Guild Wars 2

there’s a big difference in an elite spec that broadens a class’ playstyle and an elite spec that goes absolutely against what a class is designed for.
thief is and has always been in its core a melee glass cannon, extremely agile and using dirty tricks to get the upper hand, as backstab or poisons.
this spec is abkittenely the contrary. you fight from a distance an are 100% static. I never liked the idea of riffle and even less now that I’ve tried it.

Shinobi.3240:

Played around with the Deadeye spec for a while.

Dont like it that much from the playstyle but it works for some i guess.

Would be great if Kneel would be an F-ability and not bind to the Rifle.

Rename it to ‘Perfect Aim’ or ‘Focus’ or ‘whatever’ and just make it reduce your movement speed by 50%. Give it a cooldown and not an initiative cost.

For all ranged weapons(Shortbow, pistol, rifle) it grants more range and higher damage plus a special action button when you reach max malice stack. Tadaaa! A viable choice for all ranged weapons.

Rifle gets the special bonus that it alters your rifle skills. So 5 normal skills and 5 special skills while you are in your stance + the extra interaction with malice stacks.

Would be a lot more viable. Grants more choices etc.

What do you think?

Best regards!

Shino

Sounds good, won’t be implemented

Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497:

martin.1653:

WASD must break kneel.

Problem, some players uses the double tap option. I do as well.

Well, you shouldn’t use it. If you use double tap then you get up by pressing F key or something.

Thoughts so far:

-Mark should last for at least 30 seconds, 25 feels a bit low considering malice disappears after this time
-Kneel feels clunky, either make it instant or at least 1/4 second cast time going into it.
-#4 on Rifle (out of kneel) shouldn’t stop you from moving, it feels weird when casting it at times especially considering its a mobility skill
- shadow flare should get 1 condi removed on swap, and/or duration increased slightly. the usability of the swap is kinda low because of the fact that the duration is so short. A small increase in duration would be nice (balance the damage around this if you have to)

Overall I think the deadeye does what its meant to do pretty well. Does high damage when you play well but is very easy to lock down and melt. Great in PvP/group fights

Edit: I also think you should be able to un-kneel during a kneel skill animation, right now it locks you in place if you try to un-kneel during a kneel skill and it feels clunky getting out.

-I got used to Kneel pretty fast and it makes a reasonable difficult trait choice, kind of alright with that.
-I don’t like having the get-a-way skill on skill slot 4 instead of 3 and turning it into a stationary in Kneel might be hard to get used to.
-I almost like Shadow Flare for topography but the cast time makes me take Shadowstep instead.
-Has to be more noticeable in spvp but even in wvw I feel like clutch saves are going to take a dive with the cast time on Deadeye’s Mark. I also feel a bit locked into taking DA with it as you might as well pack as much into the Mark as possible with the cast time and with the cast time, still feel like I need d/p for faster interrupt.
-I’d use s/d-shortbow or rifle with acro/trick/de but I don’t think any fights even 1v1 will make Swindlers come into play much since the Mark has to much dependency on the target so again, might as well take DA with d/p-rifle.
——sub point, I have to be careful with sword to not take too many boons if I want to use rifle stealth also to leave enough to land conditions, s/d and rifle feels like switching between two different builds, which is fine since DE should be a different play style I guess but I’d have to take same care with Rending Shade. It’s either boon love or boon hate, boon hate seems better for your team. There’s some decent boons to give your team with Peripheral Vision but when can you set those up perfectly without being on voice comms?

martin.1653:

Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497:

martin.1653:

WASD must break kneel.

Problem, some players uses the double tap option. I do as well.

Well, you shouldn’t use it. If you use double tap then you get up by pressing F key or something.

It’s fine if he really wants to. I don’t.
Spacebar to cancel Kneel is perfect and needed above all. Lotta games do it.

My take on DE:

-A one trick pony. Ranged damage and that’s it. Compared with Holosmith, which has the total package…melee, ranged, aoe damage…and it falls far short.

I came into the weekend expecting to make Deadeye my main for the expac. I left the weekend looking forward to playing Holosmith.

Thurindir.3268:

My take on DE:

-A one trick pony. Ranged damage and that’s it. Compared with Holomancer, which has the total package…melee, ranged, aoe damage…and it falls far short.

I came into the weekend expecting to make Deadeye my main for the expac. I left the weekend looking forward to playing Holomancer.

Well of course everyone is going to play the overtuned class with faceroll abilities. People generally enjoy being stronger with less effort. Doesn’t mean all the other classes are terrible though when one is just too overpowered.

Doggie.3184:

Thurindir.3268:

My take on DE:

-A one trick pony. Ranged damage and that’s it. Compared with Holomancer, which has the total package…melee, ranged, aoe damage…and it falls far short.

I came into the weekend expecting to make Deadeye my main for the expac. I left the weekend looking forward to playing Holomancer.

Well of course everyone is going to play the overtuned class with faceroll abilities. People generally enjoy being stronger with less effort. Doesn’t mean all the other classes are terrible though when one is just too overpowered.

Or not playable outside of open world PvE

Warrost.4895:

Doggie.3184:

Thurindir.3268:

My take on DE:

-A one trick pony. Ranged damage and that’s it. Compared with Holomancer, which has the total package…melee, ranged, aoe damage…and it falls far short.

I came into the weekend expecting to make Deadeye my main for the expac. I left the weekend looking forward to playing Holomancer.

Well of course everyone is going to play the overtuned class with faceroll abilities. People generally enjoy being stronger with less effort. Doesn’t mean all the other classes are terrible though when one is just too overpowered.

Or not playable outside of open world PvE

I’m gonna need more detail on that statement.

Being upfront about it, I haven’t played it long, but it’s alright, or could be with some minor changes I think.

Maybe make kneel instant and free. Have this roll over to the stealthing skill and increase the cost to 4 or 5 with a cast time of 0.5-0.75 seconds. Have dodge, change weapon, and jump break the kneel.

Maybe make the stolen items be the same or similar to the core ones, but the offensive ones could be turned into special single-target shots from a backup pistol like the charr racial skill. The trait that made rifle #5 stealth could be reworked (since it would be in the base ability now) into making all rifle (and maybe pistol) shots peirce and the stolen skill explode in an AoE style when it hits the target.

Doggie.3184:

Warrost.4895:

Doggie.3184:

Thurindir.3268:

My take on DE:

-A one trick pony. Ranged damage and that’s it. Compared with Holomancer, which has the total package…melee, ranged, aoe damage…and it falls far short.

I came into the weekend expecting to make Deadeye my main for the expac. I left the weekend looking forward to playing Holomancer.

Well of course everyone is going to play the overtuned class with faceroll abilities. People generally enjoy being stronger with less effort. Doesn’t mean all the other classes are terrible though when one is just too overpowered.

Or not playable outside of open world PvE

I’m gonna need more detail on that statement.

Theoretical, everything is playable everywhere, except scourge until today, since he crashed WvW maps.
But the real question is, what does it offer?
Deadeye brings nothing outside of open world, except maybe trolling in WvW. Hell, it’s not like deadeye not bringing something unique, but not even being an alternative to Warrior in terms of boons, or DrD in terms of damage.
You surely can try to play a heal-engineer, but you will suck so horrible at it, that nobody would ever consider to replace druids in a raid group with them, while on the other hand you can replace some DPS roles, since the differences in DPS will be minor.
But what is deadeyes place? In it’s current state it is not just “not the peak of anything”, but not even an alternative to anything.

Warrost.4895:

Doggie.3184:

Warrost.4895:

Doggie.3184:

Thurindir.3268:

My take on DE:

-A one trick pony. Ranged damage and that’s it. Compared with Holomancer, which has the total package…melee, ranged, aoe damage…and it falls far short.

I came into the weekend expecting to make Deadeye my main for the expac. I left the weekend looking forward to playing Holomancer.

Well of course everyone is going to play the overtuned class with faceroll abilities. People generally enjoy being stronger with less effort. Doesn’t mean all the other classes are terrible though when one is just too overpowered.

Or not playable outside of open world PvE

I’m gonna need more detail on that statement.

Theoretical, everything is playable everywhere, except scourge until today, since he crashed WvW maps.
But the real question is, what does it offer?
Deadeye brings nothing outside of open world, except maybe trolling in WvW. Hell, it’s not like deadeye not bringing something unique, but not even being an alternative to Warrior in terms of boons, or DrD in terms of damage.
You surely can try to play a heal-engineer, but you will suck so horrible at it, that nobody would ever consider to replace druids in a raid group with them, while on the other hand you can replace some DPS roles, since the differences in DPS will be minor.
But what is deadeyes place? In it’s current state it is not just “not the peak of anything”, but not even an alternative to anything.

Well they did delete Venom Might stacking completely from Core Thief so they could give Deadeye a better version of it as well as whatever Peripheral Vision wants to do. It’s pretty good support for allies. Killing things is good support too though. Deadeye also lets Thief retain the best mobility and escapes still just like Daredevil, thankfully, otherwise I’d be bored playing it.

Kneel feels a little clunky, I’d like there to be a more obvious tell to your kneel but maybe I need to get used to it.

The stealth skill Cursed Bullet needs to fire a bit faster IMO and it’s difficult to see, it’s something Id like to get off immediately when entering stealth. Maybe add an extra condi to Cursed Bullet when kneeling because condi Deadeye is surprisingly fun but it needs a slight boost.

Malicious Restoration feels like it needs to be traited to be worth it, hard to find a reason to use over Hide in Shadows or withdraw.

Doggie.3184:

Well they did delete Venom Might stacking completely from Core Thief so they could give Deadeye a better version of it as well as whatever Peripheral Vision wants to do. It’s pretty good support for allies. …

Plus Fire for Effect. It’s a lot of fun with Sword + X for PvE. I’m pooping out boons left and right without trying too hard. It feels much more fluent than Venoms (or self-only Signets) and has close to no ramp up time for 25 stacks party-wide Might plus the boons from the random stolen skills.

I’m not seeing it being too exciting for PvP or roaming (at least not Periphal Vision). But it could work for large scale WvW (not talking Flame Gun or harassing stragglers) when paired with, for example, Invigorating Precision and some party back up.

General impression
I was not really hyped with Deadeye to begin with. My first impression was that nothing really worked. After a while and a visit to WvW I found a hit and run build. Now I really like the difference in gameplay it offers compared to DrD.

Visual & Sound
As usual the visual on thief is a tricky part, you can’t have too flashy things but here I think it works.Honourable mention to death’s retreat. As for the sound I’m fine with it, but some people I talked to found it annoying ( maybe tune down the duration of the “dwiiiing” thing )

Weapon
I think the initiative cost is well balanced for this weapon set. I found myself using it without the mandatory Trickery traitline, it opens more build perspectives

• The pierce skill is good and allow to deal with minion masters & mesmer
• The leap finisher is nice on death retreat, it made me consider using smoke screen for defense. Don’t make it instant since all weapons retreat have a cast time.
• At first I thought the kneel mechanic was clunky, now I’m used to it. It’s a nice trade off for the power it offers. My proposition here is to cancel the stance after a dodge . In most case you don’t want to be static after a dodge.

Mark & Malice
The Deadeye mark is somewhat a let-down adding a cast time removes all the utility steal offers….It also add time to the set up before doing damage. Kneeling before a fight is ok, kneeling + death mark break the flow.

I never really profited from the malice mechanic, it stacks up very slowly . In fact I found myself killing people or disengaging before it reached half the stacks on rifle.

Utilities

• Malicious restoration : I never used that skill, the cooldown and the required malice stacks (given the load of condis applied quickly ) don’t match with the current state of the game
• Shadow gust : I don’t know what to do with that skill, same role as blind power. Seems balanced but I won’t be using it. Maybe fit in a D/D power build.
• Mercy : Really strong skill in certain builds
• Shadow Flare : Right know shadow flare is too close to shadowstep. Adding an aoe reveal on landing of this skill would make it truly unique !
• Shadow Meld : OK elite

Traits

• Peripheral vision : This skill would make more sense if boons where applied around the marked target. This would offer group support on rifle in all game mode. As it is the trait don’t match with the range of the rifle.
• Perfectionist : Malice stacks too slow, you don’t profit from that skill…
  The rest is ok

EDIT: I would really my shadow flare proposition to make it, it both fit the theme and provide interesting counter plays against other thieves.

Rifle is clunky. I can get used to it but it doesn’t feel “thiefy” or even “snipery”. Takes a lot of setup to basically do half of what Gun Flame does.

Deadeye is probably stronger with Pew Pew.

Think the main problems are with rifle itself, with a couple of exceptions. The precast needs to be removed from aa and 4, kneel needs to be less clunky, the whole set just feels like it needs sped up by an 1/8th to a 1/4 second, mostly due to pre/after cast lock-ins.

Main problems I see with the spec are the needing a target to activate Steal abilities, Mark functioning as a projectile, and the cast time on Mark. All 3 feel pretty kitteny after using Steal all these years.

And, just for some frosting, how about making Shadow Flare’s tele option last a bit longer? Like 8-10 seconds instead of 4? This skill is a nice consolation movement skill for not taking shortbow, would like to see a bit more utility with it.

Maybe let us activate the speed boost on rifle 2 without a target as well. That would very much help with the slooooowww ooc speed.

My main complains are:

1. The new steals are usefull and good! BUT.. they are increadibly boring… I loved the classic steals and how they really felt like unique abilities instead of just boing! powerup…

2. Steal is almost clumsy, Old steal was instant. and did not recruiter line of sight. and it no longer has any mobility.
So far everything about the steal has felt like a flat nerf in mechanics and fun.. I see the merit in it, but it is just too clumsy and works hard with any other weapon set.

3. The kneel.. I like how it looks I like the mechanic.. but I really dislike the fact that Kneel is the only way to go. Skill 1 trough out 4 without the kneel Costs so much initiative (apart from skill 4, that one is awesome) that they are almost pointless to use.

4.Kneel part B, Going into kneel is all good. my issue is with exiting the Kneel, Would it be possible in options to allow Dodge to make you actually Get out of the kneel completely. If I dodge that is because I want to get away. but atm the game puts me back into a kneel right after. I hope there will be an option to make it so it rolls you into a walk. And if possible why not just allow us to us WASD to stand up>?…]

5. Bullet tracking. most bullets just Miss and say out of range. Did a test. I fired 20 Auto attack shots on another player and I made him just strave Right and strave Left and spam. My bullets all went way left or way right of him cus no tracing. (like engi rifle does) He did not even need to dodge. Result was that only 1 of the 20 bullets hit on the auto attack.

Guess that’s it for now :P

Wargameur.6950:

• Shadow Flare : Right know shadow flare is too close to shadowstep. Adding an aoe reveal on landing of this skill would make it truly unique !
• Shadow Meld : OK elite

Shadow Meld wasn’t bad for s/d, it’s the more casual non CnD stealth option without a more fluid leap, I didn’t miss BV as much with Unforgiving and Swindlers. It’s still going to hurt not closing the distance though, almost everything DE really needs rifle to be equipped, but we’ll all probably figure something out eventually, maybe. I really liked it with Shadow Arts and d/p though.

A reveal on it would be nice. I mostly used it as an aoe to tag a bunch at once, still kind of need to take Shadowstep with it especially if your not taking Shortbow. It’s name is even Flare, it should light them up but who knows if we might pick this trait line apart and make it work competitively it could be a bit strong being a closer as well. I’d still take it though, no shame.

Excelsior.

I also briefly played around with it and first it took me a while to figure out what these burning dots are over my dashes, maybe a bit better explaination would appreciated, but once figured out, it’s alright.

So far, I don’t know this works in the actual PvE game. Can’t imagine this in the Jungle. I liked it, but everything’s so overloaded with attributes, I mean, when I mouse-over over Skill 1 I have the full screen with tooltips and instead of playing swiftly* it feels more like driving a huge dump truck trough Venice. So much to care for, to watch for, and nothing is really visibile for me as player, but for the enemy. WTF.

Also, the sound effects are so goofy. Many video game studios were afraid of putting in “real” sound effects, probably to make the game sound and look less, uh, “violent” (imagine CounterStrike SFX here) but those weird Phaser sounds and cartoonish animations are not my thing, really. Something called “Deadeye” needs a more serious tone, not a “Oh, this is a fantasy setting, so we make it a bit funnier – for the kids you know, else it’s rated 18+”.

Am I a sniper or some funny clown that amuses my enemy?

This concept might work in an ego shooter, but here it was very clunky and for all the time it takes to set up the spot (which is, in fact, very sniper-like!) it’s not really worth.

*I know, Sniper, hurr durr.

The auto attack needs to be stronger and/or faster, and it needs to ricochet.

Otherwise, 3 and 4 will have to return initiative on successful hits, a la pistol 3.

Rifle won’t keep up in PvE otherwise.

So final feedback is that I really like it. It brings about a whole different playstyle which really focuses on positioning.

There are flaws though…. (this order is not in priority)

1.Stolen skills are sometimes useless. I don’t want to trigger superspeed when i am kneeling.
2. Something has to be done about kneeling, it’s true that pressing a button to stand again can be cumbersome.
3. Malice needs to be flashier. The dark spots are too dim.
4. Malice should benefit other weapons, not just the rifle.
5. I understand that the Death Mark is a contract, so I also understand that the stolen skills disappear when a contract is terminated.. but … i mean can we keep it?
6. Auto Attack seems a little slow.
7. MALICE MUST BE IN SYNC WITH OTHER WEAPONS.
8. Malice should build fast but not add 15% extra damage per point. how about 7%
9 the Heal is terrible really. Maybe decrease the CD ?

It’s viability in sPvP is not sure. he can definitely +1, but cannot guard, nor decap. Which is expected.
WvW will be fun.

I really had fun with this class man. GG.

I don’t know about u guys but to me rifle feels like a secondary weapon.
like short bow that we only use for mobility the rifle feels like a weapon that you switch to to finish someone that is already with low HP.

I do not see myself using a rifle as a main weapon it has high dmg and that is it, does not provide anything else.

How is this considered too slow. Skill #4 on the rifle is absurdly good for kiting and you also get Shadow Flare, and all of that is in addition to the ridiculous mobility core thieves already have.

Deadeye is nice as a gunslinger with P/P and D/P, but his rifle skills sucks terrible.

I have played as a sniper with ranger and dragonhunter.
Ranger give me extreme range (1500), meatshield (pet- better survival, boost to damage), piercing arrows, ability to entagle enemies, and nice skills:
1-damage, scale up with range
2- rapid shot (great dmg, hard to avoid)
3-stealth
4-knockback
5-ao damage

Dragonhunter- 20% more dmg with aegis, 10% more when they on symbol.
1-great dmg, bounce(!), cripple
2- slow super big dmg, pierce (kneel and shoot…)
3-big dmg, unblockable, traited knockback, reflect projectiles
4-area of damage
5-area of damage, cc

And deadeye? I sacrifice mobility and get:
1-weak autoattack, stack of vulnerability
Terrible sneak attack- not much stronger that autoatack, unblockable. Why? For PvP? There is DD with great mobility for it. In PvE mob don’t block almost never. Boost damage or give some CC.
2-average attack, cripple, pierce
Pierce should be standard or traited. Ankle Shot should include rifle
3-weaker version of unload
So is weaker because range is better? But if I can’t kill enemy with this, before i out of initiative and with unload i can something is wrong.
4- death retreat-shadowstep back, best skill, shouldn’t disappear when i kneel
death judgment- something like True Shot, nice but malice increase too slow, and i need kneel
5-kneel -class mechanism which we get in this slot because they didn’t have idea of another skill?

Sum it up- worst sniper ever. Can’t fight with many enemy (no bounce or pierce on skill 1, no ao), weak autoattack (a bit better sb or pistol), worst sneak attack (with so much stealth…), no cc on weapon.

PS Why critical chance up on kneel? Why not dmg like dragonhunter. Thief have so many critical chance and fury…

Besides a few changes to how malice works I’ve outlined in pvp. I just wanted to ask for the ability to use movement buttons to cancel kneel. Remove the need to press 5.

Otherwise, malice should fade after X seconds of not hitting your marked target. (sug: 6 seconds) And you begin to lose malice at the rate you gain, until you initiate combat with your mark. The other change I’d put would be to remove all malice when you move beyond 2000 yards from the Dead-Eye.

These changes would really help balance the Dead-Eye in pvp, and shouldn’t overly affect Dead-Eye in pve. (in fact, they can change the timer from 6 seconds in pvp to 20 seconds in pve, essentially removing it)

Tringsh.2380:

- Using a mark with P/P is giving a 10k unload… yikes!
- Rifle skills don’t appear to be reflected.

I’ve been reflected plenty. Seems to be working properly.

Fashion Mage.3712:

How is this considered too slow. Skill #4 on the rifle is absurdly good for kiting and you also get Shadow Flare, and all of that is in addition to the ridiculous mobility core thieves already have.

You actually understand the class. The people complaining about mobility need to go back to Thief school. I can kite someone that’s running after me, trying to melee me to death pretty much for forever, using the environment, shadowstep, shadow flare, the new knockback/launch, etc. And the damage… well, it’s madness. Someone comes at you? Dodge and hit 5 while you’re rolling, it stands you up without delay at the end of your roll.

All-in-all, my favourite spec of all time.

Kocoff.7582:

So final feedback is that I really like it. It brings about a whole different playstyle which really focuses on positioning.

There are flaws though…. (this order is not in priority)

1.Stolen skills are sometimes useless. I don’t want to trigger superspeed when i am kneeling.
2. Something has to be done about kneeling, it’s true that pressing a button to stand again can be cumbersome.
3. Malice needs to be flashier. The dark spots are too dim.
4. Malice should benefit other weapons, not just the rifle.
5. I understand that the Death Mark is a contract, so I also understand that the stolen skills disappear when a contract is terminated.. but … i mean can we keep it?
6. Auto Attack seems a little slow.
7. MALICE MUST BE IN SYNC WITH OTHER WEAPONS.
8. Malice should build fast but not add 15% extra damage per point. how about 7%
9 the Heal is terrible really. Maybe decrease the CD ?

It’s viability in sPvP is not sure. he can definitely +1, but cannot guard, nor decap. Which is expected.
WvW will be fun.

I really had fun with this class man. GG.

Each stack adds 3% damage.

BoX Legend.4027:

Kocoff.7582:

So final feedback is that I really like it. It brings about a whole different playstyle which really focuses on positioning.

There are flaws though…. (this order is not in priority)

1.Stolen skills are sometimes useless. I don’t want to trigger superspeed when i am kneeling.
2. Something has to be done about kneeling, it’s true that pressing a button to stand again can be cumbersome.
3. Malice needs to be flashier. The dark spots are too dim.
4. Malice should benefit other weapons, not just the rifle.
5. I understand that the Death Mark is a contract, so I also understand that the stolen skills disappear when a contract is terminated.. but … i mean can we keep it?
6. Auto Attack seems a little slow.
7. MALICE MUST BE IN SYNC WITH OTHER WEAPONS.
8. Malice should build fast but not add 15% extra damage per point. how about 7%
9 the Heal is terrible really. Maybe decrease the CD ?

It’s viability in sPvP is not sure. he can definitely +1, but cannot guard, nor decap. Which is expected.
WvW will be fun.

I really had fun with this class man. GG.

Each stack adds 3% damage.

Each stack of malice adds 3 percent unless using deaths judgement. if using that skill you get an addtional 15 percent damage per stack. This added to the 3 percent per stack from base malice. (18 percent per stack total)

To the OP. Malice does in fact add damage to every other weapon set. If you have p/p and stack 7 malice stacks you get 21 percent more damage. You can NOT kneel however with p/p and get the Malice out of Deaths judgment added to that which I deem a reasonable compromise.

I like the specialization overall. The rifle skills clearly need some work to flow properly but I’ve seen some good gameplay by platinum ranked people who are very hard to lock down and do good ranged sniper style damage.

Most seem to rely on quickness and kneel to hit with extreme speed on multiple shot skills. Very hard to stop if you don’t have a defense skill ready—block or evade is crucial. Reflect is super deadly and effective. This seems necessary as a counter to the damage you can get out of the rifle.

Ok, so now I will talk about my alternative non-rifle build.

I approached this from the perspective I would take my current build and swap out DD for DE.

As for utilities I swapped out for Shadow Meld because as an elite it was both defensive and offensive and offers more than basi venom.

For traits, in a condi build I focused on the ones which grant might and other boon based benefits. This let me stack up to 25 stacks of might on a burst, depending on the class I was fighting. This makes me hit much harder than I would on DD. This also let me be more flexible because the boons on full malice tend to make me more durable overall.

So I would say condi DE is based around boons. I want to try to make a hybrid build but initially I can say that using a condi weapon set on DE is viable.

Overall I like it… the third line traits in particular need reworked.
Mirage is awesome!
Only in Guild Wars are bullets slower than arrows… it’s like playing in stop motion. It’d be great if they reduced the cool downs on the utility skills…up the damage on the flare and perhaps let it burn another second.
Reduce the delay, casting time, and tell of the skill that drops the house on people… it’s ok if it only knocks them down for 2 seconds instead of 3…but right now I think it’s the slowest firing skill in the game. 3/4 to cast plus an eternity to wait for it to do something, which is be dodged.
Mercy would be more useful if the second line middle trait did something more on stun, like inflict pulmonary impact…call it shot to the heart or something.
Reduce the casting time on the push… also the knockback and the launch currently have the same duration and effect so why call them different?

Rifle skills and kneel skills are powerful but uninteresting, lacking of CC. More differences will be better, just like Death’s Retreat and Death’s Judgment.
Kneel becomes Sniper’s Cover should be default on Kneel. And it should not be a weapon skill. F3~F5 are empty.
Deadeye’s Mark should be instant. The benefits of Stolen skills are too low. If you kill your target or use Mercy, you lose the skills. It’s stupid.
The two traits Fire for Effectand, Peripheral Vision they are too similar. Even can be combined into a new traits.

Rifle need an unblockable option and piercing should be mandatory on all skills, at least autoattack.
Right know rifle is missing utility, reliable CC, AOE capability, fast bullets and damage beside unrealistic 7 Malice Death`s Judgement.
Sniper’s cover need to be core, and removed ini costs, but I think that’d be too far.
Trait to reduce cantrip CD.
Mark no projectile, but instant cast without line of sight.
Kneel should be a class mechanic and effecting other weapons as well, as well as being snipers cover by default to help with those underwhelming new stolen skills.

BEING ABLE TO STOW WHILE KNEELING.
If you stow while kneeling, you basically stand up again.

So you waste initiaves getting back into positions. bad.

From what I tried I felt like the class have NO flow gameplay on it and doesn’t fit for fast paced combat GW2 style whatsoever it felt half finished and clunky here is some suggestions to make gameplay smoother for Deadeye
______________

1: Death’s Retreat function should remain the same in Kneel stance

2: Move Death’s Judgment to replace Free Action

3: Make ASWD breaks Kneel stance / give us Swiftness on breaking Kneel to synergy with Don’t Stop trait line

4: Make Kneel stance cast time shorter / remove aftercast

5: Move Deadeye’s Mark ranged steal to function with Silent Scope trait line / rename it to something else [ without using this one Steal should be once again a grab closer tool and make it available to all weapon sets and you actually buff power D/D weapon set which is forgotten and no variety in the play nowaday ]

6: Kneel becomes Sniper’s Cover should be default on Kneel

7: Lower overall CD on skills, there’s no rewards using Cantrips or add 20% cooldown reduction trait line + other benefits

8: Deadeye’s Mark should be instant not projectile / It’s makes no sense when you can’t precast it without target anyway and should not be obstructed

9: Iron Sight should be 20% DMG reduction while using Kneel not just on the marked target

10: Make Renewing Gaze flat heal number instead of 3s regen

11: Improve the projectile speed of Cursed Bullet it’s kinda useless in real fights

12: Precast on AA animation takes ages for each shot and projectiles speed are slow and deal crappy DMG even with full zerker gears

13: Reduce initiative costs on some weapon skills

14: Make new stolen skills relate to profession you use steal on

Deadeye- pvp perspective

1. Using rifle skill on enemy behind character’s back is not atacking target (pistol is). Forces a lot of camera movement, annoying.
2. Rifle sneak atack is very weak and not worth using.
3. Rfile 4 snipe ability is very rare good to use. Rifle 3 is better 99% oftime.
4. One in the chanmber trait- i dont like marked target requirement and it overwrites current skills and . Can be 2 stolen skills loss. Better always add one skill. Also add 20% cantrip reduction.
5. Renewing gaze trait healing is way too small. 3 sec of regeneration looks like a placeholder or a joke.
6. Skirmisher shot (rifle 2) is not giving speed buff if enemy is not hit. Every other skill in the game gives speed. Deadeye is very slow without this skill working.
7. Malice mechanic! It seems it takes too long to reach maximum malice which gives master trait boons and is essential for traits value. More often fight ends without those boons than with them. I much rather have 2% dmg malice or 1% malice but much faster stacks gain because i want those boons.
8. New utilities: shawdow meld elite looks good exept dp daredevil duel. 1/2 sec cast time for Shawdow Meld and Shawdow Gust is too long for escape utility vs dp daredevil.
9. All new thief cantrip utilities seems weak. Shawdow gust is weak escape tool because it has too long cast time. Binding shawdow is too dependable on malice. Mercy no claer pupose for pvp. Shawdow flare is interesting. If only malice charged faster.
10. i want to have blue ring of 1500 range all the time. There are no good defensive cantrips.
11.

Urejt.5648:

Deadeye- pvp perspective

1. Using rifle skill on enemy behind character’s back is not atacking target (pistol is). Forces a lot of camera movement, annoying.

This is really annoying especially if you use shadowstep for a hit and run tactic while kneeling.

Warrost.4895:

Rifle need an unblockable option and piercing should be mandatory on all skills, at least autoattack.
Right know rifle is missing utility, reliable CC, AOE capability, fast bullets and damage beside unrealistic 7 Malice Death`s Judgement.
Sniper’s cover need to be core, and removed ini costs, but I think that’d be too far.
Trait to reduce cantrip CD.
Mark no projectile, but instant cast without line of sight.
Kneel should be a class mechanic and effecting other weapons as well, as well as being snipers cover by default to help with those underwhelming new stolen skills.

Having no pierce on the auto has been triggering (get it?) me. There really should be a trait option in the master tier, there isn’t a good option outside of the first one there. Maybe the stun, but that’s it.

Dioxin.7892:

From what I tried I felt like the class have NO flow gameplay on it and doesn’t fit for fast paced combat GW2 style whatsoever it felt half finished and clunky here is some suggestions to make gameplay smoother for Deadeye
______________

1: Death’s Retreat function should remain the same in Kneel stance

2: Move Death’s Judgment to replace Free Action

3: Make ASWD breaks Kneel stance / give us Swiftness on breaking Kneel to synergy with Don’t Stop trait line

4: Make Kneel stance cast time shorter / remove aftercast

5: Move Deadeye’s Mark ranged steal to function with Silent Scope trait line / rename it to something else [ without using this one Steal should be once again a grab closer tool and make it available to all weapon sets and you actually buff power D/D weapon set which is forgotten and no variety in the play nowaday ]

6: Kneel becomes Sniper’s Cover should be default on Kneel

7: Lower overall CD on skills, there’s no rewards using Cantrips or add 20% cooldown reduction trait line + other benefits

8: Deadeye’s Mark should be instant not projectile / It’s makes no sense when you can’t precast it without target anyway and should not be obstructed

9: Iron Sight should be 20% DMG reduction while using Kneel not just on the marked target

10: Make Renewing Gaze flat heal number instead of 3s regen

11: Improve the projectile speed of Cursed Bullet it’s kinda useless in real fights

12: Precast on AA animation takes ages for each shot and projectiles speed are slow and deal crappy DMG even with full zerker gears

13: Reduce initiative costs on some weapon skills

14: Make new stolen skills relate to profession you use steal on

Alright, this is interesting. I have to say, you are asking for a bit too much.

1- Nah. While I agree with changes to how kneel works, you should have to commit in at least the smallest way when you kneel.

3- Agreed. The swiftness idea is a good one, put that in the master trait line as an alternative to the rifle stealth to allow for a more shoot n’ scoot playstyle.

4- Some have suggested no cast time, including me. I think it should be 1/4s cast time, currently it is 1/2s.

5- No, I think the new steal is important and is the only thing really making this spec unique, even if most hate it.

6- I really like the idea of having to trait to gain stealth, it makes it so the rifle isn’t just a swap-stealth-swap-backstab kit.

7- YES. The cantrips are really unrewarding and on too long a CD for what they give.

8- Should be instant and should not be a projectile. Don’t understand why it wasn’t like this. It feels unbearably clunky.

9- This trait is fine, I think it adds survivability. I don’t wanna see bunker thieves on points in PvP.

10- This would be nice, but I think it’s too much of just a straight buff. We don’t need it.

11- Agreed. On top of this, improve the projectile speed of the ALL skills on rifle aside from the kneeling 4.

12- I think with other changes the auto will feel better. Its dps should not be higher IMO.

13- Initiative costs are… maybe fine. It’s hard to tell, the only one that would need changing is the standing rifle 3 IMO.

14- They do, all stolen skills are like how they are in core and DD. Steal/Mark and gain the same skill from the target based on their profession.

My two cents:
-As other have mentioned, we need another way to cancel kneeling. Pressing spacebar would be optimal. I suggest keeping dodge+kneeling the way it is: this opens up more ways to play (it is really useful with silent scope; silent scope→dodge (a melee is on your neck)→burst him down in a few secs).
-This weapon definitely needs more range: 1500 standard and 1800 when kneeling or even 2000 would be good. For example; ranger longbow, even though the range states 1500 range, the projectile travels at least 1800 range, and the ranger can move while shooting (=more range than deadeye kneeling+moving at the same time).
The deadeye SNIPER rifle should have longer range than ranger longbow when kneeling-considering you can’t move while kneeling and all that (don’t go and nerf ranger longbow now).
-Projectile speed is kinda low and the AA damage is too weak.
-Kneeling should be faster.
-Maintaining swiftness out of combat is also a problem on deadeye (spamming traited steal for swiftness on all the creeps is not so intuitive).

I’ll just leave this here from another thread I posted it in.

Me and my friend were fooling around to test the especs and got quite the laugh out of how hard and fast a LB ranger can burst compared to DE.

DE is a joke.

A couple things that made me really frustrated with this class that need to be addressed were for one the tracking on the rifle shots. They are way to slow even with the supposed 50% increased speed when traited. The visible ring created when kneeling is either off or tracking between 900-1500 range will say out of range or obstructed. I could hit targets while standing but they’d become obstructed when kneeling on a flat plane and the tracking stealth attack would say obstructed when I could hit with normal attacks in the same spot. The visual animations and crappy tracking give away every attack and make it possible for even a non-veteran player to just move and the attacks miss. Also please fix stealth, it’s complete garbage that after going into stealth any channeling still will track and hit. Especially when Mesmers, eles and rangers use long skills like rapid fire. When a player goes into stealth at least cause the channeling skill to be cancelled and put on an instant cd. I should not be tracked by rapid fire and hit repeatedly after stealthing. And the rifle range should be greater than longbow and more powerful with the cast time given. In addition, not sure if I just missed this or not, but please add a timer to marked players so they know how long they’ve been marked for. If you’re going to give away any ability to surprise a target by showing marks you might as well let marked targets know when they’re safe again.

My 2 cents:

• Deadeye’s mark needs to be insta-cast, its unusable for a reliable interrupt when traited with Sleight of Hand. Needs to be able to build charges faster, we are about burst damage and such, we cannot tank / really catch a full swiftness target just to get full stacks THEN hit, its really too long
• Brutal Aim/Deadly Aim – crap auto damage even with full 25 might.
• Cursed Bullet – too slow velocity regardless of kneeling etc.
• Skirmisher’s Shot&Spotter’s Shot – give it the shortbow skill 4 treatment, but instead allow it to shoot any foe in any direction (add an animation of it shooting rifle over shoulder) and allow us a bit of kite-ability, we can kite, skirmisher shot to immob or cripple depending on kneel / not and still get around, not entirely bad.
• Doubletap/Three Round Burst – lower initiative for double tap to 2 and if both attacks hit, grant 1 initiative back, lower Three Round Burst to 3 and if all hit grant 2 back – give it the P/P unload treatment.
• Death’s Retreat – unreliable due to terrain issues, which we’ve been complaining about since the patch over a year ago. The range needs to be increased, we have a 1200/1500 range on rifle but our defense is just 600? Convert the “shadowstep” to a roll or change the skill entirely…Phase Retreat works better than this, can we learn from it?
• Death’s Judgment – its fine overall however needs more pazaz…I suggest a gamble shot technique, if the foe is taken down to below 50% health with this skill you should be rewarded other than just the damage, like cause a condition /bleed/Stun. We have Death’s Judgment, wheres the ruling? Can we also edit the shouts our players make to confirm a kill etc, like “One shot, one kill.” if it literally downed / killed the target? -_-
• Kneel – I’m with everyone elses suggestion on this, though i prefer it renamed to Crouch and slow movement speed, not make us immobile. Stealth needs to be baseline, NOT a simple trait.

• Malicious Restoration – lower cooldown, if its at 15 seconds its still not gonna heal me or remove near enough conditions for me to spam the heck outta it, if i need a heal i NEED a heal, id only get 4k even low mark / no mark but combined with how long the Deadeye’s mark takes to generate stacks theres really no point in taking this as a heal skill considering how awesome the others are.

• Binding Shadow – increase range to 1500 and reword tooltip to as follows – Knock down marked target foe after a short delay. Immobilize them instead if they are not marked. Conditions applied by this skill have increased duration for each stack of malice. ~ cool idea i got from an anime….cant we make them imitate our skill bar if we use a heal skill, it forces them to do it too but their own skillbar? even movements? Id force someone to run into a zerg by running towards them which would make them run towards me! yeah, wishful thinkin.
• Mercy – reduce cooldown – as is.
• Shadow Flare – increase range to 1500, increase duration or increase damage. 431 base damage? really? make it pulse blind, otherwise, not very “shadowy”
• Shadow Gust – fine as is cept make radius 360. stunbreak would be nice too.
• Shadow Meld – its aight.

• Deadeye’s Gaze – please allow us to keep the stolen skills when mark is gone / killed…kitten
• Renewing Gaze – cool, but 3 seconds of shoddy regen…lame add solid heal instead AND/OR add a buff to everytime we kill a target / get target to 50% our range increases by 200 per stack. If we fail to kill/lower target thresh hold stacks are lost.
• Silent Scope – Needs to be baseline for kneel, rename to Skip Rounds then give Piercing to ALL rifle skills, Bounce to default pierce rifle skills and Bounce to all pistol skills(if they were piece before, they bounce), increase pistol range to 1000. If target is out of LoS(behind a wall), Target is blinded- i KNOW the trait ricochet can come back here some how….WHOS WITH ME!?

• Unforgiving – pointless, just like Brave Stride.

• Peripheral Vision – NICE skill, VERY nice… cept – Bountiful Theft , If we want to combine this together, why still only allow 1 stack of the boon we steal? counter intuitive. please let us be able to steal full remaining stacks and remaining duration rounded to nearest second.

• Perfectionist – this is ok, but again getting to max stacks, even without M7, takes too long.

• while Deadeye is meant for longer range engagements, it still hints towards pistol usage as well, please give us some pistol love…increase range, RICOCHET trait back?

From PvE standpoint I can see it work great with D/P and P/P. I dunno about WvW, I have not seen anyone playing it in sPvP manage to do well. Much of the damage holds up in rifle 4. I was playing against a thief, blocked it once and dodged it twice. It is very easy to predict and avoid.

otto.5684:

From PvE standpoint I can see it work great with D/P and P/P. I dunno about WvW, I have not seen anyone playing it in sPvP manage to do well. Much of the damage holds up in rifle 4. I was playing against a thief, blocked it once and dodged it twice. It is very easy to predict and avoid.

WvW has similar issues, it’s only effective against low targets and targets not aware, anyone with half a brain will be able to dodge/block/bait out the Burst and any gap closers make Deadeye quite dead.

Deadeye has serious mobility issues. Even when not kneeling, mobility is an issue.

Swiftness is hard to come by with builds that use DE. Trickery trait requires no target to be useful for just getting the swiftness.

Mark needs to not require target.

My targets were dead by the time Malice stacked. I’m doing currently doing pretty good with Lead Attacks and other damage increase bonuses. Malice upped the damage, but giving up mobility and other benefits is probably not worth it overall.

Dodge should cancel kneel. Movement of any kind should probably cancel it.

I’d rather have Malice as a new condition in general, rather than tie it to Mark. Steal is just much, much more flexible and provides so many different kinds of options. The one thing I really like about Mark is that I don’t HAVE to close the gap. However, not closing the gap makes it difficult to use RFI with P/P. If you’re already at range, it puts you way out range. That’s not good.

CrimsonIce.6547:

A couple things that made me really frustrated with this class that need to be addressed were for one the tracking on the rifle shots. They are way to slow even with the supposed 50% increased speed when traited. The visible ring created when kneeling is either off or tracking between 900-1500 range will say out of range or obstructed. I could hit targets while standing but they’d become obstructed when kneeling on a flat plane and the tracking stealth attack would say obstructed when I could hit with normal attacks in the same spot. The visual animations and crappy tracking give away every attack and make it possible for even a non-veteran player to just move and the attacks miss. Also please fix stealth, it’s complete garbage that after going into stealth any channeling still will track and hit. Especially when Mesmers, eles and rangers use long skills like rapid fire. When a player goes into stealth at least cause the channeling skill to be cancelled and put on an instant cd. I should not be tracked by rapid fire and hit repeatedly after stealthing. And the rifle range should be greater than longbow and more powerful with the cast time given.

I noticed that more last night, pathing for everything thief kind of sucks to being with and combined with their updated maps for wvw where old short cuts don’t work anymore I felt like I gave away too many handicaps.

CrimsonIce.6547:

In addition, not sure if I just missed this or not, but please add a timer to marked players so they know how long they’ve been marked for. If you’re going to give away any ability to surprise a target by showing marks you might as well let marked targets know when they’re safe again.

Every time I mark someone they melt away across the map never to be seen again like they owe me money or something.

Adding, Mark is nice very seldom to interrupt unexpectedly from distance or height but all the cast times on DE make everything a warning for badguys. At least polish up Death’s Retreat to make it a go-to like Dash or something.

The two strong DE builds I felt were SA with d/p-rifle and Acro with S/D-rifle. SA is great until you’re pinged and you won’t get off anything fast enough to not get interrupted, slowed, whatever. Acro S/D and Rifle still feels like two separate builds but at least it has some mitigation in Endurance to stagger around and the weapons themselves work oddly well together if their traits don’t seem to gel.

Medozorz.5920:

My two cents:
-As other have mentioned, we need another way to cancel kneeling. Pressing spacebar would be optimal. I suggest keeping dodge+kneeling the way it is: this opens up more ways to play (it is really useful with silent scope; silent scope->dodge (a melee is on your neck)->burst him down in a few secs).
-This weapon definitely needs more range: 1500 standard and 1800 when kneeling or even 2000 would be good. For example; ranger longbow, even though the range states 1500 range, the projectile travels at least 1800 range, and the ranger can move while shooting (=more range than deadeye kneeling+moving at the same time).
The deadeye SNIPER rifle should have longer range than ranger longbow when kneeling-considering you can’t move while kneeling and all that (don’t go and nerf ranger longbow now).
-Projectile speed is kinda low and the AA damage is too weak.
-Kneeling should be faster.
-Maintaining swiftness out of combat is also a problem on deadeye (spamming traited steal for swiftness on all the creeps is not so intuitive).

You don’t have to maintain swiftness. This is not a required mechanic, not all classes get a reliable swiftness upkeep. We have one, it’s called Daredevil or Acrobatics.