Build:Herald - Condition Mallyx

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

Focused on: Condition damage, Utility and Boon removal

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on July 23, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A condition-based PvP Herald build with decent boon removal, pressure, and utility. The current version specializes in teamfighting, putting constant pressure on the enemy.

Skill Bar

Mace/Shield

Staff

Utility

Utility

Skill Variants

Weapons

• Off-hand Axe over Shield - this cuts back on sustain significantly in exchange for more CC and mobility. Higher risk/reward option. Take Shining Aspects on Herald.

Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

• Cleansing Channel helps you deal with conditions. However giving up Glaring Resolve increases the chance of getting your Pain Absorption interrupted after breaking stuns, which prevents the condition transfer and boon application from happening.

Variants

• Core Value trades mobility for an improved F2.

Equipment

Mace

Shield

Sigil

Sigil

Staff

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Runes

• Rune of Orr - helps against conditions and has good stats.

• Rune of Revenant - makes the build even more tanky.

Relics

• Relic of the Demon Queen - extra healing reudction and a few more Poison procs.

• Relic of Leadership - better condition cleansing, works especially well with Glint's instant Facet of Chaos.

• Relic of the Nightmare - this works as both a defensive and offensive pick. Adds a bit of extra damage plus the CC on elite could be used to set up other skills. Glint's elite could also proc it while you're CC'd, potentially saving your life by getting enemies off you with Fear.

Usage

General

• Invoking a legend resets energy to 50, procs various traits such as Invoking Torment or Spirit Boon, and could even trigger the sigils of your active weapon set (if they are not on CD) among other things. Swapping legends is basically the main resource management tool in the build - swap whenever you're out of CDs or low on energy. That's not all however, on Mallyx builds legend swapping may also be used to do AoE burst damage or manage conditions on yourself.

• Start on Dragon stance (Glint) and while still in the base activate the following 4 upkeep skills for party buffing:
  • Facet of Nature (use its active when your energy is about to hit 0)
  • Facet of Elements
  • Facet of Strength
  • Facet of Darkness

• In combat Facet of Nature is used for dealing with conditions. On Mallyx True Nature (Demon) transfers conditions to nearby enemies, while on Glint it extends the duration of boons on nearby allies, which is best used when you have Resistance.

• Swapping legends deactivates the upkeep skills of that legend without sending them on full CD.

• Chaotic Release can be used to knock downed opponents away from their rezzing teammates, or to knock them off of capture points - this allows you to take the cap while bleeding them out, delaying their respawn.

Pressure

• Most of the damage comes from Mace and Mallyx.

• Embrace the Darkness is a core part of any burst combo, offering significant AoE damage especially when combined with Mace skills. Even just a few seconds of this upkeep can apply a lot of pressure. If your main goal is to do damage, you can ignore all the other Mallyx skills for the time being and maintain this upkeep while unloading weapon skills.

• Chain Searing Fissure ⇒ Echoing Eruption in order to stack Might. Use these two weapon skills on CD.

• Legend swapping is also a significant part of burst combos - Diabolic Inferno and Song of the Mists apply a lot of conditions, and legend swapping while on the Mace set could even proc Sigil of Doom and Sigil of Exposure.

• Glint's Elemental Blast is a cheap but powerful AoE skill with good condition variety. You could also use it to poke from range and cover an entire capture point on some maps without having to go into melee.

• Banish Enchantment might not do a whole lot of damage but a ranged, unblockable boon removal with Chill and Abyssal Chill synergy can still pressure targets by softening them up or preventing them from building distance.

• Call to Anguish (CoA) is a rather strong CC skill, capable of balling up an entire team or pulling enemies off the highground. While it doesn't do much damage on its own, if you have enough allies around you may consider abusing this skill as much as possible to harass the enemy team and set up kills.
  • Banish Enchantment is a great followup for CoA (if you have the energy for it). While generally viewed as a single target ability, it's capable of hitting multiple foes if they are close enough to each other.
  • Consider activating Embrace the Darkness right before doing a CoA jump, as CoA is a leap finisher and EtD is a Dark field. By combining them you can grant yourself Dark Aura.

• Both elite skills can proc Relic of Cerus, which is something you should attempt to do once every 30 seconds. Targets right below the eye can be hit by the beam multiple times so Embrace the Darkness gains even more value with Call to Anguish - try pulling multiple enemies under the eye whenever you can.

Self Sustain & Disengaging

• Every Mallyx skill has a chance to proc Resistance on a 5s ICD.

• The build doesn't have any mass cleanses, but every weapon set and legend offers something to deal with conditions:
  • The F2 on Mallyx transfers conditions to enemies.
  • Glint has Infuse Light which you can use to bounce back to max HP.
  • Shield skills cleanse conditions.
  • Staff has Renewing Wave.

• Crystal Hibernation is basically your third healing skill. It heals for a fair amount, blocks attacks and cleanses conditions.

• Envoy of Exuberance aimed at your character heals for a small amount and grants Protection.

• Staff is the defensive set of the build, swap to it when you're getting overwhelmed. Warding Rift (block) and Surge of the Mists (evade) could quickly stabilize you.

• Pain Absorption is the most reliable skill to use if you want quick access to Resistance. It's also a great support skill in general, removing conditions from allies and granting them Resistance.
  • As with all stunbreaks with a cast time, the second part of this skill can be interrupted and instead of just going on CD, you'll lose all the energy for nothing. Glaring Resolve could help with that - if you break stun with Pain Absorption you'll gain just enough Stability to cover the channeling.

• Call to Anguish will be your best mobility tool and on some maps can be used to leap to places where enemies can't follow (or at least, not easily).

• Facet of Light's chain effect Infuse Light is your jail free card - makes you immortal for the duration by converting all incoming damage into healing. Some players may stop pressuring you once Face of Light's been activated, in this case you should just wait a couple of seconds before using Infuse Light. Make sure you get at least 10k healing out of this skill, try to predict when burst is coming and use Facet of Light in advance - FoL has a cast time thus cannot be used while stunned, while Infuse is instant.

Top Streamers

• Twitch: ShaoAZ

Related Builds

• Condition Mallyx Roamer - WvW Roaming version.