Revamp Animate Guardian's death system

I could understand that when he was implemented it wasn't a big deal to lose the items he wore since they were mostly trash. Fast forward now to almost 2020 and there are very nice items such as king maker, garb of the ephemeral, saqawal's nest, gruthkul's pelt, etc. The list can go on for a while. And some of these items can go for high amounts of chaos and decent amounts of ex.

So I think it's fair to say that animate guardian should simply be able to retain his items upon death at this point. You can resummon any other minion you have that doesn't wear items upon death and most are far stronger than him as he is used as a support most of the time. I feel even worse for someone using AG as their main and then he dies. Is that really necessary to brick someone like that?

My grand vision would be for him to operate like the mercs did in D2. You should be able to equip and unequip any item in his available slots at any time. This way you don't lose the items and can switch things out for versatility during different fights. Makes sense to me and I don't see how anyone could disagree with this honestly.

Diablo II was made by great and mighty Blizzard (well, back then, when it was great and mighty). Such quality features are not affordable for GGG.

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Oblitus wrote:

Diablo II was made by great and mighty Blizzard (well, back then, when it was great and mighty). Such quality features are not affordable for GGG.

With the points I made I really think they eventually will. It's not viable for him to lose his items any more. It's archaic and out dated. All we can do is wait unfortunately.

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UnholyHanma wrote:

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Oblitus wrote:

Diablo II was made by great and mighty Blizzard (well, back then, when it was great and mighty). Such quality features are not affordable for GGG.

With the points I made I really think they eventually will. It's not viable for him to lose his items any more. It's archaic and out dated. All we can do is wait unfortunately.

It was the case for years now. Don't see it coming it comina anytime soon and even when it would - I don't think they would do a proper paperdoll, even if it would be a huge improvement.

PoE is rapidly turning into korean grinder, if they rework it than it would be the other way around...

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SuperDumbo wrote:

PoE is rapidly turning into korean grinder, if they rework it than it would be the other way around...

Don't insult Korean grinders. They are better than PoE.

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UnholyHanma wrote:

I could understand that when he was implemented it wasn't a big deal to lose the items he wore since they were mostly trash.

That's not how this works at all. The animated guardian is supposed to be a risk. You have to ask yourself whether what you've got on him is enough to really keep him alive. It's not even practical to make him out of trash, because if you have to constantly recast him, he'll be short this or that piece of gear forever. The skill is pointless if you don't put good stuff on him.

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007Bistromath wrote:

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UnholyHanma wrote:

I could understand that when he was implemented it wasn't a big deal to lose the items he wore since they were mostly trash.

That's not how this works at all. The animated guardian is supposed to be a risk. You have to ask yourself whether what you've got on him is enough to really keep him alive. It's not even practical to make him out of trash, because if you have to constantly recast him, he'll be short this or that piece of gear forever. The skill is pointless if you don't put good stuff on him.

So it is either use 5 ex worth of gear (and still have a solid chance to lose him due to insane damage output some bosses have) or don't use at all.

The most common nearly-indestructible setup for the animated guardian cost about 7c last league when minions were the entire meta. That stuff usually costs around 3c. Make more reasonable choices.

Edit: To be a little clearer about what I mean by "nearly indestructible," I lost it once in an arguably underleveled Atziri run, and it was completely my fault. It did everything in the game except HoGM just fine. I always die before it does. As far as I know, the secret sauce is Southbound. Ambu's Charge is the only other really defensive part of the build, and I don't think that makes nearly as much difference as Southbound does.

+1 some AG improvements would be nice as the only time i risk anything decent on AG is at the end of a league where my currency has lost most all meaning.