[PvE] Excluding Rifle, what other setup benefits from the DE trait line?

[rogerwilko.6895]

More than from the DD and Base?

Is there motivation to play DE if not for Rifle?

[Amante.8109]

P/P, D/P, and S/D all synergize pretty well with the Deadeye traitline.

[RyuDragnier.9476]

P/P is absolutely devastating with the DE traitline.

[babazhook.6805]

P/d condition does very well with DE line, far better then taking Daredevil IMO.

 

 

 

 

[Acheron.4576]

DE seems to also synergize pretty well with condi D/D (at least at first glance). Your mark grants conditions through traits and through stolen skills. Which adds more, then there are ways to constantly gain more through utilities like mercy allowing you to use mark again. Now I'm not entirely sure how good it actually is, but I can see it has potential... maybe. Especially if you wait till you get a few stacks of malice before tossing the stolen skills.

 

It plays a little like a shadow drain mage in that it grants boons to your party and debuffs the enemies simultaneously.

[rogerwilko.6895]

> @babazhook.6805 said:

> P/d condition does very well with DE line, far better then taking Daredevil IMO.

 

For PvP possibly, but I'm not sure now good P/D can be in PvE.

 

[Barzah.8019]

S/P with be quick or be dead (quickness trait) work really well on PvE, especially when you are surrounded by weak mob. Maleficent seven on the other hand work best with heavy hitter weapon like dagger main.

[rogerwilko.6895]

Yes, S/P power build works okay.

I'm half way through the campaign after first doing in on condi firebrand.

With Thief I've tried power builds with Rifle, S/P, P/P and so on, and condi builds with D/D and P/D.

So far the one that works best for me is D/D... but I'm not seeing a noticeable 'improvement' since HoT.

I'll keep testing and reading what better players think and do :)

[BoX Legend.4027]

I've done DPS tests for all of the weapon possibilities, and compared them with daredevil DPS output. This is for PvE, mind you, so I'll be excluding low DPS combos such as S/D and D/P. This was all done with ascended gear. The best grandmaster trait in a good scenario, IE a raid, is Be Quick or Be Killed. I'm including this in all tests, because without it Deadeye damage is abysmal. It won't even come close to Daredevil DPS, even if you took Maleficent Seven and held all 7 stacks for as long as possible. The reason it's bad is the duration you have this advantage; it's an incredibly short period of what should be spiking (but is only a slight ramp in damage, comparable even still to a traited Daredevil) followed by a drop and a very slow climb back to where you were. You can't control how quickly you spike, you can't even control how long you spike. The best player and the worst player in Guild Wars would probably do nearly the same damage because of this.

 

D/D- Close to Daredevil, was able to even beat it for a moment before dropping back down to nothing when my stacks fell off.

S/P- Fine for trash mobs I guess, nothing crazy. Didn't beat Daredevil, but this isn't a very good weapon set to use for max damage.

P/P- Similar to S/P. Has a really nice spike, but overall less damage than D/D at the cost of a lot more initiative. Wouldn't recommend for anything other than open world mobs. Damage was lower than Daredevil, but slightly higher when at max stacks and not utilizing Daredevils increased melee damage trait.

Rifle- Pathetic damage. Doesn't come close to anything here, and is almost half the DPS of D/D. This weapon is pretty much exclusively a WvW weapon and has no value in any other game modes at the moment.

Staff- Whoosh. Every thing here just got dicked. The DPS of staff is unbeatable, and unless the utility of Daredevil beats a different class (it won't in its current state) than there is no reason to consider it for PvE.

 

It's very hard to balance this class, as it has a lot of potential damage in WvW. That's the thing... They have to balance around this perfect scenario that results in people getting one-shot. My suggestion would be to rework the rifle a bit and make it so stacks stay on a target till death. Have the rifle 4 expunge all stacks IF IT LANDS.

 

TL;DR: Deadeye is worse than Daredevil. It does less damage with no benefits, and it's damage is reliant on other players more so than any other class in the game.

[rogerwilko.6895]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[saerni.2584]

P/D works in PvE. Using the mark on smaller targets clears them quickly and lets you easily maintain 20+ stacks of might.

 

The application of bleed, torment and poison kills most creatures quickly. The high stealth uptime that you can get works wonders for getting additional stealth attacks.

 

I'll be writing a guide later on the gameplay. It requires a few tricks to max/min it.

[babazhook.6805]

> @rogerwilko.6895 said:

> > @babazhook.6805 said:

> > P/d condition does very well with DE line, far better then taking Daredevil IMO.

>

> For PvP possibly, but I'm not sure now good P/D can be in PvE.

>

 

Try it. You can killat range just with the steal.

 

In my current build I am in trappers with DA , DE and TR traited. I have taken respite , deadly trapper and Improv.

I have taken Perhiperal Vision , One in the Chamber and fire for effect.

I have taken uncatchable, Bountiful theft and BA (Bt obviously not playing too much a role here)

 

At 1500 range steal. A lot depends on what skill you get but you now have two apps of the stolen skill. Apply it twice in a row at range. Immediately mercy . Steal once more and apply the stolen skill. Most things are dead by then or close too it and you have not even used INI.

 

For skills take Malicious. The trappers gives stealth and drops a trap. You are stealthed so can sneak attack. Skill two make sure Mercy there it important. Skill 3 another needle trap. This stealths and again allows backpedal. You sneak attack from stealth. (Alternatively you can use binding shadow or shadowguust. The latter stealths and allows sneak attack for free, the former oodles of vuln and an immob) The next skill can be a venom or whatever else suits your fancy and the Elite is shadow meld giving two more stealths and sneak attack chances.

 

Now JUST from the steals and here much depends on what stolen but I will use Steal health as it a good example of potential.

 

Steal 5 confusion (bA) 2 poison (ST) weakness . Apply stolen skill +5 bleed + heal. Apply stolen skill+5 bleed + heal. Cantrip Mercy. . Steal 5 confusion 2 poison . Apply stolen skill 5 bleed and heal. This all done at 1500 range. you have not even shot your pistol yet or used ini. Your might is generally close to max.

 

When you use one of those Cantrips (example the heal) you stealth, and get yet another stolen skill from one in the chamber. You can pretty well refill your stolen skill at will up until the creature dead and steal resets or steal comes off cooldown. I have not even mentioned all the bleeds you add from the stealths and sneak attacks, all INI free which allows the ability to use 2, 3 and 4 more readily. (Panic strike also works nice here even if Potent poison not taken)

 

Outside mercy all the skills on my chosen utilities stealth me and I get two iterations if using the elite. Thats 5 sneak attacks and 5 bleed ups without having to use CND for stealth.

[BobbyT.7192]

> @saerni.2584 said:

> P/D works in PvE. Using the mark on smaller targets clears them quickly and lets you easily maintain 20+ stacks of might.

>

> The application of bleed, torment and poison kills most creatures quickly. The high stealth uptime that you can get works wonders for getting additional stealth attacks.

>

> I'll be writing a guide later on the gameplay. It requires a few tricks to max/min it.

 

Only problem I have with marks on trash mobs in open world is with the cast time, if there is any other person around, by time you get the mark your target will be half dead, yeah that just mean you can recast mark again and again, gaining a lot of might. but your not really doing anything with it.

[flyingfox.6150]

I have been having a lot of fun running around enemies in circles while I malice+unload, most mobs go down so fast I feel I am constantly applying Malice as much as I am unloading. I still would prefer malice to have a lower cast time if not removing it completely. DEFINITELY remove/lower cast time for cantrips, Jesus, come on man!