Melee counter

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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

[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.

[edit] Melee counters by profession

[edit] Warrior 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 and Sprint can be used to escape from melee ranged opponents.
  • Auspicious Parry can quickly block attacks, while building up a warrior's ability to deal damage.
  • Deadly Riposte, Riposte, and 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.
  • Bonetti's Defense is a defensive stance of particular use, because it costs no energy and generates energy. Sometimes seen on arena monk builds.

[edit] Ranger 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.

  • Rampage as One provides a speed boost while still allowing the ranger to use a stance.
  • Spike Trap, Barbed Trap, and Snare are useful for crippling enemy melee. Presetting traps can aid the ranger's back-line when they are forced to kite.

[edit] Monk 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 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 and Pacifism are hexes that completely remove a melee attacker's ability to deal damage. Both skills require careful team coordination to work effectively.

[edit] Necromancer Necromancer

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

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

Mesmers have many melee counters in their illusion attribute.

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

  • Blinding Surge and Blinding Flash are quick, spammable counters, causing blindness on the target. Useful for fast saves or reducing pressure.
  • Grasping Earth is a cheap, fast recharging snare that can be effectively used with few points in earth.
  • Storm Djinn's Haste and 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 and 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 is an enchantment that blocks attacks and reflects damage. More often used in PvE and Earth elementlist based gimmick builds.
  • 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, and 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 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.

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

[edit] Ritualist 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.
  • Binding Chains can effectively snare a target so long as they are not attacked while under the effects of the hex.

[edit] Paragon 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!" and "Incoming!" grants an excellent, team wide speed boost with bonus healing. Perfect for aiding kiting teammates.
  • "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 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.

  • Armor of Sanctity cause weakness on adjacent foes and reduce damage from foes suffering from a condition.
  • Shield of Force blocks an attack, melee or ranged, and causes Weakness, drastically lowering damage output by physical damage dealers.
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