Logo Albion iconAlbion Online AoC iconAshes of Creation GW2 iconGuild Wars 2 TL iconThrone & Liberty

Herald - Quickness Support Condi DPS

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Condition damageSupport and Utility

Designed for: Raids

Expansions required: Heart of Thorns buildsJanthir Wilds builds

Difficulty:
Normal
This build was last updated on April 12, 2025 and is up to date for the February 11, 2025 patch.

Overview

A condi Herald build that provides permanent Quickness Quickness, Fury Fury, Swiftness Swiftness (optional), Regeneration Regeneration (optional), high Protection Protection, and around 23 Might Might to its subgroup. It also provides

, increasing boon duration while channelling Glint.

It can also provide other utilities depending on the second Legend chosen, such as Stability Stability or damage reduction, though this a more significant damage loss than it would be for the power build.


Template Code

[&DQkOHQMWNBbcEdwRBhIGEisSKxLUEdQRyhHKEQEEBAErEtQRBhIGEisS1BE=]
Copy Template Code


Skill Bar

Mace/Axe
Spear
Utility
Utility
  • Your second Legend defaults to . Read the Legends section below to see other alternatives.


Weapon Variants

Mace/Axe, Shortbow and Spear are all very close to each other in terms of damage, and can be mixed and matched depending on your preferences:

  • Spear/Spear has the highest potential DPS and is perhaps the easiest weapon set to do well on, but unlocking the full potential requires more precision than other options, as well as having forced movement. It also requires slightly different sigils.
  • Spear & Mace/Axe can deal almost as much damage as Spear/Spear but has a faster ramp and more structure.
  • For players that don't own Janthir Wilds, the best weapons are Mace/Axe and Shortbow. It ramps at a similar speed to Spear & Mace/Axe, but has lower long-term damage.
  • Spear & Shortbow is the lowest damage of all the options, but comes with the advantage that both weapon sets are fully ranged and it still ramps faster than Spear/Spear.


Specializations


  • For the Spear/Spear rotation performs slightly better.


Equipment

Head
Viper
Shoulders
Viper
Chest
Viper
Hands
Viper
Legs
Viper
Feet
Viper
Backpiece
Viper
Accessory
Viper
Accessory
Viper
Amulet
Viper
Ring
Viper
Ring
Viper
Mace
Viper
Axe
Viper
Sigil
Sigil
Spear
Viper
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
Relic


Equipment Variants

Rune Variants


Consumables

Food


Utility


Usage

Quickness

You apply Quickness Quickness through the trait

. This pulses healing and Quickness Quickness whenever you are using upkeep energy of six or above. Fortunately, all of your non- legends have a skill that uses exactly six. Thus while in these legends you want to maintain the skill in question for almost the entire time. Glint is a little trickier as all the skills use upkeep, but and combined are six energy, so these two are maintained together.


Swiftness

By default, the rotations below only generate ~35% Swiftness Swiftness uptime. To provide more, you need to skip the first use of

and maintain while on (you should still use before swapping legend). You may need to toggle off early to ensure you have enough energy for weapon skills.

Alternatively, as Swiftness Swiftness is not stripped at the start of encounters, you can make sure to channel

before the fight starts. If you manage to start with 60s, you should be able to maintain it for a further two minutes without compromising your damage, or even longer if there are split phases in which to refresh it.


Legends

  • - absolutely key to the build, this is your source of almost all your non-Quickness Quickness boons. It's —Dragon increases the duration of boons your subgroup provides by 20%. Note this effect does not actually increase Concentration, it increases Boon Duration (and is not shown in the Hero Panel), so a build with this effect and 100% Boon Duration would provide boons lasting 120% longer.
  • is by far the highest DPS legend, and also offers a pull with which may be useful when fighting trash mobs if your group does not have pulls.
    • It can also be used in fractals to remove the boons from No Pain, No Gain if no-one else is able to.


Other legends are a significant DPS loss, and will leave you doing less damage than the power build taking the same legend.


Spear & Mace Axe Rotation

Opener
Start on Mace/Axe and

with , and active.

  1. - make sure the boonstrip at the start of an encounter has already happened
  2. (optional) - this allows a few extra pulses of Quickness Quickness but to ensure you have enough energy for the whole opener you should be at 50+ energy
  3. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap


Mace/Axe
The stronger effect of

can only be activated once per pulse, so the first auto chain is split up to ensure that pulses aren't wasted. This requires precision to avoid either cancelling or delaying your legend swap, so it may be better in practise not to worry about it.

  1. - you can sneak this in without interrupting the auto chain
  2. x2
  3. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap


Spear
You can trade a little bit of boon uptime for extra damage if you immediately activate

after and use the extra energy for an .

  1. and
  2. Autoattack, and activate and as they become available
  3. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap
  4. Return to start of Mace/Axe section


Video example


Spear Rotation

Click to view Toggle

The concept of Spear is rather simple. All your Spear skills reduce the cooldown of

, which in turn is your most powerful ability.

The gist of the rotation is then to use

and off cooldown, and spam with your remaining energy (while also providing boons).

If using two spears, start on the set with

and . If not using, just ignore any weapon swaps.


Opener
Start on Glint and Shortbow with

, and active:

  1. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap


Mallyx
Activate

as soon as you enter this legend, then Weapon Swap Weapon Swap.

The pulsing damage of

is boosted when a skill is used, though this effect can only be activated once per pulse. A single autoattack is added after key skills to ensure that pulses aren't wasted. This requires precision to avoid either cancelling , so if it may work out better to just use abilities as fast as you can.

Energy is tighter on this legend, so use

a maximum of two times if will come off cooldown while on it.


Glint
When

is available:

  1. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap


Activate

3-4 seconds into this legend, along with if you need to provide Fury Fury, or otherwise. If using here, just activate when comes off cooldown.


Use spear skills as normal, and as

and come off cooldown:

  1. (optional) - quickly using this skill allows you to provide a small amount of Fury Fury while still benefitting from Facet of Nature
  2. - if you weren't already maintaining this, flip it on and immediately consume


Your spear skills have higher value when used on Mallyx, so don't delay your legend swap.


Video example


Mace/Axe & Shortbow Rotation

Click to view Toggle

Opener
Start on Glint and Shortbow with

, and active:

  1. - we slightly delay using this to be sure that Quickness has pulsed at least once
  2. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap


Mace/Axe
The stronger effect of

can only be activated once per pulse, so the first auto chain is split up to ensure that pulses aren't wasted. This requires precision to avoid either cancelling or delaying your legend swap, so it may be better in practise not to worry about it.

  1. - you can sneak this in without interrupting the auto chain
  2. Auto-attack chain x2
  3. Auto-attack chain
  4. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap


Shortbow

  1. (optional) - you can greed for extra damage if Fury Fury is being covered by the other support and you don't need CC
  2. - skip if you don't need to provide Fury Fury
  3. , and whenever it comes off cooldown
  4. when your cooldowns are at ~2s remaining
  5. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap
  6. Return to start of Mace/Axe section


Video example

Video example (skipping fury)


Spear & Shortbow Rotation

Click to view Toggle

Note that this rotation uses

.


Opener
Start on Glint and Shortbow with

, and active:

  1. - we slightly delay using this to be sure that Quickness has pulsed at least once
  2. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap


Spear
The stronger effect of

can only be activated once per pulse, so single autoattacks are used between skills to ensure that pulses aren't wasted. This requires precision to avoid either cancelling skills or delaying your legend swap, so it may be better in practise not to worry about it.

  1. ,
  2. ,
  3. Use and once each, and once or twice, ideally with an in between
  4. ,
  5. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap


Shortbow

  1. , and whenever it comes off cooldown
  2. just before Bloodbane Path is ready
  3. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap
  4. Return to start of Spear section


Video example


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 1 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
OfficerAndyGentleman gave this build 5 stars • April 2024
As a herald, this can generate pretty much all the boons your group could want. The biggest problem it has is power herald, which deals as much damage and is much more versatile.

Comments

Get MetaBattle Premium
Enjoy an ad-free experience & support the website, for less than $1 per month! Upgrade to Premium
Split Metabattle Logo