Interrupter guide? Tips?

I recently began playing PvP with my Ranger. Since the best things a ranger can do is trap/interrupt (and a bit of degen), I decided to try an interrputer build.

I have the skills, but have no idea how to use them. So... is there a guide around?

You know, what skills are best for what situation, strategies, etc.

Well, If your playing RA/Ta, and palying against monk's or any other spellcaster, you've better use Concussion Shot, cuse that interrupts and daze's the enemy. But this has a pretty high energy requirement, so you better take an higher Expertise. In AB, you better use normal interrupt skills then.
Anyway, you can ask always other people what they think, but I think this my personal interrupt skill chose.

If you want sheer interrupts, consider bringing Read The Wind. This allows for the flight time to have less of an effect, and you have more room for your twitch reflex to kick in. As for an elite, you COULD do Punishing Shot, since it's awesome damage and an interrupt. When I interrupt as a ranger (mainly PvP mind you), I look for signs that the person is going to cast something. Try to remember recharge times and such, so that you have an idea when the person will cast again.

So far, I'm still stuck in RA, because I haven't had the time to dedicate to PvP.

I use a Poison Arrow build in AB, and it's worked fine so far. I have an interrupt in that build, but I generally spam Poison Arrow, and rarely interrupt.

Anyway, to the point.

A skill that causes Daze for use against all-casters, taking them out of the way for a few seconds.

A spike interrupt is good. I guess for low-health casters it can be used to kill them.

Would Serpent's Quickness be useful? Especially if I take Distracting Shot/Savage Shot. In PVP, taking a spirit would be bad, right? Well, unless I switch to R/Rt... hmm...

Ok, thanks. I've still got a long way to familiarize myself with caster skills, since I only have one lvl20 char, and haven't really looked at the non-ranger skills.

Ok, "signs that the person is about to cast." what, exactly? Just Tab through them, hitting an interrupt when I see the skill? Or something else?

Well lets look over the Interrupts you could use:

[skill]Disrupting Lunge[/skill] / [skill]Bestial Pounce[/skill]
Pros: Doesn’t require a Bow, Disables skill
Cons: Requires a Pet
Comment: Requires very good timing to get the interrupt to hit the right skill but that disable and the fact it works on all skills makes this a very handy skill to have.

[skill]Savage Pounce[/skill]
Pros: Doesn’t Require a Bow, knocks down
Cons: Requires a Pet
Comment: Although its great on slow casting spells, on faster ones its quite difficult to learn to time it right to get the interrupt to hit. More useful when ises in a ful Beast Mastery build since the damage bonus wont make much impact otherwise.

[skill]Distracting Shot[/skill]
Pros: It disables on top of interrupts skills, its cheap
Cons: Its got a slightly longer recharge than most interrupts
Comment: A great little skill that comes very handy to stop spammed skills. If you have room in your build add it in since it works on Casters and non Casters.

[skill]Broad Head Arrow[/skill]
Pros: It causes Dazed every time and is cheaper than most Dazed causing skills
Cons: Its an Elite
Comment: An amazing Elite, that works well on all Types of Casters including Dervishes who have very low cast times. Probably one of the best elites available for interuptors.

[skill]Concussion Shot[/skill]
Pros: Fast recharge and causes Dazed if it interrupts
Cons: Expensive
Comment: Concussion shot isn’t very effective without some form of energy management such as Marksmanship’s Wager or Archers Signet, both of which turn Concussion shot into an amazing interrupt, however Broad Head arrow is a much more reliable skill and tends to get used more often.

[skill]Disrupting Accuracy[/skill]
Pros: Lasts a good time, so u don’t have to continuously reprep
Cons: Unless you’ve got a high Critical rate this wont interrupt much
Comment: Unless you an Assassin Primary this isn’t a a very effective method of interrupting since it wont interrupt often and you have little control on what skills it does interrupt.

[skill]Favorable Winds[/skill]
Comment: Not an interrupt skill but is very handy to increase the speed of Arrows, especially handy when using a prep that isn’t Read the wind.

[skill]Punishing Shot[/skill]
Pros: It does bonus damage on top of interrupt
Cons: Its an elite
Comment: Basically an Elite version of Savage shot what does bonus damage no matter what when combined with other interrupts (between this skills recharges) it makes a great interrupt.

[skill]Read the Wind[/skill]
Comment: A Handy Preparation what will boost speed of arrows making it easier to interrupt, however isn’t suitable if your using another preparation.

[skill]Savage Shot[/skill]
Pros: Does great bonus damage to spells, interrupts all actions.
Cons: With out good stats in Expertise it can be expensive
Comment: The basic good all round interrupt, chances are if you’re a ranger interrupter your going to have this skill and with good reason.

[skill]Choking Gas[/skill]
Pros: Its interrupts AoE ontop of the target
Cons: Its dependant on attack speed buffs to be most effective
Comment: A highly popular interrupt due to its AoE effects, if you wish to do constant interrupts with varying degrees of success this is your best bet. Works best Vs Eles or Necromancers with slightly longer cast spells.

[skill]Incendiary Arrows[/skill]
Pros: Its causes Burning too
Cons: Reliant on attack speed boosts to be effective, Its Elite
Comment: A nice Skill since it does good damage at the same time, but its short duration and unreliability makes it a shadow of an skill compared to Broad head.

[skill]Nature's Renewal[/skill]
Comment: Not an interrupt but a good environmental effect that makes it much easier to interrupt Curse Necromancers, mesmers and Enchant based monks and Eles.

[skill]Serpent's Quickness[/skill]
Comment: Greatly reduces recharge times, very handy when using interrupts with longer recharges like Distracting shot.

[skill]Smoke Trap[/skill]
Pros: It can be places before entering combat, works on trapper Rangers
Cons: It’s a trap and so suffers from slow recharge and easy interruptible
Comment: Well if you’re a trapper and you want some kind of Interrupt this is the closest your going to get with out using a Pet. However since you cant control what you interrupt and Dazed duration is low its best to concentration on damage instead.

[skill]Magebane Shot[/skill]
Pros: Can Recharge Super fast
Cons: Doesn’t do any extra damage, if you miss time it, its loses all its pros
Comment: A neither good or bad interrupt, its low recharge comes in Very handy but time it wrong and the other skills become a lot more useful. Requires very good timing to be most effective.

Is FW a good choice in PvP, though? It will help the enemy as well, and if I have the bad luck to hit a team with more rangers than mine... I'm screwed.

Best choice seems to be Broad Head Arrow, along with RtW, Savage Shot, Distracting Shot, Serpents Quickness, A couple evading skills, and Rez.

So... how does this build look to you?


Broad Head Arrow {E}
Distracting Shot
Savage Shot
Read The Wind
Serpent's Quickness
Lightning Reflexes
Dodge/Whirling Defense
Rez Sig/Reusable Rez from secondary prof


I use full Druid's usually, and pack a lot in Expertise, so I think I can take Concussion Shot instead of Distracting Shot, and replace one of the evades with Glyph of Lesser Energy. And right after hitting the glyph, hit Concussion Shot and Serpent's Quickness. Won't make concussion shot spammable, but it can make it shut down an Ele or Necro. And if I time it right, I can keep an enemy dazed until the Glyph recharges again hitting him with BHA when the dazed from CS expires. Hm.

Thanks for the ideas. Now I'll have to actually practice until I can do it. I bet AB teams will be pissed off with me soon >.<

The best advice I can give to interupting is to not only use interupts as a reaction when you see a skill you want to interupt, but learn to predict when something will be cast. There are some skills that you can't really predict, but if you watch your enemy you may be able to tell when they will make their next cast. Some examples of predicting casts for interuption are:

1) Watching a Zealous Benediction monk as their health drops below 50% then sending an interupt rather than trying to twitch interupt a 3/4 second cast time.

2) Sometimes you can watch to see what enemies are simply spamming spells. In this case you should watch and wait for them to finish casting something, then send out an interupt about a 1/4th second after they finish to catch their next spell.

3) Positioning and movement can also be an indication. If there is a monk kiting from enemies, watch to see when the monk stops. Most of the time a monk or caster will continue running from one enemy and stop only to cast something. In this case watch the enemy and send an interupt as soon as you see them stop moving. This is how some enemy AI such as Grasping Darknesses use their interupts on human opponents.

4) Finally, you can use recharge times to catch an interupt as well. If there is a spell/skill that an enemy is spamming as soon as it recharges, you can use this to tell when to interupt. Simply wait for them to cast their skill then count down in your head and interupt when the recharge should be over. This can be hard to tell with some skills that have long recharges, but can really help against others with lesser recharges.


Buffs like Read the Wind and Favorable Winds can help, but wielding the right bow can be even more important. If you are trying to interupt with single shot skills like Distracting Shot, Savage Shot, etc., then use a Recurve Bow. using a Recurve with RtW or FW can still decrease arc even further, but the difference usually won't make a huge difference and may not warrant the drawbacks of choosing these options. If you are using a distracting prep like Choking Gas or Incendiary Arrows, then stick with a Shortbow. The arc is a little higher on a shortbow, but the shortrange will keep you close enough to your enemy to where it won't make a big difference and the higher rate of attack will prove more advantageous.

Finally one thing to consider is that when you decide to take on the role of interupting, you may want to make sure your build will still have enough utility to adapt to your situation. If you fill your bar with nothing but interupt skills can sometimes be overkill and less efficient than being able to bring interuption with other functions as well. This is why many builds will not only be able to interupt, but also have speed buffs for movement control, self heal if there will be either no monk or ganking involved, evasion to reduce pressure, or condition/hex removal to prevent being shutdown.

@Malko050987: Favorable Winds is ok in PvP in the right situation, but is usually not a good choice unless you have a team build adapted to this skill. Using Read the Winds and/or wielding a Recurve is a better option in most cases.

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