Invisibility breaks if you take damage or attack. Combat-sneak fails if an enemy glances in your direction.
I'm open to nerfs if you have a suggestion for how to nerf them without making them useless to the point where it might as well be deleted from the game?
I have been thinking about this passively for a few days, but I am not sure if my ideas are any good. I was thinking about starting a separate thread for this but since you have asked me here I will answer here.
Conjecture: given 4AP, 0 invis spells, and 0 points into sneaking (0 cone reduction) I can ALWAYS find a way position myself outside of every vision cone and have the 1AP required to enter sneak.
Facts:
1)The AI will not move to "look" for me. As a consequence, I can wait as long as I need to refresh my cooldowns and take as much time as I need to reposition myself. However:
2)The AI will cast buffs/heals on damaged allies. But, if my net solo damage is greater than their net healing on the lowest total armor+vitality enemy, I can always focus down a single enemy with this strategy.
Conclusion:
Fact (2) is not enough to mitigate the power of Sneak.
Let's look at a worst case scenarios.
The least sneaky character:
1) No points into Sneaking (normal cones)
2) No points into Scoundrel (no invis, no Cloak and Dagger)
3) No points into Huntsman (thus no Duck Duck Goose, no Tactical Retreat)
4) No points into Polymorph (no invis).
The character least likely to escape melee combat:
5) No point in Escapist
6) No Teleport
7) No Netherswap
8) Slowed (-1AP)
Optional difficulty bonus:
9) Not allowed to use Flee mechanic.
10) Blinded.
For now let's consider a situation where (1)-(8) apply. In particular, suppose you are completely surrounded by enemies. A good concrete example might be the Voidwoken that attack you in waves on the way to the Seeker Camp. In this situation, even if you are able to do enough damage in one turn to end the battle, you would not survive because the Voidwoken will explode on death and kill you. The only option is to escape, but you only have 3AP. Suppose you can survive as many attacks of opportunity (realistically 1-2) as needed. Depending on your movement modifiers, 2AP can probably get you PRETTY FAR. Since the enemies surrounding you are facing you, only the ones that attack you on your way out will shift their vision cones, but the enemies attack you the instant you enter their area of opportunity, not after you have walked out of the area, so these enemies will still mostly be facing in the direction of your initial position, or at most perpendicular to your trajectory.
I cannot tell you how many times I have managed to enter sneak DIRECTLY BEHIND an enemy with only 3AP.
Now that we have somewhat of a picture painted, I'll list my recommendations, which are mostly not really nerfs to sneak but buffs to AI.
1) You cannot enter sneak if you are within a 1-1.5m radius of an enemy. (Maybe different radii for different enemies i.e. zombie is dumber than human).
I am not very comfortable with this nerf, but it might be the easiest solution to implement. However, it won't make any difference if you have Cloak or Retreat, because you only need 1AP for those to get anywhere you want. You are really in trouble if you are Blinded, however.
Long story short: Not just a cone, but a cone+circle.
2) Enemies rotate to face you as you move.
This means you would need to move about 13-15m from your current position. This is impossible (I think) with 3AP. Therefore, you would NEED to reject at least one of conditions (1)-(4). (Wow!!! I have to invest points to play sneaky??? -_-)
3) Enemies look for you. "Where'd he go!??!"
In the same exact haphazard, panicked way NPCs do when they notice they've been pickpocketed. At least this way there's a chance they'll break your sneak. At least this way it's a challenge to exploit the environment as much as possible to discover an optimal positioning contingency.
For now, I have nothing more to contribute.
Regarding the actual Invis skills, in my humble opinion, I think one or all of these nerfs would be fair:
1) Impossible to go into invis while Flanked.
2) Impossible to go into invis within Touch radius.
This way you have to do SOMETHING to get yourself into the right position before engaging in the massive cheese of waiting for your cooldowns.
