How sneaky can you get? What is maximally sneaky?

goatlyonesub17_ESO · September 2016

My first character was a sorcerer. When she hit the high veteran ranks (back when there were veteran ranks) I made her wear one set of armor while carrying around another. One set was "fighting clothes." The other set was "sneaky clothes." Now sorcs aren't all that great at fighting, no matter what they are wearing. So I figured I would make her my sneak thief-and-murderer character. But it didn't work out. More on why later.

Optimal sneaky clothes include five pieces of Night Mother's Embrace - try to get the three jewlery items in purple and in the Stamina/Magicka version that is correct for your character. If your character is good with dual wield, the other two NME items can be the two weapons, and, again, those weapons should have the most appropriate traits and enchantments for that character.

But that isn't all. The compleat sneak also needs three items of the Nightshade set. For me, this is usually head, chest, shoulders.

The remaining four armor items (hand, waist, legs, feet) in the sneaky set can be something useful for a sneak who needs to be somewhere else in a big hurry. A set appropriate for this is Cyrodiil's Ward. Or it can be something to regenerate stamina, magicka, and health, such as Willow's path or Oblivion's Foe.

But as I was saying, even with all the correct gear, my sorc just wasn't sneaky enough. Her detection radius was still 2 meters, and sometimes the game requires you to cross a dungeon where there is no route that keeps you further than that from the nearest one. And if one of them sees you, they all attack. You really need a detection radius no bigger than 1 meter.

The problem with my sorc is her race. She's a Breton, and Bretons just don't inherit from their ancestors by way of their genes a high enough Sneakiness Quotient (SQ). That's why there's a Sneakiness Gap between Bretons and races who are just naturally sneakier, such as Khajiit and Bosmer.

That's why I created a Khajiit nightblade character and raised her up to veteran rank 16 and gave her a full set of sneaky clothes and all of the more difficult jobs that require sneaking. She now has much more quest points than my original VR character does, and she does those Thieves' Guild heist and Dark Brotherhood assassination jobs that my sorc can't do.

I'm raising a Bosmer character now. When he's uppity enough in skills, I'll run him through the TG and DB gauntlets, to see how he stacks up versus the Khajiit. He looks quite promising. He also looks like a Dwemer, with his hair style and beard, and his heavy fighting armor is in the Dwemer style. But anyway for a sneaky character, Khajiit and Bosmer are the two races that outperform all of the others on standardized quests.

susmitds · September 2016

Bosmer and Khajiit are pretty close in terms of stealth but Khajiit are still better due to higher pickpocketing chances from racials.

Destyran · September 2016

Just put 3 points into legerdemain. And wear all medium armour on body with passives on sorc. And just wear that other 3 set as jewelery take theives guild passive and you are very sneaky. Can beca vampire and its like you can sprint in the shadows

goatlyonesub17_ESO · September 2016

Yes, every piece of sneaky clothes is medium armor, and every sneaky character has medium armor skills topped out. I forgot to mention that in the OP. Even the optional Cyrodiil's Ward or Willow's Path stuff is medium armor.

And the legerdemain improved hiding is topped out, of course.

Savos_Saren · September 2016

Uber stam sneaks: Bosmer/Khajiit wearing full leather (see: Improved Sneak medium armor passive), Night Shade and Night Silence sets with vampirism at stage 4 (see: Dark Stalker passive). Also consider the Nightblade ability, concealed weapon for increased movement speed while sneaking.

Rex-Umbra · September 2016

Light armour sucks for sneaking in ESO for some reason medium is sneakier.

Kammakazi · September 2016

There was an image that I saw and it showed their character about 1-2 meters away in front of an NPC, and the NPC did not catch aggro.

Mic1007 · September 2016

Medium Armor Nightblade Vampire Khajiit, with Legerdemain up to 20, and Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood maxed out. Can't get more sneaky than that.

AzraelKrieg · September 2016

jaburns wrote: »

Uber stam sneaks: Bosmer/Khajiit wearing full leather (see: Improved Sneak medium armor passive), Night Shade and Night Silence sets with vampirism at stage 4 (see: Dark Stalker passive). Also consider the Nightblade ability, concealed weapon for increased movement speed while sneaking.

Also include the champ point skill that reduces cost of sneaking, Legerdemain passive that reduces sneak cost, the Dark Brotherhood passive that reduces the detection radius further and I think there is a passive in the Thieves Guild line that does something similar

Kram8ion · September 2016

does night silence and vamp dark stalker stack?

code65536 · September 2016

jaburns wrote: »

Uber stam sneaks: Bosmer/Khajiit wearing full leather (see: Improved Sneak medium armor passive), Night Shade and Night Silence sets with vampirism at stage 4 (see: Dark Stalker passive). Also consider the Nightblade ability, concealed weapon for increased movement speed while sneaking.

Vamp 4 doesn't stack with Night's Silence. NS is what you use if you don't want to be a vamp, and vamp is what you use if you don't want to wear NS.

The same applies to Shadow Dancer. The problem with SD is that it's light armor. Use SD if you're magicka and want to still have combat effectiveness (at the expense of sneak radius). My magicka toons wear medium armor for things like Heists and Sacraments since combat effectiveness is unimportant (if I get in combat, then it means I screwed up) and detection is more important.

Kram8ion · September 2016

i figured as much thanks

Kram8ion · September 2016

well gonna stay a vamp hundings is just too good to drop atm and couldnt bear without sneak speed

Altaire · September 2016

jaburns wrote: »

Uber stam sneaks: Bosmer/Khajiit wearing full leather (see: Improved Sneak medium armor passive), Night Shade and Night Silence sets with vampirism at stage 4 (see: Dark Stalker passive). Also consider the Nightblade ability, concealed weapon for increased movement speed while sneaking.

Yep, can attest to that, sneak faster than a horse can run when ya get stage 4 and armor sneak boost too.

Oakmontowls_ESO · September 2016

For my super speedy/sneaky NB I'm planning on getting a set of the new jail breakers set which passively grants minor expedition and then maybe swap my shadow dancer with another set. I'll move super fast with spamming dark cloak with rapids up while having concealed weapon slotted and being stage 4 vampire.

dodgehopper_ESO · September 2016

1. Khajiit or Bosmer
2. Nightshade & Night mother (I know there are more sets which effect these, but I don't feel like dredging up the file I have on the subject matter. Nightshade + Vampire is already overkill)
3. Vampire
4. Nightblade
5. 7pc's Medium Armor
6. DB, Legerdemain, TG Skills

Scamandros · September 2016

@asneakybanana pls enlighten us

Peekachu99 · September 2016

Legerdemain, vampire, TG and a few DB passives make any character into a kick-arse rogue. I make about 15-20K per toon per day just running around and slaughtering/ stealing from Tamriel's populace. Can fill my bags in Wrothgar in 20m. Great return and pretty active and fun for farming.

asneakybanana · September 2016

Scamandros wrote: »

@asneakybanana pls enlighten us

The art of being sneaky is not simply decided by class or race or sets, but a way of life. Its a skill not learned or train but a skill you are born with deep down inside that you must discover through the evocation of your true nature. Once you have done that and only then may you be truly sneaky.

asneakybanana · September 2016

@Scamandros

altemriel · September 2016

goatlyonesub17_ESO wrote: »

My first character was a sorcerer. When she hit the high veteran ranks (back when there were veteran ranks) I made her wear one set of armor while carrying around another. One set was "fighting clothes." The other set was "sneaky clothes." Now sorcs aren't all that great at fighting, no matter what they are wearing. So I figured I would make her my sneak thief-and-murderer character. But it didn't work out. More on why later.

Optimal sneaky clothes include five pieces of Night Mother's Embrace - try to get the three jewlery items in purple and in the Stamina/Magicka version that is correct for your character. If your character is good with dual wield, the other two NME items can be the two weapons, and, again, those weapons should have the most appropriate traits and enchantments for that character.

But that isn't all. The compleat sneak also needs three items of the Nightshade set. For me, this is usually head, chest, shoulders.

The remaining four armor items (hand, waist, legs, feet) in the sneaky set can be something useful for a sneak who needs to be somewhere else in a big hurry. A set appropriate for this is Cyrodiil's Ward. Or it can be something to regenerate stamina, magicka, and health, such as Willow's path or Oblivion's Foe.

But as I was saying, even with all the correct gear, my sorc just wasn't sneaky enough. Her detection radius was still 2 meters, and sometimes the game requires you to cross a dungeon where there is no route that keeps you further than that from the nearest one. And if one of them sees you, they all attack. You really need a detection radius no bigger than 1 meter.

The problem with my sorc is her race. She's a Breton, and Bretons just don't inherit from their ancestors by way of their genes a high enough Sneakiness Quotient (SQ). That's why there's a Sneakiness Gap between Bretons and races who are just naturally sneakier, such as Khajiit and Bosmer.

That's why I created a Khajiit nightblade character and raised her up to veteran rank 16 and gave her a full set of sneaky clothes and all of the more difficult jobs that require sneaking. She now has much more quest points than my original VR character does, and she does those Thieves' Guild heist and Dark Brotherhood assassination jobs that my sorc can't do.

I'm raising a Bosmer character now. When he's uppity enough in skills, I'll run him through the TG and DB gauntlets, to see how he stacks up versus the Khajiit. He looks quite promising. He also looks like a Dwemer, with his hair style and beard, and his heavy fighting armor is in the Dwemer style. But anyway for a sneaky character, Khajiit and Bosmer are the two races that outperform all of the others on standardized quests.

also night silence set, right, that one that with 5 pieces removes the movement speed penalty while sneaking..

DRXHarbinger · September 2016

Magika Kaijit vampire in medium armour, sneak + concealed weapon = easy hiests and sacrement. Does no damage like that but these dailies are a face roll with this set up. Just cloak and go forever.

Scamandros · September 2016

@asneakybanana I'm going to need to see some numbers to support your claim. I am a skinny khajiit and there is only so deep I can look within myself before I run out of me

asneakybanana · September 2016

Scamandros wrote: »

@asneakybanana I'm going to need to see some numbers to support your claim. I am a skinny khajiit and there is only so deep I can look within myself before I run out of me

@scamandros you see thats your problem you havent looked in your tail yet. Just takes a flick of the tip.