Skill Sneak

Sneak is the ability to move silently behind a mob. Unlike Hide, when a sneak is successful, it is immutable as long as the monster/NPC has their "back" turned to you.

Classes & Races

• Any Halfling Level 1 (Max 50)
• Rogue Level 1 (Max 200)
• Monk Level 8 (Max 113)
• Ranger Level 10 (Max 75)
• Bard Level 17 (Max 75)

Brief Overview

Sneak is a skill that makes you unheard, it is not the same thing as invisible (see Hide). In some ways it is superior to invisible, in some ways inferior. (Sneak changes your faction with mobs/NPCs to Indifferent, but only if they are not facing you. It functions the same as any faction correction to Indifferent (spell, song, illusion) with regard to aggro, vendoring, and questing; provided you don't let the mob "see" you.)

While sneaking, your character will move at a greatly reduced speed. Speed buffs do improve movement speed while sneaking. Without speed buffs it's faster to strafe sideways than to move forward.

Sneak can fail and often does, especially if you are not a Rogue. Success chance is based on skill. When it succeeds; your character will slow in speed and the button will remain depressed until you turn it off, or until certain game mechanics 'break' your sneak. When it fails; your movement speed will not change and the button will pop up 10 seconds later to let you try again. Rogues will see the following success or failure messages when activating Sneak; "You are as quiet as a cat stalking it's prey" or "You are as quiet as a heard of stampeding elephants". Everyone else must use in-game feedback (movement speed or Consider) to determine if Sneak was successful, or wait 10 seconds to see if the Sneak button resets.

The effect in game is as follows:

270 degrees

• If you are in the rear 270deg arc of a mob, you will con Indifferent. (The mob in this picture would be facing the bottom right corner.)
  • Because the mob is Indifferent, it will not attack as long as you stay beside or behind it. (Social aggro will override this.)

• You will be treated as if your faction with that mob is indifferent.
  • If your faction is too low for a quest and indifferent faction is sufficient, you can sneak behind the NPC and do turn-ins. Be aware that hailing and speaking to an NPC in /say may cause it to turn towards you.
  • Similarly, merchants will sell to you. They may turn to face you, but the window will remain open and merchants never attack players. Wait for the merchant to turn back or you will get Apprehensive vs Indifferent prices on the transaction.
  • Bankers will work with anyone, regardless of faction, but Sneak is still useful for avoiding aggro on them.

• Sneak will turn off when you are hit by a spell, hit by a melee attack, or cast a spell (including weapon procs and click effects). Looting will not turn off Sneak. Attacking will not turn off sneak. If it isn't broken, Sneak has infinite duration.

• It will not turn off if you open a trade window like invisible does. This means that from behind a dubious or lower mob; you can bank, shop, or do quest turn-ins and remain indifferent.

• Some mobs (very rare) can see through sneak. You can recognize these mobs because when you are sneaking and con them, it will say 'You have a feeling that this creature can see you'. Beware of these mobs. Examples include: Royal Guard (Crushbone), A ghoul assassin (Lower Guk), A Chokidai Mangler - Note: While some examples are marked, many are not.

• Sneaking does nothing to erase aggro you already have. Nor does hide or hide-sneak.

• It is possible to swim with sneak on, albeit very slowly. Take care when diving underwater for any significant distance.

• If you are in the forward 90deg arc of a mob's vision, and are KoS to that mob, it's aggro range will be slightly decreased, similar to Lull or Harmony.
  • This means you can get closer to the mob than you would normally be allowed without it attacking. However, if you linger too long in front of the mob, it will eventually notice you.

• Sneak affects most see-invisible mobs. If they con Indifferent when they aren't facing you and you don't let them 'see' you, then you can sneak past.

Rogue Only

Hide-Sneak (Rogue invisible)

This info is for rogue only regarding their ability to use Hide and Sneak simultaneously to become invisible. If you are not a rogue, Hide and Sneak both act separately and this will not work for you.

It's not new information to most rogues that they can become invisible. If hide and sneak both work successfully, you will be able to move invisibly at sneak speed. However, here are some specifics about the ability.

Brief info on hide: Hide will only succeed if you are standing still, therefore you must stop completely to hide-sneak. Hide will break if you attack, are attacked, cast a spell, are hit by a spell, or move (without sneak on).

• Undead can not see through hide-sneak, unlike basic invisible. Hide-sneak is treated as Invisible+IVU.

• The re-use time of Sneak and Hide (10 seconds) will countdown even if they are depressed. Meaning if you activate hide-sneak and wait 10 seconds or more, you can turn it off and on near-instantly. Useful for looting something in hostile territory.

• If you hide-sneak, you can turn off sneak as long as you have not moved yet. Otherwise Hide will turn off when you turn off Sneak.

• If you hide-sneak, turning off sneak will also break hide as soon as you move.

• If you hide-sneak and open a trade-window or merchant window, both will break. Turn off Hide first if you want to maintain Sneak.

• If you turn off hide alone, your sneak will stay on. This is useful for looting, banking, or shopping in a KoS town, sneak-hide behind the NPC and turn off only Hide. Then turn Hide back on after opening merchant/bank/loot window.

• If you have an invisible spell on, you can activate hide-sneak and get past undead or sneak behind see invisible mobs. However, as soon as invisible fades it will deactivate sneak (but the button will remain depressed). If you move after the spell has faded, hide will break. Be careful.

• Using defensive disciplines (Focus Will, Resistance) will not break hide-sneak. Feel free to heal up perfectly invisible.

• Sneak Attack will activate after being hidden approx. 3 seconds or more. Activating it will break hide but not sneak. Sneak Attack is Post Velious.

• Bind wound will not break hide-sneak

• Intimidation will break hide-sneak if it works, even if you're far away from the mob, otherwise it will not. Beware when practicing.

• Sense Traps and Disarm Traps will not break hide-sneak (Are Traps in Velious?)

• Pick Lock will not break hide-sneak

• Apply Poison will not break hide-sneak on success or fail.

• Using clicky items will break hide-sneak

• Attacking will break hide but not sneak, you can fight an entire battle while sneaking, as long as you are not hit. If your weapon procs as you are fighting, sneak will break.

• Pick Pockets will break hide-sneak. Turning off hide and leaving only sneak will let you pick pockets in safety.

• Falling damage will not break hide-sneak, nor will drowning damage.

Deprecated

In the past on P99 Blue, Sneak would prevent social aggro from mobs, allowing the easy splitting of large packs of mobs if the sneaker could position behind all of them and hit the rearmost mob with a ranged attack. This bug was patched out on Blue and never implemented on Green/Teal.

Skills