Build:Herald - Hammer 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, Dps and Boon support

Designed for: WvW Zerg

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on February 23, 2022 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A Power based Herald build for WvW. The utility of Glint, the durability of Jalis, and the damage of Coalescence of Ruin allow this build to deal strong damage with great sustain, while buffing allies.

Skill Bar

Hammer

Sword/Sword

Utility

Utility

Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

• Notoriety selfish stat boost, can be worth it if you party has only two DPS
• Brutality constant stability removal with quickness uptime but less DPS.

Variants

• Core Value offers more group utility, but less movement speed.

Equipment

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Assassin

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Hammer
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Sword
Berserker

Sword
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Equipment Variants

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Hydromancy Alternative to Sigil of Superior Sigil of Accuracy for more burst
  • Add more Assassin stats to keep crit cap, aim for 2155 total precision
• Marauder stats if you find you need extra defensive stats, but do not go over crit cap

Consumables

• • personal food option

Usage

General

• This build goal is to maximize damage, while avoiding downtime. It means you should always be cycling through your Hammer, Sword/Sword and Legend skills to keep the enemy under constant pressure.
• Herald elite spec fulfills an offensive role, providing damage modifiers from Forceful Persistence and Reinforced Potency and boonshare access with Legendary Dragon Stance facets. As well as a defensive role, granting survivability with Glint's heal, extra HP from Draconic Fortitude, and mobility with Rising Momentum.
• Might and  Fury stacking is a crucial part of ramping up your damage, but most of it happens effortlessly as a result of passive traits and upkeep skills such as, Facet of Darkness, Invoker's Rage and Incensed Response.
• Invoking a legend resets energy to 50 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.
• Glint's Facet of Nature and One with Nature can be decent for boon extension as it doesn't hinder energy management that much in Glint. But you get more overall by upkeeping Facet of Nature and consuming One with Nature in Dwarf, since it provides damage reduction and Stability for the group.
  • Maintainimg F2 demands a lot of energy, so you might want to double tap to save it.

Hammer

• Hammer Bolt will be used after all your other Hammer skills are unavailable for damage pressure. Be careful with enemy reflects.
• Coalescence of Ruin is your bread and butter damage skill, land it as often as possible.
  • It only hits a maximum of 5 targets across all three pulses, and the pulses often dissappear on non straight flat terrain, so keep that in mind if fighting inside structures.
• Phase Smash deals a ton of damage and evades for its duration, be careful not to get caught behind your group while casting this skill.
  • Functions well for ranged cleave, and to hard pressure the enemy group when coordinated.
  • You can Phase Smash through traps and marks to activate them without taking any damage.
• Drop the Hammer has a long cast time, so try to predict where the enemies will go or use it on stationary targets like downed players that the enemy will move on to.
  • This is the least priority skill on Hammer, but should still be used for the CC setup it provides.

Sword/Sword

• Sword set is important because it provides great melee damage and cleave potential, allowing this build to maintain high DPS and spike by skipping the downtime Hammer skills have.
• Preparation Thrust paired with Vengeful Hammers provide massive cleave by just doing auto chains with an upkeep. Use it whenever any of your other sword's skills aren't available or if you are running out/saving of energy.
• Chilling Isolation is the strongest skill in this set. It provides great spike to down and to cleave enemies, benefiting even more when hitting targets alone.
  • It has a decent range around you for a melee skill and hits 5 targets, unlike the other skills in this set.
  • Whenever you swap into Sword, using this skill early will allow you to use it twice every sword rotation.
• Unrelenting Assault should be ignored, as it can port you around to undesirable spots and kill you. Fill downtime with sword autos, don't use it.
• Shackling Wave provides decent damage, Immobilize and Vulnerability
  • Basically you it whenever you swap into Sword or it's available, the Vulnerability ticks it provides greatly enhance your follow up skills' damage.
• Deathstrike is very situational, due to its single target aspect. Use it for massive target burst, or to reposition yourself with the port.

Glint (Legendary Dragon Stance)

• Each Glint's facet upkept will grant a 3% damage bonus
• Facet of Darkness, Facet of Strength and Facet of Elements uptime is very important to maintain your group's fury, might and swiftness respectively.
• Because of Incensed Response, Facet of Darkness is one the best sources of self Might in the build.
• Always upkeep 3 facets, but don't be afraid to consume then if the opportunity appears.
  • Facet of Darkness + Facet of Strength + Facet of Elements is your standard upkeep setup.
  • Facet of Darkness + Facet of Light + Facet of Elements is your upkeep setup to have instant access to Infuse Light. Use this if to deny pressure preemptively.
• Gaze of Darkness is a cheap stun breaker and one of the few skills in the game that can reveal stealthed targets.
  • To reveal from range: Phase Smash ⇒ Gaze of Darkness (at the end of animation)
  • If you are Blind, you can cast it, to ensure key skills like Chaotic Release or Phase Smash will connect - in this case Gaze of Darkness will miss instead of your skill.
• Burst of Strength grants good melee damage. Chain it with your offensive skills to benefit from the damage modifier.
• Elemental Blast is one of strongest damage skills outside of Hammer. Try to use off cooldown, mainly on downed foes.
• Facet of Light's chain effect Infuse Light converts all damage you take into healing for 3 seconds. This is your panic button.
  • Keep in mind Infuse Light has a cast time which means you can't activate it while CC'ed
• Facet of Chaos will hardly ever be upkept, due to the big energy consumption. Can be casted before swapping legends for some minor Protection share.
  • Chaotic Release can be used to CC downed opponents out of banner range, and to give allies Superspeed.

Jalis (Legendary Dwarf Stance)

• Soothing Stone will be used as panic condi clear, it also provides decent healing.
• Vengeful Hammers reduces incoming damage and brings a powerful DPS potential on melee.
  • Try to upkeep this as much as possible in melee as you will be doing 13% more damage from Forceful Persistence
  • Upkeep this briefly, if you are using CoR or PS (Phase Smash), even at range, for the damage bonus from trait.
• Inspiring Reinforcement does solid damage on a lot of targets, applying Weakness. Futhermore, it gives pulsing Stability on a wide, try to place it in areas where allies and enemies will be clashing to maximize utility and damage from the road.
• Forced Engagement should always be used on the enemy stack not on isolated targets, along with winds and ground pressure, to lock down foes.
• Rite of the Great Dwarf barely sees use, since you spend most of your energy with roads and vengeful hammers, and it isn't worth to camp Dwarf anyways for the elite anyways.
  • Bear in mind, if you use it as a stunbreak, you can dodge to cancel the long animation the skill has.

Combo Spikes

• Coordinated Ranged spike: Phase Smash
  • Multiple heralds doing it simultaneously will do enough damage to down foes, allowing you to save Coalescence of Ruin for later use.
• Ranged Spike: Coalescence of Ruin ⇒ Phase Smash
  • This combo allows you to deal great spike as the damage from both CoR and PS will connect around the same time.
• Standard spike: Coalescence of Ruin ⇒ Elemental Blast ⇒ Burst of Strength ⇒ Inspiring Reinforcement ⇒ Phase Smash (ranged) or Shackling Wave (melee)
  • This is an ideal opener rotation. Just be mindful that the optimal herald gameplay, with highest impact, is achieved by using your big spike skills in quick succesion, avoiding downtime.

Weaknesses

• Skill usage is reliant on energy management
• Potential to be locked into the wrong stance at the wrong time
• Heavy condition pressure