[World of Warcraft] Just read an interesting thread over at the Lurker Lounge forums.
The basic question they ask is if it would be considered an exploit to bypass content in an instance by stealthing past it to get to the end boss.
Blizzard is clearly trying to keep people from bypassing content. Thus, it does bring to question if using stealth is acceptable in this case. Is it a skill designed for sneaking past a threat or is it a skill designed for sneaking up to a threat? Or both?
Personally, I have used stealth for both reasons. It is one of the main features of the class for me. I have snuck past a whole camp of minions to get to my main objective and then snuck back out. I also use it to sneak up on a threat in order to eliminate it.
It is my opinion that using stealth to bypass content in this manner is using the skill as intended. I do not think it is a cheap way of doing a quest either. There is risk, it is not guaranteed. I snuck through Shadowfang Keep one time to get to the end and it was a slow, challenging, risky process.
What do you think?
To me, it really depends on how rampant the use of stealth is on completing quests. However, personally, I don’t give a rats ass whether than can complete some quests easily or not. There’s four reasons why:
1.) In my experience with instances (only level 30 here) there are several quests that can only be completed if you actually go throughout the dungeon and just about kill everything in sight. Perhaps it’s a drop you need. Perhaps you need to kill this type of enemy over and over. Perhaps you need to get a barrell or something that’s in a room filled with enemies. None of these can be simply stealthed by.
2.) Instances are group efforts for the most part. In order for rougues to stealth by and kill the boss, there have to be several rougues in the group or the rougue has to be several levels higher in order to solo the boss.
3.) They’d be missing all the drops and XP from all the enemies they’d kill if they didn’t stealth the whole way, which, personally, is half, or more, the reason I do instances.
4.) They’re missing the fun. I dunno about you, but stealthing through a whole dungeon, while adrenaline pumping, doesn’t exactly sound fun or rewarding.
And like you said, it’s dangerous to do. An enemy could easily spot you and it would be all over. So really, stealth is used as a tool for both attacking and escaping/sneaking. I don’t really see how it’s an exploit. IMO, if a rogue decides to stealth through a dungeon just to get to the end for that one quest then they’re sacrificing all the other things that go along with an instance, which is perfectly fair and balanced.
However, note that I can’t go to the website because it’s blocked (the only time I visit this site is at school). I’d like to see the argument people are making. Again, I’m only level 30 so I could easily be missing something. Perhaps there are tons of higher level quests that give good rewards that can easily just be stealthed through by rogues…I wouldn’t know.
No it is not an exploit.
Why?
1. There is risk involved in that you could be seen.
2. You bypass content at the cost of loot. (Risk vs Reward…low risk low reward)
3. You still have to kill whatever mob it is that you are stealthing to.
I agree with what Lufia22 said. Sometimes bypassing content is bad. You get to where you want to be and a mob runs or you get feared into an area that would be clear except you didn’t clear the content. BANG! Dead!
Rogues and assassins can pick their fight, can go in and out of them at their will, something that other classes can’t do. Take that from them, and they will stop being that.
Even tho stealth sometimes helps with a few quests, there are many others that have to be done in groups (like picking an object that is being guarded by 6 mobs, all of them near it). It can’t be applied to everything.
If the question is: Is this an exploit in the eyes of Blizzard, my answer would be NO.
Why? From what I have read, there is a Rogue quest that asks that you stealth into a building, steal some stuff, and come back. If the game is telling you it is OK to do this to complete a quest, then there is no way it could be an exploit.
Is it an exploit in my opinion? Again, no. As a hunter, I can avoid mobs all over the map by just watching them on track and staying away from them. Or sending my pet in, running past while they fight him, then getting far enough away for him to vanish and the mobs go back to their business. Heck, I can even feign my way through stuff, although I have had mobs 10 levels lower than me resist it. :-|
I don’t think it is an exploit since it is part of being a rogue. I wish I could stealth through all the junk to get to the end boss…maybe one day, if I roll a rogue. :)
“Works as intended”.
1) You dont just hit Stealth and run to the end. Even with the Master of Deception talent maxxed, you can still be spotted by mobs higher level than you (and even lower if you get too close while crossing their FoV) so you still have to time mob movements, make use of Distract, etc.
2) This is the whole point of being a Rogue. We’re the ultimate assassin. WoW equivalents of the ninja. We are a surgical strike. We sneak in, and delivery a killing blow to the most valuable target (the boss, loot chest, whatever). We are not designed to withstand the resistance of the minion numbers. When we are attacked by multiple mobs, we tend to have one defense: To vanish. Our success depends on by-passing the defense screens of the massed lower mobs.
3) As was mentioned above: Blizzard even supports this type of thing because there are rogue-specific missions where we are -supposed- to use our sneaking abilities.
4) We have an entire talent tree built around stealth. Obviously the designers intended we use the skill as best we could.
5) In doing missions this way, we trade the loot/xp we would’ve gotten by fighting our way in, for getting the item/boss/quest done as quickly as possible. Does not seem there is an imbalnce here.
IMHO, anyone that says doing this is cheating is either:
a) Jealous
or
b) Recently missed the short bus.