Thinking about Interrupts

[MountainTiger]

Targeted interrupts are potentially powerful ways of controlling fights, especially against enemy spellcasters. I usually find them too hard to time to be worthwhile (few things are more disappointing than landing an interrupt a split second after a cast goes off), but I've been thinking about a few ways to build around them.

 

1. Geomancer: this idea emerged from playing with Maia as a Geomancer. My normal wizard preferences (AOE debuff focused) aren't ideal with a low-int martial multiclass; on the other hand, guns open up opportunities to react quickly to the battlefield, since you can instantly switch from reload to casting. This makes Thrust of Tattered Veils suddenly quite powerful: a .5s cast that interrupts without an attack roll is exactly what we're looking for. We can pick up some other stuff that works well at stripping concentration: Minoletta's Concussive Missiles is the gold standard (multi-projectile, interrupt on hit), and while the lightning spells aren't great at interrupts (3 second casts, interrupt only on crit) they do give some more damage potential. The Ranger side gives us a great accuracy buff (+10 vs. a single target) and a way to strip annoying enemy spell defenses; Maia's subclass gives a passive source of interrupts on autoattacks, which should at least help strip concentration. For a custom character, Evoker seems quite good, since +2 PL gives an extra missile on the Minoletta's spells and most of the other interesting spells are 0 recovery Enchantment buffs (I haven't tested this option very much, though).

 

2. Cipher: Mind Lance is a .5s cast interrupt on hit vs. will. It's a PL 4 ability, which is both expensive and not something you can build around from the start, but once it gets going it's pretty nice. I found the Lance a bit awkward playing with guns, as it's a party unfriendly line to the target; however, we could look at dual wielding fast weapons to get a pretty responsive character in melee (and that sweet, sweet club modal to help it land). I'm thinking about Tactician/Beguiler here-Phantom Foes is a cheap way of achieving mass Flanked on enemies and one of the quickest ways of building focus against large groups as a Beguiler, fighters have one of the best Perception buffs in the game, and spamming Penetrating Strike seems like a good single-target option once we achieve Brilliant. Cheap Full Attacks also open up main-hand weapon options without sacrificing much responsiveness.

[thelee]

Have you considered a blood mage. On top of Thrust at AL1 there's also Slicken, which prones repeatedly for a short duration. Even if the cast time makes it hard to interrupt a specific ability when you see one first being used, the repeated prones means it will very likely keep the enemy locked down and interrupt future ability uses. With a blood mage and some external source of healing, you can basically be a perma-interrupter for important fights. Use Slicken or Thrust, then blood sacrifice you get a guaranteed AL1 cast back. Interrupt again (or cast another overlapping slicken). Blood sacrifice to get a guaranteed AL1 cast back. Repeat until you no longer need to lock down the enemy. No other wizard can do this (at least without a source of Brilliant).

 

Rogues are also very good at interruption because literally every single one of their offensive martial abilities has interrupt on hit. Dual-wield a rogue, use something like Escape or Smoke Veil to hop next to someone you want to interrupt, and make sure they never get anything done ever again. If you get Smoke Cloud and one of its upgrades you can interrupt a huge area in one go.

 

Monks are great interrupters. With passive wound generation (Dance of Death ability, Mortification of the Soul ability, Nazpalca subclass, Shattered Pillar subclass) you can use Efficient Anguish as an infinite source of prones (albeit you have to hit fortitude to do so). They also get Skyward Kick which is a knock up---kind of like an interrupt on steroids.

 

Fighters are also great interrupters. They also get a knock up effect (Mule Kick). You can also use a tactician subclass which will basically grant you infinite resources to be an interrupter.

Edited January 30, 2019 by thelee

[brasilgringo]

Confirming above that Slicken can shut down casters - used it to great effect on Concelhaut as well as Splintered Reef / Fampyr encounters. It's in the Ninagauth's Teachings grimoire, too!

 

If you look at my recent post about that guys' POTD solo vids, he seems to be using the Baby Boar pet on a super fast melee build to constantly interrupt bosses.

Edited January 30, 2019 by brasilgringo

[MountainTiger]

Slicken is my second favorite PL1 spell overall (it's hard to beat Chill Fog), but I found it relatively underwhelming on Geomancer Maia because of her low Int. It's still very strong in general action economy terms (better that ToTV for sure) but loses out with less area, especially less party-friendly area.

 

Blood Mage seems generically good (I haven't played with one at all though), but on paper I don't find it very interesting compared to the specialist mages. I should give it a try at some point, though (does it give wounds? Sage that generates wounds+spells at will seems good).

 

Melee interrupts are nice, but I find the timing and positioning difficult to get right when trying to shut down particular casts from enemy backliners. One of the things that put me on this line of thought was frustration with Knock Down always seeming to be not quite ready at the right time; Maia casting ToTV is the only single-target interrupt I've been able to reliably get off during a cast, mostly because of the interaction between reloading and fast casts. The Mind Lance melee Cipher concept has the same timing problems as melee interrupts, of course, but at least it's a ranged ability, which helps with positioning.

[thelee]

One of the things that put me on this line of thought was frustration with Knock Down always seeming to be not quite ready at the right time;

from a micromanagement perspective, if you're worried about a particular enemy, have you considered pressing "x" to cancel any action by your melee-er just so that you're actively doing nothing until you start seeing an ability being used?

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

If you're using the expanded AI conditionals mod, it's relatively straightforward to script casting ToTV at casting enemies (who don't have arcane reflection active). With a blood mage, you could also add in a script to replenish your spells whenever above 90% health, and if the party has enough passive healing, no more worries on the spell front. 

 

I'll have to use Slicken more, I tend to avoid spells with friendly fire because I can't sscript them as easily. Still, Slicken and ToTV are both in the Grimoire of Disruption, so that's perfect. 

[Enoch]

They also get Skyward Kick which is a knock up---kind of like an interrupt on steroids.

 

Fighters are also great interrupters. They also get a knock up effect (Mule Kick).

 

Am I the only no-AI micromanager who finds "knock up" abilities annoying as hell because they break targeting? 

[thelee]

 

They also get Skyward Kick which is a knock up---kind of like an interrupt on steroids.

 

Fighters are also great interrupters. They also get a knock up effect (Mule Kick).

 

Am I the only no-AI micromanager who finds "knock up" abilities annoying as hell because they break targeting? 

 

 

you're not the only one. it's really annoying for an enemy to miss out on being hit by a spell because a knock up went off at the right time.

 

knock up is good enough that i'm willing to work through that annoyance though.