Interrupter ranger

So I'm playing a R/Me interrupter. I've only been playing for 4-5 days and just reached level 20 so I'm still new, but I like the idea and potential of this build. My interest is mainly in PvP and I've played some RA's with a PvP-only character, but I've had some trouble. It's very, very hard to interrupt most skills and spells. Usually you have about a second to recognize the spell being cast, use the right skill, and hope it reaches your target in time to interrupt. More often than not I just end up targeting a healer or nuker and spamming my interrupt skills, which can work but is very inefficient. Does anybody have some tips for me, or links to some guides for this build? Am I doing something wrong, and what are the best skills for interrupting spells? Am I supposed to do nearly no damage or do I just suck?

First of all, mind sharing your build? It might help ,we might be able to help you if your to make your build better, also what bow are you using?

Besides that, i think the reason you are having trouble is because you are new,as you play more you will learn most skills icons ( especially the ones you should be interupting) and also the animations, or sounds some of them
have.

Also as you play longer you will also get if you learn when a player is likely to use a certain skills, so you can throw your arrow right at the moment they start casting.

So certain things i believe you will learn in time are
-You will almost auto recognize skills without having to see the icon.
-Youll learn timing, in both when player is likely to use a skill and also when its recharged.
-Youll also learn whats worth in interupt and whats not (even tho i like interupting everyhing )

You can test this out in PVE, even tho its not like pvp in this sense, you find certain monsters , lets take a warrior with healing signet for example.

He'll use it the first time and you might not catch it, but if you take a closer look youll be able to time when he will be using it the 4th time, the 2nd 3rd time you used to see how long he takes before he uses it again.

Healing signet recharges in 4 seconds so if hes taking damage hes likely to use it again in 4 seconds.

This part is sometimes the same in pvp, if opposing team is all going down slowly , the e/mo might use heal party, this also recharges in 2 seconds, so she uses it the first time the second time you know she can use it is in 2 seconds, chances are she will.

EDIT: edited to fix my Healing Signet mistake

4 Seconds. Its a 2 second cast. Its also not a great example since a Warrior is likely not going to spam Healing Signet if he is under fire (its -40armor...)

The OP's problem is it is taking him a second to register the skill usage and use his interupt, in which case by the time the skill is used they have fully casted theirs - The Human reaction time should be no longer than 1/4sec-1/2 seconds. If you use your mouse to click your skills thats another 1/4 sec, and ranger interupts are 1/2 cast....so you have just enough time to interupt 1 sec stuff.

The Advice of instantly reconizing you need to interupt the spell is critical also. If you wanting to interupt 1 second cast things, you are using to have to: 1) Instantly reconize it as something that needs to be interupted (by knowing the icon or Animation) 2) Have a normal or better reaction time (If you take 1-2 secs to use the skill..its going to miss everytime) 3) Lag kills :\

2sec+ stuff you can interupt in your sleep I hope.

For things under 1 second, you are gonig to have to predict when thery are going to use it and shot your arrow beforehand.

Oops your right about the time it takes for Healing Signet to recharge.

The example was in PVE which is still true, in pve they will still use the healing signet if they need healing and it has recharged.Thats also why i said its not like pvp, but the main idea about knowing when a skill will recharge is.

[skill]Read The Wind[/skill]

Shorter flight time helps, as does the others' advice so far. Keep an eye out on the players you plan to interrupt. If they have wandered out of your bow's range and cast a spell, then you try to interrupt, you will be too late to catch the skill with an arrow. Keep in range, learn skills' importance and cast times, and don't be afraid to spam interrupts once in a while in anticipation.

It's practice, practice and practice some more.
Read the wind does help.
It also helps using the right bow (recurve and others with the same stats).
Keep your target in bow range.

I once somewhere read that practice in PvE while using a flat bow does help (it's true, you learn to anticipate the casts and recognise the moment the skill is cast).

I've ran both mesmer and interrupt ranger for some time now and know it's hard to learn.
You need to develop quick reactions and also need to be aware of the skill that is used.
In PvE it's somewhat easier.
You know the cool down time of a skill and when you counted, fire and hit.
Even Reversal of Fortune can be interrupted that way, but remember monsters don't use 20/20 items.

Much as I love playing my ranger, she's only good at interrupting things with longer cast times as she's usally standing far back out of the battle and it takes time for the arrow to go from bow to target. Mesmer spells/signets are far quicker to use

Thanks for the advice.

My build isn't really determined yet, I'm still testing some things out. Here's what I've been using lately:

Domination 10
Expertise 10
Marksmanship 11

Distracting Shot
Savage Shot
Power Drain
Power Spike
Read the Wind
Whirling Defense
Escape
Res Sig

i would replace Escape for Punishing shot(best bow skill ever for PVP) or broad head arrow (unconditional daze)


actually, you might want to chec out this sub forum, here you find everything you need to know about rangers

http://www.guildwarsguru.org/forum/f...play.php?f=209

When i ran an interupt ranger in RA for a while ago, i used something like this:

Punishing Shot
Distracting Shot
Savage Shot
Read the Wind
Troll Unguent
Whirling Defense
Blackout
Res sig

Most long time players know the recharge and cast time of every skill which makes it easier all you need is practice, practice and more practice.

Also if your playing as an interupter take the type of bow your using into account a Recurve is your best bet unless your standing next to them

For groups of 2 or more, try choaking gas. You go off target and spread "the love" til it runs out. Then go back on target and interrupt everything harmful, or anything you can til you learn what is harmful.

A flat bow and a short bow at 2.4 seconds, have the quickest refire rate, but the recurve bow has the fastest flight time, at 0.40. The flat bow has the same range as a long bow but the recurve is just .2 off. Figure out what works for you. Good luck! Being an interrupt ranger is a lot of fun.

One thing tht hasn't been mentiond yet is Choking Gas [Edit, that's a lie. Commander Ryker got there first]. It annoys the living daylights out of casters by interrupting constantly.

R/W: Expertise 15; Wilderness Survival 11; Marksmanship; 11

Recurve or Short Bow
+15% while health is above 50% or in a stance.
Zealous or Vampiric string
Health +30


Distracting Shot
Savage Shot
Practiced Stance
Choking Gas
Flurry (Warrior skill, non-attributed)
Troll Unguent
Whirling Defense
Resurrection Signet

Choking Gas's duration is short so Practiced Stace is a necessity to lengthen it. Find a caster of any sort then activate Flurry (or Frenzy if you're brave) and watch almost every spell they cast completely fail. Obviously, don't let them hide behind walls.

This is completely true, a little sad (I'm in this boat as well) but true. If you stick with it you will learn to interrupt very well in no time. RA is the best place to do so.

Also I didn't see it in your 2nd post but which type bow are you using? Correct me if I'm wrong (likely) but I believe short bow is the fastest bow as far as shooting. That might be mentioned in that link posted. It doesn't have great range but it has nice accuracy and is what I use personally as an interrupt in RA.

Actually the recurve is the fastest, the flight time is 0.40 sec.

Just for the record, the only cast, recharge, etc times I know is that of some of my ele skills. Knowing that stuff doesn't help and my mind is already full of other stuff. I'm thinking of buying an external brain to hook up for all this extra guild wars stuff.

I would agree.

If you are wanting to be solely an interrupter to annoy the heck out of casters, I would definitely put one of these in your build. Punishing Shot gives you an extra interrupt and a good punch..and Broad Head Arrow work wonders and makes your interrupting soooooo much easier with it causing the dazed condition.

Choking Gas isn't bad either, but I tend to only use it every so often because I just can't stand that the preparation lasts much shorter than other preparations and it seems like to use it effectively your always casting it and hoping their are a much of adjacent foes. I just can't slap myself enough to tell myself to put Practiced Stance in there. I much rather use my elite for Punishing Shot or Broad Head when going as an interrupter.

Though it isn't technically an interrupt, I also have a tendancy to sometimes work Signet of Humility in my build. A lot of builds focus around their elite skill to do a large amount of damage or to do spike healing, so disabling an elite skill can send someone into panic mode. It's great when an RC Monk can't do his/her job because of this skill. Now granted, to be effective you'd have to put a good deal into Inspiration which means you'll have to take some out of WS or some other place. I'd only recommend it once you get comfortable with the PvP atmosphere and more importantly the people your with since you will rely on your monk more for healing (since Troll Unguent won't be as effective if you take out of WS). It is just a suggestion

But all in all, if you are going as solely an interrupter, you aren't expected to do high damage. Rangers, overall, don't do that. Rangers are support characters and (of all people)...PvP players know this. They don't expect you to take a W/Mo head on and win, but rather help your team get an edge (in this case...by interrupting). My suggestion is to watch some of the HoH matches and you will get an idea of some builds other people are usually running. You'll see some individual HoH builds used in RA and TA as well. I'm not talking necessarily Ranger builds...but other professions as well. You can study how the build works and know when to interrupt. My example I'll use is the Ele's Searing Flame build. You know after they use SF they are going to use Liquid Flames and Glowing Gaze. It's virtually a given. If you know when to interrupt Glowing Glaze, before you know it the Ele is out of Energy and running around like a chicken with his/her head cut off. Once you understand the build, you just need some practice and you should do great. Hope that helps a little.

Thanks a lot. Unfortunately I only have Nightfall so some of those skills are out of my reach. I'll do some research and watch some games, and see what works best for me.

Well I just wanna say that interupt rangers aren't exactly supposed to be huge damage dealers. When i interupt, I don't really deal my usual damage. it isn't that unusual. There are of course ways to get the damage up as said above.