Today we are excited to present to you a guide on the ultimate tanky lightning damage guardian build in POE 3.22 league starter, known as The Unkillable Build. This setup is an absolute joy to take on bosses with, and we are here to break down all the key components and strategies to make your guardian a true powerhouse. So, let's dive into the details and create the most formidable Hybrid Animate Guardian's Weapon Guardian!

 

• Defense
• Offense
• Gem Setup
• Passive Tree
• Key Passive Abilities
• Flasks
• Gear
• Budget

 

 

PoB Links: https://pobb.in/QpYlCZ9RCb28

 

↖ Defense

Our primary goal is to create an unbreakable defense that can withstand even the most ferocious onslaughts. Here's how we achieve that:

Aegis Aurora	This is the cornerstone of our build. Through the melding of the flesh, we can stack resistances from auras, gaining a significant cold resistance boost from Purity of Ice and other sources.
Elemental Resistances	Thanks to our auras and aura effect modifiers, we manage to cap our elemental resistances (fire, cold, and lightning) at 90% each. This grants us unparalleled elemental protection.
Armour and Energy Shield	With Molten Shell active, our armour skyrockets to an impressive 95,000. Moreover, we recover 2% of this armour as an energy shield, bolstering our overall survivability.
Endurance Charges	We harness endurance charges to gain physical damage mitigation, stacking additional layers of protection.
Physical Damage Mitigation	Our strategy involves reserving multiple auras, which enables us to take advantage of physical damage mitigation nodes. This further fortifies our defenses.
Block and Spell Block	Achieving the maximum 75% block and spell block chance is crucial. This is accomplished through strategic passive allocation and gear choices.
Regeneration and Recovery	We boast substantial life and energy shield regeneration, ensuring that we can rapidly recover from any damage taken.
Curse Immunity	Our reduced curse effectiveness modifiers make us virtually immune to curses, greatly enhancing our resilience.
Chaos Resistance and Ailment Immunity	With a capped chaos resistance of 75% and immunity to shock and freeze, we minimize the impact of various harmful effects.
Energy Shield Pool	Our energy shield sits at a solid 7,000, which proves to be quite effective in conjunction with our other defenses.

 

↖ Offense

While our primary focus is on defense, our offense is nothing to scoff at. Here's how we maximize our damage output:

Crackling Lens	For single-target damage, Crackling Lens reigns supreme. It synergizes wonderfully with Intensity, making it our go-to choice.
Conversion and Trinity Support	By converting half of our damage to cold, we can leverage Trinity Support, boosting our damage output even further.
Alternate Ailments	Employing Secrets of Suffering allows us to reach a 100% critical strike chance against bosses, thanks to brittle stacks. This also inflicts the sap debuff, decreasing enemy damage by 20%.
Crit Multiplier Stacking	To maximize our crit damage, we invest in critical strike multiplier nodes on the passive tree and other sources.

 

↖ Gem Setup

Each gem's purpose, its interaction with other gems, and its role in optimizing both damage output and survival will be discussed.

 

Phantasmal Crackling Lens (6-link)

• Gem: Blade Vortex
• Support 1: Awakened Spell Echo
• Support 2: Awakened Elemental Focus
• Support 3: Inspiration (Divergent if mana sustainability is needed)
• Support 4: Intensify
• Support 5: Awakened Unbound Ailments
• Support 6: Controlled Destruction

Explanation: Blade Vortex serves as your primary damage-dealing Skill. The addition of Awakened Spell Echo and Elemental Focus significantly amplifies damage. Intensify contributes a substantial damage increase with its four intensity levels. Inspiration aids in managing mana (opt for Divergent if mana sustains is required). Controlled Destruction boosts critical damage, while Awakened Unbound Ailments enhance non-damaging ailment effects like shock.

 

Utility Gems (4-link)

• Gem: Flame Dash
• Support 1: Second Wind
• Support 2: Arcane Surge (Level 7)
• Support 3: Increased Duration

Explanation: Flame Dash offers mobility, while Second Wind reduces its cooldown. Arcane Surge enhances spell damage after Flame Dash activation. Increased Duration extends the Duration of utility skills and buffs.

 

Auras (4-link)

• Aura 1: Wrath
• Aura 2: Zealotry
• Aura 3: Purity of Ice (linked with +1 to AoE gems item)
• Aura 4: Discipline

Explanation: Auras play a vital role in boosting both damage and survivability. Wrath and Zealotry increase elemental damage and crit chance. Purity of Ice grants cold resistance and synergizes with an item providing +1 to AoE gems. Discipline enhances energy shields and overall survivability.

 

Defensive Skills (3-link)

• Gem: Molten Shell
• Support 1: Cast when Damage Taken (Level 10)
• Support 2: Increased Duration

Explanation: Molten Shell provides protection against powerful enemy hits. Cast, when Damage is Taken, automates the triggering of Molten Shell, while Increased Duration prolongs its effectiveness.

 

Offensive Buffs (2-link)

• Gem: Phantasmal Smite
• Support: Blood Magic

Explanation: Phantasmal Smite contributes significant damage enhancement. Blood Magic ensures the uninterrupted casting of Smite by eliminating mana concerns.

 

Optional Skill (1-link)

• Gem: Vaal Righteous Fire

Explanation: Vaal Righteous Fire offers a substantial damage boost during challenging encounters. Activate it strategically for bursts of damage.

 

Manual Buff (1-link)

• Gem: Divergent Righteous Fire

Explanation: Utilize Divergent Righteous Fire to activate it when using Vaal Righteous Fire manually. This gem amplifies spell damage.

 

 

↖ Passive Tree

• Prioritize capping defenses: Start by ensuring that your character's defenses are effectively capped to withstand various threats.
• Emphasize critical multipliers: Invest in passive nodes that enhance critical multipliers, as critical hits are crucial for maximizing damage output.
• Utilize cast speed: Allocate nodes that grant cast speed to improve your spellcasting efficiency.
• Balance utility: Select utility nodes that improve movement speed, provide additional utility, and enhance the overall effectiveness of your build.

 

↖ Key Passive Abilities

• Intensify Bonus: Prioritize the nodes that provide cast speed, crit multi, and +1 maximum intensity for spells with Intensity.
• Life and Strength Investment: Deviate from the life and strength-heavy approach and instead focus on crit multi and damage nodes to maximize damage potential.
• Secrets of Suffering: Utilize this node to cap critical strike chance and gain benefits from ailments, allowing for higher overall damage output.
• Block and Glancing Blows: Allocate nodes that grant block chance and enable Glancing Blows to mitigate incoming damage.
• Brutal Restraint and Watcher's Eye: Seek a Brutal Restraint jewel with valuable modifiers like increased aura effect for the easier cap of non-curse auras and more. Use a Watcher's Eye with synergistic mods, such as Arcane Surge, when creating Consecrated Ground.
• Auras and Efficiency: Focus on auras that enhance your build's strengths and invest in aura efficiency nodes for improved reservation management.
• Melding of the Flesh: Prioritize mods that reduce the effect of ailments, ensuring immunity to ignite, freeze, and shock.
• Pantheons: Utilize Pantheons like Brine King and Aberrath for general gameplay, swapping to Soul of Yugul for reflect maps or challenging encounters.

 

↖ Flasks

• Colour Scanning Elixir: This flask provides elemental resistances and helps negate the effect of "Melding of the Flesh." Be aware of nullifier mobs that can turn off your flasks and re-enable them to ensure survival.
• Bismuth Flask: Look for a Bismuth Flask with 40 additional elemental resistances to reach a total of 75 resistance. This counters the "Melding of the Flesh" effect. Watch out for nullifier mobs as well.
• Quicksilver Flask: Aim for a Quicksilver Flask with 28% quality and reduced charges per use, which allows it to last longer. Modifiers like a reduced mana cost, regeneration, or chance to avoid being stunned can also be helpful.

 

↖ Gear

• Chest Piece (Ivory Tower): Prioritize energy shield and life stats, and try to get "+2 to Level of Socketed AoE Skills." This provides a significant boost to DPS.
• Call of the Brotherhood: This ring can have valuable corruptions for cold and lightning damage to spells.
• Nebulis: Seek implicit such as crit multiplier, lightning damage, cast speed, and double damage with spells.
• Aegis Aurora: Look for corruptions like "Physical damage taken as elemental damage" or skills that help with mana reservation. This item is crucial for the build.
• Ashes of the Stars: Allocate "Charisma" for increased mana reservation efficiency and aura effectiveness.
• Other Ring: Opt for elemental weakness on hit, dexterity for stat requirements, and resistances.
• Rare Items: Prioritize energy shield and life, along with resistances, chaos resistance, intelligence, and mana. Focus on the best modifiers for your build.
• Boots: Look for the "damage penetrates 10% of enemy elemental resistances if you haven't killed recently" enchantment, along with at least 30% movement speed and chaos resistance.
• Gloves: Obtain rare gloves with chaos resistance, energy shield, life, intelligence, mana, and cold exposure implicit. Unnerve on hit is a strong modifier.
• Helmet (Hubris Circlet): Craft your own helmet with aura reservation stats, life, energy shield, and resistances. Aim for "+1 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems."
• Belt: Prioritize life and mana, as well as any other helpful modifiers. Keep it versatile in case you want to swap in a Headhunter for mapping.

 

↖ Budget

• Expect to spend around 100 to 150 exalted orbs for this build.
• Shopping wisely, crafting items efficiently, and self-linking a six-link can help manage costs.

 

Conclusion:

By combining comprehensive explanations of mechanics, skill interactions, and equipment choices, the guide equips players with the knowledge to create a formidable tanky lightning damage guardian build that excels in both offense and defense within the POE 3.22 league.