In the upcoming Path of Exile expansion, Trial of the Ancestors, the Guardian's ascendancy has significantly changed, turning it into a more support-focused class with some solo play options. This guide'll explore the new Guardian ascendancy and its notable features.

• Bastion of Hope
• Radiant Crusade and Unwavering Crusade
• Time of Need
• Radiant Faith
• Unwavering Faith
• Harmony of Purpose

 

↖ Bastion of Hope

The first notable we'll discuss is Bastion of Hope. This defensive node provides both attack and spell block chances to you and nearby allies. To keep both buffs up all the time, you can alternate between attacks and spells. This allows Guardian builds to invest further into block, making it one of the easiest classes to cap both pure spell and attack block. By using Tempest Shield and normal base block on a shield, you can achieve around 50% of each block type. The rest can be made up through gear or passive tree investment. Alternatively, you can utilize recover on block mechanics with glancing blows, requiring only a minimal investment into spell block to reach the cap. Overall, Bastion of Hope provides excellent defensive benefits.

 

↖ Radiant Crusade and Unwavering Crusade

These two notables form a four-point branch in the Guardian ascendancy, but the details of the minion skills they grant have not been revealed yet. Radiant Crusade grants the skill Summon Sentinel Radiance, which may play a supportive role, possibly taunting enemies or offering other forms of support. Unwavering Crusade has the potential to trigger Summon Elemental Relic upon kills, but without knowing the skill specifics, it's challenging to evaluate their usefulness. We can speculate that the Elemental Relic may be similar to Holy Relic but deal elemental damage or provide increased elemental resistances or apply exposure to enemies.

 

↖ Time of Need

Time of Need offers periodic removal of curses and elemental ailments every four seconds. While the cleansing effect might not be reliable enough to handle curses and ailments effectively during intense combat, it can still be useful in certain situations. However, the real strength of this notable comes from the 100% life regeneration over one second every four seconds, which is especially potent when combined with Calm Spirit unique gloves. This combination grants 50 life regeneration per second for builds with 5000 maximum life, making it a valuable source of sustained recovery.

 

↖ Radiant Faith

Radiant Faith provides armor equal to 25% of your reserved mana to you and nearby allies, and it grants maximum energy shield equal to 10% of your reserved mana to you and nearby allies. These values may seem low at first glance, but the noticeable works as a conversion rather than a flat bonus. The maximum energy shield granted scales multiplicatively with modifiers to increased armor and increased maximum energy shield, allowing you to obtain substantial defenses with the right investment. Since most Guardian builds will reserve all their mana for auras, this notable becomes a valuable defensive boost.

 

↖ Unwavering Faith

Unwavering Faith is a branching notable that extends from Radiant Faith. It grants a significant 5% increased recovery rate of life, mana, and energy shield to you and allies for each aura you reserve. With proper investment in aura effect modifiers, you can achieve incredible recovery rates, making this notable ideal for support-oriented Guardian builds.

 

↖ Harmony of Purpose

This notable introduces linked support for the Guardian ascendancy, enhancing the effectiveness of linked skills. When using elemental damage, attacks hit enemies between you and the linked target as if they had the lucky modifier. Additionally, allies between you and linked targets gain +5% to all maximum elemental resistances, and enemies between you and linked targets cannot apply elemental ailments. While this notable offers excellent support potential, its effectiveness may depend on the positioning of monsters relative to the link. The extra elemental resistances and the lucky damage, however, make it highly appealing for specific builds.

 

Overall, the new Guardian ascendancy focuses heavily on support capabilities, making it a natural choice for aurabots or party play. For solo play, some niche uses might arise, especially when utilizing specific unique items like Calm Spirit. However, the Guardian class seems to have lost some build diversity with this rework, and its power will heavily depend on how potent the new minion skills turn out to be.