Spell Interruption

Currently I am having issues with getting spells off while taking hits. I've seen many paladins just cast cure IV no problem after getting hit multiple times and rarely if ever interrupted. Is there something I can do to improve my chances of successfully getting a cast through while getting beat on?

Current gear
http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/320609
Using brutal until I get creed earring to drop.

I have 328 shield skill as well.

Currently working on ochain and aegis but im far away from both.

Now is the last 100 points in shield a big deal or is it the shield I'm using which isn't blocking often because its a bigger size? I'm finding skillups with shield(using a size1 for skilling up) is very slow at the moment, any suggestions where to go?

Any help would be appreciated :)

What exactly is your healing skill at? It sounds like low healing skill in conjunction with the combination of the shield you are using and uncapped skill is what is getting your spells snuffed out. Outside of the general go cap your skills, you should definitely look into getting out of that Butznar and getting a Killedar Shield for a more reliable shield. (or Eminent? I assume that while this would be a tad inferior to the former it would at least be a huge improvement over what you have now in addition to being free if you cant afford the Killedar)

In addition to the above, you should really look into creating a fast cast set for those cures. Not only are you not haste capped in that set, but you dont have anything to really lessen the time you are spent vulnerable in the form of Fast Cast and the like. Some easier options for the latter include a Cizin Helm, Incantor Stone, Prolix Ring and Loquacious Earring. With a little work you can toss Enif Cosciales in there as well. Haste wise, I would look into getting a Cetl Belt and maybe getting +1 on the Reverence Headpiece to put you nicely at 26% Gear Haste. You have a lot of options to work with for haste though with how easy it has become to gear for so have at it.

These are all just off the cuff suggestions, so you can use what you have access too and some of the information provided to draw your own conclusions until you can get a little closer to the stuff provided in the sticky thread we have here.

I'd strongly suggest changing shields. Both for general use, and for skilling up. You need to get a higher item level shield, with some shield skill on it.

I'd suggest an eminent shield. It's very easy to get, has high skill+ and other wise good stats. Killedar is better, but also comes with a notable price tag on most servers.

For skilling up, you want lots of hits, for low damage. Things like mandies tend to be best. And then you pull as many mobs as you can survive. The point is to maximize the number of skill up chances in the least time possible.

There are several things you can do to increase your skill up chances. There's food. You'll be wanting to use maringna. There's also several pieces of skill up+ gear. prouesse ring, terminus earring, and Temachtiani head legs and feet.

There's also Ionis, but that requires you to skill up in adoulin areas.

You just need 1 piece to stop you from getting interupted.... ochain.

To add to what Martel said:

1. Change shields.

2. Cap your shield skill.

3. Time your reprisal/pallisades properly to maximize total block rate %s and thus minimize interrupts.

4. As for equipping spell interrupt gear: Unless you can get 100% spell interupt, don't worry about that in gear. Spell interrupt is weird in that "10% spell interrupt" doesn't seem to give you 10% less spell interruption..

I second what Martel and Neo said, but would also like to point out, there is a timing trick to it as well. If you have enough fast cast to match or beat the time between mob attack rounds, start casting as the mob hits you, you should complete cast when or before it swings again. I've never been interrupted by normal melee hits when timed properly, in spite of missed shield block. the only exceptions are obvious, stun, sleep, paralyze,silence effects,etc.

Being a career mage I know about the timing but the issue isn't one mob but multiple hitting me in the orb fights for pages for example.

I position them all infront of me so I can block them but they still interrupt me.

Now I'm doing the changes that everyone suggested and one thing I never considered was my healing skill. I'm in the process of skilling it up. Currently capped shield skill from 330-cap off mandies in Ceizak. Also working on the haste gear. I have everything but the torque from meebles, helm, and enif pants. I should have them except the torque by weeks end. Ill let you know how it goes from there as I've been busy with work and haven't had a chance to do anything with paladin since posting this. Thanks for all your comments.

I dont know what you have merited but, I have 3 points in Iron Will for the fast cast that you can get with the relic head when rampart is up.

Something i noticed the other day when i was fighting the marjami t3 NM was that i was getting interrupted alot even with ochain. I was trying to keep phalanx up and what i did to correct this was just time my casts with rampart.

With 3 pts in Iron Will you should be statistically getting 57% spell interrupt with rampart up. With the relic head you can increase rampart up to 1min.

Now If you are using cure4 for hate there really is better options mainly blu spells but, if you are using it because maybe you dont trust the whm then what you can do is keep rampart up in the event that you have to use a cure4.

The mp/enmity efficiency of cure4 sucks. Blank gaze is a much better option you get way more hate and you dont have to lower your overall hp. even on a 904hp cure4(88mp)= about 215CE, your not going to generate as much enmity as blank gaze(25mp)= 320CE just to give you an example. and think about the amount of pdt you have to give up to achieve that set up.

really though if you cap shield skill and use a fast cast set you shouldn't have any issues casting cure4. And if you like to use rampart for other reasons then timing your cure4s works too.

Is there a thread for using /blu? I've only recently leveled it and farmed spells partway(everything up to level 40 spells so far). Is there anything else I should be using besides cocoon,blank gaze? And which traits to set? Atm I have auto regen, attack+, beast killer,and others I forget atm.