Spotlight on Skills #6
Originally Published by Sausaletus Rex
Every so often this column will shine the spotlight on a particular skill or set of skills for an in-depth analysis of just what that skill can do for you and the best ways to make it work. Keep in mind that Guild Wars is still under development and the information in this column is subject to swift and drastic change.
Lately, we've heard accusations that there's rampant pro-Warrior bias here at the Spotlight. These accusations are depressing and hurtful. All the more so because they're true. After all, we've done nothign but Warrior skills so far. So, to put an end to those harsh whispers we're going somewhere else today. Instead, we'll look at :
Mesmer Interrupts
A bit of a change in gears as rather than detailing one specific skill we’re going to take a look at a suite of similar skills linked by their role in a skill bar. They’re all interrupts from the Mesmer skill list and all can be used by a Mesmer in stop a casting target but each does so in a slightly different way. Roughly one out of every ten skills from the Mesmer list features some way of interrupting so a Mesmer has some options to pick from.
First, those from the Domination line : Cry of Frustration, Power Block, Power Leak, and Power Spike. Then, from Inspiration : Leech Signet and Power Drain. Ineptitude, from Illusion Magic, can be used as an interrupt as well although since it’s a hex its usage is slightly different so we’ll leave it for another day.
Let’s review first just what is the benefit of using such skills. An interrupt skill is a skill that, simply, interrupts the target when used. It’s not a specific skill type, such as an attack skill or a stance, but a subset of skills grouped by their similar results. There’s more to each interrupt skill, of course, but one result of using such a skill is that almost immediately your opponent will be stopping in their tracks – their current action will be stopped and they’ll be immediately returned back to a neutral state of action. They’re not reserved exclusively to the Mesmer skill list, it’s just a question of how they can be used. Some interrupt skills, like Distracting Blow, require melee range and a weapon to swing. Some, like Distracting Shot, need a bow. Others, like Savage Slash have special benefits when they interrupt a specific type of action. Others, like Power Spike, can only interrupt a specific action in the first place. Some cause damage, some lock skills, some steal energy, and more, but all interrupt.
Interruption can be a very powerful ability when put to the right uses. What it does is to stop what it is your target is currently doing and put them in a state where they’re no longer performing that action. If they’re swinging a weapon they go back to the state before they started to swing. If they’re moving they go back to a standing state. If they’re casting a skill they go back to the point before they activated that skill. There are many types of actions to be interrupted but there’s obviously more benefit to interrupting some than there is to interrupting others. Stop someone from swinging a weapon and you’ll only buy a few seconds because they can just swing again. Stop someone from running and they’ll just start running again. And while there’s some benefit to be drawn from doing so, at least momentarily, there’s much more benefit to be gained from interrupting skills.
When a skill is activated several things happen not the least of which include the payment of the energy cost needed to activate that skill – in other words, if a skill costs ten energy you lose ten energy the instant you click on that skill’s button. And when a skill is concluded several things happen as well not the least of which is the beginning of that skills recharge timer – in other words if a skill takes ten seconds to recharge after it’s used it takes ten seconds from the time it’s stopped casting rather than ten seconds from the time it’s activated. Interrupting a character returns them to the state before they began their interrupted action but the results of that uncompleted action remain. Even if skills aren’t finishing, even if they result in no effect, using them will still cost you energy and it will still cause those skills to recharge. Simply interrupting a skill causes your target to lose whatever energy that skill cost and will require the skill to recharge before your target can use it again. And, of course, the interrupt skills have some nasty side effects to that already harsh penalty.
Interrupts, then, are best used against skills that cost a lot of resources to use. A low-cost, low-recharge skill is, for the most part, not the best skill to hit with an interrupt, it’s the high-cost, high-recharge skills that getting blown that will really cause your opponent problems. Long casting time skills, too, are a natural magnet for interrupts because the target will be casting long enough to draw attention and the longer a cast is the more time someone has to fit the casting time of an interrupt in. However, interrupt skills tend to be very quick. They have activation times – not casting times – of, generally, .25 seconds. There’s also something called an aftercast tacked on to the end of the activation of most skills and it’s a flat .75 seconds regardless of activation time. Activation time and aftercast together are the casting time of a skill, the time you’ll spend making that skill work when you can’t do anything else. .25 seconds, of course, is at the very low end for activation times, and that means that once you use an interrupt in about a quarter of a second it will take effect and your target will be interrupted. Good reflexes are important when using interrupts but the speed at which most interrupts function means that you have a fairly sizable slice of time in which to fit in the casting of an interrupt during the activation of any skill. And, yes, it’s that activation you want to hit, not the aftercast. Interrupting an aftercast has no effect, you’ll need to stop the activation of a skill to prevent that skill from being used. But, if you have difficulties interrupting skills that are cast rapidly then using things like Dazed or Arcane Conundrum to increase their casting time can be of aid.
Since we’re talking about Mesmers, there’s the issue of Fast Casting, which shortens the casting time of any spell – not any skill - by reducing the activation time by roughly 3% per rank. With interrupts, though, it’s not of much use as you’ll be shaving small fractions of an already fractional number. You won’t much notice the effect of losing .1 seconds from the casting of your interrupts. Not as much as you’d notice losing nearly a full second from your two second casting time skills. Fast Casting is largely forgettable for those Mesmers looking to interrupt, which means that the Mesmer interrupts can also be put to good use by non-primary Mesmers as well.
The biggest challenge when using interrupts is to make sure they’re not wasted. You don’t want to blow your interrupt on someone swinging a wand before they cast Infuse Health. You don’t want to target a Resurrection Signet with Power Leak. You want to make sure you’re actually interrupting a skill or an action that will hurt your opponent’s chances. The most obvious targets are the rezes, the long casting time, high recharge nukes, but the most important thing to interrupt depends on the circumstances of the battle you find yourself in. Normally, you might not want to stop someone from casting Orison of Healing – it’s got a two second cooldown and costs five energy, they’ll be able to use it right again – but the purpose of an interrupter is to prevent their target from using their skills in a timely fashion. Sometimes, it’s not stopping the big powerful spell, it’s preventing that crucial action at that crucial point in time that gives you the best opportunity to win – it’s not brute force, it’s bringing power to a point. If that Orison is going to save the life of an enemy then stopping it from going off for a few seconds can be the difference between an alive enemy and a dead enemy. A good interrupter, then, is one who’s constantly analyzing the conditions of the battlefield and watching and anticipating the actions that are going to be most devastating to block. In a King of the Hill map they’ll stop someone from capturing the hill for a few critical seconds, perhaps. In a Free for All they’ll watch and make sure a dead opponent can’t be rezzed. They’ll, in short, scan the battlefield looking for the best target. Experienced interrupters will be constantly switching from target to target or watching casting animations in order to pick their spots.
There are defenses against interruption, though. The Mesmer stance Mantra of Concentration and the Elementalist skill Glyph of Concentration both prevent at least one skill from being interrupted, for example. But otherwise there’s little protection available beyond preventing you from using any skills in the first place.
Now, let’s take a look at the individual interrupts to gauge their strengths and weaknesses. First, the Domination interrupts and we’ll start with the big, bad daddy :
“If target foe is casting a spell, that spell is interrupted. The interrupted spell and all spells of that attribute are disabled for 3-13 seconds for that foe.” - Power Block
Power Block is the elite interrupt from the Domination line. It’s a spell-only interrupt so it’s only any good when you can catch someone casting with it. However, when you do catch someone it can be extremely harmful as it locks not only the spell you’ve interrupted but also any other skill linked to that same attribute as well. If your opponent is heavily invested in one skill line, such as your average healer who’s put a lot of eggs in the Healing basket, you’ve heavily gimped them. It’s the very ideal of using your interrupt to throw open a window of opportunity.
However, this does use up your elite slot on a skill you can only use once every thirty seconds or so. And a costly skill at fifteen energy at that. The danger of missing a spell and instead nailing something like Signet of Devotion is ever present and annoying. But more than that not every skill on a character’s bar – not the well-made character’s anyway – is going to be from a single attribute. A balanced character will be diminished but not completely useless. Compared to other interrupts that aren’t elite, it can be crushing and it can be a complete waste of time. There are better elites. If you’re looking for an elite interrupt or just in Domination, this is your best bet, but there are other skills out there that offer more and there are normal skills that can be just as powerful. Power Block is powerful and probably deserving of the elite tag but all but the most dedicated interrupters can live without it.
“If target foe is casting a spell, the spell is interrupted and your target loses 10-22 Energy.” - Power Leak
Like Power Block, an interrupt that only affects spells, Power Leak is probably the most harmful of all the interrupts. Combined with the energy lost from the casting a the interrupted spell a high level Power Leak is capable of draining every character but a high Energy Storage Elementalist of all their energy. Considering it takes a character about thirty second to regrow their energy from zero to full, regardless of their regeneration, that’s a harsh penalty indeed. And since it recharges in twenty seconds you can keep doing it consistently. Nicely affordable at ten energy, too.
The problem, though, is that by itself Power Leak makes for poor energy denial. You need to catch someone casting with it meaning that you’ll have a hard time draining all that energy from a Warrior or a Ranger – and Power Leak is a bit of overkill against their energy pools anyway – but also that your opponent has twenty seconds of unimpeded regeneration. Against a spell caster, that’s 26 or so energy, more than enough to allow them to cast a few spells. Like Power Block, alone Power Leak is best put to creating opportunity. It will prevent someone from casting much of anything for a small period of time which your team can take advantage of. Paired with other methods of energy denial, like Debilitating Shot or Ether Lord it can be extremely effective at keeping your opponent out of energy, though. So Power Leak can be used effectively both in interrupting and energy denial builds.
“If target foe is casting a spell, the spell is interrupted and target foe takes 20-86 damage.” - Power Spike
As with the previous two interrupts Power Spike only affects spells. It’s the quickest to recharge of all the Domination interrupts, taking only fifteen seconds to Power Block’s thirty, for example, so it’s the one that can be used most often. It costs the same ten energy as Power Leak, though, so if you use it as often as you can you’ll end up spending more energy. Not a big deal as ten energy over fifteen seconds is roughly the equivalent of two pips of degeneration while the others are midway between one and two pips but if you’re worried about managing your energy it can be a concern.
Power Spike’s secondary effect, that 20~86 damage, though, is probably the worst of the Domination interrupts. It’s not a lot of damage when you can only do it every fifteen seconds – not nearly enough to make a healer sweat – although it does have the advantage of ignoring armor. Unlike Power Block or Power Leak you’re not putting someone on the ground and stepping on their neck, it’s an added bonus to interrupting their skill, it’s just not ruinous in and of itself as the skill lock or energy denial of those other skills is. How to best take advantage of that damage, though, is to combine it with other damaging techniques. Relying on Power Spike to cause damage by itself is foolish but using it to take out the last ditch cast by your target and to toss in that last little push of damage is where it starts to shine. Power Spike, then, is the interrupt you toss into a damaging build to punish someone for trying to avoid the pain you’re throwing at them or to provide a bit of a spike to your DPS.
“If target foe is using a skill, that foe and nearby foes are interrupted and suffer 10-37 damage.” - Cry of Frustration
Finally, the often overlooked Domination interrupt Cry of Frustration. Unlike the others it works on any skill not just spells, although it won’t interrupt running or weapon attacks. It’s a costly fifteen energy with a twenty second cooldown for the highest drain on your energy pool among the Domination interrupts. It’s also got a longer casting time than the other interrupts at .75 seconds instead of .25 so it can be unwieldy. But it makes up for it with increased versatility. Not only can it interrupt that Resurrection Signet or Signet of Devotion that the others can’t touch, it also delivers AoE interrupts. The range isn’t very large and, especially in PvP, you’ll be hard pressed catching more than one or two opponents close enough together in order to make the most of it, but that spread of interruption can be extremely important in the right circumstances. Drop it on the Warriors attempting to swarm your Monk. Or that tank suffering heavy fire in PvE. Or on the dais in a King of the Hill map.
Like Power Spike the damage is largely an afterthought. It’s not very good for fifteen energy every twenty seconds, even if it is AoE. It’s not something to build around if you’re looking for damage although it can be added to a damage build for a brief spike. The real advantage of Cry of Frustration is that it offers more tactical options than the other Domination interrupts. The casting speed is a problem but as long as you’re not out hunting low casting time skills, not that big of one. You won’t have much luck catching someone using Flare but you still have plenty of time when they use Fire Storm. As I mentioned earlier, it’s simple enough to increase the casting time of your targets to make them easier to hit. It’s perhaps not the first interrupt to turn to but it can add something as the second interrupt on your bar.
Next, it’s those interrupts from Inspiration :
“If target foe is casting a spell, the spell is interrupted and you gain 1-25 Energy.” - Power Drain
Power Drain is, sensibly, not much different from Power Leak or Power Spike. It only works on spells, of course, and it has a fairly long recharge time of twenty-five seconds meaning you really want to make sure of hitting a target with it. It, however, only costs five energy to use. More than that when you manage to interrupt something you’ll immediately gain a large amount of energy – more than enough to make up for the casting cost. Power Drain is, then, an energy management interrupt. It’s the interrupt you use when you’re worried about energy.
At Inspiration 12 you’ll gain twenty-five energy once every twenty-five seconds or the equivalent of three pips of energy regeneration delivered up front. It can be a bit difficult to find a target that’s casting when and if you need energy so it’s extremely conditional – it’s not something you can necessarily rely on in any situation - but not it’s not that difficult and at the same time you’re gaining energy you’re also interrupting a skill. Note that Power Drain doesn’t steal energy. Your opponent isn’t losing that 1~25 energy, although they do lose their casting cost, unlike what happens with, say, Energy Tap, instead it’s created out of thin air from, say, the blown spell energies and bestowed on your character. If you want to affect the enemy’s energy, use Power Leak. Power Drain is the interrupt to tend to your own energy pool. With a little practice at finding a caster to regain your energy from it’s certainly a good option for energy management.
It’s in Inspiration as opposed to the natural go-to of Domination for an interrupt Mesmer. But, although it’s best at high levels of Inspiration it’s certainly useful at lower levels, too, just as the Domination interrupts don’t really need to be maxed out for the most part. You’ll gain less energy but the interrupt happens regardless of your attributes. And, at Inspiration 8~10 you’ll still gain a lot of energy, easily better than the Energy Drain at that rank with a much lower casting time. And, of course, you can have both Energy Drain and Power Drain at the same time if you really want to exploit the energy gaining abilities inherent in Inspiration.
“Interrupt target foe's action. If that action was a spell, you gain 3-13 Energy.” - Leech Signet
Lastly, the odd skill out, Leech Signet. It’s a signet rather than a spell. So, it costs no energy to use. It’s also immune to things like Spell Breaker or Dazed that will eliminate your ability to cast spells. Or even Backfire although it is vulnerable to different counters like Ignorance that target signets. Unlike the other interrupts on the Mesmer list it interrupts any action. Weapon swing, spell-cast, Troll Unguent, it doesn’t matter. It’s only when it hits a spell that the side effect of gaining energy kicks in. Then, it’s a weak version of Energy Tap that will only gain you energy rather than stealing it from your opponent. So, it’s not a skill that’s going to create as big an energy swing but since it costs no energy to use, it’s a quick way of gaining some free energy just like Power Drain.
It does, however, have an atrocious recharge time. Forty-five seconds means you’re not going to get much use out of it. So, at best you’re getting thirteen energy every forty-five seconds or just under a pip of regeneration. Hardly optimal, although since it’s hard to counter it can be effective if you need just that little boost of energy. There are also, in the Mesmer skill list, a few ways of improving the cooldown of your interrupts. Just as you can use the old stand-by of Mantra of Recovery to decrease the recharge times of your spell-based interrupts along with your other spells you can use Mantra of Inscriptions to reduce the recharge of all your signets. And, with added benefit of not adding any cost to those skills at all, unlike the Fast Casting linked energy drain of Recovery – Interrupts don’t require a lot of Fast Casting so using Mantra of Recovery will let you use them faster but it will probably add a lot to their energy cost as not only will you pay the normal cost more often you’ll pay an additional high price each time you cast. Using Mantra of Inscriptions at high Inspiration means you’ll spend ten energy every eighty or so seconds for a stance that will roughly double the rate at which you can gain energy with Leech Signet not to mention how often you can use it to interrupt. Keystone Signet can also be used to instantly recharge Leech Signet although it will temporarily lock all your non-signet skills.
So, of course, the answer to which interrupt is best for your build depends on which build you’re using. They all have situations in which they’ll excel so it’s a matter of picking the right one. Of course, you can get around that by taking more than one at a time and have the added benefit of having more than one chance to interrupt in a given timeframe. Dedicated a character to interruption, though, isn’t the best of ideas. More than a few interrupts is overkill and by focusing only on interruption you’ll create a chracter who’ll only be sitting around and waiting for their opponent’s to make a move. It’s a strategy that requires you character to do a lot of waiting and babysitting of their target and it can mean that your character isn’t going to be doing much of value beyond burying one character into the ground if they happen to do what you want. Interrupts are best sprinkled into or used in conjunction with other strategies to compliment their strengths. An energy denial build is made a lot better if you throw in an interrupt of two. A damage build gets some disruption with the addition of, say, Power Spike. Much more so than an interrupt build gains from the addition of a lone damage dealing skill. While interrupts are undeniably powerful they’re best used in moderation rather than as the centerpiece to things.
Lately, we've heard accusations that there's rampant pro-Warrior bias here at the Spotlight. These accusations are depressing and hurtful. All the more so because they're true. After all, we've done nothign but Warrior skills so far. So, to put an end to those harsh whispers we're going somewhere else today. Instead, we'll look at :
Mesmer Interrupts
A bit of a change in gears as rather than detailing one specific skill we’re going to take a look at a suite of similar skills linked by their role in a skill bar. They’re all interrupts from the Mesmer skill list and all can be used by a Mesmer in stop a casting target but each does so in a slightly different way. Roughly one out of every ten skills from the Mesmer list features some way of interrupting so a Mesmer has some options to pick from.
First, those from the Domination line : Cry of Frustration, Power Block, Power Leak, and Power Spike. Then, from Inspiration : Leech Signet and Power Drain. Ineptitude, from Illusion Magic, can be used as an interrupt as well although since it’s a hex its usage is slightly different so we’ll leave it for another day.
Let’s review first just what is the benefit of using such skills. An interrupt skill is a skill that, simply, interrupts the target when used. It’s not a specific skill type, such as an attack skill or a stance, but a subset of skills grouped by their similar results. There’s more to each interrupt skill, of course, but one result of using such a skill is that almost immediately your opponent will be stopping in their tracks – their current action will be stopped and they’ll be immediately returned back to a neutral state of action. They’re not reserved exclusively to the Mesmer skill list, it’s just a question of how they can be used. Some interrupt skills, like Distracting Blow, require melee range and a weapon to swing. Some, like Distracting Shot, need a bow. Others, like Savage Slash have special benefits when they interrupt a specific type of action. Others, like Power Spike, can only interrupt a specific action in the first place. Some cause damage, some lock skills, some steal energy, and more, but all interrupt.
Interruption can be a very powerful ability when put to the right uses. What it does is to stop what it is your target is currently doing and put them in a state where they’re no longer performing that action. If they’re swinging a weapon they go back to the state before they started to swing. If they’re moving they go back to a standing state. If they’re casting a skill they go back to the point before they activated that skill. There are many types of actions to be interrupted but there’s obviously more benefit to interrupting some than there is to interrupting others. Stop someone from swinging a weapon and you’ll only buy a few seconds because they can just swing again. Stop someone from running and they’ll just start running again. And while there’s some benefit to be drawn from doing so, at least momentarily, there’s much more benefit to be gained from interrupting skills.
When a skill is activated several things happen not the least of which include the payment of the energy cost needed to activate that skill – in other words, if a skill costs ten energy you lose ten energy the instant you click on that skill’s button. And when a skill is concluded several things happen as well not the least of which is the beginning of that skills recharge timer – in other words if a skill takes ten seconds to recharge after it’s used it takes ten seconds from the time it’s stopped casting rather than ten seconds from the time it’s activated. Interrupting a character returns them to the state before they began their interrupted action but the results of that uncompleted action remain. Even if skills aren’t finishing, even if they result in no effect, using them will still cost you energy and it will still cause those skills to recharge. Simply interrupting a skill causes your target to lose whatever energy that skill cost and will require the skill to recharge before your target can use it again. And, of course, the interrupt skills have some nasty side effects to that already harsh penalty.
Interrupts, then, are best used against skills that cost a lot of resources to use. A low-cost, low-recharge skill is, for the most part, not the best skill to hit with an interrupt, it’s the high-cost, high-recharge skills that getting blown that will really cause your opponent problems. Long casting time skills, too, are a natural magnet for interrupts because the target will be casting long enough to draw attention and the longer a cast is the more time someone has to fit the casting time of an interrupt in. However, interrupt skills tend to be very quick. They have activation times – not casting times – of, generally, .25 seconds. There’s also something called an aftercast tacked on to the end of the activation of most skills and it’s a flat .75 seconds regardless of activation time. Activation time and aftercast together are the casting time of a skill, the time you’ll spend making that skill work when you can’t do anything else. .25 seconds, of course, is at the very low end for activation times, and that means that once you use an interrupt in about a quarter of a second it will take effect and your target will be interrupted. Good reflexes are important when using interrupts but the speed at which most interrupts function means that you have a fairly sizable slice of time in which to fit in the casting of an interrupt during the activation of any skill. And, yes, it’s that activation you want to hit, not the aftercast. Interrupting an aftercast has no effect, you’ll need to stop the activation of a skill to prevent that skill from being used. But, if you have difficulties interrupting skills that are cast rapidly then using things like Dazed or Arcane Conundrum to increase their casting time can be of aid.
Since we’re talking about Mesmers, there’s the issue of Fast Casting, which shortens the casting time of any spell – not any skill - by reducing the activation time by roughly 3% per rank. With interrupts, though, it’s not of much use as you’ll be shaving small fractions of an already fractional number. You won’t much notice the effect of losing .1 seconds from the casting of your interrupts. Not as much as you’d notice losing nearly a full second from your two second casting time skills. Fast Casting is largely forgettable for those Mesmers looking to interrupt, which means that the Mesmer interrupts can also be put to good use by non-primary Mesmers as well.
The biggest challenge when using interrupts is to make sure they’re not wasted. You don’t want to blow your interrupt on someone swinging a wand before they cast Infuse Health. You don’t want to target a Resurrection Signet with Power Leak. You want to make sure you’re actually interrupting a skill or an action that will hurt your opponent’s chances. The most obvious targets are the rezes, the long casting time, high recharge nukes, but the most important thing to interrupt depends on the circumstances of the battle you find yourself in. Normally, you might not want to stop someone from casting Orison of Healing – it’s got a two second cooldown and costs five energy, they’ll be able to use it right again – but the purpose of an interrupter is to prevent their target from using their skills in a timely fashion. Sometimes, it’s not stopping the big powerful spell, it’s preventing that crucial action at that crucial point in time that gives you the best opportunity to win – it’s not brute force, it’s bringing power to a point. If that Orison is going to save the life of an enemy then stopping it from going off for a few seconds can be the difference between an alive enemy and a dead enemy. A good interrupter, then, is one who’s constantly analyzing the conditions of the battlefield and watching and anticipating the actions that are going to be most devastating to block. In a King of the Hill map they’ll stop someone from capturing the hill for a few critical seconds, perhaps. In a Free for All they’ll watch and make sure a dead opponent can’t be rezzed. They’ll, in short, scan the battlefield looking for the best target. Experienced interrupters will be constantly switching from target to target or watching casting animations in order to pick their spots.
There are defenses against interruption, though. The Mesmer stance Mantra of Concentration and the Elementalist skill Glyph of Concentration both prevent at least one skill from being interrupted, for example. But otherwise there’s little protection available beyond preventing you from using any skills in the first place.
Now, let’s take a look at the individual interrupts to gauge their strengths and weaknesses. First, the Domination interrupts and we’ll start with the big, bad daddy :
“If target foe is casting a spell, that spell is interrupted. The interrupted spell and all spells of that attribute are disabled for 3-13 seconds for that foe.” - Power Block
Power Block is the elite interrupt from the Domination line. It’s a spell-only interrupt so it’s only any good when you can catch someone casting with it. However, when you do catch someone it can be extremely harmful as it locks not only the spell you’ve interrupted but also any other skill linked to that same attribute as well. If your opponent is heavily invested in one skill line, such as your average healer who’s put a lot of eggs in the Healing basket, you’ve heavily gimped them. It’s the very ideal of using your interrupt to throw open a window of opportunity.
However, this does use up your elite slot on a skill you can only use once every thirty seconds or so. And a costly skill at fifteen energy at that. The danger of missing a spell and instead nailing something like Signet of Devotion is ever present and annoying. But more than that not every skill on a character’s bar – not the well-made character’s anyway – is going to be from a single attribute. A balanced character will be diminished but not completely useless. Compared to other interrupts that aren’t elite, it can be crushing and it can be a complete waste of time. There are better elites. If you’re looking for an elite interrupt or just in Domination, this is your best bet, but there are other skills out there that offer more and there are normal skills that can be just as powerful. Power Block is powerful and probably deserving of the elite tag but all but the most dedicated interrupters can live without it.
“If target foe is casting a spell, the spell is interrupted and your target loses 10-22 Energy.” - Power Leak
Like Power Block, an interrupt that only affects spells, Power Leak is probably the most harmful of all the interrupts. Combined with the energy lost from the casting a the interrupted spell a high level Power Leak is capable of draining every character but a high Energy Storage Elementalist of all their energy. Considering it takes a character about thirty second to regrow their energy from zero to full, regardless of their regeneration, that’s a harsh penalty indeed. And since it recharges in twenty seconds you can keep doing it consistently. Nicely affordable at ten energy, too.
The problem, though, is that by itself Power Leak makes for poor energy denial. You need to catch someone casting with it meaning that you’ll have a hard time draining all that energy from a Warrior or a Ranger – and Power Leak is a bit of overkill against their energy pools anyway – but also that your opponent has twenty seconds of unimpeded regeneration. Against a spell caster, that’s 26 or so energy, more than enough to allow them to cast a few spells. Like Power Block, alone Power Leak is best put to creating opportunity. It will prevent someone from casting much of anything for a small period of time which your team can take advantage of. Paired with other methods of energy denial, like Debilitating Shot or Ether Lord it can be extremely effective at keeping your opponent out of energy, though. So Power Leak can be used effectively both in interrupting and energy denial builds.
“If target foe is casting a spell, the spell is interrupted and target foe takes 20-86 damage.” - Power Spike
As with the previous two interrupts Power Spike only affects spells. It’s the quickest to recharge of all the Domination interrupts, taking only fifteen seconds to Power Block’s thirty, for example, so it’s the one that can be used most often. It costs the same ten energy as Power Leak, though, so if you use it as often as you can you’ll end up spending more energy. Not a big deal as ten energy over fifteen seconds is roughly the equivalent of two pips of degeneration while the others are midway between one and two pips but if you’re worried about managing your energy it can be a concern.
Power Spike’s secondary effect, that 20~86 damage, though, is probably the worst of the Domination interrupts. It’s not a lot of damage when you can only do it every fifteen seconds – not nearly enough to make a healer sweat – although it does have the advantage of ignoring armor. Unlike Power Block or Power Leak you’re not putting someone on the ground and stepping on their neck, it’s an added bonus to interrupting their skill, it’s just not ruinous in and of itself as the skill lock or energy denial of those other skills is. How to best take advantage of that damage, though, is to combine it with other damaging techniques. Relying on Power Spike to cause damage by itself is foolish but using it to take out the last ditch cast by your target and to toss in that last little push of damage is where it starts to shine. Power Spike, then, is the interrupt you toss into a damaging build to punish someone for trying to avoid the pain you’re throwing at them or to provide a bit of a spike to your DPS.
“If target foe is using a skill, that foe and nearby foes are interrupted and suffer 10-37 damage.” - Cry of Frustration
Finally, the often overlooked Domination interrupt Cry of Frustration. Unlike the others it works on any skill not just spells, although it won’t interrupt running or weapon attacks. It’s a costly fifteen energy with a twenty second cooldown for the highest drain on your energy pool among the Domination interrupts. It’s also got a longer casting time than the other interrupts at .75 seconds instead of .25 so it can be unwieldy. But it makes up for it with increased versatility. Not only can it interrupt that Resurrection Signet or Signet of Devotion that the others can’t touch, it also delivers AoE interrupts. The range isn’t very large and, especially in PvP, you’ll be hard pressed catching more than one or two opponents close enough together in order to make the most of it, but that spread of interruption can be extremely important in the right circumstances. Drop it on the Warriors attempting to swarm your Monk. Or that tank suffering heavy fire in PvE. Or on the dais in a King of the Hill map.
Like Power Spike the damage is largely an afterthought. It’s not very good for fifteen energy every twenty seconds, even if it is AoE. It’s not something to build around if you’re looking for damage although it can be added to a damage build for a brief spike. The real advantage of Cry of Frustration is that it offers more tactical options than the other Domination interrupts. The casting speed is a problem but as long as you’re not out hunting low casting time skills, not that big of one. You won’t have much luck catching someone using Flare but you still have plenty of time when they use Fire Storm. As I mentioned earlier, it’s simple enough to increase the casting time of your targets to make them easier to hit. It’s perhaps not the first interrupt to turn to but it can add something as the second interrupt on your bar.
Next, it’s those interrupts from Inspiration :
“If target foe is casting a spell, the spell is interrupted and you gain 1-25 Energy.” - Power Drain
Power Drain is, sensibly, not much different from Power Leak or Power Spike. It only works on spells, of course, and it has a fairly long recharge time of twenty-five seconds meaning you really want to make sure of hitting a target with it. It, however, only costs five energy to use. More than that when you manage to interrupt something you’ll immediately gain a large amount of energy – more than enough to make up for the casting cost. Power Drain is, then, an energy management interrupt. It’s the interrupt you use when you’re worried about energy.
At Inspiration 12 you’ll gain twenty-five energy once every twenty-five seconds or the equivalent of three pips of energy regeneration delivered up front. It can be a bit difficult to find a target that’s casting when and if you need energy so it’s extremely conditional – it’s not something you can necessarily rely on in any situation - but not it’s not that difficult and at the same time you’re gaining energy you’re also interrupting a skill. Note that Power Drain doesn’t steal energy. Your opponent isn’t losing that 1~25 energy, although they do lose their casting cost, unlike what happens with, say, Energy Tap, instead it’s created out of thin air from, say, the blown spell energies and bestowed on your character. If you want to affect the enemy’s energy, use Power Leak. Power Drain is the interrupt to tend to your own energy pool. With a little practice at finding a caster to regain your energy from it’s certainly a good option for energy management.
It’s in Inspiration as opposed to the natural go-to of Domination for an interrupt Mesmer. But, although it’s best at high levels of Inspiration it’s certainly useful at lower levels, too, just as the Domination interrupts don’t really need to be maxed out for the most part. You’ll gain less energy but the interrupt happens regardless of your attributes. And, at Inspiration 8~10 you’ll still gain a lot of energy, easily better than the Energy Drain at that rank with a much lower casting time. And, of course, you can have both Energy Drain and Power Drain at the same time if you really want to exploit the energy gaining abilities inherent in Inspiration.
“Interrupt target foe's action. If that action was a spell, you gain 3-13 Energy.” - Leech Signet
Lastly, the odd skill out, Leech Signet. It’s a signet rather than a spell. So, it costs no energy to use. It’s also immune to things like Spell Breaker or Dazed that will eliminate your ability to cast spells. Or even Backfire although it is vulnerable to different counters like Ignorance that target signets. Unlike the other interrupts on the Mesmer list it interrupts any action. Weapon swing, spell-cast, Troll Unguent, it doesn’t matter. It’s only when it hits a spell that the side effect of gaining energy kicks in. Then, it’s a weak version of Energy Tap that will only gain you energy rather than stealing it from your opponent. So, it’s not a skill that’s going to create as big an energy swing but since it costs no energy to use, it’s a quick way of gaining some free energy just like Power Drain.
It does, however, have an atrocious recharge time. Forty-five seconds means you’re not going to get much use out of it. So, at best you’re getting thirteen energy every forty-five seconds or just under a pip of regeneration. Hardly optimal, although since it’s hard to counter it can be effective if you need just that little boost of energy. There are also, in the Mesmer skill list, a few ways of improving the cooldown of your interrupts. Just as you can use the old stand-by of Mantra of Recovery to decrease the recharge times of your spell-based interrupts along with your other spells you can use Mantra of Inscriptions to reduce the recharge of all your signets. And, with added benefit of not adding any cost to those skills at all, unlike the Fast Casting linked energy drain of Recovery – Interrupts don’t require a lot of Fast Casting so using Mantra of Recovery will let you use them faster but it will probably add a lot to their energy cost as not only will you pay the normal cost more often you’ll pay an additional high price each time you cast. Using Mantra of Inscriptions at high Inspiration means you’ll spend ten energy every eighty or so seconds for a stance that will roughly double the rate at which you can gain energy with Leech Signet not to mention how often you can use it to interrupt. Keystone Signet can also be used to instantly recharge Leech Signet although it will temporarily lock all your non-signet skills.
So, of course, the answer to which interrupt is best for your build depends on which build you’re using. They all have situations in which they’ll excel so it’s a matter of picking the right one. Of course, you can get around that by taking more than one at a time and have the added benefit of having more than one chance to interrupt in a given timeframe. Dedicated a character to interruption, though, isn’t the best of ideas. More than a few interrupts is overkill and by focusing only on interruption you’ll create a chracter who’ll only be sitting around and waiting for their opponent’s to make a move. It’s a strategy that requires you character to do a lot of waiting and babysitting of their target and it can mean that your character isn’t going to be doing much of value beyond burying one character into the ground if they happen to do what you want. Interrupts are best sprinkled into or used in conjunction with other strategies to compliment their strengths. An energy denial build is made a lot better if you throw in an interrupt of two. A damage build gets some disruption with the addition of, say, Power Spike. Much more so than an interrupt build gains from the addition of a lone damage dealing skill. While interrupts are undeniably powerful they’re best used in moderation rather than as the centerpiece to things.
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