LF definitive guide on Warrior interrupts

[Bronbowser]

After playing Cata for a few weeks, it seems that not only is CC king now, but so is interrupting. And, I'm embarrassed to say that I'm not 100% clear on which interrupt skills to use in which circumstances. Tooltips and info on other sites seem ambiguous (e.g. do stuns interrupt casts? They do seem to sometimes). Specifically:

- Shield Bash is clearly the #1 interrupt, for any spell casting. Its CD is okay, but there are times that multiple interrupts are needed and it might not be ready.
- Concussive Blow is a stun and seems to work on channeled physical casts (Flay by the Flayers in Stonecore), but seems to sometimes work for spell casting too (I think!).
- Do any other stuns work for interrupting? Shockwave, Charge, War Stomp, etc.? I don't think so, but again, sometimes they seem to.

Any definitive guides out there on this?

[Arthroxin]

Intercept does, I would imagine Charge does too. You left out Pummel by the way (which can now be used in Battle Stance).

[Neelix]

There's two types of interrupt.

The first is when a spell or channel is stopped because your character is no longer able to cast it. These types of interrupts include when you move your character, when you are knocked back, incapacitated, disorientated, stunned, etc.

The second is an interrupt that locks the school of magic from use by your character for an amount of time, dependent on what spell was interrupted. These types of interrupt are caused by abilities such as Shield Bash, Counterspell, Pummel, Kick, etc.

A few important notes to make are that when you interrupt an NPC with the first type of interrupt (stun, incapacitate, etc) they are not locked from using that same spell or any within the same school for any amount of time, and as such can recast that spell (cooldowns permitting) as soon as they can. With the second type of interrupt they cannot cast the spell that was interrupted straight after, as they are locked out and their entire school is on 'cooldown'.

I don't know if that make as much sense to you as it did me, but generally when i'm tanking on my warrior i use Shield Bash as a main interrupt and just adapt to the situation every other time. Bosses i'd use shield bash, ranged caster being a fag outside the group i'd either charge and bash, depending on cooldown and what types of mobs im tanking in the main group, or heroic throw (talented). I also try to keep note of what spells are cast in bosses or even trash to help me make full use of spell reflect.

Mmmmm, could go on forever, but i think this should just about cover it.

[Deleted]

I'd say spell reflect is the number one "interrupt" on abilities that can be reflected. Gives up to 60 rage if talented, deals the damage/whatever back at the attacker in many cases and often still reduces damage taken to 0. I know some channels work differently. Sometimes it'll reflect the whole channel, sometimes just one tick of it. Some chain abilities "reflect" so that they don't real damage to you but they will still jump to nearby allies, etc...

Fantastic ability, when it just works.

[Bronbowser]

Thanks - I should have clarified that I'm mostly thinking about boss fights and that I'm Prot. Shield Bash, of course, is the #1 go-to, and I guess the reason why sometimes my stuns don't also interrupt the cast (even if it doesn't lock them out of that school of magic) is because the boss is immune to stuns. So, for example, against Baron Ashbury in SFK, I can Shield Bash to interrupt Stay of Execution, but not interrupt Mend Rotten Flesh with a stun because he's immune to stuns? Sound about right?

[Deleted]

Thanks - I should have clarified that I'm mostly thinking about boss fights and that I'm Prot. Shield Bash, of course, is the #1 go-to, and I guess the reason why sometimes my stuns don't also interrupt the cast (even if it doesn't lock them out of that school of magic) is because the boss is immune to stuns. So, for example, against Baron Ashbury in SFK, I can Shield Bash to interrupt Stay of Execution, but not interrupt Mend Rotten Flesh with a stun because he's immune to stuns? Sound about right?

Yes, that's correct, as they aren't interrupts of any kind, only stuns. Stuns just happen to have the byproduct of naturally stopping all actions from the character, including casting. So if the target doesn't get stunned, no interrupting will naturally happen. One reason I like having Gag Order talented, gives an extra interrupt and silence for both melee and more importantly ranged.

[shadowkras]

A few important notes to make are that when you interrupt an NPC with the first type of interrupt (stun, incapacitate, etc) they are not locked from using that same spell or any within the same school for any amount of time,

Not always true, but happens very often.

[Worlds Apart]

I'd say spell reflect is the number one "interrupt" on abilities that can be reflected. Gives up to 60 rage if talented, deals the damage/whatever back at the attacker in many cases and often still reduces damage taken to 0. I know some channels work differently. Sometimes it'll reflect the whole channel, sometimes just one tick of it. Some chain abilities "reflect" so that they don't real damage to you but they will still jump to nearby allies, etc...

Fantastic ability, when it just works.

Spell reflect is awesome. However, in no way whatsoever is it an interrupt.

---------- Post added 2010-12-31 at 06:56 PM ----------

After playing Cata for a few weeks, it seems that not only is CC king now, but so is interrupting. And, I'm embarrassed to say that I'm not 100% clear on which interrupt skills to use in which circumstances. Tooltips and info on other sites seem ambiguous (e.g. do stuns interrupt casts? They do seem to sometimes). Specifically:

- Shield Bash is clearly the #1 interrupt, for any spell casting. Its CD is okay, but there are times that multiple interrupts are needed and it might not be ready.
- Concussive Blow is a stun and seems to work on channeled physical casts (Flay by the Flayers in Stonecore), but seems to sometimes work for spell casting too (I think!).
- Do any other stuns work for interrupting? Shockwave, Charge, War Stomp, etc.? I don't think so, but again, sometimes they seem to.

Any definitive guides out there on this?

Heroic throw with Gag Order talent.

[Deleted]

Spell reflect is awesome. However, in no way whatsoever is it an interrupt.

Yes, I'm aware. It naturally doesn't help at all in abilities that arn't directly casted and offensive against you but I do like to sort of lift it up with interrupts cos IF the spell is Reflectable without any downsides, you're better off doing that than Shield Bashing/using other methods to interrupt.

[Deleted]

The four ways in which a player can stop your casting is:

Silence, Interupt, Stun, or other dissorient/fear (Gauge, repetence, fear f.ex)

I'm sure there's some other gimmicky thing like Mindcontroll someone wanna tell me all about, but "above" the most common ways to interupt your ass.

Now, silences don't interupt per se, they lock your entire casting out, often with abit of a delay, making it an unreliable way to interupt someone from casting. Most bosses is entirely immune to the silience effect. Example: Heroic Throw with the Gag order talent, the silience applies a rough 0.5seconds after the cast lands.

Interupts are entirely instant and they lock your school out. If you cast holy, Pummeling that locks your entire holy school but you can still cast Shadow spells just fine. The duration of the lockouts are diffrent, Pummel being at 4seconds and shieldbash at 6seconds. There's also abilities that do both, examples being Counterspell and talented shieldbash.

Stuns are kindof self explanitory. You're stunned, you don't cast.

Fear/Gauge, etc, is the same.

What warriors got is:

Charge - 15second cooldown, 20 with Juggernaut. Stun.
Intercept - 30second cooldown, 20 with Skirmisher, -5s cooldown on our 4set in PvP. Stun.
Shield bash - 12second cooldown, 6second spell school lockout, 6second silence with Gag Order talent. Interupt/Silence.
Pummel - 10second cooldown, 4second spell school lockout. Interupt.
Intimidating Shout - 2minute cooldown, 8second duration, breaks on damage. Fear
Throwdown - 45second cooldown, 5second duration, arms talent. Stun

Warriors got tons of crap that they can use to annoy you into oblivion, altho when lined up it looks more overpowered than it actually is.

Shieldbash and pummel shares a cooldown, and shieldbash requires shields, forcing the weaponswap delay.

But yea, a skilled warrior can line it all up to cause serious headache.

[Thrive]

After playing Cata for a few weeks, it seems that not only is CC king now, but so is interrupting. And, I'm embarrassed to say that I'm not 100% clear on which interrupt skills to use in which circumstances. Tooltips and info on other sites seem ambiguous (e.g. do stuns interrupt casts? They do seem to sometimes). Specifically:

- Shield Bash is clearly the #1 interrupt, for any spell casting. Its CD is okay, but there are times that multiple interrupts are needed and it might not be ready.
- Concussive Blow is a stun and seems to work on channeled physical casts (Flay by the Flayers in Stonecore), but seems to sometimes work for spell casting too (I think!).
- Do any other stuns work for interrupting? Shockwave, Charge, War Stomp, etc.? I don't think so, but again, sometimes they seem to.

Any definitive guides out there on this?

Im guessing that your prot so ill make it easy.
On anything that can be stunned, Shockwave, War Stomp, and Concussive Blow work.
Shield bash works on everything that can be inerupted.
If you have gag reflex and heroic throw that isnt an interupt, but it can silence people.

[moowindd]

I've got a quick question about this.

Are any of the interrupts meant to work on channeled abilities like some npc's whirlwinds? (Or other similar abilities) Whenever I see the targets channel bar I tend to try and interrupt it in any way.

[Deleted]

Yes, but if the targets cast/channel bar is "shielded" meaning it has some extra metal texture around the castbar, it means that it's uninterruptable. Although even in these cases stuns work if the mob just is stunnable.

[danblee]

Yes, but if the targets cast/channel bar is "shielded" meaning it has some extra metal texture around the castbar, it means that it's uninterruptable. Although even in these cases stuns work if the mob just is stunnable.

Came here to say this. Keep in mind that if there is a Shield around it, you cannot interrupt it. If you are using a cast bar mod or a unit frame mod, most of the time the cast itself will be green if you can interrupt it or red. My enemy cast bar is thick so I know when someone is about to cast and I can pummel the shit out of it, saving the day and still getting /sigh'ed at from people when I hop into an instance and they see I'm a warrior without standard CC.

[shadowkras]

Charge - 15second cooldown, 20 with warbringer. Stun.

Warbringer doesnt affect any cooldowns. Its arm warriors that get +5s on charge and can use it in combat.

[asharia]

all stuns will interrupt, if the mob is not stun immune (there are few in heroics)

you also have shield bash, arcane torrent (elves) and heroic throw (talented) for interrupting magic casts.

[Deleted]

Warbringer doesnt affect any cooldowns. Its arm warriors that get +5s on charge and can use it in combat.

Yea sorry, I meant Juggernaut.