Guild Wars 2

One of my biggest disappointments when the game launched was how underwhelming Interrupt based builds were. Even Mesmer only had one semi-viable interrupt build, but now I see a ton of potential. Hopefully after the Specializations patch hits it’ll be possible to run an interrupt focused build on Mesmer, Warrior, and Ranger.

I’m not 100% on the Ranger options since I’m only a novice on it but I’ve spent a good amount of time on Warrior and Mes and I am seriously hyped. Physical Warriors will be able to apply Confusion and gain Might on interrupt and with Mending becoming a Physical Skill and Brawler’s Recovery becoming a Master trait I think it should be possible to not take Berserker Stance and take 2 Physical skills instead.

On Mesmer…hehehehehe…I can’t even begin. I see viable options in both power and conditions and both seem to be pretty strong.

With Ranger now having Moment of Clarity as a Master and Predator’s Onslaught it looks like you can really punish after an interrupt. There’s also Quick Draw which makes it possible for you to reduce the CD of your interrupts.

I’m cautiously hopeful that the next meta will require more skill and will have fewer turrets and master-of-all Celestial bruisers.

Mesmer and ranger interrupt builds… so much gw1 nostalgia right now.

Browrain.7346:

Mesmer and ranger interrupt builds… so much gw1 nostalgia right now.

yepp, one of the things I immediately saw and loved as well! Give credit where credit’s due; so good job ANet!

It’s not only that the interrupts are better, but some traits got made baseline and some traits got mixed together with others and you get more trait-points (still not enttirely sure if it’s 15 in total or 16. ^^‘), so it’s easier to invest into the interrupt-traits.

Not 100% sure if the interrupts, especially Powerblock, will be good enough, mostly because the probably best skill to interrupt is the heal (or some elites) and so many builds just run signets that you don’t cast (Ele, Warrior), skills you can’t interrupt (shelter by the guardian) and skills that have no casttime (withdraw on Thief).

It’s also too easy to fake an action and stow/esc the animation: This was also possible in GW1 and you could instantly recast the skill, BUT you did spend all the energy it cost. In GW2, you only have a small recharge-time: IMHO way too less. For any interrupts to mean sth (that don’t add recast-time like powerblock), the recharge on interrupted or esc/stow-cancelled skills should be higher.

As it is atm. the best skills you will be able to and want to interrupt are channelled skills: they trigger full CD upon activation, so stow-cancelling them will not work as well (only to evade the other negative effects the interrupt has, like dealing dmg). Depending on the meta, this might be enough to warrant taking a few good interrupt-traits, but I’d still like to see a bit higher recharge upon interrupt/cancelling on non-channelled skills.

*Edit: Forgot that warrior F1 and theif in general also spend a ressource on activating certain-skills, so it’s safe to interrupt them as well, cuz they can’t be easily faked.

Rangers are far from their former glory when in comes to interrupting, and I don’t see that that’s about to change coming HoT.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Rangers are far from their former glory when in comes to interrupting, and I don’t see that that’s about to change coming HoT.

that’s only cuz interrupting in general was better in GW1, because interrupted skills had full CD AND you couldn’t fake most skills nearly without any punishment.

in GW2, interrupted skills have a 5 second flat CD and most skills (except channels and anything that costs a ressource like initiative or adrenalin) can just be fake-cast to bait interrupts (or dodges for that matter).

In terms of interrupts themselves, the ranger has pretty decent ones…. they have longer CD’s than distracting shot and savage shot from GW1 (which are the common ones actually used for interrupting and not only spiking), but they also daze/stun for longer durations and deal more dmg – I think they are comparable. It just really is all about how interrupting/cancelling skills in general works in GW2. Could easily be fixed by adding a couple of seconds to recharge of interrupted/cancelled skills and BOOM – one awesome part of GW1 would be back to it’s former glory in GW2! YAAAAY! ^^

+1 for this!! Rupting was mega fun in gw, mby i get to play ranger in the future

OGDeadHead.8326:

Rangers are far from their former glory when in comes to interrupting, and I don’t see that that’s about to change coming HoT.

I’m thinking traited shortbow with QuickDraw will be interesting.

Browrain.7346:

Mesmer and ranger interrupt builds… so much gw1 nostalgia right now.

Broad-Head Arrow was my go-to skill when casters where annoying the hell out of me in fort aspenwood :P

hated random rupt mesmers!