Guild Wars 2

Against a Dagger/Pistol thief, I know you can interrupt the normal combo of Black Powder/Heartseeker by interrupting the Heartseeker.

But is there a way to interrupt this combo?
Pre-cast Black Power/Steal/Heartseeker

Will the target be blinded immediately, negating any interrupt attempt? Just curious. I find myself using it as much as I can.

If the thief is further away than your interrupt you cant rupt it… but if you’re asking if the black powder shot blinding you prevents interrupts… yes and no. Being a thief with an instant interrupt (mesmers with the mantra can do this as well) all you have to do is dodge the blinding shot, then rupt. This is difficult if you’re planning to interrupt them with a skill that has a cast time.

tldr; no, just dodge the black powder shot from the pistol 5 and proceed to interrupt

King.1985:

tldr; no, just dodge the black powder shot from the pistol 5 and proceed to interrupt

Does that work if I teleport the Black Powder with me on steal? That is to Black Powder right on top of the target. Or, as the attacking thief, is it best for me to auto-attack until the 2nd pulse before I Heartseeker for stealth and Backstab?

You can interrupt the black powder animation itself, but it’s got a quick casttime so you have to be ready for it. (In other words, black powder isn’t instant, so you can interrupt it before it’s cast. In that case, the thief will teleport onto you without any black powder down).

If he’s comboing black powder with steal, then you’ll need an instacast interrupt (such as your own steal, or mesmer f3/mod) to interrupt. If you try to Pistol4 the other thief’s BP animation while he’s stealing, his steal will probably interrupt your Pistol4 attempt.

But as King said, your best bet is to dodge the steal+bp combo (which will be a bit random since steal is instacast) and then interrupt the HS. That way you force the thief to miss his steal (which is more valuable than eating the steal but interrupting the BP).

So are we talking very high-level interrupt skills required?

What professions have insta-cast interrupts?

Kageseigi.2150:

So are we talking very high-level interrupt skills required?

What professions have insta-cast interrupts?

Thieves’ pistol 4. :P

borgs.6103:

Kageseigi.2150:

So are we talking very high-level interrupt skills required?

What professions have insta-cast interrupts?

Thieves’ pistol 4. :P

0.25s cast time is insta now? nope.

Thieves: Traited Steal
Mesmer: Mantra
(dont know whether mesmers trait that copies the stun effect on you to your target also counts/would help you in this situation)

You can just trash Cry of Frustration to clear a blind or Aegis then use Diversion simulatenously/immediately after to interrupt heartseeker. If you have greatword out, the autoattack can clear the blind before the steal easily.

The thing about steal though, is that you need to predict when a thief will use it.

If you see a thief standing in black powder a distance away from you, then you probably want to either stealth, dodge, or distort as a mesmer, when you see the thief is activating heartseeker. If you do this and the thief planned on using steal, they might blow it on nothing. At the very least though, if you stealthed, you bought yourself time to reposition.

The other option you might have as a mesmer is to be aggressive, you can blink to just outside the blackpowder and daze or greatsword 5 from there. If you were blinded, you’re in range to reliably clear it with any auto attack even if you don’t have greatsword out and then you can land you’re daze.

What you do depends a lot on the conditions and boons that are on each of you. The main point though is that, vs steal you want to be proactive in delaying/denying it’s use through well placed/chained invuln’s, evades, stealths, and positioning. The other point is that vs blackpowder heartseeker, you want to interrupts it’s combo during the heart seeker. Mesmer has the tools to do both of these, even when BP+HS+Steal are used as a combo.

Tarkan.5609:

borgs.6103:

Kageseigi.2150:

So are we talking very high-level interrupt skills required?

What professions have insta-cast interrupts?

Thieves’ pistol 4. :P

0.25s cast time is insta now? nope.

Thieves: Traited Steal
Mesmer: Mantra
(dont know whether mesmers trait that copies the stun effect on you to your target also counts/would help you in this situation)

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Headshot

So, basically, the only way to counter this combo is by avoiding the Steal, correct? Unless someone manages to interrupt the BP pre-cast before Steal? Especially if Sleight of Hand is traited.

Pre-Cast BP+Steal+HS
https://youtu.be/EBoDa3m0uws?t=284

If the Steal does connect, is there anyway to avoid the initial blinding?

By the way, when does the interrupt from Headshot take place? Is it instant, or does the projectile have to connect first?

if you start casting your interrupt before he teleports it should work, I’ve done it with over charge shot (engi rifle) and knock back shot (ranger longbow). Or just get some revealed on him if your a ranger or engi.

Kageseigi.2150:

So, basically, the only way to counter this combo is by avoiding the Steal, correct? Unless someone manages to interrupt the BP pre-cast before Steal? Especially if Sleight of Hand is traited.

Pre-Cast BP+Steal+HS
https://youtu.be/EBoDa3m0uws?t=284

If the Steal does connect, is there anyway to avoid the initial blinding?

By the way, when does the interrupt from Headshot take place? Is it instant, or does the projectile have to connect first?

I mentioned this for Mesmer

You can just trash Cry of Frustration to clear a blind or Aegis then use Diversion simulatenously/immediately after to interrupt heartseeker. If you have greatword out, the autoattack can clear the blind before the steal easily.

As a mesmer if you want to perform an interrupt to your melee range target while you are CC’ed and blind, use cry of frustration to clear the blind, then use diversion.

Edit:
After rereading I thought the situation was for mesmer, if it’s for thief there’s a chance aftercast on BlackPowder will allow you to start a double strike after the daze wears of and before to clear the blind so you an steal before the heartseeker finishes (this only happens if steal is cast too early during black powder activation). If that doesn’t look like its going to be the case you can clear the blind with Blinding Powder then steal, or if you have Infiltrator’s Signet you can use that to stun break then double strike and then steal. You’ll also want to get out of the black powder, because you might need to land a headshot once the daze you put on the enemy thief is over.

Shockwave.1230:

After rereading I thought the situation was for mesmer, if it’s for thief there’s a chance aftercast on BlackPowder will allow you to start a double strike after the daze wears of and before to clear the blind so you an steal before the heartseeker finishes (this only happens if steal is cast too early during black powder activation). If that doesn’t look like its going to be the case you can clear the blind with Blinding Powder then steal, or if you have Infiltrator’s Signet you can use that to stun break then double strike and then steal. You’ll also want to get out of the black powder, because you might need to land a headshot once the daze you put on the enemy thief is over.

It was for any profession, thank you. And that is quite interesting. So if another thief does this to me, and I were to Black Powder right as he is using Heartseeker, would the Heartseeker in progress miss because of the blind, or would the following Backstab miss?

Kageseigi.2150:

Shockwave.1230:

After rereading I thought the situation was for mesmer, if it’s for thief there’s a chance aftercast on BlackPowder will allow you to start a double strike after the daze wears of and before to clear the blind so you an steal before the heartseeker finishes (this only happens if steal is cast too early during black powder activation). If that doesn’t look like its going to be the case you can clear the blind with Blinding Powder then steal, or if you have Infiltrator’s Signet you can use that to stun break then double strike and then steal. You’ll also want to get out of the black powder, because you might need to land a headshot once the daze you put on the enemy thief is over.

It was for any profession, thank you. And that is quite interesting. So if another thief does this to me, and I were to Black Powder right as he is using Heartseeker, would the Heartseeker in progress miss because of the blind, or would the following Backstab miss?

If you use blackpowder and the enemy thief is in it, your blackpowder pulses will clear your blind, but the timing on that is not reliable because of the two second pulses.
However, I was referring to using the utility skill Blinding Powder (a meta build skill swappable with infiltrator’s signet) to clear the blind, which is an instnat cast skill that blinds enemies around you. Your blind will miss because you are blind yourself, but you attempting to blind will clear your blind so you can steal.

Basically the general rule for the situation you’re describing, “Being CC’ed and blind simultaneously while needing to interrupt” can be executed by either stun breaking and using a quick succession of skills to clear blind and interrupt or more reliably be executed by using two connecting instant cast skills one after the other with the second skill being the interrupt of course.

Kageseigi.2150:

So are we talking very high-level interrupt skills required?

What professions have insta-cast interrupts?

Warrior – Fear Me
Mesmer – Already mentioned
Necro – Doom
Thief – Already mentioned
Ele – Updraft or Shocking aura if he is going to HS to you
Ranger – Don’t have one but PBS is good and they have Sic Em.
Engi – Multiple; Rifle 4, Shield pushback
Guardian – Shield knockback (haven’t seen one in months….)

All profession have a way to interrupt the combo. They just can’t keep up with how often the thief can use the combo.