Daredevil - Condi DPS

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on December 14, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

The standard condition DPS build for Daredevil. This build spams venoms and Death Blossom on bosses to inflict heavy Bleeding and Poison. Due to evading for most of its rotation, it can easily avoid boss attacks. It also provides high utility to its squad with raid boss stolen skills.

Due to this build's high ramp-up time it's best used on raid bosses with no phases or adds. It performs poorly on any boss with invuln phases, or instant kill attacks that it has a chance to accidentally move into while using Death Blossom.

Skill Bar

Dagger/Dagger

Utility

Weapon Variants

Offhand Pistol can be taken in the second set to offer decent CC on demand.
- If using, you should swap the Sigil of Superior Sigil of Doom for a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Bursting.

Skill Variants

Utility
Always keep Spider Venom as it is a significant portion of your damage. If you need to replace skills, replace Devourer Venom.

Caltrops are in theory higher damage, but to gain full value the boss needs to remain in place for 10s so all ticks hit, and it will lose additional value on encounters with phases, as Devourer Venom can be precast.
Impairing Daggers (with Brawler's Tenacity) could replace Prepare Thousand Needles on encounters with high movement uptime.
Bandit's Defense for a block and stun break.
Shadowstep for extra mobility and stun break.

Elite

Use Impact Strike for faster breakbar damage, on fights with multiple adds and on Matthias Gabrel, where Basilisk Venom has no effect on the encounter's breakbars.
Use Thieves Guild for fights that do not have breakbars.

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Specializations

Equipment

Head
Viper

Shoulders
Viper

Chest
Viper

Hands
Viper

Legs
Viper

Feet
Viper

Backpiece
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Amulet
Viper

Ring
Viper

Dagger
Viper

Sigil

Dagger
Viper

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Equipment Variants

Rune of Superior Rune of the Krait and Rune of Superior Rune of the Trapper deal almost identical damage, so feel free to use whichever is most convenient.
- You should use with Rune of Superior Rune of the Trapper.
If you wish to benefit from ascended food effects, then use Rune of Superior Rune of the Krait along with and (or equivalents).
Equip your main hand dagger in your first weapon set and your second dagger in your second weapon set. This lets you weapon swap for Sigil of Superior Sigil of Doom without having to obtain 4 daggers.

Non-SotO Relics

There aren't any reliable core damage relics for condi daredevil, though there are a few options that might be good:

Relic of the Mirage - depending on the boss, you might be able to trigger this a lot, and it is theoretically stronger than the recommended relic.
Relic of the Adventurer - If your Vigor uptime is bad, then more endurance is valuable.

Consumables

Food

Utility

- or for a cheaper alternative

Usage

Your goal is to maintain Lotus Training and 15 stacks of Lead Attacks while using your high-damage utility skills.

Rotation

Needle Trap
Steal during the cast of Needle Trap
Thousand Needles
Dodge
Use venoms during the dodge animation
Death Blossom x3
Dodge
Death Blossom
Auto-attack chain once
Dodge
Death Blossom
Repeat from step 9

Use Weapon swap, venoms, Needle Trap and Steal when they are off cooldown.
Use Channeled Vigor before or after any auto-attack chain when you are out of endurance.

Video example

Video example (caltrops)

Notes

During the main loop, you may find it easier to swap the order of Impaling Lotus and Death Blossom, instead jumping into your target with Death Blossom then dodging back out with Impaling Lotus.
If you are inside the boss's hitbox and there are other enemies nearby, Impaling Lotus will deal up to triple damage to the boss.
Be careful not to cancel the auto attack chain as Lotus Strike deals more damage than Double Strike and Wild Strike combined.
You should try to use Steal while you do not have full initiative in order to benefit from Kleptomaniac and Endurance Thief.
You should try to use Channeled Vigor while you do not have full endurance.
You should only use venoms while four other allies are in range (This includes Mesmer clones, Necromancer minions, and Ranger pets).

Breakbar

Basilisk Venom

Encounter Specific Tips

Spirit Vale

Vale Guardian

The stolen skill from this boss is Unstable Artifact, which can be used to save downs or recover from getting ported by blue circles.

For more information, see our Vale Guardian Guide.

Ghost events

The ghost events are mostly movement based.

Consider equipping a Short bow, and/or using Shadowstep.

For more information, see our Spirit Woods Guide.

Gorseval the Multifarious

The stolen skill from this boss is Unstable Artifact, which can be used to shadowstep between adds during the split phase.
During the split phases, you can use Dancing Dagger to cripple spirits from 900 range.

For more information, see our Gorseval Guide.

Sabetha the Saboteur

The stolen skill from this boss is Unstable Artifact, which can be used to move downed players out of the way of the flamewall.
Be very careful not to leap over the boss using Death Blossom or Impaling Lotus while Flame Wall is active.

For more information, see our Sabetha Guide.

Salvation Pass

Slothasor

The stolen skill from this boss is Soul Stone Venom, which can be used to cleanse Slothasor's fear or if people get a lot of condis from the shake.
If running Needle Trap, be careful not to hit a friendly Slubling with it.
When fixated try not to jump over the boss with Death Blossom or Impaling Lotus.
You have no way of blocking Slothasor's fear so either rely on others to break/cleanse it for you or equip Bandit's Defense or Shadowstep.

For more information, see our Slothasor Guide.

Bandit Trio

The stolen skill from the champions is Throw Magnetic Bomb, which can be used to do mortars and group up enemies.

For more information, see our Bandit Trio Guide.

Matthias Gabrel

The stolen skill from this boss is Detonate Plasma, which can be used to supplement boons and provide Stability during the Ice phase or prevent the Fear at the 40% phase transition.
Use Heartseeker for mobility around the room.
Bring Impact Strike for the breakbar.
You can bring Bandit's Defense to block timed bombs, stunbreak the rain phase knockdown, and block some damage while running poison/plasma.

For more information, see our Bandit Trio Guide.

Stronghold of the Faithful

Escort

The stolen skill from McLeod is Detonate Plasma, which can be used to supplement boons.
Be very careful when using Death Blossom and Impaling Lotus near mines.
You can use Needle Trap to immobilize the wargs.

For more information, see our Siege the Stronghold Guide.

Keep Construct

The stolen skill from Keep Construct is Unstable Artifact, which can be used for mobility when you get bombs. The stolen skill from the phantasms is Detonate Plasma. The latter can be used to provide your squad boons at the beginning of each burst phase.
You can pre-cast Needle Trap before the burn phase starts to increase your damage.

For more information, see our Keep Construct Guide.

Twisted Castle

Consider equipping a Short bow, and/or using Shadowstep.
Consider equipping a Bandit's Defense as a low-cooldown stunbreak.

For more information, see our Twisted Castle Guide.

Xera

The stolen skill from this boss is Soul Stone Venom, which can be used as an emergency cleanse.
Be very careful not to leap off the edge using Death Blossom and Impaling Lotus.

For more information, see our Xera Guide.

Bastion of the Penitent

Cairn the Indomitable

The stolen skill from this boss is Unstable Artifact, which can be used to shadowstep downed allies towards you, recover from being teleported, or move into greens at the last moment so you can maintain DPS for longer.
Stacks of Unseen Burden will change the behavior of Death Blossom, make sure to adjust your rotation to account for this.
This fight has no breakbar, bring Thieves Guild.

For more information, see our Cairn Guide.

Mursaat Overseer

The stolen skill from this boss is Detonate Plasma, which can be used to provide your squad with boons.
Be very careful not to leap onto spikes or unclaimed tiles using Death Blossom and Impaling Lotus.
This fight has no breakbar, bring Thieves Guild.

For more information, see our Mursaat Overseer Guide.

Samarog

The stolen skill from Samarog and Guldhem is Throw Magnetic Bomb. This can be used to help break the frequent breakbars.
- Rigom provides Unstable Artifact, which is far less useful but can be used to keep him immobilised inside Samarog.
You can use Needle Trap for extra immobilizes during the split phases.

For more information, see our Samarog Guide.

Deimos

The stolen skill from Deimos is Unstable Artifact, which can be used to help immobilize prides. The stolen skill from the Sauls is Throw Magnetic Bomb, which can be used to help with their breakbars or cleave prides and greeds.
Be very careful not to jump into the Rapid Decay fields by using Death Blossom and Impaling Lotus
The breakbar in this fight is too fast and too small to for Basilisk Venom, bring Impact Strike instead.

For more information, see our Deimos Guide.

Hall of Chains

Soulless Horror

The stolen skill from this boss is Soul Stone Venom, which can be used to recover from the extreme boon corruption from scythes or tormented dead AoEs.
Be very careful not to dodge into danger if your tank insists on keeping the boss near the platform edge or near a tormented dead AoE.

For more information, see our Soulless Horror Guide.

Dhuum

The stolen skill from this boss is Unstable Artifact, which can be a lifesaver by porting downed players to yourself, or used for mobility, e.g. during Soul Split or to get to a green if you need to do them.
If you take Dagger Storm, you can maintain DPS during the Greater Death Mark by chaining dodges and Death Blossom followed by Dagger Storm and then back to dodges and Death Blossom. This should allow you to survive inside the damaging AoE underneath Dhuum.
- This is very dangerous, and if you mess it up you'll likely die.

For more information, see our Dhuum Guide.

Mythwright Gambit

Conjured Amalgamate

Conjured Amalgamate itself does not have a stolen skill, however its adds do. Conjured Swords give Unstable Artifact and Conjured Shields give Throw Magnetic Bomb. The latter in particular is extremely useful for CCing and cleaving down Conjured Shields.

For more information, see our Conjured Amalgamate Guide.

Twin Largos

The stolen skill from Nikare is Soul Stone Venom, and the stolen skill from Kenut is Detonate Plasma.
- Save Soul Stone Venom for after the charge, to quickly clear Chilled and Slow from people.
A CC elite will be useful as the bosses cannot be damaged until they are broken. Closing to melee for Impact Strike might be dangerous though.

For more information, see our Largos Assassins Guide.

Qadim

The stolen skill from the Pyres, Ancient Invoked Hydra, and Wyvern Matriarch is Detonate Plasma. The stolen skill from Qadim, Apocalypse Bringer, and Wyvern Patriarch is Throw Magnetic Bomb.
Steal from the pyres before every DPS phase to give your squad boons immediately with Detonate Plasma.
Use Throw Magnetic Bomb to cleave the Lava Elementals and help break the frequent breakbars. At the 100%-66% DPS phase, save at least one cast to help CC the Apocalypse Bringer. Once it appears, use it once, and if steal is off cooldown, steal again and it use to help break the three Reapers of Flesh that spawn.
You can precast Basilisk Venom before the Apocalypse Bringer appears.

For more information, see our Qadim Guide.

The Key of Ahdashim

Cardinal Sabir

The stolen skill from the boss is Detonate Plasma, which can be used to teleport over the shockwave without losing the damage buff.
- In CM, it can also be used to teleport downed players to more convenient locations, as ressing takes a lot longer.

For more information, see our Cardinal Sabir Guide.

Cardinal Adina

The stolen skill from the boss is Detonate Plasma, which can be used to supplement boons and provide extra Stability to defend against the hands in the split phase.
You can use Steal to quickly get back to the boss from pillars.

For more information, see our Cardinal Adina Guide.

Qadim the Peerless

The stolen skill from the boss is Unstable Artifact, which can be used to save yourself if you get knocked back, or to save allies who get downed in magma.

For more information, see our Qadim the Peerless Guide.

Daredevil - Condi DPS

Contents

Overview