Hello exiles, welcome to a different take on storm burst guardian. I was inspired by the duration tattoo to give storm burst another try this league, and while I was trying to decide on an ascendancy Waggle posted his build using utula's chest to support a unique-heavy nebulis setup. I thought that was dope, but wanted to try aegis to capitalize on guardian's innate block chance and have been tuning since then. I'm blown away with how strong it feels to actually play.

https://pobb.in/7kPo9SvxudaM

13m dps, 100k ele max hit (60k WITHOUT molten shell), 50k chaos max hit (30k no shell), and 60-70% block / spell block with aegis. Dropping EB to make aegis work was tough, and mana is fixed but still isn't optimal - if I could optimize mana better I'd drop inspiration for woke controlled destruction and 15% more dps.

I use vaal haste for 25% more dps in bursts, but consider it dps padding to actually enable in PoB.

​

As of now you can do this for under 20d:

Impossible escape Unwavering: 2d(!!)

Corrupt Utulas (duration or aoe) 7-10d right now already linked with solid life, low supply so it could potentially go up to 15-20? Duration is lower demand fortunately.

balbala jewel with 2x aura effect on allocated nodes near left scion socket: SHOULD only cost 1d

Melding -4% 2d

Corrupt ralakesh's impatience: 2d BUT if you get gloves or helm with +2 you can use normal ones, for me the boots were cheaper

Everything else is paid in chaos, even aegis at this point in the league, and the rares are JUST resistances plus some armor with lesser eldritch implicits. There's about a div total of tattoos in use here last I checked.

​

​

And the original, Waggle's setup with a much more complete guide and footage:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExileBuilds/comments/1637uac/waggle_storm_burst_guardian_build_overview_322/

Worth noting, both builds have roughly the same dps once you average out punishment and put a +2 on his chestplate to match mine.

​

Key differences:

+ Aegis true block is absolutely silly

+ Much cheaper due to no grand spectrums

+/- Traitor permaflask setup, no life flask and worse map mods BUT much more consistent armor

- Worse life regen, reliant on over+ instant leech for life sustain

-no divine blessing aura

​

I personally think aegis + nebulis + cotb + utula's + aegis is an incredibly tight-knit setup that absolutely maximizes what guardian does well, and that it would be phenomenal with any number of skills. DI on a gem swap here has 4m hit damage and charges under a second, if you go heatshiver (since 4m is freezing pinnacles) you reach 8m per shot, give or take 9.5m dps. Ultimately this is still an EO build that isn't about to scale to melt ubers (though it can clear if you play well, it won't be pleasant), but for what it costs I'm quite satisfied with the damage and EXTREMELY happy with the defenses here.

If anyone sees a good way to convert to crit (besides becoming an inq with radiant faith jewels) and raise my damage ceiling by all means comment it, but otherwise it's time for me to level another character and revisit energy blade for the 3rd time now that it got some legitimate support.