Why does Deadeye feel trash now?

[Digital.4238]

I can't put my finger on it. I've been playing Deadeye for years now, and this is the first time in a long time I've felt that Deadeye is kinda useless, I know there were some changes recently to how Deadeye operates, but it all just feels so flat now, I don't feel like the hard hitter I used to be, I don't feel like I'm contributing to my team by being there and using all my Malice on one big shot, it just all feels like a waste, there doesn't seem to be that big payoff anymore, I knew that using my Malice would result in massive damage, now it's like a wet slap. No I'm not expecting to 1-shot Ultra Legendary Omega Super Champions, but I do expect to feel like my skills and abilities have made some impact in the fight, and not feel like I didn't contribute to anything. Being a Berzerker Deadeye I was once told that I "didn't do anything, he just wanted the exp". Which wasn't wrong, I wanted the exp, but in that specific event, I was boon'ing up, stealthing, aiming, applying conditions, spending Malice for those big damage numbers, dodging massive AOE attacks, kiting mobs, etc etc. But apparently I didn't do anything, in hindsight, considering how much damage, people were tanking and how well they were surviving, I probably didn't do all that much in the grand scheme of things. 

Now usually when I start to feel like this I switch off and play another Character, I've been thoroughly enjoying a Necro, these last few weeks, but going back to Deadeye, it just feels so flat and slow, and solo play feels like I have next to none survivability when going up against a group of mobs.

My Rifle feels like it shoots confetti and my daggers are made of rubber.

 

What happened to Deadeye?

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

In a word.  Deadeye's been hit two times in a row, first to make the rifle better for the non-Deadeye specs, and before that it was to reduce the damage of the quickness boon spec.  

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

1 hour ago, Digital.4238 said:

What happened to Deadeye?

New enemies have tons of more HP when scaled up from players. Also their trait changes to make it so you can share boons hurt other play styles.

Weapons other than rifles appears to work better with Deadeye now. Dual daggers and staff especially.

[Biziut.3594]

Yeah, single target focused spec and it have lower damage than some aoe focused specs. They were supposed to nerf the damage of quick deadeye, not deadeye in general. Power deadeye was in the perfect place before nerf imo. Only support quick deadeye deserved nerf.

[Antrix.4512]

No, the spec definitely has its issues, no doubt about it, but it's far from "trash". Yes, the adjustments to the Rifle for use by other specs have made their own, let's say, corrections... but overall, others have suffered much more (except for Scourges, lmao).

[Digital.4238]

I play a lot solo, and playing through SotO content makes me feel like Deadeye has been left behind, and that I'm probably better off trying Daredevil instead.

[Doggie.3184]

Why does it feel trash? because it is. Easily the worst spec in game and it's been that way since it's release with only one short period of time where it was fun with D/D but the patch was reverted.

[emtea.6931]

I love how quick deadeye was "over performing" and there was communication about this and the result was nerf the entire spec to oblivion.. and here we are 2 patches later and another class is doing huge numbers while being fully ranged and everything is fine, no communication on that spec "over performing"... 

[Curennos.9307]

Rifle being entirely single target should probably become a thing of the past because AoE is king in the vast majority of scenarios.- and seems to be balanced to do even single target anyway. Pierce is nice, but isn't really consistently applicable. I would love to see a short range, conal AoE skill on standing rifle 3 to help with this, otherwise DE will continue to be that 'good' single target spec that falls short in practice because cleave is so relevant and cleave specs can have range and they don't really pay a cost in single target damage anymore. Even if something is single target, other weapon sets are still more broadly effective anyway, which - imo - leaves DE in kind of a 'basically thief, but with malice :D' and leaves rifle (the 'main' spec weapon) behind.

[yiksing.9432]

Deadeye became Dead! Aye...

[Digital.4238]

So after doing some more research and looking around the forums, sub reddits, steam forums, threads etc etc.

It's good to see I'm not alone on this and that the general consensus is that Deadeye has fallen behind a bit, especially considering that most other classes can do what Deadeye's whole purpose is, and those other classes are somewhat better at it too.

I honestly thought I'd be flamed into the depths about my opinion, about how I'm playing Deadeye wrong because it's still a super powerful class. To some degree I probably am playing something about it slightly out of what would be considered "meta" for the Deadeye, but it's reassuring to see that I'm not going crazy with this and others agree that Deadeye is basically dead.