Re: Sly's Guide to your Neighbour's Pocket
Tactics
Getting Away
Even if getting close to your victim and stealing an item from him can be complicated, it’s not nearly as difficult as getting out of a theft situation alive. If for example you are planning on stealing powerscrolls at champ spawns, you should expect not only your victim to want your death but also his fellow spawners as well as any champ mobs standing close enough to target you.
After having used the stealing skill, whether successful or not, you will also have to wait for several seconds before being able to use another skill. Because of this skill timer, you cannot use the hiding skill to vanish right away nor can you go around the problem by using a Smoke Bomb as also that is affected by the timer.
Another problem you will encounter is that you cannot hide within a certain distance to a person or monster that is attacking you (the required distance is based on your hiding skill).
Here are a few suggestions on how to avoid these problems:
Run: If you can, transform into an animal and just run in the direction that seems the least hostile and the least probable to lead you into a dead end. I can guarantee you that running is something that can be trained and, if you do it a lot, you will probably notice that you avoid mobs a lot better than the person chasing you. When you believe there is enough distance between you and your enemy for you to hide again, make sure you’re at a complete halt before attempting to hide or you will be running when the stealth check is done and as a consequence reappear. If you have 50 or more Ninjitsu, using a Smoke Bomb will allow you to hide no matter the distance between you and your enemy, though you will still need to wait for any running skill timer to expire before being able to use one.
Cast Invisibility: As simple as it sounds. After stealing an item, immediatly cast invisibility on yourself and stealth away. Make sure you rehide using the hiding skill or move out of danger before the Invisibility spell expires.
Shadowstrike: Get a weapon that has Shadowstrike as a special ability, get your Stealth to minimum 80 skill and a melee fighting skill to a minimum of 70 or 90 skill depending on whether your weapon has Shadowstrike as a primary or secondary ability. It is recommended that you raise your melee skill as high as possible and get some HCI equipment in order to make sure that you succesfully hit your target. Keep in mind also that a weak monster might be easier to hit than a PvP:er.
Good things to know when stealthing
Walking through a creature in Felucca will reveal you. Always keep an eye on your character to make sure he has not been revealed as it is easy to accidently push through hard-to-spot mobs, like snakes.
You can run while stealthing, just not during the stealth checks that are done every specific number of steps based on your Stealth skill. If you can learn your run/walk rhythm, you’ll be able to run while stealthing.
When performing a Shadowjump, it may not go completely unnoticed. The sound effect you hear and the grey clouds you see anybody else can hear and see as well.
Opening a corpse reveals you. Opening your corpse does not. You can also pick up any items from the ground without being revealed including gold and powerscrolls.
Don’t listen to the people saying you can’t stealth while mounted. Get your non-ethereal mount to follow you. Hide, go into stealth mode and then get on your mount. You will now both be in stealth mode, meaning...you can both Shadowjump.
People can walk through you when you are hidden. The bad thing is this will give them a message telling them they shoved something out of the way thus revealing your presence. The good thing is, people with low stamina will not manage to walk through you and can be forced to stay in the company of horrific creatures.
Macros and Tricks
The Driveby
- Create seperate macros for these actions:
- Stealing
- Use skill Anatomy (or any other non-revealing skill that demands a target)
- LastObject
- LastTarget
- Find a victim, open his paperdoll and double click his backpack. This can be done from a distance and avoid you from exposing yourself to danger too early. The victim’s backpack is now the last object you clicked and can therefore be opened with a simple use of your macro called “LastObject”.
- Stealth up to your victim and press your “LastObject” macro. If you have GM Snooping, you should now be looking inside your victim’s backpack.
- Press your “Use skill Anatomy” macro and target the item you would like to steal (insured and blessed items are not stealable). The item is now set as your last target.
- To steal the item, all you have to do now is stand 1 tile away from your victim and use your “Stealing” macro followed by your “LastTarget” macro. For it to become a Driveby, you need to stand at a distance from your victim, activate the “Stealing” macro, run by your victim and activate your “LastTarget” macro when your character is passing on a tile just next to your victim.
The Shadowhand
Dying after a theft does not have to be a bad thing if you’ve already managed to get rid of the stolen item.
- Team up with a fellow stealther and find a victim to steal from.
- Together with your partner, decide on a place where he could safely stay hidden and that is not too far away from the victim. Have him stand there and wait.
- Steal the item you want from your victim and run in the direction of your partner’s hiding place.
- Drop the stolen item just next to the spot you have decided on and continue running for your life while your partner picks up the item and calmly stealths away.
Coming up with new tricks is, in my opinion, one of the funniest parts of being a thief. There are many ways to get away with a theft and their effectiveness often depend on the thief being the only person to know of them. This is just a taste of how things can be done and I'm sure you will come up with several more ingenious ways of getting away with a theft.