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 regenerate energy in chunks).

A spiker is a player who inflicts massive amounts of damage to a single target in a short period of time, with the goal 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 overwhelms the opposing healers' energy supply, while a spiker would overwhelm the healers' immediate healing capabilities.

Spiking first came into widespread use with teams of elementalists, usually Air Magic specialists, who all bombarded the target with a single, high damage spell. While Elementalist spikes may still be seen, many spike teams now use the Ranger profession, combining the Dual Shot skill with either Punishing Shot, Savage Shot, or less commonly Quick Shot. A Necromancer or Mesmer/Necromancer using Order spells (like Order of Pain) is added to greatly increase the damage of the spike.

Spikers are popular in PvP because they can immediately begin killing opponents, weakening their attack and healing powers. As the match goes on and players accrue death penalty, they become more susceptible to spiking, creating a slippery slope effect for the opposing team. Also, because of the relatively small number of skills one must devote to spiking, there is much room left over for defensive skills. For example, an Air Elementalist could bring Lightning Orb and Lightning Strike to spike with, then use the rest of his skill bar for skills such as Blinding Flash, Ward Against Melee and Gale.

Counters

 * The best way to counter a spike build is by using interrupts. This will cause the spike to deal less damage, allowing your monks more time to deal with the spike. Skills such as Gale, Mind Shock, Cry of Frustration, Leech Signet, Distracting Blow, or other interrupts can be used to disrupt a damage dealer in midspike. Additionally, interrupting a spike may cause the spiking team to lose concentration and hinder the ability to prepare for another spike.
 * Protection Prayers are a good neutralizer to spike damage. They contain spells that limit damage to allies like Protective Spirit, Life Bond and Life Barrier as well as spells that deflect some or all damage such as Reversal of Fortune and Mark of Protection.
 * Bringing a monk with Infuse Health, which, with its 1/4 second activation time, can often be cast in midspike with a big enough heal to outlast the spike. This monk should be well-protected, because once the spiking team realizes what is happening they will likely focus on the infusing monk.
 * In GvG one can also split against a spike team. Because most spikes builds require all of the offense to be present to score kills, they will only be able to engage one of your split teams at a time. This will leave your other group free to run flags or kill NPCs without hindrance.