Guild Wars 2

First and foremost, I’d like to mention that anything contained within this guide is subject to opinion. I welcome critique, as it will improve my own play as well as any aspiring or improving necromancers reading this thread. I’m also not suggesting that this spec is better than a condition alternative, merely that I have -myself- found this to be much more enjoyable. I would also like to preface this by granting a word of appreciation to Deistik, as well as the many forum-goers who inspired me try out power/crit, and subsequently continue to fine-tune it.

I. Traits
This build currently focuses on using 15/25/0/0/30 for dungeons and group content.

However, when soloing you’ll generally want to swap out Signet of Undeath for Spectral Walk and Lich Form for Flesh Golem.

30 points in Soul Reaping:
The points you place here will not only largely determine the amount of damage you deal with critical hits (which is a large factor of this build), but also allow you to pick up Near to Death, which will play an integral part in your overall damage as soul reaping necromancer.

Unyielding Blast- In a damage focused build, the extra stacks of vulnerability are only the icing on the “pierces mobs” cake! Those of you who have been using staff to pierce multiple enemies shall find this easy to pick up- And this will be a perfect opportunity to learn for those who haven’t.
Soul Marks- Clearly a priority pick for life force generation in a death shroud focused build. I’ll elaborate more on why this is so essential later in the guide, but for now take comfort knowing that if you replace a single auto attack from staff (that would have otherwise given you 3% Life Force) with a traited mark of blood, or chillblains, you’ll be dealing more damage than if that auto attack had not crit (and approximately the same if it would have).
Near to Death- The most important trait in this build. This trait alone essentially allows you to swap between abilities continuously, disregarding cool-down times, and completely avoiding auto attack spam. I’ll provide more details to its necessity in the rotation section of this guide.

25 points in Curses:
The 25 point trait in this line is a very situational one. Fortunately for you, necromancers can supply multiple conditions on the mob simultaneously without going much out of their way. In a best case scenario, this trait alone provides a 22% damage increase on any non-condition based damage. The additional precision and condition damage are excellent additions to your damage, and should not be ignored.

Weakening Shroud- Although competing with Reaper’s Precision for the tier 1 trait slot, I found this to be more useful. Weakening shroud provides not only a decent up-front damage component which is affected by power/crit, but also infects all nearby enemies with weakness. This, both, helps to compensate for your relatively squishy nature (in this build) and increases your damage by reliably placing another condition + bleed on all targets around you.
Focused Rituals- Although entirely picked upon personal preference, I’m sure many necromancers realize the dangers of going into melee range on multiple boss fights. Essential in a low vitality/toughness build such as this, this trait allows you to more easily position and maintain damage from a distance.

15 points in Spite:
Relatively straightforward- This entire line grants both power and condition duration. Benefiting from both the increased direct damage, and duration of applications (that will increase both condition damage, and allow you to maintain conditions for Target the Weak more easily), these traits provide a substantial boost to your base damage. When used in conjunction with your critical damage modifier, you’ll begin to see some impressive numbers. Although an extra 5 points spent here could be placed in curses, the choice really boils down to player preference- and I like the extra healing power + damage more. ( Would you rather have 50 power, 5% condition duration, and over 100 healing power? Or would you rather have 2% crit chance in precision, 50 condition damage, and a 12.5% chance to cause weakness?)

Reaper’s Might- In a build based upon heavy damage out of, and especially in, death shroud, this trait is a requirement. For only 10 points, it gives you the option to either “ramp up” your damage by prolonging death shroud usage, or to maintain a consistent 3-6 stacks, which I will cover momentarily.

II. Utilities
A point of contention within this build is the utility choice. I’ll do my best to explain what I picked, and why I chose them over alternatives.

Consume Conditions- Although producing less health per second, or group support than Well of Blood, I find the health returned to be more reliable. Well of blood forces you to stand inside of it to receive the HoT portion, cutting its effectiveness by a large margin. More importantly, however, is that it does no remove conditions. Conditions range from bleed to weakening, and not being able to remove them in at least one way would be careless.

Well of Suffering- Arguably the highest damage per second utility we have. Not only that, but it applies 10 stacks of vulnerability at its maximum to all targets within it’s range. The ability to drop a well, go into death shroud, and kill 5 targets simultaneously justifies this for personal use. The implications of providing 10% more damage to each party member in an AoE only compounds.
Blood is Power- A priority utility even before the recent changes, this utility skyrockets in usefulness when complimenting the stacks of might we gain while using Life Blast. With absolutely no condition damage on your gear, it’s still possible to achieve 250 (curses trait line) + 3-6 stacks of might (life blast), +10 stacks of might (blood is power) = 700 or more condition damage. Used in conjunction with the 15% extra condition duration from spite, this improves your mark of blood and chillblains to be effective sources of damage without even specifically specializing to do so.
Signet of Undeath- Primarily used as a life force generation tool, this signet provides an extremely useful active in dungeons and events. Too many times have allies have been downed in a cloud of poison, or at the feet of a highly dangerous boss with an impending aoe, only to see them forced back to the way point. It’s especially agonizing to watch when the way point is a considerable distance away. I’ve personally used this signet to resurrect multiple players downed simultaneously in a dungeon on more than one occasion. The ability to generate life force passively tied to it, though, makes it seem almost tailored to this style of play.
Lich Form- Everyone loves big numbers, and this elite allows you to do it reliably over a 30 second duration. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it should remain a staple part of your build. Whenever I encounter a group that struggles through a dungeon, I’ll switch this out, before anything else, to Plague. Even with this squishy build, a well timed blind chain turn a failing fight into an easy accomplishment.

Alternative Utilities:

Well of Corruption- Although a respectable source of damage, its usefulness is lessened when unable to capitalize on the boon>condition transfer. More importantly, I note, is that most mobs do not use boons. And unfortunately, those that do, like dungeon bosses, are generally immune to boon stripping (or have them reapplied only moments after your 45 second cool-down well is gone)
Well of Darkness- An extremely nice utility, if it didn’t come at such a high cool-down cost. The beauty of this well seemed to be how reliably it negated damage with the 20% well cool-down reduction trait. Without it, you’ll find this 5 second well of wonder relatively lackluster.
Signet of Spite- Arguably a good alternative to signet of undeath, I feel that this signet provides little in terms of efficiency over what already provides you with an indirect damage increase (life force generation) and the utility to prevent a wipe. If I were more concerned about big numbers, and less about finishing the instance, I may pick this up.
Epidemic- What? Epidemic in a power build? How did this get in here? … But in all seriousness, with the amount of vulnerability stacks we have at our disposal, and the aforementioned condition damage you get innately, this is a viable strategy. I wouldn’t recommend it, but I can see the justification for it.
Flesh Golem- Outside of dungeons, this beast can hold agro, deal decent damage, and give your necromancer style. In dungeons, not so much. I would rather use a different elite in a dungeon unless I’m 100% absolutely positive that he won’t die within the first 30 seconds. (Spoiler Alert: This never happens.)

III. Gear
Berserker of Berserker of Berserker. Simple enough, eh? In this build, you’ll want power, critical hit chance, and critical hit damage. The berserker prefix contains all of these necessities. Ruby Orbs are actually very much on par with superior rune alternatives. In a perfect scenario, Runes of the Scholar will provide the most damage output. However, in a build that relies on base vitality and toughness, it isn’t uncommon to see your health drop below 90% from even a single hit. You may even feel that with so many offensive stats, you can spare a few to improve your defenses. Another good option would be to invest in gold find runes if you find yourself farming frequently. The choice is yours.

IV. Rotation and Tactics
The most important part- if you’ve stuck with this guide so far, you’ll be happy to learn of what I think may be the “intended method of death shroud usage” ArenaNet spoke of.

I don’t think it’s mere coincidence that the duration of the fury buff through Furious Demise (the 15 point curses trait) lasts the exact duration of 3 Life Blasts, or a single Life Transfer. Nor that it works so well in conjunction with Near to Death. In fact, with only a few minutes of playing around I could already see a form of symmetry begin to unfold. A little more testing, and:

(In this scenario you are starting at full life force)
-5 seconds of Death Shroud (3 Life Blasts vs Life Transfer)
-5 seconds using Axe + Focus (Reaper’s Touch, followed by Ghastly Claws)
— (Swap to secondary weapon before or after entering DS here, but not during a life blast cast, as it will be interrupted)
-5 seconds of Death Shroud (3 Life Blasts vs Life Transfer)
-5 seconds using Staff (Blood is Power > Mark of Blood > Chillblains > Putrid Mark/1 Necrotic Grasp)
— (Swap to primary weapon)
-5 seconds of Death Shroud (3 Life Blasts vs Life Transfer)

Life force depletes at 4% per second without the trait Vital Persistence. Using Death Shroud for 5 seconds each time reduces life force by 20%. Therefor, we must accumulate 40% life force over a period of 20 seconds (or one round of each weapon usage).

This is also where I mentioned the usefulness of Soul Marks would be explained:

3 reliable marks (putrid mark is only used once every second staff rotation, synergizing with blood is power usage) + 1 auto attack = 12% life force generated
Reaper’s Touch + Ghastly Claws = 20% life force generated
Signet of Undeath over a period of 21 seconds = 7% life force generated

As you can see, this rotation consumes 40% life force every 20 seconds, but generates 39% in the same amount of time, all while keeping high damage-dealing weapon abilities on cool-down and buffing your own damage through various might and fury buffs.

I hope you enjoyed this guide, and found something to spark your own creativity, much like the basis of this build did for me. If you have any suggestions or criticisms, please leave them in a reasonable and constructive manner.

Gonna tell you the one sad reason why this didnt work, you do the same amount of DPS with Life blast as a healing power focused elementalist who spams 1 in water with dual dagger… yes i tried a simmilar setup (20/10/0/10/30) since i like the life transfer heal for groups with 78 berserkers acolyte armor (1 divinity, 5 eagle runes).

I’m surprised to hear that you’re able to crit for 7k as a healing based elementalist.

I was able to achieve up to 9k damage with the dagger #2 ability, but only in a more power-centric build. This build provides a much higher sustainability at the cost of very little burst damage.

Edit: The difference “Target the Weak” makes (the 25 point curses talent) is very noticeable- As I mentioned in the guide, it’s a potential 22% damage increase.

Wow in terms of burst, but what im saying is dps, you hitting the enemy 4 times pre second with spiny vulnerability cheesewheels for 1k goes around even with you hitting a 6k~ life blast pre 1 and a half seconds (you cant crit for more on dungeon mobs/warriors and guardians no matter how hard you try unless you go lich form) and not to mention, crits are pretty unreliable when you need em.

As mentioned in the guide, my 10 point Soul Reaping trait, “Unyielding Blast” pierces targets. It’s not uncommon for me to line up 3 mobs in a row, dealing 18k+ damage.

Edit: As a side note, I actually hit about 2k-4k harder in death shroud than I do in lich form. Don’t ask me why this is. I usually crit for around 4.5k-5.5k in lich.

Oh, and for clarification, these numbers are what I pull in groups, both in events and dungeons.

Interesting build. Gonna try it out, as it doesn’t have the most glaring problem that my current power build has, which is range vs some bosses (currently playing d/d & axe/focus, which can be quite limiting on bosses where close range is suicide).

In a perfect scenario, this build utilizes the life force generation axe grants much better than the extra damage dagger provides.

Despite this, I still continue to use dagger and substitute the axe #2 for the dagger #2 with an identical channel time. The auto attack dps is too good to pass up when soloing, and the range is similar to using an axe (as I wouldn’t be auto attacking with the aforementioned rotation anyway). This is merely a preference, and not the most efficient way to play this build.

Shameless self bump

A viable variation of this build that I’d like to mention is 20/25/0/0/25.

In which, the rotation would become:

—10 seconds of death shroud
—5 seconds of weapon #1
—5 seconds of weapon #2
—repeat

Same concept as the previous build, except it trades a more consistent damage output with reliable stacks of might for a very “ramp up > burst” approach. I feel that this build is better in pvp, but less so in pve.

Tried the build posted in the OP in a few Arah Explorer runs, and it felt like it was only good in the few cases where I didn’t take any damage. When I did take damage, I got instantly popped out of DS and lost all the life force, messed up the rotation.

Seeing as how some mobs will just randomly fixate on you the entire fight, that’s a pretty big downside for me.
Also, I’m not sure why, but I just really dislike the staff as a weapon for a power build.
I use it on my sPvP condition build, but I think as power I’d prefer dual daggers & axe+focus.

Now I’m doing a modified version of your 20/25/0/0/25 build with a mix of berserker and knight items for ~65% crit damage (basically running full knight armor + weapons with berserker accessories).
For the times when mobs/bosses do fixate on me it’s very nice to have a bit of toughness. Also very nice to have toughness on Giganticus, because for some reason he likes to send most of his missiles + shadow steps on me.

Understandably, any build relying on death shroud as a source of damage runs a risk of losing that damage when being focused. Regardless of how you build, this will happen. More importantly, however, is that if you’re losing your entire life force pool almost instantaneously, you’re doing something wrong- Had you been any other profession with out Death Shroud, the same amount of damage received would have out-right killed you instead.

Regardless, my build mitigates this weakness by the rate at which you generate life force. Without taking into consideration the life force generated from killing any adds that spawn during a fight, you can generate half your life force bar in only 20 seconds. A comparison to this would be 2 thirty second cool-down heals worth of effective health in the same period of time.

As mentioned earlier, this build maintains a consistent 3-6 stacks of might with 250 condition damage from traits and 15% condition duration. Currently, my mark of blood deals over 1,500 damage in addition to the direct damage portion. It isn’t uncommon for me to crit for up to 4,000 damage while using putrid mark while in solo play, and even higher during groups. It sounds like your dislike of staff is more of a personal preference, and not based around any actual damage values.

Dagger offhand, although providing a decent direct damage component, seems to benefit largely around applying conditions (non-damage based conditions in this scenario). This is definitely not something I would recommend in a power/crit build. However, I could definitely see it as a viable alternative to a power build that does not rely on crit/crit damage.

As per my previous statement, Giganticus Lupicus will deal a tremendous amount of damage regardless of how tanky you build. The fact that we have death shroud puts us at an advantage over most other professions without aegis. This is a dodging issue, and no matter how much health or toughness you bring, you will still be killed in 2 hits.

The second build I posted is the one I used for a much longer amount of time before switching to this one, and I would definitely recommend it if you’re just in it to see large numbers. However, most fights in pve don’t rely on large bursts, but instead upon maintaining that damage over a longer duration. This is really a preferential decision, and I found both to be enjoyable play-styles.