PoE Builds 3.23: Absolution Guardian Build

The Absolution Guardian Build is a minion-based build that uses the new skill Absolution, which summons Sentinels of Absolution that deal fire damage and have a chance to create more Sentinels on death. The build also uses Herald of Purity, Vitality, and Anger as auras to buff the minions and the player. The build is tanky, has good clear speed, and can handle most end-game content.

Pros

Easy to start with low budget and gear requirements

Scales well with investment and character level

High damage output from multiple sources of fire damage

Good survivability from life regeneration, block, and Guardian ascendancy

Flexible skill tree and gem choices

Cons

Minions can die easily in some situations and need to be re-summoned.

Absolution has a 25% chance to summon a Sentinel, which can be inconsistent.

The build relies on Doryani's Prototype for negative lightning resistance scaling, which can be risky and expensive.

The build guide is divided into the following sections:

Skill Gems

Ascendancy

Pantheon

Jewels

Gear

Flasks

Leveling Tips and Gameplay

Skill Gems

The core skill of the build is Absolution, which is linked with the following support gems:

● Minion Damage Support: Increases the damage of the Sentinels and the explosions they create on death.

● Elemental Focus Support: Increases the elemental damage of the Sentinels and prevents them from applying elemental ailments, which is not needed for this build.

● Combustion Support: Increases the fire damage and fire penetration of the Sentinels and lowers the fire resistance of enemies they hit, boosting the overall damage output.

● Feeding Frenzy Support: Grants the Feeding Frenzy buff to the Sentinels, which makes them more aggressive and grants more damage and movement speed to the player and other minions.

● Deathmark Support: Allows the player to mark a target for the Sentinels to focus on, which is useful for boss fights and tough enemies.

The build also uses the following skill gems for utility and defense:

● Herald of Purity: Grants more physical damage and summons Sentinels of Purity on kill, which deal physical damage and have a chance to intimidate enemies, lowering their damage reduction.

● Vitality: Grants life regeneration to the player and the minions, which helps with survivability and sustain.

● Anger: Grants more fire damage to the player and the minions, which synergizes with the fire theme of the build.

● Convocation: Recalls all minions to the player's location, which can be useful for repositioning and avoiding dangerous situations.

● Flame Dash: A mobility skill that allows the player to teleport to a location and grants a brief increase to spell dodge chance.

● Immortal Call: A defensive skill that consumes endurance charges to grant a short duration of immunity to physical damage, which can be triggered by a Cast when Damage Taken Support gem for convenience.

● Summon Stone Golem: Summons a Stone Golem that deals physical damage and grants life regeneration to the player, which adds to the survivability and minion army of the build.

● Desecrate: Creates a patch of corpses, which can be used to fuel Absolution and create more Sentinels.

Ascendancy

The ascendancy class for the build is the Guardian, which offers a lot of defensive and offensive benefits for the player and the minions. The recommended ascendancy points are Radiant Crusade, Unwavering Crusade, Time of Need, and Bastion of Hope.

Pantheon

Major God: Soul of Solaris

Minor God: Soul of Shakari

Recommended Jewels

● Cluster Jewels: The build can use a large cluster jewel with the Minion Damage or Minion Life notables, as well as a medium cluster jewel with the Renewal or Feasting Fiends notables, which all increase the damage and survivability of the minions. The small cluster jewels can have the Fettle or Surging Vitality notables, which increase the life and life regeneration of the player.

● Unique Jewels: The build can use the following unique jewels for more damage and utility.

● Anatomical Knowledge: Grants more maximum life and increases the damage of the player and the minions based on the distance from the jewel socket to the player's starting location, which can be maximized by placing it near the Scion life wheel.

● Energised Armour: Grants more armour and increases the damage of the player and the minions based on the player's armour, which can be boosted by using a Granite Flask and the Iron Reflexes keystone.

● Spreading Rot: Grants more chaos damage and causes enemies hindered by the player's Blight to take increased chaos damage, which can be applied by using a Blight skill gem in a weapon swap or a ring slot.

● Rare Jewels: The build can use rare jewels with the following mods:

 Prefixes: Increased maximum life, increased minion damage, increased fire damage

 Suffixes: Increased minion life, increased minion speed, increased elemental resistance

Recommended Gear

The gear for the build is mostly focused on increasing the damage and survivability of the player and the minions, as well as capping the elemental resistances and having some chaos resistance. The build also uses Doryani's Prototype as a unique chest piece, which allows the player to deal more lightning damage based on the enemy's lightning resistance and makes the player's lightning resistance match the lowest of the other elemental resistances. This means that the build wants to have negative lightning resistance and high fire and cold resistance and lower the enemy's lightning resistance as much as possible.

● Weapon: A rare bow with high physical damage, attack speed, and minion damage. The best base is a Thicket Bow for the high attack speed. The weapon can also have a crafted mod to trigger a socketed spell when you use a skill, which can be used to automate Desecrate and Convocation.

● Helmet: A rare helmet with high life, elemental resistance, and minion damage. The best base is a Royal Burgonet for the high armour. The helmet can also have an enchantment of increased Absolution damage or reduced Absolution mana cost.

● Body Armour: Doryani's Prototype, a unique armour that grants more lightning damage based on the enemy's lightning resistance and makes the player's lightning resistance match the lowest of the other elemental resistances. This means that the build wants to have negative lightning resistance and high fire and cold resistance and lower the enemy's lightning resistance as much as possible. The body armour can also have a corrupted implicit of increased maximum life or increased elemental resistances.

● Gloves: A rare pair of gloves with high life, elemental resistances, and minion damage. The best base is a Fingerless Silk Gloves for the increased spell damage. The gloves can also have a crafted mod of increased attack and cast speed or increased damage while leeching.

Recommended Flasks

● Life Flask: A Divine Life Flask or an Eternal Life Flask with the mods of instant recovery when on low life and immunity to bleeding. This flask can save the player from lethal damage and bleeding effects, which are common sources of death in the end-game.

● Mana Flask: A Lavianga's Spirit, a unique mana flask that grants more mana, mana regeneration, and increased area of effect while active. This flask can help with the mana sustain and the clear speed of the build, as well as allow the player to spam Absolution more frequently.

● Utility Flask 1: A Granite Flask with the mods of increased armour and immunity to curses. This flask can boost the defence and the damage of the build and protect the player from curse effects, which can lower the resistances and the damage output.

● Utility Flask 2: A Quicksilver Flask with the mods of increased movement speed and immunity to freeze and chill. This flask can enhance the mobility and clear speed of the build and prevent the player from being frozen or chilled, which can be dangerous and annoying.

● Utility Flask 3: A Silver Flask with the mods of increased duration and immunity to shock. This flask can grant the player and the minions the Onslaught buff, which increases the attack, cast, and movement speed and protects the player from shock effects, which can increase the damage taken.

Leveling Tips and Gameplay

The build can be leveled with any minion skill, such as Summon Raging Spirit, Summon Skeleton, or Raise Zombie, until the player can access Absolution at level 28. The player can also use a Tabula Rasa, a unique body armour that grants 6 linked white sockets, to easily socket any skill gems without worrying about the colors or the links. The player can also use some unique items that boost the minion damage and survivability, such as:

● Wanderlust: A unique pair of boots that grants increased movement speed, mana regeneration, and immunity to freeze and chill, all useful for leveling.

● Sidhebreath: A unique amulet that grants increased minion damage, movement speed, and life and mana regeneration, as well as reducing the mana cost of minion skills, which are all beneficial for the build.

● Skullhead: A unique helmet that grants increased minion damage, life, and resistances, as well as increased armour and evasion for the player, which are all helpful for the defence of the build.

● Bones of Ullr: A unique pair of boots that grants increased minion damage and movement speed, as well as +1 to the maximum number of zombies and spectres, which can increase the minion army of the build.

● The Baron: A unique helmet that grants increased minion damage and life, as well as +1 to the maximum number of zombies per 300 strength, which can boost the minion damage and survivability of the build.

The gameplay of the build is simple and straightforward. The build can handle most end-game content, such as maps, bosses, and delves, with ease and efficiency. The build can also do most map mods, except for elemental reflect, no mana regeneration, and no life regeneration, which can be very hard or impossible for the build. The build can also benefit from some map mods, such as increased area of effect, increased monster life, and increased fire damage, which can boost the performance of the build.

That's all for the build guide. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful.