Can Persistent Tail be used defensively?

Question

I am unclear if I can use the skill power utility from PHB3 "Persistent Tail" as I am envisioning.

Persistent Tail is as follows:

At-Will
Move Action - Close burst 20
Target: One creature in burst that you can see and that you have cover or concealment against.
Effect: The first time the target moves before the start of your next turn, you can move your speed as an immediate reaction. If you end the movement with cover or concealment against the target, you can make a stealth check to become hidden.

I am creating a build that should have the following characteristics:

• He will have an at-will available to him to create a gap of 2 squares or more available to him.
• He will have persistent tail.
• He will have Oni's Gift (lvl 22 Swordmage Utility) for getting concealment (i.e. invisibility) each round.

If I target a melee only style enemy with persistent tail on my turn, could I effectively avoid getting hit by him each round? (I realize he could still charge me, action point, pull me, etc.)

• My turn: I use a ranged at-will on him and then use persistent tail as my move action.
• His turn: He moves 5 squares so he is adjacent to me. I use my immediate reaction after his movement and trigger persistent tail. I then move invisibly my speed. He then wastes his standard action to double move so he is now beside me.
• My turn. I use an at-will that creates at-least a 2 square gap. I then use persistent tail as my move action on him. Rinse and Repeat.

Would this work as I am intending above as a defence mechanism according to RAW?

Answer 1

There are a few issues with this.

The first is the one that Lucifer points out, this is flat movement, it's not a shift, and unless you have a power that gives you a teleport speed, you're not teleporting either. So if he's adjacent to you, you're eating an opportunity attack to pull this off. However, if you're invisible with Oni's Gift, that's not an issue at all.

The second is that you're burning your move action without actually doing any moving on your turn, and consuming your immediate every round to pull off this strategy against one enemy.

Lastly, this strategy is quite vulnerable to enemies with reach, which at higher levels is almost all of them.

If you do manage to pull this off though, you would be able to attack with CA every round which would be pretty solid, so this is pretty specialized, and might not work well, but if you can pull if off, it's a solid strategy.

Gaining a 2-square gap is fairly easy with the prevalence of at-wills that push or slide and the feat and item support that enhances that further. Depending on your stats and feat availability, there are some interesting shenanigans with polearms that might be worth considering in addition to this.