New to Deadeye -- What does Malice do?

I've looked up in wiki, other Deadeye posts, and still don't know what function it has.

Does it increase damage? Chance for rifle crits?

I usually kill the target before the malice level gets very high or have to break off my attack and focus on something else.

your stealth attacks gain a sclaing effects based on malice when used on your marked target and will consume malice on hitting your marked target with it, with 5+ malice your stolen skills will grant stealth, with malicious 7 you will get boons and initative when you hit 7 malice, with mercy you gain initative base on malice.

thats pretty much all there is to malice, the wiki is not up to date it still says something about perfectionist wich is now in malicious seven trait and nothing about stolen skills and stealth attacks all sacaling with malice there.

@"Game of Bones.8975" said:I've looked up in wiki, other Deadeye posts, and still don't know what function it has.

Does it increase damage? Chance for rifle crits?

I usually kill the target before the malice level gets very high or have to break off my attack and focus on something else.

Think about it as Anger or Frustration level. The longer it takes for your target to die, the angrier you get, making your damage more potent.

Example:Death's Judgment - "If this attack hits your mark, it consumes all malice and deals increased damage for each malice consumed."+25% damage per stack/point.

So even if you didn't reach the max Malice, each point still contributes to your Stealth Attack damage.

@"Sir Vincent III.1286" said:Death's Judgment - "If this attack hits your mark, it consumes all malice and deals increased damage for each malice consumed."+25% damage per stack/point.

It's split, correct?PvE: 25%PvP/WvW: 15%

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@"Game of Bones.8975" said:I've looked up in wiki, other Deadeye posts, and still don't know what function it has.

Does it increase damage? Chance for rifle crits?

I usually kill the target before the malice level gets very high or have to break off my attack and focus on something else.

That is by far the best summation of Malice I have ever seen. Bravo.

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@"Game of Bones.8975" said:I've looked up in wiki, other Deadeye posts, and still don't know what function it has.

Does it increase damage? Chance for rifle crits?

I usually kill the target before the malice level gets very high or have to break off my attack and focus on something else.

Short answer: Allows a build to one shot any number of players. The only skill in the game that often kills a player before their "oh crap" trait kicks in such as 2s Evasion when health drops below 50%.

Not saying it is unbalanced since it takes a while to generate and a player has to work for that kill.

@Kageseigi.2150 said:

@"Sir Vincent III.1286" said:Death's Judgment - "If this attack hits your mark, it consumes all malice and deals increased damage for each malice consumed."+25% damage per stack/point.

It's just an example, but yes, it differs in game mode.

@"Straegen.2938" said:Short answer: Allows a build to one shot any number of players.

Oh, please be careful of the terminology. Except for outliers, malice itself does not allow a Thief to "one-shot" opponents. Under most circumstances, malice is built up over combat by hitting the marked target. This means that except for extreme situations, there is no "one-shotting" even against a marked target. However, it does eventually lead to a single shot being able to down an opponent even if they fully heal up in the midst of combat.

Usually, it will take 2-3 critical hits or 4-6 normal hits before maximum damage can be achieved with malice.

Just trying to avoid feeding Thief-haters who use any excuse to spew propaganda. A Deadeye is barely any likelier to truly one-shot an opponent as any other Thief.

Reworked malice system give the user increased effectiveness on their stealth attack ( damage/duration/endurance/projectile count per stack based on the weapon). This condition make Deadeye trait user need to dump initiative skill as much as possible (also having a high critical rate for malice stack bonus) in order to maximize stealth attack potential. In short, it's a must for Deadeye user to spam their initiative skill compared to other trait.

I like the mag 7 since it can give me some initiative and allows me to somewhat get multiple judge shots in before I have to refresh mark. I may be gimping myself by relying too much on the mag 7 trait to restore initiative as I am running a crit, poison, and of course dead eye trait. I have my crit give me semi-permanent fury and might when I get fury while poison trait line gives my shadow gust and marker poison with longer duration and also number 2 skill when kneeling down.

Edit: well the above statement is off topic, so here is an on topic one. As others have said, malice now has to be gain with solely based initiative skills where each malice gained will increase a thief's stealth attack which is stated by hovering over skill 1 or looking through wiki. Critting with skills gains you two while non crit skills get you one. I am a solely pve player and currently on one of the boss blitz I can get around a 20k or higher damage, when other people are applying buffs and I have my own stack of 25 might, for death's judgement. It is nice for when you go against veterans or more difficult enemies.

@"Barzah.8019" said:Reworked malice system give the user increased effectiveness on their stealth attack ( damage/duration/endurance/projectile count per stack based on the weapon). This condition make Deadeye trait user need to dump initiative skill as much as possible (also having a high critical rate for malice stack bonus) in order to maximize stealth attack potential. In short, it's a must for Deadeye user to spam their initiative skill compared to other trait.

I disagree with the "dump" and "spam" assertion. It is more elegant than that.

For instance, with 5 stack max (non-M7) using D/D, I can HS to get close, Death Blossom, then CnD. With my high crit rate, this nets me at least 5 stacks. CnD puts me in stealth in a position to deal 5 stacks boosted Malicious Backstab. There are no "dump" and "spam" shenanigans.

I mean sure, you can spam Unload 3 times to stack Might and Malice, then swap to D/P, then use F2 to stealth for a backstab. This is still hardly an initiative dump since Unload refunds initiatives.

My personal favorite lately is using Deadeye D/P; HS -> Shadow Shot -> HS (5 stacks of Malice), Shadow Gust ->Malicious Backstab.