Pistol/Pistol... Deadeye or Daredevil?

[aaron.7850]

So I like Pistol/Pistol a lot, but I cant figure out which elite spec would best benefit that weapon combo.

Surely Deadeye with all the damage boost, but my guildies say Daredevil is better... but why tho? Is having three dodges better than Deadeye's damage traits?

 

This is for open-world and casual wvw.

[saerni.2584]

Deadeye. Deadeye is a better spec for ranged damage. Deadeye also provides opportunities for stealth that will make P/P more defensive than otherwise.

[fluffdragon.1523]

Can only really advise you on PvE, but I'd choose deadeye, personally. Daredevil excels at melee combat and sustainability through its ability to generate endurance, but really isn't that worthwhile if you're engaging from range.

 

Running Trickery and Deadeye will let you capitalize on Deadeye's Mark (your new F1), and if you choose the [Fire for Effect](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fire_for_Effect) trait in addition to [Thrill of the Crime](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Thrill_of_the_Crime), you can start off combat with about 11 might, then quickly ramp that up by +8 if Unload hits every shot. Anything left standing that isn't severely hurt is either a veteran or a tougher mob, at this point.

 

Just keep in mind that pistol and its stealth attack are condition damage hybrids, so running something which exploits both power and condition damage will give you the greatest overall efficacy with the weapon set, thanks to the +1 stack of bleed with its basic attack. This is *not* necessary, however, and a purely power-focused build can do just fine if you'd rather roll for raw damage and crits.

[Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582]

I like to run with Deadeye and this build in PvE OW or for events. It throws around so many boons for support, does a lot of damage and also self sustains extremely well due to the fact its got 100% crit chance and Invigorating Precision, so you get healed for 20% of all damage you do, plus the 1050 heal from Signet of Malice on every Unload which is spammable and the 500 heal on kill, which if you are dealing with trash mobs is extremely frequent. Swap **Fire For Effect** to **Be Quick or Be Killed** for significantly more damage when solo or if desired. Just use the SB for mobility, obviously, but build your Bloodlust stacks to 25 and then just unload on everything in sight. A Sigil of Cruelty is actually more damage (and healing) here. The SB is low on damage, but you can clean large groups of trash mobs while being essentially invincible due to the amount of heals you are getting by spamming SB2 and AAing, this makes it great for events because you are spamming F1 on everything and therefore spamming fury, might, swiftness and vigor on everyone, plus stealing mob boons too. If you are doing events, its prudent to swap **Practiced Tolerance** for **Deadly Aim**, or just use SB. If you are solo, keep Practiced Tolerance and just kill one mob at a time, its pretty fast with **Collateral Damage** helping out.

 

You can build to do more damage than this, but personally I like to buff allies as well, so there's a compromise there. Swap the runes to Scholar and always run **Be Quick or Be Killed** if you want to just run around deleting mobs from the game.

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PawAoqVlZwwYXsMmJW0XnPfA-zRIYR0xXKNFC1FBVUApnAqNL6vsB-e

[Taril.8619]

Daredevil can be solid with P/P dodging between Unloads to proc Boundless Dodger (Damage if you land near an enemy and 10% damage buff for 4 seconds), Havoc Specialist (5% damage per missing endurance bar) and Weakening Strikes (Weakness application to get 7% more damage) and if you're not staying too far from enemies, you can throw in some Fist Flurries during Init downtime.

 

Deadeye can work well too with damage from Premeditation (1% per unique boon), Iron Sight (10% damage against a marked target) and Maleficent Seven (Init regen plus a bunch of boons upon reaching max Malice) or Be Quick or Be Killed (Quickness on stealing, 200 Power and Precision from Quickness).

 

I find the main advantage of DE, is the init gain from Maleficent Seven allowing more Unload usage. The downside of it though, is that consistently obtaining M7 procs requires using the stealth skill to dump Malice and allow you to stack up again, but Pistol MH's stealth skill is a predominantly Condi based attack (With its Malice scaling being additional Torment stacks) which doesn't do very well in P/P's heavily Power focused Unload set up.

 

Outside of M7, both specs are fairly even. DE with BQoBK can burst really hard by dumping all your init on Unload very quickly with bonus damage, but it can leave you completely empty and just plinking away with crummy auto attacks also very quickly. While DD will provide more damage over time with consistent damage boosts (Though it can also burst with Swipe > Impact Strike > Fist Flurry > Unload combo. DD also has a nice bonus of Boundless Dodger allowing you to tag enemies in an AoE while doing events, which can be sorely lacking from P/P if not using Deadly Aim trait.

 

So yeah, if you can capitalize on getting a bit closer to enemies, Daredevil can perform very well. If you tend to stay back then away from enemies then DE will provide a bit more.

[draxynnic.3719]

In all honesty, either can work.

 

Deadeye generally shines in situations where enemies are going down fast enough that you can maximise the usage of marks. Exactly how long this means depends on your exact build, but generally you want enemies dying right after maxing Malice, and with some builds it might even be ideal for the enemy to die right after being marked.

 

Daredevil can often work better against large single targets or in situations where mobility is important. You probably won't be landing Bound damage, but daredevil can stack up a lot of damage modifiers.

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

The deadeye's Mark abuse is just so strong in OW you can't really compete.

Premeditation + BQoBK + Trickery traitline + critical strikes (no quarter or Invigorating precision) = you ** chain** mobs really, really, really fast.

Initiatives isn't an issue with Pew/pew and trickery for random mobs : Unload only cost 3 initiative point, so you can unload 5-6 before you're out; mark refills 2 iniatives, then you can also use Quick Pocket trait, or skills like Mercy, the roll, the signet etc.

For champions or meta events, yes M7 could be more effective but you'll need stealth or One in the Chamber; too much effort for me for OW.

[draxynnic.3719]

There's also a variant that uses Payback to keep Thieves' Guild active permanently. Requires a steady stream of enemies to mark and kill, though.

 

Daredevil, however, can give you an average of about 22% extra damage, which doesn't rely on anything other than dodging regularly and keeping Weakness on the target (which happens naturally through the traits if nothing else), all of which stacks with any other buffs flying around. Doesn't match what Deadeye can do with a steady stream of marks, but that's not always what you've got, and even with Bounding Dodger rather than Unhindered Combatant, it can be easier to stay alive with Daredevil.

 

Honestly, though, best advice would probably be to try them both and see. Maybe even have both build templates running so you can switch between them on the fly, if you have the slots to spare.

[Redpawa.4108]

Deadeye is generally better for ranged weapons. Also Be Quick or Be Killed quickness helps a lot for unload, specifically against players

 

Personal P/P Deadeye build for WvW

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PagAoqlZwkYXMMGJW2XXPXA-zVIYR0wXGVUARnA2eAEYDE4p+YR/RL-w

(One pistol main hand set 1, one off hand set 2)

[Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582]

> @"draxynnic.3719" said:

> There's also a variant that uses Payback to keep Thieves' Guild active permanently. Requires a steady stream of enemies to mark and kill, though.

 

Yeah, Thieves Guild and Payback work really well together, I just cant be bothered casting it all the time lol, so lazy. If you combo it with a skill bar full of Venoms and Improvisation in Deadly Arts, its nuts.

 

[babazhook.6805]

One of the best things about DE is the ONkill resetting the steal trigger. PP also makes for a very nice hybrid if you go grieving. That confusion stack alone on steal out of BA can add significant confusion ticks with the MIGHT add and combined with lead attacks. With the DE steal reset on kill you can use that Confusion right away on next target. This tends to work better then the SOH trait as you already have an interrupt via p4. Keep in mind as well in hybrid your steals tend allow you to apply more conditions at range while those might stacks pile on.

 

Even in a raw power build BA can be worthwhile just because of lead attacks and might. (the conditions from the steals just work as an added bonus ie bleeds off necro)

 

Mercy can work well here too. Do the steal with unloads for that confusion and unloaded power damage , mercy for INI reset and apply confusion again.

[ASP.8093]

Deadeye with M7 can just spam-spam-spam initiative-heavy attacks for days. imo that's better than Daredevil for Pistol/Pistol since your goal with that weapon set is really not to be using your autos all that much.

[Mini.4806]

Please tell me I'm not the only one who runs DE with a bow. >_>

[ASP.8093]

> @"Mini.4806" said:

> Please tell me I'm not the only one who runs DE with a bow. >_>

 

I really like DE with shortbow because you can actually use it as a fairly-high-DPS AOE weapon against massive waves of trash mobs. It's one of those situations where M7 really, really shines.

[Mini.4806]

Huzzah, validation!