Interruption prevents an attack or skill activation from completing. When an attack is interrupted, it will not trigger effects that happen on attack and the attack will not hit, miss, be blocked, be dodged, or fail. When a skill is interrupted, its normal recharge begins. The energy or adrenaline cost of the skill will not be refunded but there will be no aftercast.
Attacking or activating a skill are collectively called "actions." Some interrupts will interrupt any action, some will only interrupt skills, and some will only interrupt spells. For a list of interrupts, see the interrupt skills quick reference.
Interrupt prevention
The only guaranteed way to prevent interruption is to use a skill which explicitly does so. Against interrupts which are attacks, staying out of range of melee attackers, out of line of sight of ranged attackers, or causing attacks to miss or be blocked can be effective. Against interrupts which are spells, the only indirect defense are skills such as Spell Breaker will prevent you from being targeted.
These skills directly prevent interruption:
Mantra of Concentration prevents one interruption.- Mantra of Resolve prevents interruptions at the cost of energy per interrupt prevented.
- Persistence of Memory makes your interrupted spells recharge instantly.
Glyph of Concentration prevents interruption of the next two spells cast and ignores the effects of dazed.- Trapper's Focus makes traps not easily interruptible for a duration.
- Tranquil Was Tanasen is an Item Spell that prevents interruption.
- Song of Concentration prevents interruption of the next skill used by ally in earshot.
- Pious Concentration expends one enchantment per interrupt prevented.
Tips on interrupts
- When trying to interrupt, watch the Skill Monitor. When the enemy starts using a skill, the skill's icon appears with an activation bar that shows the skill's activation progress.
- If an opponent is using a skill that takes a very long time to activate, it may be in your interest to wait until the last second to interrupt the player. In this case, more of the enemy's time will be wasted.
- Some skills have no recharge, so interrupting them immediately only allows the player to begin recasting the spell right away.
- It is best to study (and perhaps play as) other professions to truly understand what is the best way to interrupt each class.
- Certain skills do not have an activation time. These skills cannot be interrupted.
Easily interrupted
Some skills are easily interrupted (including all traps). Characters activating these skills are interrupted if any attack hits, even without the use of interruption skills. While a character is dazed, all of their spells are easily interrupted.
These skills are easily interrupted:
- Crude Swing
- Barbed Trap
- Dust Trap
- Flame Trap
- Healing Spring
- Precision Shot
- Spike Trap
- Viper's Nest
- Snare
- Smoke Trap
- Tripwire
- Ethereal Light
Other forms of skill disruption
Knockdowns, disabling skills, and skill failure can also be used to prevent a successful activation of a skill (and knockdowns can disrupt normal attacks as well). However, that none of these mechanics cause the target to be "interrupted." See the related articles for more information.