Sandstorm Shroud

Shade. Enter the final shroud, pulsing barrier to allies around yourself and priming the shroud for a powerful detonation that damages enemies and bolsters allies. Targets can only be affected by this skill once per activation. — In-game description

Sandstorm Shroud

Profession

Necromancer (trait skill list)

Specialization

Scourge

Trait

 Herald of Sorrow

Type

Shade, Shroud

Game link

API

54870

“

20

35

30

 

Sandstorm Shroud

Shade. Enter the final shroud, pulsing barrier to allies around yourself and priming the shroud for a powerful detonation that damages enemies and bolsters allies.
Targets can only be affected by this skill once per activation.

 Life Force Cost: 3,224

 Damage: 798 (3.0)^?

 Damage: 598 (2.25)^?

 Barrier per Pulse: 325 (0.3)^?

 Barrier per Pulse: 543 (0.35)^?

 Barrier per Pulse: 543 (0.65)^?

 Barrier on Detonation: 650 (0.6)^?

 Barrier on Detonation: 1,079 (0.7)^?

 Barrier on Detonation: 1,079 (1.3)^?

₆ Torment (5s): 660 Damage, 954 Damage if Foe Is Stationary

₃ Protection (10.5½s): -33% Incoming Damage

₃ Protection (1s): -33% Incoming Damage

 Protection (3s): -33% Incoming Damage

 Protection (2s): -33% Incoming Damage

 Boons Converted to Conditions: 2

 Number of Targets: 3

 Number of Allied Targets: 5

 Duration: 30.5½ seconds

 Radius: 180

 Barrier Radius: 300

— In-game description

Mechanics

• The pulsing barrier and protection effect occurs 3 times and affects 5 allies (including the Scourge) in a 300 unit radius around the caster, and is not duplicated by Sand Shades from Manifest Sand Shade.
• Additional instances created by Sand Shades will detonate normally even if the Shade expires. Shades created while the skill is active will not duplicate the detonation.
• The barrier radius is not increased by the Sand Savant trait.

Bug:

The indicator displayed incorrectly scales with the character model size while the actual hit radius is always 180 units. For example for asura the indicator is smaller than the actual radius while for charr it is larger than the actual radius.

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.
• Parasitic Contagion — A percentage of your condition damage heals you. Healing will not occur while life force replaces health.
• Target the Weak — Increases critical-hit chance for each condition on the foe. Gain condition damage based on your 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.
• Dark Defiance — If you are disabled, gain protection. Incoming condition damage is reduced while you have protection. Disables include stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, sink, float, fear, taunt, and launch.
• Corrupter's Fervor — Inflicting a condition on a foe grants carapace. Gain pulsing protection while at or above the carapace threshold.
• 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

• Life from Death — Heal allies in an area when you exit shroud. Increase healing to other allies.
• 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.

Scourge

• Abrasive Grit — Granting an ally a barrier removes conditions afflicting them and grants might. This effect only occurs with barrier from scourge skills and traits.
• Nourishing Ashes — Gain life force when you inflict burning, and remove or corrupt a boon.
• Feed from Corruption — When you remove or corrupt a boon from an enemy, gain barrier.
• Herald of Sorrow — Desert Shroud becomes Sandstorm Shroud.
• Sand Savant — Summon only one shade at a time. This greater shade has a modified recharge. Influence a larger area with shade skills. A greater shade counts as three shades for related traits.
• Demonic Lore — Torment you inflict deals increased damage and causes your foes to burn. This trait can only inflict burning on a particular target once every three seconds.
• Desert Empowerment — Manifest Sand Shade grants a barrier to allies near it. When you apply barrier, grant boons to the affected target. This effect only occurs with barrier from scourge skills and traits.

Trivia

• The Scourge may occasionally shout one of these lines when entering Sandstorm Shroud:

Know pain!

Mantled in death.

May the sands take you!

Torment is my ally!

Version history

For a detailed skill history, see here.

Patch	Changes
March 19, 2024	Increased the cooldown from 30 seconds to 35 seconds in WvW only.
November 28, 2023	Reduced the pulse healing power coefficient from 0.65 to 0.35 and the final healing power coefficient from 1.3 to 0.7 in WvW only.
September 26, 2023	Reduced torment duration from 10 seconds to 5 seconds in PvE only.
July 18, 2023	This skill now grants 1.5 seconds of protection to nearby allies each pulse, and 3 seconds of protection to nearby allies on detonation.
June 27, 2023	This skill now pulses barrier to allies near the scourge before it detonates.
February 28, 2022	End of Dragons release: The base barrier granted by the skills Sand Cascade, Sand Flare, Desert Empowerment, Desert Shroud, and Sandstorm Shroud has been reduced. The contribution of healing power on these skills has been increased.
August 17, 2021	This skill has been renamed to Sandstorm Shroud. Reduced initial base barrier from 5,016 to 4,013 in PvP only. Reduced final base barrier from 1,684 to 1,327 in PvP only.
April 06, 2021	Reduced barrier attribute scaling on detonation from 2.0 to 1.65 in PvP only.
March 26, 2019	Removed an unnecessary skill fact for number of pulses. This skill now appropriately corrupts boons upon detonation.
March 05, 2019	Harbinger Shroud has been added to the game. Herald of Sorrow: Equipping this trait turns Desert Shroud into Harbinger Shroud, which removes the pulsing effects of Desert Shroud and instead shifts into a single detonation after a 3-second delay. This trait deals damage, corruption, and conditions in one strike while providing barrier to allies within the vicinity.