I had the same thought when i first saw this item, "what a useless POS" but then i remembered the one thing i hate about hide/sneak. You cant hide and sneak while on a mount. Since i have the paint already, ill finish the quest, it'll be handy when traveling.
SoS, like regular Hide/Sneak, drops as soon as you zone. It also makes you swim extremely slowly, regardless of skill. Pointless effect? No. Pointless comment? Yes.
Would be nice if you could get something for completing all the quests. I finally have this neat item, handy for zoning into dangerous areas or swimming.
Pinetoast Shadowberry Rogue of the Furious Pantaloons Solusek Ro
Well, I always be confused by level to attain data. May I ask, can a lvl 1 rogue go to PoA to do this quest? No. So the data about level to attain is wrong. heh, actually it's always wrong.
I don't think this item should have been nerfed. rogues already have invis/invis to undead with hide sneak. why not keep it the same way it was before? or just make it self only insta cast invis. as it is, the cast time sucks.
I agree. Changing the effect to Gather Shadows is okay, because it, like the rogues' own sneak/hide is self-only, but it should probably have still been left with the instacast.
well....considering gather shadows is a self only spell (for sk's anyway...not sure about necro's), u shouldnt have been able to cast it on others...hence the nerf :(
If this was an instant cast... And you could cast it on others, it was just screaming out for nerfing.
There's a NEC / SK headpiece that has Gather Shadows bound to it. (Circlet of Shadow, I think, but I'm not entirely certain.) This used to have instant effect.
The rules on the PvP servers were changed, so that when invis takes effect, people lose their target. So the Circlet was nerfed to something like a five second cast. (Which matches the normal casting time, just without taking up a spell slot.)
But, this being the case, even if your item had been self only, it would have been nerfed. Let alone when it was castable on others.
This is not to say that I don't understand your unhappiness. Personally, I'd be as happy for them to reverse the changes to PvP and put back the instant cast. (I don't play PvP. But, more to the point, the vast majority of the playerbase aren't playing PvP and I don't see why the majority should be screwed over for a few people who like to PK one another. *Shrug*)
Another reason VI may have nerfed the Insta-cast invis Items was the pulling potential contained therein. If you have a mob which is set apart from others, but had to be pulled through another group, You could go in invis, tag, and re-invis, before it aggroed the others. Thus achieving the fabled "Immaculate pull." Never having had one of these items myself (being a monk), Have been unable to test it, and am going STRICTLY by hearsay, so please, correct me if I am wrong.
I'm not even sure what you mean in the above description. (I've never played a pulling class, so that probably makes a difference.) However, in my experience, casting invis makes absolutely no difference, if a mob is aggro'd on you. (Either before, or after the PvP changes!) If you invis, it still knows where you are and will happilly try to rip your face off. (I do sometimes invis, if root hunting in places like EW, simply because I can meditate, without worrying about wanderers, but the aggro'd mob isn't fooled by this at all.)
Anyhow...
My original comment was based on something I vaguely remember reading in the patch messages. (If you were really keen, you could look up an archive of these. (CastersRealm have an archive of the patch histories [link=eq.castersrealm.com/patches.asp]here[/link]. I had a quick look, but there's no option to search them and I can't be bothered going through them all! *shudder*)
...Time passes...
Ok, I found it. (I wasn't quite keen enough to read them all, but looked through the posts for the Circlet of Shadow, to see when the, 'it's been nerfed' ******** started! *Grin*) It was the June 27th patch.
These are the two relevent bits: [li]Circlet of Shadow will no longer drop in-game. The Circlet of Shadows, can now be found in its place. This item differs from the original only in that it has a five-second casting time. Existing Circlets of Shadow will retain the same functionality as before, though we may change existing Circlets at some future date. [li]When a player becomes invisible (or hides successfully) every other player that had them targeted will lose their target. This is true for all servers, but has the greatest implications on PvP servers. The use of spells that allow you to see through invisibility will prevent you from losing your target if that target hides or goes invisible.
Anyhow, now you know I'm just an obsessive EQ player and not a deluded lunatic! *Cackle* Well, I could be both, I s'pose.
Anyhow, hope this sheds a little more light onto the darkness of nerfing...
How many lvl 60 rogues you know that are going to get into PoS and actually complete any of the tests? Without a giant amount of help that is. The answer is 0. All the quests in sky need a full raiding party to get the quest pieces. On top of that, you have at least 2 classes rolling on these quest items most of the time. There is as much a chance for a lvl 46 rogue to get this mask as there is a lvl 60 rogue.
This can also invis grp members so its a very good mask i believe. Saw a high lvl rogue playing with one of these in Sebilis on bertoxx the night ago. Sort of cool
This is a GREAT mask, but if you combine it with a Bracer of the Hidden, (rare drop off of sarnaks in Loio) You can see invis and invis a whole party, allowing you to take a whole party (without someone who can cast invis) through most dungeons in Norrath that aren't infested by Undead or monsters that see invis. Great for getting those lowbies throug dangerous areas.
I guess the effect is for those who wish to get past trouble faster than at a snail's pace. But after that, there's not much of a point. Maybe improved invis would make a better compensation at 46. Invis can come close to sneak, but it can't replace it.
The mask is instant cast invis.. I have the mask and i can stand in front of a monster appearing and invising myself over and over and it dont agro on me
Also, sneak gets taken off while zoning, so it is nice to have invis when you need to zone into a hostile area.
Also nice to invis other people in your group if you dont have an inviser nearby.
Don't forget that you can cast this while running full speed, if you want to start sneak/hiding you have to stop for a split second, which can be trouble if you are running away from a mob.
But you forget, if your about to frun into abother mob and allready have someone chaseing you, its a grewat item, aka, a shadow guardian chaseing you, you invis on way to bridge, giants dont see and attack youu, and dont care for the guardian =P. Think before you speak/