Active Ability details for Hide  

1. Hide does work after you've done damage to the mob.

2. You can use Hide even if you're the puller.

3. Hide does not increase Sneak Attack damage, it does provide full Sneak Attack damage from any position relating to the mob.

4. Hide does not increase Trick Attack damage, it does provide full Trick Attack damage from any position relating to the mob, providing of course there is someone in front of you for Trick Attack to work on.


All above points depend upon one single factor. In order for Hide to work, the enemy may only aggro and chase by sight. If they aggro or chase by any other method, Hide will not work (on it's own) regardless of whether you're in front of, or behind the mob. If (as others have stated) the mob only aggros sight, but chases scent or sound, Hide will not work without support, ie running through water or casting the spells Deodorize and/or Sneak. (Honestly, i'm going by hearsay on the spells, but the water thing has worked for me.)

Now, I can hardly list every single family of mobs here and whether or not Hide works on them, (or maybe I could and I'm just too lazy), and besides, I haven't tested Hide out on every type of sight aggro mob, but I can list the few I know about. If anyone knows of others they could post them in reply and I or someone could compile them.

(Later edit:) It would also seem that Hide doesn't always work against all mobs in the same family. Rabbits for example seem to vary in their reaction to it.

Goblins - (but who didn't know that?) includes Moblins and Bugbears.
Yagudo - (ditto)
Greater Birds - ie; Diatryma. Apparently does not work on lesser birds, when I was levelling rng in sky, had the thf in my pt try it out on a flamingo just to see, no joy.
Cockatrices - though techically I think they are the same family as Greater Birds, both drop the feathers.
Fire Elemental - I don't know about other elemental types, but I bit off more than I could chew vs a Fire type, and out of desperation I hit Hide and it worked.
Wyverns - I'm adding wyverns based on the fact that Hide has worked for me on both Guivre and Bune, so I have to assume it works on regular mobs of this type.

[long delayed update]

Bombs - as with all these mobs listed, I'm assuming all types in the same family apply, adding that qualifier since I haven't tested on snolls, djinn's, or clusters.
Puks - never would have guessed, tried it out of desperation once when there was a pop behind me as I pulled, and it worked.
Colibris - So far the only avian type I've seen it work on.
Elementals - tried it on a dark elemental this time and it worked, so I believe it's safe to assume it works on all elementals. (except, apparently, elemental pets of mob SMN's.)
Tonberries - 'nuff said.
Fiendish Leechkeepers - The imps in campaign. Does not work on regular imps though, since they are true sight.
Buffaloes - A note on buffaloes, there seems to be a random chance for hide to work on them. I've had it both work and fail on them mid-fight, and I've had it both work and fail on them when they aggro me but I haven't touched them yet. At the moment I can't figure out what conditions need to be met for it to work
Rabbits - Again, never would have guessed, but good to know if you ever get one of those nasty rabbit links in Boyahda Tree. (edit: apparently not all rabbits, didn't work on Beach Bunny in Cape Teriggan...)
Qutrub - Though it seems to be unclear whether or not these are undead, they aggro sight, at least the one that aggro'd me did, and Hide worked on it.
Lamia - Since they seem to like to strip you naked and get a good look at ya, guess it only makes sense that you'd be able to Hide from 'em.


Another note, Hide also appears to work on all mobs in campaign, not counting pet types such as Shadowfang Void. Based on my experience, it works, but you have to make sure there's enough space between you and the mobs that they wouldn't aggro you normally, usually done with Flee. Since they're all true sight/sound, if you're too close, Hide will work, but they'll re-aggro you right away, negating it. As noted above, however, it works just fine on fiendish leechkeepers without getting any distance, since they don't aggro at all. Hell, it's hard enough as it is to keep them aggro'd to you when you're soloing one, as they just seem to repeatedly lose interest mid-fight until you hit them again.

Hmm, even less than I thought. It might work on Tigers too, can't remember if I used it on Kirata. I'll have to run some tests. If anyone wants to add to the list I'm sure thieves everywhere would appreciate the extra bit of knowledge. Remember though, please only post mobs (for this list at least) that Hide will work on with no other aids.

Edited, Sun Mar 26 17:54:29 2006



Edited, Dec 13th 2009 3:31pm by GarudaRyuuko

Edited, Jun 13th 2011 4:28pm by GarudaRyuuko

The Truth of Hide

Hello I am a level 52THF/26NIN and I have experimented and talked with higher level thf's about the ability hide.

1.) Hide will not work if you engage AND DO DAMAGE to a monster. In a battle situation you can have someone else pull the monster and you can SATA + Hide.

2.) When using Hide in a battle/party situation you want to have the main tank provoke first. You then Hide and make sure your standing behind the tank WHILE the monster is facing him. Your SATA will do extra damage. Here's a simple picture.

*the @ symbol means that the PC or NPC is facing in that direction. ex: @(x) char is facing left. (x)@ char is facing right.

Normal SATA without HIDE
(thf)@ -- (tank)@ -- (Monster)@ -- @(puller/first provoker)

SATA with HIDE (THF is hidden)
(thf)@ -- (tank)@ -- @(Monster)

3.) If SATA is used with HIDE it does cause more damage.

4.) Hide is exactly like the invisibility spell except that its an ABILITY (icon difference) vs the spell. So one can move freely while it lasts.

5.) Just to re-iterate. If you pull the monster you CAN NOT use HIDE.

I wish fellow thf's good luck. Hide is one of the abilities that makes thf a fun and a challenge.

Being able to hide and use sneak attack should make hate-pasting easier with trick attack as well. You might as well just use SA/TA/Hide on the primary tank to open the battle.

What do they mean by random ?
Can anyone give a range of duration ?

yeah only works on Sight aggro monsters... A great way to take advantage of this is to go Gustav Tunnel at 45 and steal/hide, that way you can rake up some easy gil with mythril Beastcoins. I think the Gobs in Altepa give Mythril Beastcoins on steal as well.
--Happy hunting

I read in the THF forum that Hide makes all aggro go away (the mob's name changes from red back to yellow). Can anyone elaborate on this?

Hide seems to be used in conjunction with Flee when looting Treasure Chests. Since any invis status goes away once you start picking the locks, you can Hide/Flee away right after, and preferably use a scroll of Instant Warp right after. ^_^ Additionally, both abilities have a re-use time of 5 minutes.

Macro:
/ja "Hide" <me>
/wait 1
/ja "Flee" <me>