Shadow cloak often does not trigger

pecheckler · March 2015

When I use shadow cloak or either morph I have about a 50% rate of the animation playing but not becoming invisible or stealthed and NPC enemies continue to attack. No damage over time or area of effect abilities hitting me.

I have researched this problem and find complaints dating back to before the game launched last year. There are youtube videos clearing showing the problem occurring during simple solo questing fighting one NPC at a time. Yet I cannot find any statement from any Zenimax acknowledging the problem. This issue is ruining my desired nightblade playstyle.

I would like to know when this will be fixed.

pecheckler · March 2015

I see a Z next to every thread except mine. Not feeling appreciated.

Darthryan · March 2015

ya ive been complaining about this from the start. its a unreliable skill that they cant seem to make work. my suggestion is to reroll dk.

AMadAussie · March 2015

Totally agree. I just recently picked up the game after it went b2p, and so far I really like it. However one of the first issues I noticed was that which you are stating, and it tarnishes the otherwise cool NB class.

Shadow Cloak flat out doesn't work in some situations, despite the tooltip granting "invisibility". If you attempt to use it when escaping from guards, it doesn't work; the guards see right through it and continue attacking you. Doesn't make one shred of difference if you cast it multiple times, the end result is the same. You aren't invisible.

If you attempt to lockpick or steal from a container, despite the stealth indicator clearly showing HIDDEN, this is not the case, any nearby npc will detect you.

Similar to the OP, the current state of this skill is ruining my desired playstyle. Unfortunately I have done exactly what @Darthryan has suggested; rerolled a DK. This skill can't be working as intended, and it needs to be addressed.

pecheckler · March 2015

ZOS doesn't care. I've found hundreds of threads on this topic on this forum, reddit, and elsewhere, dating back to the beta tests. Dozens of youtube videos clearly displaying many examples of the problem. Still, after a year, no acknowledgement of the problem.

I already quit my nightblade after hitting level 21. Playing a stealth playstyle is simply impossible with this core ability broke. Extremely frustrating considering there are many abilities and morphs that gain bonuses from or synergy with when attacking unaware targets.

Sharee · March 2015

What happens when you hit cloak while fighting an NPC is not that he loses sight of you, and stand there dumbfounded wondering where you went. It may look that way, but what really happens is that the NPC will stop moving because it will get stunned.

The difference is, if the NPC happens to be immune to stun, then your cloak will not work. Certain NPC's are inherently immune to stuns, like a troll or a storm atronach. So no hiding from them, ever. Further, all NPC's get the same CC imunity as players do after they recover from hard CC. So you hit a NPC from stealth stunning it, few seconds after it recovers from the stun and is granted CC immunity, then you stealth - and it does not work, because the NPC is stun-immune.

So keep that in mind. If the enemy has swirling white circle around it's feet, it is immune to hard CC, and cloak(and stun, and fear, and knockback and...) will not work. Wait until the circle goes away after a few second.

nothing2591 · March 2015

it breaks if you are slowed or hit by aoe

pecheckler · March 2015

Sharee wrote: »

What happens when you hit cloak while fighting an NPC is not that he loses sight of you, and stand there dumbfounded wondering where you went. It may look that way, but what really happens is that the NPC will stop moving because it will get stunned.

The difference is, if the NPC happens to be immune to stun, then your cloak will not work. Certain NPC's are inherently immune to stuns, like a troll or a storm atronach. So no hiding from them, ever. Further, all NPC's get the same CC imunity as players do after they recover from hard CC. So you hit a NPC from stealth stunning it, few seconds after it recovers from the stun and is granted CC immunity, then you stealth - and it does not work, because the NPC is stun-immune.

So keep that in mind. If the enemy has swirling white circle around it's feet, it is immune to hard CC, and cloak(and stun, and fear, and knockback and...) will not work. Wait until the circle goes away after a few second.

Then why did I just have this ability fail on its first use fighting an ordinary mudcrab? Then I went to another mudcrab and it worked, 3 times in a row (plus I used 2 different stun abilities in between)? 5 stuns in no immunity?

AMadAussie · March 2015

@Sharee I appreciate that given your experience, you would have a more thorough understanding of game mechanics than I do, and while your explanation makes sense, it doesn't account for all the times I've had the skill fail.

Notably, while escaping from guards I don't even engage them in combat, yet Shadow Cloak still doesn't work. There are no particle effects surrounding them, nothing resembling the stun swirl, and there hasn't been one occasion where I've been able to successfully use Shadow Cloak to escape. I've even broken line of sight and used it. That didn't work either.

So there I am, spamming what is essentially my "escape" skill, and it doesn't work. In comparison, I've yet to be caught on my DK [who actually engages in combat with the guards], using Stonefist then bailing as fast as I can. And before someone says "learntoplay", this isn't a case of that, it's simply impossible to rely on the skill, which effectively breaks the most attractive feature of the whole NB class.

Sharee · March 2015

AMadAussie wrote: »

@Sharee I appreciate that given your experience, you would have a more thorough understanding of game mechanics than I do, and while your explanation makes sense, it doesn't account for all the times I've had the skill fail.

Notably, while escaping from guards I don't even engage them in combat, yet Shadow Cloak still doesn't work. There are no particle effects surrounding them, nothing resembling the stun swirl, and there hasn't been one occasion where I've been able to successfully use Shadow Cloak to escape. I've even broken line of sight and used it. That didn't work either.

So there I am, spamming what is essentially my "escape" skill, and it doesn't work. In comparison, I've yet to be caught on my DK [who actually engages in combat with the guards], using Stonefist then bailing as fast as I can. And before someone says "learntoplay", this isn't a case of that, it's simply impossible to rely on the skill, which effectively breaks the most attractive feature of the whole NB class.

I believe guards are a special case. I vaguely remember a patch note from not too long ago mentioning "guards not being so easily fooled by cloaking"

ZaCormyr · May 2015

This seems to be the most accurate thread about the issue I have so...

My first character is a Night Blade. Level 27 or so now. Anyway I like to use NB cloaking as a means of travel. Yes I use it in fights of course. But I'm a magicka build and I can go some distance just using a cloak and with another skill which provides speed while cloaked, I can go nearly as fast as some horses.

Anyways, as you guys know, the animation doesn't work half the time. It seems the quicker I use it the more chance of it not working. If I wait until it's affect is nearly finished then the animation plays more often.

So my issue is that I don't want to be forced to use a mount. Why can't I decide to just use a skill? It is more dangerous then travelling on a mount since using a skill uses magicka or stamina. But we should have that option IMO.

Regardless... the animation should work every time the skill is used. If it is intended to not work right away after using it, then it shouldn't do anything. But currently it seems to be broken and not working as intended.... Fix please. Either stop spam use by making it so nothing happens when spamming that skill or allow us to spam it. I could accept that it will not work at all until the affect wears off, thus we won't be completely cloaked all the time. Anyway...

pecheckler · May 2015

This is a difficult topic to discuss on the forums because shadow cloak and its morphs are such critical PvP abilities. Each discussion ends up turning into a PvP discussion. I think a lot of players feel the cloak is already too effective in PvP. Problem for many of us is that shadow cloak is near-useless in PvE because it is so buggy. I'm interested in it being fixed for PvE.