Curse

XvArchonvX · Jun 22, 2006, 01:14 PM // 13:14

I think the confusion on the drescription of Distracting Shot comes from the two definitions of the word 'Skill' used in GW. I searched GuildWiki and came up with these two definitions:

Skill
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Skill_type

Skill (Skill Type)
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Skill_%28Skill_type%29

I tested out Distracting Shot to see if it actually added the extra 20 second recharge when using spells by running outside Augary and letting myself get interupted with Dist. Shot while casting spells like Fireball and Rogdort's Invocation. At first I thought that it had no effect because I experienced no extra recharge. After trying a few other times I did realize that the extra recharge time was there. The reason I didn't experience this at first I believe was because of the faster skill recharge mod on my ele's Rago staff. After testing this out with other characters and allowing myself to get interupted using Signets and other spells, I did find that the recharge time did apply.

One thing I have not tested yet however is whether distracting shot adds the recharge time to Binding Rituals. I do not currently have a ritualist that has reached Augary Rock, nor has been to any other place that has enemies that use Dist. Shot that I know of, so I would be interested if someone else could check this out. Maybe later on I can find a guildie online that can test it with me in a scrimage, but I have to leave soon, so I can't do so now.

The reason I am curious about binding rituals is because in the usage notes of GuildWiki listed under Distracting Shot, it says "Attacks made by binding rituals are not counted as skills."

This is found here:
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Distracting_Shot

If this is true, I wonder if this would be due to a glitch or if A-net intended for this to happen. Any feedback on this is appreciated.

Sha Noran · Jun 22, 2006, 01:22 PM // 13:22

Lasher Dragon: Like I said, you're wrong.

XvArchonvX: Wrong. As I just posted, testing with an Alliance buddy proved that Distracting Shot adds the recharge to any skill on your bar.

EDIT: Just thought I'd add, saying that either the Flatbow or the Longbow has the longest range is true in both cases. They share the range with each other, however, it is still the longest range.

XvArchonvX · Jun 22, 2006, 01:48 PM // 13:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sha Noran

XvArchonvX: Wrong. As I just posted, testing with an Alliance buddy proved that Distracting Shot adds the recharge to any skill on your bar.

I edited my post right after I actually posted it due to further testing. Like I said above, the lack of recharge time because of the mod on my staff. I guess I got a little hasty on my post. =P

Lasher Dragon · Jun 22, 2006, 02:06 PM // 14:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lasher Dragon

There is no implication - Distracting Shot works EXACTLY as it is described. I have been playing my ranger since the betas, and I have never seen an enemy use a skill less than 20 seconds after I have Distracting Shot it.

What happened, you might ask? Why did you see such-and-such monster use a skill after you had Distracting Shot them? Simple - you missed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sha Noran

Lasher Dragon: Like I said, you're wrong.

Where was I wrong? You and your buddy went out and tested Distracting Shot, and came up with.... exactly what the damn description says it does.

Lasher Dragon · Jun 22, 2006, 02:16 PM // 14:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by XvArchonvX

One thing I have not tested yet however is whether distracting shot adds the recharge time to Binding Rituals. I do not currently have a ritualist that has reached Augary Rock, nor has been to any other place that has enemies that use Dist. Shot that I know of, so I would be interested if someone else could check this out. Maybe later on I can find a guildie online that can test it with me in a scrimage, but I have to leave soon, so I can't do so now.

The reason I am curious about binding rituals is because in the usage notes of GuildWiki listed under Distracting Shot, it says "Attacks made by binding rituals are not counted as skills.

What they are saying is that you cannot Distracting Shot the Ritualist's spirits. Take for example the Pain spirit. If you watch it, it spams what would appear to be a skill called "Pain". However, since it is technically NOT counted as a skill, it is immune to Distracting Shot. Which makes sense, because otherwise 1 Distracting Shot completely shuts a spirit down for 20 seconds.

Sha Noran · Jun 22, 2006, 02:40 PM // 14:40

Lasher Dragon: You implied that the reason for the enemies continual spamming of a skill after I interrupted it with Distracting Shot as "You missed." Wrong. I didn't miss. I'm stating facts and you're telling me I missed. It's pretty damn obvious whether or not you hit an interrupt. I don't even care if you believe me anymore, but yes, it is a fact, some higher level monsters have multiple copies of certain skills, making Distracting Shot less effective.

Lasher Dragon · Jun 22, 2006, 02:45 PM // 14:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sha Noran

Lasher Dragon: You implied that the reason for the enemies continual spamming of a skill after I interrupted it with Distracting Shot as "You missed." Wrong. I didn't miss. I'm stating facts and you're telling me I missed. It's pretty damn obvious whether or not you hit an interrupt. I don't even care if you believe me anymore, but yes, it is a fact, some higher level monsters have multiple copies of certain skills, making Distracting Shot less effective.

Which? You claim to state facts - OK, post what monsters have multiple copies of the same skill, so that these "facts" can be verified by anyone interested in doing so. In 1300+ hours as a ranger, I have never seen it, not once, anywhere.

Sha Noran · Jun 22, 2006, 03:05 PM // 15:05

It doesn't happen everytime, it's not like, "every x monster has 2 of x skill", but there are a few places you could check if you'd like...

I've seen Monk bosses in Sorrows with two copies of Orison.

I've seen Stone Summit Gnasher's with two copies of Plague Touch.

There's two easy ones you can go and try to find in one general area. As I've said, I don't care if you believe me, but I'm not just crazy. I've had other people confirm it. It could be something waky, like, the monster got lucky and spawned with a 1/2 Skill Recharge staff or something, but that's unlikely.

Happy hunting, I'm done discussing this in particular.

Lasher Dragon · Jun 22, 2006, 03:26 PM // 15:26

I've never seen any Gnasher with dual Plague Touch, and believe me I've killed my share of them. In fact, if any of them would have had 2 copies of Plague Touch I would quickly realize it, as my preferred method for dealing with them involves laying traps, then shooting them with Apply Poison, and watching them waddle their fat little asses up to me, only to Distracting Shot their Plague Touch just as my traps go off. I have repeated that exact sequence of events hundreds, if not thousands of times, and never once have I seen a Gnasher use Plague Touch after a successful Distracting Shot. Sure, I have MISSED the Plague Touch, and he of course spams it again, giving me Poison and usually Burning back, but that is not because he has two copies of Plague Touch. Luckily, I usually have Oath Shot, so I simply Oath, then catch his next Plague Touch with my newly recharged Distracting Shot.

floplag · Jun 22, 2006, 03:29 PM // 15:29

lasher ... maybe i wasnt clear there ... i did not say it has a longer range than a longbow ... i said it has the longest range (along with the longbow) AND the highest arch .. thus making it a better choice for pulling than a longbow based on common range, and the ability to get tthe shot off and get out faster based on the .31 seconds longer flight time to target on the flat

Sha Noran · Jun 22, 2006, 03:42 PM // 15:42

Lasher Dragon: I certainly don't doubt what you say, but I'm not crazy and neither are the people who have confirmed that it's happened (in general, not just Plague Touch). I know what I saw. The only conclusion that I can reach is that it's some sort of bug... I didn't just miss, and they used the skill again before the 20 seconds was up. Don't ask me, but I know it happens.

XvArchonvX · Jun 22, 2006, 05:43 PM // 17:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lasher Dragon

What they are saying is that you cannot Distracting Shot the Ritualist's spirits. Take for example the Pain spirit. If you watch it, it spams what would appear to be a skill called "Pain". However, since it is technically NOT counted as a skill, it is immune to Distracting Shot. Which makes sense, because otherwise 1 Distracting Shot completely shuts a spirit down for 20 seconds.

Ahh, thanks for the clarification. Now that I go back and reread the statement, it does say attacks BY binding rituals and not attacks TO binding rituals.

As for this whole monsters with duplicate skills, I honestly have never encountered such. Admittedly my experience with Sorrow's Furnace was primarily with either a Tank, Necro, or Monk, back when 5-man farming was very profitable.

One thing to consider is that monsters may have weapons that allow fast recharges on skills just like players do. What may be happening is that you interupt with distracting shot and the monster gets the quick recharge bonus from the weapon and thus lessening the recharge so that it may appear as though it has a duplicate skill. After my test with my ele I wouldn't be surprised if this was what was happening.

Legendary Shiz · Jun 23, 2006, 02:10 AM // 02:10

Very nicely explained guide. Just thought I'd give out props

xnightmythx · Jun 23, 2006, 02:30 AM // 02:30

Sha and Archon,

I just wanted to say thanks for both of your responses and advice.
While these discussions may get heated and cause frustration, it is doing us that read them the greater good. Just thought you guys should know.
We appreciate it.

XvArchonvX · Jun 23, 2006, 02:55 AM // 02:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by xnightmythx

Sha and Archon,

I just wanted to say thanks for both of your responses and advice.
While these discussions may get heated and cause frustration, it is doing us that read them the greater good. Just thought you guys should know.
We appreciate it.

I know I from my debate with Sha I have thought about skills and builds in ways I hadn't before. I'm glad others have gained from our debates as well. ^_^

Solvi · Jun 23, 2006, 07:28 AM // 07:28

Thanks Sha for the guides. Good reading at work! And thanks XvArchonvX for the stimulating debate. You both have me thinking about how to better the builds I have. However this distracting shot thing still has me confused. My understanding of this is that 1) it WILL INTURUPT both a skill and a spell but 2) ONLY make a SKILL wait 20 seconds for the recharge. so SPELLS like plague and orision WILL be inturpted but STILL could be used immediatly afterwards....You guys seem to think this is not the case though...is that right? or am i reading what you are saying wrong?

Sha Noran · Jun 23, 2006, 07:37 AM // 07:37

I'm really glad it's helping. That's the idea after all. :-D

EDIT:

Solvi: Sorry, you posted as I did. :-)

Distracting Shot will interrupt everything. It will also "distract" the skill interrupted for 20 seconds. This is a proven fact.

The debate we're having regarding that skill is that occassionally, for whatever reasons, some monster's skills will fail to be distracted, and they will use them again almost immediately after interruption with Distracting Shot. The conclusion that my guild and I cam up to regarding this was that some enemies must have multiple copies of certain skills, but this is not proven; it is more likely, admittadely, that this is some sort of bug.

And Plague Touch is a Skill, not a Spell.

Jenosavel · Jun 24, 2006, 12:53 PM // 12:53

I'd like to back up Sha Noran and make another point disagreeing with him at the same time.

Don't take it personally, buddy.

First off, the monk bosses in Sorrow's Furnace do indeed have two copies of Orison on their bar. I've played the interruptor down there enough times to know. When you hit Orison with Distracting Shot, you know it. You see the progress bar do all of its "I've been interrupted!!" stuff, and when you're the only interuptor on the team there's no question as to what happened. Regardless of this, the boss will keep casting Orison until you Distracting Shot that one too. If you're good/lucky enough (usually the latter for me, but I have done it) to get the second one as soon as Distracting Shot recharges, you'll find that the boss does stop casting Orison for a while.

So clearly the boss has two copies of Orison. No more and no less. I'm actually surprised at the number of people arguing the point here. I thought it was common knowledge, since I remember the very loud griping going on here when that was first discovered.

Now then, back to the flatbow issue. To put it a bit more in perspective, the difference between the longbow and the flatbow's attack rate is almost exactly the same as the difference between the sword/axe and the hammer's attack rate. If a hammer had the same damage range as a sword or axe, it would be laughed completely out of the game for a damage weapon. I see the longbow in the same light. (Heck, it's almost as bad as the attack rate difference between the bear and any other pet, we all know how seriously people take the bear as a damage dealer) If a weapon has the same damage range but a terribly slower speed then it simply isn't worth it. On top of that, flat bonuses (bonuses on a per-arrow basis) such as preparations or vamp/zealous strings benefit incredibly more from the Flatbow's higher rate of attack.

To address your (much) earlier rebuttal about a warrior running from caster to caster in the backline tearing up your softies while you can't hit, I'd like to point out that when that happens it's almost your duty as a harder target to be right in there with your casters standing still in hopes an enemy will switch from a kiting softie to you. In that case you're more than close enough to hit even a moving enemy with a flatbow, and if you still didn't feel comfortable you could easily switch to a shortbow at that range.

The real power of the flatbow is that it allows you the offensive power of the shortbow with the flexibility and range of the longbow. The fact that enemy AI isn't yet smart enough to take advantage of the poor flight-time means that a faster flighttime isn't necessary in the vast majority of cases. I'd rather have a bow that outperforms in those vast majority of cases and which I can force to work just as well (through positioning, not RTW/FW) in a bind, than to have a bow that will always be substandard but reliable. It comes down to a gamble which I for a long time was unwilling to make, like you. However, one time of sitting side by side with a Flatbow user and watching us hit all of our attacks while he was firing arrows off so fast I might as well have been a granny, and I've never gone back. The little bit of gamble is more than worth the rewards you reap if you learn to force your hand a bit.

ubermancer · Jun 24, 2006, 12:59 PM // 12:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sha Noran

ubermancer: True, in many cases monsters will just stand there, however once they start moving you're chance of hitting something gets flushed. The Longbow is a better all around bow, and therefore that's my choice. As I said, Flatbow could be used, but I don't see why you wouldn't use something that's just better.

The flatbow preserves DPS while maintaining a very nice range. If things move, switch to recurve or long, by all means, but if you are trying to dish out damage, and things arent moving, use a flatbow.

Plus, its not like if your team is trying to kill things without scattering them (which is ideal if your specced DPS) you cant kill everything without them ever moving.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lasher Dragon

Which? You claim to state facts - OK, post what monsters have multiple copies of the same skill, so that these "facts" can be verified by anyone interested in doing so. In 1300+ hours as a ranger, I have never seen it, not once, anywhere.

Lets see, Shadow Warriors and Abyssals dual equip (or maybe its just one or the other, I forget), as do the priests inside Sorrow's Furnace. Ive soundly hit a Disrupting Chop only to have them resume casting Orison of Healing immediately.

It really is true that some mobs dual equip.

Sha Noran · Jun 24, 2006, 01:11 PM // 13:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jenosavel

First off, the monk bosses in Sorrow's Furnace do indeed have two copies of Orison on their bar. I've played the interruptor down there enough times to know. When you hit Orison with Distracting Shot, you know it. You see the progress bar do all of its "I've been interrupted!!" stuff, and when you're the only interuptor on the team there's no question as to what happened. Regardless of this, the boss will keep casting Orison until you Distracting Shot that one too. If you're good/lucky enough (usually the latter for me, but I have done it) to get the second one as soon as Distracting Shot recharges, you'll find that the boss does stop casting Orison for a while.

So clearly the boss has two copies of Orison. No more and no less. I'm actually surprised at the number of people arguing the point here. I thought it was common knowledge, since I remember the very loud griping going on here when that was first discovered.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ubermancer

Lets see, Shadow Warriors and Abyssals dual equip (or maybe its just one or the other, I forget), as do the priests inside Sorrow's Furnace. Ive soundly hit a Disrupting Chop only to have them resume casting Orison of Healing immediately.

It really is true that some mobs dual equip.

Booya, I knew I wasn't crazy. I was hoping someone would publically agree with me eventually. Thanks for the confirmation.

As for the bow type argument, I honestly give up. It seems clear to me by now that most people are going to use the type of bow they like best and aren't going to care much about discussion otherwise. If you really like Flatbow so much, go for it. I find it's arc to be horrible, and despite the fact that it's usable in many situations does not change the fact that it's horrid in others. In my opinion, Longbows are the most versitile and usable in most situations.

My official stance (Escape!... no wait) is that Longbows are the best. Continue to debate it as you will, I will not deny you your right to your opinion as I would hope you wouldn't deny me mine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jenosavel

To address your (much) earlier rebuttal about a warrior running from caster to caster in the backline tearing up your softies while you can't hit, I'd like to point out that when that happens it's almost your duty as a harder target to be right in there with your casters standing still in hopes an enemy will switch from a kiting softie to you.

Absolutely, I wouldn't ever argue with that. Your higher armor level makes it your duty to hope that that crazy Skeletal Berserker will slow the f*** down and pick you as it's target, but you can't say that will always happen. They're probably going to run around anyway, whether you're standing there looking helpless or not.