This isn’t a super serious suggestion, just one that I thought of out of the blue that seemed interesting so I’ll mention it.
At the moment, there are 3 classes with profession abilities that “ramp up”. Warrior – (the more adrenaline they get, the better the burst skill is.), Mesmer (the more Illusions, he larger the damage and effects), and Necromancer (the more life force, the more time inside of DS and higher #1 ability damage).
What if instead of the Necromancer’s damage ramping up, it was more powerful when you had very little of it instead? It would sustained damage/average at high death shroud (with the benefit being survivability), but it would be a burst at low death shroud (at the expense of survivability). Not sure how great this would actually translate into reality, but it would make it different than the other ramping up abilities with the usual more = always better. Death Shroud then could function as a pure glass cannon tool or DoT/survival. And since Death Shroud is +critical damage and +life force, it still would benefit both options well.
It could be taken further too – what if Death Shroud was a combination of 3 weapons, based on how much life force you had when you enter? Like one set of skills at 1-33% LF, another at 34-66%, and then 66-100. This is just brainstorming though.