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).

Death Shroud

10  

Profession

Necromancer (skill list)

Slot

Profession mechanic

Sequence

 → 

Game link

External links

API

“

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

— 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 enters 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).

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. Direct damage done to the life force pool is reduced by 50%, but this damage reduction isn't reflected in the combat log. Additionally, the necromancer naturally loses 3% of its total life force pool every second.

Necromancers cannot be healed while in Death Shroud (except for Unholy Sanctuary and Vampiric Presence). Effects that normally restore health will have no effect on either the life force pool or 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		Blast a foe with life force.
2	Dark Path	0.75¾	15	Send out a claw. If this attack hits a foe, you teleport to that foe, bleeding them and chilling nearby foes.
3	Doom		20	Make your foe flee in fear, increased duration at close range.
4	Life Transfer	30.5½	40	Damage nearby foes and steal their life force.
5	Tainted Shackles	0.25¼	40	Bind nearby enemies with your life force, conditioning them repeatedly. If enemies move out of range of this ability, the bind will break. If the bind is allowed to expire, it immobilizes and damages them.

Aquatic

	Skill			Description
1	Plague Blast	0.5½		Blast a foe with a plague that transfers one condition to them.
2	Dark Water	0.5½	15	Blind and poison foes near your target with a dark cloud.
3	Wave of Fear	0.5½	25	Terrify all foes in front of you with a wave of fear.
4	Gathering Plague	10.25¼	30	Draw conditions from nearby allies to yourself, and inflict weakness on yourself.
5	Tainted Shackles	0.25¼	40	Bind nearby enemies with your life force, conditioning them repeatedly. If enemies move out of range of this ability, the bind will break. If the bind is allowed to expire, it immobilizes and damages them.

Related traits

Traits that improve Death Shroud

•  Spiteful Spirit — Strike around you when entering shroud.
•  Furious Demise — Gain fury when entering shroud.
•  Weakening Shroud — Cast enfeeble when entering shroud. Critical hits inflict weakness.
•  Armored Shroud — Gain bonus toughness while in shroud.
•  Beyond the Veil — Whenever you leave shroud, you and your minions gain protection.
•  Shrouded Removal — Lose a condition when you enter shroud and every few seconds while you remain in shroud.
•  Deadly Strength — Gain power based on your toughness. Power gain doubles while in shroud.
•  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.
•  Life from Death — Heal and partially revive allies in an area when you exit shroud.
•  Unholy Martyr — Entering shroud transfers conditions from allies to you. Exiting shroud consumes conditions currently on you and converts them to life force.
•  Speed of Shadows — Entering shroud grants swiftness and removes movement-impairing conditions
•  Vital Persistence — Gain Vitality. Shroud skills gain reduced recharge.
•  Foot in the Grave — Gain stability and break stuns when you enter shroud.
•  Death Perception — Increases critical-hit chance while in shroud.

Traits that improve Death Shroud skills

•  Reaper's Might — Shroud skill 1 grants might.
•  Path of Corruption — Shroud skill 2 now additionally converts boons into conditions.
•  Transfusion — Shroud skill 4 heals and partially revives nearby allies. Up to five downed allies near you teleport to your location while you're channeling shroud skill 4.
•  Unyielding Blast — Shroud skill 1 causes vulnerability.
•  Dhuumfire — Shroud skill 1 inflicts burning on your target.

Notes

• Grants the Death Shroud effect.
• When activating Death Shroud a character will occasionally shout out one of the following lines, depending on their race and gender:

Race	Gender
	Male	Female
Asura	I am Death Incarnate!	I am Death!
Charr	I am Death Incarnate!	I am Death Incarnate!
Human	I am Death Incarnate!	I am Death Incarnate!
Norn	I am Death!	I am Death Incarnate!
Sylvari	I am Death Incarnate!	I am Death Incarnate!

Version history

For a detailed skill history, see here.

Patch	Changes
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 September 22, 2017 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 July 23, 2013 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.
• The March 26, 2013 update removed the custom interface and moved the skills to a normal weapon skill bar.
• Originally Death Shroud would cause the necromancer to "rewind" back to the point where they activated the shroud, but this was scrapped as too confusing to use. This mechanic was later used for Spectral Walk.
• At one point during development, the necromancer would enter Death Shroud when downed.
• Prior to 25th June, 2013 update entering Death Shroud removed Spectral effects.
• The weapon wielded in Death Shroud counts as a staff and will count towards the Staff Master Achievement.

Gallery

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

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  Old underwater interface

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Skill types and profession mechanics