Melee counter

From Guild Wars Wiki

As melee damage is very effective, there are many melee counters in the game to protect against it. These counters are sometimes known as "melee hate". Most PvP builds will incorporate at least some melee hate -- many PvP builds carry quite a bit of melee hate. The amount and type of melee counters carried by a PvP team or character is heavily influenced by the metagame.

Some PvP builds are known for their melee countering abilities. Blindbots, for example, are elementalists who spam Blinding Surge to quickly and constantly blind melee attackers. Linebackers are hammer wielding warriors who use knockdowns to prevent enemy warriors from attacking.

Paragons, together with Warriors and Dervishes, are often referred to as "physicals." Physical hate and melee hate are mostly interchangeable terms, as most counters work equally well against both (the notable exception being kiting, which works slightly less against the spear-wielding Paragons).

Contents 1 General overview of melee counters 2 Melee counters by profession 2.1 Warrior 2.2 Ranger 2.3 Monk 2.4 Necromancer 2.5 Mesmer 2.6 Elementalist 2.7 Assassin 2.8 Ritualist 2.9 Paragon 2.10 Dervish

[edit] General overview of melee counters

• Kiting can be performed by anyone, and is often the most effective means of preventing melee damage. Kiting can be augmented by speed boosts.

• Snares can prevent an enemy from reaching melee range.

• Knockdowns can function as a snare or interrupt.

• Armor is the first line of defense against most kinds of damage. Heavily armored characters (such as warriors and paragons) suffer far less pressure from melee attacks.

• Protective enchantments. Some enchantments grant the recipient a chance to block attacks. Others can prevent damage, either through direct damage resistance or via increasing armor. Over reliance on enchantments can leave a character vulnerable to enchantment removal such as Shattering Assault.

• Protective Weapon Spells function much like enchantments, but cannot be removed or stacked. Protective shouts cannot be removed and can be stacked.

• Wards and to a lesser extent spirits can create an area of relative safety from melee attacks.

• Stances can give a player a chance to block, a speed boost, or sometimes both at the same time.

• The Blind condition causes enemies to miss 90% of attacks. While it is cheap to remove, blindness is the most effective attack counter in the game. Blindness will not prevent characters from successfully using melee ranged touch attacks or spells, such as Vampiric Touch.

• Miss-chance Hexes punish the attacker while mitigating damage.

• Interrupts. Properly timed, an interrupt can greatly reduce the damage output of an attacker. For example, an interrupt can be used to break an assassin combo. Some spells specifically interrupt attacks.

• Incentives. Some hexes punish attacks with damage. AoE effects such as nukes, traps, spirits, nature rituals or wells can convince an attacker to leave an area, or punish those who don't.

• Killing them can usually prevent them from being a threat.

[edit] Melee counters by profession

[edit] Warrior

Warriors have the best armor in the game against physical damage, augmented by shields. In addition, they have many stances useful for running away from danger or protecting themselves from attacks. Warrior is sometimes used as a secondary profession to gain access to the defensive stances.

• Knockdowns Particularly in the Hammer attribute, warriors have many knockdowns that can be used to aid a kiting teammate. Bull's Strike is a popular choice from the Strength attribute. Counter Blow is another popular choice for Linebacker warriors, who concentrate on putting pressure and disrupting the enemy melee classes.

• Rush, Sprint can be used to escape from melee ranged opponents.

• Crippling Slash, Hamstring, Axe Rake and "You're All Alone!" can cripple enemy melee attackers. "You're All Alone!" additionally weakens its target.

• "Charge!", "Retreat!" can grant a speed boost to allies.

• Auspicious Parry can quickly block attacks, while building up a warrior's ability to deal damage.

• Deadly Riposte, Riposte, Gladiator's Defense block blows and deal damage back to the attacker. While common in the arenas and PvE, these skill are much less popular in more organized PvP matches.

• Defensive Stance, Disciplined Stance, Shield Stance, Balanced Stance, Wary Stance, Soldier's Defense are all defensive stances.

• Bonetti's Defense is a defensive stance of particular use, because it costs no energy and generates energy. Sometimes seen on arena monk builds.

• Devastating Hammer, Axe Twist, Forceful Blow and Staggering Blow all cause the Weakness condition, drastically lowering the damage output of the weakened foe.

[edit] Ranger

Rangers have many stances useful for kiting and/or blocking attacks, in addition to decent armor. Ranger traps are effective at crippling or blinding enemy melee attackers.

• Dodge, Zojun's Haste, Escape, Lightning Reflexes, Dryder's Defenses, Natural Stride, Storm Chaser

• Rampage as One, Run as One provide a speed boost while still allowing the ranger to use a stance.

• Whirling Defense is popular because of its lengthy duration.

• Throw Dirt is a touch ranged blind.

• Spike Trap, Barbed Trap Snare are useful for crippling enemy melee. Presetting traps can aid the ranger's back-line when they are forced to kite.

• Dust Trap, Smoke Trap blind the enemy.

[edit] Monk

Monks are a common target, and so often have to pay particular attention to ensuring they carry the sufficient melee counters -- either on their own skill bar or on an ally.

• Aegis Fallen somewhat out of favor due to nerfs, the once popular Aegis provides party-wide protection against attacks. Multiple copies are carried on some teams, with coordinated Aegis chains used to keep the spell active for a prolonged period.

• Amity, Pacifism Hexes that completely remove a melee attacker's ability to deal damage. Both skills require careful team coordiantion to work effectively. Amity is particularly unpopular because monks tend to need their elite slot for energy management.

• Guardian, Pensive Guardian, Shield of Deflection, Shield Guardian Enchantments that block attacks. Guardian is extremely popular because of its short recharge and low energy cost.

• Bane Signet Knocks down an attacker. Unpopular outside of gimmick builds involving signet spikes.

• Retribution, Holy Wrath These maintained enchantments reflect damage back on to an attacker. Ineffective and unpopular on monks, but often used in 4v4 by secondary monk builds like completely adrenaline-based warriors or signet-based mesmers that don't need the energy.

• Shield of Absorption and Shielding Hands are not specifically against melee, but the most popular counters against attacks with high frequency and lower damage output, especially those from assassins.

[edit] Necromancer

The curse attribute of the necromancer is stacked with melee counters. Sometimes, fast casting mesmers will carry a few of these skills.

• Enfeeble, Enfeebling Blood, Enfeebling Touch The weakness condition caused by these skills greatly reduces pressure from melee damage. Enfeeble is the most popular out of the three, because of it's lack of drawbacks.

• Faintheartedness, Shadow of Fear, Meekness reduces the rate of attack, which greatly reduces the pressure from a melee attacker.

• Insidious Parasite, Price of Failure, Spiteful Spirit, Spoil Victor Deals damage to attackers. Melee attackers in particular tend to have a high rate of attack, and so take more damage from these skills.

• Reckless Haste Causes attackers to miss, while increasing their rate of attack. Combos well with Price of Failure, Spiteful Spirit.

• Well of Darkness, Well of Suffering, Well of the Profane Wells that potently change the nature of the battlefield, giving an advantage to kiters who draw melee attackers into the well.

• Wail of Doom Not often used because other necromancer elites are more useful in PvP. Can be used to render some attackers entirely impotent.

• Plague Touch This skill can be used defensively against melee attackers, who often inflict conditions on their targets. Returning the cripple condition in particular is useful for kiters.

[edit] Mesmer

Mesmers have many melee counters in their illusion attribute.

• Empathy, Visions of Regret, Clumsiness, Ineptitude, Signet of Clumsiness, Images of Remorse cause damage to attackers. Ineptitude in particular causes serious damage, and also blinds attackers. Clumsiness, Signet of Clumsiness, and Ineptitude all interrupt attackers.

• Blackout can erase any adrenaline a warrior or paragon has built up.

• Ancestor's Visage, Sympathetic Visage, Soothing Images work to reduce adrenaline build up.

• Crippling Anguish, Imagined Burden, Kitah's Burden, Shared Burden, Ethereal Burden are hex based snares useful for aiding kiters. Due to lengthy recharges, most are not commonly seen in PvP. Crippling Anguish is a bit more popular than the rest, especially in the arenas.

• Distortion is a blocking stance with a fast recharge and serious drawback. It was once commonly used on flag running Cripshot Rangers.

• Physical Resistance is a stance that increases armor against physical attacks. It is not commonly used because of the drawback (reduced armor against elemental damage).

• Spirit of Failure In addition to causing a minor miss chance, this hex can also generate quite a bit of energy for the caster when combined with another hex or the blind condition.

• Spirit Shackles can quickly drain an attacker of energy.

• Signet of Midnight blinds attackers. It also blinds the user, which then can be applied to another melee attacker via a skill like Plague Touch. Because of its touch range and elite slot, it's rarely seen outside of the arenas.

[edit] Elementalist

• Blinding Surge, Blinding Flash are quick, spammable counters, causing Blindness on the target. Useful for fast saves or reducing pressure.

• Blurred Vision is an AoE hex causing attacks to fail.

• Ice Spikes, Ice Prison, Shard Storm, Mind Freeze and Icy Shackles are movement-impairing hexes that allow allies to escape enemies more easily.

• Grasping Earth is a cheap, fast recharging snare that can be effectively used with few points in earth.

• Storm Djinn's Haste, Windborne Speed provide speed boosts for kiting away from melee ranged attackers. Windborne can be used to save kiting allies from melee ranged attackers.

• Teinai's Wind, Whirlwind both knockdown attacking characters in melee range. Not popular because the elementalist must position himself near a melee character for it to be effective.

• Eruption causes blind, however its lengthy recharge restricts its usefulness.

• Sliver Armor More often used in PvE and Earth elementlist based gimmick builds. Enchantment that blocks attacks and reflects damage.

• Mist Form provides total protection from actual damage from attacks, but is not commonly used partially because it does not prevent attackers from inflicting conditions.

• Ward Against Foes, Ward Against Melee, Ward of Stability are defense against melee attackers. Unlike enchantments, stances, or spirits, wards cannot be killed by enemy counters. However, players clustered in a ward can be easy victims to area of effect damage.

[edit] Assassin

Assassins have fragile armor, and yet end up spending at least some time on the front-line or ganking solo. To compensate, they have many skills to help avoid melee damage. Many of these skills involve positioning.

Because assassin skills are very effective at controlling positions, sometimes back-line characters such as monks will take assassin as a secondary to aid in kiting.

• Critical Defenses, Flashing Blades, Shroud of Distress More commonly used in PvE. Enchantments, and stances that reduces the chances of the caster being hit by attacks.

• Temple Strike Causes blind, but more often used for Daze.

• Black Mantis Thrust, Leaping Mantis Sting, Crippling Dagger, Entangling Asp, Scorpion Wire, Shadow Prison, Caltrops, Hidden Caltrops While more often used offensively, these skills can be used to snare or knockdown enemy melee attackers. Leaping Mantis Sting in particular is popular, partially for this reason.

• Siphon Speed A useful and common snare.

• Siphon Strength Unpopular in PvP. Debuffs enemy attack damage.

• Blinding Powder A blind. Not often used outside of PvE.

• Dark Escape, Death's Retreat, Return, Shadow of Haste, Dash, Recall Each of these skills can be used to aid in kiting, with side benefits.

• Heart of Shadow, Viper's Defense The short range and random nature of the shadowstep of these skills makes them unpopular as kiting aids.

• Shadow Form The caster is utterly immune to melee for a significant duration. However, the drawback limits shadow form to a few gimmick builds in PvP.

• Aura of Displacement Enables an assassin or other high damage character to pop in, deal damage, and escape before enemy melee can respond.

• Spirit Walk, Swap Unpopular, but these skills could aid in kiting in a build with many spirits.

[edit] Ritualist

In addition to direct counters, offensive spirit spamming can create a dangerous area for melee ranged characters to enter -- providing a safe haven for characters with weaker armor, especially in the 4v4 PvP modes.

• Shadowsong blinds its target. This spirit has become less popular since spirit spammers have fallen out of favor in organized play, but is still used in the 4v4 arenas.

• Displacement creates a wide area of protection against attacks. However, it dies rather quickly under heavy melee pressure. Same applies to Shelter and Union.

• Soothing slows enemy adrenaline build up.

• Weapon of Shadow, Weapon of Warding are decent protections that (unlike stances or enchantments) cannot be removed by enemy counters.

[edit] Paragon

Paragons have excellent armor augmented by a shield. Most their more general defensive shouts are of use against melee attackers, and they have a few shouts that directly counter melee attackers.

• "Fall Back!" grants an excellent, team wide speed boost with bonus healing. Perfect for aiding kiting teammates.

• Both "Make Haste!" and "Lead the Way!" will grant a speed boost to a teammate.

• Bladeturn Refrain grants additional armor against axes, scythes, and swords.

• "Can't Touch This!" is the only direct counter to touch attacks in the game. Because it's such a specific counter, it is not commonly seen.

[edit] Dervish

Weak armor would suggest that dervishes are fragile, easy targets for melee. However, their powerful self-heals can sustain a dervish in front-line combat. In addition, dervishes have a wide selection of melee counters to choose from.

• Aura of Thorns, Veil of Thorns, Crippling Sweep, Grenth's Grasp, Harrier's Grasp all cause cripples. While most often used offensively, these skills can be used to aid a friendly kiter via crippling his attackers.

• Dust Cloak, Ebon Dust Aura cause blinds.

• Mirage Cloak A personal enchantment for blocking attacks.

• Shield of Force blocks an attack, melee or ranged, and causes Weakness, drastically lowering damage output by physical damage dealers.