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Herald - Power Herald

Part of the current metagame

Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: Open World and Open World General

Expansions required: Heart of Thorns builds

Difficulty:
Easy
This build was last updated on April 15, 2025 and is up to date for the April 15, 2025 patch.

Overview

A power Herald Herald build for open world. Herald shines as a boon dps, providing their allies and themselves with permanent boons, most notably permanent Fury Fury and Quickness Quickness, and Might Might (25 permanent for self, and about 12 for allies). It deals decent damage and has great innate sustain, but it lacks condition removal and requires the player to constantly swap legends to regenerate energy.


Template Code

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Skill Bar

Greatsword
Staff
Utility
Utility


Weapon Variants

  • If you don't have access to Weaponmaster Training with Secrets of the Obscure you will not be able to wield a Greatsword Greatsword, use mainhand and offhand swords swords instead.
  • Staff Staff is taken mainly for the defiance damage of Surge of the Mists. Only swap to staff when you need to break a defiance bar quickly, and return to your other weapon set as soon as possible.
  • Hammer Hammer - ranged AoE; use this in place of Staff Staff if you require ranged damage.

Skill Variants

  • Legendary Dwarf Stance - replaces Shiro, trading a bit of damage for defense.

Specializations

Variants

  • Cleansing Channel - condition cleanse.
  • Dance of Death - sustain.
  • Forceful Persistence - when playing in groups and someone else is already providing permanent Quickness Quickness.

Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; you can use exotic gear with the same stats. The pure DPS and Boon DPS options for Power Herald use identical gear.

Head
Berserker
Shoulders
Berserker
Chest
Berserker
Hands
Berserker
Legs
Berserker
Feet
Berserker
Backpiece
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Amulet
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Greatsword
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Staff
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6


Relic
  • Rune of Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter and Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar are interchangeable.
  • You can use Relic of Zakiros to trade a minor amount of damage for sustain, Relic of the Cavalier to start combat with boons, or Relic of Durability for a little extra defense.
  • For defense, equip the highest tier Jade Core you can afford. Use defensive food, traits, or skills if required. If necessary, use Knight Knight trinkets.


Consumables

Budget consumables are acceptable for use in open world.

DPS

  • Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
  • /
  • /

Defense

Farming

  • Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
  • /
  • (and variants)


Usage

Facet of Nature

Facet of Nature is the profession mechanic of the herald. Activate it to consume 2 energy pips to pulse an effect depending on your channelled legend to yourself and nearby allies. On Glint, this provides +20% boon duration. On Shiro, it provides a small amount of life stealing. On Jalis, it reduces damage taken by 10%.

The facet can be consumed for an additional effect. On Glint, it increases the duration of existing boons on yourself and nearby allies by 2 seconds. On Shiro, it removes 2 boons from nearby enemies. On Jalis, it provides Stability.

Quickness and Facets

The key to this build is to maintain permanent Quickness Quickness from Elevated Compassion by having an upkeep cost of 6 or higher. When channelling Glint, the best combination for this is Facet of Nature, Facet of Darkness, and Facet of Strength.

  • In Legendary Assassin Stance, maintain Impossible Odds.
    • If you replaced Shiro with Legendary Dwarf Stance, maintain Vengeful Hammers.
  • In Legendary Dragon Stance:
    • Always maintain Facet of Darkness for Fury Fury which also activates Incensed Response. Only consume it if you need the stun break.
    • Maintain Facet of Strength for Might Might generation. In short fights, it can be consumed for a small damage buff.
    • Maintain Facet of Nature. Its passive effects are decent. It can be consumed in Glint to save energy in Shiro, but then you will need to activate other Facets when you return to Glint to maintain an upkeep cost of 6 or more.
    • Facet of Light is not worth maintaining since regeneration is extremely weak in dps gear. Only maintain it if Facet of Nature is on cooldown and you need the upkeep cost. Only consume it when under much pressure.
    • Facet of Elements should be consumed off cooldown for damage unless you need the upkeep cost if Facet of Nature is on cooldown.
    • Facet of Chaos consumes too much energy, only use it if your other Facets are on cooldown and you need the upkeep cost. Consume it if you need crowd control.

Damage

  • This build maintains permanent Fury Fury and Quickness Quickness on itself and nearby allies. You will also provide about 12 Might Might to allies while you will easily maintain 25 stacks on yourself due to Incensed Response.
  • Our main damaging weapon is Greatsword Greatsword, use all skills except Imperial Guard, save it in case you need an emergency block. Try to not interrupt auto-attack chains.
    • If using swords swords, use Chilling Isolation, Shackling Wave, and Deathstrike.
  • Watch energy in Legendary Assassin Stance, do not consume all your energy, you want to maintain Impossible Odds.

Defense

  • Infuse Light converts all damage to healing, but watch its long cooldown.
  • Facet of Chaos can be used for Protection Protection uptime.
  • Both Greatsword Greatsword and Staff Staff have channeled blocks.
  • Roiling Mists heals you for a percentage or your critical strike damage.
  • Consider Dance of Death for a relatively small DPS loss but a massive boost to personal sustain.
  • Use Cleansing Channel if you need condition cleanse.
  • Legendary Dwarf Stance can replace Legendary Assassin Stance to trade damage for more defense.
    • Vengeful Hammers provides passive damage reduction.
    • Inspiring Reinforcement provides Stability Stability for yourself and allies.
    • Forced Engagement provides heavy CC
    • Soothing Stone is a fantastic heal that cleanses conditions
    • Rite of the Great Dwarf breaks stun and provides significant damage reduction.
  • In rare circumstances, it may be beneficial to use Legendary Centaur Stance for Protective Solace as a powerful projectile block. This shouldn't be common, as even very powerful projectile-based attacks can often simply be dodged, and the upkeep cost of it is massive.

Crowd Control

We lose a lot of damage by swapping to Staff Staff for Surge of the Mists, so it should be a last resort if we absolutely need to break a bar. On encounters with a very early breakbar, opening on Staff Staff with Legendary Assassin Stance and using Surge of the Mists into Jade Winds can be beneficial.

  • Facet of Chaos Chaotic Release
  • Jade Winds
  • Surge of the Mists


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 2 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
Fenrisulfr gave this build 5 stars • September 2023
Busty damage with amazing sustain, absolutely unkillable in open world when used at its full potential. The quickness generation with fury and might absolutely carry in small groups without having to run concentration. Whether you want to play it on sweat mode with no sustain, or easy mode with some dragon stat swap-ins and play it safer (if the amazing synergy with battle scars isn't enough for you) - this destroys the open world scene as hard as scourge. I use Greatsword w/ shortbow for extra ranged potential in the build, allows you to kite-sustain almost anything with absolute glass HP while maintaining good damage. Hardly anything competes this hard right now with an intense power boon carry.
5 stars
Starlitjupiter gave this build 5 stars • September 2023
It is impossible to overstate how absolutely broken this build is for open world right now. The only thing that can compete with it is Scourge.

Comments

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