Death Spiral

Conjure a drill of dark energy on your blade, and rend the armor of foes in front of you. — In-game description

Death Spiral

Profession

Necromancer (skill list)

Specialization

Reaper

Weapon

Greatsword

Game link

API

30860

“

1  10  

Death Spiral

Conjure a drill of dark energy on your blade, and rend the armor of foes in front of you.

 Damage: 1,210 (3.0)^?

 Damage: 645 (1.6)^?

 Life Siphon Damage: 3,527

 Life Siphon Damage: 1,769

 First-Hit Life Siphon Healing: 3,517

 First-Hit Life Siphon Healing: 1,774

 Additional-Hit Healing: 586

 Additional-Hit Healing: 296

₁₂ Vulnerability (10s): +12% Incoming Damage, +12% Incoming Condition Damage

₁₂ Vulnerability (6s): +12% Incoming Damage, +12% Incoming Condition Damage

 Number of Targets: 3

 Combo Finisher: Whirl

 Range: 240

— In-game description

Related traits

Curses

• Target the Weak — Increases critical-hit chance for each condition on the foe. Gain condition damage based on your precision.

Death Magic

• Corrupter's Fervor — Inflicting a condition on a foe grants carapace. Gain pulsing protection while at or above the carapace threshold.

Reaper

• Decimate Defenses — Striking a foe with vulnerability increases your critical hit chance.

Version history

For a detailed skill history, see here.

Patch	Changes
January 13, 2026	This skill no longer grants life force and instead steals life from enemies that it strikes. Reduced the power coefficient from 1.8 to 1.6 in PvP and WvW. Reduced the aftercast by 0.2 seconds. (Undocumented) Decreased number of strikes from 6 to 1.
February 11, 2025	Increased the angle of this skill's hit box.
May 02, 2023	Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from creating Combo Finisher: Whirl the correct number of times.
November 29, 2022	Increased life force gain per hit from 2% to 3% in PvE only.
August 23, 2022	(PvE only) Damage multiplier per hit increased from 0.425 to 0.5.
August 17, 2021	(Undocumented) This skill is now a whirl finisher.
February 25, 2020	Competitive content update: (Competitive split) Reduced power coefficient per strike from 0.35 to 0.3. Reduced vulnerability duration from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.
April 23, 2019	Reduced the recharge time from 12 seconds to 10 seconds. Increased the range from 220 to 240 to make the range a standard multiple of 60. Adjusted the visual effects of this skill to be more pronounced. Narrowed the attack cone so that this skill's attack region more accurately matches its animation. Removed bonus damage to targets above 50% health. Increased base damage by 28% in PvE and 6% in PvP and WvW.
July 10, 2018	This skill now deals increased damage to targets above 50% health, with the increase being 50% in PvE and 10% in PvP and WvW.
February 22, 2017	The damage of this skill has been increased by 20%.
October 18, 2016	The damage of this ability has been increased by 66%.
October 23, 2015	Heart of Thorns release: Death Spiral has been added to the game.