So what non/low stealth Deadeye builds are people running?

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

Kinda bored of seeing the same old posts about the the stealth gank build, so let's do something more positive. What non-permastealth builds are people running on DE, why do you play them, and how effective are they?

 

I always come back to acro S/P, been playing it since before HoT (yes, I realise I'm probably playing the wrong class thematically, but warrior doesn't have the acrobatic feel and revenant has virtually no build diversity), so with DE and rifle it looks like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAU8an0MB1FjlOBOGDUGjlxCjvMeGjjeDgAwBo7jsbGRA-jFzHQBf8IAQI1BAwDAQPqgEmLAQ8OIAfT3Q42fYPqUMHlg/T537URIAACwNvZ2sNDu5Nv5Nv5NrNv5Nv5Nv5Nv5NvZpAqSZE-w

 

It's fun to play for me; perma stealth gets boring after a while, and I like builds that can stick around in a fight a little bit instead. It has surprisingly good melee burst with lots of CC and a decent ranged spike, and the armor plus dura proc means pretty much the only thing that is a serious threat are soulbeasts on high damage builds, but they pretty much two shot thieves no matter the build so that's not saying much. Most other things can be fought evenly or avoided altogether.

 

What about you?

[Turk.5460]

This is my build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAsaUn0MBNGjlOB+OB0PhFYCj/Y2MrmaJgAwuxLNcGaDA-j1CEQBw5IB8gDBwb03sRlgE4ACsI1VAwJIYCPAB/pShDVmxk9HlGBAQAuZb2m3Mbezbez38m38m38m1m38m38m38m38m3sUAsOZD-w

 

The general opening burst is simple. Rifle out, Mark (5s Quickness), Skirmisher's Shot x3or4, Stolen ability or dodge for stealth, Death's Judgement. Though this is ideal and your opponent not immediately countering every move. Actually fighting with Rifle out, aside from the opener, the build is pretty cautious. You utilize Death's Retreat to stay away from melee, peck with auto and Skirmisher's shot, try to drop malice with DJ after getting M7. You only go full ham with Rifle on the opener or right after you Mark again. Always swap to S/P and Infiltrator's Strike -> Pistol Whip as soon as your opponent puts up a reflect or starts heavily using LOS obstacles.

 

If Mark is available and the enemy is keeping up with the kiting, I'll often swap to S/P, Mark, Pistol Whip. This can do tons of damage and at the same time many enemies will blow a lot of their damaging cooldowns into your Pistol Whip evade.

 

Mercy is very often used offensively rather than as a stun break. An extra mark on demand is valuable as it strips 3 boons, iterrupts/dazes, poisons, weakens, damages, heals you, gives back 2 initiative, gives vigor, fury, might, and 2 more stolen abilites.

 

This build is generally countered by Mirage (1s evade frames, permanent reflect, instant/zero-tell damage/condi application) or Herald (incredibly overtuned raw damage, low cooldown evades, near constant pressure from PT). Everything else depends on how well you perform your opening assault and then react to their counter-play.

 

---I'll often swap Dagger Storm out for Shadow Meld if I'm fighting outnumbered battles.

[kash.9213]

This is what I had when I logged off last night, it's hovering around my baseline I guess give or take food and some other stuff ..

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAsYUl0MhanY5Tw0Jw/ELIFG/lcUeK9yB3geAXVKA8AA-jlSSABVr0p+TBgUqMIiSwiVnZClR1qJ44nAAA7PYjegAAIA3sNbzbG4m38m38m3s28mt5NbzdezkCoctWA-w

 

I usually pick up supply and float around maps and run interception for people and squads I'm working around. Snipers Cover is awesome, I'll be as sad as I was over Cursed Bullet if they ever mess with this one. New fireworks runes are fun if you're a lazy casual like me also.

[Slugonaut.9841]

There used to be a fun non-stealth DE build built around the stun trait they removed from the DE trait line (was running this with Rifle & S/P). Since the overhaul to DE I don't really care for the traitline or the way rifle plays these days so I just stick to core and DrD.

[babazhook.6805]

I have a multitude of thief builds I use. This is my latest iteration of DE low stealth. With recent changes to Ankle shots I swapped out of TR and took CS instead. High boontime allows this to run around 7 boons at all times, full might stacks, fury , regen swiftness vigor all full time with overlap on Mali 7 boons.

 

The bounty sigil not really needed but it does push Boon duration near 100 percent and I have really seen no need to change it.

 

Ankle shots is 10 percent damage add in s/p . IT hard to give up TR but CS is very competitve with it.

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAsaUn0MBFPh9OBGOBUGjldCjPW2L/ldvlF0caLAkAaTA-j1CXABi/AAuV9HX0C8gSQhVa04RAgkTAQp7PAgysQ0FE9hAIAACwNbz28mBO6RP6RP6Rb6G9oH9oH9oH9oH9olCIwVaA-w

 

 

 

 

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

@Turk; I've duelled someone who was running a similar build, it worked pretty nicely I thought. I guess my issue with it is how glassy it is, I find running a bit tanky doesn't drop damage too significantly but it really helps vs other thieves and random aoe etc. Improv would be nice to play with tho, and using mark offensively is really good. I find one in the chamber really useful, despite what I've said about it in the past, as it now provides easy stealth access to S/P which is great vs mesmer in particular. I'm not a fan of daggerstorm to be honest, it's strong but I feel you need Improv to make it worth the cooldown, meld is also a cantrip so gives more stolen skills that means more stealth when at 5 malice. Might try your traits again later :)

 

@Kash; pretty offensive traits there haha, I can see where you're going if you're based on working around groups tho. Sniper's cover is a great skill tbh, with blinding powder you get a lot of milage out of it. And scorpion wire is fun, I run that over binding shadow sometimes, starting the pull then casting DJ is pretty funny :) kinda ironic tho, I asked about low stealth builds and it seems I use more stealth than you or Turk xD

 

@Slugonaut; yeah, I still miss that trait :( I thought it was a fair tradeoff for no stealth on rifle, but apparently not.

 

@Babazhook; that boon duration is pretty mad, I like it haha :D another person running the CD reduction on kill over stealth on dodge too, are you normally solo or in groups? I usually find myself outnumbered (I have a bad habit of attacking groups solo because I'm bored) so I've not got round to trying it, your offensive stats are much better than I thought for a boon build too. I suppose with your protection uptime it evens itself out. I've run S/D with CS over trickery and that worked, I thought S/P was too ini heavy though, might have to try that again.

 

Thanks for commenting by the way, I knew most of you ran non meta builds from discussions in previous posts but it's interesting to see people's build choices too :)

[syszery.1592]

@"Turk.5460" Is a build with Silent Scope and Improvisation still considered _non/low stealth_? I mean the build itself is great but it has quite good access to stealth I think.

 

I had a discussion with @"babazhook.6805" in another thread about not using Silent Scope and I experimented with [this in WvW](http://de.gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAsaVl0MhinYpTwwJQ/ELYFWXAI6UA8iAXgOA/dcQWIB-jFDEQBORZg/U3Be7P8gDBg70HAgjAgLPBAbUJIceAAMRphiUJghKxmHcAMABIgAAGQABEQABoACIgACIgUDIgAkCwcJbA-w "this"). Replacing Pistol with Dagger and adapting the sigils is also an option. Or an [sPvP-version](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAsYVl0MhinYpTwwJQ/ELYFG/dcQWI9yAXgOQXAI6UAA-jpxHQBw7EAIu9HE4DAQZHBgrVGAAHCAA "sPvP-version").

 

But to be honest: I played around with this because I wanted to test if Deadeye without Rifle would be playable. To me it feels that without Rifle it is really suboptimal. The Boon-stacking with Maleficent Seven is nice but you have to drop either:

* Acrobatics which means that you sacrifice much survivability

* Trickery which is (outside of 1-shot gimmick builds) usually a bad tradeoff

* Deadly Arts, i.e. Improvisation. Not having this Trait is already so painful in my opinion (besides the other good traits in this line)...

[Teratus.2859]

In PvE I have a Deadeye that's more of a sniper.. has some stealth but for the most part I've only used it when playing with my friend, I camp out on a hill or building or something and play sniper.. kinda fun tbh ^^

[syszery.1592]

> @"Jugglemonkey.8741" said:

> I always come back to acro S/P, been playing it since before HoT (yes, I realise I'm probably playing the wrong class thematically, but warrior doesn't have the acrobatic feel and revenant has virtually no build diversity)...

 

Just one thing I forgot earlier to add here: The current Warrior meta is quite active in terms of defense, if you play [Tetherbreaker](https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Spellbreaker_-_Tetherbreaker "Tetherbreaker"). You have only the Shout as a stun break and the block on Shield and every other defense comes from mobility and a crazy amount of dodges. This also works in WvW of course. However, the build requires some practice to get used to it I think.

[babazhook.6805]

> @"Jugglemonkey.8741" said:

> @Turk; I've duelled someone who was running a similar build, it worked pretty nicely I thought. I guess my issue with it is how glassy it is, I find running a bit tanky doesn't drop damage too significantly but it really helps vs other thieves and random aoe etc. Improv would be nice to play with tho, and using mark offensively is really good. I find one in the chamber really useful, despite what I've said about it in the past, as it now provides easy stealth access to S/P which is great vs mesmer in particular. I'm not a fan of daggerstorm to be honest, it's strong but I feel you need Improv to make it worth the cooldown, meld is also a cantrip so gives more stolen skills that means more stealth when at 5 malice. Might try your traits again later :)

>

> @Kash; pretty offensive traits there haha, I can see where you're going if you're based on working around groups tho. Sniper's cover is a great skill tbh, with blinding powder you get a lot of milage out of it. And scorpion wire is fun, I run that over binding shadow sometimes, starting the pull then casting DJ is pretty funny :) kinda ironic tho, I asked about low stealth builds and it seems I use more stealth than you or Turk xD

>

> @Slugonaut; yeah, I still miss that trait :( I thought it was a fair tradeoff for no stealth on rifle, but apparently not.

>

> @Babazhook; that boon duration is pretty mad, I like it haha :D another person running the CD reduction on kill over stealth on dodge too, are you normally solo or in groups? I usually find myself outnumbered (I have a bad habit of attacking groups solo because I'm bored) so I've not got round to trying it, your offensive stats are much better than I thought for a boon build too. I suppose with your protection uptime it evens itself out. I've run S/D with CS over trickery and that worked, I thought S/P was too ini heavy though, might have to try that again.

>

> Thanks for commenting by the way, I knew most of you ran non meta builds from discussions in previous posts but it's interesting to see people's build choices too :)

 

Rarely run in zergs and am usually solo or in small groups. The rifle in the off hand is rarely used. I needed a ranged option and have both p/p and rifle to slot in there and they more an after thought. When I do use rifle it does hit plenty hard and I get the added boons that rifle offers (might/swiftness). The combo of severance/celerity on the main set is a whack of fun which allowed me to drop both the BOA out of TR and the BqoBk out of DE and still allow nice quickness uptime. I used to use Trickster for added cleanses in TR but find current build can deal with conditions well enough when factoring in the clleanse sword offers , PR and the elite cleanse of 3 from Leadership runes. This with cleansing on rifle tends to be enough.

 

The base loadout you see on the page a bit misleading as given I take CS with severance, my ferocity in real terms runs +500 higher if I get that interrupt in which PW does readily. (thats 30 percent more crit damage)

[kash.9213]

> @"Jugglemonkey.8741" said:

> @Kash; pretty offensive traits there haha, I can see where you're going if you're based on working around groups tho. Sniper's cover is a great skill tbh, with blinding powder you get a lot of milage out of it. And scorpion wire is fun, I run that over binding shadow sometimes, starting the pull then casting DJ is pretty funny :) kinda ironic tho, I asked about low stealth builds and it seems I use more stealth than you or Turk xD

>

 

I don't really have a plan, it's just what I ended up with until I need something else. After feeling a map breath for a little I use Mercy sometimes but for general use Blinding Powder is nice to mask a few peoples direction or around a corner and for damage reduction when I get carpet bombed. The rest of the time I'm mostly fishing for stacked boons with a quick DJ and Mark, Snipers Cover+Deaths Retreat, or CnD for Tactical Strike or to cover Flanking Strike works out enough.

 

I messed around with a patient DE in our Bravost today and I do feel the lack of Silent Scope in some fights like that, regardless of stealth uptime, it does help having even a small buffer to stagger your resources out. I'm not likely to get one shot but if a fight starts snowballing over me I have to put everything into stretching out their line to give me a little room to breath. It's easier alone but if I'm peeling away covering with a couple of others is almost guaranteed suicide unless they're on comms with me or if they're one of our regulars who can figure out what we're doing on their own.... or I just leave em but server karma pays you back often enough.

[Turk.5460]

> @"syszery.1592" said:

> @"Turk.5460" Is a build with Silent Scope and Improvisation still considered _non/low stealth_? I mean the build itself is great but it has quite good access to stealth I think.

>

> I had a discussion with @"babazhook.6805" in another thread about not using Silent Scope and I experimented with [this in WvW](http://de.gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAsaVl0MhinYpTwwJQ/ELYFWXAI6UA8iAXgOA/dcQWIB-jFDEQBORZg/U3Be7P8gDBg70HAgjAgLPBAbUJIceAAMRphiUJghKxmHcAMABIgAAGQABEQABoACIgACIgUDIgAkCwcJbA-w "this"). Replacing Pistol with Dagger and adapting the sigils is also an option. Or an [sPvP-version](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAsYVl0MhinYpTwwJQ/ELYFG/dcQWI9yAXgOQXAI6UAA-jpxHQBw7EAIu9HE4DAQZHBgrVGAAHCAA "sPvP-version").

>

> But to be honest: I played around with this because I wanted to test if Deadeye without Rifle would be playable. To me it feels that without Rifle it is really suboptimal. The Boon-stacking with Maleficent Seven is nice but you have to drop either:

> * Acrobatics which means that you sacrifice much survivability

> * Trickery which is (outside of 1-shot gimmick builds) usually a bad tradeoff

> * Deadly Arts, i.e. Improvisation. Not having this Trait is already so painful in my opinion (besides the other good traits in this line)...

 

Sure, the access to stealth is there, but not the luxury of leaning on the crutches of SA/permastealth. OP asked for non-*permastealth* builds, and I think my build fits this criteria.

 

The build is not meant to stay in stealth for the entire 3s duration of Silent Scope, though sometimes it may be strategically sound to do so. One of the goals of this build is to get as many M7 procs as you can as frequently as you can, so you can continue to apply pressure liberally. And in order to do so you need to dump malice frequently, something much harder to do when you only have stolen abilities (or using 9 initiative for SC+DR) for your access to stealth. Considering if your DJ or TS fail to connect, you still have full malice which prevents further M7 procs until either mark falls off or you *succeed* in another sneak attack.

[syszery.1592]

> @"Turk.5460" said:

> > @"syszery.1592" said:

> > @"Turk.5460" Is a build with Silent Scope and Improvisation still considered _non/low stealth_? I mean the build itself is great but it has quite good access to stealth I think.

> >

> > I had a discussion with @"babazhook.6805" in another thread about not using Silent Scope and I experimented with [this in WvW](http://de.gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAsaVl0MhinYpTwwJQ/ELYFWXAI6UA8iAXgOA/dcQWIB-jFDEQBORZg/U3Be7P8gDBg70HAgjAgLPBAbUJIceAAMRphiUJghKxmHcAMABIgAAGQABEQABoACIgACIgUDIgAkCwcJbA-w "this"). Replacing Pistol with Dagger and adapting the sigils is also an option. Or an [sPvP-version](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAsYVl0MhinYpTwwJQ/ELYFG/dcQWI9yAXgOQXAI6UAA-jpxHQBw7EAIu9HE4DAQZHBgrVGAAHCAA "sPvP-version").

> >

> > But to be honest: I played around with this because I wanted to test if Deadeye without Rifle would be playable. To me it feels that without Rifle it is really suboptimal. The Boon-stacking with Maleficent Seven is nice but you have to drop either:

> > * Acrobatics which means that you sacrifice much survivability

> > * Trickery which is (outside of 1-shot gimmick builds) usually a bad tradeoff

> > * Deadly Arts, i.e. Improvisation. Not having this Trait is already so painful in my opinion (besides the other good traits in this line)...

>

> Sure, the access to stealth is there, but not the luxury of leaning on the crutches of SA/permastealth. OP asked for non-*permastealth* builds, and I think my build fits this criteria.

>

> The build is not meant to stay in stealth for the entire 3s duration of Silent Scope, though sometimes it may be strategically sound to do so. One of the goals of this build is to get as many M7 procs as you can as frequently as you can, so you can continue to apply pressure liberally. And in order to do so you need to dump malice frequently, something much harder to do when you only have stolen abilities (or using 9 initiative for SC+DR) for your access to stealth. Considering if your DJ or TS fail to connect, you still have full malice which prevents further M7 procs until either mark falls off or you *succeed* in another sneak attack.

 

Yes, I see. In the heading he wrote it differently - my bad. But my post wasn't meant as an offense though. I play this build usually in sPvP when I choose Deadeye (slightly adopted to the different requirements there...). I just wanted to point our that most people are already quite sensitive when they just read _Silent Scope_.

[XenoSpyro.1780]

Rifle D/P all Trickery. PvE focused but maybe some random pro will magically make it work and hit plat. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯