Guild Wars 2

I was getting my face stomped by a thief in spvp the other night (and last night too for that matter) and started to wonder: do our invis/stealth abilities function differently than those of other classes?

This isn’t a “thieves need nerfs” thread. She played well, played smart and hit hard, but one thing I found odd is that even after I adjusted for a full line of stealth abilities, she always seemed to know exactly where I was. By comparison, when she came at me and went stealth she was visually off the map as far as I was concerned.

I’m assuming I was doing something wrong. Then I was playing last night and a buddy of mine was on the opposing team. We were fighting and after I stealthed he did he same thing – came right at me as if I were standing there with a sign around my neck saying kill me. I asked how he knew where I was and he said he could see my shimmering outline. Does our stealth leave us partly visible in comparison to thieves who seem to completely vanish or am I doing something else that’s making me visible to people?

Are you being predictable?

It doesn’t do a whole lot of good to run in a straight line, stealth, then continue running in that same straight line. You might as well not be stealthed at all.

As soon as you stealth you should make a change of direction. Roll if you have the stamina.

Also, did she use Thieves Guild? Turrets/Summons can sometimes see people in stealth and point you to where they are.

im not sure about thief stealth, but for mesmer stealths, if something is attacking you with a channeled or volley skill like the pistol unload, the shots will continue to hit you even in stealth. which makes it easy for the player to track you with damage numbers.

also, if you were in a party with your buddy, then he would see you in stealth as if he was on the same team as you. regardless if he was on the other team.

I don’t know about the thief, but I suspect I know why your friend could see you. I ran into this with my buddy as well.

If you’re grouped with the person and then you join the sPvP map, you’re technically still grouped — even if you’re on opposing teams. And when you’re grouped with an ally, they can sometimes still your shimmering stealth form, again, even if you’re on opposing PvP teams. Make sure you disband if you’re PvPing with a friend in sPvP. You can do this by clicking the little group arrow and clicking disband. It won’t boot you from your “PvP” group.

Also, if you’re in the same guild, disbanding makes their name turn orange when you’re on the same team so they’re easier to spot, too. Handy sometimes in the chaos.

Edit: D’oh, I see the person above me beat me to the punch. At least now you have two people telling you the same thing. That’s gotta mean something, right? :P

I can confirm Thieves still get his by attacks in stealth and take damage as I play both a Thief and a Mesmer :-)

Doh! My friend and I were definitely in the same party. Ok. That explains that one. But that thief is still a rotten hacker!

But, seriously I can’t recall my movement patterns from that night. I definitely wasn’t running in a straight line as I tend to do a lot of circular movement and strafing anyway. What really confused me in the situation was that I deliberately hit Mirror Images, then Decoy and she ran past them like they weren’t even there. Were I not stealthed I’d chalk it up to the clones less than stellar resemblance to my actual character or health bar.

As for thieves guild – do they act like our illusions in that they’ll stop attacking when something goes stealth and then resume on reappearance?

I can tell that whatever it is it’s not something endemic to the profession though and has to be something I did wrong or simply didn’t do right.

answering the question in another way,

considering Mesmers are supposed to be masters of deception, thieves have much better stealth abilities… Mass invisibility and veil need some sort of buff imo.

If I see a mesmer going stealth, I always ignore the first few mesmers that show up. They are almost always clones/phantasms… In WvW I would also know where the mesmer is heading after a few fights. (in a 1v1, not a zergvzerg. I mostly have several bouts with a mesmer before one of us dies. By that time either he kills me because I couldn’t flee, or I kill him because I figured his way of moving around. PS: I’m a thief)

A good trick is to stealth and roll directly through the other player Really screws people who haven’t bound a key for the 180 degree turn.