stealthy racial and spells

bennywiggs_ESO · February 2015

I am not a new player, but I figure this is the best category in which to post this question

The racial passive "Stealthy" is confusing. The tool tip says that it increases damage from stealth. I stealthed and shot an enemy with my bow multiple times. The first hit was the same dps as subsequent hits. The same happened with staff attacks and spells.

This leads me to believe that it is the bonus damage from a stealth attack that is increased, not any damage from stealth as the tool tip implies. Is that correct?

"Increases damage done while in stealth" (Stealthy) sounds a lot like "while sneaking or hidden, spells do more damage" (Stygian set). You would think they work the same way, but they do not appear to.

Nestor · February 2015

One thing to remember, if your in front of the mob, they will see you coming or attacking even if your in stealth. Well, you can get a sneak critical bow shot off from a distance and get the extra damage but not as often as you do from another position.

If you want to get consistent stealth bonuses, be behind or out of the cone of vision of the mob. It's not that easy to go back into stealth after alerting mobs so make sure you use your most powerful attack skill from stealth to get the most bang for the crouch. Then follow up with your regular attacks.

For the record, I have never seemed to get a Stealth Staff attack, nor a Stealth Magic Attack, and this is on my sneaky nightblade. Maybe I do, but it just does not seem the same as my Melee hits from stealth like Veiled Strike give me.

bennywiggs_ESO · February 2015

Thanks for your reply. I probably was not clear in my original post, but the question is not about the mechanics of a stealth attack and how to receive the innate damage bonus; it is about the mechanics of the Stealthy passive.

Here is an example. I crouch and let the eye icon close all of the way. I cast a ranged spell. It does 100 damage. I cast it again (after being revealed), and it does 100 damage. Next, I equip the Stygian armor set. I cast a spell from stealth (positioning does not matter), and my opening spell does 120 damage, and each subsequent spell does 100 damage. This effect from the Stygian set has nothing to do with the bonus in damage you get from a sneak attack (flank or behind attack from stealth); the additional damage is applied to any (spell) attack from stealth.

I assume, based on its description, the racial Stealthy is supposed to work the same way, but I am not registering a bonus on any attack from any weapon or ability.

So, my question is, "is Stealthy broken, or is its tool tip misleading?" Can anyone explain the racial passive's mechanic to me. I surmise that it means the bonus damage for a normal, positional sneak attack is increased if it is not broken, but that is not what the tool tip suggests, and it is a bit hard to test. I am going to try to test it again tonight.

Nestor · February 2015

bennywiggs_ESO wrote: »

I am going to try to test it again tonight.

This is one of those times that something like FTC helps, turn on the part that gives you a recap of your battle, you can turn the rest off.

In any event, do you know what the increase is supposed to be? Some of the Racial Passives are not that much of a boost, especially at L1 of the Passive. I think my Altmer gets like a 1% bonus on the first tier of one of them. If it is only 1%, you may not see much of a difference.

The other thing to do is to use the Mundus stone that increases your Crit Damage and see if that has any effect, because the racial passive sounds like the same effect.