# Animate Guardian **Animate Guardian** is a [[Spell]], animating weapons and armour on the ground to form an allied [[minion]]. ## Skill functions and interactions Using this skill on an identified item on the ground creates an Animated Guardian that moves and attacks similar to a [[Raise Zombie]]. Similar to [[Raise Spectre]] and unlike other minions, a Guardian stays with you even after logging off and on. If you unequip the skill gem, the Guardian disappears until you equip the gem again, at which point the same Guardian (retaining all its equipment) reappears after casting the spell again. This also holds true when swapping a different AG gem in. Socketing the gem in a weapon or shield slot allows you to recall the Guardian at will by switching weapon sets (default hotkey: X). You can only have one Guardian at a time. It can be equipped with a [[helmet]], [[body armour]], pair of [[gloves]], [[boots]], a [[shield]], and melee [[weapon]]s. Ranged weapons cannot be animated, similar to [[Animate Weapon]]. Items can be of any [[rarity]], but must be identified and on the ground to be used. Animated items are consumed by the spell and cannot be recovered. Items containing skill gems cannot be animated, so the Guardian cannot use [[trigger]] gems. Items that have [[modifiers]] like <span class="explicitMod">+x to Maximum life</span> or <span class="explicitMod">+x% increased Attack Speed</span>, and even corrupted implicits, apply to the Guardian the same way they apply to player characters; so animating <span class="magic">magic</span> or <span class="rare">rare</span> equipment can potentially give you a very powerful minion. <span class="item_unique">Unique</span> items can also be used, giving guardians powerful abilities not found elsewhere in the game. Be careful when using valuable items—anything you give to your guardian is gone forever. The Guardian uses weapons and shields in the same way as player characters, and can [[dual wield]] if two one-handed weapons are animated. If you animate an item type that the Guardian is already using (such as a helmet), the new item will overwrite the old one. Equipping an armour piece restores 25% of its life; equipping one-handed weapons or shields will alternate between left and right hand. You cannot equip two shields. The Guardian does not share your max amount of [[curse]]s you can apply to enemies, and therefore functions as a player with the default curse limit when applying curses (through corrupted gloves, for example). **Items**: The Guardian's items are tied to the character that summoned it, rather than the gem itself. Equipping a level 1 version of the gem will disable any items the Guardian cannot equip, which will be present again once a high enough level gem is equipped. **Items deleted on Death**: When a Guardian dies, all its equipment is deleted and cannot be recovered. This makes very risky to use powerful or valuable items on an Animated Guardian. It is possible to prevent a body armour worn by a Guardian from being deleted upon Guardian death by crafting the <span class="enchantMod">Equipped Animated Guardian drops item on death</span> mod onto it. Note once more that equipment will not be lost upon **de-spawning**, only **death**. **Necromantic Aegis**: While using [[Necromantic Aegis]] your Guardian benefits from its own shield as well as the one you have equipped, allowing it to gain the benefit of two shields at once. Some unique shields can be quite powerful when doubled up this way. If your Guardian is equipped with a two-handed weapon, it will not benefit from your shield. **Player versus Player**: Animated Guardians killed in PvP areas will not lose their items. This does not apply to [[Hall of Grandmasters]], even though the map says "PvP damage scaling in effect". In fact, not only is it possible to lose the Guardian's items here, but death is very likely because of the way PvP damage scaling works. Minor enemies can instantly kill a Guardian with 50000+ life in this map, so it is highly recommended to despawn your Guardian before attempting. **Item-Granted Skills**: Animated guardians cannot use skills granted by items. Equipping items like [[Death's Oath]], [[The Rippling Thoughts]], or [[Bubonic Trail]] will not allow the Guardian to use their associated triggered skills. [[Fire Burst]] granted by [[Essence of Hysteria]], even though having no "trigger" or "granted" in its modifier discription, won't work either. The Guardian is not your party member, and will not be able to use abilities like the one found on [[Ambu's Charge]]. Effects that apply to nearby [[allies]] or enemies, like Leer Cast, Victario's Flight, or Dying Breath, will apply as normal. **Abyssal Sockets**: Animate guardians <u>cannot</u> benefit from abyss jewel modifiers. Equipping items like [[Tombfist]] or [[Bubonic Trail]] with abyss jewel(s) socketed will not grant their modifiers to animate guardian. ### Notable items Life regeneration and percentage increases to life are especially potent on an Animate Guardian because of its huge innate life pool. The stats displayed in the skills tooltip only accounts for modifiers the skill has, like from the passive tree, jewels, player-equipped items and support gems. It cannot account for further modifiers from things like being affected by an aura, shields through Necromantic Aegis or modifiers from items the AG has equipped. These will not factor into the skills tooltip but are active nonetheless.