Staff for Deadeye?

I realized that one of the reasons I almost immediately put Deadeye away and never really looked back is that the Deadeye can't use a Staff. The Staff is just too good a weapon to be without, especially since Bifrost is one of my two Legendary weapons. Sure, I don't have to use the Rifle to still be a Deadeye, but that still won't let me use a Staff.

I know that the intention with elite specs is that they would unlock weapon options that only that spec could use, but it hasn't been until PoF that we actually felt how limiting that could be. I can't see myself ever playing the Deadeye in its current form, which is a shame because I would like to be able to switch to Rifle now and then. I know that it would be an involved process, but I think it's time that the developers seriously consider opening up elite spec weapons between elite specs.

Yes, you wouldn't be able to get 100% out of them, because you wouldn't be able to use the traits that specifically offer bonuses to that weapon or its effects, but you could at least equip it, could at least use its core functions, just as is the case when you use a core weapon without the associated traitline.

I feel like this needs to happen, even if it goes against their original plans. I feel that the sooner the developers realize this and start moving on it, the better.

for me there are some reasons why deadeye cant use staff and for me this one is enough: "be quick or be killer", just cast your mark on every smaller monster and you will have almost 100% uptime of quicness with bonus power and crit while dealing big aoe damage on staff whi;e on d/d or p/p you will attack always just this 1 or 2 targets at once and sometimes just 3 while on staff you will hit always 3 targets and many times able to hit 5 at once which just autoattacking froom staff will be overpowered with this deadeye perk on fights where are some adds to boss

I disagree with you OP. I never want to see that blasted staff again. I wish it would burn in the deepest depths of hell and never return. That is not the reason though amazingly enough. I think allowing the weapons from other elite specs mixed with the traits of that designed weapon would make some weapons OP. The staff would be one of them. The way you can build up boons and such with the mark spamming would be one of them.

The weapons should remain with that elite spec in order to avoid over powered combos and allow for a distinction in that spec for play-style variety. If you want to use the stupid staff, I say just stick with DD then, and leave my Deadeye alone and out of it.

Comparisons aside, staff doesn't have the amount of issues that rifles does right now that directly effect combat. Staff can max damage while moving with the fight, is immediate, can auto face target normally, has accurate range, and doesn't get obstructed as much to name a few. I like rifle, I'm having fun with it, but I can't ignore those issues if I'm thinking about raiding in pve or wvw and in any competitive mode I'd have to be in overdrive awareness to try to be more deliberate through those issues.

If they ever want me to play that new elite, they need to allow me to wield a staff + rifle. The principle is quite simple for me: equip a close combat weapon and a ranged weapon. I want to have a good weapon to go into the fight and damage multiple targets, but I also want a way to get some distance. This is thief, and mine has less than 12k health. With my necromancer, I don't care if I have to stay in close combat, it has decent tank abilities. With a class as squishy as power thief, the option to step away from a mob is essential.

And don't tell me that I can equip daggers instead. I'm not playing a condition thief, and while ArenaNet really wants to have the players use more condition builds, as they showed with the updates/changes to classes recently, I prefer burst damage with thief and will keep my power build. If I want to play with conditions, I use my necromancer. It's better suited for it.

Right now, there is no way for me to include Deadeye into my game. Sword/Dagger is just not enough damage compared to staff, and I'm not going to live with that so I can use a rifle. Seeing how many other thieves run around with staff + P/P, I'm sure I'm not alone with my point of view. I would occasionally switch to staff + rifle, but even if that was possible, I would prefer the mobility pistols give me most of the time.

In my book, thief got nothing out of this expansion for PvE players. I would love to see statistics of the use of rifle or the Deadeye traits compared to the other new elite trait lines. My guess is that all the work they put into Deadeye resulted in very little use overall.

nope, they need to keep them separate one new weapon per elite.1) it gives players a greater variety to what you run into2) it will need way to much balancing3) it will end up with everyone playing the same "ideal build"unless they create a jack of all trades class, that can use all weapons but is super low traited it wont happen