Daily Reminder & PSA: Stealth =/= Invisibility

“If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.”

---

Stealth is not necessarily invisibility, and invisibility is not necessarily stealth. The two are connected, but they are not the same. They cannot be used interchangeably.

Stealth is a mindset and playstyle. Stealth is achieved when you take great care in concealing your movements around the map. It's about skirting the edge of a ward's sight, approaching from an unexpected - unprotected - direction, and ambushing a single enemy en route to gank your ally, with the poor fool having no idea you were watching and waiting for him the whole time. It's about making sure you deny as much info as possible about your whereabouts. If you are truly stealthed then your opponent has no idea what your current position is. Stealth often requires a degree of patience and an awareness of how sight works that most players (at my skill level) don't have.

• For example, did you know that wards grant a second or two of lingering sight after they die? Don't just kill a ward and run off - wait. Don't give the enemy any sense of what direction you went.
• If you're pushing a lane, be aware of the enemy minions sight radius. So often I'll see my opponents (and teammates) telegraph when they're roaming bot or top because they walk out of lane in clear sight of the enemy minions.
• If you're waiting in a brush, and see an enemy pass, wait til they get beyond your field of sight - you will be beyond theirs and can follow them.
• If you're in the enemy jungle, pay attention to the minion wave. The minions' sight extends into the jungle in certain areas (like the lane entrance to Krugs.)

Invisibility on the other hand, is just a powerful form of untargetibility that creates ambiguity as to your position. Every champion has access to invisibility from level 1. This might seem like an outrageous claim, but who would deny that brush turns you invisible? Or cutting corners around terrain, or being enveloped in the Fog of War? It is true, that some champions can become invisible on demand - those champs erroneously being called 'stealth' champions.

• Many of these instances of invisibility are too short to create much ambiguity, such as Vayne and Wukong.
• Unfortunately, some instances of invisibility have a duration that's so long as they effectively become stealthed (in the sense I described above) such as Rengar, Twitch, and Evelynn, and to a lesser extent, Shaco.
• True Sight is a special form of sight that removes the untargetibility aspect from spells and abilities that grant invisibility, often in a way that leaves little room for the user of invisibility to outplay.
• Most instances of invisibility do not have tell-tale signs or audio clues inherent to their function. The exceptions are Rengar, who has his ! icon and unique SFX; Evelynn, who has her distance radius model; and Shaco, who has his puff of smoke.

I think this is something worth clarifying, as I haven't seen any Rioters or players make the distinction between the one or the other. I hope this will be useful to the community in creating awareness of the vision game, and perhaps maybe give the Rioters something to think about. This is also one in a series of posts I'll be making in the coming days as preseason draws near, as Riot has hinted at doing something about 'stealth' (I assume they mean invisibility) and TBH I find the topic fascinating and see no one else talking about it.

1. A Shaco Main thinking about Warwick, and why Warwick's update is crucial to the Vision Game

2. Unpopular Opinion: We shouldn't have Pink Wards on a trinket or SS

3. Xypherous calls wards 'sight sticks' and says something about them 'feels off' - and he's 100% right

GL;HF!

---

Tsze-lu said, “The ruler of Wei has been waiting for you, in order with you to administer the government. What will you consider the first thing to be done?”

The Master replied, “What is necessary is to rectify names.”

“So! indeed!” said Tsze-lu. “You are wide of the mark! Why must there be such rectification?”

The Master said, “How uncultivated you are, Yu! A superior man, in regard to what he does not know, shows a cautious reserve.

“If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success. When affairs cannot be carried on to success, proprieties and music do not flourish. When proprieties and music do not flourish, punishments will not be properly awarded. When punishments are not properly awarded, the people do not know how to move hand or foot.

Therefore a superior man considers it necessary that the names he uses may be spoken appropriately, and also that what he speaks may be carried out appropriately. What the superior man requires is just that in his words there may be nothing incorrect.”

-- Confucius, Analects