[Rifle Deadeye now dead in WvW]

2 hours ago, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

There are tons of them on YT--found this one at random as I'm not really biased toward any creator:

Builds are mostly Dragon/Marauder based with DE, speed relic or similar--and then with elite that removes revealed among the other thief traits you can take--it's really not hard to stay alive.

I don't know why we're arguing about avoiding the same Sic' Em burst that's been around for 5 years now--and it's objective fact any other ranger spec is going to get dunked unless it's like a seriously good untamed with some projectile hate built in.  

You might have had a point if the deadeye elite still removed revealed. But given it doesn't, and also given soulbeast has easy access to unblockable which counters the DE sitting behind sniper's cover, it's much more of a turkey shoot now than it used to be. Is deadeye dead in WvW? No, not entirely. But it's a lot less safe than it used to be, and honestly I'm not convinced that's a bad thing overall. 

[Sword buff]

It's passable in WvW, not played it in PvP in forever tho. The bigger issue is that most sword builds are disproportionately affected by the relationship between acro and daredevil: when acro is good, sword is good, and acro hasn't been good for literal years now because the original Devs designed daredevil badly with mechanics acro already had to start with, then nerfed acro to the floor to avoid letting us make dodge monsters. Then they introduced mirage and vindicator, seemingly not learning the lesson. Then add to that the fact that boon rip has largely become irrelevant because of the sheer amount of BOONS being output and S/D has lost one of its main niches too. 

I've been playing core sword dagger with dagger pistol offhand with crit strikes, trickery and shadow arts in WvW lately. That feels good, using sword to engage and kite and dagger pistol to hard focus or disengage, but the fact that sword feels better on that than on acro just says a lot about acro. 

Edit: rereading this I realised I went off on one a bit lol. Part of the reason I did this because sword damage is limited by it's manoeuvrability, evasiveness and utility in PvP settings, and historically most sword builds were played with acro, so it's a big part of understanding where we are now. You can't load more damage onto the autos as we had that in HoT and people complained about it, and the only other logical place to put more damage is on the 3 chain, but given that's unblockable that creates other issues if it hits too hard in competitive modes. 

I'd love sword to be in a better place too. But honestly you're better thinking of it as a Swiss army knife than an assassin's blade, and that kind of mindset just doesn't translate to PvE well even if you split and buff the coefficients to insane levels because the utility it provides is generally just not needed in PvE. If the encounters were designed differently then maybe you'd see more use out of it. 

Edit: bloody phone autocorrect 😂

[Thief invisible...]

18 hours ago, prototypedragon.1406 said:

My favorite part when it comes to fighting a thief is building a guild ballista while running a tanky build and let them come to you.  Hit them with the net shot.plus the bleed and most get downed within 1 to 3 ballista shots if the shots are timed well.

You sound like me. I used to run a one shot deadeye build to defend a camp with a portal set to a ballista on a ledge overlooking the fight. 

[Small annoyance with stealth/superspeed on dodge as rifle SA Deadeye in open world PvE.]

On 10/3/2023 at 1:22 AM, ShadowLurker.8713 said:

Edit: Adding Relic of Unseen Invasion to PvE would help with this issue I guess, but the cooldown would have to be reduced for PvE, and I'd rather not have to use up the relic slot just for that.

Relic of the unseen invasion is available in PvE, you can get it through the final chest of the WvW reward track added by the last expac. It's a bit of an obscure way to get it, but it's there. Regarding the cooldown, if you use rifle and use shadow meld, then alternate between dodge and either the D/P 5>2 stealth combo or the sniper's cover stealth combo, you have enough stealth to permanently maintain superspeed. It's a bit more clunky than one button push but again, it's there. 

[How is this fair?]

14 hours ago, Lithril Ashwalker.6230 said:

sometimes i wonder if im getting old and forgetting old tricks and tips i used to dish out many years ago on thief training. i appreciate you Juggle, always a welcome sight to see you post on behalf of EcK xD. I swear im getting Alzheimers at 31 xD - I salute you dude, thanks for this old but gold tip 

Just glad my waffling helps someone haha xD

It's really easy to forget basic tactics when a cheese strat gives easy wins, when deadeye was OP you could cheese just about anything and I think that is what drove a lot of the "deadeye dead spec" comments when things got changed. Better to think of deadeye as more of a skirmisher than an assassin or sniper IMO, the value is in how hard it is to nail down while it wears you down, not in the single big hits, so S/D offhand compliments that style very nicely.

If you want more of an assassin feel in WvW you can try running one of my fav deadeye builds, power P/D with rifle, binding shadow, shadowstep and infiltrator's signet, using the kneel rifle 4 stealth combo to maintain stealth and mobility while you wait for an opening to burst. Something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PayAQpjlNwgYbsMmJW2OuvLA-DWRYihfOqnTJTFVrChaFB9KRF5ZhAEwfLVpsBA-w

It's double projectile so some classes like ele will shut you down if you don't play carefully, but forcing cooldowns with kneel 2 and death's judgement before timing the knockdown of binding shadow with a dagger 5>signet port followed by shadow strike and repeater spam hits like an absolute truck if it's not countered, and will build malice ready to weapon swap & shadowstep mid dodge to reposition and stealth ready for a max malice death's judgement (or just to quickly shadowstep to the enemy and stealth stomp if the repeater spam got them). If you pay attention to what skills the opponent uses you can pretty much delete someone, it's very all or nothing tho so you have to be careful haha. 

Older clip (old SA so I used the stealth on mark to engage) but this gives you the general idea of how the build works. First fight is power, second fight is my old cele deadeye, was trying to explain the difference in build to a friend at the time. 

[How is this fair?]

Soulbeast is one of the reasons i think power deadeye is best played with S/D on the off set to rifle, you can then use terrain and LoS to force the ranger to swap to their melee set and being hit with sic em isn't totally debilitating like it is for D/P.  You want to force them into using bow when you are on sword and greatsword when you are on rifle, so you control the spacing of the fight. I usually run blinding powder, shadowstep and infiltrator signet on most builds so i can use signet and sword 2 to close the gap immediately, most soulbeast players panic if you can get in their face and start cc'ing them with sword sneak attacks, and if they go for the sic'em one wolf pack nonsense you can port back out of range of the bow with sword 2 return and shadowstep. If they're good and you don't react/they hit you from narnia when you're fighting something else then you're dead tho, it's just one of those matchups.

[Rifle Deadeye now dead in WvW]

On 9/11/2023 at 5:32 PM, hardloop von edgehoven.851 said:

the "dead"eye: BEWARE" *puts the sign on his head saying " I KNEEL NOW, can´t move now. dont kill plz" ...any enemy profession comes around disables all of you and stomps you to death in around 1.4secs

the "crap"specter: "hey im a specter with scepter! did u get that joke?" ...*dead while applying one hit of torment that ticks critically with almost 100

it sounds slightly exaggareted, cos when you not dying instant in almost any wvw situations that counts, "shadowsteps/charges/hoops to death" mechanics , the one situation you dont, the elite thief professions gives you at least some BORING gametime minutes killing lords etc with a tad bit more than average damage, unless u go full glass...if

daredevil: "i may say a word or two"

Spot the necro main ^

[thief is the only class a worse player can consistently beat me on]

3 hours ago, Burnfall.9573 said:

"How You Leave Others Feeling After Having An Experience With You Becomes Your Trademark"

Word in the gaming market industry about Guild Wars 2, 'There is a class called Thief; that can laterally one shot you in stealth, that can stealth anytime they want without counterplay, that is the only class who can hack, exploit, who has the most broken stealth design ever in any game especially for 11 years, that can literally teleport anywhere like hackers, that can outplay any classes without drawbacks, that is immune to everything, that can stay invisible all day long, that port players in hard to reach areas, that has been broken since the game was release, Thief is the only class whom Anet defends for being broken, that is the reason why I will not play the game....anymore, that instantly kill me our of nowhere, that is the reason why I will never touch Guild Wars 2 etc..", 

This is the trademark Anet allows, tolerate and promote to be the trademark of Guild Wars 2

This Is Why The Players, The Community...Are Taking Their Experiences Elsewhere, To Trademarks Who Promotes Healthy Competitive Experiences.

Interesting that you don't provide a reference to where that "word on the gaming market" quote comes from. It's almost like it's an opinion presented as fact. 

1 hour ago, Bazsi.2734 said:

Are you sure it's just 4? kitten, SA, TR, DD are the bare minimum to make this functionally work, but "hitting like a truck" suggests CS.

That's true, it could be a five spec, two relic build lol

[thief is the only class a worse player can consistently beat me on]

On 8/30/2023 at 6:32 PM, Eddie.9143 said:

mirror for mirror on every class they will lose every duel, but this is a pretty easy way to tell its too strong.

 

they're hitting like trucks, endless stealth, end less superspeed, jumping all over the map, ohfk button evade/reflect elite/antitoxin working with shadow arts condi removal, so you cant even load em up with condis before they run and reset.

 

basically shids busted and needs to be toned down. it's absolutely NOT fun dueling thieves and rangers are catching up with smoke pet. 

Ah, the fabled 4 specialisation build. I wondered when that would come back into fashion. 

[What are you running for OW?]

I made a full diviner set for deadeye P/P, 100% boon duration feels pretty nice for that set and it lets me swap to a quickness spam build for groups with minimal faffing about. Other than that, celestial deadeye or specter is pretty strong, assuming you mean open world in a "what won't die or be hard to play" sorta way.

[Good Relic for Deadeye PvE builds]

On 8/26/2023 at 9:06 PM, Doggie.3184 said:

That's pretty crazy, what a shame. The 3 second cooldown should be removed then maybe it'd be nice. Dual Pistols are bad and all but one thing it has goin for it is generating more might than you'd ever need... woulda been a way to put that to use if this was designed better.

It wouldn't be so bad if you have to generate like 50 stacks of might for 5 mabon, get the boost, then keep it as long as you stay over 5 stacks of mabon while also stacking mabon up to a max of 10 maybe (if that's what you mean by remove the cooldown). Would actually function while not being too harsh on phased downtime then. 

[Is it just me.... or is Deadeye pretty strong right now?]

4 hours ago, Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

Rip in wiki not being updated day 1. Edited

 

It's all good, tbh it always amazes me the speed that the wiki gets updated full stop. Just couldn't resist the humour ^^

[Is it just me.... or is Deadeye pretty strong right now?]

22 hours ago, Vasdamas Anklast.1607 said:

It is the "you are an idiot if you chase after it" kind of spec on WvW and now it's been buffed. What is in Arena's mind is beyond me

Technically it was nerfed, zephyrite runes used to give you perma superspeed before the patch. Also, Hi Vas! xD

On 8/24/2023 at 6:07 PM, Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

In WVW you get four seconds of superspeed.   the relic doesn't exist

Yes. The relic doesn't exist in WvW. Totally. Mmmmmhm. Yup. Correct. 

[Could use some help understanding Thief sustain in more challenging PvE situations]

Learning to play thief basically feels like this: 

On a more constructive note: learning what skills counter what things is a big part of thief sustain. So for instance, using sniper's cover on rifle (kneeling rifle 4) is really important against enemies with both ranged and melee attacks (think the hylek HP in verdant brink) as it lets you block the ranged attacks at a distance using initiative and saves your endurance for the melee attacks. If that pull attack on the mushroom king HP you mentioned is a projectile, the smoke field should block it. Juking melee attacks with movement skills works in a similar way: depending on the range of the AoE Shadow strike (P/D 3) should avoid that belly flop attack if you use it just after he leaps so he flops in place instead of tracking you. Death's retreat can be used in a similar way. In general, the learning curve is steep but more used to the thief kit you are, and the better you know the encounter, the better you'll do. 

As for builds, your deadeye build probably doesn't need trickery if you're not using it for boon rip (even then, having S/D offhand might be a better choice). If the aim of the game is solo'ing harder HP's, I'd try taking shadow arts (mid, mid, mid) instead. You'll get some more sustain through life steal and sneak attacks which can greatly help over the course of a fight. 

Edit: I just saw your deadeye build is rifle and P/P. Most people tend to focus on one over the other, as both sets tend to focus on different encounter types and need different traits in order to shine. You could pretty easily set up each build on a separate build template and swap to whichever one is more appropriate for the situation. 

Rifle tends to build for taking on big single targets, so focussing on rifle I'd personally take P/D offhand (spamming 3 still gives you the pew pew feel) with crit strikes (bot mid top) shadow arts (mid bot mid) and deadeye (top top top). Those crit strikes traits give you the best damage with rifle, the shadow arts gives you sustain through sneak attacks and an AoE blind when you stealth, and the shadow arts grandmaster gives you some initiative back which means between that and M7 you should never run out of initiative. The P/D doesn't need much initiative, and can be more useful if the enemy is a very aggressive melee type. This build also works on celestial gear if you replace crit strikes with deadly arts (bot mid top), but then it's more focussed on using P/D with rifle as a supportive set. 

P/P tends to be built to take on large groups of trash mobs, focussing on the quickness from bqobk (deadeye mid grandmaster choice). Focussing on P/P I'd take only P/P (so one pistol in the main hand of one set, and the other in the offhand of the other set, this way on swap sigils/effects work but you stay on P/P) with crit strikes (bot bot bot), trickery (mid or bot, top top) and deadeye (mid mid mid). This build gives pistols pierce, and makes enemies blow up and spam AoE blind when they die, so you get frequent marks for more quickness and extra stats. You'd want to attack the weakest enemy in a group each mark while positioning yourself so it's at the back of the pack so your bullets pierce multiple enemies, letting the piercing bullets and the AoE weaken the group as a whole. You have the advantage of being able to use thieve's guild (elite) on this spec, as payback (deadeye middle choice) reduces the cooldowns of your skills per kill so you'll often find that you can keep your thieves out indefinitely as long as you keep killing. This build used to work really, really well with vampirism runes (gain 10% of your health on a kill) so if the relic gives you that effect when it comes out then definitely take it, and consider using energy and stamina sigils for maximum dodges. 

[relic of fireworks]

I wanted the mirage relic to work since the 6s duration on torment stack before duration boosts/tormenting runes looks nice, but it's kinda bad also. I think they've largely stuck to effects that are fairly weak and not too game changing for the initial release, hence no trapper, durability, aristocracy relics etc. The ones I find myself using a lot are speed and antitoxin because they're useful on almost any build, although antitoxin I'm not 100% sure is working like the runes used to (feels like you might be affected by the icd). 

[Leeching Venoms vs Cloaked in Shadow?]

On 8/11/2023 at 1:25 AM, Eugenides.1274 said:

If you're running d/p then it's usually better to just go for Leeching Venoms. If you're going X/D and are decent at hitting your CnD then Cloaked in Shadow is actually pretty nice.

This. 

[What is the purpose of Signet of Humility in this game mode?]

The question you should be asking is how much salt you can generate if you kill the guy while moa'd. I've done this, the ensuing whispers were hilarious. 

Edit: Something to remember, you can still dodge and your 5 skill while moa'd is also a dodge. If you are a daredevil, you still get three dodges too. If you're only facing the mesmer, you can easily dodge his shatter combo and carry on as you were if you don't panic spam evades. 

[Shortbow skill]

4 hours ago, nopoet.2960 said:

There is no real

Oh there's no real threat that I would ever be a game dev.  It's to much of a thankless job.

I've mainhanded shortbow a lot.  You end up far closer to the action then you'd expect; especially on DD.  Shdowshot blinds 1 enemy for 4 ini.  Returning 2 ini would on Shortbow 5 would make it cost 4 ini for 3 blinds.  That seemed fair.  Yes, I wish the radius was 240.  Yes, this skill only really gets used to travel. 

6 ini. Infiltrator's arrow costs 8 ini in competitive modes, which is where shortbow sees the most play.

[Alright Arenet designers.. lets square up!!]

11 hours ago, Burnfall.9573 said:

I had always respected your opinion no matter what, your apology is not accepted

I wasn't apologising. I was simply stating my intent was not to insult you, but to show how you come off when you make arguments that make no sense based on evidence that is clearly not supporting your conclusion. You give a good example of this flawed reasoning here:

7 hours ago, Burnfall.9573 said:

Vale Wraith is a shroud clothing which is associated with burying the dead. Assassin Profession does not wear shroud clothing nor is associated with burial or with the dead. 

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-shroud/

Vale Wraith is a Halloween Costume which Halloween is associated with the day of the dead- ghosts, goblins, skeletons, witches, brooms, candy corn, ghouls, minions, underworld...all dead things

 

Halloween

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Halloween

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Halloween

A costume that any class could wear. By this logic, you could argue that necromancer stole the shroud mechanic from warrior. 

7 hours ago, Burnfall.9573 said:

Mad King

Guild Wars  Mad King Halloween event: "which celebrates the return of Mad King Thorn from the Underworld. Some outposts celebrate Halloween by decorating them to have an appropriately ghoulish and ghostly appearance."

"When Halloween approaches, Thorn's influence seeps through into Kamadan and Lion's Arch, transforming the citizens into assorted monsters. He is generally accompanied by Candy Corn servants.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mad_King_Thorn

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Mad_King_Thorn

 

In addition:

Mad King Profession is Warrior Profession who was married to his first wife-a human: Lady Lyric than later remarried 7 times during his reign as a King. Mad King Thorn bore two sons: Bloody Prince Thorn and Palawa Joko, who were not humans but were Necromancers. They both bear different last names with having two different mothers who were Necromancers.

Mad King Thorn deep obsession with death is what drew him to fall in love with Necromancy.

Where are you getting the idea that Palawa Joko is the son of Mad King Thorn? The sources you quote clearly tell you he is not. From the first paragraph of the first link:

Prince Oswald Thorn was born in Kryta in the eighth century AE. Already showing early signs of sociopathy,^[1] he became a prolific prankster and troublemaker. During a visit of diplomats from Elona, Oswald met with the diplomat's son Palawa Joko. Viewing the young Thorn ripping wings off of flies as amateurish for not utilizing torture to its fullest extent, Joko secretly taught Oswald what creatures would survive torture and be of use afterwards, suggesting that Oswald should direct his sadism towards his servants instead. The young prince challenged Joko to a pun contest much to the latter's horror, and the pranks escalated into a clash between the two youths, the first battle to take place between the future lich king and Mad King.^[2]

And another quote from https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Palawa_Joko:

According to the Private Property of P.I. Joko written by young "Iggy", however, Joko appears to have been the son of an Elonian diplomat (with the province of origin unknown) in the eighth century AE. In his youth, he accompanied his mother on her diplomatic tours and visited Kryta where, while suffering from boredom, he met with young Prince Oswald Thorn who was already showing signs of violence. 

 

Regarding the actual point you were trying to make:

There is not a single instance of the words necromancy or necromancer in either of the links you provided. Thorn ended up in the underworld because he was dead:

The tyranny of Mad King Thorn came to an end in approximately 825 AE when an angry mob stormed Castle Thorn, ending his earthly rule. The rebels intended to kill Oswald's eighth wife and son as well during the assault, ending the Thorn dynasty, and beseech his cousin to take the throne and plead forgiveness. Worried that the Mad King would try to return using his magic, his killers hid his body parts in boxes and buried them in locations scattered across Tyria, obscuring their locations with magical seals.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mad_King_Thorn

So if your logic is that he was a necromancer because he came from the underworld, then that means my thief is also a necromancer because he was killed by Balthazar and came back from death during the Path of Fire main story. If you're saying that he's a necromancer because he married one, well, I guess Kasmeer Meade isn't a mesmer anymore either. 

7 hours ago, Burnfall.9573 said:

 

In conclusion: 

Shroud, The Undead, Halloween, The Underworld, Conditions, Death, Everything-Anything That Is Associated With Death... Are The Greatest Homage We Can Pay To Necromancer Profession As The Master Of Death.

Your evidence has literally nothing to do with necromancers, as I and others have shown. Do you see where I am getting the idea that you don't read what you quote? 

[Alright Arenet designers.. lets square up!!]

4 hours ago, Burnfall.9573 said:

Just like giving feedbacks...I am politely correcting you with evidence, that is all

The problem is that all the evidence you've ever given on these forums only politely supports the conclusion that you don't read things before quoting them. No offence intended.

[Thief is just a weird mix of stuff]

On 8/6/2023 at 12:56 AM, Mell.4873 said:

Its more i just want to start with Celestials since it will be more forgiving on my gameplay and strategy. I also run Celestials on my unkillable Untamed build so hopefully I can replicate it.

The main issue in terms of sustain that you will run into is that almost all the sustain thief has is dependant on hitting an enemy, so where other classes can kite and heal up with thief you're going to struggle to sustain against anything that doesn't outright tank the attacks. That said, cele deadeye and specter are really nice for solo PvE, you just have to be aware of the limits of the base class. 

[Is there a reason Thiefs stealth auto/backstab has a cd and is basically one chance per stealth?]

The problem was that when these changes to the backstab cooldown were introduced, you could get 15k stabs on the right build. DH was commonly acknowledged as a thief counter in the HoT expansion cycle, I used to one shot a DH player I used to duel with by using basi venom, 5>bound>steal>1. The projectile on black powder with basi proc would interrupt and stun through aegis then the damage from mug, bound, backstab and pulmonary impact would delete the DH. Having one attempt to land backstab on an attack that would delete anything glassy with less than 16k health was pretty reasonable at the time, but we don't tend to hit anywhere near those damage numbers anymore so the cooldown might look strange to newer players without that context. 

On 7/28/2023 at 3:32 AM, Whiskiz.3091 said:

it only gives me one, with auto basic attacks enabled

will literally stand there until stealth wears off otherwise, and i think its only 2s in pvp, might be why - maybe that stealth nerf tripped it up??

and usually would but not keen on disabling auto basic attacks, for thief specifically, having to hold the button down while needing finicky movement button holding to try to stay on top of someone in close a.ss range with daggers, while also needing the flexibility to use other skills with split second precision and timing

Disabling auto attacks is very useful on thief because then you can drop target and use heartseeker 3-4 times in one black powder. Having the longer stealth duration usually offsets the issue you're having, as you can wait for the opponent to dodge the predicted stab at 3s of stealth then hit him at the end of the dodge while he's animation locked. Using shadow shot or steal to hit that window at the end of the dodge both work well if you time it right, steal in particular would deal with aegis before the stab (which incidentally is why you shouldn't spam steal to gap close at the start of a fight). As for holding down the auto button, I have my 1 key also bound to a thumb button on my mouse so I can hold it down while keeping full wasd and dodge capability (dodge is x for me), as well as binding the 5 key to a thumb button and steal to F. It works pretty well for thief, not so well for other classes with more F1-4 keys though, so your milage may vary. 

  

On 7/29/2023 at 4:18 PM, Whiskiz.3091 said:

if you're rolling P/D then AoE black powder into Heartseeker for stealth already costs 9 initiative lol, putting Shadow Shot into the rotation make it too ridiculous

Whole bar for one combo

With one swing (2 if you're super lucky) for the single attack that does most of the damage, in said combo

already ridiculous

Remember that you now get 3 initiative back from shadow arts, so the whole thing is less punishing than it used to be. Try taking roll for initiative, shadow step and blinding powder as utilities, you will have four stunbreaks, three ways to cleanse condis and two ways to regain initiative with that setup, and using roll for ini into withdraw is very handy against attacks that track you in stealth like ranger rapid fire. If that isn't enough, try playing SA deadeye with D/P and rifle instead of daredevil. If you're still struggling with ini with shadow's rejuvenation and maleficent 7 then it's your play that's the issue, not the class. 

[WvW Players - After today's Balance Patch and Expansion Announcement]

Tbh I'm more annoyed it's so soon, I'm not sure I have money to spare on an expac right now. That said I made fun of HoT being announced too early and the fact I'd almost lost interest by the time it came out, so I guess I can't have it both ways. 

[Why must the rest of us pay the price for some to build quickness?]

7 hours ago, Tyrian Mollusk.1563 said:

I enjoyed Fire for Effect, because I enjoy getting and using the stolen skills much more than the longer malice stacking.  It's so wrong to just completely gut the stolen skills system if we take that one trait-- a trait that isn't even the quickness GM trait!  We should be safe from quickness ruining other things, but instead there are not just two of thee traits dedicated to quickness but FFE reaches into the entire stolen skill system and rips away anything else.  Not to mention ruining One in the Chamber the same way until that bug gets fixed.

I don't want to be quickness provider on my deadeye, and that option should not come by just ruining things the rest of us enjoy.

If this has to be done, obviously put it where it belongs in the quickness GM trait.  That's for the quickness people.  Don't only TAKE AWAY from non-quickness people.

The stolen skill system. Do you mean the stolen skills that all do the same thing, just with a different boon/condition application depending on target? If you had a build revolving around what conditions deadeye stolen skills apply, you were probably the only person in the game who even paid attention to it outside of deadeyes blinding other thieves to avoid a backstab. 

I'm sorry if you feel left out by this change, but that's the risk with playing non meta builds that focus on little used mechanics. The more obscure the mechanic, the more likely it is to get totally destroyed in favour of the meta. 

[Deadeye Steal Time revealed bug?]

It's not a bug, it's autoattack doing what it's supposed to, but you should really learn to play with autoattack off when playing thief for this and many other reasons. I have my 1 key bound to a thumb button on my mouse so I can hold it down to auto attack while moving around, that works well for me.