Cloak - The most controversial skill in the game. How should it work? (2024)

MindOfTheSwarm wrote: »

Nightblades in general are in a current state of identity crisis of which most of the community agrees. Of that there is no question. However, when it comes to NB's, there is one skill in their whole kit that repeatedly is the source of much contention and disagreement... CLOAK.
Some players argue that it is too strong and are calling for even more nerfs to the skill, whereas others are saying it is too easy to be revealed and too expensive to use, particularly on Stamblades. I asked myself, "Why is the community on one extreme or the other?" I have spent a long time thinking about this, and the only conclusion I keep coming back to again and again, is that the skill itself is not really doing what it should be doing.
So the question is, "What should cloak do and how should it work?" I think we as a community and ZOS need to come to some sort of agreement on this, otherwise its going to be a constant back and forth 'buff cloak, nerf cloak' argument that never ends. I propose a complete rework from the ground up on this ability, obviously I think that this should be done at the same time as a full NB rework as otherwise you run the risk of messing things up. With that being said I would like to pitch one direction that ZOS could take this ability and after explain my reasoning behind it. So here it is.

Shadow Cloak:

Cloak yourself in shadow to become permanently invisible. Attacking an enemy target, taking damage or reveal effects will break cloak. You cannot reactivate this ability for 8 seconds once cloak has been broken.

Shadowy Disguise:

When you activate this ability you cannot be revealed by outside effects for the first 2 seconds. Breaking invisibility with an attack will cause that attack to always be a Critical Strike. If you are below 25% health, the cool down of this ability is reduced by 4 seconds.

Dark Cloak:

Shroud yourself in protective shadow to heal for XX every 1 second, over 10 seconds. This portion of the ability scales off your highest resource. You gain Minor Protection while shrouded, reducing your damage taken by 8% and remove up to 2 negative effects. No longer has a cool down.

Things that break cloak:

1. Any damage attack or heal ability activated by the NB themselves.

2. Taking any direct AOE damage, damage from ground effects or enemy channeled damage effects.

3. Reveal effects from certain skills and NPC's with detection.

Things that do not break cloak:

1. Any damage over time or ground effect activated by a Nightblade BEFORE cloak activation.

2. Non- damage skills such as buffs and debuffs, examples include 'Mark Target, Grim Focus, Blur, Siphoning Strikes, Weakness to Elements, Momentum etc etc.'

3. Any direct damage over time effects on the NB applied before cloak activation EXCEPT the Burning Status effect.

Reasons for the above change:

1. Currently I believe the current contention is due to the ability being too spammy while also being too easily revealed the above change would remove its spammy nature while giving ample time to get out of trouble if used tactically and not out of panic.

2. The cool down reduction at 25% Health would be for emergencies but against good players would not be so useful as 25% health is easy to burst down in a 4 second window.

3. The Dark Cloak morph changed to scale with highest resource would make it an option for all builds and not just tanks. The cleanse makes it even more appealing and a viable alternative when losing the option of going stealth.

Conclusion: The nature of the ability would have changed, making it more of a setup ability to use while you get in position and buff up before opening on an unsuspecting target, while at the same time giving an opportunity for counter play from enemy players. You could argue that it ignores PVE, but having a permanent cloak would be great in PVE, allowing a player to move through areas without hindrance. Besides, Vampires are getting permanent cloak anyway so is this really going to hurt? This would separate cloak and make it stand out on its own and give NB's in general a little bit of the flavour they have lost.

I'm flabbergasted at this point why players think they can do better than ZOS when they propose complete reworks of a class or at least a major feature, such as Cloak. May I ask your credentials? Do you personally have problems with NBs?

I've had a bit of time thinking about this too, due to another recent thread. By the way, I've played this game for 5 years, mostly in open world PvP. I am a magblade main, but I also play other classes. In my early days, as an inexperienced medium armor DK, I was frequently the victim of stamblade gankers. I have not forgotten that.

My conclusion is that beating nightblades requires skills sufficiently different from fighting other classes that it initially eludes many players. I don't mean ESO skills, I mean general player skill and attitude. There were two undercurrents in the other thread. The first was "I'm a good player, I know how to fight other classes, but NBs are OP, because they cloak." I believe that is a conceit, but at the same time putting such people down as noobs is wrong. They simply haven't figured out what to do on their class and the mental shift you need to perform. I think some players find it hard to let the fight come to them and fight on the nightblade's terms.

This leads to the second undercurrent: Bad attitude. Players are simply unwilling to deal with nightblades, because they find them annoying and they resent how nightblades seek to control the fight. Blaming that purely on Cloak is incidentally wrong. Better nightblades will use Shadow Image as well. It's the more powerful getaway tool. It can easily be confused with Cloak and I would not be surprised if some of the population that complains about detection methods not working got fooled by Shadow Image.

Your proposals won't stop ganking. I don't know what the solution is. I think nightblades have been weakened and similar classes were invariably weakened in other games. Thus it seems no one has yet come up with a better solution. I'm kind of OK with that. I wish nightblade's damage / defense ratio was a little better outside of stealth than what it has fallen to, but that's about it.

If you want to put a hard limit on Cloak by adding a cooldown, you also have to give NBs ways to better defend themselves outside of Cloak. This should be more than reminding them to use Shadow Image or is your plan to completely destroy NB? I play a perma-cloaking magblade. You really have no idea how squishy I am and how heavily I therefore rely on Cloak. I have nothing else. In a straight fight I am killed so quickly, it's not even funny. How casually you mention 4 seconds and 25% health in the same sentence. That's one second from death, because it's execute range.

Your change really only targets magblades, by the way. Stamblades already have to mix it up. They cannot sustain Cloak. Would you care to monitor which type of nightblade it is that troubles you? I pay a heavy tax in sustain for my perma-cloaking magblade. It is a playstyle I enjoy. It is unique. I've elaborated on that elsewhere. It is not comparable with vampire in either PvE or PvP. It is weak in it's current state, but I'm happy with it. You seek to destroy my playstyle. Why? Because you're a bull in a china shop.

If your Cloak changes were implemented, you'd have to give magblades something. I play magblade because I can perma-cloak. I do so in order to solo. I like the quality of life, the option of staying out of a fight altogether and of not being attacked by NPC guards. The latter cannot be achieved and sustained via any other form of stealth. Relieve me of that and what has magblade got going for it? You want to force me into a straight up magicka stacking shielding build? Sorc is better. Why would I play magblade?