[Egg blocking] Triple Trouble guide

[Ki Ste 29]

Edit 7.3.2016    Elementalist finished! 
Edit 9.3.2016    Added link for Guardian guide made by Susimusta!
Edit 12.3.2016  Added Revenant guide made by Arvinthir!
Edit 13.3.2016  Mesmer added! 
Edit 1.5.2016    Added HoT content for Elementalist and Mesmer!
Edit 30.5.2017  Added Engineer!

INTRODUCTION

Blocking eggs means using set of projectile reflect / projectile block or invulnerability skills (distortion works too) at right time and right position during the event. This is very important part of event because if eggs are spat out they will hatch (in ~20 seconds) into larvae which are hard to kill and deal with (they have very strong projectiles and knockback spells).

The egg blocking group usually consists of 1 or 2 players, but if you want to practice blocking feel free to join them! 

Animations that wurm does:

• big/large/wide spin
  
• small spin/aoe 
  
• egg & husk spit respectively
   
  

                                   

ANIMATIONS

1. Big spin  is least important here and you can just dodge once you see big orange circle on ground (~1200 radius). If you get hit, you will be knocked away so either use skills which blocks attacks or stability, if you don't want to move from your 'sweet spot' (will be explained below).
2. During small spin wurm does 2 animations: first one is spin (~900 radius) (dodge or block it) and second one is spitting projectiles all over arena (aoe). Locations of projectiles are random but they are more likely to land where most people are located. The closer you are to wurm the less time you have to dodge the projectiles. Best thing you can do to avoid getting hit is double dodge when you see orange circle on ground. This spin also knocks away anyone it hits!
   EXTRA: aoes can be blocked using invulnerability skills. More about that can be found below.
3. This is most important animation for blockers! There is no difference in animation between egg spit and husk spit, but there's something you should know about these two spits:

• eggs can be blocked with  projectile reflect / projectile block or invulnerability spells, while husks can be blocked only with invulnerability skills (there's no need of blocking husks if you have people who are dealing with them, so just focus on eggs!);
• wurm does egg spits every ~40 seconds, and husk spits every  ~85 seconds, so it's a bit predictable which spit is about to happen.
  example 1: First spit are eggs, next will be husks and only eggs can come after that. Next one can be either one.
  example 2:  First spit are husks, next will be eggs, but we can't be sure what's going to land next.
  
  Each spit wave consists of 3 spits
• 3 eggs are spat out per spit (9 total) or
• 1 husk is spat out per spit (3 total), depending on spit.

Other than that, spits are harmless and will do no damage to you, whether they are blocked or not!

         

HOW DOES BLOCKING WORK??

 All you have to do is stand inside wurm, find that 'sweet spot' and do your magic (in form of projectile reflect / projectile block or invulnerability) when you see the spit animation!
     Not all skills require you to position, some skills can be cast from range etc.
-Safe spot for Mesmers and Revenants:
     For the Crimson wurm it's next to the bush on his right side (from wurm's perspective). 
     On Cobalt, you can go behind him and towards the beach keg spawn (no skelks there). Just make sure not to stand on the husk landing spot. 
     On Amber, behind the wurm, right side (to avoid random risen), next to the roots in the wall.
Note that, if you move too far with Revenant, the tablet will disappear and you'll have to summon/move it again.
 

Sweet spot for 

• Crimson wurm
   
• Cobalt wurm   
  
• Amber wurm 
    

 

If you are using invulnerability spells and you are not sure whether you blocked eggs / husks / aoes or not there's a simple check. If you have blocked:

• eggs you will see 3 'INVULNERABLE!' words
• husks you will see 1 'INVULNERABLE!' word

• aoes you will see a lot of 'INVULNERABLE!' words

Solo blocking vs duo blocking

Sometimes there won't be enough blockers for all wurms so you have to solo it. If that happens, make sure to follow every instruction in the profession section below because it explains all the skills you can use, rotations, what you can do if you fail rotation etc. And always prioritize blocking eggs over aoes and husks, you are soloing, nobody is backing you up if you fail blocking eggs. 

But, most of the time there will be 2 blockers per wurm. It's recommended to cooperate, because you dont want to burn your best skills at the same time especially if the spit turned out to be the husk one.
For example, you have elementalist and guardian, you don't want to cast Swirling Winds and Wall of Reflection at same time. Both skills can block full wave because of their big duration. So, one of you should cast skill at first spit wave, other one at second etc.
And most important thing, if you are blocking with invulnerabilities (or you can do this always, thats why party chat exists!) tell your block-buddy what you've blocked (you can simply put 'e' (eggs) or 'h' (husks) in party chat). He doesn't want to waste his egg blocking skill on husk spit!  

PROFESSIONS
Before I start talking about professions, have on mind that you don't need any specific gear to block! Full berserker, full viper or anything else, it doesn't matter!

I would just recommend something with toughness and vitality (like soldier's equipment) for beginners and players with high ping/low fps because non-dodged wurm attack can hurt a lot!
[Loaf of Omnomberry Bread] can also compensate your low defenses.
This is just a suggestion, again, any equipment works!

Mesmer              

Some people describe mesmers as too easy to block with...and it's not far from truth, but you decide how and what you want to block!

Difficulty: Easy (eggs only)

• Weapons and Traits
  Anything you want, it's not important for blocking. Just use your standard dps build.
• Utility skills
  
  Your bread and butter skills.
• Blocking
  Simply cast Mimic into Feedback once you see animation. You can stand on safe spot since your skills are ranged and there is no need to get hit by spins.
  
• Tips and tricks
  Stop doing all things easy way and continue reading! 

Difficulty: Hard (everything)

• Weapons and Traits
  Primary set: Sword (main-hand) and Focus (off-hand);
  Secondary set:not important.
  HoT: Secondary set: only Shield (off-hand) or Scepter (main-hand) and Shield (off-hand).
  
  Only 2 traits are important here (both in second column-major master). Warden's Feedback (Inspiration) so you can block with your focus skill #4=Temporal Curtain, and Blurred Inscriptions (Domination) so you can block with your signets.
  3rd specialization is not important but I would suggest Illusions (any traits) for reduced cooldown on your F4=Distortion. 
  HoT: Same 2 specializations and traits from above with Chronomancer as third one.
   
  You can change first two traits if you are using wells (depending if you are blocking solo or not). Illusion Reversion is recommended if you have problems with spawning illusions.
• Utility skills
  
  I use Ether Feast because it's biggest heal on low cooldown. Signet of the Ether also works but it has 1 second cast time and you get distortion when you finish casting it, it's good for passive healing but not recommended for blocking because of its cast time.
  You can also swap Signet of Inspiration for Feedback if you don't feel confident with your positioning/blocking.
  Time Warp is only reasonable elite skill because it helps a lot during burn phase (it has no use in blocking!), you can also take Signet of Humility, but be careful with it, it has 1 second cast time!
  HoT: If you are soloing then use utilities from above, if not, get these:
   
  Well of Recall doesn't help you with blocking directly, but it helps you and other blocker(s) with recharging important skills (I use it during burn phase because it's most effective then). Don't forget your traits for alacrity!
   
• Blocking
  This is hard for a reason, you will need to position yourself for every single skill!
       Sword #2 doesn't block anything! It's just used to evade spins.
  -Skills which can block eggs only are: 
       Mirror (heal #6) - 2 sec duration (4 with trait) enough for blocking ~3 (~6) eggs. 
       Temporal Curtain (focus #4) - 5 sec duration, can block full wave of eggs. You want to cast it on yourself (when you are standing on sweet spot). Easy way to do this to just click        on skill (cast with mouse, not with keyboard) as it will put any aoe skill directly under you.
  -Spells which can block everything:
       Signets (utility 7-9) - only 1 sec duration (Inspiration with 3/4 sec and Domination with 1/4 sec cast time, be careful!). Can block 1 husk, 3 eggs (with precise timing) or full aoe (also tricky to block).
       Distortion (F4) - ~4 sec duration when you shatter 3 illusions with it (minimum 1 sec-no illusions were shattered). If timed correctly it will block full wave, if not then it blocks 2            husks, 6 eggs or full aoe (prioritize eggs>husks>aoes with this skill, of course, don't block husks if you have team who is dealing with them).
  HoT: Echo of memory and Deja Vu (shield #4)- 1.5 seconds each, with a trait Illusionary Inspiration (Inspiration) it can block full wave. Trick is to use skill for first spit, wait second one (trait will give you 1 second distortion if you haven't summoned other phantasms in last 24 seconds) and then use skill again for third spit. 
• Tips and tricks
  If you are solo-blocking it's recommended to replace Signet of Inspiration for Feedback. If first spit is husk one and you used Temporal Curtain it will be very hard to block eggs on next spit without Feedback.
  However, if you decided to block with Signets, I would suggest taking Scepter (main-hand) and Sword as secondary weapon set (order of all 4, including Focus, weapons isn't important) because of Scepter #2, Sword #4 which can block attacks (they will also make you dash to wurm, so get back in position!) and create clone, which you need for longer Distortion(F4). Use these on first two (and any other) big spins and follow up with other clone-creating skills, you always want 3.
  Combo you can use if Temporal Curtain is on cooldown and eggs are incoming: Distortion (F4, 3 illusions)  > Signet of Midnight (if needed).
  HoT: If you are blocking solo you can use your F5-Continuum Split before major egg-blocking skills such as Temporal Curtain (focus #4) or Echo of memory and Deja Vu (shield #4) or Feedback if you are using it. If not, just use it in burn phase so you can cast wells twice and Timewarp more often.

Revenant          

Revenant is arguably the easiest and most reliable class for egg blocking. However, as a Revenant you can't block husks or aoes. But that's ok, blocking eggs is the most important thing after all!

Difficulty: Easy (eggs only)

• Weapons and Traits
  Absolutely not important. Focus on dps!
• Utility skills
  
  As a revenant, when invoking the Legendary Centaur Stance, you can summon Ventari's tablet with
  Project Tranquility and move it around with Ventari's Will, which becomes available once you've summoned the tablet.
  Now, your bread and butter ability is Protective Solace, which summons a barrier around the tablet, which destroys projectiles.
• Blocking
  So, once the wurm spawns, simply summon the tablet and place it inside the wurm. Since the barrier has a radius of 240, it is not necessary to put the tablet on the wurm's sweet spot. As long as it is inside and a bit to the front of the wurm, you are fine and whenever the wurm is about to start spitting, simply use Protective Solace.
  
  Remember, the table's tether has a range of 1500, while the wurm's wide spin has a range of 1200, so you can safely move away from the wurm in the safe spot. Also, if you can see the edges of the barrier outside of the wurm, you're fine.
  
• Tips and tricks
  -During the entire fight you'll have to keep an eye on your energy bar, you'll want to have it at at least 50% at all times when egg blocking, so try to keep away from mobs (not waste      energy on them). This should be easy after the first burn phase, as you will be in combat with the wurm after that.
  -When using Protective Solace on a spit and if the wurm spits out eggs, you can drop the barrier and wait, BUT if the wurm spit out husks, KEEP THE BARRIER UP if the next spit       are eggs!. If you drop the barrier, you are going to have a 5s cooldown before you can get it back up. Keep that in mind also if you accidentally pop the barrier too soon! If you          pop it when wurm begins a different animation and immediately drop it after that, you should have enough time for it to come back up if he spits next, but if you use it in the              middle of an animation, DON'T DROP IT. If the next attack is spit, you will not have it back up in time.

Guardian 

Engineer

Engineer is generally very easy to block with, but it's limited to eggs and aoes mostly. It can block a few husks but it's not that reliable.

Difficulty: Easy (eggs and aoes)

• Weapons and Traits 
  Weapons are not important since you'll be using utilities for blocking. 
  
  The only important trait here is Advanced Turrets (major grandmaster), but Experimental Turrets(major master) help with some boon uptime.
  HoT: Scrapper also works, it's not necessary however. None of the traits affect blocking.
• Utility skills
  
  Elixir S can be replaced by any other skill if you don't plan to block aoes. It can be other turret (Thumper offers 3 blast finishers with overcharge+destroy and Tool Belt ) or even better Bomb Kit since it offers a fire field and a blast finisher.
• Blocking
  Placing a turret (skills #6, #7 and #8) creates a reflective shield which lasts for 5 seconds and it's great for blocking full wave of eggs. Turrets should be placed in wurm's hitbox.
  Elixir S is a 3 seconds long invulnerability, which is enough for full aoe.
  
  HoT: Tool belt skill from Bulwark Gyro (Defense Field) works slightly better than turrets do, is a great panic button (it's an instant cast) but in general not needed because of trait that makes turrets share some boons. It's great for practicing.
• Tips and tricks
  - Turrets doesn't create shield instantly when placed, there's a slight delay. I suggest placing them as soon as you see the spit animations. Pick up turrets after spit is over so you get reduced cooldown on them.
  - Try to do most blocking with the Healing turret, and save Rifle and Flame for the burn phase. They add a little extra damage and they also share might+fury to 5 people.
  - Don't forget to position yourself when casting Elixir S.

 

Elementalist    

Elementalist is also one of the professions which can solo block, not just eggs but husks and aoes too!

Difficulty: Medium (everything)

• Weapons and Traits
  Dagger(main-hand) and Focus (off-hand) is the way to go!
  
  
  First column (major adept) in all 3 specializations is not important, this is just standard pick for better dps.
  Second column (major master) is the most important one because you need reduced cooldown (recharge) on your earth/air/cantrip skills (Geomancer and Aeromancer's Training and Soothing Disruption).
  Third column (major grandmaster) is, again, not much important. If you are taking Signet of Restoration (6-heal skill), take Written in Stone in earth. You can take Bolt to the Heart in air for more dps, but I suggest using Fresh Air to reduce recharge on Air Attunement just in case you make mistake with your rotations and you need those Swirling Winds immediately!
  HoT: Swap Water for Tempest
  
• Utility skills
  
  Heal can be swapped for Signet of Restoration (take Written in Stone earth trait) or Ether Renewal (it has shortest cooldown). Arcane Brilliance is better pick overall because it has a blast finisher.
  Armor of Earth can replace Arcane Shield, just for extra stability when you don't want to move from sweet spot (and it has shorter cooldown because of cantrip trait).
  Mist Form and Conjure Earth Shield are a must!
  Elite skill is totally random, you can use Tornado for another stability, but other two are great for dps.
  These are Conjure Earth (Magnetic) Shield skills
  
  Make sure to deactivate auto attacking because it makes you leap to target with 2nd or 3rd attack (I guess it's a bug or something) as you don't want to move from your sweet spot.
  You will be using only skills #2 and #5. 
  HoT: 
  Rebound is useful in 2nd phase when Wurm uses its charging attack, as it can prevent up to 5 people getting downed.
• Blocking
  -Skills which can block eggs only are: 
       Swirling Winds (air #4) - 6 sec duration is long enough to block full wave of eggs. It's a wide aoe skill.
       Ring of Earth (earth #2) - it lasts ~2 seconds so it can block ~3 eggs. Small aoe skill.
  Blocking with these 2 skills is easy, you just need to stand inside wurm and cast them when wurm does spit animation.
  Blocking with every skill below requires you to position on exact spot before casting.
       Magnetic Wave (earth #4) - 3 seconds duration is enough for 6 eggs. 
       Arcane Shield (utility) - this spell can only block 3 eggs considering that you are not getting hit by anything else! (not recommended if you are blocking with someone)
  -Spells which can block everything:
       Obsidian Flesh (earth #5) - 4 seconds = full spit wave with proper timing (prioritize this one for egg blocking over other two invulnerabilities).
       Fortify (conjured shield #5)  and  Mist Form (utility) - 3 seconds = 6 eggs/2 husks/full aoe.
       Fortify requires you to stand still, Mist Form is transformation skill (you can move but you can't cast other skills, it's instant), Obsidian Flesh just makes you invulnerable and you          are free to cast anything after it (it's also an instant skill).
       Stone Sheath (conjured shield #2) is only used to prevent big spins (or small ones, but try to block them) from hitting you, it has short cooldown so it's recommended to use it          instead of dodging.
  HoT: Aftershock (utility) - 4 seconds = full spit wave with proper timing, it gives Magnetic Aura to all allies nearby so, as long as 1 person is on exact spot, eggs will be blocked.
• Tips and tricks
  Every wurm starts with 2 big spins (Amber wurm eats 'fake' abomination between those two) before its first spit wave.
  First spit is random (egg or husk), so pop Swirling Winds (air #4) and Obsidian Flesh (earth #5) to get in the right position. If nothing came out of the wurm, congratz, you've blocked something! How many 'invulnerable!'s did you see per spit?
       -If the answer is 0, you are not in good position, reposition yourself with Mist Form on the next spit wave. But, you've still blocked eggs with your Swirling Winds !!
       -If the answer is 1 (3 total), you've blocked husks with Obsidian Flesh. Pay attention! Eggs are next and you don't have Swirling Winds, so combine Ring of Earth with Magnetic Wave or Fortify with Mist Form on the next spit wave.
      -If the answer is 3 (9 total in wave), you've blocked eggs so save your invuln. skills for aoes!
  In the worst possible case husks will spawn as you are using Swirling Winds, and you will have to rely on your invulnerabilities for next (egg) spit. So just get in position and pop Obsidian Flesh or any combo mentioned earlier.

 

I almost forgot...good luck with ping 

 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2017 by Steki

[Susimusta 48]

There's a Guardian Egg-blocking guide already here: 

:)

[Ki Ste 29]

Just now, Susimusta said:

There's a Guardian Egg-blocking guide already here: 

Great, I'll work on elementalist today, and mesmer in near future, but I could use some help with other professions since I dont have any!
 

 

All suggestions are welcome!! ^^

[Susimusta 48]

19 minutes ago, Steki said:

It's always more fun with more people!

Also I disagree on this a bit. Obviously go and try it out, but never have more than 3 people inside the wurm, (rather not even more than 2). Because the more you have inside, the more likely you're going to have AoE spits landing on you and/or veteran wurms aggroing. Also if your egg-blockers aren't communicating with each other about who blocks what and when, you're likely to end up having eggs all over the place.  

The 'Sweet spot' varies a bit depending on the wurm, on Cobalt and Crimson I've figured it's ~one step more inside from when your character is completely inside the wurm (from the front), and on Amber it's in the bush in the middle, somewhat the same spot. Invulnerabilities usually require you to stand exactly on the right spot, because the radius they affect is more or less just your character's hitbox, whereas "Swirling winds" for example (projectile block, Elementalists' focus skill 4) is so large, that it doesn't really matter where you stand inside the wurm.

Keep it going, I'll check on the guide once you've written some more. The green you use on "aoe" is very faint though so you should probably change it to some other color, even just plain normal and bold or something if you can't find a clearer color.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Susimusta

[Arvinthir 38]

I can, without a doubt, say that this is the best eggblocking guide out there.

I'd like to make a note that, if you are only blocking eggs and some aoe, trait lines for ele aren't necessary. Also, you might want to mention the subsquads and subsquad boon-sharing thing. And how to eggblock with a buddy (block feedback) is also something I'd love to see more people know how to do.

[Ki Ste 29]

Thank you!!! 

Well, yeah, traits aren't necessary, but if you want to focus on egg blocking more than on dps, this is what you should be using. And it's recommended for beginners because I was noob once and I failed rotations a lot and I really needed that cooldown reduction on skills. And about block feedback, I will mention it, thanks for reminding, I just wanted to explain every single skill which can be used just to be prepared for worst case (other blocker got downed or even dead, or you are just solo blocking).

 

Edited May 14, 2016 by Steki

[Anders Mathiesen 4]

Just started joining the TT events on august 9th and thought of trying out egg blocking since one of the commanders posted this link two days ago.

I've tried egg-blocking the last to days and felt really prepared, but having other people there helped a lot though

Thanks for the wonderful guide!

Edited August 15, 2016 by Anders Mathiesen

[Jaina 11]

So I made a video that shows all my decisions while fullblocking a wurm on Mesmer. I mess up a little bit, but the other eggblocker picks up my slack

Link to the reddit post here ~ 

 

[Pommi 3]

Hi,

I have a Revenenat and really would like to learn egg blocking. Are there still days when we are doing trainings for that? Or just try on normal days?

[Tyler 0]

Regarding advanced blocking with mesmers, about a month ago, Blurred Inscriptions was moved from Domination to the grandmaster tier of Inspiration. Because Warden's Feedback is in the master tier of Inspiration, you can now have both Blurred Inscriptions and Warden's Feedback without using Domination, so you're free to use something else.

But going in a slightly different direction, replacing Domination with Illusions, makes the scepter and sword combination much easier. It's so easy that you don't need a safe spot, you don't need to know how to tell what you've blocked, and you can solo block. The only things that you really need to know are the animations, the frequency of spits, and the skill rotation (explained below). But it requires a particular build (including equipment). The idea behind the build can be summed up by Ricky Bobby: “I wanna go fast.” With this build, you'll have nearly 100% up-time on both Alacrity and Quickness! I'll provide the ascended equipment version, but I believe that this might still work with exotic equivalent—though I haven't tested it. You can either use Giver's stats or Harrier's stats (or even a combination of the two); I prefer Giver's stats because they're also viable for WvW content and other big group events in OW content. This build will not work as described with quadruple stats, so please don't try using Minstrel's stats or such. However, if you have full ascended/legendary equipment, then there's room for one piece of equipment to have Plaguedoctor's stats.

Specializations

• Illusions
  • Shatter Storm—Though this isn't technically necessary, it gives you a little bit of wiggle room and the other options aren't particularly applicable.
  • Maim the Disillusioned—The scepter auto-attack inflicts Torment and you'll be shattering about every six seconds, so Maim the Disillusioned fits with the build.
  • Malicious Sorcery—This is required. You won't produce clones quickly enough without it.
• Inspiration
  • Medic's Feedback—You really shouldn't ever need this, but it's the only option that makes even a little sense.
  • Restorative Illusions—This provides extremely powerful healing for a trait. It gives you a lot of freedom of choice regarding the healing skill—freedom of which you'll exploit to make room for freedom of choice regarding a utility skill.
  • Blurred Inscriptions—This is required. You won't be able to block as effectively without it. I suppose that this build can technically get away with never using its slot skills, but that would be more difficult than necessary.
• Chronomancer
  • Time Catches Up—None of these options do much for this build, so there's not much to say about this.
  • Improved Alacrity—This is required. Even if you can't keep 100% alacrity up-time with this, it's still required because the fact that the recharge-speed buff is much greater than the duration nerf means that it's still a great buff.
  • Seize the Moment—This is required. You need to be able to power through a skill or sequence of skills at a moment's notice.

Slot Skills

• Signet of the Ether—This is required for blocking. Though its passive healing effect works well with the build, you should pretend that the passive effect doesn't exist; the fact that it provides Distortion upon activation is far more important.
• Signet of Domination—This is required for blocking. It has near-instant-speed activation (especially with Quickness) and the fact that it works well with the Torment stacks that you'll be issuing is a nice touch.
• Signet of Midnight—This is required for blocking. It has instant-speed activation and the fact that it works well with the Torment stacks that you'll be issuing is a nice touch.
• Well of Recall—If you're struggling to keep alacrity up, then this will help fill in the gaps. It also helps your allies during the burn phase.
• Time Warp—Your choice of ultimate skill doesn't particularly matter, but Time Warp helps with the burn. But don't use Continuum Split for it—save that for your more important skills.

Armor

• Tixx's Masque
  • Superior Rune of Leadership
• Tixx's Epaulets
  • Superior Rune of Leadership
• Tixx's Doublet
  • Superior Rune of Leadership
• Tixx's Wristguards
  • Superior Rune of Leadership
• Tixx's Breeches
  • Superior Rune of Leadership
• Tixx's Footwear
  • Superior Rune of Leadership

Weapons

• Tixx's Wand
  • Superior Sigil of Bounty—Be sure to get the Bounty stacks before you begin blocking. Kill some easy enemies while you wait for the event to start. Because this build doesn't focus on damage, this could take a few minutes, so feel free to join up with the escort team to get some easy kills. But don't expect to get all twenty-five Bounty stacks from the escort event. In a level-80 area, this build would have +100% boon duration even without this sigil, but due to level scaling, you'll have to make up lost ground via this sigil and the consumables.
• Tixx's Blade
  • Superior Sigil of Concentration

Trinkets

• Giver's Sabetha's Defender Crucible
• Giver's Spectral Ward
• Giver's Berg's Token
• Giver's Talisman of Holt
• Giver's Defender's Energized Loop
• Giver's Defender's Woven Band

Consumables

• Magnanimous Sharpening Stone
• Magnanimous Maintenance Oil
• Magnanimous Tuning Crystal
• Chocolate Omnomberry Cream

Skill Rotation

With this build, you'll be shattering incessantly, so you need to be able to keep the clones coming. The scepter's auto-attack chain will create a clone about once every five seconds. Via Flow of Time, each clone that you shatter grants two seconds of alacrity. So if you shatter three clones, you'll get six seconds of alacrity. And remember that producing three clones takes less than six seconds. In short, you should use the scepter's auto-attack chain and Mind Wrack to maintain full Quickness and Alacrity up-time. There are two situations in which you'll deviate from this “maintenance chain”. While you read through the rest of the explanation of the rotations, bear in mind that shatters have no activation time and can be activated independently of your weapon or slot skills.

When the wurm swings, block it via Illusionary Counter. Bear in mind that this ability will be affected by Quickness. So instead of having a two-second window to block, you'll only have a one-second window. Technically, you can activate Illusionary Riposte for this instead and still be fine. However, Illusionary Riposte is useful to keep up in case you make a mistake and somehow have no other way to block eggs. I'll talk more about that later. When you've successfully blocked the spin, finish Illusionary Counter via Counterspell. Not only is Counterspell another little jab, it also allows you to begin recharging Illusionary Counter and to activate other skills sooner.

In regard to blocking, the Distortion skill has first priority. So you need to be sure that your maintenance chain doesn't prevent you from getting its full effect. With that in mind, if you anticipate a spit within the next five or six seconds, hold off on using the Mind Wrack component of your maintenance chain. Instead, this would be a great time to activate Well of Recall to keep Alacrity up. If you lose Quickness during this part, then that's fine. It's nothing to worry too much about. Knowing when to expect the spit before the animation starts will take practice.

If you have at least one clone and have the Continuum Split skill up but don't have the Distortion skill up, then Continuum Split and your three signets take priority. When you activate Continuum Split with at least one clone, you will get at least three seconds of quickness, so you should have no trouble stuffing all three signets into the rift. When you're done, activate Continuum Shift manually so that Continuum Split will began to recharge sooner.

If all else fails and neither of those blocking routes are available, hard-activate the three signets and hope that your cool-downs.

And then, if you're noobing so hard that that's not even an option, then you probably don't even know what you're about to block. In this scenario, activate Illusionary Counter, immediately follow it with Illusionary Riposte, and hope that it was an egg spit. Neither of these skills block husks. Note that Illusionary Riposte is not affected by Quickness.

After you're done blocking, resume use of the maintenance chain.

Under no circumstances should you create a phantasm. Phantasms don't shatter until they become a clone. This means that if you shatter with two clones and one phantasm, then you'll only get four seconds of alacrity instead of six. So never activate Phantasmal Swordsman.

Bear in mind that Signet of Midnight stops your auto-attacks. Be sure to resume them immediately.