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Lowering the Cost of Shadowy Disguise Is Necessary
Frooke
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Ever since Cloak was changed from a fixed-cost ability with a set duration into an ability that drains Magicka every second, it has become nearly useless in PvP outside of very specific situations
One of the most fun aspects of playing a Nightblade used to be being able to constantly enter and exit stealth during combat—disappearing from sight, repositioning, attacking again, and vanishing once more. That gameplay simply doesn't exist anymore
What should be one of the Nightblade's defining class mechanics is now rarely use it at all. The Nightblade has clearly fallen behind when it comes to PvP. You are often forced to choose between using Cloak to disappear or saving your Magicka to heal, and most classes, such as DKs and Sorcerers, have virtually infinite resource sustain, which ends up being quite unfair
I actually like the way Cloak works today because the resource drain fits the fantasy and makes the ability feel more immersive. However, the current cost is simply too punishing in an environment where there are so many ways to counter invisibility and resource sustain is already so limited
Werewolves can reveal a Nightblade at any time, this new version of Camouflaged Hunter provides another reliable way to counter stealth, and with the amount of direct AoE damage currently available—especially from Dragonknights—staying invisible is becoming increasingly difficult even when you manage to activate Cloak successfully
As a result, many players simply choose Vampire Stage 4 and ignore Cloak altogether
The solution doesn't necessarily have to be reverting Cloak to its old functionality. The Magicka cost of Shadow Disguise should simply be reduced—significantly
If invisibility is supposed to be one of the Nightblade's defining characteristics, the class should actually be able to use it consistently without completely draining its resources. A substantial reduction to the cost would allow Cloak to return to being a meaningful part of the Nightblade's PvP toolkit while still leaving the numerous counters to stealth in place
Let the Nightblade disappear, reappear, reposition, and disappear again. That's what made the class so much fun to play—and that gameplay is largely gone
One of the most fun aspects of playing a Nightblade used to be being able to constantly enter and exit stealth during combat—disappearing from sight, repositioning, attacking again, and vanishing once more. That gameplay simply doesn't exist anymore
What should be one of the Nightblade's defining class mechanics is now rarely use it at all. The Nightblade has clearly fallen behind when it comes to PvP. You are often forced to choose between using Cloak to disappear or saving your Magicka to heal, and most classes, such as DKs and Sorcerers, have virtually infinite resource sustain, which ends up being quite unfair
I actually like the way Cloak works today because the resource drain fits the fantasy and makes the ability feel more immersive. However, the current cost is simply too punishing in an environment where there are so many ways to counter invisibility and resource sustain is already so limited
Werewolves can reveal a Nightblade at any time, this new version of Camouflaged Hunter provides another reliable way to counter stealth, and with the amount of direct AoE damage currently available—especially from Dragonknights—staying invisible is becoming increasingly difficult even when you manage to activate Cloak successfully
As a result, many players simply choose Vampire Stage 4 and ignore Cloak altogether
The solution doesn't necessarily have to be reverting Cloak to its old functionality. The Magicka cost of Shadow Disguise should simply be reduced—significantly
If invisibility is supposed to be one of the Nightblade's defining characteristics, the class should actually be able to use it consistently without completely draining its resources. A substantial reduction to the cost would allow Cloak to return to being a meaningful part of the Nightblade's PvP toolkit while still leaving the numerous counters to stealth in place
Let the Nightblade disappear, reappear, reposition, and disappear again. That's what made the class so much fun to play—and that gameplay is largely gone
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acanca✭✭✭Honestly, at this point just give up on the whole concept of permanent invisibility as a game mechanic since its clear the devs will keep nerfing the ability because of it.
Attach a good movement speed buff to it, attach a really good burst heal to it, attach a good damage mitigation buff that goes away the second you leave invisibility, make the invisibility 4 second duration max, give the skill a 10 second cool down similar to how they gave power lash a cool down. Also make it so casting literally any skill makes you leave invisibility.
Thats the healthiest version of this skill i can think of while still keeping it a really strong tool and also thematic.
At the moment invisibility is doing too little and also being too problematic and the main issue is imo the duration and the whole shenanigans you can do while invisible. Make the skill more interactive and it should be ok to make it strong.0 -
Wuuffyy✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Zyaneth_Bal wrote: »Just remove invisibility altogether tbh. It never had a place in this game.
Invisibility never had a place in an Elder Scrolls Game?
No, other multi player games have invisibility and it works just fine. ESO just handles it relatively poorly like mentioned above.Wuuffyy,
'end-game' PvE and PvP player
ESO player since 2014 (Xbox and PC for PTS)
-new players, feel free to DM for guidance!9 -
ItsNotLiving✭✭✭✭✭There’s so many counters to invisibility that if anyone has an issue with cloak it’s their own fault. Especially after this next patch.6 -
Zyaneth_Bal✭✭✭✭✭Zyaneth_Bal wrote: »Just remove invisibility altogether tbh. It never had a place in this game.
Invisibility never had a place in an Elder Scrolls Game?
No, other multi player games have invisibility and it works just fine. ESO just handles it relatively poorly like mentioned above.
Well we are talking about eso, not just any multiplayer game and in eso it only ever caused problems. Regardless of it being an elder scrolls game, not like invisibility was ever the series’ feature or even a little bit significant.
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Wuuffyy✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Zyaneth_Bal wrote: »Zyaneth_Bal wrote: »Just remove invisibility altogether tbh. It never had a place in this game.
Invisibility never had a place in an Elder Scrolls Game?
No, other multi player games have invisibility and it works just fine. ESO just handles it relatively poorly like mentioned above.
Well we are talking about eso, not just any multiplayer game and in eso it only ever caused problems. Regardless of it being an elder scrolls game, not like invisibility was ever the series’ feature or even a little bit significant.
It was pretty significant yeah. It’s part of the Illusion line. Vampire and Vampire lord featured pretty heavily if I remember right.
Even other MMOs, etc. have a handle invisibility in a better way. I’m pretty surprised the developers give comments like ‘remove invisibility I dislike it so much’ any stock- I will not lie to you.
I know you’re a sorc main after all- can we go for streak next? Turning into a ball of lightning has not been featured in another ES game to my knowledge and really doesn’t make a lot of sense. Not to mention Streak alone as a re-positioning tool allows you to build too differently from everyone else. It at the very least should have a CD or at the very most may need to be reworked entirely as it promotes very unhealthy gameplay.Edited by Wuuffyy on August 21, 2026 12:53PMWuuffyy,
'end-game' PvE and PvP player
ESO player since 2014 (Xbox and PC for PTS)
-new players, feel free to DM for guidance!2 -
ItsNotLiving✭✭✭✭✭Zyaneth_Bal wrote: »Zyaneth_Bal wrote: »Just remove invisibility altogether tbh. It never had a place in this game.
Invisibility never had a place in an Elder Scrolls Game?
No, other multi player games have invisibility and it works just fine. ESO just handles it relatively poorly like mentioned above.
Well we are talking about eso, not just any multiplayer game and in eso it only ever caused problems. Regardless of it being an elder scrolls game, not like invisibility was ever the series’ feature or even a little bit significant.
It’s only been in the game for 10 years and has a ton of counters it doesn’t cause any problems outside of people complaining about dying to Nightblade which is a bad class anyway.6 -
XVestigeXx✭✭✭✭Yeah I agree Cloak needs a cost reduction as its bad and then it gets consistently complained about because PvEers in pvp are too lazy and ignorant of the mechanics to reveal them so instead they come here and whine that it should be removed from the game1
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XVestigeXx✭✭✭✭Zyaneth_Bal wrote: »Just remove invisibility altogether tbh. It never had a place in this game.
Next we should remove streak, it doesn't have a place in this game5 -
XVestigeXx✭✭✭✭Honestly, at this point just give up on the whole concept of permanent invisibility as a game mechanic since its clear the devs will keep nerfing the ability because of it.
Attach a good movement speed buff to it, attach a really good burst heal to it, attach a good damage mitigation buff that goes away the second you leave invisibility, make the invisibility 4 second duration max, give the skill a 10 second cool down similar to how they gave power lash a cool down. Also make it so casting literally any skill makes you leave invisibility.
Thats the healthiest version of this skill i can think of while still keeping it a really strong tool and also thematic.
At the moment invisibility is doing too little and also being too problematic and the main issue is imo the duration and the whole shenanigans you can do while invisible. Make the skill more interactive and it should be ok to make it strong.
No, cloak is not problematic. If you have trouble fighting someone using cloak in any patch or update in the last 5 years then its a you problem and not because cloak is somehow game breaking. OP is completely right it needs a cost reduction2 -
Wuuffyy✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭XVestigeXx wrote: »Honestly, at this point just give up on the whole concept of permanent invisibility as a game mechanic since its clear the devs will keep nerfing the ability because of it.
Attach a good movement speed buff to it, attach a really good burst heal to it, attach a good damage mitigation buff that goes away the second you leave invisibility, make the invisibility 4 second duration max, give the skill a 10 second cool down similar to how they gave power lash a cool down. Also make it so casting literally any skill makes you leave invisibility.
Thats the healthiest version of this skill i can think of while still keeping it a really strong tool and also thematic.
At the moment invisibility is doing too little and also being too problematic and the main issue is imo the duration and the whole shenanigans you can do while invisible. Make the skill more interactive and it should be ok to make it strong.
No, cloak is not problematic. If you have trouble fighting someone using cloak in any patch or update in the last 5 years then its a you problem and not because cloak is somehow game breaking. OP is completely right it needs a cost reduction
Cloak absolutely can be very problematic when you’re not actively using something to pull someone out of stealth.
It’s very hit or miss. You either have the free-est offensive and getaway tool in the world or you’re simply burning mag on a regular basis as someone is light attacking you out of stealth. I agree it could be made significantly better in both departments; I just know the current model still doesn’t really work for anyone (the NB or fighting the NB) in practice.
As far as PvP goes, I know that balancing around ‘what cloak can do’ has been very detrimental for NB itself and if there are suggestions or proposals that allow cloak to stay in some capacity while moving away from that ‘identity’ (and problem behavior), I believe that would be absolutely appropriate.Edited by Wuuffyy on August 21, 2026 12:57PMWuuffyy,
'end-game' PvE and PvP player
ESO player since 2014 (Xbox and PC for PTS)
-new players, feel free to DM for guidance!2 -
ItsNotLiving✭✭✭✭✭XVestigeXx wrote: »Honestly, at this point just give up on the whole concept of permanent invisibility as a game mechanic since its clear the devs will keep nerfing the ability because of it.
Attach a good movement speed buff to it, attach a really good burst heal to it, attach a good damage mitigation buff that goes away the second you leave invisibility, make the invisibility 4 second duration max, give the skill a 10 second cool down similar to how they gave power lash a cool down. Also make it so casting literally any skill makes you leave invisibility.
Thats the healthiest version of this skill i can think of while still keeping it a really strong tool and also thematic.
At the moment invisibility is doing too little and also being too problematic and the main issue is imo the duration and the whole shenanigans you can do while invisible. Make the skill more interactive and it should be ok to make it strong.
No, cloak is not problematic. If you have trouble fighting someone using cloak in any patch or update in the last 5 years then its a you problem and not because cloak is somehow game breaking. OP is completely right it needs a cost reduction
Cloak absolutely can be very problematic when you’re not actively using something to pull someone out of stealth.
It’s very hit or miss. You either have the free-est offensive and getaway tool in the world or you’re simply burning mag on a regular basis as someone is light attacking you out of stealth. I agree it could be made significantly better in both departments; I just know the current model still doesn’t really work for anyone (the NB or fighting the NB) in practice.
As far as PvP goes, I know that balancing around ‘what cloak can do’ has been very detrimental for NB itself and if there are suggestions or proposals that allow cloak to stay in some capacity while moving away from that ‘identity’ (and problem behavior), I believe that would be absolutely appropriate.
You can’t even run a counter to streak btw1 -
Firstmep✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭ItsNotLiving wrote: »XVestigeXx wrote: »Honestly, at this point just give up on the whole concept of permanent invisibility as a game mechanic since its clear the devs will keep nerfing the ability because of it.
Attach a good movement speed buff to it, attach a really good burst heal to it, attach a good damage mitigation buff that goes away the second you leave invisibility, make the invisibility 4 second duration max, give the skill a 10 second cool down similar to how they gave power lash a cool down. Also make it so casting literally any skill makes you leave invisibility.
Thats the healthiest version of this skill i can think of while still keeping it a really strong tool and also thematic.
At the moment invisibility is doing too little and also being too problematic and the main issue is imo the duration and the whole shenanigans you can do while invisible. Make the skill more interactive and it should be ok to make it strong.
No, cloak is not problematic. If you have trouble fighting someone using cloak in any patch or update in the last 5 years then its a you problem and not because cloak is somehow game breaking. OP is completely right it needs a cost reduction
Cloak absolutely can be very problematic when you’re not actively using something to pull someone out of stealth.
It’s very hit or miss. You either have the free-est offensive and getaway tool in the world or you’re simply burning mag on a regular basis as someone is light attacking you out of stealth. I agree it could be made significantly better in both departments; I just know the current model still doesn’t really work for anyone (the NB or fighting the NB) in practice.
As far as PvP goes, I know that balancing around ‘what cloak can do’ has been very detrimental for NB itself and if there are suggestions or proposals that allow cloak to stay in some capacity while moving away from that ‘identity’ (and problem behavior), I believe that would be absolutely appropriate.
You can’t even run a counter to streak btw
Ofc you can, it's called a gap closer. It's not a 100% effective if the streaking sorc gets behind Los or they stun you with Streak for example, but i think that's fair, considering streak has a stacking cost while most gapclosers are cheaper by defauot already.3 -
acanca✭✭✭XVestigeXx wrote: »Honestly, at this point just give up on the whole concept of permanent invisibility as a game mechanic since its clear the devs will keep nerfing the ability because of it.
Attach a good movement speed buff to it, attach a really good burst heal to it, attach a good damage mitigation buff that goes away the second you leave invisibility, make the invisibility 4 second duration max, give the skill a 10 second cool down similar to how they gave power lash a cool down. Also make it so casting literally any skill makes you leave invisibility.
Thats the healthiest version of this skill i can think of while still keeping it a really strong tool and also thematic.
At the moment invisibility is doing too little and also being too problematic and the main issue is imo the duration and the whole shenanigans you can do while invisible. Make the skill more interactive and it should be ok to make it strong.
No, cloak is not problematic. If you have trouble fighting someone using cloak in any patch or update in the last 5 years then its a you problem and not because cloak is somehow game breaking. OP is completely right it needs a cost reduction
Did the buffs i suggest sound like nerfs?0 -
Turtle_Bot✭✭✭✭✭
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Ofc you can, it's called a gap closer. It's not a 100% effective if the streaking sorc gets behind Los or they stun you with Streak for example, but i think that's fair, considering streak has a stacking cost while most gapclosers are cheaper by defauot already.
There's also the insane amounts of free/easy to slot speed options ZOS has added to the game over the years.0 -
Wuuffyy✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭ItsNotLiving wrote: »XVestigeXx wrote: »Honestly, at this point just give up on the whole concept of permanent invisibility as a game mechanic since its clear the devs will keep nerfing the ability because of it.
Attach a good movement speed buff to it, attach a really good burst heal to it, attach a good damage mitigation buff that goes away the second you leave invisibility, make the invisibility 4 second duration max, give the skill a 10 second cool down similar to how they gave power lash a cool down. Also make it so casting literally any skill makes you leave invisibility.
Thats the healthiest version of this skill i can think of while still keeping it a really strong tool and also thematic.
At the moment invisibility is doing too little and also being too problematic and the main issue is imo the duration and the whole shenanigans you can do while invisible. Make the skill more interactive and it should be ok to make it strong.
No, cloak is not problematic. If you have trouble fighting someone using cloak in any patch or update in the last 5 years then its a you problem and not because cloak is somehow game breaking. OP is completely right it needs a cost reduction
Cloak absolutely can be very problematic when you’re not actively using something to pull someone out of stealth.
It’s very hit or miss. You either have the free-est offensive and getaway tool in the world or you’re simply burning mag on a regular basis as someone is light attacking you out of stealth. I agree it could be made significantly better in both departments; I just know the current model still doesn’t really work for anyone (the NB or fighting the NB) in practice.
As far as PvP goes, I know that balancing around ‘what cloak can do’ has been very detrimental for NB itself and if there are suggestions or proposals that allow cloak to stay in some capacity while moving away from that ‘identity’ (and problem behavior), I believe that would be absolutely appropriate.
You can’t even run a counter to streak btw
Ofc you can, it's called a gap closer. It's not a 100% effective if the streaking sorc gets behind Los or they stun you with Streak for example, but i think that's fair, considering streak has a stacking cost while most gapclosers are cheaper by defauot already.
I won’t even hold you, even on a werewolf having a gap closer is less than 50% effective against a mag sorc; and that’s when I only have 1 bar and nothing else to do if I even decide to ‘chase’.
Gap closers are not remotely an effective solution for streak. If the player is at all aware of their surroundings, they will not die to anything short of several people while they have streak on.
This of course is made worse by a mastery that is giving them the ability to stack high resources with better damage (now) and sustain based on the amount of resources they have; sustain that is equivalent to Wretched Vitality at 10k max resources (~equivalent of about 400 or so recov), 2 wrerched vitalities at 20k max resources (about 800 or so ‘recov’), 3 wretched vitalties at 30k max resources (about 1200 or so ‘recov’), 4 at 40k (1600), 5 at 50k (2000), and continued.
Not to mention the health-based healing while shielding and streaking underneath meaning that while you’re spamming streak, you only need to make time for a Dark Exchange or another shield (versus having to really worry about the health bar underneath).
Name a single passive that does what I described above and name a single movement ability that comes remotely close to streak, especially with the above added tools to support and sustain it.Edited by Wuuffyy on August 21, 2026 1:41PMWuuffyy,
'end-game' PvE and PvP player
ESO player since 2014 (Xbox and PC for PTS)
-new players, feel free to DM for guidance!0 -
Zyaneth_Bal✭✭✭✭✭Can someone stop these ppl from turning every unrelated thread into another nerf sorc thread2
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Kartalin✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Zyaneth_Bal wrote: »Can someone stop these ppl from turning every unrelated thread into another nerf sorc thread
It's like 2016 all over again
I don't recall having a huge issue with the mag cost on cloak when I was last using it in pvp. But I also liked to back bar darloc brae on some of those builds. It was just something else to manage. That said if the skill was changed to allow it to be affected by cost reduction glyphs, then that wouldn't be a horrible thing since you could trade a damage enchant on jewelry to help defray the cloak cost.-
Tri-faction tryhard but mainly EP in Gray Host lately (PC/NA)
- Drunken Indriks - DISCARNATE - Tertiary Meat - @ Kartalin - Youtube
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Radiate77✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭It’s not just the cost of Cloak, it’s how Siphoning Strikes require you to deal damage every second to get resources back now, on a class with no viable DoTs, and how using the skill kills you under pressure and for next-to-no resources.
Changing the way Siphoning Strikes built up over time like Rally into a skill that doesn’t fit the Class Kit at all while actively hurting you for using it (when you need it most) was the single most detrimental change to this Class and I don’t think Nightblade recovers until this is corrected.Edited by Radiate77 on August 21, 2026 4:14PMFounder of New Age Crusade, the #1 Battlegrounds guild on Xbox NA1 -
Luneca✭✭✭✭✭ItsNotLiving wrote: »Zyaneth_Bal wrote: »Zyaneth_Bal wrote: »Just remove invisibility altogether tbh. It never had a place in this game.
Invisibility never had a place in an Elder Scrolls Game?
No, other multi player games have invisibility and it works just fine. ESO just handles it relatively poorly like mentioned above.
Well we are talking about eso, not just any multiplayer game and in eso it only ever caused problems. Regardless of it being an elder scrolls game, not like invisibility was ever the series’ feature or even a little bit significant.
It’s only been in the game for 10 years and has a ton of counters it doesn’t cause any problems outside of people complaining about dying to Nightblade which is a bad class anyway.
Not true, it has an I-frame which is really bad design and also leads to detects failing to work if you know how to do take advantage of it. And yes, I play NB.
IMO it will never get balanced and it will keep being a point of contention. It's holding NB back and will eventually get nerfed down the line.
It's fated to do so because invisibility is the ultimate advantage in PvP -- you can't be targeted, and the i-frame on activation is literal icing on the cake.
I've said it before, but when a single skill or mechanic completely makes or breaks something to the degree that it becomes unsuable it's OP. Also, if the counter to something is OP, then the thing it counters has to also be OP because if not the effect on combat would not be significant in the first place to warrant calling the counter OP in the first place.
Cloak fits both of those definitions well. The problem isn't that it's getting nerfed, it's that the class isn't getting proper compensation.
ZOS said they aren't doing reworks, but they are handing out nerfs and conditional buffs on classes in their place.
Oh cloak is getting nerfed. Okay.Long time coming. Here's a buff for Siphoning and the class set. Enjoy. <- what? That is not what the class needed in exchange at any point in time.
And that's what is happening on the non-reworked classes. I don't think I haven't said it enough, but a nerf followed by a conditional buff is still a nerf. It's not a buff because we are not able to all take advantage of the conditions ZOS imposes due to limited bar space and build variation -- something I think ZOS is simply not understanding when they are looking at balancing classes this cycle.
But hey, we have limited power to effect change...0