Sentinel of Radiance
Guardian Build

Created for Patch 3.22

The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo

The Guardian Ascendency can grant you access to the exclusive Sentinel of Radiance. It is a very powerful Minion that casts a burning Aura that deals Damage based on the maximum Life, in a very similar way to the Righteous Fire Skill. You can have only one Sentinel at a time, which lasts around 40 seconds. His Movement and Attacks are very slow, which is why you should constantly use the Convocation Spell to instantly teleport him to your location. The Burning Aura covers a very large Area, and it is the main focus of this Build. 

The Sentinel of Radiance can't be supported by your Gems, which saves you a lot of Sockets. It also doesn't need any expensive modifiers to your Minion Gem Levels. You can improve the Burning Aura Damage via other means, such as Curses that lower Elemental Resistances, Exposure, or Auras such as Malovelence or Aspect of the Spider. You can also use Elemental Ailments like Scorch or Shock. 

The Sentinel is strong enough to defeat most Enemies you can encounter in Path of Exile and can be played as a standalone Skill. It will, however, be much faster if you incorporate other Minions Skills to your Build, as it is the nature of this archetype. Thanks to Elemental Relics that provide powerful Elemental Auras you can use any Hit-based Minion in your setup, but to make the most out of your investments into Minion Life, we recommend embracing the Minion Instability Keystone. As your Minions reach 50% of their maximum Life, they will explode, dealing a large amount of Damage. The best Skill to use with this Keystone is Summon Raging Spirit, as one cheap Unique Amulet is enough to reliably trigger the explosions. This Keystone, however, makes using the Animate Guardian somehow risky, so make sure to not put any Items you would miss on him!  

With this Build you can become very tanky. The Sentinel of Radiance will reduce your Damage Taken by 20%, you can have a lot of Armour Rating and Block Chance for both types of Damage, and the Time of Need Notable grants excellent Life Recovery. The Aspect of Spider covers Enemies in Webs, which reduces their Damage and Movement Speed. 

It is an excellent starting Build, as the Sentinel of Radiance scales greatly with just your Character Levels, up to Level 85. There are no required Unique Items, and most Rare Items can be cheaply crafted using the Essence of Fear or Bound Fossils. 

You can also check our other Path of Exile builds right over here Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List

1. Gameplay

Summon your Sentinel to start burning down your Enemies. Use Convocation to move him from pack to pack. Use your secondary Minions like Summon Raging Spirits to take down harder foes. To improve your Damage you should use Curses, activate your temporary Aura, and apply Fire Exposure with Wave on Conviction, which you can also automate with a Trigger modifier on your Weapon. To move around use Shield Charge or Flame Dash. 

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

You can start using the Ragining Spirits very early on. After the first Labirynth, you can pick up the Sentinel of Radiance, which will easily take down every enemy during the Campaign, making it a very fast and pleasant experience. Try to rush for the Minion Masteries that grant you reduced Convocation Cooldown and AoE for your Minions. 

Suggested leveling Gem setups:

Summon Raging Spirits setup
	Summon Raging Spirits - summons a Spirit that Attacks nearby Enemies, dealing Fire Damage.
	Minion Damage Support - improves the Damage done by your Minions.
	Added Fire Damage Support - grants extra Fire Damage based on their initial Physical Damage.
	Melee Physical Damage Support - improves the Physical Damage, which is then later converted into Fire Damage.
	Minion Speed Support - improves the Attack and Movement Speed of your Minions.
	Multistrike Support - causes your Minions to repeat their Attacks 2 additional times.

Aura setup
	Vitality - grants you a lot of Life Regeneration which is important to help you survive.
	Clarity - use this Ara if you have problems with Mana sustain.
	Purity of Elements - grants you a lot of Elemental Resistances and makes you immune to Elemental Ailments, which can be very deadly.

Utility setup
	Flame Dash - you will need the Movement Skill to cross various terrain gaps and move around faster.
	Flammability - lowers the Fire Resistance of your Enemies.
	Steelskin - grants you a temporary shield that absorbs incoming Damage and disables Bleeding.

Bandits:

Kill all Bandits to get an additional 2 Passive Tree Skill Points.

Leveling Skill Trees:
39 Points Passive Tree
1) Discipline and Training 2) Sacrifice 3) Spiritual Command 4) Righteous Army&Redemption 5) Enduring Bond 6) Heart and Soul

68 Points Passive Tree
Allocate: 1) Cruel Preparations 2) Mystic Bulwark 3) Minion Instability 4) Indomitable Army 5) Eldritch Battery 6) Written in Blood 7) Influence

Recommended leveling items:

Kikazaru - grants a lot of Life and Mana Regeneration, and a bit of Attributes and Resistances.

+(20-30)% to Lightning Resistance +(10-15) to all Attributes (20-40)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate 60% reduced Effect of Curses on you Regenerate 3 Life per second per Level

Le Heup of All - it is a very helpful Ring to use if you lack Resistance or Attributes. The Damage doesn't apply to Minions.

+(10-30) to all Attributes (10-30)% increased Damage (10-30)% increased Rarity of Items found +(10-30)% to all Elemental Resistances

Rare Wand - to boost your  Minions you should look for a Wand that increases their Gem Levels and Minion Damage. Note that Gem Levels won't apply to Sentinel of Radiance.

Recommended modifiers:  +1 to the level of All Minion Spell Skills Minions deal #% increased Damage

Tabula Rasa - the 6 six White Sockets will provide you a lot of room to experiment with your optimal SupportGems.

Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden)

Goldrim - a very useful Helmet to cap your Elemental Resistances early on.

+(30-50) to Evasion Rating 10% increased Rarity of Items found +(30-40)% to all Elemental Resistances Reflects 4 Physical Damage to Melee Attackers Level Requirement reduced by 100 (Hidden)

Mark of the Red Covenant - greatly boosts your SRS, but lowers the limit to only 5 at a time. Getting all 20 SRS during the campaign is unreachable anyway.

+(30-50) to maximum Energy Shield Summoned Raging Spirits deal (175-250)% increased Damage 75% reduced Maximum number of Summoned Raging Spirits Summoned Raging Spirits' Hits always Ignite Summoned Raging Spirits' Melee Strikes deal Fire-only Splash Damage to Surrounding Targets

Seven-League Step - the best Boots to use if you want more Movement Speed.

50% increased Movement Speed Level Requirement reduced by 100 (Hidden)

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

105 Points Final Passive Tree (doesn't include Cluster or Unique Jewels)
118 Points Path of Building (PoB) link

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in this order:

1. Radiant Crusade
2. Unwavering Crusade
3. Time of Need
4. Bastion of Hope

Pantheon:

Major God: Soul of Arakaali: 10% reduced Damage taken from Damage Over Time; +40% Chaos Resistance against Damage Over Time

Minor God: Soul of Shakari: 50% less Duration of Poisons on You; You cannot be Poisoned while there are at least 3 Poisons on you

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Summon Raging Spirit setup
	Summon Raging Spirit - their Hit Damage falls off, but with the Minion Instability Keystone allocated you can use them to explode upon reaching 50% maximum Life, dealing heavy Damage based on their Maximum Life.
	Unleash Support - you can summon your Ragining Spirits more efficiently.
	Minion Life Support - increases the maximum Life of your Spirits, so they can explode for more Damage.
	Hypothermia Support - improves the Damage your Minions deal against Chilled Enemies. The Skitterbots reliably apply this Ailment on your Enemies.
	Combustion Support - improves the Fire Damage dealt by Spirits, and lowers the Fire Resistance of your Enemies.
	Feeding Frenzy Support - your Minions will occasionally grant you a Buff that improves the Damage of all Minions you have, including the Sentinel of Radiance. You can also use the Concentrated Effect Support if you have another source of this Buff.

[UTILITY] Aura setup
	Determination - grants you a lot of Armour Rating and helps improve it even more.
	Purity of Elements - grants plenty of Elemental Resistances to you and your Minions, but more importantly, grants immunity to all Elemental Ailment effects.
	Summon Skitterbots - summons Minions that apply Shock and Chill to nearby Enemies. If your Minions can apply those Ailments reliably, you can use defensive Aura such as Arctic Armour, or automate Curse with Blasphemy.
	Tempest Shield - grants plenty of Chances to Block Spell Damage. It requires hefty investments into Mana Reservation Efficiency, so you can skip this Aura at first.
	Enlighten Support - lowers the Mana Reservation of Supported Auras. Link it with 3 of your most Mana-intensive Skills

[UTILITY] Divine Blessing setup
	Malevolence - an offensive Aura that improves the Damage over Time of your Minions.
	Divine Blessing Support - changes your Aura into a temporary Buff, which you have to recast. You can also use the Guardian's Blessing Support if your Minion can survive that.

[UTILITY] Utility setup socket in your Wand
	Flammability - this Curse lowers the Fire Resistance of affected foes, and improves the chances to Ignite, which is quite useful for the purpose of the Combustion Support.
	Elemental Weakness - another useful Curse, it lowers all Elemental Resistances of your Enemies, albeit for a bit lower value.
	Wave of Conviction - used to apply Fire Exposure on your Enemies, which lowers their Fire Resistance.
	Arcanist Brand - if you don't have a Wand with the Trigger modifier, use the Arcanist Brand to cast all linked Spells with one button.

[UTILITY] Utility Minions setup
	Animate Guardian - creates a Minion that wears provided Items. You can find a list of useful setups here. Be careful when combining it with Minion Instability Keystone.
	Raise Spectre - you can use any monster as your ally. We recommend using the Carnage Chieftains found in Act 2 to generate Frenzy Charges for your Minions.
	Minion Life Support - increase the survivability of your utility Minions.
	Elemental Army Support - further improves the survivability of your Minions. You can also use the Feeding Frenzy Support here, but it won't be reliable.

[UTILITY] Movement setup
	Shield Charge - thanks to the Spiritual Command Notable, you will have lots of Attack Speed, which makes the Shield Charge the best Movement Skill to use in this Build.
	Faster Attacks Support - improves the Attack Speed of your Shield Charge even more.

[UTILITY] Other Utility setups
	Convocation - summons all your Minions to your location and grants them Life Regeneration. It is a necessary tool to move around the Sentinel of Radiance.
	Infernal Cry - Cover all nearby Enemies in Ash, increasing the Fire Damage dealt to them, and slowing their Movement Speed.

6. Gear Setup

There are a few useful Unique Items, and you should pick the one that suits your playstyle the most, as each of them is good in its own way. The Amanamu's Gaze Jewel is fairly expensive, but it is the only source of DoT Multiplier for your Minions in the game, and it's not needed if you don't push high-end content like Delirium. To scale your Minions you should acquire lots of increases to your Minions Life and Damage. The 1% increase to your Minion's Life is usually much more effective than 1% of Damage, but those modifiers usually have lower values. Additional Gem Levels do nothing for the Sentinel of Radiance but can improve your other Minions. You can easily craft most of the necessary Rare Items using Essence of Fear or Bound Fossils on Fractured Items. You will also need plenty of Strength and Dexterity on your gear, as well as regular Resistance and Life Regeneration. The Aspect of the Spider is an optional but very useful Aura that you have to craft on one piece of your equipment using Beastiary Recipe. Without any investments into Mana Reservation Efficiency, you will have to remove the Tempest Shield, which is not that important anyway. 

(Weapon) Rare Wand - here you should focus on lots of increases for Minion Damage, which you can easily acquire with Essence of Fear on a Wand with Fractured Hybrid modifier. Extra Attack Speed or Gem Levels can be used to boost your SRS. Use the Trigger modifier to reliably Cast your Curses and apply Fire Exposure.

Min. requirements: Minions deal 90% increased Damage Trigger a Socketed Spell when you Use a Skill, with a 8 second Cooldown Optional affixes: +1 to Level of all Minion Spell Skill Gems +1 to Level of all Spell Skill Gems Minions have #% increased Attack and Cast Speed

(Shield) Rare Shield - on the Rare Shield you can get bonuses to your Minion Life, which is very important. The increase in Minion Damage is also available here. Other than that, look for defensive bonuses such as maximum Life, Resistance, Chance to Block, gain Life on Block, or Spell Suppression.

Min. requirements: Minions have 30% increased maximum Life Minions deal 60% increased Damage +60 to maximum Life Optional affixes: +1 to Level of all Minion Skill Gems Life Regeneration Attack/Spell Block Chance Resistances

(Helmet) Rare Helmet - the Helm slot is important to obtain Mana Reservation Efficiency, which you can get through Essence of Loathing and Eldrtich Implicit. Other than that, look for maximum Life, Resistance, Life Regeneration, and crafted Physical Damage taken as a Fire Damage modifier. It is a good target to craft the Aspect of the Spider.

Min. requirements: +80 to maximum Life % of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire Damage  15% Mana Reservation Efficiency Optional affixes: Grants level 20 Aspect of the Spider Elemental and Chaos Resistance +2 to Level of all Minion Skill Gems Nearby Enemies have -9% to Fire Resistance

(Body Armour) Fenumus' Shroud - makes the Aspect of the Spider even stronger, and grants you a great amount of Energy Shield and its Regeneration, which is important to freely spam your Skills or use Divine Blessing. You can get one with useful Corruption such as bonus levels to your socketed SRS, and link it using the Tainted Fusing.

+(30-40) to Intelligence (120-140)% increased Energy Shield Regenerate (80-100) Energy Shield per second Enemies affected by your Spider's Webs deal 10% reduced Damage Enemies affected by your Spider's Webs have -10% to All Resistances (50-70)% increased Aspect of the Spider Area of Effect

(Body Armour) Rare Armour - you can also use a Rare Armour with tons of defensive bonuses. It can also boost your Aura Effect or Mana Reservation Efficiency. It is a good option if you lack Resistance on your other pieces.

Min. requirements: 70% to Chaos or Elemental Resistance % of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Elemental Damage  Optional affixes: You can apply additional Curse Life Regeneration Chance to Suppress Spell Damage Chance to Block Spell/Attack Damage Mana Reservation Efficiency % increased effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills % additional Physical Damage Reduction

(Amulet) Tavukai - it is a necessary Amulet if you want to explode your SRS, as the end of the Duration doesn't count towards Minion Instability. Try to get one with a useful Corruption modifier, such as additional Resistance or additional Curse.

+(30-40) to Intelligence Minions have +(-17-17)% to Chaos Resistance Summon Raging Spirit has (20-30)% increased Duration Summoned Raging Spirits deal (25-40)% increased Damage Summoned Raging Spirits have (25-40)% increased maximum Life Summoned Raging Spirits take 20% of their Maximum Life per second as Chaos Damage

Recommended anointment:  Charisma Steeped in the Profane

(Body Armour) Defiance of Destiny - if you rely on Hit-based Minions instead, this Amulet offers unrivaled survivability during most encounters. Good Resistance modifiers are useful, but you should focus only on the Life regain modifier, which you can also upgrade with Fertile Catalyst.

+(60-80) to maximum Life +(10-40)% to Fire Resistance +(10-40)% to Cold Resistance +(10-40)% to Lightning Resistance Gain (25-35)% of Missing Unreserved Life before being Hit by an Enemy

(Amulet) Impresence - you can use this Amulet if you want better uptime on your Curses while Mapping. The two Curse variants drop from Uber Elder, so their prices are considerably higher.

Adds (20-24) to (33-36) Fire Damage +(50-70) to maximum Life +(20-25)% to Fire Resistance Regenerate 1% of Life per second Flammability has no Reservation if Cast as an Aura Elemental Weakness has no Reservation if Cast as an Aura Gain Maddening Presence for 10 seconds when you Kill a Rare or Unique Enemy

(Boots) Rare Boots - again, you can obtain the bonus for Minion's Life via Essence of Fear. Other than that, look for high maximum Life, Movement Speed, Resistance, or Attributes. Life Regeneration is also useful to have. You can use the Edlrtich Implicits to drop the Scorched Ground on your enemies, which will further lower their Elemental Resistances, but it's not reliable.

Min. requirements: +70 to maximum Life 30% increased Movement Speed Minions have 25% increased maximum Life +60% to Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Action Speed Attributes

(Gloves) Rare Gloves - you can use the Essence of Fear to get bonuses to your Minions' Damage, but you can also Craft it using the Crafting Bench, with a slightly lower value. The Eldritch Implicits can further boost the Damage of your Minions. The remaining bonuses should be focused on defenses and Attributes.

Min. requirements: +70 to maximum Life +60% to Elemental Resistance Minions deal 40% increased Damage Optional affixes: Attributes Life Regeneration

(Belt) Rare Belt - Essence of Fear proves to be useful again, as you can get Minion Life bonuses here. Use it on the Stygian Vise Belt, as Abyss Jewels are extremely useful for this Build. Look for Life, Resistance, or Life Regeneration and lacking Attributes. Flask modifiers are useful to have too.

Min. requirements: +70 to maximum Life Minions have 25% increased maximum Life +60% to Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: % increased Life Attributes Chaos Resistance Flask Charges gained/used

(Jewel) Rare Abyss Jewel - those are very valuable for this Build, you can get tons of bonuses to your Minion's Damage and Life. Craft them using the Pristine Fossil, as the Bound Fossil is too diluted with possible modifiers.

Min. requirements: +30 to maximum Life Minions have 10% increased maximum Life Minions deal 15% increased Damage if you've used a Minion Skill Recently Recommended affixes: Resistances Attributes Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you

(Jewel) Amanamu's Gaze - the best Jewel for Minions that rely on Damage over Time. It can be quite expensive, but it's easily the best Jewel you could get for this Build.

+(5-10) to all Attributes Minions have +6% to Damage over Time Multiplier per Ghastly Eye Jewel affecting you, up to a maximum of +30%

(Ring) Rare Ring - the special Bone Rings can roll both bonuses to Minion Life and Damage, so they are extremely valuable. They can also get a bit of Movement Speed for your Sentinel of Radiance, but it will still be very slow. It is however a quite useful modifier for your SRS. You can craft such Rings with Bound Fossils.

Min. requirements: +50 to maximum Life Minions have 30% increased maximum Life Minions deal 30% increased Damage Optional affixes: Attributes Resistance Minions have #% increased Movement Speed Minions have #% increased Attack and Cast Speed

(Jewel) Large Cluster Jewel - the Large Cluster Jewel is quite bad for this setup, but you need it to Socket two Medium Clusters. The ideal Jewel would have the Feasting Fiends and Call to the Slaughter, which uses the least amount of your Passive Points. You can also use a suboptimal version with the extra effect of Small Passives, and fill them with additional Resistances or Attributes.

Recommended modifiers:  1 Added Passive Skill is Feasting Fiends 1 Added Passive Skill is Call to the Slaughter

(Jewel) Medium Cluster Jewel - those have a great value on modifiers that boost your Minion's Life, which makes them very good for this setup. The Blessed Rebirth adds a 4-second delay for the SRS Instability, but with the consistent Damage from other Minions, it's not noticeable.

Recommended modifiers:  1 Added Passive Skill is Blessed Rebirth 1 Added Passive Skill is Hulking Corpses

(Jewel) Energised Armour - when socketed near the Agnostic Keystone, this Jewel can grant you tons of increase to your Armour Rating. It makes picking up nearby Armour Notables fairly efficient, as they will also reduce the Chaos Damage you take from Hits, and lower the Damage of incoming Critical Strikes.

(15-20)% increased Armour Increases and Reductions to Energy Shield in Radius are Transformed to apply to Armour at 200% of their value

(Flask) Taste of Hate - you can use this Flask to reduce the Physical Damage you take from incoming Hits. By lowering the pure Physical aspect of the Hit, you make the reduction from your Armour even more effective.

(10-15)% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Cold Damage during Effect Gain (10-15)% of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage during effect 30% chance to Avoid being Chilled during Effect 30% chance to Avoid being Frozen during Effect

Suggested Flasks: Life Flask with Bleeding Removal Quicksilver with reduced Effect of Curses on you Granite Flask with Armour Rating bonus  Quartz Flask with a portion of taken Damage Leeched as life

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.