"stealthing" without being stealthy

[cohRock]

This topic occurred to me as I examine my Demon/MM build.  At level 47 he took Superspeed and slotted it with a celerity:stealth proc.  Since he also has Teleport Target, he can get teammates to where he stealthed.

 

But then at 49 he took the new flight pool power, Evasive Maneuvers.  It is a really great power, and if I had known it was that good, he probably would have had it earlier.   If you are unfamiliar with it, it has several properties:

1. buffs speed of Fly and Hover.  In fact it more than doubles Hover flight speed.
2. gives to control to Fly even if Hover not present or not on
3. it offers significant protection against immobilization (level 9 protection IIRC)
4. it offers almost 50% resistance to knockback
5. it offers 13.5% travel defense and more defense can be slotted.  By "travel defense" I mean the defense aspect goes away if you attack, click an objective, give pet command, etc.

 

If I consider the defense he has via Farsight, Hover, Maneuvers, and various set bonuses, and the fact that he hasn't actually used Superspeed, like ever, it would seem useful to trade it out for maybe Assault.  (Assault would help make up for the lost pet damage he experienced due to slotting various pet protection procs.)  With his defenses and resistances, he can fly thru crowds and pretty much ignore their fleeting aggro.  Just as with Superspeed, he would dismiss his pets before doing such. 

 

Why am I asking this here instead of the MM archetype forum?  Actually I posted an MM-specific question there.  But everything I have said applies to anyone who takes Hover, Farsight (or other significant defensive powers), Maneuvers, etc.  Well non-MM most characters wouldn't have pets to contend with, but that overhead doesn't really effect the concept.  BTW, Evasive Maneuvers isn't the only power that fits this concept.  Someone with the Force Field set can accomplish the same thing, even better, with Personal Force Field.

 

And to stave off the inevitable, "we need to see your build to give an informed response", I posted that in the MM thread.

[Chaos String]

Personally, I would not rely on this kind of "non-stealthy" stealth as a MM.  Not that it couldn't work, but I'd find it mighty inconvenient.

 

When I stealth missions as a MM, I don't summon my pets until I have found the objective.  If it's a glowie, I'll usually just summon a sacrificial wave of minions to get rekt while I hit it.  Otherwise, I find the nearest quiet spot to summon, buff up, and take out the boss or whatever.

 

Having to do any of this while mobs I aggroed previously are already shooting at me would be a mess IMO, although I define mess as any non-zero level of messiness.  I'm sure it will be fine if you want to go a different way.

[ScrewlooseCohh]

 

The best non powered stealth is to be a Tank.

 

Just run past stuff and ignore it.

 

If you are in a team it is good form to let your teammates know this is your plan otherwise they might get attacked by Critters that are annoyed they can't stop you.

 

regards, Screwloose.

"I am not young enough to know everything."

[DarknessEternal]

1 hour ago, cohRock said:

Why am I asking this here instead of the MM archetype forum? 

This is the only question in your post.

[CaptainLupis]

You can still slot the stealth IO, just put it in one of your sprint powers instead of SS.

[cohRock]

Another of my guys just picked up Evasive Maneuvers, an AR/FF corruptor.  He's level 30 and can have 106.85% travel defense and 30% travel resist.  Admittedly, most of it comes from Personal Force Field (77.07% of defense and all 30% of resist), but it's still pretty crazy numbers.  Stealth for him would be kinda silly.  Yes, he still has a 5% chance of getting hit, but I think hovering thru crowds of foes is a non-issue for him.

[ZemX]

On 6/14/2021 at 11:22 PM, ScrewlooseCohh said:

If you are in a team it is good form to let your teammates know this is your plan otherwise they might get attacked by Critters that are annoyed they can't stop you.

 

This is always good advice for anyone stealthing to begin with, because not everyone is a fan of that. 

 

But it's particularly a good idea if you've been tanking for the team.  I see this all the time when two or three people who CAN stealth go charging off leaving the rest who can't at the door.  They don't much care to wait around waiting for the mission to complete when there are fields of XP in front of them so.... they start face-planting because they didn't realize how much they were relying on those people who charged off to help handle the x8 spawns.  Not all the time... but often enough to notice.

 

It's a little ironic because I'm usually on a Stalker and more and more lately I am just sticking with the team to help tank while a tanker charges off to stealth. 🤪 

 

I love this game!

[DoctorDitko]

It's useful to note that, for an MM, Invisibility cancels the pet bonus from being near you.

But you can stack Stealths without losing the bonus, so this looks like a good plan.

[siolfir]

1 hour ago, ZemX said:

It's a little ironic because I'm usually on a Stalker and more and more lately I am just sticking with the team to help tank while a tanker charges off to stealth.

My personal favorite is playing a Stalker at low levels (when you actually use the slow AS) and having new players follow me if I leave a bit early to pick targets for the next spawn and get in position rather than staying with the tank.

[Pixie_Knight]

Eh, I personally tend to not stealth missions. Yes I realize it's "faster xp/minute" to stealth to the end and only fight the boss spawn. However I'm not in a race, there's no driving need to reach level 50 RIGHT NOW. And it's more fun to fight my way through missions. Not to mention you get more xp per mission, influence, salvage drops, and recipe drops that way.

[Carnifax]

2 hours ago, Pixie_Knight said:

Eh, I personally tend to not stealth missions. Yes I realize it's "faster xp/minute" to stealth to the end and only fight the boss spawn. However I'm not in a race, there's no driving need to reach level 50 RIGHT NOW. And it's more fun to fight my way through missions. Not to mention you get more xp per mission, influence, salvage drops, and recipe drops that way.

Depends on the situation. Mission teams rarely needed. TFs it can be useful on the longer ones. For example Manti after the first few X kill-alls it's a bit of a relief to be able to Stealth a few. 

 

Or just run through them if on my Fire Tank and ATT at the end. 

[Pixie_Knight]

I remember playing a stalker on Live back in issue 6. I kept running into a player every time I joined a Strike Force, and when I talked with them I found out they were using strike forces as their only leveling method. The strike forces would stealth every mission they possibly could. Then when he got to 40 (Grandville hadn't been added yet, and villains were still capped at 40) he went to finally buy enhancements for all his slots. Only to discover he didn't have anywhere near enough infamy to do so, because  every mission was being stealthed if at all possible. He also didn't really know how to play his character due to the majority of his strike force teams having one stalker stealth the mission and assassinate the boss mobs while everyone else stayed back at the door. Thus he only rarely got to fight.

 

Another time, I remember a stalker who got pissed and booted everyone from a strike force because he ran off to stealth the first mission... and didn't bother mentioning that he was going to do that. So the rest of us did what teams normally do in a mission... we engaged the enemies. Personally, I didn't mind getting booted from the team. Stalker lead strike forces where most missions consist of "stalker runs through the mission alone, stalker kills boss mob and his buddies (also alone).... were boring as hell and made me wonder why I bothered to join the strike force.

[Gulbasaur]

9 minutes ago, Pixie_Knight said:

Another time, I remember a stalker who got pissed and booted everyone from a strike force because he ran off to stealth the first mission... and didn't bother mentioning that he was going to do that.

I can't remember who said it, but someone once talked about how someone stealthed to the end of the last mission in the Imperious task force and tried to TTP everyone to the end even though it was made clear from the start that they weren't doing that. She TTP'd everyone back and that is a thing of beauty in and of itself.

[Pixie_Knight]

Didn't you have to accept a teleport by the time Cimerea was added? I could swear that was added in issue 4.

[cohRock]

38 minutes ago, Pixie_Knight said:

Didn't you have to accept a teleport by the time Cimerea was added? I could swear that was added in issue 4.

I don't know when it was added, but acceptance of a teleport is an option.  IIRC, the default is auto-accept, but a player can change that so that s/he must specifically approve of accepting a teleport.

[ZemX]

13 hours ago, siolfir said:

My personal favorite is playing a Stalker at low levels (when you actually use the slow AS) and having new players follow me if I leave a bit early to pick targets for the next spawn and get in position rather than staying with the tank.

 

I still do that sometimes at 50 on teams.  It depends on the team.  If there's abundant AoE and I'm seeing bosses left standing, I switch to boss-killing mode instead of opening with an AoE from Hide.  So I may leave a little early to set up a hidden AS.  It's still worth doing if you can get just slightly ahead of the team.

 

But yeah it sometimes mean I get followed and that person ends up taking the alpha while I set up an Assassin Strike.  They usually only do it once though. 😀

[Doomguide2005]

5 hours ago, cohRock said:

I don't know when it was added, but acceptance of a teleport is an option.  IIRC, the default is auto-accept, but a player can change that so that s/he must specifically approve of accepting a teleport.

It was this way long time before Cimerora existed.

 

Generally I never block it I want to know who will do it unannounced and what sort of situation they're willing to put me in unannounced so I'll know the next time around.