General Gameplay tips

and have identical Cooldowns and should always be used together. The order they are used in does not matter.
To get the most damage on this build, prioritise these facets and use Sword skills as often as possible without interrupting Auto Attack chains.

The boon extension from is extremely powerful and accounts for ~13% boon uptime, without accounting for the passive Boon Duration given to allies.

While is the default, it only marginally increases the power of . The other alternatives can be useful in various situations.

• enhances Regeneration, providing strong passive group healing when combined with .
• can be great on encounters that involve a lot of movement or greater distances between objectives, although you can always make us of to quickly cover ground.

The first activation of Facets have no cast time and can therefore be used while casting skills.
is the exception to this rule; as a heal skill, it will cancel any ongoing skill cast, but its secondary skill has no cast time.

Staff is kept in the secondary weapon set on standby for any Breakbar coming your way. In some encounters, depending on your group, it may even be worth replacing your off-hand Sword for an Axe to contribute even more Breakbar damage.

Spirit Vale

Vale Guardian

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

You can use to Launch Seeker away from your group.

Be careful with to not shadowstep into , as this briefly locks you in place outside the target's hitbox.
If you are tanking on this encounter, consider using or to block this attack.
is great for getting back to the boss immediately if you do get hit by ,

can be used to completely negate the damage from , meaning you should have an easy time surviving the encounter.

During split phases you can use in to strip Blue Pylon Power from the Blue Guardian.

Gorseval the Multifarious

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

can be used as a source of Stability for the entire squad. If your group already has this covered, change to .
You will be able to use this ability twice during and the Stability should last about 9 seconds after casting the skill.
Be mindful that you still need to maintain for Quickness uptime.

Allies are also granted Stability when you swap into thanks to , and by using in this stance. Use only what is necessary so that you have more Energy for other skills.

Breakbar phase

should be your go-to skill for the Breakbar. Use or if they are available to you.

Split phase

During Spirit phases, use and to slow them down. applies 10 Vulnerability and can help kill the Spirits faster.

Sabetha the Saboteur

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

Keep ready as an emergency for Knuckles' Breakbar.
can be useful to block incoming damage, otherwise Staff is rarely needed.

Try to grab by being the closest player to Sabetha and safely letting them detonate away from the group.

You can deal with Sabetha's cannons, even while covering Quickness. and apply a lot of Vulnerability and allows you to take them down fast.

Salvation Pass

Slothasor

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

will be able to provide Stability to your entire squad. Ensure that you can use this ability a few seconds before finishing the Breakbar to mitigate Fear.
This skill should otherwise be avoided, as Evolved Slublings can convert Stability into Fear. This may suggest that Stability is not good on this encounter, however, issues that arise as a cause of this are always related to poor control of Slublings.

If your group already has mitigations covered, go ahead and use instead.

Help cleanse yourself and allies with if needed.

Breakbar phase

Use on every Breakbar.
Since the Breakbar occurs at defined health intervals, you can swap to Staff preemptively if Sword skills are on Cooldown.

Consider taking if your group is really struggling with the Breakbar. Both Axe skills deal good damage to the Breakbar.

Stronghold of the Faithful

Keep Construct

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

Use on the Breakbar once it comes up.

You can bring if your group needs a source of Stability.

Use to mitigate the damage when the boss casts (the Keep Construct will create rotating windmill AoEs and apply conditions).

Xera

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

Use on the Breakbar once it comes up. If necessary, help cleanse allies with .

You can easily tank this encounter by blocking with either or .

Bastion of the Penitent

Cairn

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

Bring if Stability is not covered for your subgroup. reduces incoming damage while active.
Try to be the one kiting as you have a lot of survivability compared to other classes.

and are both good movement skills to help you get back to the boss if needed.

Mursaat Overseer

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

Use your survivability to stay alive when others cannot. and can mitigate the damage from .

Take Protect and keep the Jade Soldiers from stepping on the tile your group is located on.

Samarog

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

Herald can easily act as the healer for a subgroup. As the encounter has no passive damage, the enhanced Regeneration with in addition to is more than enough to sustain most groups. This assumes that players are not being hit by attacks on purpose or position themselves poorly.

Breakbar phase

Try to use on every breakbar. A good time to swap to Staff would be after using .

Heralds should avoid being the target for in order to contribute massive Breakbar damage, but if you end up being Fixated you can delay some damage from Samarog with .

Split phase

During split phases, help your group by using on Rigom to keep him in place.

Challenge Mode

Take and cast immediately when entering and again before leaving the stance. This should keep up stability nearly permanently for the entire squad if they are within the range of the skill.
You should aim this at any unfortunate souls targeted by .

It's important to note that you still have a limited energy pool. Using twice means you need to skip Sword skill casts in this stance.
This is due to Quickness being maintained through upkeeps, and you can only afford 6 seconds of .

Keep in mind that conditions can not be applied to Samarog during the Breakbar and will only work if you cast it before .

Deimos

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

Be careful with as to not teleport into .

Keep your Staff ready in case you need to block with . will also mitigate the attack, but the damage-over-time effect will apply regardless.

Use and to slow down Prides.

Hall of Chains

Soulless Horror

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

Power oriented builds are typically avoided due to the risk of bursting down the Tormented Dead while it is near the group.
Despite this, Herald provides substantial boon output and Breakbar damage to carry groups.

You can tank this encounter fairly easily. Take both and for increased survivability.

Consider playing Condition Quickness Herald for this encounter instead, as it has better tools to mitigate conditions.

Dhuum

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

You can help cleanse allies with after each .

Herald makes an excellent tank on this encounter. You can use to ignore the damage from to reposition yourself early.
A common mistake when tanking Dhuum is being too far on the opposite side of him that the group is outside the range of boons. However, Herald's boons are all 600 radius and gives you a lot more freedom to position yourself.

Mythwright Gambit

Conjured Amalgamate

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

Try to stand a bit behind your group in order to block the orbs coming in. Even though you rely on , it is better to protect your DPS players.

If you are doing Challenge Mode and your group is unable to block the lasers, can protect your squad at the loss of significant damage. You can likely serve as your subgroup's healer if you are taking this stance, as the pressure is rather low.

Twin Largos

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

and apply a lot of Vulnerability, which is typically lacking on this encounter. Use them immediately when beginning each phase.

You can tank this encounter if needed. can be taken for increased survivability.

Consider tanking with Condition Quickness Herald, as it has better tools to mitigate conditions.

Qadim

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

Start stacking up boons with Facets as soon as the encounter begins.
Give your lamp-team Superspeed with as they leave.

's can be very useful for your group during the boss phases, as well as providing safety against the giants in Qadim's menagerie. Prepare if you are helping in this phase, as it will Blind the giants, and Stun Break if you have already been hit by their attacks.

Be sure to use on every Breakbar in the encounter, except for Qadim's second and third phase.

will not prevent you from going downstate to the bouncing fireballs.

The Key of Ahdashim

Cardinal Adina

General Herald tips

A can be used for in order to block projectiles from Hand of Eruption during split phases. Otherwise, there is no reason to swap off Swords.

can protect your squad against projectiles with for the entire phase if necessary.

Cardinal Sabir

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

or can allow you to skip Sabir's .

Breakbar phase

Use Flash Discharge when starting to ensure you get multiple hits on the Breakbar. Be extremely careful when aiming this ability, as you can easily slip past Sabir and end up in a Tornado.

Consider taking if the group lacks Breakbar damage.

Qadim the Peerless

Skills	Weaponset

General Herald tips

Use to easily break Qadim the Peerless's pylons.

is a great skill to save your allies from the shockwave at 40%, 30% and 20%. This skill can grant Stability to the entire squad, but make sure to place it ahead of time, not last second.