How do you use your Death Shroud?

[Hersir]

Here's a build as an example. If one wants more conditions the staff is probably better but I like the flexibility and pure damage of the axe and war horn.

http://www.gw2tools.com/skills#n;kka...UWg;cXYd;ZVUgb

I haven't tried it out in PVE at lvl 80 for obvious reasons and I don't claim to be an expert but it looks fun? More power in Shroud and fast reloads and many conditions.

[calderstrake]

i kinda don't see a use for it, enemies die before i even have a use for it.
tried playing with it but when i have to trade 8 skills and full weapon swap control for 4 pretty useless skills and a GW1 minion health bar it falls in the "neat but useless" category.

This.

I actually quit playing necro because of the death shroud. Going into the BWE it was my anticipated primary profession. I'm not sure what the design plan was for this class, but it's a far cry from what I was expecting and too far from what I found enjoyable about necro in GW.

[Alaris]

I really enjoyed the summons with the new functions they have, that is closer to what I always wanted summoners to be like.

The death shroud honestly never felt central to the profession for me, much like if I played thief I wouldn't use stealing all that much.

[Hersir]

I felt the same regarding the Death Shroud the first 15 levels where it was basically used for rundning away or prolonging the inevitable. Now at 25+ I use it every fight. Maybe it's because of traits but I did it before adding points to it. I do find it effective when used as basically a weapon swap and some time for conditions to do some damage while I hurt them with life blast and life transfer and reposition myself.

As for less skills in Death shroud typically 6-8 and sometimes the elite is on cool down so they add squat to options anyway and I can allow them to become available again while I take zero dmg to my hp.

[Alaris]

I'll probably learn to use death shroud, especially if it's useful. I like the animation, and having another weapon swap with extra health is a good thing. But most of the time I'll focus on minions mainly. Any idea of how strong the minions are later in the game? I thought they were good but tended to die quickly (not nearly as quickly as illusions though).

[Hersir]

I'm not much of a minion man myself so I haven't tried them with traits or indeed at all. I'm more into a shaman type death walker. The big issue with the minions are the AI if you ask me but I don't know if they get tougher which woul help of course. I do believe the minions stay and fight while you flitter about looking cool as a Death Shroud.

[Alaris]

I'll be doing most of my looking cool as a charr, thank you.

The AI was not to my satisfaction with the ranger pet, but since you only have one, that was a big deal. The AI matters less when you have an army. With the necro, I had 5 or 6 pets around me and losing one was not a big deal I could resummon it. Tough fights I'd lose a few. I'd lose track of them too, so if one got lost it would get itself killed and I'd resummon.

[Hersir]

See this is one of the reasons why I love GW2: There's several equally valid ways of playing the same profession. I can think of at least six variants of basic strategies for the Necromancer alone and the weapon swaps means I can switch approach mid fight. Add in gear and trait adjustments and you have a lot of flexibility.

[Alaris]

I am really excited about weapon swaps.

I find it harder to get excited about heal/optionals/elite though because while there is some flexibility, I often find that there are not enough variability in the skills I do like. The minion master, for example, has 6 summon skills, and removing the immobile one because I find it boring (others might disagree), that means there is only one way to build my 5 non-weapon skills if I want to have all 5 skills being summons. 2-3 more summon skills would go a long way towards allowing me to customize my army of darkness.

Still, it's a great improvement over GW1 because I can have my army and still have two weapon sets which means I am useful in-between summoning as well. I love that. Also, my summons each get a skill I can use.

Plus, as you say, I can be viable without summons if I choose to, or take a few summons and a few non-summon skills.

[RabidCoqui]

I'm trying to see if a Death Shroud heavy build is viable. I plan on using either dagger or axe main with dagger offhand most likely and traits for Death Shroud. Too early to tell... we'll see.