Steath Mechanics and a Full Party

[Aotrs Commander]

I have been cheerfully sinking most of my party's skill points into Stealth (because I actually do like the mechanic) - most of them are on 8 and the lowest around 5 (Kana...). I've mostly been using it just to close range in formation, with duspatching the odd high-stealth character to do abit of theivery as required.

 

The questrion is, am I actually wasting my time? What I don't know is how much effect a point of stealth has in real money (i.e. how close you can get to the enemy before you start being spotted). The yellow/red circles are... not vastly helpful, since I have not much idea how the interplay of skill verses (presumably) perception on the monsters works. I sort of presume the monsters have a detection radius which compares to a character's individual Stealth skill and the monster's preception... Unless it only checks the lowest?

 

Anybody have some information on the way it all works and/or or how to optimise (as best one can when using the NPCs) Stealth utility?

 

This is particualry coming up as I've picked up a new NPC companion (the paladin) now I'm at level 7, and obviously can't start to get their stealth up straight away and I'm now wondering how much effect that's going to have on my overall strategy.

[Doug]

Yes, you are wasting you're time...you're still playing this game!

[Duchess of Kvetch]

Stealth is mainly used for scouting and getting in that first hit/spell, unless you're playing a rogue and can disengage from sight easier (I didn't play a rogue so I'm fuzzy on that aspect of the mechanic and the whole backstabby thing).

 

Since you can isolate single characters from the party, you can use one to do recon, essentially, as well as get in a first shot or apply some sort of crowd control spell.... then train the enemy back to a nice ambush situation.

 

I believe that the individual character's stealth ranking comes into play here, since I've noticed some of my party members are more easily spotted from a distance than others. I still find I can't get THAT close, but I can still use scouting to prevent a giant rush of enemies or lead them into narrow hallways/chokepoints etc.

Edited April 26, 2015 by Duchess of Kvetch

[Aotrs Commander]

Hmm.

 

I THINK it may still be worth my doing, since I cleared Ansalog's Compass after I posted yesterday, and I noted that I was able to get really quite close (maybe 1/4-1/5th screen width) to the Xaurips before even going yellow.

 

But still not hugely conclusive, it just might they have poor detection to start with.

[mystang89]

I personally think the stealth mechanic is fine but the detection needs to be worked on. The mobs just don't detect anyone. If you sneak through a map, even if you only have 1 point in it, then you can begin all the battles with the first shot.

 

I have 1 character that specializes in it so I can steal but no one else.