So I haven't seen anyone talk about this but along with the silent roll you can get in the sneak perk tree, there's supposedly a vanish ability.

Vanish allows the player to enter sneak mode in combat forcing your attacker to focus on another.

So first I want to point out the part "allows the player to enter sneak mode." Now does this mean we can't stay crouched if we are in combat or voluntarily crouch after face-pulling a mob or 2 without having this Vanish ability?

Secondly, what do they mean by sneak mode? Is it an advanced chameleon type sneak mode? Or is it like I have assumed in the previous paragraph, crouching?

I really hope it is like the vanish in world of Warcraft. For the freaking win.. Sooo OP. For those who havent played wow, vanish basically allows you to disappear mid-combat (if you're a rogue) and let's you escape to a safe distance where you can sneak normally and not be seen once the effect wears off.

So basically, sneak up behind a giant, duel daggers and go dragon ball Z on his ass, vanish before he has a chance to know what the hell just happened. Rinse and repeat. OP! :ninja:

sneak mode = crouch?

No, he means pressing the sneak button and making the enemy lose sight of you (assuming that you have sufficient sneak conditions, e.g. cover/darkness).

That's really all it means. It doesn't turn you into the Predator.

My guess is that is't as simple as letting an enemy that knows where you are loose sight of you.
Normally, if you sneak and an enemy sees you, he/she will come darting towards you even if you jump into the shadows. With the "vanish"-perk, my guess is that you'd be able to "get lost" from sight by entering sneak.

(Of course they mean crouching by sneak mode..)

You will be able to crouch in combat.

Sounds like it allows you to actually go stealth in combat when you opponent can see you. Normally crouching when someone sees you means sneak won't activate mode as you can't really sneak when you're being watched. (Or being hit with a sword)

Could be a useful ability for escaping a bad combat situation. ie: facing a tough enemy and you have next to no health left.

And people think Bethesda are concerned about balancing spells like invis and chamelian in a SP game? Why would they bother if they are adding perks like this?

I seriously doubt that this perk will allow you to "vanish" in plain sight. It's probably more like it will let you obtain concealment upon loss of sight. Remember Skyrim has a shadow system as part of stealth.

In Oblivion if you were in "combat" but you were out of your enemy's line of sight, and you tried to sneak, they could still find you. Basically once they were alerted to your presence, you had to kill them or flee. What the vanish perk does is allow you to re-enter sneak mode ASSUMING that you are not within sight of the enemy. So say you are in a dungeon, fighting an enemy, you break off the attack, sprint around a few corners, maybe jump behind some boxes and enter sneak mode, the enemy won't be able to find you.

It may even be a short time duration ability. Good for long enough to get clear oras you say you have to get out of sight first.

And you use of the word attack may imply that it's not effective with multiple enemies.

Crouching puts you into Sneak mode. If you crouch when you're under attack, enemies will still know where you are, unless you have the Vanish perk, in which case you'll do just that - vanish.

This.

No were does it say "in combat". At this point, I'd have to say it's a long bow to draw the OP's conclusion.

In oblivion if you go sneak into the dark while an enemy is engaging you, he'll still know your position and will continue to attack.

What vanish likely means is that you'll be able to run into the dark and go into sneak mode, and the enemy will lose your position because you "just up and vanished into the darkness"