Daredevil - Power DPS (Fractal)

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

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: Fractals

Difficulty:

TBD

Overview

A power DPS build for Daredevil. This is an easy to play build that mostly dodges and autoattacks for high multi-target damage. Due to evading for most of its rotation, it can easily avoid enemy attacks. It also has very high mobility, and provides high utility to its party with Basilisk Venom and party wide Stealth access.

This guide is focused on fractals. For the raid version see Build:Daredevil - Power DPS.

Skill Bar

Staff

Shortbow

Utility

Weapon Variants

• You should carry a Shortbow for stacking stealth, pulling enemies, and skipping ahead with Infiltrator's Arrow.
• You should also carry an offhand Pistol for the short cooldown smoke field on Black Powder, or for emergency CC with Headshot.

Skill Variants

Healing Skills

• Signet of Malice for a relatively weak but continuous healing effect.
• Withdraw if you need an extra evade, or for fights that have a lot of movement impairing conditions.
• Channeled Vigor useful for gaining additional dodges (particularly for skips using Unhindered Combatant.

Utility Skills

Always try to keep Assassin's Signet and Fist Flurry. If you need to replace them, switch out Fist Flurry first, then Assassin's Signet.

• Smoke Screen for a pulsing blind, projectile screen, and smoke field to blast stealth in.
• Shadow Refuge for stealth skips.
• Shadowstep can be used to teleport skip in certain places. Combine with Infiltrator's Arrow for extreme mobility.

Elite Skills

• Dagger Storm for stability and projectile reflection.
• Impact Strike for breakbar damage during encounters where Basilisk Venom gets wasted on adds.
• Thieves Guild for extra burst damage.

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Specializations

Specialization Variants

• Invigorating Precision if you're having trouble surviving. This is a ~10% DPS loss.
• Use Unhindered Combatant for mobility between encounters.
• Use Escapist's Fortitude if you need extra condition cleanses.

Equipment

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Staff
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Shortbow
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Equipment Variants

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of the Night on night time encounters.
• Slaying sigils if applicable.

Consumables

Food

Utility

• or slaying potions

Usage

The priority of your rotation is to use Fist Flurry and Weakening Charge while under the effects of both Bounding Dodger and Havoc Specialist.

Opening Rotation

1. Dodge
2. Weakening Charge
3. Assassin's Signet during the cast
4. Weakening Charge
5. Fist Flurry -> Palm Strike
6. Dodge
7. Weakening Charge

Loop Rotation

1. Dodge
2. Weakening Charge
3. Auto Attack chain
4. Auto Attack chain
5. Repeat

Rotation Notes

• Use your opening rotation again when Fist Flurry comes off cooldown and you have max initiative.
• Try to never have your endurance full to get the most out of Staff Master.
• Always flank the boss to get the bonus from Twin Fangs.
• Use Steal to get back endurance to keep Bounding Dodger up as much as possible. Try to use it off cooldown so it lines up with Weakening Charge.
• Use Assassin's Signet off cooldown.
• When it comes to fighting actual bosses where positioning matters, you may have to manage where your dodge ends so that you aren't forced into a bad spot. For example if you dodge through Artsariiv you will be in a purple damaging AoE. Here you would have to dodge to the side or stand at the side of her so dodging through her will land you on the other side of her which is safe. On other stationary bosses you might want to rotate your camera 180° every single time you dodge through them. For these cases you may want to walk back slightly while autoattacking so that you don't miss the damage from your dodge or end up being at an awkward distance from the boss (especially if the boss moves occasionally).

General Tips

• You can use Vault or Debilitating Arc as evades if you're out of dodges.
• Cluster Bomb on Shortbow can be used to blast might or stealth. Make sure not to double tap it as only the first skill counts as a blast finisher.
• Infiltrator's Arrow on Shortbow can be used to skip parts of certain fractals such as the lasers in Aetherblade and the scaffolding in Cliffside.
• Use Basilisk Venom with nearby allies to break defiance bars.

Group Stealth

Thief's unique support in groups is long-lasting group-wide Stealth, which lets you run past trash without having to fight it. This lets you skip large sections of dungeons and certain fractals.

• Black Powder should be used as the primary smoke field due to lack of cooldown. Have party members chain blasts in this field with you, while you blast it with Cluster Bomb. The smoke field only lasts 4s so you need help from your party in order to stack a significant amount of stealth.
  • Use Smoke Screen in less organised groups since it gives a longer stealth field for easier blasting.
• Shadow Refuge gives a large amount of area stealth without needing to use blast finishers. This skill is useful when stealthing next to or on top of mobs since most blast finishers deal damage and thus break stealth. It can also be used to reapply stealth in the middle of a skip. When possible retrait for Shadow Arts before using it to get the benefit of Meld with Shadows and the cooldown reduction of Concealed Defeat.
• Blinding Powder gives 3s of stealth, is a blast finisher, and causes no damage making it very useful if you have to cover a long distance. It is often used in combination with Black Powder.

Pathing

Once you trigger certain mob groups while being in stealth they will follow you unless you "path" them. This is done by standing still until the Mobs reach you.

Pathing Tutorial by Vitarain

Skipping Ahead

After stealthing with your group you can use a lot of skills to skip ahead of your group to trigger bosses/events faster to save time. This requires you to be able to retrait fast for full efficiency but isn't needed.

You should retrait to Unhindered Combatant for extreme mobility. You should also trait Shadow Arts to reduce the cooldowns of Deception skills and get longer stealth from your skills.

• Use Steal to port to mobs (only with traited Shadow Arts otherwise you get revealed/in combat due to Mug).
• Use Shadowstep to blink up ledges and for additional mobility.
• Use Infiltrator's Signet and/or Infiltrator's Strike to teleport to mobs (should be used out of range to not hit the mob).
• Use Hide in Shadows and/or Steal Traited with Hidden Thief to gain stealth to not aggro mobs.