"Dancing with Shakers"

 

Almost everything in the below holds true in D3 Earthshakers. If anything D3 Shakers are easer to dodge than D2 Shakers.

  Yes! You can dodge the Shaker! It is really quite easy as long as you have an idea of where it will hit.  Most important!  Run only when you know you can make it to safety, like behind a wall or up a tunnel.  Never try to out run a Shaker in an open space, or if protection is to far away.  It can't be done unless you use a hack, and that's lame as hell!   Always face the other pilot.  Watch where he shoots the Shaker.  Then face your fear "The Shaker."  If you see it, then you stand a good chance of dodging it.  Dodging is a Timing thing.  You do not dodge the Shaker itself.  You dodge the bomblets as they come for you.  However, if you are too near the initial impact point of the Shaker, the blast will kill you.  

As the bomblets head for you, afterburn toward them, then slide by them to the left or right.  You can even even slide over or under them, though that is tough to do.  It's a last second move to slide by, so it does take practice.   Also stay away from walls, floors, & ceilings where the bomblets will explode when they hit and where the blast splash will kill you.  Most new to dodging will slide way too wide.  They survive the Shaker, but leave themselves open for the next one.  Keep your slide by the bomblets  narrow and straight, and you will find that you are in a good position to attack the other pilot or ready for another Shaker fired at you.  Like I said it's a Timing thing, so find a friend and go practice. 

 Dodging in a game is different from practice and you'll need to play a lot in order to get that 2nd sense of what's going on around you during a fire fight.  I have found myself knowing where a Shaker will hit, even when I never saw it.  Listen to the sounds, a good set of ear-phones can tell you a lot.  Open room dodging is by far the easiest. It is when you are caught in a tunnel or a tighter space that it gets rough.  But it can be done!  Again, you have to know when to run or when to dodge.   Red tunnel in Gig2, I will most always travel through it to one side and if a Shaker is fired in front of me it will draw the bomelets to that side. I then will afterburn toward and to the other side, sliding by the bomelets which will explode behind and on the other side of the tunnel from me. There is a Demo on this that will help, but it's much more difficult in a game to do, best thing is try not to get caught in a tunnel.

Tunnel dodging in Descent3 is very easy as compared to Descent2.  At times a simple fast loop will work in order for the shaker to miss you.