S/D Deadeye

Hello all I was just wondering if someone could give me some tips on how to play S/D Deadeye I've been trying some new stuff out by dropping Acro in favor of deadeye since I feel they play pretty similarly but I dont know if im doing it right for PvP/WvW. I tried looking at videos for it but I didn't really pull much up besides some montage videos but really didnt explain much. Thanks all in advance.

Swap Deadeye back to acro. No seriously, Deadeye is a severe downgrade over Acro in S/D. You lose the steal teleport (which is really big) as well as the acro traits that are really good, and you gain pretty much nothing. The stealth attack on sword, especially the malicious one just isnt useful, and the traits generally suck for you.

If you want to run rifle as a main weapon in WvW, S/D can be a useful offset for the evade and way to build malice against stuff that spams projectile hate. However if you want to run S/D as a main DPS set, you're better off going core for the most part as the traits and base steal simply support it better. In PvP you're better off with core as well. Below is what I normally run for DE with S/D offset in WvW:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PawAQxjlNwAZbsOmJe+XnvKA-zVRYBhzQMqR5lSThQYJQbRQmFgrHgA2DvlqMjA-wArmor swaps between marauder and zerk depending on how I'm feeling that day, you have enough damage either way, I just like going for big numbers sometimes. The main point is that you can use the evades and smoke screen to make yourself very difficult to damage when on S/D, with the combo of flickering shadows, protection from M7 and the damage reduction from marked target giving you close to 50% damage reduction. Play defensively, concentrate on boonrip, and it works pretty well against a lot of builds.

@"Karma Crimzin.5079" said:Hello all I was just wondering if someone could give me some tips on how to play S/D Deadeye I've been trying some new stuff out by dropping Acro in favor of deadeye since I feel they play pretty similarly but I dont know if im doing it right for PvP/WvW. I tried looking at videos for it but I didn't really pull much up besides some montage videos but really didnt explain much. Thanks all in advance.

Keep in mind s/d is not as good at building malice as is s/p but that said the key is building it as quickly as possible. You need to get to that boon load from mali 7 quickly as this provides virtually all of the things the ACRO line does and more in the way of boons. The ideal situation is to cascade one boon load into the next so as the first expires the second comes on line. The line adds the INI to do this especially if coupled with mercy.

I do not see it as a "severe downgrade" over acro. It just a different way to play it.

IRON sights is a significant boost when in a 1v1. 10 percent damage boost along with 10 percent mitigated is something Acro does not add. Premed can boost damage by another 10 percent if you have those 5 boons running. If you find you can not get to that mali7 fast enough to get those boons to run and the +7 ini add then you might be better of staying in Acro.

@babazhook.6805 said:

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:Hello all I was just wondering if someone could give me some tips on how to play S/D Deadeye I've been trying some new stuff out by dropping Acro in favor of deadeye since I feel they play pretty similarly but I dont know if im doing it right for PvP/WvW. I tried looking at videos for it but I didn't really pull much up besides some montage videos but really didnt explain much. Thanks all in advance.

I never had a problem building malice on S/D tbh, if anything it's easier than on S/P against certain builds because of the unblockable. You can time dancing dagger with infiltrators strike to land at the same time when close to max range, so with the 1 malice from mark that's 5 malice. Port out, swap to rifle, stealth, skirmisher's shot and DJ for the 7 malice hit. It's not a DPS set the way I play it, but it's definitely got decent damage and sets up the DJ very nicely.

main reason you would go deadeye is for haste. one tip i can give you is you cast deadeye mark an then a cantrip there delay before cantrip get removed from your F2. so you can double cast it :).

@Taobella.6597 said:main reason you would go deadeye is for haste.

This is what I was thinking. As @babazhook.6805 said, Iron Sight gives an automatic 10% damage reduction as well as the 10% extra damage output that helps make up for Swindler's Equilibrium (plus it applies to both weapon sets). But the buffed Quickness with Be Quick or Be Killed is what caught my eye.

I've been trying to build an S/P-Shortbow Deadeye around Quickness in PvP. Using Rune of the Firebrand, I've got +52% Quickness duration. Haste and Burst of Agility provide 9 seconds of Quickness each. Mark gives me 6 seconds. Sigil of Agility gives another 3 seconds.

I'm using Trickery with Trickster and Sleight of Hand, so I can Mark and get its Quickness every 18 seconds, and Haste is on a 24-second cooldown

Of course, I'm rather stubborn when it comes to wanting to kill quickly, so my third (perhaps unwise and inefficient) traitline is Critical Strikes. It's definitely not a dueling or bunkering build, so I'm having to use my old Berserker Dagger reflexes to stay alive. I truly do miss the teleport on Steal, though... and I think that's what's keeping me from playing a Dagger build on Deadeye. I kind of wish Mark would function differently depending on the equipped weapon set... or be a flip-skill with an optional teleport... or even be an F3 skill that doesn't override Steal.

Thanks for all the feedback and video on double casting cantrips I did lean towards using rifle more as a main weapon but it does fit my play style to be able to switch up between the rifle and s/d. A lot more engagement for me than just using shortbow to move around and s/d to fight. Im trying to see how Be Quick or Be Killed and Haste works out for me with Payback in PvP/WvW im just not use to when to use my haste and my burst windows on targets and I feel i just waste it since most things can kill a Thief with 1-3 hits. Especially Soulbeasts I have a huge issue with.

if you are having problem soul beast the way you fight something that has channel / range skills. player only channel a skill within 60 degree of there viewing angle so if you always chase a soul beast to his back all his skill will fail on longbow. you still gotta be scared of maul.

generally the way you want to play is you want to cast deadeye mark get haste buff > hit sword 2 slash them like 2 or 3(is pretty greedy) time with auto use flanking strike > once they dodge use shadow return > pop blinding shadow set up knockdown on them double cast f2 > sword 2 back in to finish them.

an on the video i did not cast a single weapon skill you can do that play style on any weapon set :). deadeye mark > blinding shadow > F2 F2 > Wait .25 seconds for game to catch up > mercy > deadeye mark > F2 F2

My own build is a wvw build focused on boon duration. It s/p rather then s/d but the theory the same. I specifically focused on boon duration so it runs at the full one hundred percent meaning 12 seconds quickness out of haste on a 24 second cool down and 12 on the BOA which is plenty. The focus here is getting to the Boon load of Mali so Premed always boosts damage 10 percent and more even as I Mitigate with protection (10 seconds) iron sight and the new ascended food thus 33 , 10 and 10 respectively.

With 10+ percent off premed , 15 percent off the lead attacks plus swindlers 240 add added damage not all that bad either. For juicier damage I can drop the Acro line and take CS using the ankle shot trait. I am giving up that sweet don't stop but this ensures sources of plenty of might and fury .

As to payback over premed a lot depends on the scale of the fights you are in. If you in a lot of 1v1s there little use for payback. If you are in battles where you always outnumbered , it will rarely help you as it too hard to stomp or complete a down to get the payoff. It works best with several players each side and you have to have ensure you rotate mercy/mark usage towards the guy on the other side thats going to be stomped next.

It also nice against mesmers but this means marking the clones which can be counterproductive.

The match is at 00:25 here and next matches too. Inbetween matches i keep dueling ppl in FFA, so you might want to watch those aswell for gameplay against certain classes.https://www.twitch.tv/videos/471663096

The build is here: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PawAwiRlNwkYXsNGJOMXnvSA-z5IWKZGBRHCdXA5nAqMA

In general deadeye is good and quite easy with sword mainhand, you make use of quickness on bursts and then sustain while waiting for cooldowns. There are variations for different builds/gameplay

@"dDuff.3860" said:The match is at 00:25 here and next matches too. Inbetween matches i keep dueling ppl in FFA, so you might want to watch those aswell for gameplay against certain classes.https://www.twitch.tv/videos/471663096

The build is here: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PawAwiRlNwkYXsNGJOMXnvSA-z5IWKZGBRHCdXA5nAqMA

In general deadeye is good and quite easy with sword mainhand, you make use of quickness on bursts and then sustain while waiting for cooldowns. There are variations for different builds/gameplay

thank you for the vid! im using haste with be quick or be killed so I can keep up good quickness times. You vid is a good reference to go off of to see if im doing things right I even decided though to go with Trickery/ Acro/ Deadeye I did a few rounds and Im performing pretty well but need more condi cleanse outside of just shadowstep but I am still pretty durable with the help from my dodges and smoke screen if things get rough. Im going to give your build a go though.

Deadeye complements quick bursts from stealth.

Sword dagger complements sustained dueling.

They just don't mesh.

Now Sword pistol on the other hand, works extremely well.

@babazhook.6805 said:My own build is a wvw build focused on boon duration. It s/p rather then s/d but the theory the same. I specifically focused on boon duration so it runs at the full one hundred percent meaning 12 seconds quickness out of haste on a 24 second cool down and 12 on the BOA which is plenty. The focus here is getting to the Boon load of Mali so Premed always boosts damage 10 percent and more even as I Mitigate with protection (10 seconds) iron sight and the new ascended food thus 33 , 10 and 10 respectively.

Very nice. I'm getting jealous of WvW bonuses compared to PvP! :-P

Lot of very good recommendations up there.

I'll just add my two cents:

• S/P bursty nature works well with Deadeye (as mentioned above).
• Quickness does not benefit as much the new poison trait Deadly Ambition of DA because of its internal cooldown.
• Initiatives management works both well and badly with quickness and alacrity (I know, no one talked about alacrity, but I am putting this out there still) because your initiative does not regenerate faster, but the absence of CD and the way Ini works, allow for burst well complemented by quickness.

Personally, I love hybrid build and to use DA with swords in general: the immob puts 2 stacks of poison + 3 more from Deadly Ambitions, throw the mark/steal for 3 more... use Stolen skill and port-out = nasty.

Otherwise, S/D is good for boon removal and therefore followed by CnD, works decently with the new SA line (fear on stealth attack if no boons!)

@Taobella.6597 said:main reason you would go deadeye is for haste. one tip i can give you is you cast deadeye mark an then a cantrip there delay before cantrip get removed from your F2. so you can double cast it :).

here a clip i made of double casting cantrips

@Taobella.6597 said:an on the video i did not cast a single weapon skill you can do that play style on any weapon set :). deadeye mark > blinding shadow > F2 F2 > Wait .25 seconds for game to catch up > mercy > deadeye mark > F2 F2

I was trying to get the double cast to work in the PvP lobby, but can't seem to get it to work. Is there any specific technique?

I have Be Quick or Be Killed. I hit Mark, Binding Shadows, then F2 skill and F2 skill (though I have F2 skills remapped to my E key).

Do you just mash the four keys extremely quickly? Or is there a slight delay between them?

Thanks! :-D

@Kageseigi.2150 said:

@"Taobella.6597" said:main reason you would go deadeye is for haste. one tip i can give you is you cast deadeye mark an then a cantrip there delay before cantrip get removed from your F2. so you can double cast it :).

here a clip i made of double casting cantrips

@"Taobella.6597" said:an on the video i did not cast a single weapon skill you can do that play style on any weapon set :). deadeye mark > blinding shadow > F2 F2 > Wait .25 seconds for game to catch up > mercy > deadeye mark > F2 F2

the way you can double cast it is understanding how cantrip are generated. let say we cast "deadeye mark" we have to wait .15 seconds for F2 skill to generate. So by knowing that regardless of whatever cantrip we cast next. we know there .15 frame window before next one is generated so if we start are cast before it generated it allow you cast 2 instantly :).However If we cast 2 cantrip right after one another there a random bug that happen causing next cantrip if we cast it instantly. so we have to wait .15 - .25 frames then game fix itself :).

the way i do it is deadeye mark > (90% channel) > blinding shadow > (the second blinding shadow complete) double tap F2 F2 > (wait .25 seconds for game fix itself) > mercy > deadeye mark >(cast F2 right after deadeye mark almost instantly) double cast F2 F2

@"Taobella.6597" said:the way you can double cast it is understanding how cantrip are generated. let say we cast "deadeye mark" we have to wait .15 seconds for F2 skill to generate. So by knowing that regardless of whatever cantrip we cast next. we know there .15 frame window before next one is generated so if we start are cast before it generated it allow you cast 2 instantly :).However If we cast 2 cantrip right after one another there a random bug that happen causing next cantrip if we cast it instantly. so we have to wait .15 - .25 frames then game fix itself :).

the way i do it is deadeye mark > (90% channel) > blinding shadow > (the second blinding shadow complete) double tap F2 F2 > (wait .25 seconds for game fix itself) > mercy > deadeye mark >(cast F2 right after deadeye mark almost instantly) double cast F2 F2

Ah, ok... just making sure I understand correctly. It requires casting two cantrips? Like Binding Shadow and Mercy, correct? Not the stolen items, right?

So it would not be possible with just Binding Shadow, but no Mercy or other cantrip, correct?

Thank you! :-D

@Kageseigi.2150 said:

@"Taobella.6597" said:the way you can double cast it is understanding how cantrip are generated. let say we cast "deadeye mark" we have to wait .15 seconds for F2 skill to generate. So by knowing that regardless of whatever cantrip we cast next. we know there .15 frame window before next one is generated so if we start are cast before it generated it allow you cast 2 instantly :).

However If we cast 2 cantrip right after one another

there a random bug that happen causing next cantrip if we cast it instantly. so we have to wait .15 - .25 frames then game fix itself :).

the way i do it is deadeye mark > (90% channel) > blinding shadow > (the second blinding shadow complete) double tap F2 F2 > (wait .25 seconds for game fix itself) > mercy > deadeye mark >(cast F2 right after deadeye mark almost instantly) double cast F2 F2

Correct you need one in the chamber trait to make this work. stolen item is first cantrip then you need to use trait to create a second one from casting a cantrip skill.

@Taobella.6597 said:Correct you need one in the chamber trait to make this work. stolen item is first cantrip then you need to use trait to create a second one from casting a cantrip skill.

Ah, that makes a lot more sense now! Thank you! :-D

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:Hello all I was just wondering if someone could give me some tips on how to play S/D Deadeye I've been trying some new stuff out by dropping Acro in favor of deadeye since I feel they play pretty similarly but I dont know if im doing it right for PvP/WvW. I tried looking at videos for it but I didn't really pull much up besides some montage videos but really didnt explain much. Thanks all in advance.

You need to understand what you're losing when you switch out Acro;

• +240 power + sword skills CDR
• Swiftness (rifle #2) that removes immob (Don't Stop)
• 75% endurance regen with Vigor as oppose to 50%
• Vigor on evade
• Pain response

If you'll be using sword, Swindler's from Acro is a given.

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:Hello all I was just wondering if someone could give me some tips on how to play S/D Deadeye I've been trying some new stuff out by dropping Acro in favor of deadeye since I feel they play pretty similarly but I dont know if im doing it right for PvP/WvW. I tried looking at videos for it but I didn't really pull much up besides some montage videos but really didnt explain much. Thanks all in advance.

• +240 power + sword skills CDR
• Swiftness (rifle #2) that removes immob (Don't Stop)
• 75% endurance regen with Vigor as oppose to 50%
• Vigor on evade
• Pain response

Yea i figured but with the change I made from S/D to S/P for burst I have had good damage and with some reflexes and good judgement I learned I can survive a bit better with blinds and stealth with rifle dodge. I run Haste but still trying to figure if I want to take it out for Smoke Screen or a signet or something else I dont know yet. and I have been messing with Acro, DA, or SA seeing how they can mesh with Trick and DE as well. So far it just depends on what is best for the situation but I tend to run more DA and Acro most so than SA right now since I like the poison to slow down my targets healing so I can burst them down.

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:Hello all I was just wondering if someone could give me some tips on how to play S/D Deadeye I've been trying some new stuff out by dropping Acro in favor of deadeye since I feel they play pretty similarly but I dont know if im doing it right for PvP/WvW. I tried looking at videos for it but I didn't really pull much up besides some montage videos but really didnt explain much. Thanks all in advance.

• +240 power + sword skills CDR
• Swiftness (rifle #2) that removes immob (Don't Stop)
• 75% endurance regen with Vigor as oppose to 50%
• Vigor on evade
• Pain response

If you want BQoBK, it's necessary to take Trickery for Steal CDR. In this case, you will need to build DA/Trick/DE. In this build, you should keep Haste especially if you're going to take Trickster. It's less overall damage, but it's more tactical. However, I will never use this build with S/D or S/P. Swindler's is a just too good to pass if I'm using a sword.

If you're going to take DA for the poison, then yeah, swap Haste with something else. IMO, Acro is a staple choice if you want to use a sword, so in your build, I think you made the right choice of DA/Acro/DE.

However, choosing DA/Acro/DE lessen the frequency of Quickness (No Steal CDR). If that's no longer your aim, then swap out BQoBK for M7.

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:Hello all I was just wondering if someone could give me some tips on how to play S/D Deadeye I've been trying some new stuff out by dropping Acro in favor of deadeye since I feel they play pretty similarly but I dont know if im doing it right for PvP/WvW. I tried looking at videos for it but I didn't really pull much up besides some montage videos but really didnt explain much. Thanks all in advance.

• +240 power + sword skills CDR
• Swiftness (rifle #2) that removes immob (Don't Stop)
• 75% endurance regen with Vigor as oppose to 50%
• Vigor on evade
• Pain response

I was thinking more along the lines of Trick/ Acro/ DE to build around so I can squeeze the most damage out of sword but I give up poison and some healing and damage on Mark but I'm sorta ok with that.

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:Hello all I was just wondering if someone could give me some tips on how to play S/D Deadeye I've been trying some new stuff out by dropping Acro in favor of deadeye since I feel they play pretty similarly but I dont know if im doing it right for PvP/WvW. I tried looking at videos for it but I didn't really pull much up besides some montage videos but really didnt explain much. Thanks all in advance.

• +240 power + sword skills CDR
• Swiftness (rifle #2) that removes immob (Don't Stop)
• 75% endurance regen with Vigor as oppose to 50%
• Vigor on evade
• Pain response

That works too. I like the fact that we have a lot of options now and they're all good. :)