Guild Wars 2

So I’m presently working up a PvE-oriented perma-Death Shroud (or as near to as possible) build. I’ve got the gear, runes, sigils, etc., nailed down. So I’m not looking for suggestions in that area.

The two things I have up for debate are weapons and utilities, and the traits associated with them.

Things I’m looking for:

1. Spike-gen Life Force to fill up the bar and jump back into DS quickly.
2. Decent Life Force sustain while in DS.

At the moment, my set up is Axe/Focus + Axe/Warhorn, Spectral Grab, Spectral Walk, and Signet of Undeath. Using a 20/20/0/0/30 spread to maximize LF-gen from the above weapons and utilities. The setup has decent LF sustain while IN Death Shroud, and can spike-gen 50-60% LF in around 7 seconds.

Another option is traiting for Soul Marks, and using the Staff instead of Axe/Focus for potentially higher spike-gen (upwards of 70% over 7 seconds when hitting multiple mobs with AA). However, this bumps out a DS-oriented trait from the SR tree. Worth it?

Finally, there’s the option of the all-powerful Dagger. With an average 8% LF-gen every 2 seconds, the Dagger could edge out the Axe pretty easily. However, if this is the case, is it even worth taking the points in the Spite tree to benefit Axe? Could I instead use them in Blood Magic for even higher Vitality and some siphoning?

So there’s my quandary. Let me know what y’all think.

(Remember—I have the gear/sigils/runes all figured. Just looking at weapons, utilities, and traits.)