Curse

fatboyslimerr · May 28, 2006, 01:50 PM // 13:50

Alright ladies
I recently got asked to take a couple more interrupts than my trustly power leak in a HA group and found myself thinking, wait a minute, how could I have forgotten how impossibly fun and awesome interrupting is. It is however only effective if you can seriously stop a monk or caster from sucessfully casting any spell for a reasonable period of time, especially things like Mantra of Recall. If you can manage to interrupt recall because it doesn't cast too fast and should be easy, they will lose their energy management (which they will try to use when low on energy) and also lose 24-26 energy, which should deplete them.

This is all very well and good but if you intend to sit down and do some serious interrupting (I'm talking about getting strings of 3/4 second casting time spells) then you can't kite/run away as well. You've gotta become a sitting duck basically in order to focus entirely on interrupting spells which they won't be expecting you to interrupt. My point is, can anyone think of a skill, spell or tactic you and or you team could use to allow you to do this without you becoming an easy target for enemy warriors, allowing them to quickly build up they're adrenaline and push off a load of eviscerates etc.

The idea I've come up with is, in GvG, (or PvE if you can think of a situation when an interrupter mesmer might be useful) to use a illusion mesmer with phantasm + IoR as general hex spammer but also to take sympathetic visage, which they can cast on you (the interrupter mesmer). This means every time a warrior hits you, they lose all adrenaline and 3 energy. Meaning they couldn't use they're precious adrenaline skills and would quickly lose energy for using frenzy or sprint. In addition using an elemental with ward of stability to stop them shocking or backbreakering you (or earthshaker in PvE) and so allowing you to interrupt without being interrupted yourself.

I dunno if full interrupting is even that useful against the much love boon prots (or some faster casting PvE casters), but from my experience its definitely an option especially if they are using mantra of recall or energy drain or channelling or guardian etc. They will mostly use RoF which is just impossible to interrupt and mend condition which can only be interrupted with full focus (in my opinion). I realise a lot of boon prot skills are basically spamable so interrupting them won't have an affect. I am however thinking that 2 of the interrupts you use should be: power leak and power drain will have a big effect. If you echo or renewal power leak on the few spells a boon prot cast that are interruptable, thats -50 odd energy to them, followed up with a power drain to regain your energy. Thats them out of it for awhile. Of course against a WoH or other kind of healer, its a lot easier, being able to interrupt they're healing spells pretty much all the time. This means another interrupt spell is needed. So...

Power Leak
Power Drain
Cry of Frustation
Power Spike -- quick recharge but may cause energy problems, possibly energy tap instead
Echo {E} or Renewal {E}
Energy Burn -- for additional e-denial after interrupts
Drain Enchantment
Res

Any thoughts on any of what I've said ??
I think a skilled interrupted, imo, could be more powerful and useful than a e-surger or other e-denial mesmer and again imo, the height of mesmerism is interrupting and being good at it. This is why I want to sort out various problems assoicated with interrupting (sitting duck syndrome).

Eaimirth Etaivella · May 28, 2006, 02:36 PM // 14:36

*insert 3 paragrah lecture on focus swap here*
Mind Wrack is needed to counter focus swap

If you are needing to interrupt a boonprot best to have a ranger just spam it with interrupts imo~

Hella Good · May 28, 2006, 05:49 PM // 17:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eaimirth Etaivella

*insert 3 paragrah lecture on focus swap here*
Mind Wrack is needed to counter focus swap

If you are needing to interrupt a boonprot best to have a ranger just spam it with interrupts imo~

Yea, or covered Daze. Only skills you can hope to get on a Boon Prot are the 3/4-1 cast skills. Namely: Guardian, Mantra of Recall/E-drain, Inspired Hex. I prefer shutting them down with chained Signet of Humility (with MoI), Diversion, and Blackout.

fatboyslimerr · May 28, 2006, 06:05 PM // 18:05

Mehh, Eaimirth after they swap foci, I'll e-burn them, if they swap back I'll let them wallow in self pitty. There are, if you like, support denial skills e.g. e-burn or e-tap which can be used to counter focus swapping or while interrupts are recharging. I will remind ya that renewal e-burn is as good as using e-surge (except AoE dmg) and renewal has a very friendly recharge time.

As for interrupting boon prots in the first place. The build I like to use for GvG(mesmer hex spammer and a water hex snarer) will require a lot of hex removal by the boon prots. Inspired Hex interrupting is a speciality as is mantra of recall or e-drain. I've tested this build a few times and (acknowleding interrupting RoF is impossible and pointless to interrupt) boon prots use enough skills I can interrupt to make it worth while. And with they're measely 3 energy regen (if I interrupt energy management skills) they'll be struggling for energy, which imo is better than using sig of humility, diversion but possibly not blackout.

I'm with eaimirth on this, diversion isn't that great against a boon prot that knows whats he/she is doing. Sure against a crap boon prot that'll cast right through it, its great but how many of those are there around in decent GvG ??
I could try using blackout in it somewhere but I dunno what skill I would get rid of since they are all needed.

Only decent daze skill is concussion or broad head arrow and they aren't worth it imo. The key is a hex heavy build which will force boon prots to use hex removal.

Eaimirth Etaivella · May 28, 2006, 06:53 PM // 18:53

Watching for a foc swap is difficult if both of their swords look the same; and even then with their fc spells they can always quickswap back. Daze may be a good idea but cop still looms in the shadows to kill us all.

Hella Good · May 28, 2006, 07:11 PM // 19:11

Apply Poison + Concussion/Broadhead? Temple Strike? You know I would imagine Daze would be more popular. It's true it's a tough condition to generate (high nrg cost, long time to chain attacks/pump up adrenaline) but it's a devastating condition.

Eaimirth Etaivella · May 28, 2006, 08:39 PM // 20:39

Yet CoP still remains a skill not a spell so regardless of daze it cannot be interrupted by daze effects. If it was covered a quick prot spirit which could easily be timed will suffice for the purpose of cop, that or rof if not under heavy pressure.

Fear the CoP of DOOM!

fatboyslimerr · May 28, 2006, 09:07 PM // 21:07

Lol what would happen if they made CoP a spell. Would it change a lot ? For one thing shame would me more useable which is the only domination energy gain skill.

Also I believe I can counter any focus swapping or energy gain they do by simply renewal power leaky every so often, I know it requires an interrupt but active boon prots will defintely need energy management and its these skills which I hope to exploit with an interrupt. Also that and as I mentioned earlier, forcing them to use hex removal which tend to have longish casting times anyway.

This isn't even the point of the post lol. I'm on about increasing survivability of an interrupter without hindering other attributes. I'm still liking my SV/AV idea at the moment, but can ya think of anything else. If mirror of ice was attacks too it would be simply fantastic if not overpowered but its still good as it is. What I really need is a stance or enchantment lasting about 10 seconds, which is enough time to concentrate on interrupting a few spells (quick renewal power leak), that evades or blocks etc melee attacks. I realise distortion is the choice of mesmers but I just can't stretch my attributes that far. Auspicious parry is another option but it only works for one attack at a time.

So far SV/AV + water hex snares means I can run away from warriors, do a few interrupts but then they catch up but can only do normal attack damage. I know there are things like dark escape but I don't think this is really suited for an interrupter because basically for the time needed to interrupt a few spells I need to become a tank.

Any suggests on this ??

Eaimirth Etaivella · May 28, 2006, 11:47 PM // 23:47

I'm highly considering the parry myself atm~

I'm highly considering a petition to make cop a spell with 1/2 sec cast time...and yes it would make it a big difference to the power of the skill. Daze, Backfire, Shame, ...most importantly I know I could interrupt it.

But anyway~ until then the petition only has one imaginary signing
~signed

fatboyslimerr · May 29, 2006, 08:17 AM // 08:17

lol, you know I would sign. Show me how to interrupt 1/2 sec cast time.
You said you could do 2/3 sec for eviscerate etc but I wanna see this 1/2 sec business.

Think i'll save up faction to buy auspicious parry to start with, see what happens

Eaimirth Etaivella · May 29, 2006, 09:55 AM // 09:55

Have to have "prime conditions"
*ahem* the list
Seven {five} things you need so you can interrupt 1/2 sec spells.
1. Coffee
This is a must; can not do without, you need this more than you need the interrupts really.
2. Trusty T3 Line
Yep need this too; keeping lag minimal is a good thing.
3. No Server Lag
Church hours work best from my experience; that and divine help is always good.
4. Dedication
Been in a mood where the entire city could be blowing up behind you and you couldn't hear it, but couldn't care if you could? That kind of mind set. Extreme tunnel vision here.
5. Somewhat Telekinesis
You don't need to know "when" but aproximately when. Watch their bar, watch it for the small purple arrow/yellow arrow indicator for a condition or hex (usally its the purple one I watch for) then prepare like its going out of style. Glue your nose to the pixels of the screen and as soon as you register a change in color hit the pretty red button.
6. Red paint
Needed to make the red button on your keyboard from number 5.
7. A Sense of Humor
Needed for number 6 and all the times you fail practicing so you won't go insane =p

Now go interrupt some mesmers casting energy drain etc. =p

fatboyslimerr · May 29, 2006, 10:33 AM // 10:33

lol coffee ftw !! I'm gonna try that. I usually just sit there and tensen up with my entire focus on the screen and the second finger on my left hand. Its ok missing one interrupt but its sooo frustrating when you lose focus after missing one so you then miss the subsequent following up interrupts also.
I wish there was an interrupt spell called power recharge or something, that if you interrupted enemy foes spell, it recharges instantly and costs nothing to use. Thus not overpowering interrupting because it has no further affect but increasing the possiblity of constant interruptions.

Energy Drain is easy

I'm trying for mend condition at the moment since its a major skill of boon prots skill useage. But I still haven't resolved the matter of effectively becoming a tank for a short period of time while I interrupt. The skill I'm using at the moment ( with ele secondary for renewal) is armor of mist because it gives you + 28-30 armor and makes you run faster. So you can run away from a warrior, stop, interrupt a bit, maybe take some damage but not a huge amount, then run away some more. It works ok I suppose but it requires a fair few points in water magic to become useful.

Carth` · May 29, 2006, 12:20 PM // 12:20

I know what you mean about needing to be a tank. If you're interrupting those fast spells, you need to be concentrating really hard, almost like tunnel vision, and at times like these you become oblivious of your own health and dangers to you

fatboyslimerr · May 29, 2006, 12:44 PM // 12:44

tunnel vision ftw

agentblade · May 30, 2006, 09:44 AM // 09:44

no lag ftw!!

One of the reasons i gave up being an interrupt mesmer is the fact I kept trying to interrupt and I know I hit the button on time.. but i forgot what I see isn't what I usually get.. LAG!!!!

LightningHell · May 30, 2006, 10:38 AM // 10:38

^

Same situation.

Avarre · May 30, 2006, 10:51 AM // 10:51

same as well Agent, Singapore ftl

LightningHell · May 30, 2006, 11:18 AM // 11:18

It isn't really Hong Kong's fault, but I really shouldn't keep GWG, Messenger, OpenOffice Writer, Photoshop and Coreldraw up when I'm playing Guild Wars. <_<

fatboyslimerr · May 30, 2006, 02:57 PM // 14:57

lol then its your own fault lol. I like my fast broadband and lots of RAM, meaning the only limitation is my mind muhahahaha. There's no stopping me until my coffee runs out.

I think armor of earth might be a good idea to make you a good tank during the period of interrupting, since the speed decrease won't matter, its got a set duration, and its pretty high even with low earth magic. I often find though, that if I miss with power drain or do a double cry of frustation (using renewal) that I'm pretty low on energy for armor of earth. We'll see what happens

Themis · May 30, 2006, 03:22 PM // 15:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatboyslimerr

There's no stopping me until my coffee runs out.

yeah, or end of condition #7 (sense of humour)