Zurai
First Post
So, Cloaks of Invisibility give you the normal Neck slot +Enhancement to Fort/Ref/Will defenses, and a daily power. Its daily power is invisibility until end of the encounter, until 5 minutes passes, or until you're hit by a melee or ranged attack.
On the surface, that seems kinda "so what?". But now, go look up the definition of Invisibility. In 4E, you do not lose Invisible status except under the circumstances listed in the power. Now look through the Monster Manual and count how many monsters have Tremorsense, Blindsight, or can see invisible creatures. There are very few; even Dragons only have darkvision. A few Demons have truesight 6, a couple creatures have tremorsense and blindsight.
Now add a Trained and Focused Stealth skill, and possibly armor or a ring that boosts Stealth, to prevent enemies from pinpointing you; remember, you can be pinpointed with a Perception vs Stealth check. However, even Orcus only has a +28 Perception. It's reasonably easy to get into the 30's for Stealth checks.
Now mix all that together and add in the fact that area-of-effect attacks don't drop your stealth, only melee and ranged attacks. Voila, nigh-invulnerable character. It's possible to solo Orcus with the right build and a Cloak of Invisibility, simply because he has no way to detect invisible characters. Yeah, he has that rechargeable close burst 10 explosion, but he's going to be targeting it blindly most of the time, and it's a 6-recharge.
Yeah, it's an Epic item and it should be Epic. It's also a Daily power, so only one use per day. The problem is that it's essentially a daily "I Win" button against the vast majority of the monsters in the MM. About the only thing I've seen that really has any reasonable chance against a Cloak of Invisibility is the Tarrasque, because it has a huge Blindsight range.
So, Cloak of Invisibility: Best item in the game? I think so.
On the surface, that seems kinda "so what?". But now, go look up the definition of Invisibility. In 4E, you do not lose Invisible status except under the circumstances listed in the power. Now look through the Monster Manual and count how many monsters have Tremorsense, Blindsight, or can see invisible creatures. There are very few; even Dragons only have darkvision. A few Demons have truesight 6, a couple creatures have tremorsense and blindsight.
Now add a Trained and Focused Stealth skill, and possibly armor or a ring that boosts Stealth, to prevent enemies from pinpointing you; remember, you can be pinpointed with a Perception vs Stealth check. However, even Orcus only has a +28 Perception. It's reasonably easy to get into the 30's for Stealth checks.
Now mix all that together and add in the fact that area-of-effect attacks don't drop your stealth, only melee and ranged attacks. Voila, nigh-invulnerable character. It's possible to solo Orcus with the right build and a Cloak of Invisibility, simply because he has no way to detect invisible characters. Yeah, he has that rechargeable close burst 10 explosion, but he's going to be targeting it blindly most of the time, and it's a 6-recharge.
Yeah, it's an Epic item and it should be Epic. It's also a Daily power, so only one use per day. The problem is that it's essentially a daily "I Win" button against the vast majority of the monsters in the MM. About the only thing I've seen that really has any reasonable chance against a Cloak of Invisibility is the Tarrasque, because it has a huge Blindsight range.
So, Cloak of Invisibility: Best item in the game? I think so.
