Minor issue with Stealth

zumanjee · March 2013

I have a minor issue with the TR's stealth and want to know if anyone else felt this way or noticed it. When I go into stealth it seems the only ability I can use without being detected is the one that teleports you behind the enemy (forget actual name of the ability). If I go into stealth and try to sneak up on the enemy to try and use any other ability that requires me to be close, it seems they detect me. It doesn't really seem to break my stealth but they know I'm there. So does that mean the damage increase I get from being stealthed is gone when they detect me? I'm sorry but I have no data to prove whether or not I lose that increase, maybe someone here does know?

I also feel 5 seconds is too short for stealth. The mobs seem to have a pretty big aggro range and if I want to stealth my way in close to use one of my melee range skills, my stealth is either off or about to turn off when i get close. I'm not looking for a 30 second stealth but maybe 10 seconds? Enough time to move around, get positioned, and decide who you want to attack maybe? That's if you don't get detected first!

Other than these 2 things I really enjoyed the class, and these are not game-breakers for me, just some minor issues that I could live with if no one else feels the same way.

rannn · March 2013

First off, you can prolong your stealth by refreshing the stealth meter with certain abilities, such as "Shadow Strike" and "Bait and Switch", neither of which break stealth and the latter only refreshing stealth if used while in stealth. You'll also find that the "Lurker's Assault" daily power greatly increases your stealth's duration while in effect.

As for being "detected", yes the mobs will always be aware of you while you're stealthing near them, yet they won't target you with any abilities until you lose stealth.. this makes stealth mostly useless for sneaking past enemies, as they'll just aggro you after you lose stealth even if you completely passed by them while in stealth. Due to the nature of the stealth mechanic, I'm quite sure it will still apply the damage buff even if your target is "aware" of you, since they always will be.

Note that in addition to the skills I already mentioned, all your At-Will abilities (the ones mapped to your mouse keys by default) can also be used while in stealth to deal extra damage without losing stealth, most of your other abilities will remove stealth however. I'd suggest reading the skill tooltips on their behavior when used with stealth, as they often provide extra functionality while used under the effect of stealth.

bruddajokka · March 2013

Yeah...your using it wrong. Stealth in Neverwinter doesn't work like in Stealth in other games, and can be extended indefinitely if used properly.

talonvector · March 2013

I guess my only prob with stealth is the visual of it being hard to see your character. The best stealth I think I have seen is in rift where the rogue has a pretty purpley smoke mixed with that predator esq. glow, which is kind of like the bait and switch look, but not as cool imo.

But any way the only thing that I think about stealth is it kind of sux there isnt some type of easy spottable(unless u r carefull) stealth that u can use that stays on cause I was hoping to make some stealth orriented foundry missions rather then just fight your way through, but idk maybe with good enemy pathing u could still avoid them in ways.... maybe.....

securus · March 2013

A lot of people do not understand stealth. The way stealth works is that it ticks down slowly, but while stealthed enemies know you are there but will not attack. The other thing is your at will abilities do not break stealth at all, however your encounter abilities will break stealth as soon as you use them even if you just went into stealth. The trick is to use your at wills until right before the stealth ends and then use your encounter abilities to either refresh/extend the duration or break it for the damage bonus. If done right you can stay in stealth almost permanently especially once you get gloaming strike.

For example one thing is to stealth to start battle you actually just run at the mobs and stealth right as you get into melee range but before the mob is close enough to hit you, never use your stealth when your are outside of melee range to position yourself as you are just wasting it, use your attacks and then right before stealth ends use your attack that gets bonus damage from stealth, after that you use the throw that refreshes your stealth bar and then autoattack until steath is about to fade and right before the stealth fades you should use your ability to make your clone which will if in stealth refill the stealth bar letting you get more autoattacking in. The other thing is after stealth breaks the mobs will continue to attack the clone letting your stealth bar start to recharge. You can use gloaming strike as well anytime a mob gets low to finish it and refill your stealth bar.

zumanjee · March 2013

Ok thanks. I was definitely playing it wrong. I'll have to try again for the next testing weekend!

prunetracy · March 2013

I actually enjoyed used Deft Strike to teleport into a group, then hitting Stealth. You can stealth during combat as long as your stealth meter is full. You'll lose meter if you take damage, so make sure you hit it before that. As early as level 13, you can start a fight in stealth, hit with sly flourish until low on stealth, bait and switch to drop your decoy and refill your meter, sly flourish until low again, then shadow strike to refill a second time, sly flourish until low, then use your third encounter or daily for a big damage hit should anything still be left alive.

I think this is the best stealth system I've seen yet.

mrcloud87 · March 2013

prunetracy wrote: »

I actually enjoyed used Deft Strike to teleport into a group, then hitting Stealth. You can stealth during combat as long as your stealth meter is full. You'll lose meter if you take damage, so make sure you hit it before that. As early as level 13, you can start a fight in stealth, hit with sly flourish until low on stealth, bait and switch to drop your decoy and refill your meter, sly flourish until low again, then shadow strike to refill a second time, sly flourish until low, then use your third encounter or daily for a big damage hit should anything still be left alive.

I think this is the best stealth system I've seen yet.

Yea this stealth system is pretty fun. I opened with the range attack and could kill the first target, hit stealth followed by lashing blade, then deft strike and dazing strike to finish the group off. The burst was amazing and felt so rogue-ish.

tsurueldul · March 2013

They mentioned that stealth isn't really full invisible. They said that enemies would continue to know your position if you got close but would not attack you. At the moment that could just mean they need to fix how enemies "see" you or if thats just how its gonna be.

prunetracy · March 2013

I think it's fine as is. Stealth is very tricky to balance between being strong enough to be fun but not so good that it's too powerful.

So the more powerful a character is in stealth, the more constraints have to be put on it to balance it. So right now the constraints are that you can only stealth for short periods, you can't use stealth to completely avoid enemies, and you can't restealth in combat if you're taking damage. I'll take those downsides for the power of stealth right now. Enhanced damage, attacking without breaking stealth, being able to restealth while in combat, and adding extra kick to your encounter powers are what make stealth so much fun to use.

I'm curious how it looks in pvp. Can enemy players see stealthed rogues? Maybe they can see them but can't target them? I didn't try pvp myself, but that's one of the biggest areas where stealth has trouble staying between cool and OP.

papi032 · March 2013

Well, you can basically stay in stealth the whole duration of lurker's assault, so it's pretty OP imo

braxzana · March 2013

I'll admit I went into Neverwinter thinking of Stealth as it is implemented in other games. That is, you turn on stealth and it STAYS ON until you attack or take damage and foes cannot detect you.

Here, however, Stealth is not designed for 'exploration' so much as it is 'distraction'. That is, you CAN enter stealth in the middle of combat (something you can explicitly NOT do in those other stealth-exploration games). While you're in stealth the enemy cannot hit you (although presumably AoEs or splats on the ground would still damage you)... but you can attack with specific powers as long as your stealth lasts.

Powers can extend / refresh / renew stealth and the Daily as noted lets it last a GOOD long time.. but it's still basically a COMBAT Stealth.

Took me a while to get used to that idea --- I was wasting my stealth bar by trying to sneak INTO melee range, which is a waste of stealth-meter. And of course you can't use it to sneak PAST bunches of foes, either (I learned the hard way :>).

kinsaeda · March 2013

The ONLY change I'd like to happen with stealth is that I'd like to be able to turn it off before the meter runs out.

eyebreaker7 · March 2013

This may sound dumb but how do I use stealth? I don't see an option/button to activate it. What am I overlooking?
Thanks

prunetracy · March 2013

eyebreaker7 wrote: »

This may sound dumb but how do I use stealth? I don't see an option/button to activate it. What am I overlooking?
Thanks

Most likely you're not level 10 yet. It becomes pretty obvious at that point (hit Tab).

harrysingh7 · November 2014

in my case with module 5 whenever I use an alt will my stealth meter loses 25% stealth so I am out of stealth in 2 or 3 sec.
if this doesn't get fixed I won't be returning and will spend time on far cry 4 instead.

beckylunatic · November 2014

harrysingh7 wrote: »

in my case with module 5 whenever I use an alt will my stealth meter loses 25% stealth so I am out of stealth in 2 or 3 sec.
if this doesn't get fixed I won't be returning and will spend time on far cry 4 instead.

Are you dense?

This was an intentional change. It's all documented and everything.

Minor issue with Stealth

Comments