Hm, first it is important to remember that whenever you gain something, you lose something else. So it's generally not a good idea to try and fill too many roles. I would suggest picking one role, whether it be damage or support or tanky control or what have you, to specialize in and then add some elements of another role where it fits. For example, if you were to specialize in condition damage, adding Plague Signet or Corrupt Boon are good support/control options that also benefit the damage aspect.
One of many possible examples.
I'm uncertain about the XII soul reaping trait selection: recharging death shroud faster means that I can pop in, fear, pop out and then do it again faster--good for interrupts and a bit of extra damage. The other option gives me stability on entering death shroud, which is definitely also useful.
Even with the recharge reduction on your DS skills, the recharge time on each of them is still over 10 seconds, so getting a 5 second DS recharge doesn't help you cast any more Dooms or Dark Paths. Stability would be a much more useful option here.
Focus as opposed to dagger offhand gives me a chill in both weapon sets, the ability to remove boons, and a bit of increased support with some regeneration on allies. Dagger offhand would give me an AOE vulerability/bleed and a bouncing blind that doubles as a condition removal. With well of blood as the heal choice (for more party support if I can get the party to go in it
), this build has no condition removal with the focus offhand besides the #4 on staff, which requires being in the mark and thus close to the enemy.
You don't need to be inside Putrid Mark to transfer conditions from yourself to your enemy. For your heal and offhand, I would go one of two ways:
Damage: Consume Conditions with Dagger offhand. The recharge time on Consume Conditions is almost half Well of Blood's. This will help your survivability a ton. The Dagger's bleeds are definitely nice, and it also gives weakness (not vulnerability) in addition to the blind, which can help your party out.
Support: Well of Blood with Focus offhand and 20 points in blood (III and VIII). Lots more heals for your party, and a couple more bleeds from Mark of Evasion as well.
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So as for your build
the last time I tried the damage on fear trait, it was soooo pitifully bad, even with increased fear duration. You have only two fears: Doom and Reaper's Mark. Each only lasts 1 second with a very spam-unfriendly recharge time. So 50% increased fear gives you half a second... blah. It might help in PvP where that half second could make all the difference, but in PvE there are much better options.
In Curses, II is an excellent trait for any condition damage build, highly recommended. IV can also be good (especially with reduced DS recharge time
), except that your have to be close to your target(s) for it to work. III would go nicely with the Dagger offhand and Well of Darkness, and would more than make up for the loss of your Focus's chill.
In Soul Reaping, X can get you some crazy good life force regen if you need it. II is nice for survivability, but you'd be kinda stuck spamming Life Blast and you lack Power/Vitality to make that very good. IV could be good here if you get another spectral ability, and is worth a thought.
For utilities, hrm, Signet of Spite does not look good here. You do not benefit from the passive power, and while the crap ton of conditions are silly, they only last 5 seconds or less, and with a long cooldown. Not too useful. (And come on,
1 bleed? Pfffff! xD) It would be more useful in PvP where much can happen in that time span. Well of Darkness I'd put in the same boat as Well of Blood: there are better options unless you spec more for Wells. And if you don't use the wells, IX in Curses is useless. I would suggest any of the following for your trait setup:
Spectral Wall: If you choose to get traits for spectral stuff (X in Curses and IV in Soul Reaping), seeing how you have Spectral Armor already, this would be great. Make a foe run through it twice for 20 vulnerability (no need for Focus), + protection for all allies that run through it (does not stack, but you can run through again after it wears off for more), + a combo field. Gooooood stuff.
Blood is Power: Amazing with Dagger offhand, or Staff 4. Bleeds, more bleeds, lots of Might, and a low recharge rate. (Curses VII makes this even better.)
Corrupt Boon: Dunno 'bout this in PvE, but could be a (better) substitute for Focus 5. (Curses VII also improves this.)
Epidemic: Amazing for AoE, useless otherwise. (Curses VII improves this too!)
Plague Signet: Condition support ftw. Would definitely go with Consume Conditions and a Dagger offhand for this to help keep conditions off everyone.
Signet of Undeath: Very good support utility. The life force regen is pretty bad, but the active can save from a wipe. Just make sure everyone dies in the same spot; the radius isn't very big. xD
Finally for the gear, I'd keep the Rabid stuff but change the runes to either a full Undead set or a bunch of 2-piece sets to increase bleed duration (Afflicted/Krait/Lyssa/Centaur). For sigils: Earth on Scepter for more bleeds on crits, Minor Corruption for lots more condition damage (just don't die!), and Geomancy (bleeds on swap) are all very good for condition damage. Energy would be good if you choose to get III in Blood: more endurance on swap = more survivabilty + bleeds + regen for everyone.
My goal is to be more survivable, have good attrition damage, and still have some support.
I don't claim to be any kind of build master, and the following builds aren't meant to be the end all be all - you can always substitute skills or traits to better fit your play style (actually I'd strongly recommend that you do so) - but here are some quick ideas:
Condition Damage with Spectral Support
-Fairly standard Conditionmancer build with Spectral stuff instead of Corruption stuff, trades potential damage from utilities for defense and support.
Condition Damage with Well Support
-Much more support oriented, trades Precision for Healing Power for boosted regen and Wells of Blood.
Hybrid Staff/Signet
-Build focused on Marks and Signets with both power and condition damage. The Staff itself is a great support weapon; this build maximizes its potential while providing more support through signets. The Scepter/Dagger here is more for condition transfer, cripple, and weakness. You could use either Carrion gear for vitality or Rampager gear for precision.
DS Dance Build
-A funky build based on going in and out of Death Shroud every 5 seconds, this is just one of many variations. It is focused more on bleeds and healing. Upon entering Death Shroud, you cause bleeding, weakness, and gain fury. When you leave it, you heal everyone. Since you can have a permanent +20% crit chance, I swapped out some precision for healing power.
Hope some of that helped. :3
