Desolation Community 2024

Herald play guide

this is an example of the rewrite process DRAFT STUFF

Herald Gameplay guide #

Hammer skills (Ranged) #

Hammer Bolt (Hammer 1) will be used after all your other Hammer skills are unavailable for single target damage. However, take into account that hammer bolt can be reflected.

Coalescence of Ruin (Hammer 2) is your bread and butter damage skill, land it as often as possible.

Try to not have anyone targeted if casting this skill, as it can bug out and put on a 4s cooldown. Rather, cast it based on where your character is facing, where the enemy stack is going to be and be sure to turn off the ‘auto target’ option. It only hits a maximum of 5 targets across all three pulses, and the pulses often disappear on non straight flat terrain, so keep that in mind if fighting inside structures. Phase Smash (Hammer 3) 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. Field of the Mists (Hammer 4) creates a field from the Mists that blocks incoming projectiles in front of you.

Drop the Hammer (Hammer 5) 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. Additionally depending on the commander call it can of course be used on lord to break the bar.

Hammer usage While pushing: Coalescence of Ruin ⇒ Drop the Hammer ⇒ Phase Smash. Ranged pressure: Coalescence of Ruin ⇒ Phase Smash. Ranged (hammer)spike: Phase Smash. Add Hammer Bolt in the mix if it’s convenient.

Staff (Melee supportive) Rapid Swipe (Staff 1) is your mean damage skill when running melee train and cleaving the enemies.

Mender's Rebuke (Staff 2) will be your second damage skill that will also provide your party with a bit of healing and give weakness on enemies.

Warding Rift (Staff 3) is a defensivee skill which can be used either when pushing with low health in order to survive or when you’re getting hard pushed by the enemy and you’ve got to get out alive.

Renewing Wave (Staff 4) is a support skill which will cleanse conditions on nearby allies while also providing a bit of healing which sometimes can be crucial if you’re in a tough spot and are trying to survive.

Surge of the Mists (Staff 5) is a support skill and (imo) a thing of beauty. When you’re pushing through an enemy this is the skill you want to use when you have a sufficient amount of health. Theoretically you can knockback and remove some stab of eight different enemies if they don’t have any aegis or stab while knocking back at least three. For example, when every party in your squad has a revenant and you start pushing an enemy blob with even numbers; if the revenants use this skill at the same time and the enemy zerg/blob don’t have a FB or are not paying attention or are too late popping stab you could cut the enemy blob in half and get some easy lootbags.

Mace+Axe (melee more offensive) Misery Swipe (Mace 1) chain auto attack deals a reasonable amount of damage and applies torment and poison.

Searing Fissure (Mace 2) is similar to Coalescence of Ruin (Hammer 2) which will give a good amount of damage. When the enemy is in range, use it as often as possible.

Echoing Eruption (Mace 3) Solid damaging skill. Each attack area is a blast finisher. This skill is also similar to Coalescence of Ruin (Hammer 2) which will give a good amount of damage and will weaken the enemy. When the enemy is in range, use as often as possible.

Frigid Blitz (Axe 4) Another decent damage skill which will mostly be used during the final push on the enemy since you don’t want to shadowstep too far away from the squad during a fight.

Legendary Dwarf Stance (Axe 5) Low damage skill, but good range and cc. Nice skill to remove some stab stacks and pull enemies together when they don’t have any. Great skill to use in combination with a pull/bomb move or during a wellbomb from the necromancers.

Glint (Legendary Dragon Stance) This stance can be used offensively (most of the time) and defensively in combination with hammer. Might Might and Fury 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. Swapping legends is basically the main resource management tool in the build. Swap whenever you’re out of CDs, low on energy.

4a. Facet of Nature (F2) doesn’t bring much in this build and will barely see any use.

If running Forceful Persistence trait, upkeeping 4 facets is a considerable DPS increase (12%) from Facet of Light (6), Facet of Darkness (7), Facet of Elements (8) and Facet of Strength (9). Don’t be afraid to reactivate the facets if you see the window. Bear in mind, the only purpose of having 4 facets up is to boost your damage, as it restrains your energy. If still struggling with energy management, only use Facet of Darkness and Facet of Elements or stick with the recommended build which doesn’t use this trait. 4b. Facet of Light (6) chain effect Infuse Light converts all damage you take into healing for 3 seconds. This is your panic button.

Keep in mind that the facet has a cast time, but Infuse Light

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 will connect – in this case Gaze of Darkness will miss instead of your elite.

4d. Facet of Elements (8) for the Swiftness uptime. Elemental Blast is one of strongest damage skills outside of Hammer. Try to use off cooldown, mainly on downed foes.

4e. Facet of Strength (9) will be used mostly for the Might share it provides

Burst of Strength grants good melee damage. Chain it with your offensive skills to benefit from the damage modifier. On melee: Elemental Blast ⇒ Burst of Strength ⇒ Chaotic Release (fill with Hammer skills).

4f. Facet of Chaos (0) will hardly ever be kept up, due to the big energy consumption. Can be cast before swapping legends for some Protectionminor Protection share. Chaotic Release is often overlooked due to the big energy maintenance, but it is a very important skill. The main usage of this skill is to provide superspeed when the commander is asking for it or when the squad is pushing in combat. It is not intended as a damage skill, but it can be used to CC (downed) opponents out of banner range and interrupt rezes.

Dwarf (Legendary Dwarf Stance) This stance can be used offensively and defensively (most of the time) in combination with staff.

Soothing Stone remove conditions and heal yourself. Gain retaliation.

Inspiring Reinforcement creates a stone road that damages and weakens foes as it’s created. Once it’s created it will pulse stability to allies. When you’re in Dwarf and just before you start pushing, retreating or mid fight this is the skill you want to use to stack up some stability. It’s a great skill both for offensive and defensive plays.

Forced Engagement slows and taunts the target and those around it. Can be used to catch enemies with no stab/resistance, note that taunt converts into stability by scrappers however.

Vengeful Hammers damages enemies in a short range, reduces incoming damage and increases outgoing damage if using Forceful Persistence trait. This is a high priority damage skill which one will often use when pushing or cleaving to maximize dps.

Rite of the Great Dwarf reduces incoming damage by 50%, 5 targets, breaks stuns on you. This skill should be used when you’re in a tough spot and trying to survive. It costs lots of energy so you probably want to swap your legend after using it depending on the situation.

General gameplay & tips As your primary job is to do as much dps as possible, you want to remain around the 300-450 range behind the commander when playing ranged backline, but as close as possible to the commander when running a melee train. When playing ranged only go on tag in order to land a beatiful hammer spike. You have somewhat access to healing and stunbreaks, but always stay as close as possible near the squad to stay alive since you’re pretty squishy. The downside when playing power herald is that one can’t do much against condi bombs. Thus, it’s important to stay near the squad and trust your fellow Support FB’s, Scrappers or Tempests to cleanse those conditions. Preferably use your hammer spike when the commander asks for it. Because when you use the hammerspike and the squad is moving away, you’ll get behind and most likely get picked off by the enemy. Additionally, you want to use/consume all or most of your facets before swapping to dwarf.

Written by Gromm

This build was inspired by Vabbi Builds and Metabattle.