Noob Deadeye: Gearing Question

[TennesseeWhiskey.8637]

I'm still kind of new to the game and I've dabbled in most classes, but I'm going to focus on Deadeye in PoF. I mained a Sniper in SWToR for a bit so it has some appeal...

My focus currently is WvW but will eventually get into PvP. Have been through Metabattle and as expected, nothing is "meta" for Deadeye group play. At some point I may try roaming, but I don't know the class well at all, even for vanilla thief or Daredevil.

To that end, I'm assuming I will build for Power, but I'm not sure if I should go with Marauder, for the little bit of health or, because of ranged group play, go Berserker/full glass cannon? I'm also assuming Scholar runes? Finally, I'm at a loss as to what my second weapon set should be and its focus: mobility/escape, stealth, or melee damage?

Appreciate any thoughts or links. Just discovered some of what I used to research the elite spec is now outdated or will be with the May changes.

[DemonSeed.3528]

Marauder works out very well, scholar runes is fine to put on them. I'd only go berserk when you are more experienced, because you can really get blown up when someone farts or just stares at you. It doesn't help that the floor is lava full of condi too (aoe's from scourge etc). Depending on whether you are utilizing stealth,evades or mobility, I think you have a few choice in the 2nd wep set. To me, I am thinking I can pretty much drop shortbow as a 2nd utility weapon, as I main rifle and I have enough to get around with Death's Retreat, so I made my 2nd weapon set s/d or d/p depending, although I actually pretty much bring all weapons in inventory to swap from time to time just for fun. I suggest if you don't know what to take, take them all and swap them out on the go according to situation.

[Sir Vincent III.1286]

I would suggest using Rune of the Wurm for starter with your Marauder gear. It will give you at least 20k health which gives you a large margin of error. Then when you're comfortable with the Deadeye, you can substitute that extra Vitality for Power with the Rune of the Scholar.

In a more risky build (I'm still trying this out) is to use the Rune of the Daredevil. The stealth-on-dodge (Silent Scope) works really well with this Rune which gives your next Death's Judgement a guaranteed crit hit which is great with a Berserker set. This build will only give you 12k health. High risk, high reward.

[kash.9213]

In WvW I like to hover right around 20k health, armor, attachments, food, etc all together. I usually have mostly Marauder with some key pieces of Valk switched in and out to stay around that health and power threshold. I convert a lot of ascended drops into possible switch outs for fine tuning stats and keep them in bank or an alt. I can probably go down to around 19k health but around 20k feels about right for the moments of "I should have seen that coming, bounce, bounce, I'm out.....peek over wall one last time once I'm safe".

[SoulSin.5682]

For WvW, Full marauder.Perhaps even 2 soldier Rings to balance a little on some builds.

Walking around with 12k HP from Full Zerg is more of an exercise of frustration than actual result.The damage is beautiful, but you are not actually one shoot anything with either stat set, its better to have more actual health to stick to the confrontation longer than playing full zerg and be forced to a "Kill or be Killed" situation on a meta that doesn't favours Thiefs in the slightest.

For PvE, you can stick to full marauders as well. If you need more damage, just swap your trinkets for Berserk and keep your gear marauder.

PS: Marauder is a HoT exclusive stat.

[Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497]

For now. I'd only use the meta as a guide. Really, you'll find off meta builds that cater to your style to be much better. Runes and Sigils hold a pretty strong impact on you.

For example... If you're unable to stay healthy, scholar is lost in you. You can instead trade off precision pieces of your armor for other stats and equip the Rune of the Daredevil. After a dodge your next attack will be a critical hit. If you don't mind slowing down malice generation a bit, you can get armor, healing power, health, or condi damage. When you use DJ, you will guarantee a critical hit.

[bq pd.2148]

you will do alot more damage with berserker stat over marauder. but thief can escape pretty decent with active defense so if you are not oneshot you can escape mostly. with 11645 hp ther is alot more stuff that can onehit you then with 17-20k so many thieves will go for alot of vitality. but then they lose also alot of damage wich makes it harder to kill their opponents as they have to play more aggressive. i play with full berserkers and even on my second account that has only exotics i can onehit most people with a malicious backstab once malice is up.IMO when playing with rifle you dont need much HP as you can outrange your opponent most of the time and when they come close or pressure you from afar, you will dodge for stealth to reposition and target break anyways.i would adivse to test both glass and marauder in exotics first and decide for your self.

[DemonSeed.3528]

The triumphant armor and crystal desert reward track are good for getting exotics with any stat (depending on the expansions you have). Too bad there isn't a exotic weapon equivalent for choosing any stats in reward tracks, but I think they are selectable for the mistforge hero weapons from the skirmish vendor which are 350 skirmish tickets + 250 memories of battle (you have to unlock them by doing Hero Weapon reward track, or you cannot buy that specific weapon).

[TennesseeWhiskey.8637]

Thanks all for the advice, really appreciate it. I went with Marauder and Scholar and I still feel squishy, but I'm assuming as I improve I'll mitigate some of that.

FYI - it feels really weird dodging to get stealth to fire off a DJ (especially after extensive PvP in SWToR with their Sniper). The fights in WvW are so fluid and there's so much movement, it seems like I get better damage/flow kneeling and getting off a Spotter's Shot followed by Three Round Burst. It almost feels like I need to spend my Malice by stealthing and then opening up with melee to finish an opponent.

If anyone else reads this, would also appreciate some gameplay tips either around effective use of Stealth as a DE Rifle, or non-stealth play, or some sort of melee follow up to finish opponents.