vault and Shavronne's Wrappings to reserve our Life for extra Auras, we can reach around 40,000 Armour. This build uses Righteous Fire, as it scales with your Maximum ES, and also Scorching Ray since we can freely cast other Spells while RF is active. The previously mentioned stats, combined with Time of Need Passive, allows you to indefinitely sustain Righteous Fire, and pretty much become immortal in most encounters. This build's core mechanics are presumably the only setup that allows you to take down Uber Elder while afk. This should give you the general idea of how much potential this build carries.
This is primarily a Support Build as it uses 6-7 Auras, but with high defenses and solid DPS, it's also a fully viable Solo build that's capable of taking down all the end-game Bosses in PoE.
Full list of our other Path of Exile Builds is in this article: Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List
1. Basic gameplay
This is one of the tankiest builds in Path of Exile. All you have to do is pop your Righteous Fire and progress through Maps. Some enemies may require you to finish them off with Scorching Ray which has increased damage with each stage. Unless you have entered a 'Reduced Life Regen' Map, you will be immortal, and you don't really have to put much attention to your Energy Shield Pool. This build also deals quite solid AoE/Fire Damage Over Time, but in that manner, you will find it slower than other Meta builds in current Patch. Blight encounters aren't also the optimal type of battles this Guardian likes to face, but it's overall a very solid build that works great a Support, Lab Farmer, or casual Map farmer.
This video was recorded on a level 91 Guardian on Standard mode. We had just medium budget gear which gave us approximately 13,000 Energy Shield and 40,000 Armour Rating |
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2. Build's PROS & CONS
| PROS |
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| CONS |
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3. Leveling tips
Leveling this Guardian is quite easy but you should be prepared to spend a bunch of Regrets when you switch to your Final Build after level 80+. The first couple levels can seem slow if you can't afford any of the recommended Uniques, but as soon as you get Holy Fire node and Pyre rings, your Searing Bond/RF Totem becomes extremely powerful and melts everything on your way. As a Guardian character, you should have no problem with your defenses, which helps with smooth leveling.
Suggested leveling gem setups:
| Searing Bond Totem setup | |
| Searing Bond - a totem spell, that connects your other totems and yourself with a beam of fire, dealing damage every second | |
| Burning Damage Support - Searing Bond's damage is considered burning damage, so this is the gem to go | |
| Elemental Focus Support - another good option | |
| Righteous Fire setup | |
| Righteous Fire - powerful spell that deals insane damage at the cost of its' casters Life. In order to remove the downside of this Spell, you can link it to the Spell Totem Support Gem, which will cause the Totem loose life instead | |
| Spell Totem Support - will be used to cast the RF spell and deal damage | |
| Burning Damage Support | |
| Elemental Focus Support - will greatly increase the Damage of your Totems | |
| Utility Gems | |
| Stone Golem - provides great Life Regeneration bonuses | |
| Flammability - great Curse if you need some extra Damage while leveling | |
| Herald of Ash - grants extra Fire Spell Damage and causes fiery AoE Explosions on killing enemies | |
| Storm Brand - an extremely important part of this build. It will proc Elemental Equilibrium by hitting enemies with Lightning | |
Bandits:
Kill all the Bandits for two additional Passive Points
Leveling Skill Trees:
34 Points Skill Tree
Priorities: 1) Amplify 2) Light of Divinity 3) Ancestral Bond 4) Holy Fire
62 Points Skill Tree
Priorities: 1) Elemental Overload 2) Breath of Flames 3) Cruel Preparation 4) Elemental Equilibrium
Passive Skill Tree before respeccing to Energy Shield/Low-Life at around level 80+
104 Points Skill Tree (level 81) (Health)
Priorities: 1) Blood Siphon 2) Growth and Decay 3) Arsonist 4) Heart of the Warrior
104 Points Skill Tree (level 81) (Energy Shield/Low-Life)
Recommended leveling items:
| Ashcaller - is an extremely powerful leveling wand. Grands amazing damage bonuses to both your Searing Bond and RF Spell Totems, and may work fairly well till late game | |
| (18-22)% increased Spell Damage Adds (10-14) to (18-22) Fire Damage Adds (4-6) to (7-9) Fire Damage to Spells (40-50)% increased Burning Damage (16-22)% chance to Ignite 10% chance to Trigger Level 8 Summon Raging Spirit on Kill | |
| Pyre - this is one of the best leveling Rings for this build and can be used very early in the game. Pyre provides one of the highest Burning Damage bonuses | |
| +(20-30)% to Cold Resistance +(25-35)% to Fire Resistance (60-80)% increased Burning Damage 40% of Cold Damage Converted to Fire Damage 10% increased Light Radius Ignited Enemies you hit are destroyed on Kill | |
| Trolltimber Spire - quite fine leveling shield. It provides good defenses, and increases your Totem's AoE. The Leech will not work with DoT caused by RF or Searing Bond Totems though | |
| 3% reduced Movement Speed (Hidden) +(20-30) to maximum Life (130-150)% increased Armour +(40-60) to maximum Life 0.5% of Life Regenerated per second 15% increased Area of Effect for Skills used by Totems 0.5% of Damage dealt by your Totems is Leeched to you as Life | |
| Lavianga's Wisdom - decent weapon for leveling with SB/RF Totems. It is inferior to Ashcaller in terms of raw DPS bonuses though | |
| 10% reduced Enemy Stun Threshold +(10-20) to maximum Life +(10-20) to maximum Mana (130-160)% increased Physical Damage 5% reduced Movement Speed 10% increased Area of Effect of Area Skills (10-15)% increased Area Damage | |
Tabula Rasa - one of the best, and certainly the most popular leveling item in Path of Exile. Can be used to build extremely powerful Totem setups | |
| 3% reduced Movement Speed (Hidden) Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden) | |
4. Final Skill tree, Ascendancy Points and Pantheon
Final skill tree:
115 Points Final Skill Tree
115 Points Path of Building link
Ascendancy points:
Preferably in that order:
- Radiant Crusade
- Unwavering Crusade
- Bastion of Hope
- Time of Need
After you switch to Low-Life and Energy Shield respect the first two Passives for Radiant Faith and Unwavering Faith. The listed ones are so much better for leveling
Pantheon:
Major God: Soul of Arakaali 5% reduced Damage taken from Damage Over Time; 10% chance to Avoid Lightning Damage when Hit
Minor God: Soul of Tukohama While stationary, gain 2% additional Physical Damage Reduction each second, up to a maximum of 8%
5. Final Gem setup
| [DPS] Scorching Ray setup | |
| Scorching Ray - your main 'active' Spell when using this build. Since Righteous Fire is always and passively active, Scorching Ray will keep you occupied on Maps | |
| Efficacy Support - increases Spell Damage and Damage over Time | |
| Burning Damage Support - one of the most important DPS support gems in this setup | |
| Swift Affliction Support - increases your Damage over Time | |
| Controlled Destruction Support - increases Spell Damage at the cost of Critical Strike Chance. Since Scorching Ray can't Crit, there is basically no downside to using this Gem | |
| Elemental Focus Support - increases Elemental Damage, but your Supported Spell won't apply Ignite (Scorching Ray can't do it anyway) | |
| [DPS] Righteous Fire | |
| Vaal Righteous Fire - one of the core Spells used in this build. It's an Area Spell that deals high DoT around your character at the cost of your Life and Energy Shield. Vaal Part of this Spell deals more damage for a short duration | |
| Burning Damage Support | |
| Elemental Focus Support | |
| Concentrated Effect Support | |
| [UTILITY] Storm Brand | |
| Storm Brand - it's used to trigger Elemental Equilibrium by hitting enemies with Lightning Element and Elemental Overload since your other Spells can't Crit. | |
| Curse on Hit Support - will make Storm Brand apply supported Curse | |
| Increased Critical Strikes Support - makes it easier to proc Elemental Overload | |
| Elemental Weakness - reduces Elemental Resistances of affected enemies | |
| [UTILITY] Auras part 1 (in Prism Guardian Shield) | |
| Malevolence - increases Damage over Time and Skill Effect Duration | |
| Vaal Discipline - increases maximum Energy Shield. Vaal Discipline makes ES Recovery to be unaffected by damaging, giving us some extra defenses (not that it's necessary) | |
| Vaal Impurity of Fire - increases your maximum Fire Resistance, reducing the degeneration damage from Righteous Fire | |
| [UTILITY] Auras part 2 | |
| Vitality - increases your Life Recovery per second | |
| Determination - increases your Armour Rating | |
| Clarity - grants increased Mana Regeneration Rate | |
| Enlighten Support - reduces the Mana Reservation Cost of Supported Spells. This is optional, use only when you need more unreserved Mana | |
| [MOBILITY] Flame Dash setup | |
| Flame Dash - your main mobility Spell. Each Cast will grant Arcane Surge buff which increases our Spell Damage | |
| Faster Casting Support | |
| Arcane Surge Support - grants increased Spell Damage after you spend enough Mana on Supported Spell. Keep this Gem at level 7 to proc with each Cast | |
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5. Gear Setup
Righteous Fire/Scorching Ray Guardian is, in general, quite an expensive build with high Item Requirements. However, for the stats this build offers, it's still a reasonable choice, and none of the items listed below will cost a fortune. Below you will find all the required for this build. It offers very little flexibility, and potential improvements come with more Attributes, higher Mana and Energy Shield bonuses.
If you would like to try this build, but you are unable to afford some of the required items, we are delighted to invite you to visit our PoE Currency marketplace. You will find the links to it on top of the page on the main bar.
Stat priorities on items:
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Hybrid Dmg Support Guardian Build Guide
| (Helmet) Memory Vault- a mandatory Helmet for this build which grants insane amounts of Mana and Armour | |
| +(130-160) to maximum Energy Shield +(150-200) to maximum Mana (30-40)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate +(20-30)% to Fire Resistance 10% increased Mana Reserved Gain Armour equal to your Reserved Mana | |
| Helmet enchantments: Righteous Fire grants 30% increased Spell Damage 12% increased Scorching Ray Cast Speed | |
| (Weapon) Rare Crafted Spectre - Damage bonuses should be your secondary priority, as you need Mana and Attributes mainly. Either way, self-crafting a decent Sceptre shouldn't be expensive | |
| Min. requirements: 60% increased Spell/Fire Damage 45 Strength 45 Intelligence 100 Maximum Mana Optional affixes: Fire Damage over Time Multiplier Damage over Time | |
| (Shield) Prism Guardian - another mandatory Unique item required for this build. It allows us to socket Auras with Blood Magic and reduced Mana Reservation Cost | |
| +12% to all Elemental Resistances +2 to Level of Socketed Aura Gems Socketed Gems have Blood Magic Socketed Gems have 25% reduced Mana Reservation +(20-30) to Dexterity +25% to all Elemental Resistances | |
| (Body Armour) Shavronne's Wrappings - a foundation of any Low-Life Build. It allows us to run at nearly 0 Life by protecting it from Chaos Damage | |
| (3-10)% increased Spell Damage (100-150)% increased Energy Shield 10% faster start of Energy Shield Recharge +(30-40)% to Lightning Resistance Reflects 1 to 250 Lightning Damage to Melee Attackers Chaos Damage does not bypass Energy Shield | |
| (Boots) Rare Boots - preferably with high Energy Shield | |
| Min. requirements: 55 maximum Mana 35 Intelligence 35% Cold Resistance 25% increased Movement Speed Optional affixes: high Energy Shield | |
| (Gloves) Shaper's Touch - this pair will grant very high bonus stats based on our Strength and Intelligence attributes. This pair is the BiS option here | |
| (80-120)% increased Armour and Energy Shield +4 Accuracy Rating per 2 Intelligence +1 Life per 4 Dexterity +2 Mana per 4 Strength 2% increased Energy Shield per 10 Strength 2% increased Evasion Rating per 10 Intelligence 2% increased Melee Physical Damage per 10 Dexterity | |
| (Belt) Rare Belt - preferably Crystal Belt for the highest base Energy Shield | |
| Min. requirements: 100 maximum Energy Shield 50 maximum Mana 100% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Strength Increased Damage% (Crafting Bench) | |
| (Amulet) Presence of Chayula - the BiS Amulet for most of the Low-Life builds. It grants very high bonus Energy Shield and Stun Immunity | |
| +(10-16) to all Attributes 30% increased Rarity of Items found +60% to Chaos Resistance Cannot be Stunned 20% of Maximum Life Converted to Energy Shield | |
| (Ring) Rare Rings | |
| Min. requirements: 40 maximum Energy Shield 50 maximum Mana 50 Strength and/or Intelligence 60% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: %maximum Mana (Cerulean Rings only) | |
| (Jewel) Grand Spectrum - you can use three of them or none at all. They will grant significant Maximum Mana bonus | |
| Gain 30 Mana per Grand Spectrum | |
| (Jewel) Healthy Mind - will grand insane Bonus Mana if Socketed right above Witch's starting point. It will make both Cruel Preparation and Heart and Souls' Passives to apply to Mana instead of Life. Sadly, as of Patch 3.8, we can only use one of these | |
| (15-20)% increased maximum Mana Increases and Reductions to Life in Radius are Transformed to apply to Mana at 200% of their value | |
| (Jewel) Watcher's Eye - grabbing Watcher's Eye which converts some of Mana Reserved into Energy Shield is pretty much a must-have here | |
| Min. requirements: Gain (12-18)% of Maximum Mana as Extra Maximum Energy Shield while affected by Clarity | |
| (Jewel) Rare Jewels - just get some extra Energy Shield and DPS bonuses here. Fire Damage over Multiplier will provide the biggest boost to your RF and SR | |
| Min. requirements: maximum Energy Shield Fire Damage over Time Multiplier Optional affixes: maximum Mana Damage over Time Attributes | |
| (Flask) Cinderswallow Urn - grants high Energy Shield Recovery, Onslaught, and other Veiled bonus | |
| Onslaught Recharges 1 Charge when you Consume an Ignited corpse Enemies Ignited by you during Flask Effect take 10% increased Damage Recover (1-3)% of Life when you Kill an Enemy during Flask Effect Recover (1-3)% of Mana when you Kill an Enemy during Flask Effect Recover (1-3)% of Energy Shield when you Kill an Enemy during Flask Effect <One Veiled Mod> | |
| (Flask) Witchfire Brew - grants high bonus Damage over Time making it one of the best Utility Flasks for this build | |
| +3000 to Armour (14-20)% Chance to Block during Flask effect (6-10)% Chance to Block Spells | |
Other suggested Flasks:
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If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below.
Hybrid Dmg Support Guardian Build For Pc
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