A couple ideas to improve the rifle while making it more engaging.

[Falcord.3608]

Spotter Shot - Skirmisher shot: Gain 1 initiative per moving enemy hit.

• Synergy with Pierce since you get rewarded for nailing multiple enemies in a row, allowing you to keep control of a group if you can get your positioning right as you build up for Death's judgement. Gives Deadeye a viable AoE which consists on constantly repositioning to pierce multiple enemies and gain initiative.
• Different tradeoffs when comparing Spotter vs Skirmisher. Spotter leads into my proposal for Triple Shot, but skirmisher allows you to get better positioning and can be repeteadly used for the initiative gain since enemies can keep moving. If you can pierce 4 enemies, it could even be used to gain initiative, rewarding you for standing up, moving around while shooting until reaching a better position to kneel again.

Double Tap - Three Round Burst: Gain 1 malice if you hit a stationary enemy with all hits.

• Synergy with the modified Spotter, since immobilizing an enemy allows you to land this ability for faster malice generation. This creates a more natural flow between abilities, and gives Rifle more PvE potential by speeding up your ramp up time against stationary, big targets.
• Gives the Rifle some extra identity by making it the only weapon that can directly affect Malice generation.
• Brings Maleficent Seven and Be Quick or Be Killed slightly more in line with each other for rifle, since BQoBK malice gain is more impactful and landing all hits is easier with quickness up.

Death's Judgement Increase the duration of your mark by 3 seconds when you hit the marked enemy.

• Allows you to keep pressure during extended fights by lengthening the period that your mark is up against a single target. Can't really make it indefinite because of initiative regen, but can make it last significantly longer at peak efficiency.
• Rewards you for playing the patient game and saving energy for multiple DJ bursts, by keeping you at max malice for longer.
• Creates interesting build tradeoffs, since you have to decide whether you want to camp max malice and regen initiative quicker to keep it up, or start again and reap the benefits of BQoBK/perfectionist.

My justification for those: I think the Deadeye is well designed but the rifle is a bit undertuned. Straight up buffing the damage wouldn't quite do it either, since the kit is a bit lacking in synergy at the moment and would benefit from some extra mechanics that tie the abilities together. I think these three changes, while subtle, would do a lot to bind the rifle together and help the daredevil in the specific areas it is lacking in (PvE AoE, lack of DPS in extended encounters due to the fleeting nature of the mark, and malice growth).

Also, I believe the Deadeye is all about observation and patience, and an element slightly lacking in the current design is observation of what your enemy is doing. By providing extra effects when correctly judging the way your enemies are moving, I think the theme of the Deadeye is strengthened: Give up mobility in exchange for controlling the opponent's.

[Falcord.3608]

I couldn't come up with anything for Death's Retreat, but I think that one is fine as is. It can be chained for a lot of backwards distance. Thoughts?

[Barzah.8019]

I don't think increasing mark duration won't make rifle condition much better since thief gameplay always relied on quick in and out situation. Rifle concept in general is already solid since you can't just relied on spamming 1 skill alone to do all the job.

I think i already post it on several thread that current malice gain & reward is the main problem for Deadeye rifle. At current condition, you need to go all out just to get your malice bar filled up and the only reward that you have is one skill that took loads of initiative and has many problem like casting time, revealed debuff, and also those *&@#$ range and obstruction bug.

[Falcord.3608]

@Barzah.8019 said:I don't think increasing mark duration won't make rifle condition much better since thief gameplay always relied on quick in and out situation. Rifle concept in general is already solid since you can't just relied on spamming 1 skill alone to do all the job.

I think i already post it on several thread that current malice gain & reward is the main problem for Deadeye rifle. At current condition, you need to go all out just to get your malice bar filled up and the only reward that you have is one skill that took loads of initiative and has many problem like casting time, revealed debuff, and also those *&@#$ range and obstruction bug.

Maybe kneeling should give you initiative based on your malice? With some cooldown so you don't just double-kneel. Just a random thought.