Stealth question

[Night.2759]

Hi everyone!

 

Been a while since I did any real playing and started back up in WvW more regularly lately.  I have a question about stealth - are people able to track a stealthed thief?  I remember people getting some lucky shots on me years ago but lately I pop stealth, move away, and I get pounced on in the new location.  Maybe just a streak of bad luck on my part, but it happened about 3-4 times in a row now so maybe I'm missing something?

 

Appreciate the input!

[Elfie.8023]

you cant track a stealthed thief unless they have a mini in use. some people are just good at guessing where the thief may of gone and lay AOEs down.

however skills like rapid fire on LB ranger has stealth tracking, if they cast it right before you stealth it'll still follow but they cant see you.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Check if you have your mini pet out. Its a dead giveaway to your location since it follows you. Channeled skills like Volley, Rapid Fire, Rush, Bull's Charge and others all track the target during the channel. There are skills that 'break enemy targeting' but I think those are all on Mesmer specifically on Mirage.

[Night.2759]

Thanks!  Finding out about channeled skills - NOT a fan of this LOL!

 

That was probably it.

 

Checked my mini (good thought on that too) - fortunately I did not have that out as that would have been rather silly.

 

[kash.9213]

It could be someone guessing and when they see damage was done they know they zeroed in on you. A channeled skill would probably be obvious but in the moment you might not notice something among everything else. I'll ping another thief who has gone into stealth with a DE Stolen Skill. Even without Basilik Venom for a full stop it will show the damage being done and I can see where they're at for a second. 

Edited August 23, 2021 by kash.9213

[nopoet.2960]

Did anyone else click on this expecting the first comment to be blank?

[Zacchary.6183]

1 hour ago, nopoet.2960 said:

Did anyone else click on this expecting the first comment to be blank?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Vornollo.5182]

Another thing is that there's the Mount that could "sniff" your location despite being stealthed.

There's Sentries that will Mark you, forcing you out of stealth ahead of time.

Then there's also the "Watchtower" upgrade for structures that will pop that "Marked" on you anywhere in the vicinity of the structures...

Too many people don't understand how stealth works, the resulting outcry has resulted in these ridiculous changes.

 

Don't rely too much on your stealth, basically.

[Night.2759]

Yeah, stealth is not nearly all it's cracked up to be - even prior to these changes.  As a thief (or any class that spends some time figuring things out) you get to know what its limitations are and how to counter.  All these changes are surprising and honestly a bit disappointing in that these were implemented.  I can't imagine if towers limited other characters - i.e. a necro life force pool, or a guardians virtue refresh rate.

Edited August 29, 2021 by Night.2759
better wording

[Androx.8572]

One also figures out how not to be countered hahaha

 

[Night.2759]

6 hours ago, Androx.8572 said:

One also figures out how not to be countered hahaha

 

We could settle this with a game of wits - anyone have Iocane powder?  😁 

Edited August 30, 2021 by Night.2759

[cyberzombie.7348]

There are two ways to track, one is using a channeled attack like killshot or rapid fire right before they enter stealth. Another is by tethered attacks like guardian's binding blade, necromancer's tainted shackles, or daredevil's lotus dodge.

Edited August 30, 2021 by cyberzombie.7348

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

10 hours ago, Night.2759 said:

Yeah, stealth is not nearly all it's cracked up to be - even prior to these changes.  As a thief (or any class that spends some time figuring things out) you get to know what its limitations are and how to counter.  All these changes are surprising and honestly a bit disappointing in that these were implemented.  I can't imagine if towers limited other characters - i.e. a necro life force pool, or a guardians virtue refresh rate.

Those features aren't to counter Thieves but blobs using stealth-tactics, which is extremely dangerous. Same for the Toxic Unveiling Shot from the Arrowcart, its a ZvZ defensive stealth counter.

 

Marked still lets you have 40% stealth uptime and doesn't affect Thieves all that much if you know how to play. Also Warclaws can't mark invisible Thieves, neither can most Reveals which won't cast if the target is already invisible. Only area attacks hit a stealthed opponent.

 

Also most of the time an experienced player can just guess where you're going to go. Especially if you use the age old "turn around and run the opposite direction" trick.

 

Don't rely on stealth as a crutch; Thieves still have plenty of active defenses.

 

@ OP:

This is caused by using a chaneled skill and then following it to your location. The skill e.g Rapid Fire doesn't need to land, so even if you dodge all the arrow the player can still see where they went.

 

So basically what this means is you can't use Blind to prevent being tracked, either.

Edited August 30, 2021 by Hannelore.8153

[saerni.2584]

40% of your total stealth uptime is a big drop for most players.

 

There are two main uses for stealth.
 

You use it in combat to enable stealth attacks and break target on you to lower their damage potential. 

 

You can also use stealth to help you break combat. 
 

In both cases, if you tend to need longer stealth durations in combat or in order to get out of combat, then you will suffer from being Marked by a sentry or Tower. That tends to be a bigger problem when you are running away because running usually means you need stealth to confuse your enemy for longer periods of time (especially against a pewpew ranger who has quite long range to mess with you). 
 

But Mark can be manageable in combat. Don't try to run, don't try to hide for long durations. Go in and out of stealth and put pressure on them. You are often underestimated if they know you are Marked. Use that to your advantage and play aggressively knowing you can't over rely on stealth to either let you win the fight or escape if it goes south. 
 

Side note, it might be "for" large scale fights but the Watch Tower really is a huge area of anti-roaming. It's a high value tactic to help locate enemy roamers in that area so your roamers can hunt them down. It is also a decent advantage against anyone caught in the area who would normally use stealth to escape. Trapper DH, rangers, Mesmers, and engineers that use long durations of stealth when roaming for escape face the same issue thieves do. You have more sources of stealth so thief is actually the least held back by the duration reduction. 

[Night.2759]

Very helpful answers and pointers/suggestions!  I really appreciate all this and glad to see it.