Guild Wars 2

I thought Anet said we could strafe out the way of projectiles in the game.

But this seem untrue. Most attacks, especially those from NPC are guided and will change directions to hit you.

this makes it impossible to avoid these attacks when dodge is on cooldown.

This is a issue especially when fighting boss event spawns with no allies around to help.

Just fought the drakemother boss in Orr and her guided ranged poison attack hit me no matter what I try to do. It changed directions in midair.

downed in the mater of seconds, with no way to rally at all.

I feel mislead by the Anet marketing team.

You feel mislead for something you -think- you read?

You can’t strafe out of the way of attacks, so I think maybe you misunderstood or misremembered what you read. It would make dodge pointless.

Dodge doesn’t have a cool down, it costs endurance and some professions have ways of increasing their endurance, or skills that include an evade. Dodge is not the only protection you have. You can daze, blind, or stun. Investigate the side effects of your skills. If you are using all of your weapon skills every time they’re available, you’re not being as effective as you can be.

There are lots of special attacks you can strafe out of the way of, but basic attacks and most special attacks require dodge.

BeardRex.6739:

There are lots of special attacks you can strafe out of the way of, but basic attacks and most special attacks require dodge.

That’s interesting, because I haven’t noticed any I could get out of the way of without dodging unless there was a red circle on the ground that I could easily step out of. I’ll have to pay more attention.

It’s quite obvious that some attacks will hit you no matter what the animation looks like or how fast you run. I figured that out the second I saw a big rock from giant wurm take a right turn and smack me in the head.

They are still projectiles and others can block them for you if they stand in the way. Or you can duck behind cover.

You can actually get out of ranged attack by just kiting. You have to move when the projectile is already in the air, not as they shoot it. And since some projectile have a bigger hit radius and/or move faster, some are harder than other to evade. I find that arrow are the easiest. Ooze and grub spit too if you keep your distance enough to have the time to move far enough. The further your are the easier it is.

This is a common thing I see. All npc attacks can actually be stepped out of. Some are very fast, which makes it very difficult to do, much easier to just dodge. Projectiles lead you, so if you keep running in the same direction, it will hit you. If you switch directions while the projectile is traveling it will miss. You can also sidestep back and forth rapidly, and see how the projectile goes flying far to the side of you. Mobs follow the same rules as players here, it’s possible to swing at the empty air, and if someone moves behind you while you’re attacking you will miss.

Yeah I knew you could LoS some attacks – I guess I like being a little too close to the action to be able to step out of a projectile’s trajectory.

One thing that helped me a lot, particularly in PvP, is mapping “about face” to a key (it’s not mapped by default). It’s a good way to keep those thieves from stabbing you in the back.