Death's Embrace

Deal increased strike damage while downed. Inflict vulnerability when you strike a foe below the health threshold. Cannot apply vulnerability to the same target more than once per interval. — In-game description

Death's Embrace

Specialization

Spite (trait list)

Tier

Master

Type

Minor

Training cost

4 Hero points

Game link

“

10

Death's Embrace

Deal increased strike damage while downed. Inflict vulnerability when you strike a foe below the health threshold.
Cannot apply vulnerability to the same target more than once per interval.

 Damage Increase: 25%

 Damage Increase: 5%

 Health Threshold: 50%

₅ Vulnerability (8s): +5% Incoming Damage, +5% Incoming Condition Damage

₅ Vulnerability (6s): +5% Incoming Damage, +5% Incoming Condition Damage

 Interval: 10 seconds

— In-game description

Related skills

Downed skills that are improved by this trait

•   Death Curse
•   Feeding Frenzy
•   Fetid Ground
•   Life Leech

Version history

For a detailed trait history, see here.

Patch	Changes
January 13, 2026	Skill has been removed and replaced by Awaken the Pain.
May 11, 2021	Text on many damage-increasing profession traits, runes, and sigils has been clarified to indicate whether they increase outgoing strike damage, condition damage, or all damage, as appropriate.
February 25, 2020	Competitive content update: (Competitive split) Reduced bonus damage while downed from 25% to 5%. Reduced vulnerability duration from 8 seconds to 6 seconds.
December 12, 2017	Increased vulnerability stacks from 1 to 5 and increased duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds. Increased enemy health threshold from 33% to 50%. Vulnerability can now only be applied to the same foe once every 10 seconds.
June 23, 2015	Specialization update: Updated this trait to reflect the introduction of the specialization mechanic. This trait has been moved to the Master minor tier. Reduced damage increase while downed to 25%. Added: Striking foes below 33% health inflicts 1 stack of vulnerability for 5 seconds.
August 28, 2012	Game release: Death's Embrace has been added to the game.