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All I am saying is that if I am in a BG with 10000000 dots on me because theres Boomkins and Spriests and warlocks and !@#$. DoTs dont need to break the ability, period.

09/03/2012 03:44 PMPosted by Shukuzen

All I am saying is that if I am in a BG with 10000000 dots on me because theres Boomkins and Spriests and warlocks and !@#$. DoTs dont need to break the ability, period.

I have no idea how the spell is really supposed to behave, but we all know there's a long list of bugs with all the stealth-like abilities that have ever been introduced. So we might be in for a long ride with this spell.

I always self-dispel before tapping the ability, but I'm still seeing spotty performance of the stealth component. I want to like it, it's so cool, but I never know if it will actually work!

Same. I tried it in a few bgs so far and still trying to find a nitch for it. I was hoping it work would like mirrors but it looks like it has to be preemptively used and that takes some getting use to. Needless to say preemptively doesn't work for crap against stealthies.

You need the following macro:

#showtooltip
/cast Spectral Guise
/y SPECTRAL GUISE! THE SHADOWS DO NOTHING!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juFZh92MUOY

Edit:

Some observations (sorry if this was mentioned, I did not read the entire thread):

-The stealth level Spectral Guise uses is very weak, it's not like a vanish-stealth which uses an improved stealth level ( which I believe is current level + 3 ). When an spriest used this against my Warrior, I immediately saw him stealth walking away, tab targeted him, hit him out of stealth. This happened in IoC last night.

-Using this on my spriest, any damage ( on myself, not the "true form left behind" ) seemed to knock me out of stealth. I'll need to test this some more, but even dot ticks or aoe seemed to remove it.

Some solutions would be to increase the stealth level and apply a 3 second "harmful effects will not break stealth" similar to vanish ( which would only apply to you, not the "true form" decoy left behind - if that takes 3 hits it should remove the effect as stated in the tooltip ).

I doubt this spell is working as intended.

I think the confusion is that if your shadow form (stealth form) takes ANY damage it cancels the spell. That means if you have dots on you when you use SG it will break as as one of the dots tick because the dots are on your shadow form not the true form. The tool tip states that as a shadow you ARE stealthed but you stay in combat.

Therefore if you, as a shadow, take any damage or your true form gets hit by 3 direct attacks the effect will end. Otherwise it will last for 6 seconds.

I think the pets knowing the difference is because of 'hunters mark'. If it is on a target that goes stealth the hunter and their pet can see the target. I am not sure about mage pets.

I don't believe it's hunters mark that causes this, as Warlock pets also have been ignoring the spell completely.

09/03/2012 07:13 PMPosted by Epicfäil

I don't believe it's hunters mark that causes this, as Warlock pets also have been ignoring the spell completely.

Yep, every pet appears to follow you in stealth. Hunters Mark will make you stay visible to the hunter, though,

1) DoT someone or something
2) Use SG
3) Wait for that DoT to tick
4) Automatically leave SG.

Working as intended?

Edit: I seems to behave like this randomly but i don't know if its due to trinkets or maybe a DTR proc.

Using it in duels it thus far has been almost completely pointless. Only useful thing I've done with it was hitting it just before the duel starts and running up and getting a fear with it.

Seems to be much more handy on paper than in practice because of how fast it is always breaking.

09/03/2012 03:44 PMPosted by Shukuzen

All I am saying is that if I am in a BG with 10000000 dots on me because theres Boomkins and Spriests and warlocks and !@#$. DoTs dont need to break the ability, period.

The wording on the tooltip is little misleading. It's intended to break after 3 damage events. Any 3 damage events (dot tick, auto attack, singular spell hit, melee strike) that counts as a lost of health to the decoy is intended to break the stealth.

Spectral Guise isn't meant save you if you are being focus fired. It's a great spell if it's used before being attacked and focused. I'm sure people can find uses for it even after being attacked but that is severely limited by design.

I find that it's useful in places like TB and Bgs if only for the re-targeting factor, but that's about it.

Spectral guise works great for juking out hunters and rogues, as well as other stealth classes. When dueling, they go stealth, you wait 3-4 sec, pop spectral guise and watch them burst on it lol. There goes all their cds and cc. Love it.

Like Vanish, it won't be "fixed" for three expansions. Good luck.

I think people are tryng to use it for a heat of the moment escape spell when it is not, you use it when there is some distance from you and the enemy as a method of cloaking where you are running to. The idea is setting up a dummy to draw your enemy one way and hide you from going another. That is why it does not remove dots.

Pets follow me stealthed anyway. Dropping this !@#$ talent.

09/05/2012 02:14 PMPosted by Sousui

I think people are tryng to use it for a heat of the moment escape spell when it is not, you use it when there is some distance from you and the enemy as a method of cloaking where you are running to. The idea is setting up a dummy to draw your enemy one way and hide you from going another. That is why it does not remove dots.

I think we're all finding out that it cannot be used when trying to escape the grip of several people hitting you, even though, personally, I think it should at the very least, force a drop target.

Afterall, 3 direct hits is 3 direct hits. Even if you have 40 people on you, the instant you use the spell, you need to be hit 3 times in order for your stealth(or whatever you wanna call it) to wear off. This, of course, could literally take 1 second when you have 4-5 people on you, but 1 second means it should force a drop target.

The problem is, when under certain debuff effects, the spell seems to have literally no effect, which, according to the tooltip, isn't normal. If dots nullify the spell(and in this case, it's not just a the spell getting cancelled by dots, it's literally nullified by dots, because you don't even get a drop target, which means the spell literally did NOT work), then the tooltip should mention that.

If they take the time to let us know it takes 3 direct hits, then they should have the courtesy to tell us the spell will get completely nullified by dots.

But, ultimately, I think it's obvious the spell isn't working as intended, considering as I mentioned, even if dots were to cancel out the spell, you should at least force your opponent to drop target for the half second between using the spell and the dot ticking. Kinda like when dotted rogues use Vanish. They still disappear for maybe 1 or 2 seconds, until the dot bring them back out. Spectral Guise, however, doesn't do that. It acts as if you never even clicked the spell.

09/05/2012 06:30 PMPosted by Jookz

But, ultimately, I think it's obvious the spell isn't working as intended, considering as I mentioned, even if dots were to cancel out the spell, you should at least force your opponent to drop target for the half second between using the spell and the dot ticking. Kinda like when dotted rogues use Vanish. They still disappear for maybe 1 or 2 seconds, until the dot bring them back out. Spectral Guise, however, doesn't do that. It acts as if you never even clicked the spell.

Vanish gives you a buff that prevents DoT effects from removing you from stealth. Spectral Guise has no such effect: the stealth is removed when a DoT ticks on you. They aren't transferred to the decoy or anything of that sort, so the number of direct attacks required or the fact that those attacks need to be direct is irrelevant.

Let me put it this way: there are three ways for Spectral Guise's effect to end. They're when your decoy is hit by 3 direct attacks (effects ends because decoy dies); when 6 seconds pass (effect ends naturally); and when you (in stealth) are the target of a new or existing offensive spell (effect ends because you were pulled out).

The tooltip should mention all three, but the actual Stealth tooltip doesn't even mention it being removed by damage. I think they just expect it to be implied.

& you can avoid cast time spells with Guise, you just need to time it correctly. The only actual bug with Guise (that I've discovered) is that pets disregard it completely.

09/05/2012 08:44 PMPosted by Dusknoir

But, ultimately, I think it's obvious the spell isn't working as intended, considering as I mentioned, even if dots were to cancel out the spell, you should at least force your opponent to drop target for the half second between using the spell and the dot ticking. Kinda like when dotted rogues use Vanish. They still disappear for maybe 1 or 2 seconds, until the dot bring them back out. Spectral Guise, however, doesn't do that. It acts as if you never even clicked the spell.

Vanish gives you a buff that prevents DoT effects from removing you from stealth. Spectral Guise has no such effect: the stealth is removed when a DoT ticks on you. They aren't transferred to the decoy or anything of that sort, so the number of direct attacks required or the fact that those attacks need to be direct is irrelevant.

Let me put it this way: there are three ways for Spectral Guise's effect to end. They're when your decoy is hit by 3 direct attacks (effects ends because decoy dies); when 6 seconds pass (effect ends naturally); and when you (in stealth) are the target of a new or existing offensive spell (effect ends because you were pulled out).

The tooltip should mention all three, but the actual Stealth tooltip doesn't even mention it being removed by damage. I think they just expect it to be implied.

& you can avoid cast time spells with Guise, you just need to time it correctly. The only actual bug with Guise (that I've discovered) is that pets disregard it completely.

I think one thing to weigh in on is the extremely short CD, a target drop on the same level as Vanish on a 30 second CD is simply not something the devs would ever intend for the ability. I'll agree the DoT issue is a bit much, and I'd like to see something like 6 ticks knock you out or a phantasm like effect where you are unforgettable for 1-2 seconds, lingering DoT's and bleeds can really limit your usage from fight to fight as well. But at the end of the day Spectral is and never will be an ability to use in the thick of combat, especially as an escape from melee, thats why we have PS and Void Tendrils so I don't think the low stealth level is as much of an issue.

At best it seems to be a setup technique used BEFORE combat starts to force wasted CD's and/or misdirect an opponent (great to pop as an enemy rides in while you're on defense). Limited in use yes, but as a 30 second CD it's not too bad imho.

I had originally thought this would be a good ability for running old content and skipping trash-- just stealth past the mobs-- but it's such a short duration, I found it was actually more useful to use Angelic Feathers and sprint through the instance and kill things in large chunks.

So yeah, I have basically no idea what Spectral Guise would be good for anymore.

09/05/2012 08:44 PMPosted by Dusknoir

Let me put it this way: there are three ways for Spectral Guise's effect to end. They're when your decoy is hit by 3 direct attacks (effects ends because decoy dies); when 6 seconds pass (effect ends naturally); and when you (in stealth) are the target of a new or existing offensive spell (effect ends because you were pulled out).

For the love of all that is shadow, ^^^THIS^^^!!! I can't understand why anyone expects any more from this spell. It works perfectly and beautifully when used with the above limitations in mind (i.e. no dots or hunter's mark on me, nobody sitting on top of me able to see through my pathetic unimproved "stealth", usually with a Phantasmed Fade macroed in), and I think asking for any more than that is just plain greedy.

OK, the pet thing is annoying. They're never fooled! I do hope that part is a bug.

For the love of all that is shadow, ^^^THIS^^^!!! I can't understand why anyone expects any more from this spell. It works perfectly and beautifully when used with the above limitations in mind (i.e. no dots or hunter's mark on me, nobody sitting on top of me able to see through my pathetic unimproved "stealth", usually with a Phantasmed Fade macroed in), and I think asking for any more than that is just plain greedy.

OK, the pet thing is annoying. They're never fooled! I do hope that part is a bug

I think a bunch of people simply assumed different things from the spell, which is totally understandable considering the circumstances. It's a new spell with a fill-in-the-blanks tooltip.

With these kinds of threads, more Priests are learning how to effectively use the spell, rather than using it when it's going to be nullified. And that's definitely a good thing.