Originally Posted by Tommy

There are a few different types of spike and they all require a different approach to catching them. I can't say with any certainty that these methods are the absolute best, but they are the ones that I use.

Versus caster spike (r-spike included): Generally, your build will have some disruption to it, whether it be KDs, interupts, diversion, blackout, blinds, or something else. Have your disrupting characters make their calls on who they will be shutting down. Once you know which of their players will be incapacitated for at least some of the spikes, you will know which of the casters you can watch to see (ideally) 100% of the spikes at the proper rhythm. Stay focused on one of the spikers and just hoover your target party member(s) arrow/button(s), as well as your infuse/rof key. When the spike skill cast is beginning, take your eyes off of the spell that's casting and watch the body direction of the spiker, as their character will begin to point towards the target. Often times, this will not lead to a secure conclusion of who the target is. However, sometimes it does, and you will be able to pre-prot/pre-infuse. Most times, it does help to narrow down the list of possible targets. If you are holding Alt and watch the body direction to see that their spikers are moving towards party members 2 and 4, you will be able to focus on those two bars, and they will be more easily and quickly accessible once the spike does come. About half a second before the spell is scheduled to cast, take your eyes off of the spiker, move it to your red bars, and prepare for impact, utilizing all of the information that you've already gathered regarding shutdown, cohesiveness, timing, direction, and team position in order to form a heuristic for the general state of the spike. Once this is done, the actual twitching of the spike heal skill will be greatly simplified. This method works against all spikes which utilize casters with long casting spells, but is especially effective against pure caster spike, as well as one of the only real ways to read the spike.

Versus adrenaline-based spike (no shadow stepping): Any good team is going to try to conceal their spike, but this type of spike, even if run by the best teams, is very easy to read. Convergence is the name of the game when monking against adren spike. Often, warriors will build adren seperately, then run around together for a little while before quickly turning and unloading on the same target. The easiest way to distinguish the target is to have your team spread out as much as possible and try to kite the warriors into the open and away from the rest of your teammates. The less opponents in the proximity of the melee, the harder a time the spike warriors will have with the quick switch, and the more obvious the target will become. As a monk, watch for targets where the warriors come together, as equal distance or travel time will often mean a great big "X" on a teammate's forehead. If there is only one warrior in the spike, reading through convergence is made even easier. Instead of watching a warrior, watch a caster, preferably an elementalist, and watch for the convergence of the nuke's timing and the warrior's position. Once the caster begins to cast their spike skill, don't watch his/her directioning as with pure caster spike, but rather move to the warrior, checking where he/she is and where he/she is going. Since there will be less than a second delay, the warrior will already be charging toward the target, which leads to the most obvious giveaway.

Versus adrenaline-based spike (using shadow stepping): This includes Shadow Prison spike as well as Death's Charge. This is by far the trickiest type of spike to catch. The problem is that the warrior(s) serve as a caster which just provides a ranged deep wound in order to help the rest of the spike to kill. A warrior is used for the deep wound because a frenzied dismember is faster than aftercast+shatter delusions, and there is no aftercast between spells and attack skills, even though they won't hit at the exact same time. In order to read such spikes, I keep my eyes on the warriors and estimate their aggro bubble range. If possible, I try to stay just at the edge of it while remaining in range of my teammates in order to minimize their pool of immediate targets. The warriors can only spike targets in their spell-casting range, so the possible targets are already minimized by watching them. However, it's often not by much. Play the game as if facing a normal team, but always be aware of the Shadow Prison recharges and the warrior's adrenaline. If the warrior has full adren and Shadow Prison is recharged, make sure to have everyone on your team spread out, as these spikes often use multiple mesmers for AoE damage, and your reaction on the heal will be delayed if multiple teammates take significant damage. When everything is loaded for the spike to come, I often look directly ahead at the field while clicked on a warrior. Casters with long-cast spells will begin to cast first, and if I see the animation in the distance, I start to hoover in preparation. Sometimes the target will be obvious because of the direction, but most of the time, it just helps with getting the timing of the spike down. Since the caster is not clicked on, the actual spell cast must be an approximation, which will be used for the timing of the general spike as well as the action of the warrior(s). If any character with gale/blind sees a caster preparing a long cast, this is when he/she should gale/blind the enemy warrior(s). Once the long cast spike animation is recognized, switch focus to party bars while maintaining warrior actions in your peripheral vision and be ready to twitch the heal as soon as you see the warrior do anything. If the spike has Shadow Prison, the hex is often easiest to recognize at first, so heal the hexed target, no matter what (clearly, there is an exception if you are blacked out, galed, shamed, etc). Often times, multiple targets will be hexed with diversion or some water hex at the same time as someone else receives Shadow Prison. Obviously, follow the most recent hex. Other times, you will need to follow damage. If the spike begins without the immediate deep wound, you will be able to twitch it early because you are aware of the caster's timing and animation, and the switch of focus from opponents to party bars promotes awareness of any kind of significant damage. This is also necessary if the target who is being spiked was also hexed with diversion or a water hex before the spike. In this case, and with Death's Charge spike, there will be no new hex, and you will have to be able to recognize the change in the health bar or the additon of a condition as the only showing. This is the hardest type of spike to catch due to its impossibility to directly watch, speed, and usually, massive amounts of monk shutdown. Thus, it depends largely on quick reactions and how prepared one is for it, but those are the things I do to help with it.

Originally Posted by Taurus

On other subject, does anybody infuses with numpad ? And if you do, please give out some tips ^^

Originally Posted by Bleed Me An Ocean

What I hate is it when you miss a spike and everyone on vent is like 'OMG!! DUDE!! WTF??? INFUSE MAN!!!'

as if were the easiest thing to do.