AI interrupters on crack - Could anyone from ANet please respond?

There are a lot of people lying and making things up here. The AI doesn't cheat and doesn't do things which are technically impossible, and the game engine works just the way it's supposed to work.

Lvl 12 mesmers can interrupt 1/4 cast spells because they have fast casting, as people have said. No human can do that, but there's nothing special about it - their spells cast faster than yours.
The grasps know how to interrupt very well. They will spam the moment they reach you in melee (skullcrack is faster than a normal attack), they will spam during your 3/4 second aftercast to hit chained spells, and they will spam when your enchantments are about to run out. Any human can do this, but other than that, they can't interrupt you. I've been interrupted by Shiro'ken rangers many times, and it was my fault every time, because I did one of those things.

So, again, the AI doesn't do crazy, impossible things without any explanation, and people should stop making up stories.

Ya ok, not sure what your reading but this thread has some excellent examples of instant interupts by NPC enemies.Most of which have also happened to myself.
You might want to actually read the prior responses before posting

AI is not all that smart, just play safe and check their skills...

You will see that they often spam their interrupts, meaning it is easy to avoid your precious spells beeing interrupt... an alter way is just deploy a bait before you send your elite 1/4 skill...I use fast recharge skills such as PS or an enchant one to do this...

Outsmarting the AI "reflexes" is already easy enough the way it is and I think no changes should take place...

Latter.

Well I dont know about henchies but I time things... If someone uses a skill a lot I time how often they use it and make a guess as to when they will use it again and TRY to get off that interupt right before they start casting so that it has time to hit it right as its going off. This is extremely hard to do sometimes but monks are very predictable with their skills... They spam everything and if you spam interupts your going to catch 2 out of 5 at least!

Mesmer fast casting "helps" but its obvious that the AI is for the most part spam interupting OR as someone else stated, you were spamming two 1/4 cast time spells back to back and in reality the spell the henchie was trying to interupt was the first but it missed and managed to catch the second.

I'm soooo making a psychic distration hero, in hero battle ...

Well joke aside, even if you think they're is no latency you alway have some, and it doesn't go in your way (even if it just 1/10 sec or less). I don't think AI have latency since they have more likely no transfert latency ... So it very easy for NPC to interupt.

And like someone said maybe AI are managing some timer on your recast time or something too ...

My 2 coppers ...

Yeah!Lets remove the only true advantage the AI has agaisnt human players!Lets make PvE even more of a cakewalk!

Though the numbers fit, it doesn't fit into logic. Can you interupt a 1/4 second cast time, even with a 1/8 spell? Chances are maybe you'll get 1 out of 100. Chances are the AI will get 75 out of 100.

I understand what the rant is, but meh...you can work around the stuff. Like in UW, throw SV on the attaxes. They can't interupt if they have 0 energy.

I 55 trolls, and they all have rupts. You just get the stuff timed, and to me that's not a big deal. I farm the avicara as well and it's all about timing. Just be comfortable with your bar, and recognize patters in interupts. Pretty easy to work around once you get the hang of it.

I love AI's inhumanely fast reactions! Especially on Daeman and Erys, these guys are THE henchmen of choice. I cannot wait to slap Psychic Distraction on my mesmer hero's skillbar in Nightfall C'mon PvE monsters interrupt fast but hey, in the end they die, don't they? So I don't se any problem

If i remmeber correctly there was a thread a long while ago on here about people going outside of ToA and using Skull crack on the reed stalkers wastrel's worry, so i would say it completly possible.

That's because they are stationary when you try it. If something is moving at the moment you try, the "walk" animation continues to play.

To see it in action, try it when the target is stationary. An easy test are the avicara outside of Droknar.

- Head out from Droknar towards Talus Chute side.
- Head towards the right, where a group of trolls and avicara fight it out.
- Stay out of range, wait for the avicara to win. The group of avicara should then be standing around (i.e. not walking on patrol)
- With a longbow or other long range skill, target one and take a pot shot at it... but immediately cancel/backpeddle as soon as your character starts the shot animation.
- Observe the avicara crouches/ducks in anticipation of the shot (which you already cancelled) thus proving the AI works on a pre-response basis. AI Interrupts therefore can and do work virtually instantly as a result too, as it's predictive/instant response in nature.
- Works best with a longbow/other long range weapon as you do not aggro them but still their response triggers, further proof (since they weren't even aggro'd)

This is observable all over the place where the creature has some kind of "duck/about to be attacked" type of animation (e.g. stone summit, gargoyles etc)

It's not a lie, seen it happen countless times.

Erys is the man!

I love his interrupts, who cares if AI uses it against us, go paly with Erys for 30 mnis and ull appreciate it.

I had bonnettis defense interrupted by rocksots back in the old griffon farming days. It happened more than once too. And I am pretty sure it was from spamming skills they just went to interrupt a skill and hit a stance which to this day still doesnt seem possible.

Ok all people say Fast casting. I can get that, i got a mesmer my self. But the Hero in Tombs and the Jade Mesmers are unreal.
The Hero distracting shot my infuse ones (for the non monks that a 1/4 cast spell) and those ladies Jade got my power drain 7 times in 1 walk to the Dragon Thought or something.

I did see the kurzick mesmer hench miss sometimes. It seems he has a better human AI then teh Hero and Jade mesmers...

Uh, actually that doesn't prove anything. The crouch/duck anim is a clientside animination reaction to being attacked by anything. Human player characters also do it when attacked (from any range) even if the human on the other end is AFK and not doing anything.

EDIT:
Oh, and I interrupt 1/4 cast spells with equal/slower interrupts all the time. It's not that hard; most players are pretty predictable. The AI has a zero reaction time when doing nothing, but it will often "queue" interrupts when casting other spells, knocked down, etc and cast them when next available regardless of whether you're still casting the same spell or any spell at all.

I have a suspicion that GB is bugged and casts as a 3/4s spell. Goto the training area with GB and Vamp Touch.

GB is listed as 1/4s, VT as 3/4s. But they seem to take the same amount of time. Take a few other 1/4s spells and compare their activation time with GB.

GB feels downright sluggish compared with Prot Spirit.

bingo!! people seem to forget that these things have a recharge so its nto like they will interrupt you every time u use it.. ive been in gvg and HA where ive had them interrupted and interrupted 1/4 second casts like prot spirit and reversal. its about timing and predicting what skills will come next. The AI in the game can do that as well as players do in cases. Its called trying to make the game a challenge.

BTW, Interrupt ranger henchie > dom henchie

If you actually watch the NPC's, you'll see the answer is pretty simple...

NPC's must be programmed to try and predict your spells, probably based on the frequency you use them. If you ALWAYS cast PS when it starts blinking, the computer can probably catch on and will use it's 1/2 BEOFRE you activate PS, in hopes of timming it correctly to interrupt it.

If you don't believe me, go try it...

However, if you activate PS randomly and at different times, you will almost never have it interrupted. Of course, there is a chance the computer will just spam it's interrupts and you'll use it at the wrong time, but there is no super magic going on... it's all just bad timing.

I think that AI is based on table check system. For example if you are facing an AI opponent with an interrupt spell like CoF, the second you use the skill the AI automatically runs some numbers through a % based table system which is determined by the cast time of the spell, activation time, and other factors. If the AI comes out on top after the check it WILL interrupt the spell regardless of what it was. If you are casting a long term spell like MS, obviously the AI will be able to run the interrupt check table mulitiple times for a high chance of success.

(This is what the avicara is doing while it crouches)

I can infer this sort of programming because the AI NEVER MISSES with an interrupt. If the % checks in the AI's favor it WILL interrupt, if the figures miss the interrupt margin on the table it will not... its a simple system and not very human at all.

Tell me now, have you once EVER seen an CPU opponent miss with an interrupt? Its a number system based on percentages and cycles, very AI like. If the numbers are in its favor you are screwed, even with your 1/4 cast spell. It has nothing to do with luck or cast time of the CPU interrupt.

For example right as Grenths Balance is finishing the CPU can still knock you with a savage slash although the use time of the skill it much higher than the cast time of the Grenths Balance. This is because despite the humanistic usage times of the skill, the AI table of interrupts has ALREADY decided you will be interrupted. Hell, I've used a prot spirit and was interrupted by a distracting shot and the arrow hit me AFTER my skill was already interrupted.

There is no "human" component of when the CPU presses the skill for an interrupt, its simple a guess and check numeral table that decides if you are screwed or not.

I do that with my warrior all the time. I just predict the moves. That's one of the most useful skills in an combat, from Street Fighter to Guild Wars.

Yes. Go play Jade Quarry with an Elementalist. Target a Kurzick Mesmer. Glyph of Sacrifice -> Meteor Shower. When he gets knocked down, cast Immolate. Cast nothing else. Very frequently as soon as he gets up, he'll try to use an interrupt on you and fail because it's too late. Also sometimes happens if you see them casting a spell and cast your own shorter one before they finish; they'll try to interrupt right after they finish their spell and fail.

However, I haven't ever seen an AI miss an interrupt while auto-attacking. AFAICT they have to be in a state where they need to queue up the interrupt in order for them to potentially miss.