Guild Wars 2

Do they have any practical use aside from running away? since mesmers do not have attacks from stealth. Their CD’s and durations make it seem like a poor man’s shadow refuge.

As utility in pve (dodging mobs in dungones if that’s your thing).
Confusion – I like using decoy mid fight just to confuse people.
Otherwise I wouldn’t use them except to escape or ambush but the nature of mass invisibility (huge shockwave) does give the game away as an ambush.

mass invisibility is a great initiation tool. plus not many know, but you can seem to use skills in stealth as long as its not your #1 skill in stealth and you wont be unstealthed.

For pushing, you move up the line then decoy out to get enough distance to run back to your side.

You can cast the sylvari skill to summon a druid spirit while stealthed or use mantra skill recharging while stealthed without breaking it – keeps someone from targeting you for a planned interrupt if you are channeling something.

From a WvW perspective, stealth is invaluable for a solo character. Wen taking on 3 guys with a glass cannon build its extremely useful. For my build I go full glass cannon and rely on those utilities for survival. Allows you to escape death while not compromising on damage.

Don’t forget about target lock breaking.

Gaiawolf.8261:

Don’t forget about target lock breaking.

This. Stealth is the only reason the Clone mechanic works at all. Plus you can stealth while letting your Illusions do the work.

Stealth, then dodge for the clone on dodge. That simple trick fools way more people than it should.

Thief goes invisible to try to land an stealth breaking attack on you, so you go invis and deny him of a target.

Already said, but I’ll stress, initiating a group fight with Mass Invisibility.

Stealth stomp/revive.

Although personally, I rarely use stealth skills. I find that good positioning and careful use of our other defensive abilities to be good enough in most cases.

Stealth is control mechanic, nothing more. It allows you to dictate the fight. It doesn’t matter that there’s no Backstab style attack – conceptually they’re the same; you’re in stealth and then you attack and leave stealth. Just because no Mesmer abilities have a “Must be in stealth” requirement, doesn’t mean we can’t support the play-style.

Use stealth to;
– Drop a target lock
– Initiate a fight on your terms (i.e. avoid the obvious Charge/Leap, or initial Burst).
– Change direction suddenly and control flow
– Mask your intentions; long casts, res’ing people
– Launch hard hitting attacks
– etc.

For example when 1v1 with Thiefs I often stealth at the start of the fight before they have a chance to do their lolPrepareForTheNerflol opener.

Surbrus.6942:

Stealth stomp/revive.

This!

Finishing downed enemies is such a hassle in WvW and sPvP, but with stealth it’s much easier.