sadly eso only allows 3 second invisibility casting
but if you stack into magicka and magicka regeneration you can make it cast constant.
it is annoying and very uncomfortable and you are autoset to standing position constantly so you have to keep very restricted attention to staying in sneak position and monitor by force to keep yourself hidden
but it can work if you pay close enough attention and get used to doing it.
i felt the same coming from other mmo's like you that had perminant invisibility, coming here made it uncomfortable.
but it can be done.
So basicaly they went GW2 route and they want you to Tactically use your invisibility.
not really.
you can stay hidden permanently if you learn how to work it.
it takes some skill and attention, it takes some getting used to but it can be done.
there is a Huge list of things people can do to remove you from hidden and cloaked and it is death for you if they do it well.
it takes alot of work and practice but it can be done.
So basicaly they went GW2 route and they want you to Tactically use your invisibility.
i dont think they wanted us to use it tacticly, because it was much better when eso launched years ago, i think it is this way now because it was complained about to Nassau by people constantly that they made it hard to use.
by default we should go into stealth, STAY in stealth and able to remain cloaked.
that is how its done in all the other mmo's i have played for the past 15+ Years.
but here in eso they made it horrible that has to be maintained every few seconds is just horrible.
i dont see that as being tacticle, i see that as basicly annoying us people that have to recast it every 2 seconds to stay hidden.
the same goes with shields on sorcerers, they have to recast them on a constant basis to stay protected, just like us with cloak.
bufs like heals and extra damage and shields and cloak should be cast once and last for 3 hours at a time.
not 3 seconds, and should be able to be recast anytime we need it.
just beyond annoying.
On my magblade I can use it almost 100% of the time if I want to. I'll eventually need to stop somewhere and stay in stealth while my magicka goes back to 100%, but that's maybe... 5% of the time.
Makes for an easy time in public dungeons and soloing regular dungeons and basically anytime I want to escape.
I am stamina nightblade and by combining Cloak and Sneak, I can be permanently invisible. I got 18k Magicka+1k Mag Regen on my Stamblade, which allows 14 back to back Cloak for 42 second of invisibility. I pop a potion in that time to continue on further, which is way way way more than enough time to enter True Sneak.
If you 're going the Alchemist way, you can make invisibility potions too,
Essence of Invisibility will give you 12,5 seconds of invisibility for example.
They can stay invisible as long as their pool of magicka holds out. You have to keep re-casting the spell every 3 seconds, though. Literally cast it, then count to three, then re-cast, then repeat to stay invisible.
Magicka nightblades can stay invisible almost indefinitely, but stamina nightblades can only cast it maybe three times in a row before their pool of magic is depleted. (At least on my characters.)
When the magicka is gone, it will refill automatically at a moderate rate depending on your character's magicka regen stats.