Guardian Lebron-- A Team Player

[Jpy]

"Growl. Snarl. Howl." - Some wolf I summoned
​

This build proved to be in close contention with Barbarian for the safest of all the Guardian attempts. I've done extremely cookie-cutter builds for every run so far, albeit with no real remorse as untwinked Guardian is enough challenge in and of itself, so I wanted to try something a little less main stream. This one is quite durable of course but Tornado would've been much faster while still boasting good defenses as Cyclone Armor is quite good for Hell. With no easy to access mobility skills and inherent desire to minimize teleport staff usage due to needing to shift out of bear, it was the slowest run I've done so far.

Normal difficulty was done as Fissure, so no issue with speed there. I found a nice Pelt in Act 3 which saw some use at Eldritch/Pindle farming when I felt safe enough to drop the 2x Ral helmet. A really nice rare ring made an appearance somewhere in Act 5 also. Not much else to say about Normal, Fissure is ridiculously strong. I did have a nice Lore base drop as the game tried to motivate me to play Tornado but I was determined not to.

Shortly after starting NM Countess I had Spirit CS online and made the switch to the summon variant. Damage was honestly not really an issue at all until later in NM and moving forward into Hell. I reran Countess for the essentials and a Black Flail swap setup to help with bossing a bit and then pushed straight to Act 5. I reran Eldritch to 63 and Pindle to 65. From there I stuck to TZs to round out 75 for Hell Progression. I feel like this is definitely the best route to take as the TZs are significantly safer than WSK and the experience blows Eldritch/Pindle options completely out of the water after 63. It also serves to keep you from targeting any Hell options, where the potential to RIP is highest, for experience.

In Hell the damage output of the build really started to hit a wall. I was unsuccessful in producing an elite polearm for Insight which would have helped quite a bit. I did drop a 5 socket GPA at some point but no Kos or Fals dropped at all and Insight's mana regen is quite nice anyway. Constantly repositioning Bear especially and to a lesser extent Dire Wolves helped with keeping damage where it should be. In tight areas it seemed more beneficial to ignore Spirit Wolves entirely as far too often they kept the merc out of the fight. Patience paid off eventually and I had no real issues for all of Hell, just speed. I did finally get a nice belt imbue in Hell. I ended the run with ~3k life, 85 FR/75 LR, ~1200 Grizzly damage, and ~400 damage per Dire Wolf.

I don't really have any future plans for the Druid. Only 2 runs remaining for 7 Guardians, though!

Final Setup:

Spoiler

Level 79 (20 Lycanthropy, 20 HoW, 20 Summon Grizzly, 20 Summon Dire Wolf, 4 Summon Spirit Wolf, 1 Shock Wave)
Rockstopper
Magic Amulet (16 all resistance)
Spirit CS (33/97/7) + Rhyme Bone Shield
Swap alternating Black Flail, Teleport staff and Lifetap wand
Stealth Serpentskin Armor
Crafted Blood Heavy Gloves (6 CB/10 Life/20 CR)
Rare Sharkskin Belt (24 FHR/19 LR/28 FR)
Infernostride Demonhide Boots
Rare Ring (25 LR/27 FR)
Magic Ring (8 all resistance)

Emilio 78 Might Desert Merc
Bulwark Crown
Insight Battle Scythe
Duriel's Shell Cuirass

Noteworthy Drops:

Spoiler

Rockstopper
Infernostride
Duriel's Shell
MA GC
Hell Forge (Gul!)

 

[SirName]

Nice! Were you more chilling at the back or in the front spamming shockwave?

 

[Jpy]

@SirName depends on the situation. Mostly far enough away to avoid melee hits but still close enough to lock things down. Worth mentioning it functions the same as other AoEs (Teeth, Multi Shot etc) where the closer your cursor is to you while casting the wider the width of the cast. Maul with Black/Rhyme for bosses. Life Tap wand for situations where merc has a hard time.