Do I just suck, or are Heists pretty hard to finish within the time limit?

JMadFour

Be honest, it's ok if it is just me and I suck, I'll just try to git gud or whatever. i'll take whatever advice you can give.

Heists, don't seem to encourage actual careful, sneaky play. it seems to encourage more of a sprint while spamming Dark Cloak kind of "stealth", until you see the Lamp Guards.

I'm waiting for the Guard with the lamp to move so I can sneak past him, and time is ticking down, and I'm just like "MOVE, GET OUTTA MY WAY ALREADY." and it takes the guy like 20-25 seconds to get far enough away for me to jump out of the basket and haul ass to the next one. that 20 seconds is precious man. especially since if you get seen for even a split-second you lose like half of your time(it seems).

any hints to help me more reliably complete these without having to constantly abandon and start over?

Hazethemadman

I am having the same problems, but I also don't have that fancy NB cloak.

Something helpful I have discovered so far is that you can still move through the lamp guards detection circle without being detected. You will just be taken out of stealth.

I came about 30 sec short of finishing without using that tip. I hope to pull it off tonight armed with that knowledge.

I have also played alot of stealth games before, and I can tell you from experience that fortune favors the bold. Don't be too cautious and afraid to move around. Just get going and test the gaurds sight, detection, rotation, etc.

Yusuf

Hazethemadman wrote: »

I am having the same problems, but I also don't have that fancy NB cloak.

Something helpful I have discovered so far is that you can still move through the lamp guards detection circle without being detected. You will just be taken out of stealth.

I came about 30 sec short of finishing without using that tip. I hope to pull it off tonight armed with that knowledge.

NBs with speedbuff can get it done in the timelimit way easier than the other classes.
There are certain heists however that are so full of guards with lanterns that being a NB doesn't matter.

kalimar44

It's all about the timming. I had problems at first to,but after a few times I got a lot better at getting the items without being seen. Ill admit it can be hard,but keep at it you will do it eventually.

Xendyn

Yes, not all of us are born thieves
That tip from Haz^ is a good one, if the lamp guard has their back turned, you can just go past them as long as you can restealth before someone sees you.

Sometime it is a matter of where the loot spawns, as well. I've had to drop and retake the quest some days to get the higher completion.

Tryxus

For a certain heist there's one thing I've learned: certain things like Gem Pouches respawn. So you might not have to wait for a guard to move, you can just go back and pick them up again

JMadFour

I'm generally good at Stealth and Stealth games, but I also generally have the ability to take my time and wait and move carefully.

don't have that luxury in a Heist. the clock always says GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO.

TX11

I have yet to try a heist.

kalimar44

I like the thrill of heist. You have to get in and out without being seen.

OrphanHelgen

some are easier, some are impossible almost. Need full medium armor and vampire.. or magicka nightblade

Usara

I did all of them in the time limit as a templar and never used an invisibility pot. I am not a vampire. Just had a medium gear. The friend I did them with is a Dk and has no medium gear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-xCEGTk0oI

JMadFour

Usara wrote: »

I did all of them in time limit as templar and never used an invisibility pot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-xCEGTk0oI

how many trys did it take you to complete each one, solo?

Usara

Glittering Grotto, and Underground Sepulcher, first try. Hideaway, I got stuck in a wall (three times in a row), so "second" try. Secluded Sewers, second try (maybe three tbh).
Deadhollow Halls.... 20 trys

JMadFour

Usara wrote: »

Glittering Grotto, and Underground Sepulcher, first try. Hideaway, I got stuck in a wall (three times in a row), so "second" try. Secluded Sewers, second try (maybe three tbh).
Deadhallow Halls.... 20 trys

the only one I have successfully done so far is Underground Sepulcher.

magnusthorek

I was as mad as you before I realize how to sweeten out things.

- 5 pieces of Night Mother's Embrace, not to be mistaken with the craftable Night Mother's Gaze
- 3 pieces of Nightshade Set
- Medium armor for the remaining slots for the next tip
- Medium Armor passive Improved Sneak, not only will save you stamina but will make you a bit more harder to be detected. Wind Walker helps too
- Thieves Guild passive Veil of Shadows (optional), reduces even further your detection
- Vampirism passive Dark Stalker (optional), it's very handy to enter in stealth more quickly after, for example, disarm a trap too close from a guard. Also, makes you faster while sneaking and thus, reducing stamina use
- Invisibility potions. There's a very small delay between being noticed and engaging combat (which triggers the detection). If you're fast enough, in case you're detected, you can pop a potion and stay hidden long enough to hide again
- Patience! You won't get it in your first try, even with these tips. Go cautiously and if you get caught or manage to complete after time (which indirectly means you were caught and had to fight), abandon the quest and pick it again.
Each time you go in there, analyze where chests spawn since there are multiple places. Although randomly placed, sometimes you get the same pattern. Pay attention to the patrols, the time they take to walk, how much time they stay in a position... Basically, know your enemy

But I think the most valuable of the hints, although it may sound obvious, that really helps when the RNG screws you overlapping the blue circles with the field of view of a patrol or when there's no way to pass because the blue circle is covering the whole path, is to simply walk behind the patrol, even out of stealth. If the lantern guard who applied the effect is not directly looking at you, you can just walk behind him safely.

So far, I managed to beat both the stealthiness and the timer only two places, the Sepulcher and Hideway I think it's the name, which is a sewers-like location.

Hope it helps

Usara

Hmm you ask "how many times solo" but I always did them with friends (to share the quests and have more heist per day) so I've only done the Hideaway and Glittering Grotto solo.
But being with friends doesn't help tbh, it's just that you can do more quest each day.

Contraptions

Use the Night's Silence set when heisting, the speed bonus when sneaking helps a lot.

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO

Why does noone suggest rapid maneuver? I use it all the time really speeds you up. Just dont cast it where you can be detected out of stealth.

starkerealm

magnusthorek wrote: »

- 5 pieces of Night Mother's Embrace, not to be mistaken with the craftable Night Mother's Gaze

Which is especially annoying because both sets use the same name formatting. IE: Night Mother's Helm or Nightmother's Pauldrons.

Usara

magnusthorek wrote: »

I was as mad as you before I realize how to sweeten out things.
snip

I use 5 Darkstride (Reduce stam cost for sprint and crouch by 35%) and 5 Shadow Dancer (ignore movement penalty while sneaking) and have all medium passives.
But my friend was still wearing his 5 light armor and did the timed heist with me. So medium gear helps, but it's not an obligation.
On the other hand, I was using the speed buff all the time.

Usara

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

Why does noone suggest rapid maneuver? I use it all the time really speeds you up. Just dont cast it where you can be detected out of stealth.

Exactly. This is by far the most helpful skill to do the timed heist. Far more useful than invisibility pots or medium gear.

JMadFour

Usara wrote: »

Hmm you ask "how many times solo" but I always did them with friends (to share the quests and have more heist per day) so I've only done the Hideaway and Glittering Grotto solo.
But being with friends doesn't help tbh, it's just that you can do more quest each day.

I didn't know you could do them in a group, I assumed it was a solo activity.

Usara

I wish I could go in a 24-man raid. And see everyone using the hiding spot at the same time

dsalter

starkerealm wrote: »

magnusthorek wrote: »

- 5 pieces of Night Mother's Embrace, not to be mistaken with the craftable Night Mother's Gaze

Which is especially annoying because both sets use the same name formatting. IE: Night Mother's Helm or Nightmother's Pauldrons.

as i complained about in a past thread i made, really throws you off

ZOS_JasonBarnes

Hi everyone!

I wanted to let you all know that we’ve been reading the feedback and doing a lot of internal playtesting ourselves to adjust heists to where we want them to be. We want to try and fix some of the frustrating elements and make sure all the heists are in line with one another as far as difficulty goes.

The optional time bonus is supposed to be hard, but not unfair. It should also be doable if played just right even in full heavy armor and no points into any stealth reduction. You just have to play it very well.

That said, here are some of the things we’re hitting in the next several patches and you should see come online over time to help with this:

- Deadhollow Halls is getting adjusted to fall more in line with other heists. This includes changing some hard to see traps, adjusting where monsters move to, and how long you have to wait for them to move away from certain locations.
- Several bug fixes including the timer removing more time than intended when being seen by a group of monsters at the same time.
- Evaluating the loot you receive for completing the bonus quests.

We’ll continue to take a look at heists as a whole and see what else might need to be tweaked, but I wanted to update everyone and just let folks know that we’re looking into these things.

Tommy1979AtWar

Just failed one in the sewers where the chest had two guards standing over it, one with a lamp, I initially bypassed it and grabbed 3 different chests the first of which the first chest didn't count towards the total for some reason so maybe bugged, anyway I returned the way I came as I knew there was a chest there and hoped the guard with the lamp had moved, he hadn't.
By this time there was only a minute left on the clock and I knew I'd never make it out in time anyway so in the interest of science I sat there waiting over a minute to see if the guard with the lamp moved at all, nope no movement, I crept into the circle as I was behind him so didn't think he'd see me, he was immedietely alerted so must have eyes in the back of his head however the second guard beside him who was facing me didn't move at all until I attacked his buddy.

I'm by no means a master gamer but I'm capable, it seems to me like while these heists are rightfully designed to be challenging it really depends on the chest spawn locations, from the maps I've seen so far 8 minutes isn't anywhere near long enough for some of them even if you were to spam cloak and down invisibility potions.
The map itself can be confusing too as there's no way of telling which level is above or below you, especially so on heists with multiple levels, colour gradients are only useful on maps with two levels, maps with three levels it's useless and again the time factor really limits effective use of it.
The engine doesn't allow great movement when jumping and we don't have climb animations etc so again limited, having to adjust camera angle in order to jump onto a crate without opening a crate behind it is a pain, there's no need to have seaweed n crap in those crates anyway as we're there to raid the chests specifically not look for provisioning mats.

So yeah good to see you guys are looking into them and searching out the bugs etc, hope this post helps.

FLuFFyxMuFFiN

I can do all of them within the time limit now except Deadhollow Halls. Im a DK. Deadhollow is just ridiculous atm.

rfennell_ESO

Heists on a nightblade are so easy it's actually pretty hard not to get the bonus.

You can literally run through everything, kill the ones that are there to slow everything down and use dark cloak and range to get out of combat.

Just saying, you would think they ought be pretty easy on a nightblade.

Number_51

magnusthorek wrote: »

I was as mad as you before I realize how to sweeten out things.

- 5 pieces of Night Mother's Embrace, not to be mistaken with the craftable Night Mother's Gaze
- 3 pieces of Nightshade Set

Contraptions wrote: »

Use the Night's Silence set when heisting, the speed bonus when sneaking helps a lot.

I use various combinations of these three sets. I still haven't been able to complete one though. Been close several times.

Pyr0xyrecuprotite

Some hints:
1. practise - the heists repeat after a while and you will only really get to know the layouts and shortcuts after a few tries
2. make sure you have speedy movement while sneaking - eg. Shadowdancer, vampire sneak, or Night's silence (5pc) armor set; as much medium armor as possible (with passive in that line) etc.
3. Try to have as many buffs for sneaking and reduced detection radius as possible, eg. from medium armor, legerdemain and TG passives
4. some of the heist delves have secret passages - keep an eye out and learn their layout
5. memorize the trap types and locations, and learn to avoid the traps, as they slow you down

That said, they are still hard; I have had only one bonus run so far - it's a LOT easier to just go through killing all the mobs

Tib

Don't give up!
I use light armor and do not have any speedbuffs/cloak on my bars. No armor set bonuses (using solo pve dps gear), no vampire. I am a Khajiit though, so I have some detection range decrease. Anyways, some thoughts -

• Potions with Vanish and Speed effect. It's so awesome I can't even believe it, I'm betting that 90% of my completions are thanks to these. You sneak faster, and if you have the Vanish effect active when close to mobs, just wave a middle finger at them and stroll towards those hidden treasures
• Knowing the area and the spawn points, mainly to know how to plan your route, how to use secret passages, and what parts to avoid due to annoying guards with lanterns who have some chokepoints.
• You need extra time when you're going back to the entrance because the elite mob can sometimes be rather annoying to pass. I usually gather items within 3-5 minutes but have sometimes been forced to wait like a minute to get past the elite.
• And if you haven't yet done it, enable every single healthbar, glow effect, quest item pointer and what exists there, it might be considered lame, but it's very helpful to give you information about the surroundings :P
• I consider Deadhollow Halls difficult, think I've only managed twice within the time bonus.

I wonder if anyone has tried to do these quests with a group? Maybe some areas are more difficult to motivate people try out grouping for the heists - which I think can be kinda fun