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Herald - Condi 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: Condition damage

Designed for: Open WorldOpen World General and [[|]]

Expansions required: Heart of Thorns builds

Difficulty:
Easy
This build was last updated on August 02, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

Condi Herald is a powerful generalist for open world with absurdly high defense and decent DPS. It can perform a variety of roles but works best on its own or with small groups.


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Skill Bar

Mace/Axe
X/Shield
Utility
Utility


Weapon Variants

  • Sword (offhand) - applies considerable vuln and has a teleport; good for trash mobs

Legend Variants

Herald is a very versatile class with a swiss-army-knife style skill set. You should swap legends according to the situation.

  • Legendary Demon Stance - The best choice for condi-heavy variants.
  • Legendary Dragon Stance - The strongest hybrid option; provides boon support and burst damage
  • Legendary Centaur Stance - Provides condi clear, projectile hate, and very high healing.
  • Legendary Assassin Stance - The strongest strike-based legend. This legend isn't especially useful for this build.
  • Legendary Dwarf Stance - Provide large amounts of defense and CC.


Specializations


Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; you can use exotic gear with the same stats.
This set uses gear similar to Build:Renegade_-_Condi_DPS, making it an excellent option for general PVE.
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
x
Viper
Shield
Viper
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6


  • Trailblazer Trailblazer or Celestial Celestial gear can be used for more passive defense at the cost of damage.
  • 24px Ritualist trinkets, when combined with Draconic Echo, will provide permanent Quickness Quickness. The amulet is not required for this if using full ascended gear, however a little extra boon duration might be welcome for additional Might Might and smoother Quickness generation.

Consumables

Food
  • Any ascended food is superior to any other food you could use. Steak for power, flatbread for conditions. Budget versions of these foods exist and are acceptable.
  • - farming
  • - DPS
  • - defense
Utility
  • (and variants) - farming
  • , - dps
  • - dps if using gear with high toughness


Usage

Legend Breakdown: Damage & General Use

Two big pieces of general advice here:

  1. Swap legends often, typically off cooldown.
  2. Try not to interrupt your auto-attack chain if possible.
  3. Assassin / Shiro is not especially useful for this build. In general, you shouldn't be using it.

Other than that, you can spam weapon skills and use your utilities appropriately as outlined below:

Glint

Legendary Dragon Stance

Glint offers a wide variety of options and is the go-to hybrid spec. You have to options while in Glint.
  1. Consume Facet of Elements and Facet of Chaos for damage and CC, then maintain Facet of Darkness and Facet of Strength for extended offensive boons.
  2. Consume all facets other than Facet of Light and Facet of Chaos, then maintain Facet of Chaos for Protection.

Either way, always consume any active Facets before legend swapping to trigger Draconic Echo.

Jalis

Legendary Dwarf Stance

At first blush Jalis may not seem like much, but he's likely the most powerful legend in Rev's kit for most solo play. A few big things to note:
  • Forced Engagement is a huge amount of CC
  • Forced Engagement and Rite of the Great Dwarf provide a LOT of damage reduction.
  • Vengeful Hammers deal decent damage and provide some healing
  • Inspiring Reinforcement is a good stability source.

Generally with Jalis, you want to assess if the threat warrants a Rite of the Great Dwarf. If not, wear the target down with Vengeful Hammers and Forced Engagement (if it has a breakbar).

It should be noted that Facet of Nature is very powerful on Jalis.

Mallyx

Legendary Demon Stance

Mallyx is our edgy spec and is the best option for heavy condition pressure, both in and out. As a bonus, it gets a phenomenal combo we'll talk about later that provides some of the highest sustain in the game.

While in Mallyx, it's often best to simply activate Embrace the Darkness and let it run out. You can use Pain Absorption to break stun or give yourself a break from conditions, and Call to Anguish is a short-range leap which can group enemies up for you to burst down.

Ventari

Legendary Centaur Stance

Our old friend Ventari is the worst of the legends for general play but you'll be happy he's there when you really need him. Ventari has two major components to remember:
  1. Protective Solace is a long-duration, low-upkeep dome of projectile hate. This skill trivializes content that relies heavily on projectiles, such as Carin in Bastion of the Penitent or the Champion Commander Razorwing. It does eventually expire, but it lasts quite a long time. Try to conserve energy while its up so you don't run out too fast.
  2. Purifying Essence is a spammable condition cleanse in an AOE. This is fantastic for random open world zergs.

That's about it with Ventari. He's pretty straightforward.


Facet of Nature

This ability is quite powerful depending on which legend you have active. In general, you should strive to keep Facet of Nature active during Legendary Assassin Stance, Legendary Dragon Stance, and Legendary Dwarf Stance due to the high healing and damage reduction it applies. Thanks to Draconic Echo, you can also consume it and keep the bonus for a short time.

  • Legendary Assassin Stance - provides you lifesteal with a 0.5s ICD, allowing you to heal for roughly 160 hp/s.
  • Legendary Dragon Stance - provides 20% boon duration; this can exceed the duration cap
  • Legendary Dwarf Stance - 10% damage reduction while active
  • Legendary Demon Stance - pulls conditions from allies to you; not recommended in open world


Defense

  • Shield skills remove a condition on use.
  • Infuse Light and Empowering Misery are your heal skills.
  • Pain Absorption is great for anti-condition pressure.
  • Crystal Hibernation is a very powerful heal.
  • Hardening Persistence grants damage reduction based on current upkeep.


Crowd Control

  • Chaotic Release
  • Surge of the Mists if running staff offhand.


Video Examples

Bounty Solo: Forged Maverick


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 1 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
Starlitjupiter gave this build 5 stars • April 2023
Condi Herald is one of the most versatile build options for solo open world play, featuring plenty of options to deal with virtually any problem you may encounter in the open world. It has very good damage when alone due to its heavy self-buffs and high base damage and also falls into the "Juggernaut" playstyle - That is, being a simple, effective build that has very high passive defenses while also featuring incredibly powerful active defenses. cHerald is my personal favorite build for tackling very hard content solo. It's easy to play and absolutely broken, even after the sustain nerfs.

Comments

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