Deadeye - Power Deadeye

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

Designed for: Open World and Open World General

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on January 24, 2022 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A very powerful generalist build that functions well in most areas of open world and possesses an extreme amount of in-combat mobility and burst damage. Against groups of enemies, this build can maintain permanent Fury, Might, and Quickness with no boon duration.

This build relies heavily on Deadeye's Mark, which may behave strangely in certain situations where a boss has a strange hitbox (i.e. octovine)

This build is extremely versatile and can make use of several weapon sets including rifle, dual pistols, dual daggers, shortbow tagging, and even sword/pistol. Because of this, "Power Deadeye" functions as a catch-all for several very similar builds. Be sure to read the variants listed below.

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Skill Bar

Rifle

Shortbow

Utility

Weapon Variants

Shortbow - For Mobility or Tagging in Zergs
Sword - Better cleave than Dagger but less Mobility.
Offhand Dagger - Loses mobility but provides high burst and stealth.
Rifle - Rifle is somewhat suboptimal for most open world and has a very different playstyle than what is provided here. See Build:Deadeye_-_Rifle_Skirmisher for a rifle-specific build.

Skill Variants

Withdraw - shorter cooldown heal with an evade.
Malicious Restoration - condi cleanse
Shadow Flare - alternative damage option.
Smoke Screen - blinds enemies and destroys projectiles.
Tripwire/Binding Shadow/Shadow Gust - if struggling with defiance bars.
Shadowstep - alternative stun break that cleanses conditions.
Haste - alternative stun break that grants offensive boons; good on bosses
Shadow Refuge - to escape from enemies or stealth past them.
Dagger Storm - a 4 second evade.
Basilisk Venom - strong crowd control if there are allies nearby.
Thieves Guild - high burst damage on a long cooldown

Specializations

Variants

Malicious Intent - when fighting against single targets
Maleficent Seven - on long fights against single targets.

Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; you can use exotic gear with the same stats.

This set uses gear similar to Build:Daredevil_-_Power_DPS, making it excellent for general PVE

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Rifle
Berserker

Sigil

Shortbow
Berserker

Sigil

Rune
x6

Variant Equipment

Gear

Knight - defensive trinkets
Marauder - trades some damage for higher DPS

Runes

Rune of Superior Rune of Infiltration - budget DPS
Rune of Superior Rune of Vampirism - defense

Sigils

Sigil of Superior Sigil of Air - budget DPS
Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy - Strong defensive sigil that allows for more dodges.
Sigil of Superior Sigil of Fire - can be used with the AOE chain-kill versions of this build due to its synergy with Burst of Shadows

Tagging Equip your shortbow with Sigil of Superior Sigil of Fire and Sigil of Superior Sigil of Frenzy for an excellent tagging build.

Consumables

Food

Any ascended food is superior to any other food you could use. Steak for power, flatbread for conditions. Budget versions of these foods exist and are acceptable.
- farming
, - DPS
- defense

Utility

(and variants) - farming
, - dps

Usage

General

This build focuses on using Deadeye's Mark to proc several powerful traits, including:
- Kleptomaniac, Thrill of the Crime, Sleight of Hand, Bountiful Theft from Trickery
- Collateral Damage, Renewing Gaze, Payback, Be Quick or Be Killed in Deadeye
Because of these interactions, every time you steal you will gain Fury, Might, Quickness, Swiftness, Regeneration, Vigor, +200 Power and Precision, and +2 Initiative.
Striking a Marked target will grant you additional damage thanks to Malice. Killing a Marked target will fully reset your Mark and cause an explosion around them that deals damage and blinds nearby enemies.
Because none of the listed traits that grant these boons have an internal cooldown, and Renewing Gaze refreshes your Deadeye's Mark (which counts as a Steal) every time you kill your marked target you can instantly re-apply these buffs to yourself, making this build amazingly good at killing groups of mobs.
This build also features a considerable amount of Stealth from 24px Hide in Shadows and 24px Shadow Meld, allowing you to disengage from dangerous situations or use Backstab without spending Initiative. This stealth does have a long cooldown, however, so be aware of this.

Damage

This build has three primary variants: Dagger/Pistol, Sword/Pistol, and Pistol/Pistol. Sword/Dagger can also be a fun variant, but is typically less effective than the others and won't be discussed here.

Dagger/Pistol

This is the standard version of the build, as it fulfills the build's primary goals better than other options. It has absurd mobility compared to the other two and deals higher damage than Sword/Pistol, with only slightly less damage than Pistol/Pistol but more cleave. Since this build is for killing groups of mobs in open world, it is the default chosen.

To deal damage with Dagger/Pistol:

Shadow Shot towards your target, or use Heartseeker to gapclose if nearby already.
Deadeye's Mark the target
Double Strike until dead.
- Heartseeker does more damage to single targets if they are under 50% HP than your AA's, otherwise only AA.

You can use various methods of gaining Invisibility, such as using Heartseeker through a smoke field like Black Powder to also proc Malicious Backstab, which deals considerable damage. This can be resource-intensive, however, so using it should be a strategic decision.

Pistol/Pistol

This variant has both the highest DPS and burst of the other two variants and is included as an excellent ranged option when alone, since Shortbow is only good in Zergs.

To deal damage with this variant, Mark your target and use Unload until dead, filling gaps with auto-attacks. It can be useful to Stealth with this variant to reposition and gain access to Malicious Sneak Attack, which deals rather considerable damage. Stealth in this variant is harder to access, however, due to the lack of a leap finisher.

Sword/Pistol

This variant is more niche than the other two. It is primarily used due to Sword's high auto-attack damage and access to Pistol Whip, which is a long-duration evade and can be quite useful for soloing harder enemies. This variant's DPS is less reliant on using Initiative, which allows you to spend it on defensive options like Black Powder or Pistol Whip.

To deal damage with Sword/Pistol, you simply Deadeye's Mark your target and auto-attack, using your Initiative for defensive cooldowns.

Defense

This build has access to a number of defensive options, though it mostly relies on killing enemies before they can deal much damage.

Invigorating Precision provides incredible sustain, especially since this build has permanent Fury.
You have several sources of stealth, which allow for repositioning or disengaging
Collateral Damage is an area blind
Black Powder is an area blind. If you are just auto attacking, you can keep this up permanently, though it only affects 5 targets and will not affect enemies with Defiance Bars.
Pistol Whip (Sword/Pistol only) is a long-duration evade that allows you to easily dodge predictable attacks, like the Legendary Crusher's attack in the Lost City of Arah.

Crowd Control

Headshot
Sleight of Hand
Malicious Tactical Strike (sword 1 in stealth)