I've come across a Ranger rated bug...

When the devs made this change the seems to have created a annoying bug of sorts for Rangers...

Basically it does work, you cannot use another skill for 1.25 seconds and intended... however, you also cannot ATTACK!

Seems indirectly they bugged it so after using any of these spells your Ranger will simply stand there and do nothing, you can't even fire off normal shots

What be the best course of action to have this looked into? E-mail A.net support? use the /bug function? both?

I've noticed that too, can't even fire off a plain old generic arrow. Needs to be reported to tech support for aNet, definitely.

Ideally, the delay should only affect consecutive interrupt skills, which would allow you to alternate, for example (and still prevent the mass damage spam) and avoid the penalty.

I really don't see the problem, as it seems to be very similar to a refire rate anyways (before such things as Tiger's Fury). The interrupt isn't meant to take a fraction of a second total and quickly be gotten out of the way so you can get back to your normal attacking. Interrupting is a job in and of itself, just like damaging. If you're using attack skills with enough frequency to be worried about the "aftercast" on your interrupts slowing you down, then you're not going to be a very effective interruptor. While an interrupt skill will cancel a normal attack to execute immediately, another skill will complete before your interrupt skill can be used. The two aren't meant to compliment each other well within the same build. Think of it as a incentive to use your interrupts wisely, rather than as an afterthought tucked into a different build.

yea, I dont think thats a bug, I think that was intended.

It represents the extra effort required to disrupt something... kind of like recoil.

I think your a but confused. Its says you cannot use a skill till after some time has passed, which is 1.25 seconds.

It doesn't say anything about just normal arrows.

I'm not saying its bugged because you cannot use other skills like Tiger's Fury or Power shot, the issue is the fact you character just stands there and doesn't even do normal shots... that makes no sense at all.

If this is the way it meant to be, they need to change the discription or fix this annoying bug.

Yes its true. I was playing around on my friends ranger and after a distracting or savage shot, it would not let you even normal attack. kind of dumb to take away your normal attack too

Given that the fastest bow is the short/halfmoon, and it has a refire rate of 2 seconds, 1.33 seconds under tigers fury, I don't see a 1.25 second pause after firing an interrupting shot as being a bug. You fired an arrow, now wait for your bow to recharge (minimum of 1.33 seconds) and fire another arrow. I don't like the wait between firing and using a non-attack skill, but hey, if I was incharge, Rangers would be gods and Warriors would suck

Sounds like they just need to add an animation (like an after-cast) so that during this 1.5s the ranger avatar isn't just sitting there. I'd say he's preparing for his next "interrupt", etc.

Good point, the skill description doesn't say anything about the fact that you can't even attack during that time. Bug or not, I don't think it was necessary to also stop the player from attacking their target. Disabling only the attack skills for 1.25 seconds would already have been more than enough to stop the spike damage.

Interesting observation. I'm not sure if it was intended or not, actually. I haven't played my ranger very much since the update, so I can't really comment on this.

However, I would like to know if this also happens to warriors or mesmers when they are interrupting. Once a mesmer casts a spell to interrupt someone, does he/she then have to wait 1.25 seconds before starting to cast another spell, or attacking with a wand? Seems like they should make it the same for all skills/spells that interrupt, not just ranger attacks. Maybe it already does that and I never noticed though.

That would have made more sense...

I'm going to message tech support and see what they say.

Well if that is the case then it should say that in the descriptions of all interrupt skills, ranger, warrior or otherwise.

A mesmer has a .75 "after-cast" that applies to interrupt spells. However, a ranger uses a bow, and thus another .5s of further "recovery" is warranted. Unlike memser interrupts (10en /w 20-25s recharge), the ranger interrupts are cheap due to expertise and recharge much faster. Mesmer interrupts, btw, have zero synergy /w the primary attribute of the class -- fast casting.

I find it just fine.

And I do play interrupt.

I'm not confused, but thanks for the concern. What I said still stands and holds for all attacks, not just attack skills. As someone else pointed out, the fastest bow refire rate is 2 seconds. That's from a shortbow, the bow that is usually associated with attacking. The bow that's best for interrupting is the Composite bow, which has a refire of 2.4 seconds. Now let's compare. 1/2 second "cast time" on your ranger interrupts + 1.25 "aftercast." That comes up to a total per-arrow time of 1.75 seconds. That's lower than an attack bow will generally get, and extremely much so lower than an interrupting bow will get. Now what basis is there for complaining that one is just "standing around" and not attacking? You'd do more standing around if you were just firing off your bow. However, since your character's animation stops for that 1.25 seconds, few people seem to be able to think past that.

In other words, the complaints are aesthetic rather than practical.

For comparison's sake, someone already pointed out that Mesmers do have an aftercast of their own, so I won't touch on that again. However, I will say that bringing up the Warrior's lack of a pause after interrupting is incredibly stupid. The ranger's interrupts (minus Distracting Shot, anyway) used to operate the same way warrior's currently do. That is, they have no cast time at all. No, that doesn't mean they're instant, that means that it happens at a normal attack speed. Your character's animation would continue on as normal, and whenever that next arrow hit, that was when you interrupted. It was very much inefficient. If Savage Shot and Punishing Shot still operated like that, not only would there be a greater "pause" after interrupting (albeit your character's animation would continue on smoothly), but your interrupt would come much, much slower after you hit the skill as well.

The point of giving these ranger interrupts a cast time was to make them actually usable with the bow's long refire times (in comparison to melee weapons). However, an unintended side effect was that the bow's refire rate could be completely bypassed. So what did ANet do? They tagged on an appropriate amount of time to the end of the interrupt so that the whole process takes about as much time as it would have before... only your interrupt comes earlier in the time frame, increasing your ability to actualy interrupt the skills your enemy is using.

...in short, it's not a bug. If you would take the time to analyze what's going on, you probably wouldn't even find it annoying.

i also noticed that after using interrupt shots, my ranger cant move for some time.

I guess walking requires a bow cooldown as well.

rofl

it's another 'fix' that anet didn't know how to properly implement. They simply put a 'lock' on the character for 1.25 seconds...easy to implement...but not exactly they best way to do it. Your character should be able to move after firing an interruption shot. I can understand the cooldown for any type of attack(including normal attacks)...but the ranger can't move for 1.25 seconds after using an interrupt skill??? Anyone try using a stance(like whirling defense) right after the shot is fired? you SHOULD be able to do this...however, I have a funny feeling you won't be able to.

Well, not being able to move is just dumb. That definately needs to get fixed.

It works perfectly fine.

Which do you prefer, the lockdown on movement for the duration the interrupt's skill time (cool-down is a part of a lot of skills, though generally associated with casters)? Or the way you can slide while still executing bow attack skills once you're past that critical half-way point (because the animation's still doing the skill, but the engine thinks you're free to run)?

I'd personally like to see those two switched, or both treated similarly with regards to movement.

why is there no third option for it to work properly? We MUST be ok with one of the two bugs simply because ArenaNet can't be arsed to do something correctly? Your ranger should not be locked in place after using an interrupt skill...it was simply the easiest way for ArenaNet to implement a cooldown.

Just because I asked which you prefer doesn't mean they are the only two options... if you'd actually continue reading the rest of my post you'd see that my point was that they both behave differently, and neither one seems natural.

You should be able to fire bows while moving, although with reduced accuracy (tied to expertise?).

Not being able to move after firing... that's an obvious bug.

You cant move durring the after cast of a spell either. The actual duration following the use follows the logic along the lines of a normal bow refire time, if the activation time is added in.

You can activate any stance while mid casting, this bow attack should be no different. You can even activate stances while knocked down.

i feel that they need a greater time until you can fire another arrow. this is because ranger spike is still working effectively and fotm builds are soooooo annoying.

imagine the interupt as a shot that is backwards of a normal shot, you have no "loading" time but you have a "afterloading" time.

That was never the reason for the supposed nerf anyways. Rather, the skills were changed because they were abusive and not working as intended. Whether or not they are effective or FOTM has nothing to do with it.

Now, if they were FOTM because they were brainless, required no skills, and anyone not running it or a very specific counter to it would get utterly smashed, then it might be a different story. That, however, is not the case.

well its partially true. it doesnt take all too much skill to pull the ranger spike off. if they are intelligent enough to run read the wind instead of kindle, there really isnt that good of a counter to it. its just kind of ironic that most any build can beat iway, except it is hard to do with ranger spike. so basically the build that beats everything loses to the build that beats nothing.

Whether its a bug or intended its not good they keep nerfing the ranger everytime time a patch comes out, standing for 1.5 seconds after doing a shot is not realistic since there is a cast time on your next skill and that is suposed to be the time to prepare a skill, its like having permanent knockdown after evey shot.

You must get into some noob iway teams. the only thing iway cant do is hold the hill against "good" teams, today i gained something like 35 fame just from iway, around 6 times we beat guilds ranked higher than 300 one was ranked 10. even when we came up against teams that had just won HoH we held out for a long time.

the only people that complain against iway are the teams that loose to them, otherwise why would you get sick of getting easy fame.

This is intended behaviour. It has been implemented in exactly the same fashion as caster aftercasts, with the reasoning being that these skills act more like spells than attack skills. Don't expect that to change anytime soon.

Is aftercast important?

Obviously in the case of spamming three halfsecond skills back to back its ok, but beyond that....?

I guess what Im really wonding is..
On a skill per skill bases, some skills may need pausing between the next skill or brakes in attacking, but; how does immobalizing a person after using skills help balance the game?

And if it is so important, shouldnt skill discriptions read:
Cost: 10 | Cast: 2 | Aftercast: 1.25 | Recharge: 20

So that way, you know if you use this skill, your pretty much as good as on your ass for second or two afterwards.

I'll say it's a bug. If anything unfair.

Rangers were the most underated class when the game first shipped, even 2 months afterwards. Now they get nerfed like bitches? Haha.

Only people who suck at Ranger or only like Professions with abusable skills that anyone with half a mind can exploit think Ranger got "nerfed".

The buff to interupt skills casting speed got abused with preparations. They were not intended to be used like a bunch of spammable Quick Shots that also interupt as a bonus.

I didn't start running an interrupter until after the changes, really, I don't see much problem with the delay at all, aside from the fact that you should be able to shoot and scoot. The delay before you can lift your leg even is a bit too far.

Interrupters... we stop 'em, you chop 'em.

My primary character is an R/N, and I'd have to agree that interrupting was probably unfairly easy before because you could equip 3 interrupt shots and mash the buttons to fire 3 arrows in quick succession. Now, you have to watch the new opponent skill activation progress bar and deliberately time your shots to interrupt successfully.

The only problem with this is that it makes it nearly impossible to interrupt the use of skills/spells that have short activation/casting times. I guess this makes Choking Gas more useful though (except it only works against spells from what I remember).

As for the cooldown issues (which I realize is the main point of this thread), I haven't noticed them because I mostly play PvE and stay between the healers and the tanks where I can concentrate on watching the enemy skill activations instead of having to worry about evading enemy attacks. If it's really the case that you can't move after firing an interrupt shot, then that's probably a bit extreme and should be addressed. The 1.25 second cooldown time isn't that bad though.

Also, can you use pet attacks during the interrupt cooldown now that they've made them work like shouts? (I don't really use pet attacks so I haven't tried) What about stances?

Hopefully this will be tweaked for the better, but if it isn't I'm sure we Rangers will adapt.

Yeah, I know after the update Rangers have been my bane as a caster given that interupts are a lot less of a matter of luck/guesswork and now more about actual timing.

der.....
ok, the refire rate is around 1.25 seconds.
you use quick shot...
1.25 seconds later you fire another arrow.

to sumarize...

the refire rate is 1.25 seconds. you fire quick shot (an arrow attack). 1.25 seconds you fire another arrow (or whatever the exact refire rate of your bow is).

where is the bug?

1.25 secs before you start any other whatever. You stand there counting dandelions.

Interesting to hear from the other side of things that Rangers are more effective at interrupting now. I'm guessing it's because the update has made it so that the big spells with long activation times are the ones more often interrupted now.

Sigh...

Ok try it out yourself... I did again today.

Fire off Punishing Shot or whatever and watch your ranger stand there and do nothing for a few seconds.

Now fire off a normal shot and wait for another one... the time is not the same.

Again how do you know this is the case? Here are the distription of the update:

Distracting Shot – Added a delay after skill is used before another can be used.

Savage Shot – Added a delay after skill is used before another can be used.

Concussion Shot – Added a delay after skill is used before another can be used.

Punishing Shot – Added a delay after skill is used before another can be used.

Take not of how it say skill, not ATTACK. I cannot use other skills which is correct, but why can't I do anything for that matter like fire off normal attacks. I think your wrong.

thats the actual nerf itself. op was saying it (the nerf) was bugged. i was explaining how it wasnt bugged. if you want to debate the legitimacy of the nerf(s) be my guest. i dont agree with most of it either.