Guild Wars 2

What exactly am I supposed to do when I have the target on my head? I assume either put up a reflect or dodge, but how do I time it?

I guess it depends on what targeted you. I know it appears when the mob that has the bee swarms targets you and I think the sniper also targets you.

And god, those snipers are awful. I love that.

its either a troll or a sniper. I found, particularly in a really glassy build, that the rapid fire from snipers was long enough to not be mitigated by a single dodge. However, their HP is low enough that a reflect on one rapid fire would kill them very fast (didnt take the full channel). As a test I ran up to one on my tempest, popped a magnetic aura and didnt touch it with any attacks and it killed itself in about 4 hits.

How they designed the mobs and their layout in the new area force you to be aware of which kind of mobs are in front of you, decide your strategy before engaging and pick a target to focus. Its a good step forward.

This still doesn’t completely answer the question of, if I have a target on my head, but I can’t see where it is coming from, how can I time the dodge? Or am I supposed to just run for cover?

The Great Al.2546:

This still doesn’t completely answer the question of, if I have a target on my head, but I can’t see where it is coming from, how can I time the dodge? Or am I supposed to just run for cover?

Well, you first need to display some situational awareness. Know what enemies are around you, pull the camera back more if you have to. Your reaction should be different depending on if it’s a troll or a sniper.

If it’s a troll, and there’s bee AoEs all over, you’re going to need to move to stay out of them since they’re going to be coming for you. Be wary of Cripple effects that could doom you, and focus-fire the troll if you can, since once it dies the bees will immediately vanish.

If it’s a sniper, then once the target shows up you’ve got about three seconds to react. If you have a projectile block or preferably a reflect, use that and watch the sniper kill itself. If there is cover to take to use line of sight to block the attack, that’s the next best step. Your final option would be to use a crowd control skill on the sniper to interrupt his charging up of the attack.

Boonstrip might also be an option, since the reason the sniper attack is so devastating is because during the charging up of the attack, the sniper grants itself 25 stacks of Might to attack with. If you can strip that away from it, even if you can’t dodge the attacks the damage will be greatly reduced. 750 Power makes a big difference.

The answer to your question is that you should look around to find out what is targeting you and decide what to do based on that.

Or, even better, keep an eye on your surroundings so that when the target appears you already know what it’s likely to be.