So, I've been pondering some alternative builds for the necro after taking a look at the new traitlines and the upcoming Reaper skills, and I think Berserker's may well cease to be the agreed-on necro meta for any existing power builds, if my hunch is right.
Essentially, Berserker's gear may well fly out the window because of this Death Magic trait:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Deadly_Strength7% of your existing toughness as damage at all times, and 14% in Death/Reaper Shroud sounds incredibly tasty. Throw in some runes that increase toughness, and you get a hell lot of damage -- and also the ability to tank physical damage thrown at you.
The only downside to using toughness in your gear would be that you lack precision or ferocity, but the latter can be solved with Death Perception, which grants 50% crit chance in Shroud, and if you're a Reaper, Decimate Defenses, which grants increasing crit chance for every stack of vuln you put on an enemy:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Death_Perceptionhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Decimate_DefensesAnd there's always a problem with condi damage (but a necro can toy with condis anyway). I can forsee this build getting quite some use in PvE, maybe even PvP and WvW (I have no understanding of the latter two though, so don't quote me on that).
As for Valkyrie's, it'd increase the amount of life force you have, and therefore it'd allow you to stay longer in Shroud; you'd hit for less but have longer, more consistent damage, and be more resistant to condi damage. Personally, I prefer to go in hard and burst down the enemy with everything I have in a few blows.
So, thoughts? Is anyone interested in testing it out? You'd need Runes of the Brawler, I think. I'd do it now but I still need another set of ascended armor before I decide to test it.