Spike

To Spike is to cause a large influx of something (like a spike in a curve). Spiking can refer to many things, such as spike healing (healing in large chunks), spike damage (causing great spurts of damage) or spike energy (to regenrate energy in chunks).

A spiker is a player whose goal is to quickly inflict massive amounts of damage to a single target, with the tactic of taking them down quickly. This is in contrast with a Nuker, whose objective is to deal large amounts of damage to multiple targets. A nuker basically overwhelms a healer, while a spiker would overpower a healer.

Spikers are usually Elementalists using Air Magic or Earth Magic, but some Necromancer builds can work as well. Air Magic is considered the best option because its spells cannot be evaded and because of their armor penetration.

Spikers are very popular in PvP, as most players are smart enough to get out of a nuker's AoE spells, but are not as adept as dodging spells aimed at them.

Tactics to counter spikers include:
 * Protection Prayers are the biggest neutralizer to spike damage. They contain spells that limit damage to allies like Protective Spirit and Protective Bond as well as spells that almost deflect all damage such as Reversal of Fortune and Mark of Protection.
 * Take spikers down and focus your strong attacks on them... Take advantage of the fact that their armor is weak.
 * Neutralize them with mesmer skills.
 * Bring protection against elemental damage.