Guild Wars 2

I think this is a rather basic death shroud setup for PvE (and WWW?) but still I want someone who is more experienced in this to offer me some good advice.

The build

My own thoughts:

1) I am working towards a 50% critical chance outside death shroud so I am using a mixture of Berserker and Assassin armours. With Deathly Preception, am I getting 100% critical chance?

2) Together with Reaper’s Might and Unyielding Blast, while in death shroud, I would be stacking a reasonable amount of might and vulnerability. Am I correct to say that it is the best way to self-boost my DPS?

3) I have decided to spend the last two points in Cuses. But I am still debating whether to pick Reaper’s Precision or Focused Rituals. Any suggestions?

4) In terms of healing utility, I picked Consume Conditions. I have heard from someone that Signet of Vampirism works well with a death shroud build. Is it? If so how?

5) I picked Signet of Spite and Blood is Power for obvious reason as being a powermancer, and Well of Suffering for more damage. Any other suggestions?

6) For elite skill, I use Flesh Golem. Despite all the AI problems, it helps me to do damge and be my tank occassionally. Any comments?

7) This build seems to be rather glassy; perhaps with the exception of have a “second HP bar” while in death shroud. Is it going to be a good DPSer?

8) It terms of team support, other than keeping up stacks of vulnerability and an occassional soft CCs, I cannot think of anything else. Would I still be useful in a dungeon and/or factual team?

9) It is suggested to use Locust Swamp before entering death shroud and use Ghastly Claws for fast life force generation outside death shroud. So I am running axe/horn as main set of weapons with dagger/focus whenever necessary. Am I doing it right? What other weapon combo or rotation will you suggest?

10) What nourishment should I use?

Many thanks!

I think you should just use Nemesis Glass Cannon instead, that’s just mess across the board

I for one prefer axe+focus/dagger+warhorn, stack a lot of vuln in your opening before going all out rapid damage with locust swarm and the dagger auto attack. For WvW, Id say that if you have trouble dieing, you can switch your beserker armor for knights, gaining more toughness with a loss to damage without sacrificing precision.

In traits reapers precision is compelety useless, take enfeebling blood or focused rituals.
As runes the ideal choice are runes of strength, scholar is ok.
With full berserker you have 42 crit chance, that means in ds you have 92, with fury 112. You dont need more precision…That means no sigil of accuracy on your weapons.
While in ds with axe in main hand and with the axe trait you hit more than with the dagger in mainhand. So your vulnerability stacking weapon should be with axe, that means axe/focus and dagger/warhorn. Dagger/Warhorn helps with very fast lf regen.
Your main source of dps is camping in DS and shooting life blasts from short range, that makes you pretty tanky while you stack might and vulnerability on the opponent. That means its better to take Vital Persistence rather than Near to Death.
As for utilities, signet of spite doesnt work in DS so id take Well of Corruption instead.
Trick for super burst is to use wh5, switch to axe focus, focus #4 then drop the 2 wells and go in ds, every hit from wh5 and wells will be critical.
You can also use a staff + chill of death trait, instead of axe/f and axe training trait. I like the vulnerability from focus, so i don’t.
Link(exotic gear):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRMQRBIhdu1IHNN22Sj1Ns3moWoguODgZIqTg62YOqWA-TRSBwAUeAAFV+F5EAKBvu/wN1fQpfAh5vFHBAAHEASBExwK-e

I don’t see why you’re using 5 Scholar runes. If you’re gonna go with Scholar’s, go all the way.
You can also use Runes of Strength, they work well with this kind of build.

Well, the 6th Scholar does not apply in DS; it works off the normal HP bar instead. I just want to get a bit of extra Ferocity in.

Why using main hand axe with Axe Training trait before entering DS will do more damage?

Hmm i thought scholar worked if you were for example full hp and went in ds, must test it.
Life Blast dmg is calculated based on your mainhand weapon stats, axe has 1000, with axe training it has 1100 (like staff), higher than dagger.

Scholar does work in DS. You just need to have more than 90% of your regular hp when you enter DS.

Axe with axe training or staff without both yield maximum life blast damage. But axe gives better life force regen.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRMQNAW3djc00YbtNW3webiahC66MAmhoOBqbjwoaB-TRCBABGp87SVLqZ/BcUTBgjAQjKBTRTQe6ASw8DpAiYYF-e

Just changed. Some stuff on your build.
You can swap.spectral armor.for.spectral.walk
The sweet spot for crit.chance 65% you get 80% in ds with the above build.(which is.more then.enough,
Axe focus regen lF VERRY FAST,

I dont pve so it may all be.garbage for pve.

Edit: all zerker weapons btw.

Thank you all for your advice.

I have been testing my original build (with some minor modifications) over the weekend. It was fun; I like it. I feel that I use the dagger more often for fast life force generation instead of axe 2.

But I am now having a rotation issue with axe/horn and dagger/focus. I am using focus 4, then Blood is Power, then Wells, then horn 5, then DS 1. But it feels rather chuncky. I switch back to dagger/focus once outside DS and just spam dagger 1 to regenerate life force. I may use axe 1 and 2 now and again if I need to stay at range. May be I am not used to this rotation yet. But it feels chuncky for me for the time being.

I am entertaining the idea of using staff with axe/horn instead since it seem the life force generation per second of dagger and staff are more or less the same. But then I lose out quite a bit dps with staff.

All in all, I do like this DS build. It has good burst and good sustain. Just that those Wells are on long(ish) recharge. And 4 (5 if counting Axe Training too) of the 7 major traits are spent on boosting DS making being outside DS feels a bit weak.