Deadeye... what were they thinking?!

I'm just sitting dead meat, not much more. WTH class is this? why don't they make something that is on par with current meta, not something that is so below the bar it's not even worth playing.

I do like the idea of deadeye, but it just does not work. People are not NPCs, they don't stop attacking when you stealth. And they now I can't really move so they just keep swinging.

I'll try a bit more to make this work but I'm just not seeing it.

Thief really needs an additional faceroll build in wvw.

Deadeye works better in zergs your the ultimate down finisher and the ultimate deletion of problem enemies. not everything thiefs do need to be focused on roaming.

I've been having a blast playing almost full zerk DE in WvW + PvP! I'm sad to hear your case is not as lively. Be mindful, we are still early into this x-pac so players may not have figured out meta builds yet or how to deal/play with certain classes. I'm inclined to believe each elite spec to be viable in certain circumstances and not necessarily required to 'be on par' with the current meta - thus we have a variety of roles to play per class that shine in different areas.

I have a feeling you're trying to play like a warrior (tackling things head on) if you kneel then stealth when the enemy knows where you are. You gotta' be slippery and have teleports on hand (shadowstep). I've had better days by stealthing, shadow-stepping away and in those precious moments setting up my burst onto the enemy while they're fumbling around. They usually run to where I've shadow-stepped yet I port back and continue my assault. Pick your enemies wisely. There are many reflects in the game as are blocks etc - never expect to win/escape every fight.

WvW I've been playing a one trick pony build utilising the knockdown on Binding Shadow (Impact + Force sigil) Assassin's Signet on rifle for some pretty nasty Death's Judgement bursts. It's great for picking off squishy targets or shutting down scourge/necros.

I find the constant state of shifting between kneel rather clunky but the more you practice the better your responsiveness will be when enemies get close. Unfortunately with the way Death's Retreat works I've either been tele'ing accidentally towards my target or it tele's me literally where I've been standing anyway. Just be careful when using that skill!

There are way too many deadeyes roaming around to believe that they're so terrible.

You can get some pretty good resistance to damage VIA SA trait CIS along with the 15 percent damage reduction trait iron Sights. With Shadows resilience thast a source of 25 and 15 percent reduction. Use the 10 percent reduction of incoming damage food and you pretty resielient while stealthed. The CIS means no hits will Crit you when you stealthed.

Now get your perfectionist to kick in for regen and protection and those guys blindly swinging where you just stealthed should see a dramatic drop in damage output. Use your stealth and or port to relocate.While understood it not additive that 33% and 25% and 15% and 10%reductions with no incoming crits while stealthed from power damage.

Meanwhile at every stealth you lose two conditions VIA SE.

Go this route and your armor itself does not have to be relied on all that much for protection. If it still not enough consider using a bit of toughness via cavalier or vitality with Valk given you can give up a bit in the way of Precision due to the kneel bonus.

Hehe Pogo theifs were stoked for Deadeye. Hopes and dreams shattered.

Love it.

Deadeye is the definition of ANets intention of offering other playstyles for classes. I like it. It makes no sense to create a spec that has the same strenghs and weaknesses like Daredevil. If you want Daredevil mechanics then play Daredevil. If you want to kill Engineers or Dragonhunters and be useful in zerg fights then play Deadeye.

Daredevil: Hit and RunDeadeye: Ranged but Static

Rifle + Shortbow or P/P + Shortbow Marauder (Deadeye traits: 2-2-2) is great for solo roaming if you are tired of two years of Daredevil mechanics.

Could have been worse - like Scourge which has no viable solo build (except maybe the broken/OP trailblazer/dire condi spam noob carry build in wvw).

Deadeyes serve as scourge assassins, we had great fun yesterday running a scrapper bodyguard and glassy deadeye. There was one point where if i remember correctly 1 out of 3 enemy necros went down, and our deadeye fired one DJ on each of the remaining necros trying to panic nuke the body to cover rez vs melee within the span of 2 seconds downing each. Granted they were about half health at the time but it was still glorious karma. "So you say you are balanced by your lack of ranged capabilities? Hold my wvw reward potion."

I find it interesting as a scrapper because the mere presence of a deadeye at a good spot (positioning is important) can zone people out of a 1500 range area. And with me acting as a bouncer those sneaky daredevils/mesmers had a hard time taking him down.

Of course we also had a spellbreaker chase him back and forth across north bay fields while me and a power mesmer where trying to slow him down. He didn't get the kill but neither did we. He didn't even notice us i think. He just knew a single lucky DJ would end his youtube montage probably.

All in all deadeyes are actually fun to play with and against, and are a whole different beast than your dull everyday DD.

Rifle sucks and needs a buff badly, if i am kneeling and sacrificing my mobilty the damage better be worth it before the enemy reaches me or goes out of range.....and it isn'tOn the other hand Dual pistols and deadeye goes very well though haha..........i.e if you want a ranged option

It should be like D/P but from 1500 range..Not

Tbh i love it so far, remember my old sniper in swtor.Running SA, Trickery, DE, awesome in zerg fight and keep defence, can do rly good shit alone and most important, so damn fun.

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I have to say, it's getting better. Maybe it was a classic case of "LTP". or adapt I think.

I got my DE the other day. Rifle is clunky and the "stealth sniper" is being overdone but it gets results (for now). It got boring after a while and tried a condi variant of DER and that was fun but underwhelming. Reworked my build quite a few times and now I am just starting to like it. Playing it like my D/P daredevil (Miss my old 3rd dodge/physical heal) but its not bad.

Im still scrub at it so theres that. It def is a hard counter for scourges for sure.

Would have preferred a more pirate themed thief specialization over a sniper... D: Thought that was what kill shot warriors were for.

@GDchiaScrub.3241 said:Would have preferred a more pirate themed thief specialization over a sniper... D: Thought that was what kill shot warriors were for.

It's what people wanted when they announced elite specs during HoT pre.

I'm quite happy with deadeye. It does what they said it would do. It only has a couple cheap gimmicks to it. Its one of the few elites in this game that wasn't shipped broken. If all other elites were designed like this we would be much better off.

@JVJD.4912 said:Rifle sucks and needs a buff badly, if i am kneeling and sacrificing my mobilty the damage better be worth it before the enemy reaches me or goes out of range.....and it isn'tOn the other hand Dual pistols and deadeye goes very well though haha..........i.e if you want a ranged option

Rifle sucks? Seriously? 1,500 range and can deal 11k+ damage with ease. I have 3k armor still taking 11k+ Deaths Judgements. They are far from needing a buff.

@ArmageddonAsh.6430 said:

@JVJD.4912 said:Rifle sucks and needs a buff badly, if i am kneeling and sacrificing my mobilty the damage better be worth it before the enemy reaches me or goes out of range.....and it isn'tOn the other hand Dual pistols and deadeye goes very well though haha..........i.e if you want a ranged option

Thieves just unhapppy they have to run zerk gear and risk getting 1 shotted again.

@Cerby.1069 said:Thieves just unhapppy they have to run zerk gear and risk getting 1 shotted again.

They dont even need to run Zerk, Considering all the % damage modifiers that comes with Dead Eye and Deaths Judgement alone. There is no doubt dead eye will be nerfed, because being able to down someone from max health (21k) with 3k Armour to downed in TWO hits is rather unbalanced

@ArmageddonAsh.6430 said:

@Cerby.1069 said:Thieves just unhapppy they have to run zerk gear and risk getting 1 shotted again.

to be fair it's a highly telegraphed projectile you could just dodge though :open_mouth:

@Solori.6025 said:to be fair it's a highly telegraphed projectile you could just dodge though :open_mouth:

Yeah dodge that in group fights and zergs, hell i have 3k armor and im STILL taking 5k auto attacks. The Malice design was very poor. Passively gaining it wasnt a good idea. You can it too quickly as well considering you get damage increase on ALL attacks. They basically now have huge burst from range and huge burst from melee. There is no doubt it will be nerfed. The question will be how many months will they wait and knowing them, its either going to be overnerfed or barely a scratch to what needs to be done.

@ArmageddonAsh.6430 said:

@Solori.6025 said:to be fair it's a highly telegraphed projectile you could just dodge though :open_mouth:

I agree, it's very very difficult to dodge in zerg or group play, and like I said in the other thread, I honestly don't know what to tell you about that.( funny thought actually, you could just let someone else take the hit for you.....like casually move around the ele and let them take the bullet so to speak....I swear I dont do this to people.........)

@Solori.6025 said:I agree, it's very very difficult to dodge in zerg or group play, and like I said in the other thread, I honestly don't know what to tell you about that.( funny thought actually, you could just let someone else take the hit for you.....like casually move around the ele and let them take the bullet so to speak....I swear I dont do this to people.........)

There are several things they COULD do to balance things a little more, on top of things that SHOULD be done. For example. Malice stacks should be applied ONLY by the thief attacking his marked target, this passive idea is moronic! Then make it so it has a reasonable ICD between you can get the next stack. Death Judgement needs a BIG nerf when it comes to WvW and PvP, seeing hits 1shot people without him even using the Mark on him first or anything

An idea i had was that you cant use if you have reveal, so means you wont be able to use it back to back doing like 20k+ damage in the blink of an eye. Make it so that if used in stealth then you fire the shot, then get revealed. in WvW and PvP the damage increase per a stack should be reduced, a lot! Id say even taking it down to 5% would be enough as that would still be 35% (when traited) 105% increase (traited) is simply too much. because you add in the Malice stacks increase and that would be like closing in on 130% damage increase without using anything other than a weapon and Deadeye.