Stealth has taken on a new importance in WvW.
Thieves have always been a pain with stealth, and a well played thief hiding in a Keep or Tower is a serious threat because they are capable of killing the Lord and capping.
Mesmers now seem to be able to perma-stealth AND portal in up to 20 friends if you don’t locate them. This is a more serious threat than thieves because:
1) it takes less skill to play a perma-stealth portal Mesmer (you don’t have to kill the lord yourself, you just need to open a portal)
2) a couple of defenders stand a decent chance of stopping even a well played thief if they protect the Lord and don’t give up too soon. The same 2 stalwart defenders stand much less chance against a zerg that portals in.
There are “solutions”. Sic ‘Em and Lock On can reveal stealthed players (6 seconds in 40 and 6 seconds in 25 respectively). Stealth Traps also cause revealed, but are single shot 10 supply things and crucially each player can only set ONE. That’s like limiting it to 1 AC per player or 1 Ram per player! To use these effectively you need a dedicated sweep team that most of the lower tier servers can’t field.
So here’s a balancing thought – why not introduce a new siege item – an anti stealth turret.
Anti Stealth Turret – costs 40 supply (or 30 with 40 for superior?)
Range: 1500 (1200 if plain version is available?)
Range should show as a white circle on the ground for allies, red for enemies like turret range or Necro wells.
Pulses every second for a 5 second reveal (non stacking). Needs to be a frequent enough pulse that you can’t just run through it in stealth, and not so long reveal that you can’t hope to stealth again if you do get caught and run away.
Similar health to AC.
Counts towards siege limit.
I think this would allow decent anti stealth cover to be developed while giving a chance for a hiding Thief or Mesmer to destroy turrets, or find the gaps in coverage to hide.
What do you think?