How do you know when to dodge vs huge bosses?

[Sifu.9745]

Seriously, i have no clue about dodging/using defensive CDs vs world bosses, if they are really huge and there is like 50 players around me. I can't see their massive attacks incoming, especially if i play with melee weapon sets. So how do you guys know when it is a right time to use dodge, Aegis or any other defensive CDs? And how do you know which of their attacks is a lethal attack? Sometimes they only hit you for about 30% - 40% of your health, next time for more than 100%. It's hard to track their mechanics.

[Randulf.7614]

Sometimes the tells are there

For example

• Tequatl's animations when he does the big tidal wave are well set up in advance so you can get ready to jump or dodge
• Mark 2 Golem lays down a huge orange square where his atacks will be
• Triple Trouble will do a massive spike attack telegraphed by a large orange circle around it
• Claw of Jormag has a fast swipe animation when you know when the ice attack is coming so you can use the shield on the charzooka

Others use boss sounds as well to telegraph the attack

A lot of it comes down to practice. You learn that an orange field on the floor if you can see it, is time to move. Animations you eventually sync with an attack if you pay attention and do the fight often enough (obv people learn at diff rates). A lot of it you just have to suck up and take because the visual noise is just too intense

Attack damage is more difficult to gauge because it can come down to scaling. A full boss map will likely cause the boss to do more damage (doesn'#t really apply to Tequatl, Drakkar or Triple Trouble as they barely scale if at all, but is more noticeable at the Orr Temple bosses)

And if you still struggle, temprorarily turn the gfx down - esp post processing and character models and quality

[Shiyo.3578]

Big circles or waves for like every boss, if they don't have that they're just badly designed and you'll take damage and randomly die.

[Jilora.9524]

Well after you get knocked on your butt a few times or downed you start to learn to read animation or which red circles are really bad or jump over the waves etc. Alot of times with many players the boss even dissapears so it's hard or theres some like the DW jormag where you just getting downed 20 times no matter what you do

[LadyHawk.5319]

GW2 uses what I affectionately call the "2-3 Dodge". If you see an animation telegraph or you see the big orange circles, count to 2 or 3 then dodge. (takes a little practice to get the feel for whether you need to dodge on 2 or 3). Nearly all dodge mechanics uses this timing ... not all, so be on the look out for the ones that do not. But your survive will go way up once you get used to the timing, get used to particular boss teles, etc. Always remember that you are dodging the mechanic and not trying to actually dodge out of the, sometimes, huge orange circle. That being said, with all of the armor, weapon, infusions, and spell effects that we have in the game today, it is often impossible to even find one's character, let alone see boss mechanics. GLHF!

[sitarskee.5738]

For me, it's all a matter of experience and a little bit of focus and intuition. When it comes down to world bosses, you just gotta pay attention to boss' animations.

[Wolfb.7025]

Every world boss attacks are telegraphed in one way or another. You have to pay close attention to the animations to determine when is dodging time.Its all about timing, you will learn eventually. All bosses also follow a pattern, the Mark 2 Golem for instance, which is the hardest world boss imo (because you actually have to dodge and not rely on random healers) follow a patter where it fires one big AoE in front, other in the opposite side, and finally a big AoE around the boss itself. In don't think the electric floor has a pattern but its all about reaction time to dodge out towards one of the safe unelectrified tiles.

[Blude.6812]

Game really needs the option to turn off other players visuals so you can actually see the battle.

[Teratus.2859]

A lot is quite well telegraphed as others have said, specific animations and orange circles tend to be the most obvious tells.

For me i've been playing this game for many years now so im instinctively familiar with a lot of the games bosses and content, specially in PvE, Dungeons and Fractals.I say instinctive because for the most part I don't think about it.. I don't count in my head nor plan out any strategy..Dodging just becomes like.. well like a second nature if you want to put it that way.It's funny really because I never even noticed it when it happened to me.

I will say this though.. Bind your dodge skill to something that is very easy and comfortable for you to use.For me I hated the double tap to activate thing and that got me killed so many times.. either by not activating when I needed it to, or even more often when it DID! activate when I didn't want it too and little old me goes and roly poly's himself into a volcano or off a cliff or something like an idiot >.<The V was also awkward for me as well since it would mean making me choose to jump or dodge and I didn't like that, specially now today when both are used to counter mechanics in some battles.So I bound my dodge to clicking my mouse wheel and mostly activate it with my right hand index finger.I find it to be one of the easiest things in the game to do now even dodge jumping which is a really fun mechanic to play around with as well, much easier to pull off with two hands instead of one imo.

[Hesione.9412]

@Sifu.9745 said:Seriously, i have no clue about dodging/using defensive CDs vs world bosses, if they are really huge and there is like 50 players around me. I can't see their massive attacks incoming, especially if i play with melee weapon sets. So how do you guys know when it is a right time to use dodge, Aegis or any other defensive CDs? And how do you know which of their attacks is a lethal attack? Sometimes they only hit you for about 30% - 40% of your health, next time for more than 100%. It's hard to track their mechanics.

For dragons, the rule of thumb seems to be: watch out when they pull their front arm up, and something super bad that is a shifting out AoE (e.g. Drakkar wave of downed/death) happens when they whack both arms down simultaneously. Arm motions seem to be a tell on quite a few champs. And at least you can see the damn things.

[Dante.1508]

I totally agree op, you are suppose to dodge when you see the highlights on the ground but its really pointless these days, there are so many its like a mine field and with my server issues and 300-400 ping by the time i see them i am hit.. over and over till i'm downed, also these modern boss attacks are designed to chain you to death, you get hit it sets you up to be hit over and over.. Side note if you are even outside the edge of those blast radius you will get hit still which means the radius is not accurate, Not fun at all imo.

I really miss the old tyria days and i seldom do living stories a second time no rewards are worth those boss hassles and minions are so over tooled its gotten no fun.

I just hope they tone all this down before the steam release as those reviews wont be favorable.

[Sifu.9745]

Thx guys for your replies. But what about other defensive stuff, such as Aegis, Block or Blindness? If i use Aegis on my Guardian instead of Dodge for example, it seems that some bosses completely ignore it or am i missing something? Same "issue" with Blindness, but Blindness has been bugged like forever. If i use it on my opponent in pvp, he/she would still hit me for 4 k next attack lol. So do you think Dodge is the only, or lets say, safest thing you can do to avoid bosses massive attacks?Sorry for English ...

[Randulf.7614]

Blindness on a boss is useless outside of the breakbar where (I think) is has some small use on diminishing the bar itself

Aegis will block attacks just fine, but only one attack. So a rapid fire attack is best dodged (or blocked with something like Warrior shield skill 5) since dodging will evade multiple rapid hits and also area of effect attacks.

Your blocks and aegis use will be dicated by the situation and the cooldown. You will likely want to save the aegis for when the big single attack hits (or when dodge is on cooldown) and the dodging for area/rapid fire attacks (or when blocks are on cooldown). Blocks will be used in either way depending on if a single attack block or multiple attack block.

As for when those atacks occur - those you learn by playing

[Westenev.5289]

I don't dodge - I use a 1200 range weapon and stick with the press f to res rush zerg. Dodging in high latency isn't worth trying, and personal dps doesn't matter.

[Hesione.9412]

@"Sifu.9745" said:Thx guys for your replies. But what about other defensive stuff, such as Aegis, Block or Blindness? If i use Aegis on my Guardian instead of Dodge for example, it seems that some bosses completely ignore it or am i missing something? Same "issue" with Blindness, but Blindness has been bugged like forever. If i use it on my opponent in pvp, he/she would still hit me for 4 k next attack lol. So do you think Dodge is the only, or lets say, safest thing you can do to avoid bosses massive attacks?Sorry for English ...

And to say nothing of the NPCs who ignore your pets/minions/clones/phantasms and come straight for you.

[AliamRationem.5172]

@Hesione.9412 said:

@"Sifu.9745" said:Thx guys for your replies. But what about other defensive stuff, such as Aegis, Block or Blindness? If i use Aegis on my Guardian instead of Dodge for example, it seems that some bosses completely ignore it or am i missing something? Same "issue" with Blindness, but Blindness has been bugged like forever. If i use it on my opponent in pvp, he/she would still hit me for 4 k next attack lol. So do you think Dodge is the only, or lets say, safest thing you can do to avoid bosses massive attacks?Sorry for English ...

And to say nothing of the NPCs who ignore your pets/minions/clones/phantasms and come straight for you.

I think that's more to do with most enemies in this game having inscrutable aggro mechanics. Outside of specific encounters designed to allow it, you aren't able to control enemy behavior via any sort of "threat" mechanic. So enemies might go after your pet, or they might not. Your pet is not really supposed to be able to hold their attention indefinitely.

[aspirine.6852]

Wait till you start doing PoF bounty bosses. Some of them seem to have no tells and have still weird hard hitting attacks...

[Hesione.9412]

@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@Hesione.9412 said:

@"Sifu.9745" said:Thx guys for your replies. But what about other defensive stuff, such as Aegis, Block or Blindness? If i use Aegis on my Guardian instead of Dodge for example, it seems that some bosses completely ignore it or am i missing something? Same "issue" with Blindness, but Blindness has been bugged like forever. If i use it on my opponent in pvp, he/she would still hit me for 4 k next attack lol. So do you think Dodge is the only, or lets say, safest thing you can do to avoid bosses massive attacks?Sorry for English ...

And to say nothing of the NPCs who ignore your pets/minions/clones/phantasms and come straight for you.

I think that's more to do with most enemies in this game having inscrutable aggro mechanics. Outside of specific encounters designed to allow it, you aren't able to control enemy behavior via any sort of "threat" mechanic. So enemies might go after your pet, or they might not. Your pet is not really supposed to be able to hold their attention indefinitely.

I've had them ignore my clones/phantasms since the start of a fight. Just like, in spider scurry, when you make a clone of yourself, they ignore that clone and still come right for you.