Ranged Only Thief - Viable?

[Kraixus.9548]

Hi. I'm in love with the Thief spec, got it to lvl 80 in 3 days because of how much I enjoy.I was wondering if there is VIABLE pure ranged specs for all game modes? I'm mainly interested in fractals.I've tried and I really can't play mellee in this game, I get blown up. Is there builds for thief that are at least good-tier in meta that are ranged only?Thanks!

[saerni.2584]

Look into various Deadeye builds with Rifle, Pistol/Pistol or Pistol/Dagger.

You can go with either Marauders/Berserker or a Carrion/Grieving mix depending on if you are focusing on power damage or doing a hybrid build.

I can give more advice later.

[Kraixus.9548]

@saerni.2584 said:Look into various Deadeye builds with Rifle, Pistol/Pistol or Pistol/Dagger.

You can go with either Marauders/Berserker or a Carrion/Grieving mix depending on if you are focusing on power damage or doing a hybrid build.

I can give more advice later.

Thank you I would love some more info especially for pistol/pistol!

[saerni.2584]

For P/P Deadeye take the trait Be Quick of Be Killed.

In PvE you don’t need many of the options you use for PvP so you can invest in lots of damage through DA and CS.

I’d suggest making sure you are comfortable with single target and rapidly switching targets. You have high DPS in P/P, but it is single target so you will be constantly switching.

For an offhand you may be selecting Shortbow for mobility, but also Rifle has a decent mobility with teleport so don’t feel too constrained by that. Shortbow has great CC for breakbars so don’t discount that as an option.

[babazhook.6805]

P/P I always liked CS/DE/TR make sure you take MERCY . IP in the CS line coupled with an SOM can do you well. This depends on how many other sources of incoming heals you have . if you have other sources you can take no quarter.

It an INI hog so you want mercy+TR line as an alternate source. You could go MALI 7 instead of BqoBk for yet more INI.P/P one of the faster ways to build MALI of any set but keep in mind that the quickness really helps get a full channel of the unload through. Use your interrupts on p #4 coupled with the steal interrupt with SOH out of trickery to interrupt heals and big attacks.

[Trianox.3486]

Good advices by babazook.

I'm currently using a P/P diviner (with some berserker/marauder pieces) Deadeye (DE, Trickery, Critical Strike).Rune of the fireworks for speed bonus + boon duration + power.

I achieve solo perma 25 might, fury, swiftness, vigor, quickness (which comes with 200 bonus precision AND power of traiter with Be Quick or Be Killed).

The trait "Collateral damage", for me, often compensate for the single target issue of P/P. If there is a group, I mark weaker targets first, so they explode quickly triggering the AoE ...and 2-3 times are usually enough to clean all trash before I can remark the champion/veteran.

You just gotta be good at marking-switching target and re-positionning to avoid having any for between yourself and your marked target. Otherwise, your DPS goes down quickly... But a few hours of combat with get you the hang of it.

Solo, I trait for payback (which decreases your utilities/elite cooldown). If I have a really good support team for fractal with lot of boons, I trait Premeditation which gives bonus 8-12% DMG)... But often payback is solid given it allows to use heal, utilities and elite more often, which can be really convenient.

I alternate between: SOM/Withdraw, and for utilities I use the power signet for big spike DMG... And the usual suspects ones: such as Roll for initiative, Smokefield, Mercy, etc.

It feels a bit "one trick pony" at first, but in fact, it's not that boring at all because you eventually realizes that there is a lot of other things you can do than just unload. Plus even if you just unload, it forces you to be really good at positioning. I realize I actually use all of my pistol skills...

Mark + Bola shot + unload is often enough to get rid of small critters, without any melee risk. Unload+Unload works well in small pack if you have autotarget enabled.

Diviner gear + berserker/marauder allows me to pug without performance worries, which really is my go-to. I consider it to be my optimal build, and most stable DPS.

Berserker/marauder is maximal DPS, but if you leave the range of your boon-provider, or have a solo segment while other are busy, or do not have a boon-provider with full quickness, fury, vigor and swiftness, you can patch the holes easily and have a very smooth game.

As mentioned above, while quickness may screw your initiative management it allows to burst down ennemies un vert short time frame, and get you full unload Channel without interruptions. With time, you get really good, based on ennemies' health at gaging how fast you should chain unload or if you do 1-2 AA in between while moving.

Longer fights without reset/pause windows will make your DPS sink if you don't use Mercy and Roll for initiative appropriately.You can trait Sleigh of hand (mark CD is shorter and with Trickery provides 2 ini) OR initiative on weapon swap (P/P and P/P), for more initiatives.

Personally I take Sleigh, and use Dagger/pistol on my 2nd set for the few enemies with projectile reflect/ or high projectile defenses.

I recently replaced CS by DA, and weirdly, it seemed like I was doing more damages on longer boss fight (executioner kicks in at 50% HP) and the grandmaster minor trait seemed to contribute quite well when many conditions were affecting the tareget... which happens in group setting more easily. Mug was good for low-HP-trash-targets and a bit of self sustain. I still want to toy with those, but CS is a very solid pick for solo play, maybe for fractal you can try both and see what works the best for you.

You can finally try a somewhat hybrid build and use DA for poison 3-2-1 traits. Funnily enough it's not so bad since poison ticks while you're auto-attacking and regaining initiatives. Plus, you get more out of your stealth attacks (bleed + torment if max malice!)Tickery GM minor also boost DMG and condi.It does not feel as good, I suspect lower DPS by quite a margin, but I still need to run comparative tests: power vs hybrid vs condi.

[UNOwen.7132]

In fractals? Well, at low level fractals anything goes. At high level fractals, youre basically out of luck. Rifle is the only ranged spec that would have enough damage to be viable, but its a lot less safe than even the melee builds.

[Sarge shot Grif.6450]

Missed the fractals part, disregard.

[Opopanax.1803]

Really great info on this thread for ranged specs!

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

@Trianox.3486 said:SNIPGood feedback that, will try it out :)

[Sir Vincent III.1286]

@"Trianox.3486" said:Good advices by babazook.

I'm currently using a P/P diviner (with some berserker/marauder pieces) Deadeye (DE, Trickery, Critical Strike).Rune of the fireworks for speed bonus + boon duration + power.

I achieve solo perma 25 might, fury, swiftness, vigor, quickness (which comes with 200 bonus precision AND power of traiter with Be Quick or Be Killed).

The trait "Collateral damage", for me, often compensate for the single target issue of P/P. If there is a group, I mark weaker targets first, so they explode quickly triggering the AoE ...and 2-3 times are usually enough to clean all trash before I can remark the champion/veteran.

You just gotta be good at marking-switching target and re-positionning to avoid having any for between yourself and your marked target. Otherwise, your DPS goes down quickly... But a few hours of combat with get you the hang of it.

One note: If you're clearing trash mobs, spec all middle (Collateral, Payback, BQoBK), however on boss fights, spec Top, Bottom, Top (Malicious, Premed, M7). You get more Initiatives using Mercy at full stack of Malice with M7.