Not sure which node adds a splash/AoE.
You can get that from blessings.
Yeah, I’ve been messing around with Bone Curse on Transplant (4.3s cooldown) & Cursed Limbs (5s of Bone Curse on hit) for full Bone Curse uptime. And it allows me to have another skill (Skellie Mages) on my skill bar.
Or you can proc it with Shift while DWing. It needing DW is for thematic reasons given the Bladedancer is focussed around DWing.
It’s free by default & can generate mana with the Sapping Strikes passive unless you take the Overexertion node which has the mana cost in exchange for a massive AoE on every hit.
Obviously it does, but I kinda disagree, all of them can to some degree, except the Void Knight & that can get ridiculous amounts of flat void spell damage from Vitality. I don’t think that every mastery or build should get pen & shred included as part of the skill & passive tree by default as that would make them too similar & lacking variety. But don’t forget that you can get shred from blessings if you want to. So every build can already get shred & the vast majority get some form of shred &/or pen from passives (I didn’t check skill trees 'cause I couldn’t be arsed).