Guild Wars 2

Area of effect refers to skills or other gameplay mechanics that affect creatures in a specific proximity to the target. An area of effect skill may only affect a maximum of 5 targets.

from the wiki, as seen here

my question is, does this affect all skills in the game? are there exceptions? if so, do those follow a rule? like “only boon-applying skills are not limited to 5 targets” or something?

i’d really like to know more about this and about why exactly this decision was made (looking at you Jon :P ). i’m not implying it’s bad, in fact i do think it’s good for balance’s sake.

it’d be awesome if the devs (i guess this would be a topic for J.P.) could comment on this.

For what I know boons do not fall under that. (I ran a banner build in WvWvW and buffed everyone around a dolyak 10+)

For attacks I have yet to see that in action.

DeityAngel.5648:

For what I know boons do not fall under that. (I ran a banner build in WvWvW and buffed everyone around a dolyak 10+)

For attacks I have yet to see that in action.

banner buffs are not boons though. or are you talking about the swiftness boon on skill 3 when you pick them up?
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Banner

That’s interesting, I’d never noticed that.

Yea the picking up swiftness one :P

bump. anyone got some info/data on this?

I use longbow warrior with focus on the burst skill and I farm 10+ monsters at once with the burning condition on this burst skill. So the burning is applied to everyone in the aoe.

But I wasn’t checking for 2 weeks, maybe they changed it because longbow warrior was so strong?

Thypari.9043:

I use longbow warrior with focus on the burst skill and I farm 10+ monsters at once with the burning condition on this burst skill. So the burning is applied to everyone in the aoe.

But I wasn’t checking for 2 weeks, maybe they changed it because longbow warrior was so strong?

I feel like my traps on my ranger definitely apply to more than 5 mobs…

Nemui.6753:

An area of effect skill may only affect a maximum of 5 targets.

I really wanna say Barrage hits more than 5 enemies at once as that’s the most common skill I use on a large group of enemies. It’s hard to say since I just see a bunch of damage numbers come up at the same time but I’ve never actually counted them.

AdamLiborio.8436:

I really wanna say Barrage hits more than 5 enemies at once as that’s the most common skill I use on a large group of enemies. It’s hard to say since I just see a bunch of damage numbers come up at the same time but I’ve never actually counted them.

hm.. intersting. i think the damage numbers float there for a short time, too (so you’re actually able to read them). i could imagine that sometimes, it seems as if you’re hitting more targets when you’re actually only dealing damage to 5 targets at once.

okay, i just did a quick test and it’s pretty clear that at least Combustive Shot follows the “AoEs are limited to 5 targets” rule i quoted in the OP.

I believe elementalist meteor shower sort-of bypasses this limit, in the sense that it can hit more than 5. However, each individual meteor only hits 5 people.

Its 5 per hit, so if you have an aoe dot, it will hit 5, then another 5, then another, etc, if you have a 1 time hit skill then only 5 total, yes. Also aoe skills that shoot multiple projectiles can hit 5 per projectile.