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Herald - Power DPS

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Direct damage and Utility

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Expansions required: Heart of Thorns buildsSecrets of the Obscure builds

Difficulty:
Normal
This build was last updated on March 23, 2025 and is up to date for the June 24, 2025 patch.

Overview

A power DPS build for Herald. One of the very first raid DPS builds in the Heart of Thorns era, this build has now returned to viability. Its ability to provide good sustained damage, very good CC and Vulnerability Vulnerability, while supporting your whole squad with a variety of boons, life-siphon and extra boon duration makes Power Herald an extremely helpful addition for every encounter.

While not being the best choice in most encounters, this build is easy to play and is able to sustain itself very well, making it a good build for beginners.


Skill Bar

Sword/Sword
Greatsword
Utility
Utility
  • Bring a Staff instead of a Greatsword to provide access to incredible CC.


Template Code

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Specializations


Trait Variants

  • Use Incensed Response if your other supports are unable to keep your might uptime capped.
  • Use Rapid Flow if you have another party member providing protection.
  • Consider using Draconic Echo instead of Forceful Persistence if your party is desperate for extra might and fury generation. Making this change will significantly reduce your personal damage output but is better for the group if there are no better sources of boons.
  • Use Core Value if extra boon removal is needed.


Equipment

Head
Berserker
Shoulders
Berserker
Chest
Berserker
Hands
Berserker
Legs
Berserker
Feet
Berserker
Backpiece
Dragon
Accessory
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Amulet
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Sword
Berserker
Sword
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Greatsword
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
Relic


Equipment Variants

  • Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar is a tiny DPS loss.
  • The Dragon stats Dragon stats piece is entirely optional and could be replaced with Berserker stats Berserker stats.
  • You can swap the Sigil of Superior Sigil of Air for a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Impact if playing an encounter where the boss can be Stunned Stunned.


Consumables

Food

  • or ascended versions
  • Recommended Budget-Food: or


Utility


Usage

  • Try to maintain Facet of Nature as long as possible.
  • In the order that you should use them, CC-Skills are: Chaotic Release, Surge of the Mists and Jade Winds.
    • Jade Winds should only be used as a last resort as the large energy cost will heavily impact your ability to do damage.


Sword Rotation

Opener

Start on Sword/Sword and Legendary Dragon Stance with Facet of Nature active.

  1. Activate Facet of Strength + Facet of Elements + Facet of Darkness
  2. Burst of Strength
  3. Elemental Blast
  4. Activate Facet of Chaos
  5. Chilling Isolation
  6. Shackling Wave
  7. Deathstrike
  8. Chaotic Release
  9. Legendary Assassin Stance


Legendary Assassin Stance

  1. Impossible Odds
  2. Auto-attack while using Chilling Isolation off cooldown. Make sure to finish your auto chains.
  3. Legendary Dragon Stance as soon as it's available


Legendary Dragon Stance

  1. Activate Facet of Strength, Facet of Elements and Facet of Darkness
  2. Elemental Blast
  3. Burst of Strength
  4. Auto-attack while using Chilling Isolation off cooldown. Make sure to finish your auto chains.
  5. Activate Facet of Chaos as soon as its available
  6. Continue Auto-attacking until Facet of Strength and Facet of Elements are nearly available. Make sure to finish your auto chains.
  7. Shackling Wave
  8. Deathstrike
  9. Chaotic Release
  10. Facet of Elements ⇒ Elemental Blast
  11. Facet of Strength ⇒ Burst of Strength
  12. Legendary Assassin Stance
  13. Return to start of Legendary Assassin Stance


Video example


Greatsword Rotation

Opener

Start on Greatsword and Legendary Dragon Stance with Facet of Nature active.

  1. Activate Facet of Strength + Facet of Elements + Facet of Darkness
  2. Eternity's Requiem
  3. Burst of Strength
  4. Activate Facet of Chaos
  5. Elemental Blast
  6. Mist Unleashed
  7. Phantom's Onslaught
  8. Chaotic Release
  9. Legendary Assassin Stance


Legendary Assassin Stance

  1. Impossible Odds
  2. Auto-attack while using Mist Unleashed off cooldown. Make sure to finish your auto chains.
  3. If Eternity's Requiem will come off cooldown while you're on Legendary Assassin Stance, only use Mist Unleashed once and use Eternity's Requiem when it's available.
  4. Legendary Dragon Stance as soon as it's available


Legendary Dragon Stance

  1. Activate Facet of Strength, Facet of Elements and Facet of Darkness
  2. Burst of Strength
  3. Elemental Blast
  4. Auto-attack while using Mist Unleashed, Phantom's Onslaught and Eternity's Requiem off cooldown. Make sure to finish your auto chains.
  5. Activate Facet of Chaos as soon as its available
  6. Chaotic Release after the next use of Mist Unleashed
  7. Continue Auto-attacking until Facet of Strength and Facet of Elements are available. Make sure to finish your auto chains.
  8. Facet of Strength ⇒ Burst of Strength
  9. Facet of Elements ⇒ Elemental Blast
  10. Legendary Assassin Stance
  11. Return to start of Legendary Assassin Stance


Video example


Notes

  • Try to not interrupt your auto-attack chain - much of the damage from it is loaded onto the final strike.
  • Only swap to staff if breakbar contribution is needed - staff has no strong damaging skills so swapping to it is a major damage loss.
  • Facet of Nature should always be maintained, so make sure to swap legends before your energy drains completely.
    • If boon strip is required, you can activate it while in Assassin stance for the boon strip from True Nature (Assassin).
Retrieved from "https://metabattle.com/wiki/index.php?title=Build:Herald_-_Power_DPS&oldid=20774"


Ratings

This build has a rating of 4 stars based on 5 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
3 stars
OfficerAndyGentleman gave this build 3 stars • April 2024
If based purely on damage, this build would barely be viable, but with the passive boon generation it becomes an interesting option for groups that otherwise struggle with uptimes.
5 stars
Reefer gave this build 5 stars • June 2022
Good DPS, lots of boons (Swiftness, Regen, Protection, Fury, Might) also giving Vulnerability constantly, great survivability with Unrelenting Assault being an extra evade (and 10% more HP with Draconic Fortitude), lots of CC, & very easy to learn. Great Build.
2 stars
Staub gave this build 2 stars • March 2020
This build sadly is only somewhat decent in bad pugs...You lack burst, and basically fill in the gaps with your boons which almost any other class can do. For the purpose of boon support, I'd rather run a heal herald since your spread out DPS is of little use if your squad is dropping like flies.
5 stars
Princ152 gave this build 5 stars • March 2019
Very good build. Definitely easy to top the dps charts once you get the hang of it. One thing that bothers me about this guide is that it says it provides access to Stability...so unless I'm blind, I dont see that being the case at all.
4 stars
Chinkeeyong gave this build 4 stars • September 2018
This build deals solid DPS with an easy rotation, and has fast access to CC. In disorganized groups that don't have a Chrono or Druid, it can also hard carry with the boons from Glint while still dealing very respectable personal DPS.

Comments

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