Caster Tanks And Interruption

[Vaeliorin]

I was thinking on a second or third playthrough of Deadfire that I'd like to play an Unbroken/Lifegiver.  The idea being that I could be a tank who could drop AoE healing spells on myself and my other melee folks, as well as having Returning/Relentless Storm, Taste of the Hunt and various buffs/debuffs available.

 

Having watched several videos, however, it occurred to me that such a character would likely never manage to cast a single spell (other than some of the extremely quick casting spells, which druid mostly lacks from what I've seen) due to constantly being interrupted (even with Concentration.)

 

Is interruption not as great a concern as it appears to be, or am I correct in my surmise?

[Boeroer]

Well if you don't get hit a lot because of high defenses and have Concentration then it's not too bad. You can also have multiple layers of concentration (Combat Focus + buff for example).

[Vaeliorin]

True.  I was just watching a video the other day where someone's druid was getting stun/interrupt locked by just 2 enemies, and if you're tanking 4 or 5, I was worried that even if you were getting mostly grazes you'd still be getting constantly interrupted trying to cast something with a 3+ second cast time (what with wearing heavy armor.)

[dunehunter]

True. I was just watching a video the other day where someone's druid was getting stun/interrupt locked by just 2 enemies, and if you're tanking 4 or 5, I was worried that even if you were getting mostly grazes you'd still be getting constantly interrupted trying to cast something with a 3+ second cast time (what with wearing heavy armor.)

There are abilities interrupt on hit, and interrupt on graze, so it depends. Also some abilities target other defense than deflection when interrupt, like fighter knockdown, so high deflection doesn’t help here.

[Boeroer]

Yes, but with a shield and smart stat setting you can raise your defenses quite a bit - and then some with passives. Abilities that interrupt on graze are rare. Out of my head I only know Knockdown.

 

There are also the resolve inspirations Resolute and Courageous which will give you one layer of Concentration per 6 sec. Couragerous completely prevents interrupts.

 

Resolute can already be gained from Holy Meditation (priest PL 2) for example and Courageous can be gained by Lay on Hands/Hands of Light (PL 3 paladin).

[Vaeliorin]

Yes, but with a shield and smart stat setting you can raise your defenses quite a bit - and then some with passives. Abilities that interrupt on graze are rare. Out of my head I only know Knockdown.

 

There are also the resolve inspirations Resolute and Courageous which will give you one layer of Concentration per 6 sec. Couragerous completely prevents interrupts.

 

Resolute can already be gained from Holy Meditation (priest PL 2) for example and Courageous can be gained by Lay on Hands/Hands of Light (PL 3 paladin).

Cool, I'm not super familiar with all the abilities as of yet, so I didn't know how hard it would be to get the various inspirations.  If it's that relatively easy to get those, it should make such a character much better to play (maybe I'll go paladin/druid...I just wanted a tank with the storm spells, honestly.)

[dunehunter]

Yes, but with a shield and smart stat setting you can raise your defenses quite a bit - and then some with passives. Abilities that interrupt on graze are rare. Out of my head I only know Knockdown.

 

There are also the resolve inspirations Resolute and Courageous which will give you one layer of Concentration per 6 sec. Couragerous completely prevents interrupts.

 

Resolute can already be gained from Holy Meditation (priest PL 2) for example and Courageous can be gained by Lay on Hands/Hands of Light (PL 3 paladin).

Monk and ranger also interrupt on graze.

 

And with dual wielding blunderbuss rogue can interrupt 8 times

 

But I guess there won’t be many such rogue enemies.

[Boeroer]

But they all would need to attack you at once to overcome layers of concentration and do at least a graze - or in case of rogue - a hit. I guess few enemy rogues with Blunderbuss will fire at you with a Blinding or Crippling Strike while you try to cast Returning Storm. In a moba it would be a serious issue, but hardly in Deadfire.

And even if you meet such gods of interrupts: you might still have Hands of Light.

Edited May 2, 2018 by Boeroer