Deadeye - Marauder Rifle

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

Focused on: Strike damage and Mobility

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on August 24, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

This PvP Deadeye Rifle build takes Thief's role of outnumbering to the extreme, potentially bursting targets down in mere seconds.

Skill Bar

Rifle

Sword/Dagger

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility

For the optional slot:

• Shadow Gust - another Stealth access and an AoE CC.

• Binding Shadow - better burst setup. In the burst combo use it before Deadeye's Mark. It's the least defensive option though so it's a bit greedy.

• Prepare Shadow Portal - extremely powerful map control tool when used right, but you have to sacrifice a utility slot for no real combat benefits. Shadow Portal lets you enter fights or get decaps from half a map away.

• Signet of Agility - better cleansing, Silent Scope synergy and passive crit chance increase.

Heal

• Hide in Shadows - adds more stealth access to the build but it's a harder healing skill to pull off under pressure than Withdraw.

Elite

• Dagger Storm - similar to Withdraw, acts as a panic button that can help you avoid damage when pressured but gives up another stealth access in exchange. Dagger Storm is especially useful if you expect the enemy team to have builds with Revealed access like "Sic 'Em!" Soulbeasts or Lock On Engineers which would deny you stealth access, leaving you quite vulnerable and unable to use Shadow Meld under pressure.

Weapons:

Rifle's set in stone but the secondary set can be changed based on personal preferences, there are several alternatives to Sword/Dagger:

• Dagger/Pistol, which has a great leap finisher for Sniper's Cover or Black Powder synergy plus Malicious Backstab can substitute Malicious Death's Judgment if there's some anti-projecile field in the way.

• Sword/Pistol keeps some the utility value of both mainhand Sword and offhand Pistol with a strong (albeit expensive) skill #3 that stuns enemies and does high damage whilst evading attacks.

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Specializations

Variants

• Cloaked in Shadow is also a viable option.

Variants

• Malicious Intent can save you initiative by making you reach the Malice cap with fewer attacks, but less access to stolen skills also means less Stealth.

Equipment

Rifle

Sigil

Sigil

Sword

Dagger

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Sigil

• Sigil of Separation over Sigil of Opportunity - the same damage bonus but instead of relying on the Cripple from Skirmisher's Shot you rely on having a big enough gap between you and the target. Which one of these sigils you use is entirely up to you.

Relics

• Relic of the Unseen Invasion - much better mobility in combat, which also improves your survivability.

• Relic of the Deadeye - slightly higher burst damage, worth considering especially when playing with at least 2 utility Cantrips.

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Steal is replaced by Deadeye's Mark, which has greater range but also a cast time. We're still going to refer to this as steal.

• Stolen skills are also replaced by new ones for each profession, although these are much less situational and can be used more freely. One thing to note is that you cannot pick the target freely for the new stolen skills, they will always be used on your marked target (even if they are in stealth, which can be useful for finishing off low HP stealthed targets).
  • If you want to know more about these skills, here's a list of them from the official wiki.

• Your specialization resource is called Malice. It's built through using attack skills with an initiative cost on your marked target and you can have up to 5 stacks of Malice. Stealth attacks such as Malicious Death's Judgment consume Malice and become more powerful with higher Malice stacks.

• At the 5 Malice threshold stolen skills such as Steal Health grant Stealth on activation, which is going to be their primary purpose - but be wary that they also do damage, so if you were already in stealth these will reveal you instead. There is a workaround for this however: stolen skills need line of sight (LoS) to deliver damage, if you intentionally break LoS then you can use them for the stealth without drawbacks.

General

• Start fights with Deadeye's Mark to begin passively building Malice.
  • This skill also procs the damage bonus of Relic of Fireworks, creating a burst window for you.

• Silent Scope provides easy stealth access on rifle, the only limiting factor will be endurance.

• Mercy recharges Deadeye's Mark. Use it when you run out of initiative, have to switch targets, or need to interrupt via Sleight of Hand. It also breaks stun but that's more of a bonus functionality rather than the main focus.

• Shadowstep is easily the most versatile skill in the build. Couple of applications include:
  • Extending the reach of rifle by 1200 range instantly.
  • Escaping from melee, and then doing it again with Shadow Return when they get close.
  • Stomping downed opponents with Shadowstep ⇒ Shadow Return.
  • Breaking stun and cleansing conditions.

• Shadow's Embrace and Shadow's Rejuvenation offer a steady stream of cleansing and Initiative in combat, having great synergy with Silent Scope and other sources of Stealth.

• Shadow Meld provides stealth without having to burn resources like initiative or endurance.

• If taken Signet of Agility is good for more than just cleansing conditions or boosting your precision, its active effect restores an entire dodge roll's worth of endurance which can be turned into stealth.

• If taken Dagger Storm is primarily a defensive elite. The rather lengthy evade frame with increased movement speed makes it an excellent panic button when you're being focused by the enemy team.
  • Note: skills like Shocking Aura or Line of Warding are able to interrupt Dagger Storm, so don't be completely careless.-->

Rifle

Main weapon set. Burst, mobility, easy stealth access.

• Rifle technically has 10 skills, but most of them won't be used much if at all.

• The basic game plan is the following: Deadeye's Mark your target, spam Skirmisher's Shot until you reach the Malice cap, then enter stealth and follow up with a Malicious Death's Judgment.

• Kneel swaps your rifle skills for more powerful ones but limits your mobility. The cost usually doesn't justify the payoff, so stick to your Skirmisher's Shot spam. The only real reason most people ever use Kneel is to drop a smoke field with skill #4 which is a combo field your team can use for stealth stacking and grants access to Death's Advance (while standing inside the field) for stealth access and some mobility.
  • Kneel skills have longer range, in niche situations you may end up using skills 2-3 to stack Malice but only if you're out of range with Spotter's Shot.
  • The Sniper's Cover ⇒ Death's Advance chain allows you to move around the map undetected in stealth, and you can do this for extended periods of time as Shadow's Rejuvenation refunds part of the initiative cost (especially if your weave in a few dodges too). Don't forget to cancel Kneel after using Death's Advance for improved mobility. It's also a great defensive chain to fall back on if you're getting focused by the enemy team, especially following a dodge which already gives you a brief amount of stealth plus some initiative refill.

• Death's Retreat is basically the Infiltrator's Arrow of this build when it comes to mobility, but that's just one aspect of it. In combat this serves as a spammable condition cleanse or even combo tool for stealth access when used in a smoke field.
  • We recommend setting up a bind for "about face" (Options ⇒ Control Options ⇒ Movement). This makes it easier to teleport forward with this skill using the following sequence: about face ⇒ Death's Retreat ⇒ about face.
  • You may decide to throw in a dodge or any other stealth source to proc Shadow's Rejuvenation, restoring initiative and allowing you to spam Death's Retreat more. This skill burns the same amount of initiative as the Death's Advance chain (after factoring in the Shadow's Rejuvenation synergy there) and you remain targetable for most of it, but offers better mobility as you don't have to kneel between jumps.

• At maximum (5 stacks) of Malice you should enter stealth and do a Malicious Death's Judgment. Exceptions include targets at very low health, in that canse it may be quicker to just spam them down with other skills.
  • At maximum Malice prioritize using stolen skills for stealth access, don't waste dodges if you don't have to!

• Sniper's Cover could be useful against other ranged specs, but a more common application of it is stealth stacking. It's a combo field which can also be utilized by your team.

• Sigil of Energy is taken for Silent Scope synergy.

Rifle burst rotation example:

1. If taken Open with Binding Shadow. This skill has a delay so timing is key! If you immediately follow up with Deadeye's Mark, BS should land a split second after the mark has been applied.
2. Deadeye's Mark (which already puts you at 1/5 Malice IF you're using Malicious Intent)
3. Skirmisher's Shot x3 (enough to do it x2 when playing with Malicious Intent)
4. Stealth up using either a stolen skill or a dodge if you can, or any of your stealth CDs if you can't
5. Malicious Death's Judgment

Sword/Dagger

This is the secondary set. Good for cleaving downed targets, defending yourself vs melee, or finishing off targets who use projectile denial.

• Most of the damage here comes from weaving together autoattacks with the Flanking Strike (thief dual) + Larcenous Strike chain. Try not to spam skill 3 too many times in a row because it's very predictable and thus often a waste of initiative.
  • There are exceptions of course. For example spamming Flanking Strike (thief dual) without a target (and without hitting anything) could be used to buy a few extra seconds for your CDs to come back up under heavy pressure, as it evades attacks.

• Most of the time you should initiate combat with Infiltrator's Strike from a safe distance, preferably also behind something that breaks line of sight. This way you'll always have an escape route via Infiltrator's Return.

• Dancing Dagger is sort of a filler skill, won't be used much unless you're stuck on S/D but can't afford to go into melee range.

• Cloak and Dagger does good damage and the Stealth lets you follow up with a Malicious Tactical Strike for even more damage plus a CC. At 5 Initiative this isn't cheap, but Shadow's Rejuvenation refunds much of the cost.
  • This could be used on AI (clones, pets, minions) if all you need is stealth not the damage, as AI won't dodge it therefore the odds of getting a successful CnD off become higher.

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• SA Rifle Roamer - the WvW Roaming version of this Deadeye PvP build.