Build:Herald - Hand Kiter

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

Designed for: Raids

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on February 19, 2022 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A specialized variant of the Renegade - Boon Support_ Healer build designed to be self-sufficient while kiting the Soul Feast mechanic at Deimos. Should only be used in the Deimos encounter, for other encounters see Renegade - Boon Support Healer

Skill Bar

Mace/Shield

Staff

Utility

Utility

Weapon Variants

Your mainhand weapon on the x/shield set doesn't really matter as you don't need to use any of the skills from it. If you are confident in your ability to survive, you can swap either weapon set for Hammer in order to get some ranged damage in.

Template Code

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Specializations

Trait Variants

• Unyielding Devotion offers similar survivability to Generous Abundance if you are able to reliably hit other allies with your tablet, and less reliance on Natural Harmony for healing can give you more energy for blocks. You should also run Unyielding Devotion if you use Jalis instead of Ventari.

Revenant has a great variety of options for hand kiting, so feel free to experiment and go with the option that fits you best.

Retribution Variant

Salvation can be swapped for Retribution for a greater focus on damage reduction over healing. This makes it easier to deal with hands, but harder to deal with the ticking damage after Mind Crush as it cannot be reduced. You should always run Jalis instead of Ventari when using Retribution.

Variants

• As this variant lacks Resilient Spirit, boon uptime is much less important and you should take Elevated Compassion instead of Draconic Echo in Herald.
• If you are not confident, you could use Versed in Stone as a safety net. Note that you are giving up a significant amount of healing by doing so, which can make this something of a false economy.

Devastation Variant

The biggest drawback of Herald as a hand kiter is that they cannot offer any team utility. To fix this, Devastation can be taken in place of Salvation to provide Assassin's Presence to your team in return of significantly reduced survivability. If you use Devastation you should also take a Hammer in order to use Phase Smash to get in range of the main group to share Assassin's Presence. If you do this, make sure you are in a subgroup that doesn't already have Assassin's Presence.

Equipment

Head
Harrier

Shoulders
Harrier

Chest
Harrier

Hands
Harrier

Legs
Harrier

Feet
Harrier

Backpiece
Harrier

Accessory
Harrier

Accessory
Harrier

Amulet
Harrier

Ring
Harrier

Ring
Harrier

Mace
Harrier

Shield
Harrier

Sigil

Sigil

Staff
Harrier

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Equipment Variants

Stats

The exact gear doesn't really matter, but ideally you should aim to cap boon duration to ensure permanent Resistance uptime for Demonic Resistance and Fiendish Tenacity. You can just use the gear from Build:Renegade_-_Boon_Support_Healer, even though the bonuses from Sigil of Transference and Rune of Superior Rune of the Monk don't affect you. This setup also avoid extra toughness (which can interfere with tanking) and vitality (which can be a double-edged sword as the ticking damage from Mind Crush is %-based).

Sigils

There are numerous viable sigil options and which option is selected makes little difference to the build's performance

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy - Useful if you find yourself using lots of dodges in your hand kiting. This synergises especially well if you're running Retribution.
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Water - If you're using a hammer, this can give you a small amount of extra survivability.
• If you really want to try and do as much damage as possible, you could run self-buffing sigils on your hammer such as:
  • Sigil of Superior Sigil of Battle
  • Sigil of Superior Sigil of Celerity
  • Sigil of Superior Sigil of Strength
  • Sigil of Superior Sigil of Vision

Runes

There are numerous viable rune options, though Rune of Superior Rune of the Rebirth is especially good as it offers high healing, boon duration, and a save in case you fail to block Mind Crush.

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Monk
• Rune of Superior Rune of the Water
• Rune of Superior Rune of the Defender

Consumables

Food

• is ideal as it offers damage reduction, healing power and boon duration.
  • Otherwise, any damage reduction food such as will do.
  • or can be used at almost no cost in exchange for a minor loss of survivability compared to a damage reduction food.

Utility

• or .

Usage

• Legend swap off cooldown to maintain Resistance from Fiendish Tenacity.
• Try to maintain Facet of Nature at all times.
• Use Warding Rift to block every second set of hand spawns.
• Heal through the other set of hands. Your skill priority is (in descending order): Envoy of Exuberance, Ventari's Will, Natural Harmony, Mender's Rebuke, Renewing Wave.
• Use Crystal Hibernation or Infuse Light to survive Mind Crush.
• 
  can be activated prior to Crystal Hibernation to prevent damage from any hands that spawn while channeling the block, or if you are not confident with the timing of Mind Crush.

While on Ventari

• Bounce Ventari's Will to allies and back to yourself to trigger the extended duration on Unyielding Devotion (if using).
• Use Natural Harmony on yourself (or your allies if they need it), leaving enough energy for Warding Rift or Envoy of Exuberance.
• Be sure to pick up the healing orbs that are dropped after dodging or using Ventari skills.

While on Jalis

• Activate Vengeful Hammers and leave them running.
• Dodge over hands to give yourself Vigor and activate Determined Resolution.
• Try to keep Soothing Stone for emergency healing.

While on Glint

• Activate Facet of Light and Facet of Chaos. Leave them active.
• Activate and immediately consume your other facets off cooldown to provide multiple boons.

Video Example (outdated)