Curse

yCoRrUpT · Aug 22, 2009, 10:18 PM // 22:18

sup, i've been playing a ranger as my main, and i've found it really hard to interrupt skills that have 1 second cast time or under, such as word of healing. my team counts on me to interrupt these skills but i find it almost impossible to get interrupt them without being lucky/intuitive
all of the ranger's interrupt skills that 1/2 seconds to cast, and the arrow alone takes 0.40 seconds with the fastest bow, that 0.9seconds. i did a reaction time test and found my reaction time to be at around 0.22 seconds, so how am i supposed to interrupt 3/4 + 1 second skills without getting lucky?

tuna-fish_sushi · Aug 22, 2009, 10:23 PM // 22:23

Watch your opponents on the battlefield, If you see the monk get knocked down they tend to generally cast a spell as soon as they get up, so be ready. Daze helps a lot when trying to get quick casting spells. They mostly use WoH when a teammate or themselves gets under 50% health so that is also a good indication. Other then that you just gotta get lucky.

zelgadissan · Aug 22, 2009, 10:27 PM // 22:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by yCoRrUpT

all of the ranger's interrupt skills that 1/2 seconds to cast, and the arrow alone takes 0.40 seconds with the fastest bow, that 0.9seconds.

Nope. It says 1/2 cast, but the arrow leaves the bow after 1/4. The rest is flight time, I don't know about the .4 but if that's correct it'd be .65s. EDIT: also, if you stand closer to your target, it obviously will hit the target faster, making it easier to interrupt.

Two other tips to help:

1) make the enemy's skill activation bar as big as it can possibly be. Seriously, for whatever reason it helps.
2) Get a better ISP (aka lower your ping)

Also, go practice against the Master of Healing. Bring a hero to output some damage, and you try to interrupt what he casts. One of the things I used to do was bring a hammer hero and have him KD, then try to time an interrupt to quarter-rupt when he stands up since he'll usually use RoF or PnH (bring Crushing Blow on the hammer) upon standing. I still can't do it every time but it certainly helps.

The Air Revenger · Aug 22, 2009, 11:34 PM // 23:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by zelgadissan

1) make the enemy's skill activation bar as big as it can possibly be. Seriously, for whatever reason it helps.
2) Get a better ISP (aka lower your ping)

this and hotkey your interupts to keys you can press quickly for some its 1 or 2 but for me i use the back/forward buttons on my mouse and it works wonders

lewis91 · Aug 22, 2009, 11:58 PM // 23:58

This can be awkward, but you should watch your target, and predict when he's about to use it, and then interrupt. Saying that though, i'm not the best interrupter ^^

Fate Crusher · Aug 23, 2009, 12:13 AM // 00:13

Watching a large bar for activation times can be helpful, but not for overall gameplay. you put yourself out there and can end up becoming too focused that you lose concentration of your field position. This can defenitely have side effects in GvG situations where the ranger is meant to follow splits.

I'd recommend that you rather watch the animation of the characters as well as an activation bar that is slightly above the central point of your screen, so you can still observe surroundings and still focus on both the character's animation and their skill activation.

You can also experiment with the rest of your HUD so that it better suits surveying the radar and moving your skills to the corner so more viewing space is available.

Hotkeying interrupts to your mouse or even anywhere you feel comfortable and quick to reach, will also be beneficial but will take time getting used to.

Your reactions are fine, maybe looking into playing with a mesmer, it's much easier.

Zodiac Meteor · Aug 23, 2009, 01:18 AM // 01:18

I find predicting works wonders. If the monk health falls below ~50%, fire and interrupt. If a team member AoE 2 people you know a heal is coming. If he's taking damage from a melee get ready to fire that arrow. It doesn't always work but I guarantee you when it works the monk will be in peril because either the elite is disabled or a vital quick heal is shut down.

You would be surprised how many word of healings I d-shoted from earshot.

turbo234 · Aug 23, 2009, 02:03 AM // 02:03

if you haven't already, bind your skills to the keyboard so they are easier to reach. the original 1-8 just doesn't work well.
as others have said try to practice rupting on people standing up from a kd. 9/10 times they will have an action queued so timing can help you interrupt it.
the others posters have covered alot of it but mostly just practice and improve your reflexes.

yCoRrUpT · Aug 23, 2009, 04:26 AM // 04:26

any tips for interrupting in hm? is there no point in taking interrupts since their casting time is quicker?

Ugh · Aug 23, 2009, 05:52 PM // 17:52

A low ping will make interrupting much easier. If your ping is about 100 or less, you're in pretty good shape. If it's above 200, that could be why you're having trouble.

Another thing you could do is adjust your interface to make the target casting bar longer.

Edit:
Interrupting isn't nearly as useful in HM PvE as it is in PvP. It's nice to bring an interrupt for some hard hitting skills, but the -33-50% casting time make interrupting much more difficult. You're not going to be interrupting 2/3 second casting time skills unless you're spamming, predicting, or have amazing reflexes/ping.

MisterB · Aug 23, 2009, 06:41 PM // 18:41

Bring Broad Head Arrow or some form of daze in HM PvE to interrupt. Interrupt skills are less useful as said above, but you can still hit 2 second and up skills if you fire between point blank and spear range. Assuming your ping isn't too high, that is. Interrupts can still be useful to stop things like Aegis, Fire magic, or res skills, as some of those have higher activation times.

Attius · Aug 25, 2009, 12:15 PM // 12:15

If you are the interrupter in your team, then bring BHA to daze casters.
And bring IAS skills too like Lightning Reflexes. If you have EotN you can combine it with Dwarven Stability or use Rapid Fire.
Sometimes I use the epidemic+volley combination for mass-interrupts.
Also there is the asuran skill Technobabble. It can be useful too.

superraptors · Aug 28, 2009, 10:09 AM // 10:09

really depends on your ping and frames if you want to be a consistent interrupter, reaction not so much

Tenebrae · Aug 28, 2009, 12:50 PM // 12:50

Skill , reflexes and know your enemy , thats all . Technobabble does the rest , use it when target is on 50%hp or about to be .

Marverick · Aug 29, 2009, 01:40 AM // 01:40

In PvE HM, reflexes are the worst things to rely on. Know that enemies spam skills back-to-back on recharge. As a Ranger, this allows you to land Concussion Shots with high accuracy, thus dazing the target and rendering him unable to cast anymore.

PvP I always have ping varying from 100-300ms so I miss like all my interrupts when my ping spikes up... how exactly do you get your ping to <100 without moving right next to ANet headquarters? I tried a 2MB/sec+ internet on a college campus and I still had orange ping....

Sir Mad · Sep 01, 2009, 05:37 AM // 05:37

You may want to get closer to your oponent as well (the closer the faster the arrow hits). And obviously use a recurve bow (or eventually a short bow) if the team really relies on your interrupts.

Else, yeah, it's also a matter of anticipating. It's pretty easy in PvP, unless you fight a fast casting bot. Elementalists for exemple love to spam skill - just throw an arrow and you're pretty sure to interrupt something. As for monks, try to observe them first: most of the players have bad habits and use to chain the same skills over and over. So use an interrupt not when you see the guy is using a skill (except for skills with a long cast time of course) but when you think he's gonna use it. Some good oponents will try to fool you and use another skill before, or wait a bit, so you waste your interrupt and they can cast the skill they want, but you can (possibly) counter that in using a second interrupt right after. You can't really call that PvP but I had fun recently in Jade Quarry/Aspenwood with a build with Distracting Shot, Savage Shot, and Leech Signet, and with such a build, you can just spam your interrupts all the time, you're gonna interrupt everything - I don't try to interrupt a skill, I just use interrupts, and they work.

In PvE, indeed, if you're in one of the very few areas requiring a dedicated interrupter, BHA is the best option. But really, you don't need to be a dedicated interrupter in most of the areas - anyway there's a great BHA henchie in Cantha/NF/EotN. There are a few monks bosses IG that refuse to die (like this Mursaat boss - I don't remember the name), but in this case, just keep some preasure on him so he uses his heals on himself and kill the mobs around. When it's safe, just hug him and distract his main healing skill. It's not too hard. But really, get as close as you can.

Master Ketsu · Sep 04, 2009, 10:11 AM // 10:11

Good Reflexes comes secondary to good ping when it comes to interrupting. Just a little FYI.

If your ping is any higher than 150, rupting 3/4 cast skills will be a problem because your client will always be behind what is actually happening on the server and your rupt takes time to get to the server.

For instance, say you have 300 ping and some Monk casts Zealous Benediction.

You see him casting ZB 50 or so miliseconds after he actually does ( hard to gauge DL speed ), your Dshot takes 250 milliseconds to "cast", and you will have to wait 300 ms for your ranger to actually take action plus some more time 50~200ms for the arrow to reach its target . Add this to human reaction time ( roughly 60~200ms depending on how leet you are. We will just say 120 ) This means that your total fail time is somewhere around 800ms. ZB takes 750 to cast. ZB wins.

Stop using wireless.

Taurean · Sep 04, 2009, 10:47 AM // 10:47

Nature's renewal i always carry if i'm interrupting.

I bring all the interrupt skills including Broad head arrow, then just throw them at the enemy and you will interrupt a lot of skills.

Tenebrae · Sep 04, 2009, 12:32 PM // 12:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Master Ketsu

Good Reflexes comes secondary to good ping when it comes to interrupting. Just a little FYI.

Congratulations , you won the "stating the obvious" award. I should have said Good Reflexes dont matter if you dont have a monitor but you were faster. We are guessing normal conditions here , not high ping , having keyboard and shortcuts near fingers and so on.
Ofc if you have bad ping and the other ranger doesnt , he will interrupt and you wont but in the SAME conditions :

- 1)Skill and 2)reflexes .

Quote:

Originally Posted by Master Ketsu

Stop using wireless.

Stop DL porn on BTorrent and Emule while playing ¿?¿?¿?¿?.

Darkpower Alchemist · Sep 17, 2009, 11:31 PM // 23:31

The art of the twitch (My name for ranger interupting) is easy to see, but hard to fully grasp. BHA is not for the twitch master, for it is a default daze. Unlike concussion shot, which takes actual skill. Punishing shot, savage, distracting, disrupting shots all fall into the need for true twitch control.

This is developed, not discussed. Lag may be a temporary problem, but the control of this art form with a bow is mostly hand/eye coordination. Practice, practice, practice. 4yrs+ of Ranger play and that is my advice to you.