I’ve played thief since launch and I have to say, Deadeye is the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I had my initial doubts going into the beta, however those doubts quickly vanished once I started annihilating enemies at 1500 range.
Overall the spec feels pretty fluid, however the Deadeye’s Mark cast time makes it very clunky to use in most situations. Steal never had a cast time and I don’t think Deadeye’s Mark should either.
Rifle has been very fun to use however malice generates too slowly in PvP to make Death’s Judgment worth using over spamming Three Round Burst. This is often due to the fact that enemies die well before reaching maximum malice stacks. It would be nice to see a kind of “killstreak” mechanic in which killing an enemy gives max stacks of malice for a short period after they are defeated. I doubt this would be as much of a problem in PvE however.
The kneel mechanic works great once you get used to it, however enemies often get obstructed in places where there’s a still clear line of sight which makes the process of standing up, moving slightly to the side, and kneeling down again quite tedious.
I think the rifle damage is fine in PvP with the current state of the game, since the burst is so high, however I can see a problem arising when using rifle in PvE. Initiative runs out far too quickly to keep up any sustained DPS. It would be nice to see some of the rifle abilities reworked for PvE to cost less initiative or perhaps for Three Round Burst to restore initiative if all bullets hit (similarly to dual pistol’s Unload).
The new traits are great and I especially like how each grandmaster trait appears to be useful depending on the situation.
I didn’t use the new cantrips a lot however there are a few things to note:
- Shadow Meld is really cool, however I see it having a lot more use with daggers as opposed to rifle (the rifle stealth attack Cursed Bullet feels far too slow to use, and the payoff isn’t all that great).
- I didn’t find much use for Shadow Flare in PvP since people can just walk out of it, however it might find some use in PvE. The duration feels very short for a potential shadowstepping ability.
- Mercy seems completely useless in PvP since people die and lose their Deadeye’s Mark quite quickly (which takes it off cd anyway).
- My very few attempts at using Binding Shadow failed since people could easily evade or block it. I think it would be more useful with either a shorter cooldown, or if it was unblockable.
- Shadow Gust is interesting, however much like the other cantrips, I found it better to run other utilities instead.
- I didn’t use Malicious Restoration very much, however I see it being far more useful in PvE due to the lack of malice generation in PvP.
Overall I’m very happy with the spec from a PvP perspective; the burst is high, and it’s not overpowered due to all the counter play available. I just hope by the time PoF realeases, it will hold up rifle DPS in PvE. Rifle is reeeeaaaaalllly fun to play.