In both raid and M+, there are many high priority spell casts that are required to be interrupted. This often requires a level of coordination that in my opinion is not particularly fun or engaging, just tedious. The usual solution to this problem is to use voice communications (fine for organized groups, not pugs), an interrupt rotation which is usually delegated to melee, or to use addons/WeakAuras.
The solution I would like to propose for PvE content is:
- Successfully interrupting an enemy cast places the Interrupt on Cooldown.
- If other players attempt to interrupt that same enemy after the initial interrupt, their Interrupt Cooldowns are reduced.
I think this would lead to an overall healthier playstyle for both organized groups and pugs. Players with longer interrupts will be more likely to weave Interrupts into their rotation, leading to more active and reactive play rather than relying on an interrupt order or addons.
Thank you for reading. Please share your thought and concerns.
4 Likes
While I agree that it would be nicer for pugging in content, I think it would diminish the work groups do for coordination at higher levels as well.
I can see an argument for both sides, but looking at all the necessary kicks this M+, ya darn right I would love reduced CD on overlapping kicks.
3 Likes
Sounds nice on paper, but I actually have to disagree with this change. It undermines the emphasis on some coordination and organization. It doesn’t take much in PUGs to say, “I’ve got Star,” before a pull, or something.
Organized groups would be on voice, and hopefully coordinating that as well.
1 Like
Yeah, thinking about it more I think it just feels bad as a caster with a longer CD on our Interrupt/Silence. I was thinking a reduction to 60%/70%. I think there could be a balance between making this a Quality of Life change, without completely killing the coordination required.
This kind of “coordination” and “organization” doesn’t serve the gameplay. It serves nerds on discord channels playing in premades. Having the game balanced around this level of coordination actually hurts the gameplay. You could coordinate and communicate better things, go to greater heights. Instead we have to deal with this gatekeeping setup.
It serves people, but not in the way they should be served. Also, the people it serves don’t matter at all. It would improve the game so much to not punish people for being proactive about interrupts.
Not really. You’re facilitating players never learning to use it effectively, and just encouraging them to throw it out randomly, since it’ll just come back quick if it whiffs.
Half cooldown =/= coming back if it whiffs. Blowing full 40 second cooldown on a group that is already struggling to interrupt as a healer is just trash gameplay and you can’t argue otherwise. There are better things to learn than how to not be punished for someone else’s shortcomings.
Also, just stop pretending that the top players don’t use addons to track interrupt rotations. It’s not engaging gameplay, it’s busywork that encourages needless third party addons.
Melee/Tank interrupts are 13-15s, typically.
What you’re trying to say is “as an Evoker”. Resto Shaman as a different healer example has a 12 sec cooldown interrupt.
Going back to the main topic, the only situation I might see this being good for is PuG’s, so if they decided to implement it only in matchmade groups, I wouldn’t be fussed. I definitely do not think interrupt cooldowns need to be refunded in organised/competitive content.
Also, if someone were to entertain the idea, you could do it in a way where there’s still a cost, and it’s not just instantly refunded so people feel happy to spam a no-cd, off-gcd spell (or more likely just macro it). You’re trying to make something more forgiving, not make it brainless.
That also said, it’d probably be better to keep the cooldown, and just put in more in-game tools to help people communicate interrupts. There’s no reason the base game couldn’t have an interface option to let you announce interrupt targets, announce the spell you’ve interrupted and that your interrupt is on CD, etc.
1 Like
Even less if you use a focus macro that announces your target with the marker and just press that.
While I appreciate your passion, I heartily disagree.
The last thing WoW needs is to become even easier than it already is. There are plenty of deltas between low, middle, and high-level gameplay. Successful interrupts make up many of those deltas.
That being said, interrupts with PUGs can be a nightmare. So what did I do? I now play a tank class that has endless interrupts. Almost, anyway.
1 Like
I think missed interrupts shouldn’t put the interrupt spell on CD. I interrupt a lot, but melee always hit their button a microsecond faster than me and then they spam chat with the list of interrupts and cry that I’m not on it.
It would help pugs a lot which are the only ones this would affect
There are multiple key levels of difficulty, not sure how you can infer what difficulty it’s balanced around. If it’s too much for you, do a lower key.
It’s balanced around being able to voice chat interrupts so people don’t waste essential interrupts. It’s impossible to set up a dynamic system that doesn’t require communication while also being reliable for every key. It’s way too complex.
I get that people want to feel like they are more elite than other players because they opt into voice comms to overcome bad game design, but it is what it is. Bad game design.
Yea kind of mixed on this myself. I can definitely see the appeal, but coordinating interrupts is a part of the game and I’m not sure I’d like to see that particular mechanic have its significance diminished. I understand the premise for PuGs, but it would trivialize it for organized groups and I’m not sure how you can differentiate.
What I would like to see (and have advocated for several times now) is improved communication tools so groups don’t need voice comms to handle this. I’m thinking some kind of command-wheel type interface where you can quickly pick from critical tasks such as “I will CC this target” or “I will interrupt this target” and it will put a mark over its head automatically for you. Or perhaps some new markers and it will put it both over the thing you said you’d deal with and your own head. We’ve had the same set of 8 markers in the game since 2004 >.<
Here is what would happen for organized groups: Runs would be way more fun, and you could save voice comms for actual strategies instead of just annoying people by stating interrupts over and over like a literal human AI.
Let voice enable greater strategy, don’t use voice chat to gatekeep pugs out of progression. Voice chat should be more than it is, instead it is mostly wasted on something that should be apparent and coordinated without comms. Either change the casting bar color of spells that should be interrupted in the default ui and create standards so people know a spell is dangerous and needs to be interrupted, add a danger icon, or something.
I am tired of healing for dps that interrupt trivial spells, blow all their cooldowns, and then force the group to suffer mass avoidable aoe damage or run breaking status effects. I used to not know when it was my fault when a group wiped as a healer, but now that I am experienced how bad are these players? Really damn bad and it makes sense why.
This isn’t bad game design because you can’t do it and people that are aren’t “nerds” and “elites.”
/i I got first interrupt on fear
There, done. If you refund the cooldown all you’re encouraging people to do is spam the button. THAT is bad/non-compelling gameplay.
It’s an environment where you’re supposed to coordinate. Either through some intrinsic understanding of some of the game mechanics or through explicitly communicating the plan
Anyone who types that is instantly getting kicked from my party for adapting to clunky game design and being obnoxious. Nobody said nerds except for you though, that’s how you feel. Not me.