How to wrap node output with a link using Display Suite? how would I best wrap my entire node in an  tag linking to the full node? My nodes are display using Display Suite and a custom view mode.

I'm guessing creating a php template and manually writing the link somehow would work?
A good option for this is Field Group Link.

For your case, basically you need to create a field group wrapping the whole node, and set the group type to 'Link'.