Guild Wars 2

Is there a foolproof way to dodge the shatters? Half the time when they come at me and I dodge straight through them, they end up running past me instead of exploding, only to turn around and chase me again. I either blow another dodge or eat the shatter.

Try to kite them so they all run next to each other, then dodge.

Other than that, kill the clones/phantasms before they reach you

Yezhik.2071:

Try to kite them so they all run next to each other, then dodge.

Other than that, kill the clones/phantasms before they reach you

Forgot to add that they were. Pretty much all bunched enough for my ele fireball (staff) to hit all or most of them – they would ALL still run by me when I roll.

Being forced to kill them shouldn’t be the answer especially if I play as a melee.

it’s really just about timing the dodge, they stomp and make a quick animation before they explode and its based off the distance from you.. its probably like 100-200 units

Yeah this is annoying. They can defeintely work on the programming code to make this more responsive.

It’s really really hard to dodge shatterspikes, but it’s not too easy to land them as the mesmer as well, but here are a few tricks I’ve picked up in countless 1v1’s with Top-Mesmers (I often 1v1-train with Top-30 EU-QP-Players):

1) First of all, don’t let them get near you if possible. It’s way easier to dodge the immobilize, if you actually see the Ilusion that does the leap, it’s harder if the mesmer stands near you and just presses “3” two times very quickly.

2) Everytime they get near you – dodge. Yes, this is only possible on chars that can potentially stay out of Melee-Range with the mesmer, but it’s IMHO the only safe way to avoid being immobilized, because everytime a mesmer is in Melee-range, he can potentially Immobilize you within the blink of an Eye.

- There are certain mediating Aspects to the Rule of Thumb above: Count the Illusions; if he doesn’t have 2 (1 he’ll get from Illusionary Leap), it’s not as likely that he’ll shatter you, or he’ll have to dodge somehwere in between to get a third one or he’ll spike without the full potential; In each of the cases, the spike won’t be as scary, because it’s not as fast or doesn’t deal as much dmg. These tips are only important if you don’t have enough dodges – if you have a high-endurance-build, it’s still best to always dodge if the mesmer is in Melee-range.
- Count the time between spikes and constantly know if Mind Wrack is up: Yes, being spiked with other shatters might still deal a bit of DPS and rip off boons, but MW is the Damage-Dealer: No need to use up dodges or Cooldowns on the other F-Skills of the Mesmer. If the Mesmer spiked you, you can easily go into Melee-range for like 10 Seconds and punish him, then just stay back out of Range when MW is back up.
- Watch where the Illusions are and try to control the Illusions with Movement: Most Mesmers use the Pistol-Duelist, which is ranged and the one on the Staff as well – the other Illusions are most of the time Melee: Try and spread out the Melee-Illusions as far as possible from the Ranged ones; this way, the spike won’t hit all at the same time and even if the Mesmer hits his immobilize, you might even be able to dodge some of the Shatters, because the Ranged Illusions had to walk 2+ seconds to you.

3) Kill the Illusions: This is mostly an emergency-plan if you run out of defensive CD’s, dodges or have to go Melee with the Mesmer and staying alive is more important than actually dealing DMG to the Mesmer.

*Edit: if you simply wanted to know how to dodge individual Illusions: They stand still for maybe half a second and kinda charge up their shatter, that’s when you have to dodge them. So they need to be in that state of charging up the shatter, so they’ll actually explode. You kinda have to stand still for a moment and let them get near you or they’ll just keep running. ^^’

I hope I was able to help a bit. ^^

PowerBottom.5796:

It’s really really hard to dodge shatterspikes, but it’s not too easy to land them as the mesmer as well, but here are a few tricks I’ve picked up in countless 1v1’s with Top-Mesmers (I often 1v1-train with Top-30 EU-QP-Players):

1) First of all, don’t let them get near you if possible. It’s way easier to dodge the immobilize, if you actually see the Ilusion that does the leap, it’s harder if the mesmer stands near you and just presses “3” two times very quickly.

2) Everytime they get near you – dodge. Yes, this is only possible on chars that can potentially stay out of Melee-Range with the mesmer, but it’s IMHO the only safe way to avoid being immobilized, because everytime a mesmer is in Melee-range, he can potentially Immobilize you within the blink of an Eye.

- There are certain mediating Aspects to the Rule of Thumb above: Count the Illusions; if he doesn’t have 2 (1 he’ll get from Illusionary Leap), it’s not as likely that he’ll shatter you, or he’ll have to dodge somehwere in between to get a third one or he’ll spike without the full potential; In each of the cases, the spike won’t be as scary, because it’s not as fast or doesn’t deal as much dmg. These tips are only important if you don’t have enough dodges – if you have a high-endurance-build, it’s still best to always dodge if the mesmer is in Melee-range.
- Count the time between spikes and constantly know if Mind Wrack is up: Yes, being spiked with other shatters might still deal a bit of DPS and rip off boons, but MW is the Damage-Dealer: No need to use up dodges or Cooldowns on the other F-Skills of the Mesmer. If the Mesmer spiked you, you can easily go into Melee-range for like 10 Seconds and punish him, then just stay back out of Range when MW is back up.
- Watch where the Illusions are and try to control the Illusions with Movement: Most Mesmers use the Pistol-Duelist, which is ranged and the one on the Staff as well – the other Illusions are most of the time Melee: Try and spread out the Melee-Illusions as far as possible from the Ranged ones; this way, the spike won’t hit all at the same time and even if the Mesmer hits his immobilize, you might even be able to dodge some of the Shatters, because the Ranged Illusions had to walk 2+ seconds to you.

3) Kill the Illusions: This is mostly an emergency-plan if you run out of defensive CD’s, dodges or have to go Melee with the Mesmer and staying alive is more important than actually dealing DMG to the Mesmer.

*Edit: if you simply wanted to know how to dodge individual Illusions: They stand still for maybe half a second and kinda charge up their shatter, that’s when you have to dodge them. So they need to be in that state of charging up the shatter, so they’ll actually explode. You kinda have to stand still for a moment and let them get near you or they’ll just keep running. ^^’

I hope I was able to help a bit. ^^

Thx for the writeup. Only issue is I think the shatters do the damage right when they reach you. They flash and do the damage, then “pump” and flex to do the animation. So have to predict and dodge a little early. Frustrating to pay so much attention to what 2+ clones are doing on top of tracking the real mesmer.

PowerBottom.5796:

It’s really really hard to dodge shatterspikes, but it’s not too easy to land them as the mesmer as well, but here are a few tricks I’ve picked up in countless 1v1’s with Top-Mesmers (I often 1v1-train with Top-30 EU-QP-Players):

1) First of all, don’t let them get near you if possible. It’s way easier to dodge the immobilize, if you actually see the Ilusion that does the leap, it’s harder if the mesmer stands near you and just presses “3” two times very quickly.

2) Everytime they get near you – dodge. Yes, this is only possible on chars that can potentially stay out of Melee-Range with the mesmer, but it’s IMHO the only safe way to avoid being immobilized, because everytime a mesmer is in Melee-range, he can potentially Immobilize you within the blink of an Eye.

- There are certain mediating Aspects to the Rule of Thumb above: Count the Illusions; if he doesn’t have 2 (1 he’ll get from Illusionary Leap), it’s not as likely that he’ll shatter you, or he’ll have to dodge somehwere in between to get a third one or he’ll spike without the full potential; In each of the cases, the spike won’t be as scary, because it’s not as fast or doesn’t deal as much dmg. These tips are only important if you don’t have enough dodges – if you have a high-endurance-build, it’s still best to always dodge if the mesmer is in Melee-range.
- Count the time between spikes and constantly know if Mind Wrack is up: Yes, being spiked with other shatters might still deal a bit of DPS and rip off boons, but MW is the Damage-Dealer: No need to use up dodges or Cooldowns on the other F-Skills of the Mesmer. If the Mesmer spiked you, you can easily go into Melee-range for like 10 Seconds and punish him, then just stay back out of Range when MW is back up.
- Watch where the Illusions are and try to control the Illusions with Movement: Most Mesmers use the Pistol-Duelist, which is ranged and the one on the Staff as well – the other Illusions are most of the time Melee: Try and spread out the Melee-Illusions as far as possible from the Ranged ones; this way, the spike won’t hit all at the same time and even if the Mesmer hits his immobilize, you might even be able to dodge some of the Shatters, because the Ranged Illusions had to walk 2+ seconds to you.

3) Kill the Illusions: This is mostly an emergency-plan if you run out of defensive CD’s, dodges or have to go Melee with the Mesmer and staying alive is more important than actually dealing DMG to the Mesmer.

*Edit: if you simply wanted to know how to dodge individual Illusions: They stand still for maybe half a second and kinda charge up their shatter, that’s when you have to dodge them. So they need to be in that state of charging up the shatter, so they’ll actually explode. You kinda have to stand still for a moment and let them get near you or they’ll just keep running. ^^’

I hope I was able to help a bit. ^^

That’s quite the task for an engineer using 3 kits

Yeah well if you are using 3 kits the kits will give you counters depending on the kit, such as ae blind, ae frontal kb, a block etc which all are counters to shatters.

Biomanz.9302:

Thx for the writeup. Only issue is I think the shatters do the damage right when they reach you. They flash and do the damage, then “pump” and flex to do the animation. So have to predict and dodge a little early. Frustrating to pay so much attention to what 2+ clones are doing on top of tracking the real mesmer.

Yeah, great writeup Powerr. Only issue is the one mentioned here. I went and tested the timing of the shatter damage on a training dummy, and it appears to apply instantly when you hit the shatter, and then the animation follows after the animation applies. Thoughts?

Seether.7285:

Yeah well if you are using 3 kits the kits will give you counters depending on the kit, such as ae blind, ae frontal kb, a block etc which all are counters to shatters.

Well that certainly goes without saying obviously