Animate Guardian Questions :(

Hi, I've been using Animate Guardian for the first time this league. I've watched a lotttt of videos, read many forum threads that came up on google searches (fairly new seeming threads from the end of 2020)... and I'm just plain lost on a couple things that I keep seeing in answer to my questions. In fact, more questions arise! Lol.

So my guardian keeps dying. A lot. It's great for all the Dying Breath and Leer Cast sellers out there, but not for me. I watch videos where people suggest "putting your guardian away" for certain encounters. At this point, every single Ultimatum kills him. Certain bosses/beyond bosses annihilate him.

Many sources say to remove his gem from my gear to stow him, but I do *not* understand how to get him back. In most videos, they repeat over and over again that upon logging out - the guardian will vanish until resummoned, "like your golems". Neither my guardian or my golems despawn or need resummoning when I log, so this is where I am totally lost. "Take your gem out and resummon him when you want him back." Maybe it is just because this skill gem is so new to me (probably), but I just do not understand how to resummon it. I am so sick of spending 30 mins on the trade site every time I log in to play a few hours because I need to stock up on his items for when he inevitably dies. I'm skipping nearly all ultimatums because its a guaranteed death for him. I just desperately want to know how to "stow" and "resummon" the guy in 3.14 - or if it is even possible. None of the mechanics or demonstrations I've watched or read seem to work anymore.

So, long story short - how, in 3.14 May 2021, do you "put your Animate Guardian away" during a fight he will surely perish in - and how do I get him back?? Clearly some mechanics have changed recently because I've been reading lots of threads and watching guides that date to only a few/several months ago and none of it applies or works.

Please help! I've already spent hours trying to figure this out, sifting through dated information, that I'd rather spend actually playing PoE! :(

It is very hard to keep a AG alive as an Elementalist.
In your tree, you have virutally no minion defense nodes.
Only your Golems are immune to elemental damage.
Your AG has base 40% ele resist, and I cant see anything that is raising its resists.
You have no + minion gem levels in your gear.
No wonder it dies all the time.

In those circumstances, it would take insanely expensive gear on the AG to keep it alive, and I am not sure that would work.

You can resummmon an unsummoned AG by using the animate guardian ability without targeting an item.

Dead ones will not be resummoned with this method.

I am not sure what are you doing there, but AG for sure stays alive and I don't need to re-summon him every time I log back on.

If you need to unsocket his gem to change gear, thats no prob, you can go to your hideout and just socket his gem and click his skill to summon him back with all the gear the had before

and of course, if he dies, then you need to resummon the gear on him and the gear you had put on him is lost.

The path of exile wiki is very straight forward about his mechanics, there is no confusing info there.

As non-necro, you need to invest a bit in minion's survivability:
1) Make sure AG gem level is at least 20, preferably 21, if possible with 20% Divergent quality
2) Link it with Meat Shield, Minion Life, and eventually 20% q Elemental Army, if you don't use Purity auras
2) Use cluster jewels with Dread March (at least 2) and Renewal passives
3) Make sure you use Convocation constantly, to pull your AG from dangerous situations

AG has a lot of HP, regen is key to keeping him alive (Renewal, Convocation, gear with % regen).

You can check my profile for an AG setup that survives trough everything except HOGM map and deep delve, on Ascendant. I use Convocation on left click, so it's cast on cooldown.

Good luck!

you just dont use 1-link AG if you really care about him.

his survivability goes up with Gruthkul's Pelt and making sure that he is resist capped, sadly this means that if you are not Necro you need somewhat expensive gear to cap his chaos res

other common setup is Mask of the Stitched Demon combined with high life+%life + crafted "gain x% life as ES" regalia... can cost tens of exalts if you really push it.

but the thing still is that if you have AG, you have still keep nursing him and save him on ceartain situations by convocation/swapping(unsummon) or logging out.