This is going to sound incredibly naïve…
I don’t do much group content, I never have. I’m one of those “filthy casuals”.
But a question has been sloshing around in my pudding-for-brains lately.
I notice that I (as a Hunter, for example) can interrupt mobs that are the same level as I am or barely higher,
However, when it comes to things like bosses in dungeons, or most recently, the final mob in the Hallowfall event, my interrupt seems to always get ignored (“this target is immune” type thing.)
How exactly do interrupts work?
My Hunter’s interrupt is on a relatively long cooldown, so it always seems like such a waste using it on a regular trash mobs.
But it has no effect on harder mobs, where it WOULD be nice to be able to interrupt, like final bosses in delves.
Is there a simple explanation of how the interrupt mechanism functions?
Just to make sure we’re on the same page, which interrupt are you talking about?
Hunter’s main interrupt is Countershot, which is on a 22-24 sec cooldown. That’s not really a long cooldown – ranged dps tend to have longer cooldowns for their interrupts than melee, for whatever reason. Boss mobs frequently have one or more abilities that Countershot works on. As a previous poster said, you’ve got to look for the shield on the cast bar, or study the boss abilities. “Must interrupt X” is a common note on boss strategies.
Hunters also have Intimidation, which is a stun, not an interrupt, though it will interrupt casting. Most boss mobs are immune to stuns.
Finally, Hunters have a lot of other things that can be used in a pinch to interrupt a cast, but generally don’t work on boss mobs, though they may work on some rares: Freezing trap, Scatter Shot, Bursting Shot, High Explosive Trap and Implosive Trap (some of those are mutally exclusive choices on the talent tree).
An example of a delve boss that has an interruptible ability that I remember off hand because I did him yesterday is Drywhisker in Kriegval’s Rest. Most of his abilities are uninterruptible, but he does cast Raging Tantrum, which you can and should interrupt. Quite a few other delve bosses have one important interruptible ability like this:
ETA: Sometimes you’ll encounter a stunnable or knockbackable (that’s a word!) mob that’s casting an ability not interruptible by Countershot. “Underpin’s Well-Connected Friend” is an example of this. Periodically, he’ll summon “friends” to the fight. You can’t Countershot his summon, but you can use Intimidation and other abilities to interrupt the cast.
No, there is no rhyme or reason to it. Some casts are tagged as interruptable, some as non-interruptable, and you can only tell which is which by the cast bar.
As for the value of interrupt, WoW content scales a lot; so at the lower end there is probably no need to interrupt anything at all, but when you get into high Mythic+ some of those spells going off can wipe the party. Some raid bosses have abilities that need to be interrupted as a mechanic, and of course it is very useful to interrupt heals or some major damage spells in PvP
Hey…another pretty filthy casual here. I legit suck at this game. After last night I’m convinced I probably should just quit. Anyways, get yourself an addon called plater.
I, am honestly not a smart guy. Like legit I’m dumb. Plater makes things easy to see even for me. It will assign colors to your enemies health bars. I’m using a plater profile from a guy named quazzi. For casters who need to be interrupted they show up as pink, and the really important ones that need to be stopped show up and a different color. Then, inside of plater, you can set the size of the cast bar for each mob…so, it’s like a big bar on your screen that you really can’t mess up.
It takes a second to learn but even for a simple idiot like myself once you figure it out, it is Legitimately the most powerful addon for combat in the entire game. Without plater I would most definitely not be able to play the game into anything higher than heroic content cause I’m just that bad. But with my only addon being plater and I can at least help my group into the 2500 rating area and feel like I’ve been some help.
Anyways…get plater and play around with it. You’ll be playing a different game…reply here if you have any questions.
i am no expert on interrupt mechanics but not all casts or mobs are interruptable.
If you don’t run bigwigs/little wigs addon, you might consider it. or even deadly boss mods (DBM). they can help you know when a cast is interruptable (and when your kick is available).
if you want to get into it more, then addons like plater can even highlight high priority interruptible spells.
however, I think you will find that many boss abilities are not interruptible.
I’m just being honest i suck so hard at this game lately. I can’t seem to do anything right. Plater basically tells me everything I need to know about a pull before it’s even pulled. The way it shows what color the cast bars are just makes the game so much easier…also the standard UI frames from blizzard just make my brain hurt. they are far too small and for me they simply don’t provide enough info at all. I need someone to hold my little hands…lmao. it’s embarrassing, but I don’t care.
i honestly can’t tell if you are trolling or not, but as a tank main, moving from basic UI to plater was literally a game changing move.
I don’t have it pre-programmed to the max. I mostly like plater for the frame sizes, the fact that they don’t float all around in the stack, and the color of the frame based on threat/aggro.
When pulling multiple packs, it is tantamount that I know which mobs I have, which i’m losing, and which I don’t have at all.
Ultimately you just need to get familiar with the content and know which casts are interruptible. Basically Blizzard designs some things to be interruptible and some not, based on their intentions for the encounter design. As somebody mentioned, the cast bars look different, but honestly this is a lot to pay attention to in the middle of combat. It’s super useful for just figuring out the first time what can be interrupted. But you also need to understand what that ability/spell actually does.
An important thing to consider is whether something should be interrupted. There are two good examples from Horrific Visions. The first is Zardeth of the Black Claw who chain casts Shadow Bolt. Sure you can interrupt it, but it does pretty much no damage, so you can just ignore it. Another is Umbric who casts Entropic Missiles and Tainted Polymorph in quick succession. It’s tempting to interrupt Poly, but you really need to interrupt Entropic Missiles instead.
Good comments and well thought out replies! I think that interrupts will be a topic more often as many choose the one-button rotation and take on the broader responsibilities.
I’d like to also offer that “there is an addon for that”. I have DBM Interrupts, and I also have DBM voice (the girl’s voice, she’ll say Watch Your Feet for example). I can hear it say “Interrupt!” AND, for some boss fights, as others have said, it will say maybe “interupt 1” or “interupt 2” as people are often assigned to keep a caster pinned down.
And, just for fun, there are also group interrupts. That is one reason you have a trap that knocks up and not back. Ursol’s Vortex and Typhoon for druids and, sometimes, incapacitating roar.
So, on top of what have learned, I’d like to add the group interrupt thing.
Not trolling at all. I literally can’t see anything but thin red lines from the standard UI. It really is confusing as hell to me. It just makes my brain sort of stop working. I’m not sure why…but if I turn off plater I instantly just don’t even wanna play at all…feels like a completely different game and I hate it. If they ever make plater not work I will most definitely quit playing. It’s, in my opinion the most important part of the game.
A lot of people throwing out Plater as a helpful addon, but I’d like to also offer Threat Plates as a viable alternative if you have issues with Plater or want to try both and see what works best for you.
My whole group uses TP; it’s highly customizable (a bit of a learning curve if you want to really go ham with the finer details, but yea) as well and works great. Never had an issue.