Guild Wars 2

Was just playing again with my Guardian. Now I know there are myriads of ways to reflect and null projectiles in the game. Was wondering, however, if it’s possible to cheat them by attacking from behind. I’ve done it in the past, but I tried it again, and once the first projectile hits, it seems you cannot attack them from behind as you’ll keep being hit (it keeps aiming at you without fail no matter where you go.)

I tried online, but all google searches are false, directing to other games I don’t care about, or just mention the monster, but not any counters to their attacks. Reason I ask is because one is not supposed to reflect missiles with an 100% up-time, so there must be a way to deal with high tier bristlebacks in the game I am not aware about.

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies you may have. (If someone else have had this question in the past, or it appears “too simple”, my apologies-please do not reply in a hostile manner.)

Deal with them by kiting or killing it fast. You don’t need to reflect all of its projectiles. At range its easy to outpace the speed at which the bristleback turns, maybe you will need a dodge. They are actually pretty easy fights

I find it’s difficult to avoid the projectile stream at close range. I usually drop back to medium range and kite the edge of the stream. The bristleback turns slowly to face you as he fires the projectile stream, so just stay ahead of it. Use swiftness if available and dodge as necessary. Once the projectiles stop, break his bar and finish him off.

Reflects and blocks are good, too, obviously. It’s just that this particular attack is a continuous stream that outlasts most reflects/blocks, making these effects a partial solution at best.

You’ve never been able to catch them from behind. They’ve always turned to face you as they fired.

Changes in terrain still completely nullify them. If you’re even a little bit above them, their attacks will just hit the ground.

Retaliation also does wonders if you can tank the damage for a bit, since they hit a huge number of times.

I also have issues with them – I find the defiance bar almost completely unbreakable solo, so “Break the breakbar” doesn’t work.

Trying to use the terrain to block the projectiles doesn’t work either – they either follow the ground over changes in elevation (Both up and down), or clip through solid objects and hit me anyway.

Even at long range and with Speed Boost Mushrooms, they seem to be able to still track me faster than I can strafe to avoid them.

Thanks for all your intelligent replies-I will practice on them more when I get back online. It seems what is killing me is “braving them” too much at close range. Will see what happens next time.

You can also exploit the fact that the projectile attack roots the bristleback in place and walk right past them. Honestly, I can kill them with little risk but why waste my time? They’re rarely located in a position where you actually need to kill them to achieve an objective.