Death Shroud

This article is about the necromancer profession mechanic. For the effect, see Death Shroud (effect). For the NPC skill, see Death Shroud (NPC skill).

Assume a spectral form and gain new skills, turning your life force into health. — In-game description

Death Shroud

Profession

Necromancer (skill list)

Slot

Profession mechanic

Type

Shroud

Sequence

 → 

Game link

API

10574

“

10  

Death Shroud

Assume a spectral form and gain new skills, turning your life force into health.

 Damage Reduced: 33%

 Damage Reduced: 50%

— In-game description

Death Shroud is the necromancer's unique mechanic providing some passive benefits and replacing the necromancer's normal weapon skills with a fixed set of Death Shroud skills. It is fueled by life force and can be entered even while under control effects. The necromancer's elite specializations replace this mechanic - Reapers enter a Reaper's Shroud instead, while Scourges enter Desert Shroud (Desert Shroud does not grant new weapon skills, although it can trigger traits with "enter shroud" and "exit shroud" conditions e.g. Spiteful Spirit), and Harbingers enter Harbinger Shroud.

Mechanics

Death Shroud has a base 10-second recharge upon deactivation. It ends either when the life force pool is completely depleted, or when manually deactivated. A minimum of 10% life force is required to enter Death Shroud.

While in Death Shroud, the necromancer's health is temporarily replaced by their life force pool, and all damage dealt will be inflicted to the life force pool instead of the necromancer's normal health pool. This includes falling damage, allowing Necromancers in Death Shroud to survive falls from greater heights than usually possible. Direct and condition damage done to the life force pool is reduced by 33% in PvE and 50% in WvW and PvP. This damage reduction stacks multiplicatively with other damage reduction effects such as Protection. Additionally, the necromancer naturally loses 3% of its total life force pool every second (5% per second in PvP).

Necromancers cannot be healed while in Death Shroud (except for Unholy Sanctuary, and life steal effects such as Vampiric, Vampiric Presence, and Locust Swarm). Effects that normally restore health will have no effect on either the life force pool nor the necromancer's regular health pool. Skills and traits that refill life force will continue to function while in Death Shroud. However, the necromancer will not get life force from nearby deaths.

While in Death Shroud, upgrades, such as sigils, on the necromancer's currently equipped weapon continue to function. While you cannot swap weapons in Death Shroud, entering Death Shroud will activate sigils that trigger on weapon swap. The weapon strength of the equipped weapon is applied to the Death Shroud skills, including any traits that affect the equipped weapon, such as Spiteful Talisman. Traits and rune bonuses that trigger at health thresholds (such as Superior Rune of the Scholar) rely on the necromancer's regular health pool, rather than their life force pool.

Skills

When under the effect of Death Shroud, these skills replace the normal weapon skill bar. They can't be changed but can be upgraded through the use of traits.

Terrestrial

#	Skill			Description
1	Life Blast	1		Shroud. Blast your foe with life force.
With   Dhuumfire
1	Dhuumfire	1		Blast your foe with life force, setting them alight.
2	Dark Path	0.75¾	8	Shroud. Send out a claw. If it hits a foe, it inflicts bleeding and chill on nearby foes and you may cast Dark Pursuit to shadowstep to the initial target.
2	Dark Pursuit			Shadowstep to the foe marked by Dark Path.
3	Doom	0.75¾	20	Shroud. Inflict fear on your foe.
4	Life Transfer	30.5½	20	Shroud. Damage nearby foes and steal their life force.
5	Tainted Shackles	0.25¼	25	Shroud. Begin binding nearby enemies with your life force, pulsing out conditions; they can break this binding if they get far enough away from you. Bound foes are immobilized if the binding finishes.

Aquatic

#	Skill			Description
1	Plague Blast	0.5½		Blast a foe with a plague that transfers one condition to them.
With   Dhuumfire
1	Dhuumfire	0.5½		Blast a foe with a plague that transfers one condition to them.
2	Dark Water	0.5½	8	Blind and poison foes near your target with a dark cloud.
3	Wave of Fear	0.5½	20	Terrify all foes in front of you with a wave of fear.
4	Gathering Plague	10.25¼	25	Draw conditions from nearby allies to yourself, and inflict weakness on yourself.
5	Tainted Shackles	0.25¼	25	Shroud. Begin binding nearby enemies with your life force, pulsing out conditions; they can break this binding if they get far enough away from you. Bound foes are immobilized if the binding finishes.

Related traits

Spite

• Awaken the Pain — Might grants you more power and less condition damage. Gain might when entering shroud.
• Spiteful Spirit — Strike around you when entering shroud.

Curses

• Plague Sending — Your first attack after entering shroud transfers conditions. Only activates if you have conditions.
• Furious Demise — Gain fury when entering shroud. Gain additional precision.
• Weakening Shroud — Cast Lesser Enfeeble when entering shroud. Critical hits inflict weakness.

Death Magic

• Armored Shroud — Gain carapace when entering shroud.
• Shrouded Removal — Lose a condition when you enter shroud and every few seconds while you remain in shroud. Gain carapace when removing conditions from yourself.
• Unholy Sanctuary — Regenerate health while in shroud. If your life force is above the threshold, your shroud will activate if you would take a lethal blow.

Blood Magic

• Vampiric Presence — You and your nearby allies siphon health with attacks. This effect increases while in Shroud.
• Unholy Martyr — Entering shroud transfers conditions from allies to you. Exiting shroud consumes conditions currently on you and converts them to life force.

Soul Reaping

• Speed of Shadows — Entering shroud grants swiftness and removes movement-impairing conditions.
• Sinister Shroud — Shroud skills gain reduced recharge.
• Soul Barbs — Entering or exiting shroud increases all damage you deal for a duration.
• Eternal Life — Gain life force every interval up to the threshold when not in shroud. Gain protection when you enter shroud.
• Death Perception — Gain increased critical-strike chance. Gain increased critical-strike damage while in shroud.

Traits that improve Death Shroud skills

 Spite

•  Reaper's Might — Shroud skill 1 grants might.
•  Dread — Inflicting fear on a foe gives you boons. Shroud skill 3 partially recharges when you defeat foes.

 Curses

•  Path of Corruption — Shroud skill 2 now additionally converts boons into conditions.

 Blood Magic

•  Transfusion — Shroud skill 4 heals and partially revives nearby allies.

 Soul Reaping

•  Sinister Shroud — Shroud skills gain reduced recharge.
•  Unyielding Blast — Shroud skill 1 inflicts vulnerability.
•  Dhuumfire — Shroud skill 1 inflicts burning on your target.

Notes

• Grants  Death Shroud.
• When activating Death Shroud, the necromancer will occasionally shout "I am death incarnate!".

Bug:

Entering or exiting this form does not grant the bonuses imprinted on carried weapon's sigils.

• Appears in the first profession mechanic slot if no elite specialization is equipped, or if no minor adept for an elite specialization is trained.

Version history

For a detailed skill history, see here.

Patch	Changes
March 30, 2022	(PvP Only) Increased life force lost per second from 4% to 5%.
February 28, 2022	End of Dragons release: Death Shroud now has a tooltip fact indicating that damage is reduced while in shroud. Damage reduction has been decreased from 50% to 33% in PvE only.
November 30, 2021	This skill no longer disables autoattack when activated or deactivated.
September 01, 2021	Fixed an issue that caused strike damage reduction to stack additively with other sources instead of multiplicatively.
August 17, 2021	Players may now use the mount key while in Death Shroud. Doing so will automatically deactivate Death Shroud.
April 28, 2020	Increased the life force lost per second from 3% to 4% in PvP only.
July 16, 2019	Fixed an issue in which the UI icon displayed while in shroud incorrectly used the icon for Dark Path.
September 22, 2017	Path of Fire release: Added a 0.5-second delay on activation before being able to exit.
August 09, 2017	The base drain of life force from being in death shroud has been reduced 25%.
October 23, 2015	Heart of Thorns release: Shroud now counts as a weapon swap for the purposes of sigil upgrades that activate when swapping weapons.
November 04, 2014	Reverted a change that caused this effect to incorrectly cancel abilities (such as stomping) when the necromancer's death shroud runs out.
October 21, 2014	Updated this state so that it no longer ejects players from Plague Form in certain instances.
September 30, 2014	Leaving Death Shroud by running out of life force now engages the same cooldown as manually ending Death Shroud by using the End Death Shroud.
September 09, 2014	Necromancers are now able to interact with NPCs and players while in this form.
July 01, 2014	Updated the skill facts when traited with Death Shiver.
April 15, 2014	Fixed a bug that caused necromancer skills to be locked for 1 second after exiting death shroud. Removed old text from this skill's description stating that entering Death Shroud removes spectral effects.
July 23, 2013	Damage taken while in death shroud will now overflow to the necromancer's health pool if the damage taken is greater than the remaining life force. Fixed a bug that caused the necromancer to take increased damage from direct attacks while in death shroud.
June 25, 2013	No longer removes the Spectral Armor buff. No longer removes the Spectral Walk buff.
March 26, 2013	No longer uses a custom skill bar interface, thereby allowing players using Death Shroud to see buffs, health, and endurance. The screen and sound effects are unchanged.
August 28, 2012	Game release: Death Shroud has been added to the game.

Trivia

• Prior to the March 26, 2013 game update, Death Shroud had a unique interface centered at the bottom of the screen that replaced the skill bar.
• Prior to the June 25, 2013 game update, entering Death Shroud removed Spectral effects.
• Prior to the July 23, 2013 game update, Death Shroud would absorb/negate damage that went over its capacity. This made it possible to jump from any height and survive due to mitigation of any overflowing damage to real health, though all secondary effects of skills still applied.
• Prior to the September 22, 2017 game update, unlike other sequenced skills, the Death Shroud-End Death Shroud sequence lacked an aftercast or a recharge on the second skill after switching, making it prone to accidental double activations.
• Prior to the November 30, 2021 game update, ending Death Shroud would interrupt any ongoing channel such as reviving allies, finishing foes, or channelling a hero point.
• At one point during development, the necromancer could only enter Death Shroud as a replacement of downed state. Leaving shroud would cause the necromancer to "rewind" back to the location where they were forced to enter Death Shroud. This made necromancer the only class without a downed state. Eventually, still during developing, Death Shroud was reworked into a transformation, as the previous functionality was deemed "too hardcore and confusing". The rewind mechanic was reworked into the Spectral Walk utility skill.

• The weapon wielded in Death Shroud counts as a staff and will count towards the Staff Master Achievement.

Gallery

• 

  The interface prior to the update, the bar was centered at the bottom of the screen, replacing the skill bar

• 

  Old underwater interface

References

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Skill types and profession mechanics