[3.8] LL - Soulrend - Gurdian || All Content Viable

-- Ultra Tanky, able to face tank most bosses and encounters in the game.
-- High DPS, not your 120 mil DMG skipping stages shaper, but a decent one.
-- Visually appealing skill to play. Even after long time.

-- Can't run no mana regen maps[well if you replace a flask for mana flask than this is not a problem]
-- Sometimes frustrating to find the exact mods for rare pieces of gear you need since it's kinda niche.
-- Rather expensive to min-max.

https://pastebin.com/cu6TuCyU

Weapon:
Cheap Wand I've used since 64 and until early 90s when I bought the current one.
What you're looking for in your weapon is chaos over time multiplier, high spell damage, + to all chaos skill gems, chaos over time damage.

Off-Hand:

Prism Guardian is a key item since we want to reserve life in order to get armour from Guardian's "Radiant Faith" node.
Once you start to min-max, try to get one of the following corruptions:
+2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gem
+2 to Level of Socketed Aura Gems

Helm:

+40% Soulrend damage enchant on a memory vault is expensive, and would probably cost fortunes, but I haven't seen one for sale whole blight league, so if you're lucky enough to get one, cheers.

Armour:

Prevents chaos damage from bypassing Energy shield, mandatory.
Ultra Expensive min-maxing option is double corrupted with two of the three options:
+2 to Level of Socketed Duration Gems
+2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems
+2 to Level of Socketed Projectile Gems

Gloves:

Shaper's Touch is also a mandatory piece of gear, increases Mana and Energy shield per STR.[Even in the most unreal dreams of crafting a rare glove with 6 perfect rolls and mods for the build, still around 200 ES drop in the best case].
Once min-maxing, one of the following corrupts:
+2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems
+2 to Level of Socketed Aura Gems
Allong with lvl 21 purities adds +1 to max resistances.


Belt, Rings, Boots:


This is where we cover stat requirements, resistances, getting immunity to freeze, and getting as much eHP as we can through stats.
Stats to look for:
Resistances, Int, Str,flat and percent ES, Mana.
I've used Dream Fragments for a very long time until I could craft Can't be Frozen on the boots. Prefered to use shock immunity flask.

Flasks:

Immunities, and utility.

For some time I used to replace Jade flask for mana to run no regen maps, but later on I just avoided those maps.

Oil Anointment for Amulet.
I've tried many different anointments on PoB, damage wise Tranquility is probably the best.
For defensive options you would want to consider one of the following:

Soul of Steel - +150 to Armour, +30% Increased Armour, +1% to all madx Resistances, +5% Phys. Damage Reduction.
Utmost Might - +40 to Strength, +8% Increased Strength.
Battle Rouse - +15 to Maximum Mana, + 15% maximum mana, 8% of gamege gained as mana over 4 seconds when hit.
Utmost Intellect - +40 to Intelligence, +8% Increased Intelligence.


Jewels:


Energy From within, Healthy mind are eHP jewel.
Intuitive Leap is for the Shadow/Ranger node.
Watchers Eye. Expensive piece of Jewel.
What you're ultimately loooking for is


Gain x% of Maximum Mana as Extra Maximum Energy Shield while affected by Clarity. -Single best stat for any build which utilizes ES and Mana and uses clarity.
Wanted to have at least one dmg mode allong with the extra ES, so one of the DPS options from affected by malevolence is what I took. Less expensive options were damage from hits taken as one of the elementals while affected by purity.

Shield Charge - Fortify - Endurance Charge on melee stun - Faster Attack

Since we're getting our Arcane Surge from "Arcane Capacitor" node, and there was no real advantage of using Flame dash, a Fortify buff and a bunch of End. Charges will do no wrong. Didn't find any better slot than on melee stun slot.

Wither - Spell Totem - Multiple Totems - Faster Casting

Used for high HP bosses, and some Bestiary Mobs.

Molten Shell - CWDT - Summon Chaos Golem

I keep molten shell and golem on pretty low lvls for the best upkeep. If you really feel[although you're not supposed to] that you want more from molten shell, take it higher few lvls, but I didn't feel necessary.

Nothing really to discuss on the other Gem slots.

One of the most important things I've learned through years of playing and all the leagues I participated in is choosing a right build for the league mechanics. Learned it really the hard way after quitting delve 'cause I didn't enjoy it at all, and realizing how great delving is next league 'cause I went back to cyclone MJO build.
Delving proved well with soulrend, I'm around 200 depth solo, and Hardly can remember I've had any problems.Also killed a boss, not sure which, one who drops circle of nostalgias..

Legion encounters are also fine, our off-screening is really good so usually i just stand in place and spam around. Incursions, breaches, and abysses are all easy and didn't show any difficulty for the build.

Jun Encounters are all pretty easy and I can't recall a death I've had because of betrayal mechanics.

Finally, blight.
In at least 80-90% of the blights, both in maps, and in blighted maps[finished the challenge of T1 through 15 blighted maps on this char only], i was able to simply stand in one place,and spam soulrend. Usually it hits mobs in pretty much all directions the come from.