Build: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:

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on February 19, 2025 and is up to date for the February 11, 2025 patch.

Overview

A power Herald build for open world. Herald shines as a boon dps, providing their allies and themselves with permanent boons, most notably permanent Fury and Quickness, and Might (25 permanent for self, and about 12 for allies). It deals decent damage and has some 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, use mainhand and offhand swords instead.
• 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 - ranged AoE; use this in place of 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.

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

• Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter
  and
  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 trinkets.

Consumables

Budget consumables are acceptable for use in open world.

DPS

• Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
• Plate of Spicy Moa Wings
  /
  Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup
• Superior Sharpening Stone
  /
  Tin of Fruitcake

Defense

• Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew
• Fried Oyster Sandwich
• Bowl of Lemongrass Mussel Pasta

Farming

• Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
• Birthday Blaster
  /
  Feast of Delectable Birthday Cake
• Peppermint Omnomberry Bar
• Sharpening Skull
  (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 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 which also activates
    Incensed Response
    . Only consume it if you need the stun break.
  • Maintain
    Facet of Strength
    for 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 and Quickness on itself and nearby allies. You will also provide about 12 Might to allies while you will easily maintain 25 stacks on yourself due to
  Incensed Response
  .
• Our main damaging weapon is 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, 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 uptime.
• Both Greatsword and Staff have channeled blocks.
• 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 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 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 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