Curse

ferv0r · Jun 30, 2009, 04:13 PM // 16:13

I usually put plenty of interrupt skills on my heroes. I bring one hero packed full of interrupts (and Discord or lots of Domination to deal damage). Sometimes I scatter inspiration interrupts (and maybe power return) among the heroes for interrupt and energy management. Dragging along the one 'interrupt' henchman is usually not enough to avoid getting splattered by multiple AoE's.

I've been trying various popular hero build teams, like discordway, sabway, racway, etc...and getting destroyed in some areas. A few mobs casting AoE's on my team is enough to wreck them. If I had my usual interrupt hero along, she'd shut them down and it would have been a cakewalk.

How are you guys playing without interrupts...especially in hard mode?

distilledwill · Jun 30, 2009, 04:15 PM // 16:15

I dont know actually, mainly because having a mes or ranger secondary is a little restricting when you could go /Mo and stick a prot in there. You make a good point though, heroes are incredible interupters.

Shayne Hawke · Jun 30, 2009, 04:24 PM // 16:24

Heroes aren't only good at interrupting. I'd say that nine times out of ten, it's better to build your heroes and team to have lots of synergy within the group rather than sacrifice a skill or secondary here and there to interrupt your opponents.

Improvavel · Jun 30, 2009, 04:25 PM // 16:25

Because generally killing the enemy is more time efficient.

Against tough foes daze is more efficient.

Still, I like to slot cry of frustration on my paragons.

Squishy ftw · Jun 30, 2009, 04:25 PM // 16:25

Because not that many skills are worth interupting in PvE.

I normally play with a few solid layers of defense (minion shield, aegis, wards) coupled with plenty of blow stuff up skills.

wilebill · Jun 30, 2009, 04:26 PM // 16:26

fervor, you mean like in RoT HM? Yes, you need interrupt in there.

I just run Sabway, by which I mean I may kick the curses necro in favor of an interrupt ranger or mesmer just depending. And the Sabway builds themselves, the prototypes are most generally useful but if you read the fine print you may need to change them up a bit for a particular area.

Somewhere there is an excellent thread on the different Elites for the MM hero too that is very good reading. I mean, sometimes Flesh Golem with ranged minions works a lot better; but only sometimes.

Racthoh · Jun 30, 2009, 04:27 PM // 16:27

Builds abusing Soul Reaping tend to pack in a lot of defensive skills that can simply deal with whatever may need interrupting. Others incorporate powerful PvE skills ("Save Yourselves!) or lots of passive defense. The usefulness of an interrupt will vary from area to area, mob to mob, while most builds take advantage of skills with more universal use.

Paul Dawg · Jun 30, 2009, 04:29 PM // 16:29

Actually, there ARE hero templates with built-in interrupts. Primary and secondary Me builds are a good example. Leech signet, power drain, tease, cry of frustration--these aren't rarely used skills.

But the main reason is that many outposts include henches with fairly good interrupt capability, and that means it's usually more efficient to have your heroes do more than just interrupt.

Bob Slydell · Jun 30, 2009, 04:38 PM // 16:38

I don't know... I run heroes in PvE with Interrupts and they are little monsters.

tinygod · Jun 30, 2009, 04:52 PM // 16:52

I usually bring a mez interupter, or a ranger interupter.

Personaly they are both good, but I prefer the ranger, only because I can add apply poison to the bar, and use him to spread conditions, and because his interupts are still spikes, where most mez interupts do energy loss (pointless in PVE In my oppinon).

s t e e · Jun 30, 2009, 05:11 PM // 17:11

I guess it would be because hero synergy is > than interrupts. Although I do agree, heroes are excellent for interrupting. I think I will try adding some interrupts to my heroes skill bars and test it out some.

Revelations · Jun 30, 2009, 05:16 PM // 17:16

I often throw Cry on midline heroes with a free skill slot/secondary. It's nice, but throwing an extra layer of defense in is usually just as effective, and more universal.

Gigashadow · Jun 30, 2009, 05:23 PM // 17:23

If you are going to use interrupts, I find the best two interrupts to use are Tease and Cry of Frustration, as they are AOE. Add power drain as well, and you have some nice energy management. Single target interrupts aren't so great, heroes are unlikely to interrupt the right thing, you might as well just use daze or knockdown. Currently I'm getting random interrupts from Anthem of Disruption, which applies itself to party members AND spirit attacks.

A lot builds just plan on conservatively just healing up the damage after it happens, rather than hoping they interrupt the right abilities.

lewis91 · Jun 30, 2009, 06:00 PM // 18:00

I find using your brain works too. If you look ahead and theres a mob with 5 eles with MS or any other strong AoE. Stick Protective spirit on yourself and go aggro, stay close enough to be healed, but watch the eles and move to different areas for MS to be cast.

Or simply flagging your team works if you can see enemies casting MS or any other high AoE dmg...

Vanq'd all of EoTN without one failed area with discord, and 14 areas of NF with sabs.

No problems yet.

But if you insist on carrying an interrupt, i'd vote for Cry of frustration as its an AoE interrupt.

REDdelver · Jun 30, 2009, 06:49 PM // 18:49

Everyone is forgetting one little key Skill that would affect why not to bring too many interrupts

Pain Inverter.

Fact is it just blows things up if you are smart about it. Especially with an Assassins Promise caller. If you play things smart you can Pain Inverter almost every baddie in a mob.

AtomicMew · Jun 30, 2009, 08:17 PM // 20:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by REDdelver

Everyone is forgetting one little key Skill that would affect why not to bring too many interrupts

Pain Inverter.

Fact is it just blows things up if you are smart about it. Especially with an Assassins Promise caller. If you play things smart you can Pain Inverter almost every baddie in a mob.

That's pretty terrible reasoning. EVAS is going to do more damage and be more useful in 99% of the time.

smilingscar · Jun 30, 2009, 08:19 PM // 20:19

I like to look at things this way: If life stealing is offensive healing, then interrupts are offensive protection, capable of preventing large amounts of damage to your party. The problem is, that life steal isn't that good at damage or healing (it simply manages to do both), and interrupts aren't that great at protection or damage (they just sometimes do both). In general it is easier and more effective to allot dealing damage to one skill, and protection to another. Furthermore, a lot more damage can be done by allowing a skill to be activated and then punished (through pain inverter, backfire, etc) and using protections than by interrupting said skill.

That said, throwing p-drains on heroes for energy management is just plain smart. But that's because it's energy management they can actually use well, not because of its offensive capabilities.

REDdelver · Jun 30, 2009, 09:06 PM // 21:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by traversc

That's pretty terrible reasoning. EVAS is going to do more damage and be more useful in 99% of the time.

Yet I'll Ive ever done is let Pain Inverter do the work. AP gives it back to me right away. I used to love having Odura in my party mold, until i got sick of her interrupting key skills/spells while Pain Inverter/AP was on a key foe.

So its not terrible reasoning. I've had an absolute easy time with anything anywhere. Seems like you're terribly lost. Oh wait you dont watch me roll through areas and "tougher" mobs/foes......thus you wouldnt know how terrible it was.

dusanyu · Jun 30, 2009, 09:15 PM // 21:15

Pblock Norgu wins games

example Terrorweb Dryders only use Fire Magic spells in gate of pain Norgu Pblocks them and no God mode 250 Damage Meteor showers or any other skills for a enough time to turn it into hamburger

Fact: a Good Mesmer can be More powerful than any PvE only skill

personly i Slap Leech cignent and Power Drain on Ele heros all the time

AtomicMew · Jun 30, 2009, 09:34 PM // 21:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by REDdelver

Yet I'll Ive ever done is let Pain Inverter do the work. AP gives it back to me right away. I used to love having Odura in my party mold, until i got sick of her interrupting key skills/spells while Pain Inverter/AP was on a key foe.

So its not terrible reasoning. I've had an absolute easy time with anything anywhere. Seems like you're terribly lost. Oh wait you dont watch me roll through areas and "tougher" mobs/foes......thus you wouldnt know how terrible it was.

Things shouldn't be living long enough for PI to do ANYTHING at all. You knocklock with YMLAD and EVAS and then it dies in <1 seconds. The fact that things are living long enough for PI to do something means you are killing very slow. And even if you wanted to let something live longer, you could combo with MoP and EVAS will do easily ~100-200 AoE damage, while PI will always be single target damage. What's more, with PI, you'd need to either bring more prots/heals to live or let your minion wall get demolished for PI to work, which then means you need to bring more prots/heals, anyway.

You are the one who is lost. I've shown you reasons why PI is inferior, but your entier response, you are saying is essentially: "im uber, u suck, watch me roll pve, noob."

Logic works.

Sure, PI will be useful for areas like Frostmaws, but the fact is, 99% of the time, EVAS is better.