Dead-Eye Solo

[Game of Bones.8975]

I have 50% of the D/E completed and I'm finding it hard to solo with the thief. I've gone back to D/D for familiarity, but having the same issue with aggro. I didn't have the problem with other maps. Is PoF that much harder?

[FogLeg.9354]

Is it harder compared to what?

Core Tyria - yes.

HoT - no, PoF is easier.

LS3 - about same as those.

[Game of Bones.8975]

I was looking at LS3 mostly but core story for sure.

[Kallist.5917]

Whats your build look like? I know its not popular, but I suggest running it with conditions and venoms. That's what Ive gone with and I finished the story DE Solo using my Rifle, and didnt run in to any issues. I would also suggest looking at your play style. Remember, as a Deadeye, you are taking the roll of a sniper, you have to be selective about where you engage your target, and when. Take on small groups at a time from as far out as you can, and be ready to dump a world of hurt on them fast. Plan for about 5-10 second battles, if you can keep them in that time frame, you should be doing great. If you are running in to issues with them getting close, I recommend running Devourer and Skale vemon's with Peripheral Vision to AOE Bomb them. Run it with Improvisation and you can soften up groups of 5 or more scary fast.

[TwiceDead.1963]

Running power?

 

Grab Critical Strikes and Invigorating Precision. If you're still struggling, grab a sword and pistol, abuse Pistol-whip and you'll never die.

[Griever.8150]

I run this build for soloing and i'm doing fine. Most mobs in PoF are mechanically simpler than the ones in HoT and LWS3 so its definitively easier imo. My only complaint would be that mob density in some areas just feels a bit over the top but as a thief we probably have the best tools to deal with that with abilities like Shadow Refuge to reset mob trains.

 

Edit : Build here http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vZIQNAU8YlsMhunYjTwwJw+EL4EGfuMYeM3aABgMA3FIEsCA-jxAXgAPKB7V/BQ5HA-e

[Turk.5460]

> @Kallist.5917 said:

> Whats your build look like? I know its not popular, but I suggest running it with conditions and venoms. That's what Ive gone with and I finished the story DE Solo using my Rifle, and didnt run in to any issues. I would also suggest looking at your play style. Remember, as a Deadeye, you are taking the roll of a sniper, you have to be selective about where you engage your target, and when. Take on small groups at a time from as far out as you can, and be ready to dump a world of hurt on them fast. Plan for about 5-10 second battles, if you can keep them in that time frame, you should be doing great. If you are running in to issues with them getting close, I recommend running Devourer and Skale vemon's with Peripheral Vision to AOE Bomb them. Run it with Improvisation and you can soften up groups of 5 or more scary fast.

 

You're only taking on that role if you are using Rifle as your main weapon. I'm not much for PvE, but I do like completing the stories when they are released, so I'm currently blowing through monsters as DE using Sword/Pistol, getting double mark abilities from DA, using fire for effect to always have 21+stacks of might.

[lmaogg.7325]

Deadeye with rifle especially, is very slow compared to the older weapons. Even condi with venom share kill way faster due to high burst. I can't count how many times I fail to pull off a proper rifle #4 off due to lack of initiative after re-positioning in pve. And by the time I meet the requirements, malice buff time out. Better off just spamming kneeling #3 unless it's a long boss fight

[Gor.3460]

I play with shadowstep, shadow flare, DE 1-1-1, DA and CS. PvE looks like this: mark, kneel, 1-2-3, autos till full malice, use stolen skill, 4-4-1-4 (even better to give another 2 beforehand, just in time to synchronize max malice and max ini). That is on tougher monsters and on veterans, ordinary trash dies instantly after 5-1-3-3.

I land every death judgement (you must have an hour of playtime on a spec tops if you fail in core class mechanics such as these, and of course you can't expect good damage in this case) and most of the time this obvious combo makes short work on any PoF enemy.

Also, I basically always kneel when I'm attacking, even if its just 1-s. Seems obvious, so you can and must always do that. Two dodges, two blinks and heal (which amazingly heals for full hp on max malice) are more than sufficient tools to win any PvE engagement and to play it fully knelt. Of course, sometimes you'll get into situations when you spent dodges and still have to manually stand and reposition. Took me a little time to adapt to this too, - 4 is a lifesaver.

For swap I have s/d to spam daggers on spiders and to kill some close-quarters vets quickly with 3 if I feel that in this particular situation I won't gain anything with rifle.

You don't always need shadowstep, but running it helps you stay away from any particulary tough melee enemy indefinitely and helps to deal with AoE heavy hitters. Flare sometimes is like an emergency shadowstep too, though I usually just use it for the damage (on full malice preferably). Third skill is flavor, I've tried shadow gust, caltrops, binding shadow - all of them work nicely. I've also tried signets, but they're boring and not really working with this kind of gameplay, so they better stay with DD.

After getting used to my build, I virtually stopped dying and overall getting into risky situations, whilst being able to kill anything and having a complete control. Also, I've started to run stealth cover without trickery out of spite and for a challenge of sorts in the first place, but turns out its pretty playable and not really taxing even when you reposition, if you do it right. Without bonus ini you still land three max malice 4-s on one mark in a basic fight, and they have all tasty damage buffs and almost guaranteed crit probability.

[Turk.5460]

> @Gor.3460 said:

> I play with shadowstep, shadow flare, DE 1-1-1, DA and CS. PvE looks like this: mark, kneel, 1-2-3, autos till full malice, use stolen skill, 4-4-1-4 (even better to give another 2 beforehand, just in time to synchronize max malice and max ini). That is on tougher monsters and on veterans, ordinary trash dies instantly after 5-1-3-3.

 

Whatever enemy you are facing in your scenario above would die twice as fast, or faster, if you simply used Mark - P/P 3 - 3 - 3 etc. But rifle does look cool, and feels cool, and I understand that is important to people, myself included. Which is why rifle has been a little disheartening so far.

[Gor.3460]

Nah, I've played with dual pistols "to my heart's content" some time ago - spamming 3 with my tongue out all day long won't do it for me. Never again.

Besides, I don't feel like I'm really missing anything in speed department, when lifespan of a monster ends roughly after my max malice rotation. And its not like I care at all about my dps not being firebrand level on a bounty boss or any other group content - you won't get any extra rewards anyway. What matters is how convinient it is for me to shoot in these situations.

[RnAoDm.4591]

I finished PoF with Deadeye and rifle all the way but didn't feel like i used it to it's full capacity. Many times i was knocked out of kneel right before i was able to use #4 or the fight would be over long before it was worth it. I found most fights used mark on targets as much as possible then ended up being a spam of #3 either in kneel or when running around with the occasional #2 to slow enemies while kiting. I have had some satisfying hits come up if i can manage to land a full malice #4 but in most cases i can almost match that with a decent mark and #3 spam especially if kneeling.

[Game of Bones.8975]

Do you feel you gain in damage/range as much as you give up in mobility by switching from either thief or D/D to D/E?

[Sojourner.4621]

> @"Game of Bones.8975" said:

> Do you feel you gain in damage/range as much as you give up in mobility by switching from either thief or D/D to D/E?

 

As a solo player, the permanent quickness uptime that "Be Quick or Be Dead" gives me I feel does justify running around with it. I don't actually feel that I have lost any mobility over core thief at the very least, considering that I am not actually using rifle most of the time. Being able to recast Mark/Steal over and over again every time my target dies, refunding my initiative and gaining ANOTHER 4s quickness has been the biggest increase to my solo pve damage since launch... and Unloads are actually a pretty heavy burst with perma quickness. Edit: Maybe the sustain isn't as great as other specs, but Deadeye was clearly designed to be bursty.