How is Rifle Deadeye?

I really wanna make a rifle deadeye, but I was wondering how they're preforming at the moment?

For which content in particular? Or just overall?

@Archivist.8109 said:I really wanna make a rifle deadeye, but I was wondering how they're preforming at the moment?

PVP/WVW = They're fine.PVE = You're on bottom bracket for DPS and it provides 0 to little utility, so for raids, raid challenge motes and fractal challenge motes, you may have a difficult time filling spots. However, for everything else below that, you'll be just fine, as the damage required to clear them is minimun 7K DPS (T4 dailies for example).

In PVE => Useless (no more damage, no utility for group)In PvP => No testIn WvW => Need at least damage increase slightly for rifle and make the "4" instant cast when kneel activated

As always: play what you consider fun, but do consider that there are optimal (meta) builds / team comps and that some people will want you to adhere to them. This is true in every game mode, but it's especially true for fractal / raid / pvp content. That said:sPvP: deadeye gets hard countered by every other thief build + mesmers. It's also quite suboptimal since most players know how to line of sight you. If you want to go pew pew on thief, p/p would be better, although sufferes from the same counters as rifle thief.PvE: I do not know of a meta power build for rifle deadeye. EDIT : snowcrows have a build there, I'd trust it to be at least viable.WvW: for roaming play what you want since most of the playerbase is less "aware" then in spvp I'd say and you don't suffer line of sight probs. You won't however have a place in blob fights / gvg.

Only real place where rifle deadeye suffers greatly is spvp I'd say. Don't play it there. Everywhere else it''s more or less fine.

Depending on who you talk to it’s either “useless” or “good” in every game mode.

Deadeye won’t play like a traditional thief so that contributes to round peg square hole syndrome — where the person tries to play Deadeye exactly like base thief or Daredevil and ends up disappointed.

Rifle is an interesting weapon. You should use the extra range it can have. You should consider that Deadeye benefits from eliminating weak targets first but can also take down a more bunker oriented target when it needs to. The advantage of Deadeye rifle is being able to swap targets and start applying damage quickly. It may be single target but sometimes you want to prevent your enemy from free casting.

Sure, there may be dps concerns at times, but don’t discount the weapon’s utility in other respects.

@saerni.2584 said:Depending on who you talk to it’s either “useless” or “good” in every game mode.

in WvW its mostly 'useless' or 'OP' its is rarely 'good' at least i dont know many people that would say that.because a bad player would be better of playing anything but deadeye, tho when it come to better deadeyes, most builds are just no threat to a deadeye as you need to be able to burst a target that is on range pretty much instantly. even many groups can only survive not kill a deadeye. in a small scale fight you cannot focus a deadeye unless you have instant range burst but if you ignore the deadeye you will die quickly unless you got multiple supporters.most deadeyes in WvW are really bad , thats why we had alot of threads about DJ being OP, but still none in the WvW section that asks malicious backstab to be nerfed. old DJ oneshot was so easy to execute i was able to teach a rather bad player that didnt really play thief before to play it and he did kill alot of people often even while outnumbered with it. now after the rework he says deadeye is too hard to play and too weak, but if the deadeye is half decen+ then the new deadeye especially with malicious backstab is alot stronger then deadeye before the rework, because many can avoid a DJ, while avoiding a Backstab is more luck then skill.

@ OP as you probably can see i would advise you to use next to your rifle a d/x set in WvW at the very least a non projectile based set. because as ysmir already mentioned projectiles can in theory be countered easily, it doesnt happen all that often in WvW but you should be prepared for it. and playing DE in WvW you should be prepared that people will hate you for it. if you are bad then your server will hate you and if your good your opponents will hate you. i mean i even recive whispers that i cannot fight fair or 1 vs 1 right after killing that person 1 vs 4 . if you can laugh about that salt go for it :3

Rifle is quite weak in pvp. It was top solo que before reword. After rework rifle is good only for gold league

I have been called cheaters 3 times in a row while playing my DE in WvW.

Rifle Deadeye is useless in instanced PvE beyond dungeons and low tier fractals. Dagger/dagger Deadeye isn't bad so long as you can time cooldowns but lacks utility and doesn't have the high damage to offset the squishiness of the profession.

The only modes I play with regularity are some open world PVE (Ie no fractals or raids) and WvW.

Rifle DE is excellent in both.

The major strengths in WvW are , excellent escape abilities when outnumbered. The ability to function in large fights and make a significant impact without getting wrecked by AOE bombs and better then average 1v1 potential. Great using on castle walls or below them when defending or attacking.

I agree with MUDSE that the DE "better" now then it was before changes (I use Rifle d/p as well) but would disagree on the DJ being easier to avoid over a backstab. When all taken into consideration , I tend to have better success with the DJ in getting one to land. This due to a number of factors and of course changes depending on the circumstance one is in. IE if in small scale Backstab more reliable against very specific classes (warrior/ranger) and not so much so others (Necromancer/mesmer). In larger fights I do not even bother with a backstab unless it on people that break out of their group and on the periphery. Tactically there also on the spot calls to be made as in if the enemy player staying very mobile Backstab is harder to land then DJ . That all said if the enemy is not moving around a lot and you can get that backstab in , Malcious backstab is devastating and preferable with this one caveat. If I can get a DJ sure to hit off at 20000 damage , and I can get a sure hit malicous backstab off with 30000 damage and the enemy at 14000 health, does it matter which I use?

If you use Silent Scope for rifle dodge stealth, save a Shadow Meld or something for stationary stealth when you need it for tight boss fights near a drop off or a wall in WvW or whatever. Dodge for stealth is dumb but passable and that's the main issue I run into, otherwise rifle DE is fine and even excellent at times and has more than one or two interesting builds with different weapon kits and traits, for open world and WvW. You'd likely have a hard time warranting your place in pve instances though if you're thinking of rifle as your main weapon and you do that stuff and you'll need to stealth for DJ now if you need to stay unstealthed for a point take or something.

@babazhook.6805 said:but would disagree on the DJ being easier to avoid over a backstab. When all taken into consideration , I tend to have better success with the DJ in getting one to land. This due to a number of factors and of course changes depending on the circumstance one is in. IE if in small scale Backstab more reliable against very specific classes (warrior/ranger) and not so much so others (Necromancer/mesmer). In larger fights I do not even bother with a backstab unless it on people that break out of their group and on the periphery. Tactically there also on the spot calls to be made as in if the enemy player staying very mobile Backstab is harder to land then DJ . That all said if the enemy is not moving around a lot and you can get that backstab in , Malcious backstab is devastating and preferable with this one caveat. If I can get a DJ sure to hit off at 20000 damage , and I can get a sure hit malicous backstab off with 30000 damage and the enemy at 14000 health, does it matter which I use?

it is harder for the thief to execute a possibly hitting Backstab then a DJ. but it is alot harder for the target to avoid a backstab then a DJ. for me its better if the risk to fail the onehit is depending on my actions then on my opponents. i dont want to try till my opponent fails, but till i succeed.

@MUDse.7623 said:

@"babazhook.6805" said:but would disagree on the DJ being easier to avoid over a backstab. When all taken into consideration , I tend to have better success with the DJ in getting one to land. This due to a number of factors and of course changes depending on the circumstance one is in. IE if in small scale Backstab more reliable against very specific classes (warrior/ranger) and not so much so others (Necromancer/mesmer). In larger fights I do not even bother with a backstab unless it on people that break out of their group and on the periphery. Tactically there also on the spot calls to be made as in if the enemy player staying very mobile Backstab is harder to land then DJ . That all said if the enemy is not moving around a lot and you can get that backstab in , Malcious backstab is devastating and preferable with this one caveat. If I can get a DJ sure to hit off at 20000 damage , and I can get a sure hit malicous backstab off with 30000 damage and the enemy at 14000 health, does it matter which I use?

yes a backstab harder to anticipate but with the changes to DJ last patch , DJ is much harder to avoid then prior. The cast time was lowered by a quarter second, it made unblockable (you can still block backstab unless BV used up) and like backstab it now "ini free". What I am finding in game terms is that the main damage avoidance technique to a DJ is now Dodge. Prior to the patch, not only was Block able to stop a DJ , but the enemy tended to have more dodges. This was because the DE was reluctant to use TRB and Skirmishers because they needed that INI to set up their DJ. It now much more likely I use these attacks and they can not just be ignored as they can churn out significant damage. I am finding that I am able to use a DJ that is well telegraphed yet have it hit simply because all dodges baited.

Sad to say WvW its also pretty bad. It might feel like its good when you can surprise gib someone from a ways off, but if you can do it with Deadeye, you probably could have done it with any class. On top of that, you're iffy when it comes to soloing camps, which is the main thing you want to do when roaming. You're also garbage in a zerg, where you could be a variety of other classes that offer aoe damage and control. It seems fun when you're not under pressure, but as soon as you're in a fight, it will become apparent exactly how little you can really do.

@Archivist.8109 said:I really wanna make a rifle deadeye, but I was wondering how they're preforming at the moment?

Still not working as intended. Maybe another, rework?

Game is balanced btw.

Rifle's primary issue is that it is a 1v1 bursting weapon and lacks any kind of real aoe to it. At what it does, I find it to be amazingly strong as you could burst things down super fast, but it takes some practice getting to the point where you do that comfortably. You can generally drop 25 might on yourself quite easily, particularly if you use the trait to use stolen skills twice and those skills provide a lot of buffs. You can also generally maintain well over a minute of fury on yourself. The nature of all the percent increases make it so the deadeye is a class that really benefits from maxing out your damage. Generally in pve, kneel 2 is your staple skill because it immobilizes, keeping your range advantage, kneel 3 stacks a good bit of might. If you open with f2 *2, you'll have full might right there. I usually run sword/pistol in the offhand for dealing with situations where I can't avoid getting mobbed down and want to cleave them while sitting in the pistol 5.

All in all, rifle is one of my favorite weapons now, but it's a shame it doesn't half some kind of aoe on it to help it out for things like fractals.