Interrupts are happening much too often

The title says it all; spell-casting interrupts are now occurring much more often than they used to. In fact, it happens so frequently now that it strongly appears to be a bug. I'm posting this here because it's probably intentional, and it definitely needs adjusting.

 

I noticed this the other day as well - I'm sure others will disagree and someone will chime in "working as intended".

 

I don't understand what the intended design of interrupts would be. There's no counter to them. There's no skill or spell that helps you avoid or resist them. It's a timing issue and our combat system is designed so that timing has very little to do with who wins and loses.

I don't mind the concept of interrupts but if we have them at all they should serve a purpose other than being an uncounterable annoyance. I don't know if the frequency has changed much over the last 10 releases, it seem like the same old thing to me. I can't cast Death Ray or Death Field without fear of being interrupted several times. It's the reason I die the most actually. If these spells were an ongoing "rays" or "fields" that never stopped so long as the caster keeps it going, it would make sense to have some way to interrupt them. But since that's not how these spells work it doesn't make any sense at all.

 

Just an FYI there are buffs that will prevent interrupts.

An interrupt only happens when you take damage to you HP. If you take the damage to focus points (Shield of Air) instead you'll never be interrupted. Its a tough balance now that focus costs are higher, but it works.
Archers also have skills that if the move properly cant be interrupted. (this one feels like a bug for sure!)

I agree w/Drocis though. They are kinda out of place in our current game.

 

I didn't realize that interrupts only occurred on HP loss, making dodge, block, and parry a viable (but semi-random) counter. Good to know, but still doesn't really help me. I also don't think that NPC mobs are being interrupted, which is fine because I think it would easy to exploit that. But then that's the whole reason that it's annoying to players, it feels like you're getting spammed and there's not much you can do about it.

I'd love to see us move away from "if it does damage it interrupts" and have more of a focus on specific spells and skills that have a reason to be interrupted. For example Aimed Shot. That's a skill that was MADE to be interrupted so it makes perfect sense to me. You shouldn't be one foot away from someone taking an aimed shot and not expect to have a very high risk of being interrupted. It's a skill that should work best when you have the drop on someone.

But Death Field, for example, you have to be super close to use it, so it becomes a timing issue that results in extra casting time and missed opportunities. Interrupts don't make sense there. If they made Death Field a continuous field that just did damage over time until it's stopped OR interrupted, then it would make perfect sense. Or even better if it were an AOE attack that worked kind of like ring of fire, then there's no need to have an interrupt, the defending players and just move away from it.

 

Today I was fighting one Obsidian Wolf, no other enemies anywhere around. I got three interrupts out of four tries to use a glyph, and the wolf was rooted the entire time. Something's just not right there.

 

you're right, that doesn't sound right. How close were you to the rooted wolf? Within its striking distance? Were you using ay buffs that could cause DMG to yoruself, like Chaotic Feedback (this was supposed to be fixed but still happens)?
Might see if you cant capture it on vid (OBS is free ), throw it up on youtube.

 

I was right in front of him, auto-attacking with sword. No buffs, no self-damage, nothing like that. And I don't think the rooted wolf was causing me any damage during that. I have no idea why these interrupts are happening so much now, and in situations like that (that's not the only time a similar thing has happened to me). I really think it must be a bug. And thanks, I'll try to capture it next time.

 

Which glyph ?

 

Lightning.

 

Interrupts were part of the strategy in UO's PvP system. I could hit someone with a katana and it would prevent them from getting a heal off. Poison 'ticks' would interrupt spell casting as well.

 

I hate interrupts. And I hate they are inconsistent with skills being instant and not. All ranged magic can be interrupted, at least on palyers. Yet nothing like that for archers. No interrupts on melee magic or skills. And given that most attacks are two seconds it is impossible to cast something without being hit during wind up period. There needs to be ways to cast much faster, there should be near instant skills to interrupt others and long wind up skills of multiple times effects. It is not so in the game though and magic is punished without being actualyl powerful.

 

Some of us have mentioned being interrupted more than usual over the last few days, not sure what it is? Last night I got into a fight where I could not get almost any spells off, but there is a chance some new item was unlocked in the new masterwork abilities that could be causing it?

 

Interrupts continue to happen at a much higher rate than could reasonably be ascribed to "working as intended". This makes combat all but impossible in certain scenes, most notably those with archers, mages, and Obsidian Wolves. It does vary by area, with Crag Foothills being among the worst in my experience. Almost all spells appear to be suffering from these higher rates. I believe this problem definitely needs some attention.

 

If casting start/finish and interrupts were both shown in the combat log, this would be much easier to troubleshoot.

However, from my perspective, any glyph a player casts that has a casting time (since build 441 at least) has a very high chance of being interrupted now. And the interruption is occurring just from plain old damage, as well as 'special moves' or NPC glyph use.

As a final insult to injury, NPC's still can't be interrupted at all, ever, no matter what, even with stuns, root, knockdowns, or knockbacks.
Once they start casting, their cast always completes. Seems just a tiny bit unfair. (and makes trying to interrupt them pointless)

 

Does anyone know if interrupt chances are affected by the armor you wear? I seem to be getting fewer interrupts in heavy armor than in cloth, using the same spells.

 

I think it is affected by the ammount of damage you receive. Better protection should lower the chance (though imho light armor should allow for faster casting rather than reduced fizzle).

 

I think like above, it is based on damage received. I have noticed an increase in interrupts while in heavy armor.

One would think that class of armor would affect interrupt chance. Maybe that should be an additional capability of deflection chance.

 

I`m sure that interrupt chance should be significantly increased. Also I`m sure that all damage avoidance skill should work againts glyphs. If you can make 400 dmg by a single spell, it should be interruped by ANY movement and ANY incoming atack or arrow. Without it we will never get any balance. If you cast so powerful spels like L and CL it should be fizzeled by any incoming factor(sword, low level magic, arrow, burning damage, poison damage and etc.)