Fail

An action that fails is prevented from completing, but this is not technically considered an interruption from a game mechanics perspective. The word "fail" is shown on the screen of a player whose action fails.

A failure has these properties:
 * The action has no effect.
 * The cost, if any, (energy, adrenaline, exhaustion) is forfeited.
 * If the action is a skill, it does not need to recharge (unless it has been disabled) and can be used again immediately (unlike the effect of knockdown or true interrupts).

Causes

 * An action fails if:
 * The target has become invalid (due it dying or having an "Invalid Target" effect).
 * It is a skill which has become disabled
 * Most Assassin attack skills have prerequisites to work. If these are not met, the attack will fail.
 * This means that dagger attack skills that are greyed out will fail, and instantly recharge.
 * However, do not confuse this with skills that require a different prerequisite (knocked down, enchanted, hexed) which will produce a fail message, but still activate the recharge.
 * Certain skills explicitly cause failure, either at the end of the activation time (e.g. Mark of Subversion) or immediately upon activation (e.g. Spell Breaker)
 * Cancelling a skill can also be viewed as causing immediate failure

Related articles

 * Disable skills quick reference
 * Action prevention skills quick reference
 * Interrupt
 * Interrupt skills quick reference