Tier 3 Pistoleer Deadeye Build Guide

Welcome to the Tier 3 Pistoleer Deadeye Build Guide! This build disables Shotgun and Rifle stances, instead focusing entirely on Handgun stance. It's a non-positional playstyle with high APM and lots of mobility. Low cooldowns and fast animations mean you're constantly seeking uptime to deal consistent damage.

Outside of that, Deadeye lacks any sort of meter-building or builder-spender mechanic, so it's ready to pump damage as needed given your cooldowns are up. It brings decent Stagger and Destruction to the table.

Want a more bursty and variable playstyle focused on all his guns? Check out our Enhanced Weapon guide.

Builds

Raids

Chaos Dungeons

Need some tips for general content? Check out our Guardian Raids and Abyssal Dungeons guides.

• AT02 Grenade is your Synergy skill. It deals decent damage.
• Desperado and Equilibrium are your Conviction and Judgement skills. Pair them together in the correct order to trigger the effect.
• Meteor Stream is a high-damage skill with good stagger.
• Enforce Execution is your Counter skill. It also deals Destruction.
• Quick Shot and Cruel Tracker are damage fillers. Both have Destruction.
• Clay Bombardment has its damage buffed by Pistoleer engraving.

Alternative Skill, Tripod, and Rune Options

Desperado

• Can replace Conviction with Quick Recharge.

Equilibrium

• Can replace Judgment with Galewind.

Meteor Stream

• Can replace Bombardment Support with Meteor Fall. This speeds up the animation, making it easier to hit, but reduces the damage.

Check the Rune Guide for more details on Runes and how to obtain them.

This build is optimized and meant to be used only in Chaos Dungeons. For Ebony Cube please use a Raid build.

• Equilibrium, Death Fire and Desperado are your main AoE mob killers. They all have 360° AoEs and deal good damage to lesser monsters.
• Somersault Shot is mostly used for mobility.
• Clay Bombardment is good against Elites.

Recommended Engraving Setup

While you can freely experiment with any engravings you want for this content, here's a recommended setup, based on the Engraving Support system:

• Preemptive Strike causes your attacks to deal immense amounts of damage to monsters that you haven't attacked yet, making it ideal for Chaos Dungeons.
• Contender is a stacking Attack Power effect that increases in strength once you kill a monster, making it ideal for Chaos Dungeons.
• Raid Captain provides damage based on your Bonus Movement Speed, synergizing well with the Buff Nodes scattered throughout Chaos Dungeons.
• Cursed Doll increases your damage with essentially no drawback in Chaos Dungeons.
• Pistoleer increases Handgun damage and provides a better spacebar dash. Highly recommended.

Gameplay & Skill Rotation

This build is non-positional and it benefits from constantly using skills within the Weakness Exposure window. Your Specialization stat increases Handgun Crit Damage which further benefits from the additional Crit Rate.

Some skills such as Desperado have mobility built into them, so you will be moving around quite a bit to reposition in safer places while avoiding being stationary for too long due to your squishiness.

Pistoleer has increased Handgun damage and focuses on making the most out of your low cooldowns and quick skills.

Both Shotgun and Rifle stance are disabled, meaning your identity is locked into Handgun stance. The Pistoleer engraving also unlocks a new enhanced Spacebar:

• Relentless Assault is a 2-charges Spacebar.
• It provides the Assault buff for 6 seconds. This buff increases your Atk. and Move Speed by 8%. It also reduces cooldowns by 5%.
• Additionally, hitting any Handgun skill on the enemy will reduce your current Spacebar cooldown by 0.1s.

Deadeye Identity

Basic Rotations

Standard Damage Rotation

• Your rotation consists of applying your Crit Synergy with AT02 Grenade and trying to proc your Conviction + Judgment combo with Desperado and Equilibrium.
• Your priority is to keep Weakness Exposure up, and refresh it as needed, before using your damage skills.

Stagger Check Rotation

• Depending on the duration of the stagger check you may be better off performing your usual rotation as to avoid desyncs.
• Remember you can also use a Whirlwind Grenade if you have one equipped!

Tripods and Gems

Tripod Levelling

Increasing the level of Tripods greatly enhances their effectiveness. You may only increase the level of 18 tripods at a time. Some of them cannot be leveled at all, or are left at level 1 - these tripods are omitted from the table, even if they are used. Here are the main tripods you should look out for in order to maximize this build's potential.

Tripods written in bold text are your highest priority, make sure to level them first!

For more information on where to obtain Tripod Amulets and how to use them, check out our Skill Tree System Guide.

Gems

Gems are another significant aspect of your build, as they directly impact the damage and cooldowns of your skills. You can equip up to 11 gems at a time. Here are the ones you should focus on in order to maximize this build's potential, listed according to their priority.

For more information on where to obtain gems and how to use them, check out our Gem System Guide.

Stat Priority

This build utilizes Specialization and Crit , with Swiftness as an alternative option.

• Specialization is the primary stat. It provides Crit Damage to your Handgun skills.
• Crit is a secondary stat. It's used for damage consistency.
• Swiftness is a secondary stat. It can be used for reduced cooldowns and mobility.

Gear Set

Hallucination Set

This set is optimal thanks to the large amounts of Crit Rate it provides, which synergize quite well with the Crit Damage from Specialization.

Check out the Gear Progression Guide for step by step instructions and early game gearing.
If you are interested in Sidereal Weapons, click here for more details.

Engravings

Engravings are a core part of your build. Typically, most engravings will be used at level 3, but some can be used at level 1 or 2 in addition to the others, after reaching item level 1540 and unlocking Ancient Accessories.

Engraving Explanations

Core Engravings

• Pistoleer is the core of the build. It provides damage to Handgun skills and unlocks the empowered Spacebar.
• Adrenaline provides an additional source of Crit Rate and Attack Power. It is fairly easy to upkeep.
• Grudge increases damage done while also increasing damage received. The engraving is a highly effective damage increase without needing specific positioning, making it worthwhile even with the penalty.
• Precise Dagger provides high amounts of Crit Rate with a Crit Damage penalty. This penalty is negated by the Crit Damage obtained from your Specialization stat.

Add-On Engravings (Pick 1)

• Cursed Doll is a significant Attack Power increase at the cost of 25% healing. The healing penalty can be punishing for inexperienced players who are not familiar with boss mechanics, but it becomes easy to overcome with time.
• Mass Increase provides higher Attack Power than Cursed Doll, but comes with a -10% Attack Speed penalty. Pistoleer only has 8% Attack Speed self-buffs so this penalty can't be fully negated.
• Propulsion can be viable thanks to the lower Spacebar cooldown from using your Handgun Skills, but it usually performs worse than the alternatives and requires you to actively manage your spacebar cooldown and uptime.
• Raid Captain is a viable alternative but requires you to take Spiral Tracker with its Quick Pace tripod, and use it before every damage skill to achieve good damage.

Level 1 and 2 Engravings

• Ether Predator provides a ramping Attack Power and Defense buff. It requires you to collect Ether orbs and its lost on death, but it's still the best option.
• Propulsion can be used at level 1 but requires active management of spacebar cooldown and uptime.

Check out the Engraving Guide for more details.

Bracelet

Bracelets provide beneficial effects to yourself or to your party members depending on the rolls they have.

The primary goal is to get the main stats used by this build Specialization and Swiftness/Crit. After that you should be aiming for Special Rolls to get more damage. Please note that this system is heavily reliant on RNG, and you should not expect to get much more beyond your main stats early on.

Check out the Bracelet Guide for more details.

Elixir

The recommended Elixir Set for this build is Critical.

Check out the Elixir Guide for more details and general stat recommendations.

Card Sets

Cards are an endgame system that helps maximize your character's damage. Here are the recommended card sets for this build.

• Deep Dive is used early on as it is fairly easy to obtain.
• Light of Salvation is the standard endgame option, but it can take a long time to acquire 30-piece Awakening.
• Kazeros's Legion Commanders is used as an alternative to Light of Salvation, in content where enemies have a weakness to Dark Damage.

Check out the Card Guide for more details on how to obtain cards and interact with them.

End Game Damage Card Set