Having a hard time staying alive

[Shinya.2598]

I just brought my Herald into PoF, using Glint and Jarlis.What's the deal with the bad heals?Any tips om how to stay alive and still do reasonable damage?

[Game of Bones.8975]

I had the same issue with my thief.
I didn't have an issue with my reaper. I'm still using core maps to "learn" the new elite specs and my old go to's elite specs to wander the wastelands and explore.

[Shinya.2598]

@"Game of Bones.8975" said:I had the same issue with my thief.

I didn't have an issue with my reaper. I'm still using core maps to "learn" the new elite specs and my old go to's elite specs to wander the wastelands and explore.

Well yeah, reaper is very "meaty"... It can kill many foes fast. So is the Holosmith. But not the Herald.

[Ojimaru.8970]

First and foremost, Glint offers one of the potentially most powerful heals in the game if you time it right. Secondly, Jalis offers lots of sustain with his spinning hammers and a heal that consumes conditions. Third, Revenants are the only class in the game with access to two Healing Utilities. In other words, the Healing Utilities aren't necessarily your main issue.

What kind of build are you running? What kind of gear are you using? Which enemies are you having the most trouble with?

[Vyrulisse.1246]

Our heals are bad because they justify it by saying we have two technically. Glint heal is very strong though, pop it and dive into a mob or attack then get out before it expires. You can get a full heal pretty nicely.

[pdboddy.4162]

@Shinya.2598 said:I just brought my Herald into PoF, using Glint and Jarlis.What's the deal with the bad heals?Any tips om how to stay alive and still do reasonable damage?

You need to keep situational awareness a lot more in PoF maps. It feels like the mobs have a much farther aggro range AND they call for a lot more backup. So you might be running into more adds while roaming around the new maps. Generally every mob tends to bring at least one friend.

[Buran.3796]

@Shinya.2598 said:I just brought my Herald into PoF, using Glint and Jarlis.What's the deal with the bad heals?Any tips om how to stay alive and still do reasonable damage?

1) Discard Jalis and take Shiro instead. Run something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAsemnvN2gS6JvQRVlbosryPUYW5IKYs8EllNFiNMnZNtB4ALw+fHchA-jRSBQBJU9HzoEcDHSAOcCAAwTC4KK/wj+g9t/Q/0Q8O4AYraVrtSrtyZnd2ZndWDo1Wbt1Wbt1WbtVpAGbrF-e

2) Revenant has access to two half heals each 30 seconds so they aren't as strong as some others. But Glint has a regenerating passive skill that can be activated to a weak heal + 3 seconds of damage reversing, which well timed can be huge against incoming burst (which are easy to anticipate vs the A.I.). Plus both the shield and the staff have two aditional ones, and the Devastation traitline can be traited to leech eaxtra health (and you can use cheap consumables as mango pie as and extra heal, but I think that that's gooing to far away for PvE). So Rev heals for PvE: more than enough.

3) Currently completed the first four maps of PoF with a condi Rev (alternating core and Renegade) and a power Herald, both were equaly viable: condi is faster, power is safer. Died like 5-6 times in total (learning the enemy patterns). Those are my tips for playing Herald in PoF:

*) Be aware of the landscape: moving sands, lava, chasms, enemies patrolling, etc. Most of the dangers can be avoided using the mounts, and most of the interest points, mastery points, vistas, etc. can be reached in a very safe variety of ways.

*) Mounts have low aggro and if you move fast you can cross through a large body of enemies unharmed. Learn to mount and dismount evading attacks to combo long jumps and high jumps without being interrupted. That's specially valid with the first two mounts.

*) Keep your staff as main weapon between fight and fight because the #3 and #5 can save you from sudden attacks. Once in a fight the sword must be your main source of damage and you must use the shield and staff only for defense/healing or barbreaking with staff #5. Staff #5 properly used (with a full string of hits) instantly brings down any enemy with blue bar, preventing dangerous enemy attacks to occur.

*) Use the Elemental Blast to damage and chill enemies, is specially usefull surrounded by foes and casting it ouver ourselves while blocking with shield #5 or staff #3. Always go for a "strike" with Chaotic Release, Jade Wings and Surge of the Mist: don't waste them on single goons.

*) Unrelenting Assault is a offensive skill against single foes which serves as a defensive tool vs bunch of targets. Don't use UA to do damage vs multiple foes ixcept if you need the evade to prevent damage. Use sword auto attack to cleave groups.

*) Try to start the fights with advantage, using cc (like the knockdown from some mounts or from Herald skills to gain the initiative). Before they recover use Burst of Strength to massively stack vulnerability on them, and buff your damage with Enchanted Daggers. Some of the strongest monsters in PoF are designed to have very high armor to promote the use of hybrid and condition builds; you can circunvent part of those damage mitigation with your broad access to vulnerability tools.

*) Always keep a stunbreak at hand; you have one in each legend + the legend swap. Is impossible for PoF mosnters to insta-kill you, but they can chain cc and kill you with multiple strikes.

*) The faster way to burst a foe is sword #1 + Impossible Odds. The faster you kill a foe less chances to getting hurt.

*) The only two foes in the first four maps that can be challenging are the undead sorcerors of fire (due they massive AoE burn attacks) and the awakened abominations (due their cc chains and spike damage) Learn their attack patterns and punish without being touched.

*) Conditions aren't a problem: you can clean one with legend swap or cleanse another with staff #4, and that's all: Herald has so much evades, blocks and phasing skills that well timed you can get touched. In groups the Harpies can be difficult due their mix of evades, ranged attacks, cc and strong torment pressure plus the occasional veteran with spellbreaker counter, but if you stack the weakest ones you can nuke the goons in seconds and later dispatch the leader of the gang.

[Substatic.6958]

There certainly was an adjustment curve when coming from Scourge to Revenant/Renegade. Far squishier and not nearly the punch, and has to completely change gear/talents/weapons/etc. As my Necro I just instantly blow up the whole screen in my raid settings and take 0 damage.

[Shinya.2598]

@Buran.3796 said:

@Shinya.2598 said:I just brought my Herald into PoF, using Glint and Jarlis.What's the deal with the bad heals?Any tips om how to stay alive and still do reasonable damage?

1) Discard Jalis and take Shiro instead. Run something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAsemnvN2gS6JvQRVlbosryPUYW5IKYs8EllNFiNMnZNtB4ALw+fHchA-jRSBQBJU9HzoEcDHSAOcCAAwTC4KK/wj+g9t/Q/0Q8O4AYraVrtSrtyZnd2ZndWDo1Wbt1Wbt1WbtVpAGbrF-e

2) Revenant has access to two half heals each 30 seconds so they aren't as strong as some others. But Glint has a regenerating passive skill that can be activated to a weak heal + 3 seconds of damage reversing, which well timed can be huge against incoming burst (which are easy to anticipate vs the A.I.). Plus both the shield and the staff have two aditional ones, and the Devastation traitline can be traited to leech eaxtra health (and you can use cheap consumables as mango pie as and extra heal, but I think that that's gooing to far away for PvE). So Rev heals for PvE: more than enough.

3) Currently completed the first four maps of PoF with a condi Rev (alternating core and Renegade) and a power Herald, both were equaly viable: condi is faster, power is safer. Died like 5-6 times in total (learning the enemy patterns). Those are my tips for playing Herald in PoF:

*) Be aware of the landscape: moving sands, lava, chasms, enemies patrolling, etc. Most of the dangers can be avoided using the mounts, and most of the interest points, mastery points, vistas, etc. can be reached in a very safe variety of ways.

*) Mounts have low aggro and if you move fast you can cross through a large body of enemies unharmed. Learn to mount and dismount evading attacks to combo long jumps and high jumps without being interrupted. That's specially valid with the first two mounts.

*) Keep your staff as main weapon between fight and fight because the #3 and #5 can save you from sudden attacks. Once in a fight the sword must be your main source of damage and you must use the shield and staff only for defense/healing or barbreaking with staff #5. Staff #5 properly used (with a full string of hits) instantly brings down any enemy with blue bar, preventing dangerous enemy attacks to occur.

*) Use the Elemental Blast to damage and chill enemies, is specially usefull surrounded by foes and casting it ouver ourselves while blocking with shield #5 or staff #3. Always go for a "strike" with Chaotic Release, Jade Wings and Surge of the Mist: don't waste them on single goons.

*) Unrelenting Assault is a offensive skill against single foes which serves as a defensive tool vs bunch of targets. Don't use UA to do damage vs multiple foes ixcept if you need the evade to prevent damage. Use sword auto attack to cleave groups.

*) Try to start the fights with advantage, using cc (like the knockdown from some mounts or from Herald skills to gain the initiative). Before they recover use Burst of Strength to massively stack vulnerability on them, and buff your damage with Enchanted Daggers. Some of the strongest monsters in PoF are designed to have very high armor to promote the use of hybrid and condition builds; you can circunvent part of those damage mitigation with your broad access to vulnerability tools.

*) Always keep a stunbreak at hand; you have one in each legend + the legend swap. Is impossible for PoF mosnters to insta-kill you, but they can chain cc and kill you with multiple strikes.

*) The faster way to burst a foe is sword #1 + Impossible Odds. The faster you kill a foe less chances to getting hurt.

*) The only two foes in the first four maps that can be challenging are the undead sorcerors of fire (due they massive AoE burn attacks) and the awakened abominations (due their cc chains and spike damage) Learn their attack patterns and punish without being touched.

*) Conditions aren't a problem: you can clean one with legend swap or cleanse another with staff #4, and that's all: Herald has so much evades, blocks and phasing skills that well timed you can get touched. In groups the Harpies can be difficult due their mix of evades, ranged attacks, cc and strong torment pressure plus the occasional veteran with spellbreaker counter, but if you stack the weakest ones you can nuke the goons in seconds and later dispatch the leader of the gang.

Thank you for this

[narcx.3570]

For power herald, everything @Buran.3796 said is totally right... I just want to add that you should take the traits Incensed Response and Hardened Persistence if you're not.

If you start a fight in Glint, by the time you use your Elemental Blast, Burst of Strength, and Surge of the Mists, you'll be swapping into Shiro/Sword mode with around 23 stacks of Might from Incensed Response and Shared Empowerment.

As for Hardened Persistence, it's so undercover OP... Most builds use Radiant Revival--which is pointless in solo play anyways. Contrast that to HP, which gives you 400 Toughness when channeling Impossible Odds (which is also the only time you're really going toe to toe with enemies). It gives you a huge survivability boost for basically free, while letting you stay geared for pure DPS.

Also, use Facet of Light to your advantage... In PvE it should heal you to 100% health almost every time. When you use it, purposely take damage to maximize the heal. Try not to use it and then immediately evade/block/UA/put weakness and chill on the enemies. It may seem like a no-brainer, but I see people do this all the time when they're in panic mode.

Also also, you might want to try OH Sword instead of shield... The block has a lower cool down and a much lower energy cost, allowing you to realistically use it a lot more often. Plus you can move while channeling it, which is great for running away/skipping content. And Sword 5 can be used in tandem with either Shiro or Glint's elite to break bars w/o swapping to staff and ruining your dps for 10 seconds.

And last tip--this is for any class--when you start a hero point there's time to mount up, so you can mount and give yourself jackal barrier to just face roll through the HP's.

[otto.5684]

@Shinya.2598 said:I just brought my Herald into PoF, using Glint and Jarlis.What's the deal with the bad heals?Any tips om how to stay alive and still do reasonable damage?

I would suggest going to GW2 meta website and copy the power raid build. power rev in solo PvE is extremely strong.

[Justine.6351]

Lol...Full zerker glass build, hammer/staff, glint/shiro.

[Buran.3796]

Did upload a vid with my two Revs fooling (mostly fights against veterans) in the first 4 maps of PoF. The first 6 minutes are from Renegade condi builds (without and with short bow) and the last 8 minutes using the power Heral build (gear and loadouts are in the description). Nothing fancy because didn't known most of their attack patterns or abilities but shows a bit how the condi and power builds perform without troubles in those landscapes:

As I said in another post, the condi builds do kill faster but the power one is safer, which is also mostly the same as I use in PvP/WvW.

[Shinya.2598]

What gear should i use with Power Herald????????

[Ardent Heretic.8216]

@Shinya.2598 said:What gear should i use with Power Herald????????

I used a Marauder/Berserker mix for a long time with great success. The extra vitality is a good cushion on top of near-glass damage. Take the Herald trait that gives you toughness while upkeeps are active, and you have a substantial amount of survivability.

[Substatic.6958]

@Buran.3796 said:Did upload a vid with my two Revs fooling (mostly fights against veterans) in the first 4 maps of PoF. The first 6 minutes are from Renegade condi builds (without and with short bow) and the last 8 minutes using the power Heral build (gear and loadouts are in the description). Nothing fancy because didn't known most of their attack patterns or abilities but shows a bit how the condi and power builds perform without troubles in those landscapes:

As I said in another post, the condi builds do kill faster but the power one is safer, which is also mostly the same as I use in PvP/WvW.

The veterans in POF zones are easy. The issue I had with renegades is the story missions were you are surrounded by tons of Snipers and an Elites that can 2 shot. Like the Achievement were you need to kill 3 elite patrols really fast. Or simply running into huge packs of spread out mobs in the last 2 zones (snipers,elites,multiple vets) and being dismounted. Easier on just about any other spec I've tried.

[Jthug.9506]

If you want to wipe out a large group fast as condi, start in mallyx, drop in UA 2x and then pop the elite to trigger inferno and immediately switch to kalla for energy and cast CB, then depending on health continue with mace/axe or drop back and switch to bow if needed.

[Thon.3780]

Try mine ?http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQRAsc5nn3gWNSuQrJRbo/ksP0gS4I6QJ4EdrkFNFqdBBICsjZNtxugJshA-jRCGABJpsZKlgov/gcaBISpUAnBgAV/BgHCQZ6GIFA5KjA-eI call it Dark knight coz it is blend tank/ life drain and furyquite high survival ability and do some damage, Not much but ensure on life drain while run or def . also can boost might 14-25 stack within 5-10 sec depend on how you play