Guard Skill

Guards are active skills that provide short term survivability to characters. Guards are spells without cast time characteristic. As guard skills are spells they are supported by spells modifiers.

All guard skills share a cooldown - no guard skill can be cast while any others are on cooldown.

Skills

Active skill gems

There are 5 gems with the Guard gem tag:

Skill gem
Arcane CloakArcane CloakSpell, Duration, Guard, Lightning, Arcane Level: (1-20) Cooldown Time: 4.00 sec Can Store 1 Use(s) Cast Time: InstantRequires Level 16Spends a portion of your mana to grant a buff that takes some of the damage from hits for you until depleted. The buff grants added lightning damage based on the amount of mana spent by this skill. Shares a cooldown with other Guard skills.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3Divergent1% increased Skill Effect Duration0.25% of Damage taken Recouped as Mana0.5% increased Buff EffectBase duration is 3 seconds 75% of Damage from Hits is taken from Buff before your Life or Energy Shield Buff can take Damage equal to Mana Spent by this Skill's effect Spends (45-64)% of current Mana Buff grants Added Lightning Damage equal to (10-14)% of Mana Spent by this Skill's effect This Skill's Cooldown does not recover during its effectPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.	N/A	N/A		16
Immortal CallImmortal CallSpell, Duration, Guard Level: (1-20) Cost: (21-36) Mana Cooldown Time: 3.00 sec Can Store 1 Use(s) Soul Gain Prevention: 0 sec Cast Time: InstantRequires Level 34Take less Physical and Elemental Damage for a short time. Consumes up to 5 Endurance Charges to lengthen the buff and further lessen Physical Damage taken. Shares a cooldown with other Guard skills.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3Divergent1% increased Skill Effect Duration1% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate-0.1% less Physical Damage taken per Endurance Charge removed 0.1% less Elemental Damage taken per Endurance Charge removedBase duration is 1 seconds (25-34)% less Elemental Damage taken (25-35)% less Physical Damage taken 15% less Physical Damage taken per Endurance Charge removed 20% increased Buff Duration per Endurance Charge removed This Skill's Cooldown does not recover during its effectPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.		N/A	N/A	34
Molten ShellMolten ShellSpell, AoE, Duration, Fire, Physical, Guard Level: (1-20) Cost: (8-12) Mana Cooldown Time: 4.00 sec Can Store 1 Use(s) Soul Gain Prevention: 0 sec Cast Time: Instant Radius: 15Applies a buff that adds to your armour, and can take some of the damage from hits for you before being depleted. When the buff expires or is depleted, the skill deals reflected damage to enemies around you based on the total damage that was taken from the buff. Shares a cooldown with other Guard skills.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3Divergent1% increased Skill Effect DurationBuff can take additional Damage equal to 0.25% of your ArmourReflected Damage Penetrates 1% of Enemy Fire ResistanceBase duration is 3 seconds Buff grants +(50-858) to Armour 75% of Damage from Hits is taken from the Buff before your Life or Energy Shield Buff can take Damage equal to 10% of your Armour, up to a maximum of 5000 Reflects (100-3000)% of Damage taken from Buff as Fire Damage when Buff expires or is depleted This Skill's Cooldown does not recover during its effectPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.		N/A	N/A	1
SteelskinSteelskinSpell, Duration, Guard Level: (1-20) Cost: (4-16) Mana Cooldown Time: 3.00 sec Can Store 1 Use(s) Cast Time: InstantApplies a buff which can take some of the damage from hits for you before being depleted. Shares a cooldown with other Guard skills.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3Divergent0.5% increased Cooldown Recovery RateSteelskin Buff can take 0.5% increased amount of DamageBuff grants +1% to all ResistancesBase duration is 1.5 seconds 70% of Damage from Hits is taken from the Buff before Life or Energy Shield Buff can take (54-2209) Damage This Skill's Cooldown does not recover during its effectPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.		N/A	N/A	1
Vaal Molten ShellVaal Molten ShellVaal, Spell, AoE, Duration, Fire, Physical, Guard Level: (1-20) Cooldown Time: 0.50 sec Can Store 1 Use(s) Souls Per Use: 50 Can Store 1 Use(s) Soul Gain Prevention: 0 sec Cast Time: InstantApplies a buff that raises your armour, and takes some of the damage from hits for you before being depleted. Each second, the skill deals reflected damage to surrounding enemies based on the damage taken by the buff in that second. When the buff is removed, the skill deals reflected damage to enemies around you based on the total damage that was taken by the buff. You cannot have the buff at the same time as any other Guard skill.Per 1% Quality:1Superior1% increased Skill Effect DurationBase duration is 9 seconds Buff grants +(25-429) to Armour (30-35)% of Damage from Hits is taken from the Buff before your Life or Energy Shield Buff can take Damage equal to 30% of your Armour, up to a maximum of 30000 Reflects (300-9000)% of Damage taken from Buff as Fire Damage each second, or when Buff expires or is depleted Buff grants (20-29)% more Armour Modifiers to Skill Effect Duration also apply to this Skill's Soul Gain Prevention CorruptedPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.		N/A	N/A	1

Other skills

• Bone Armour
• Vaal Immortal CallVaal Immortal CallVaal, Spell, Duration, Guard
  Level: (1-20)
  Cooldown Time: 3.00 sec
  Can Store 1 Use(s)
  Souls Per Use: 100
  Can Store 1 Use(s)
  Cast Time: InstantRequires Level 34Discharges Endurance Charges, making the character unable to die or gain Vaal souls for a short time, proportional to how many endurance charges were expended.Per 1% Quality:1Superior1% increased Skill Effect DurationBase duration is 0.4 seconds
  (100-157)% increased Buff Duration per Endurance Charge removed
  Modifiers to Skill Effect Duration also apply to this Skill's Soul Gain Prevention
  Buff expiry rate cannot be modified
  CorruptedPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket. (drop disabled)

Related passive skills

Passive skills

The following passive skills are related to Guard skills:

Name	Stats
Armour and Guard Skill Cooldown Recovery	12% increased Armour Guard Skills have 20% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate [1]
Guard Skill Cooldown Recovery and Duration	Guard Skills have 15% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate Guard Skills have 15% increased Duration [1]
Mana and Guard Skill Cooldown Recovery	10% increased maximum Mana Guard Skills have 20% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate [1]
Mana and Guard Skill Duration	8% increased maximum Mana Guard Skills have 15% increased Duration [1]
Adamant	20% increased Armour +400 to Armour while affected by a Guard Skill Buff Regenerate 1.5% of Life per second while affected by a Guard Skill Buff [1]
Dynamo	20% increased maximum Mana Guard Skills have 25% increased Duration Recover 20% of Mana over 1 second when you use a Guard Skill [1]

Keystone passive skills

The following keystone passive skills are related to Guard skills:

Name	Stats
Veteran's Awareness	+10% to all Elemental Resistances and maximum Elemental Resistances while affected by a Non-Vaal Guard Skill 20% additional Physical Damage Reduction while affected by a Non-Vaal Guard Skill 20% more Damage taken if a Non-Vaal Guard Buff was lost Recently [1]

Version history

Version	Changes
3.7.0	Introduced to the game.