Some of us are privileged to have access to the Alpha forums and occaisionally the devs post some really cool stuff there. Here is a post from Stephen Cheney yall might like:
[Half-Draw + MoO Stop] Should be two separate rolls. But a 40% and 50% together is a 70% chance overall of either of them triggering (and a 20% chance of both of them triggering, which doesn't do anything extra), so it's still pretty likely.
And, yes, people specced to spam interrupts is exactly why slow attacks are so good; the chance of getting interrupted is built into the math. If you're in a fight and you keep getting interrupted, switch to attacks that are faster than 1.3 seconds (and, consequently, have no interrupt phase).
(That said, interrupts should fail if factors reduce the attack's effect by 30% or more and that seems to be bugged right now, so, once that bug is fixed, another solution is to buff your defense enough that the interrupter fails by a decent margin.)
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So how many of your attacks is that, Nihimon?
#JokesOnYou meets #Drawn&Quartered :)
... attacks that are faster than 1.3 seconds... have no interrupt phase...That's worth pointing out.
That is attack time, not cooldown time. Attack time is typically 0.3 seconds longer than cooldown time. So attacks that have a Cooldown of 0.9 seconds or shorter are safe.
Goblin Squad Member
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Yep that's why when I run my wizzie I always stopped using Wraiths Cry after the first round or two of melee and switch to a quicker wand spell. Same with bow attacks. Never quite knew the mechanics but it was pretty obvious after a few combats that quicker attacks/spells got around the interrupt problem nicely.
Quick attacks that can cause an interrupt are even better :D
The other mechanic that helps of course is get out of combat and let the NPC get some stamina back so they stop spamming interrupt attacks.
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Goblin Squad Member
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For some reason it dont happens, I dont knw why, but I have done it certainly a hundred times now. Longbow gets interrupted, draw axe run in .. Chop, chop battle is over... I check the speed of those next time I log on, but they certainly looks slow (like that would mean anything with these .... Unpolished animations we have now)
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Goblin Squad Member
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I use a greatsword. Some attacks are very prone to be interupted. So you alternate between a fast attack with low damage and a slow one with a lot more damage.
Cleave can be sooo powerful. I loye it when several goblins in a row go down in a form akin to a syncronized ballet. There is also the attack that tend to kill archers / wizard with a single hit because they offer opportunity.
But you have to adapt in fights to your enemy or you have issues.
Cleave works great against goblins, skeletons, bandits but is useless against archer, wizards, wolfs. Wolfs need fast attacks but for Ogres or knights you also need something with a little bit more damage of you lose.
Still learning and not using it in a fully conscious optimized way - but I'm getting better.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Most axe attacks are 1.4, the slowest are 2. So they're all technically interruptible but for many the window is very small. I prefer it to daggers that never get interrupted while doing no meaningful damage at all.
@Thod - there are two separate 3-step chains building on each other's affects with Greatsword that are two primaries and end with secondary if you want it.
By the way Schedim I'll take one of those axes.
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Goblinworks Game Designer
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Most axe attacks are 1.4, the slowest are 2.
You're looking at the cooldown. Add 0.3 for the actual time (and someday we'll have time to implement the tooltip design that includes the attack time as well as the cooldown). Axe attacks are mostly 1.7, with some 2.3s. Chop is the fastest at 1.3 so still has an interruption phase.
Another post from Stephen on the Alpha forums:
Just because it's a consistent formula, not hidden information, I thought I'd explained it before, and the mathy folks may get some use out of it, the function is:
All player attacks have a Validation phase that's 300ms (i.e., .3 seconds). This is the time programming likes to have to ensure that the message "I'm making an attack, please make sure my client is right and I can make an attack" is successfully checked against the server and back. If your client gets back a message "sorry, you're slightly out of sync, that's not actually the valid target you thought" it doesn't cost you any Stamina or start cooldown, the attack should just fail and you can immediately try again.
If the attack is less than 1.3 seconds, the remaining time is all Followthrough. The damage and effects are applied immediately after Validation finishes. Followthrough is time for the animation to play its return to base state and any other flourishes our animator likes to add.
If the attack is 1.3 seconds or longer, Followthrough is a minimum of 400ms, and otherwise equal to 20% of the length of the attack (so a 3 second attack will have 600ms of Followthrough, and anything between 1.3 and 2.0 seconds will have 400ms of Followthrough). For really slow actions (3+ seconds), this phase gets pretty long, so I think it may change a little once we start putting animations in for them and wind up with more "time for stuff I'm doing after I release/hit" than looks good.
Whatever's left over is Interruption phase, and is the period in which the attack can fail by being hit with an Interrupt effect (or just for the target getting out of range or other things that might make them no longer a valid target). The Stamina and Power has already been spent at this point, and theoretically the cooldown has started, so failing on the interrupt phase is paying the costs for no benefit.
We'd like to get some kind of icon or channel bar to show you when something's interruptible, but I don't know when that will get in. Keep in mind that most attacks with an Interrupt effect are under 1.3 seconds, so the interrupt will play right after the Validation of 300ms; you don't have to squeeze the whole length of the interrupting attack into the target's Interruption phase for it to work. For attacks 1.3s or longer that have an Interrupt effect, it's really more of a nice sporadic bonus than something you can plan for, unless the target is being really predictable; it's mostly going to trigger coincidentally since you have to wait for your whole Validation and Interrupt phase before it Interrupts the target, and the target's probably already in Followthrough by then.
Some examples of how this breaks down:
Seconds / Interruption Miliseconds
0.9 / 0
1.1 / 0
1.3 / 600
1.5 / 800
1.7 / 1000
1.9 / 1200
2.1 / 1380
2.3 / 1540
2.5 / 1700
2.7 / 1860
2.9 / 2020
3.1 / 2180
3.3 / 2340
3.5 / 2500(Note that creature melee attacks mostly don't have an interruption or validation phase right now unless they're slower than 1.6 seconds, because that's the hack we had to put in to get them to be able to hit you while you're moving. There is no break between the creature going "I can hit you" and "I have hit you." Once we have time to actually fix the AI's ability to chase you and attack at the same time, the creature attacks will go back to the same formula as the player attacks.)
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Goblin Squad Member
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I haven't complained about unresponsive controls since I was counting One Mississippi and sometimes the better part of Two Mississippi between pushing the button and seeing anything happen on screen. It's been a while since those days so it seems like whatever that was has been smoothed over.
On that subject, drawing a weapon takes one second?
When I'm just going into combat and beasties are running at me I really REALLY want to knock them a good one with my "if target has Opportunity" feats, but by the time I draw the weapon and wait through the validation and interrupt phase they no longer have Opportunity when something finally happens.
Where are we on already having weapons drawn when entering a combat-likely situation? Not a draw weapon toggle, just "I am attempting to attack my target with these feats so as a first step I am going to draw my weapon now" thing. If you're getting surprised it doesn't get drawn but when you're intentionally heading into a fight you take your poking stick out of it's cozy.
NO ONE waits until they are so close to actually make a hit before they even (delay their intended actions to) draw their weapon. It's a major offender in the accusations of sluggish unintuitive combat.
I suppose a toggle to just draw the weapon and not put it way would not offend the current issue of putting weapons away resetting Expendables.
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Goblinworks Game Designer
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The time for weapon drawing and switching should be significantly shortened in the next build if it's not already in.
I've been very hesitant to advocate for a "draw weapon" button because:
A) It's another button that you have to know about and we have to permanently allocate on the UI.
B) Drawing a weapon is currently inextricably linked to being in the combat state. Being in combat is not actually desirable except in avoiding the draw animation, as it does things like remove your out of combat regeneration and recovery bonuses. It's not really a problem if you're doing it in anticipation of a fight in one second, but it could be really annoying if you're just trying to draw your sword because you want to look at your sword, and suddenly you're thrust into a tactical rather than strategic frame of reference and don't really know why.
You should be able to put yourself into combat, though, if you want to slot some kind of beneficial self-buff and use that. Self-buffing should put you into combat and draw your weapon.
Opportunity should also hang around for two seconds after you stop moving, and is not currently. Don't know when that'll be changed, but when it is it should make it way easier to capitalize on movement opportunity.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I will note that extending the combat state can be irritating when I mix combat and gathering. When I stab some gobs to get at a node, it already takes long enough to get my fatigue bar full before I can mine. Having to wait another round or more before I can start gathering = irritating and feels like I'm lagging.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Having to wait another round or more before I can start gathering = irritating and feels like I'm lagging.
It's not ideal currently, but it's better than it was when you would get "out of combat" in the middle of combat.
Ideally, they'll have us get out of combat as soon as there's nothing aggroing us. Of course, that means there needs to be a way for PCs to apply aggro. I really don't think you should be able to get your out of combat regen bonuses while actively running away from someone who's trying to kill you while they still have you targeted.
The time for weapon drawing and switching should be significantly shortened in the next build if it's not already in.
I've been very hesitant to advocate for a "draw weapon" button because:
A) It's another button that you have to know about and we have to permanently allocate on the UI.
B) Drawing a weapon is currently inextricably linked to being in the combat state. Being in combat is not actually desirable except in avoiding the draw animation, as it does things like remove your out of combat regeneration and recovery bonuses. It's not really a problem if you're doing it in anticipation of a fight in one second, but it could be really annoying if you're just trying to draw your sword because you want to look at your sword, and suddenly you're thrust into a tactical rather than strategic frame of reference and don't really know why.You should be able to put yourself into combat, though, if you want to slot some kind of beneficial self-buff and use that. Self-buffing should put you into combat and draw your weapon.
Opportunity should also hang around for two seconds after you stop moving, and is not currently. Don't know when that'll be changed, but when it is it should make it way easier to capitalize on movement opportunity.
I can confirm that using a utility or token to buff myself does cause me to draw my weapon, so that is a useful thing to know.
I had noticed that Opportunity actually went away after 2 seconds of movement in previous builds. I think that was fixed in Build 10, though. Haven't been paying enough attention to it to confirm that, though.
Its good to know that it is intended to hang around for 2 seconds AFTER a person stops moving.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Probably stating the obvious but timing also matters when you are getting interrupted. If your attack has an interrupt phase you have much more chance of it working if you fire it off in the "sweet-spot" which seems to be just after the NPCs attack.
With multiple enemies though it can quickly become impossible and you need to withdraw and let them get stamina back or switch to a faster attack.