Curse

Fuse · Sep 09, 2005, 09:45 AM // 09:45

Greetings to the guildwarsguru community :)
Please excuse my English since I am not a native English speaker...
Some time ago I wrote a guide on a German Forum. Most of it is newbie Stuff, this is why i am not going to translate the full version of it. But the "How to - Interrupting" part could even be of interest for you pros :)
So here you go:

How To - Interrupting

When playing as an Interrupter, it is very important to study your enemy. You have to know which skills he will use, and when. This is why your Tactic should vary depending on your enemy. You also have to decide if you want to use concussion shot because of the dazed status or if it is better to use distracting shot to deactivate an often used skill. In the following Guide i would like to give a short guideline on advanced interrupting.

~~ Elementalists ~~

* Fire magic:
Fire Magic is all about AoE Effects and endless casting times. What is a fireelementalist without meteorstorm, rodgorts invocation, firestorm etc. Just shoot your concussion shot off and the fire elementalist shouldnt be able to harm anyone anymore. The spammable skills are "Fireball (2s)" and "Flare (1s)". If you can hit one of them with distracting shot, the fire elementalist will just sit there and cry, he wont be able to do just ANYTHING!. You also should wait until he wants to cast one of the spells with the huge casting times so you can land a concussion shot. then he will try to use flare or fireball because they have low casting times (being dazed, casting times are multiplied with 2!). Landing a distracting shot is a piece of cake now :)

* Air magic:
The basic skills which almost every air elementalist is using are "chain lighting (2s)", "Air Attunement (2s)", "Lightning Strike (1s)", "Lightning Orb (2s)", "Lightning Surge (2s)" and some other skills which have only 1s casting time. Here you should always try to land a concussion shot. Actually, you can land it right in the beggining of the fight because most air eles prefer to wait until your monk (or what ever their target is) is in the elementalist's range to cast air attunement and gain the full temporarly benefit of it. Thats your chance, man! TWO seconds! Concussion shot and right again, the elementalist will sit there crying ;) If he casted it while you werent in range then you shouldnt worry, just wait until he wants to use Lightning Surge, Lightning Orb or Chain Lightning (the elementalist should have at least ONE of these skills!!). Then, again, land your concussion shot.

~~ Necromancers ~~

* Blood Magic:
And again, the skills which are suitable for concussion shot are the ones with a casting time of two (or even more) seconds. These are:
Blood Ritual (2s), Life Siphon (2s), Life Transfer (2s), Mark of Subversion (2s), Order of Pain (2s), Order of the Vampire (2s), Shadow Strike (2s), Soul Leech (2s), Well of Blood (2s), Well of Power (2s). This is a whole Bunch of skills and most are very "exotic", i.e. not every necro uses them. But a LOT of necros (especially in the arenas) use both, Life Transfer and Life Siphon. Tomb Necros are teamplayers, they often use the Wells or (if they try to anti-cast) mark of subversion... These are wonderful skills to land a concussion shot on :)
I have rarely seen necros using shadow strike, but i felt mentioning it because the mobs in Hells Principle use it.

* Curses:
Yea, those necros HURT. Too good that they are easy to interrupt ;) Aim for these skills:
Barbs (2s), Desecrate Enchantments (2s), Enfeebling Blood (2s), Feast of Corruption (2s), Insidios Parasite (2s), Lingering curse (3s), Malaise (2s), Mark of Pain (2s), Plague Sending (2s), Price of Failure (3s), Rend Enchantments (3s), Rigor Mortis (3s), Shadow of Fear (2s), Soul Barbs (2s), Spinal Shivers (2s), Spiteful Spirit (2s), Suffering (2s), Weaken Armor (3s), Wither (2s).
As you can see many of the commonly used curse spells have casting times of two seconds (or even three seconds). Actually, all of these skills are often used. Thats why it isnt very hard to interrupt a curse necro ;)

*Death Magic:
You can split Death Magic in up to three parts:
- Minions: Most of the Minionmasters just run around and summon stuff, which takes 2 or even 3 seconds. They arent hard to interrupt.
- Wells: Their casting time is between 2 and 3 seconds, too.
- Touches: Those need less of a second to cast and they arent spells. You shouldnt even try to interrupt them!

~~ Mesmers ~~
Oh yes, the Mesmers. They are known for their Interrupting capabilities. And they are the archfiend of every Ranger out there. Why? Because a party rather gets an interrupter/anti-caster mesmer instead of getting a decent Ranger. Its time to kick the Mesmer's asses, dont you think? ;)
One could think it might be very hard to interrupt a mesmer since they have fast casting and spells with short casting times. Thats wrong! They have a huge weak spot: Backfire! What an ironic skill.. The mesmer wants to cast it so the monk(or another caster) will shoot in his own back when casting spells and actually the mesmer on his own will be doomed! That spell's casting time is whole 3 seconds! even with fast casting 16 the mesmer will need about 1,5 seconds to cast it. Ive rarely met a mesmer who didnt use backfire right at the start of the fight. So, people, look at the mesmer. Look at his face. is he smiling? Then he wants to cast backfire! Time for concussion shot, eheheheheh.... Have fun on harassing those guys :D
Other skills with long casting times are: Diversion (2s), Chaos Storm (2s), Empathy (2s), Energy Burn (2s), Guilt (2s), Panic (2s), Shame (2s), Arcane Conundrum (2s), Ethereal Burden (3s), Fevered Dreams (2s), Migraine (2s), Phantom Pain (2s), Soothing Images (2s), Energy Tap (3s), Ether Feast (2s), Spirit Shackles (3s), Spirit of Failure (3s).
you can forget the skills which the mesmer uses for interrupting. Only if he is dazed, you can try to hit them :)

~~ Warriors ~~
Most of their skills are attacking skills, shouts, stances. Dont even try to interrupt them. The only thing you can try to interrupt is the healing signet or a rez.

~~ Monks ~~
* Protectors:
Most of their skills have no casting time (or casting time <1 s). The best way to interrupt them is to predict when the monk will use which skill. Sounds insane, but with a bit of thinking you REALLY can :)
Skills with high casting times are:
Convert Hexes (2s), Life Barrier (2s), Pacifism (3s), Protective Bond (2s). You will rarely meet a Monk with convert Hexes or Pacifism. The other two skills are enchantments, this means that the monk will cast them before the fight. Generally, it helps if you have a mesmer using migraine and/or arcane conundrum.

* Healing Monks:
The only skills with high casting times are Healing Seed (2s) and Heal Group (2s). If you have warriors in your group, the healing monk will cast Seed quite in the beginning of the fight. Try to hit him with concussion shot.

~~ Epilogue ~~
Well, this guideline was concentrated on using concussion shot. Skills with high casting times often have high recast times. You shouldnt waste distracting shot on them. Better try to hit one of the spamskills like Flare or Orison of Healing with it. How? If your Target is dazed all those skills have double casting times. For sure, the opposing team will use purge conditions or something like that. This means that you can not count on daze. I just try to hit first with concussion shot to have it easier interrupting a spam-skill with distracting shot :)
I hope my translation was not as bad and if this guideline helped at least one guy in this community, my aim is achieved :)
Greetings,
Fuse

p.s.: and yes, i know all of the spells and their casting times by heart. And if you want to interrupt, you should do that, too. Try playing a caster yourself to discover their weaknesses!

p.p.s.: i submitted this guide to other forums, too...

Syno Nym · Sep 09, 2005, 10:28 AM // 10:28

Quite good guide, it could definitly help some people.

BrokenSymmetry · Sep 09, 2005, 10:31 AM // 10:31

Nice guide. This guide is focused on using Distracting and Concussion shot. Where do you think the interrupting preparations (Incendiary Arrows, Choking Gas) do fit in, for an interrupting ranger?

Fuse · Sep 09, 2005, 10:35 AM // 10:35

well the most easy way in interrupting is using both of the preparations in combination with tigers fury. just hit your target with your arrows and thats it

but i rarely use incendiary arrows because i like punishing shot too much... choking gas is a must have for an interrupting ranger IMHO. It doesnt only have an area interrupting effect, it also does interrupt enemy spell casters if you are blind.

Edit: and, using preparations, you can not react as fast as you can do with the bowskills. Another reason why i am not using preparations is simply because of the variety.. activating a preparation and just waiting is boring in long term.
bow interrupts -> skill and reaction

M3lk0r · Sep 09, 2005, 02:15 PM // 14:15

Excellent work! Really helpfull for a newbie-interrupter like me.
Btw what (PvP) bow would you recommend for interrupting? Short Bows up close? or Longbows with "boost"?

smurfhunter · Sep 09, 2005, 02:27 PM // 14:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by M3lk0r

Excellent work! Really helpfull for a newbie-interrupter like me.
Btw what (PvP) bow would you recommend for interrupting? Short Bows up close? or Longbows with "boost"?

you generally want to shoot as fast as you can - i seriously doubt the long bow ever has a use in pvp. so go with short bow. its not like you can avoid aggro with a longbow or anything lol

Fuse · Sep 09, 2005, 03:16 PM // 15:16

shortbow. but composite does well, too. use one of these two for interrupting.

Arathorn5000 · Sep 09, 2005, 03:29 PM // 15:29

If you're just wanting to land quick distracting shots/concussion shots at specific times, you probably want a composite bow...while running choking gas or incendiary arrows, short bow rocks (or flatbow if you have a favorable winds down, that's your best option)

Vusak · Sep 09, 2005, 04:53 PM // 16:53

Interrupting - a supplement:

Almost always pick a shortbow/halfmoon

You want to arm yourself with distracting and savage shot as a minimum, choking gas + practiced stance {E} or incendiary arrows {E} + serpents quickness + tigers fury are both decent options. debilitating shot is nice too, as is called shot, but depends on your team strat.

Elementalist:

casting time is less important here, because most dangerous skills are long casting, just focus on the big damage skills like phoenix, chain, orb, meteor shower - DO NOT USE distracting on them, use savage when possible, these are usually big energy skills that cause exhaustion - you want them to keep trying to use these skills if they get a quick recharge on them, because you can consistently interrupt these skills its best to cause them to try again and lose more energy.

save distracting for the following situations:

spam skills (as noted above).

glyphs, if you see a ele using a glyph, you can be sure they are about to cast something useful, so just send a distracting about .5 seconds after the glyph, because a lot of the time it will be a ward.

if they are smiting, save your distracting for when they spam draw/rof, hitting them then really hurts their typical energy engine, and can ruin the damage on the enemy team.

Mesmer:

mesmers usually have some kind of combo, a sequence of skills that work together, or a way of alternating between targets with a pattern of hexes. usually they finish off with an energy gaining skill to refill after their last wave of hexing.

this is your moment, use savage a few times at first just to slow them up, but note their skill pattern, diversion shame drainench etc. usually you can gamble a distracting shot in after a repeated pattern and get their energy gain skill.

they normally have a couple, so shoot a savage in there just after and you should have crippled their energy gain so they have to recharge the slow way.

once youve locked down their energy, work on their primary hex spam, note the pattern and after a couple of wasted casts they will either give up for a bit or start hexing with whatever they got left. just remember every 20seconds they will be hoping to regain energy again, keep on them.

Monk:

this is where your preparations really make things easier, with so many fast casting skills they are hard to consistently shutdown, but you can learn to read them. a monk needs a certain rhythm or else they end up spamming and overhealing, so they will become predictable after a bit of observation.

start with savages, youll miss a few, but it lets them settle into healing mode, it lets them get confident with their energy pool. fire up a preparation and start harassing them more aggressively - theyll be watching you after being interrupted so consistently - theyll want to know when your preps are being used so they can wait it out and run off some quick heals during recharge.

use that by gambling savage about .5 sec after your first arrow hits that doesnt have a prep effect. then follow it with a distracting straight away.

always use distracting on healing seeds and aegis, you could savage them but you never know when they will get guardian on them and avoid your interrupts, so take them when you can.

against prot monks, its even harder, they sometimes use glyphs before casting aegis - so thats a giveaway. if youre facing a prot that runs enchants like barrier/bond etc. just spam debilitating on them until they use blessed - then distract it. its the ones that spam guardian and reversal etc. that can cause hassles, you really need to get in the way of guardian and aegis otherwise they will almost be able to ignore you. spam debilitating on these guys constantly to force them into protecting themselves so you can land a lucky distracting, read their pattern and psych them out with randomly flung savage/distracts.

Necro:

easy stuff here, use savage more than distracting, because you want them to drain their own energy by attempting recasts. save distracting for when they try energy gaining skills. basically follow the rules of a mesmer - but piss easy with long cast times.

Ranger:

tricky depends on their stances. if they have whirling then youre unlikely to catch them every time. so youre either facing a trapper, interrupter, or maybe a damage ranger.

for damage rangers, distract their quickshot and savage their kindle, too easy most of the time.

for trappers, its good to have called shot with you, dont bother with interrupts, just use called shot as soon as they start trapping - again very easy.

for interrupters its a bit of mind game. if they are targetting you - then dont worry, youre doing your job because they arent working on anyone else. otherwise you want to savage their preparations as much as possible, distracting shot is for the coup de grace that is the distracted distracting shot. its a little gem that you can learn to predict after watching them a bit - if they followup their preparation down time with savage/distract spam - then its fairly simple, otherwise youre gonna have to randomly spam interrupts to screw their timing. if they hesitate to interrupt then their intended victim succeeded in doing whatever they needed to - so it helps your team.

Warriors:

meh, its fun to distract shot these guys coz you might catch a nice skill like hammer bash or penetrating blow, but dont lose sleep over it - its not usually a priority.

Terrain:

being obstructed is your worst enemy, its vital that you stick to the target youve been assigned, so this is when pin down becomes useful. if theyre pinned then whenever they stop to cast you should be in line of sight to stop them. if you cant keep them pinned, then its important get close to them. its better to miss a few interrupt chances by running up close while they cast, then it is to stand still and just miss an interrupt because they sidestepped and youre obstructed again.

if youre constantly being avoided, then its time to tell the team you cant keep your target interrupted because of terrain and you either need to move the battle to a clearer area or swap targets with someone who isnt affect by obstructed.

Conclusion:

if youre new to interrupting and have a choice of target, work on eles and necros.

as you get better, move onto mesmers and rangers.

and when you know your stuff - try monks.

(im assuming good quality players on the enemy team)

cookiehoarder · Sep 09, 2005, 11:30 PM // 23:30

For choking gas and incendiary make sure you have tiger's fury.

Knight of Eternal Darknes · Sep 09, 2005, 11:37 PM // 23:37

for warriors you could use rang secondary

Clumsiness always gets them =D i love when there head kicks back

I Farm Sigils · Sep 10, 2005, 01:04 AM // 01:04

I could have sworn someone said somewhere that Distracting/Savage still interrupt even if they miss. I'm very rarely blind in 4v4, but it seems like I am always able to interrupt those res sigs.

Arathorn5000 · Sep 10, 2005, 06:06 AM // 06:06

erm, pretty sure choking gas is the only one that still interrupts even if it's blocked/evaded.....if your arrow doesn't hit at all, I don't think anything still interrupts the target...

Syno Nym · Sep 10, 2005, 06:40 AM // 06:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arathorn5000

erm, pretty sure choking gas is the only one that still interrupts even if it's blocked/evaded...

It is the only one.

I can't say how many times I missed my Distracting shot due to blindness, but quite a lot...

Fuse · Sep 10, 2005, 08:30 AM // 08:30

WOW Vusak!
Would you mind if i translate your guide and add it into my german one?
And yes, since choking gas does area interrupting it still interrupts if you are blind or miss.
It is also useful to have antidote signet sometimes

Knight of Eternal Darknes · Sep 10, 2005, 02:10 PM // 14:10

Fuse

Inc arrows+frag build i believe intirrupts a warrior pretty easy

Fuse · Sep 10, 2005, 02:16 PM // 14:16

i dont see the point in interrupting a warrior..
try inc arrows + frag with zero wilderness survival and high illusion magic

Ollj · Sep 10, 2005, 02:45 PM // 14:45

this guide is important and 2 monts or 2 years late.

Fuse · Sep 10, 2005, 05:04 PM // 17:04

sry i dont get you Ollj. do you mean that there is another, older guide with the same strategies? If yes, then accept my apology

M3lk0r · Sep 10, 2005, 05:38 PM // 17:38

I didnt exactly get an "A" in English (its my 3rd lang.) but I THINK he means it as a compliment :P