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Is shadow cloak broken?

IWannaBeATiger
IWannaBeATiger
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Many times against regular enemies or bosses I'll use shadowy disguise and they'll keep hitting me through it. No DoTs or aoes to knock me out of it just cloaked and then bam I get hit. So is it intentional that this happens or is it a bug?

I tried searching but all I found were threads from 2014.
  • Lynx7386
    Lynx7386
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    There's a few quirks with shadow cloak and its morphs that you should understand if you want to use it effectively.

    1. First up, it isnt just DoT effects on -you- (applied by enemies) that will cause you to lose the cloak. DoT effects that you put on enemies will also break the cloak when they tick, because the game thinks you're making an active attack against the enemy (damaging them), and the cloak is broken on any attack.

    2. It only lasts 2 to 2.5 seconds, 2.9 with passives in the shadow tree. That's hardly enough time for a fully charged heavy attack, so it may seem like you're getting knocked out when really the duration is just up already. This is especially noticable when there's any kind of lag going on. There's also a psuedo-global-cooldown on all abilities in the game (a very brief period of time after using an ability that prevents you from using other abilities, also effected greatly by latency), so you dont even really get the full 2-2.9 seconds out of the cloak before it drops.

    3. A lot of enemies seem to be able to see through the cloak anyways. This has changed from PC launch, where nightblades could literally solo dungeon bosses with nothing but dark cloak and resto staff attacks because they were constantly invisible and couldnt be detected. Now it seems like any moderately strong enemy can see through the cloak and ignores it completely, and it also costs a lot more magicka now than it used to.

    4. There's only three real uses for cloak at the moment: the first is with the shadowy disguise morph, which boosts the critical chance of your next ability by 100% when shadow cloak is active. Using this in combination with either a high damage attack, or any ability and the passive assassination ability that boosts your group's critical rating whenever you get a critical strike, makes for a good damage or support combo. This works well with surprise attack, too, since it can stun the target.
    The second is with dark cloak, which removes damage over time effects from yourself. This, IMO, is less useful since damage over time effects are often not powerful enough to even worry about in this game. It can be useful when going up against werewolves, dragonknights, or bow users, however.
    The third and final use is with the shadow barrier passive, which gives you a fairly good boost to armor and spell resistance whenever using a shadow ability, turning the cloak into more of a defensive buff.


    A lot of nightblades end up giving up on shadow cloak just because it's arguably the buggiest, most situational ability in the game. It doesnt serve a lot of use in pvp, and in pve it's very unreliable.
    PS4 / NA
    M'asad - Khajiit Nightblade - Healer
    Pakhet - Khajiit Dragonknight - Tank
    Raksha - Khajiit Sorcerer - Stamina DPS
    Bastet - Khajiit Templar - Healer
    Leonin - Khajiit Warden - Tank
  • IWannaBeATiger
    IWannaBeATiger
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    Damn. Didn't realize my DoTs made cloak useless.

    Didn't mind the short time on it most abilities I'd use with it were instant anyways.

    I didn't realize that some monsters could see through it too I thought at first it might have been my DoTs knocking me out but when it didn't work without any DoTs I figured it must be broken or something.

    I was trying to use it like your first suggestion to get a guaranteed crit but since I can't use any DoTs I guess I'll only use it when I'm trying to avoid a fight.

    Thanks for explaining it to me though.
    Edited by IWannaBeATiger on June 26, 2015 3:32AM
  • Lynx7386
    Lynx7386
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    NP, actually I forgot to mention that when you're trying to sneak through a dungeon or any cramped area with a lot of enemies, you can 'spam' shadow cloak to remain undetected even while you walk right in front of enemies.

    They supposedly fixed the player's own DoTs breaking the cloak, but in my experience nothing has really changed. Any time I'm using my bow on my nightblade, and I hit someone with venom arrow and try to use shadowy disguise, it breaks immediately.
    PS4 / NA
    M'asad - Khajiit Nightblade - Healer
    Pakhet - Khajiit Dragonknight - Tank
    Raksha - Khajiit Sorcerer - Stamina DPS
    Bastet - Khajiit Templar - Healer
    Leonin - Khajiit Warden - Tank
  • Wreuntzylla
    Wreuntzylla
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    Lynx7386 wrote: »
    There's a few quirks with shadow cloak and its morphs that you should understand if you want to use it effectively.

    1. First up, it isnt just DoT effects on -you- (applied by enemies) that will cause you to lose the cloak. DoT effects that you put on enemies will also break the cloak when they tick, because the game thinks you're making an active attack against the enemy (damaging them), and the cloak is broken on any attack.

    2. It only lasts 2 to 2.5 seconds, 2.9 with passives in the shadow tree. That's hardly enough time for a fully charged heavy attack, so it may seem like you're getting knocked out when really the duration is just up already. This is especially noticable when there's any kind of lag going on. There's also a psuedo-global-cooldown on all abilities in the game (a very brief period of time after using an ability that prevents you from using other abilities, also effected greatly by latency), so you dont even really get the full 2-2.9 seconds out of the cloak before it drops.

    3. A lot of enemies seem to be able to see through the cloak anyways. This has changed from PC launch, where nightblades could literally solo dungeon bosses with nothing but dark cloak and resto staff attacks because they were constantly invisible and couldnt be detected. Now it seems like any moderately strong enemy can see through the cloak and ignores it completely, and it also costs a lot more magicka now than it used to.

    4. There's only three real uses for cloak at the moment: the first is with the shadowy disguise morph, which boosts the critical chance of your next ability by 100% when shadow cloak is active. Using this in combination with either a high damage attack, or any ability and the passive assassination ability that boosts your group's critical rating whenever you get a critical strike, makes for a good damage or support combo. This works well with surprise attack, too, since it can stun the target.
    The second is with dark cloak, which removes damage over time effects from yourself. This, IMO, is less useful since damage over time effects are often not powerful enough to even worry about in this game. It can be useful when going up against werewolves, dragonknights, or bow users, however.
    The third and final use is with the shadow barrier passive, which gives you a fairly good boost to armor and spell resistance whenever using a shadow ability, turning the cloak into more of a defensive buff.


    A lot of nightblades end up giving up on shadow cloak just because it's arguably the buggiest, most situational ability in the game. It doesnt serve a lot of use in pvp, and in pve it's very unreliable.

    True of PvE. In PvP, must have dark cloak due to siege.
  • Rune_Relic
    Rune_Relic
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    Lynx7386 wrote: »
    NP, actually I forgot to mention that when you're trying to sneak through a dungeon or any cramped area with a lot of enemies, you can 'spam' shadow cloak to remain undetected even while you walk right in front of enemies.

    They supposedly fixed the player's own DoTs breaking the cloak, but in my experience nothing has really changed. Any time I'm using my bow on my nightblade, and I hit someone with venom arrow and try to use shadowy disguise, it breaks immediately.

    another example....try the cloak with dual wield vs craglorn 20+ wasps. with syphon skills.
    50% of the time you will cloak and they still attack...50% of the time you will cloak and they lose lockon and stop attacking.
    I think the sequencing can get really messed up ....unless.....you.....hit.....real.........................................slow ;)

    It works well ...when it works. So in the immortal words of Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry.. "Do you feel lucky...punk ?"
    Anything that can be exploited will be exploited
  • heystreethawk
    heystreethawk
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    Lynx7386 wrote: »
    It doesnt serve a lot of use in pvp

    How sure are you about this idea that you have?
    GM of Fantasia
    I heard those symphonies come quick
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