Guild Wars 2

Forgive me if this topic has been discussed before. I would do a search, but the search function hasn’t worked in over a year at this point.

I’ve noticed that Arcane Brilliance often doesn’t trigger its blast finisher when I’m standing in combo fields. I do know that you must have been standing in the field when you first activate the skill for the effect to trigger, rather than when the skill finishes its cast and goes off. The skill must begin its casting when standing in the field, etc, for it to work. However, I’m still noticing that it doesn’t seem to reliably blast properly. I’ll be standing in a field, cast Arcane Brilliance, then not have the finisher go off.

Is there another quirky requirement to reliably have it go off, or is this skill just bugged?

I seem to have this issue on water fields fairly often. The others are more reliable.

Admittedly, it is also disconcerting that the animation triggering a blast is lined up for when you initiate the skill, rather than when it finishes; this seems counter-intuitive.

Ya it’s broken, noticed this also last time I used it. Sometimes it just doesn’t work, seems to be random.

It’s a pretty funny bug considering the blast is supposed to be the skill main feature. They must be too busy buffing the ranger.

Xillllix.3485:

Ya it’s broken, noticed this also last time I used it. Sometimes it just doesn’t work, seems to be random.

It’s a pretty funny bug considering the blast is supposed to be the skill main feature. They must be too busy buffing the ranger.

They managed to break Frost Spirit for a while as well.

it works everytime on frost field staff for me… havent had probs lately

also im not sure if blind effects this.. it shouldnt

it works everytime but its a bit weird. if u dont have a target, then the blast finisher happens on urself, but if u do have a target, the blast finisher happens exactly on the target. so for example if u want to do lava font and arcane brilliance and u have a boss targeted, the lava font must be under the boss as well, same with any field.

Calestian.1598:

it works everytime but its a bit weird. if u dont have a target, then the blast finisher happens on urself, but if u do have a target, the blast finisher happens exactly on the target. so for example if u want to do lava font and arcane brilliance and u have a boss targeted, the lava font must be under the boss as well, same with any field.

Yep, just tested this. You’re right. However, theres a small abnormality. This is only true if the target is hostile or attackable (red/yellow). If the target is non-hostile (green), it will blast around the player instead, which I believe is where the confusion is coming from. Furthermore, if you blast a water field like this at a distance (water field is under your HOSTILE OR ATTACKABLE target), the effect goes off around the targeted NPC and not yourself.

I’m not sure I really like this design. Arcane Brilliance is not a ranged ability like Arcane Wave. If it was a targeted ranged AoE (requires a target to do damage at range, but isn’t ground targeted like Arcane Wave) like Arcane Wave, I would say it should stay as is, but since Arcane Brilliance is point blank AoE, I think the blast finisher should always center on the player.

Also, there is another oddity regarding Arcane Brilliance. Even though you must be standing inside the combo field at the beginning of your cast to trigger a blast finisher with Arcane Brilliance, if the combo field happens to disappear before you finish casting the skill, you don’t get a blast combo. Honestly, I believe the blast combo effect should be based on where you are standing when you finish casting Arcane Brilliance, and not where you are standing when you begin casting it. It just doesn’t make sense how this skill was constructed.

If anyone wants to test this for themselves, its very easy to set up. Equip a staff. Stand far enough back so you don’t aggro your target when casting Arcane Brilliance. Just drop a combo field (Healing Rain or Static Field) under an attackable target. Activate Arcane Brilliance with the attackable NPC targeted while it is standing inside of your combo field. Watch as the combo effect activates around your target (Water splashes, the wind effect from blasting lightning fields to get swiftness, etc).

It appears that you have to start the arcane brilliance cast while in a field for the blast to count at the end of the cast.

juno.1840:

It appears that you have to start the arcane brilliance cast while in a field for the blast to count at the end of the cast.

Here’s a video I whipped up detailing how it’s behaving, it has nothing to do with being in the field while starting the cast.
This is more for people who don’t wanna read Kravick.4906’s wall’o text.

Kravick.4906:

Calestian.1598:

it works everytime but its a bit weird. if u dont have a target, then the blast finisher happens on urself, but if u do have a target, the blast finisher happens exactly on the target. so for example if u want to do lava font and arcane brilliance and u have a boss targeted, the lava font must be under the boss as well, same with any field.

Yep, just tested this. You’re right. However, theres a small abnormality. This is only true if the target is hostile or attackable (red/yellow). If the target is non-hostile (green), it will blast around the player instead, which I believe is where the confusion is coming from. Furthermore, if you blast a water field like this at a distance (water field is under your HOSTILE OR ATTACKABLE target), the effect goes off around the targeted NPC and not yourself.

I’m not sure I really like this design. Arcane Brilliance is not a ranged ability like Arcane Wave. If it was a targeted ranged AoE (requires a target to do damage at range, but isn’t ground targeted like Arcane Wave) like Arcane Wave, I would say it should stay as is, but since Arcane Brilliance is point blank AoE, I think the blast finisher should always center on the player.

Also, there is another oddity regarding Arcane Brilliance. Even though you must be standing inside the combo field at the beginning of your cast to trigger a blast finisher with Arcane Brilliance, if the combo field happens to disappear before you finish casting the skill, you don’t get a blast combo. Honestly, I believe the blast combo effect should be based on where you are standing when you finish casting Arcane Brilliance, and not where you are standing when you begin casting it. It just doesn’t make sense how this skill was constructed.

If anyone wants to test this for themselves, its very easy to set up. Equip a staff. Stand far enough back so you don’t aggro your target when casting Arcane Brilliance. Just drop a combo field (Healing Rain or Static Field) under an attackable target. Activate Arcane Brilliance with the attackable NPC targeted while it is standing inside of your combo field. Watch as the combo effect activates around your target (Water splashes, the wind effect from blasting lightning fields to get swiftness, etc).

This is happening to me as well. It’s really annoying when pre stacking might, hope they will fix this soon.

Xcorpdog.2840:

juno.1840:

It appears that you have to start the arcane brilliance cast while in a field for the blast to count at the end of the cast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umdKnfTye2w

Here’s a video I whipped up detailing how it’s behaving, it has nothing to do with being in the field while starting the cast.
This is more for people who don’t wanna read Kravick.4906’s wall’o text.

It does, actually. You can easily test this by dropping Healing Rain under you. Stand at the edge of the field and cast Arcane Brilliance, then step outside of the field before the skill completes. You will now be standing out side of the field and still blast finish Area Healing.

Now do the same, but this time stand outside of the Healing Rain field. Cast Arcane Brilliance, then step inside the field before the skill finishes. Notice that you will not blast anything, even though you completed the skill while standing inside of a combo field.

This behavior is contrast to how every other blast finisher in the game works. Every other blast finish in this game blast finishes based on when the skill ends, and what field is under the blast finish when the effect goes off. Arcane Brilliance does the opposite, and its oddly confusing with how the skill currently works.

arcane brilliance had previously blasted right away, at the start of the cast. In one of the previous patches the skill was changed to blast at the end. I think that patch went half way by moving the blast text to the end of the cast, but keeping the actual blast calculation at the beginning. I agree it’s not consistent.

I prefer the blasts be at the beginning of the skills — at least for the skill you can use while moving. Otherwise it’s hard to blast the fields on the move (simple use-case: blast static field for swiftness — this is an operation performed on the move and it’s quite a bit harder to cast the field ahead and time the arcane brilliance to land the actual blast).

Ahhh, so THAT’S why sometimes I don’t see my “Area Healing” notification go off when using Arcane Brilliance in Healing Rain/Geyser.

I’ve noticed this a lot lately. I put it down to lag to be honest, I’m really struggling to stack Might at the moment and attunement changes don’t seem as slick as they used to be.

Kravick.4906:

Xcorpdog.2840:

juno.1840:

It appears that you have to start the arcane brilliance cast while in a field for the blast to count at the end of the cast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umdKnfTye2w

Here’s a video I whipped up detailing how it’s behaving, it has nothing to do with being in the field while starting the cast.
This is more for people who don’t wanna read Kravick.4906’s wall’o text.

It does, actually. You can easily test this by dropping Healing Rain under you. Stand at the edge of the field and cast Arcane Brilliance, then step outside of the field before the skill completes. You will now be standing out side of the field and still blast finish Area Healing.

Now do the same, but this time stand outside of the Healing Rain field. Cast Arcane Brilliance, then step inside the field before the skill finishes. Notice that you will not blast anything, even though you completed the skill while standing inside of a combo field.

This behavior is contrast to how every other blast finisher in the game works. Every other blast finish in this game blast finishes based on when the skill ends, and what field is under the blast finish when the effect goes off. Arcane Brilliance does the opposite, and its oddly confusing with how the skill currently works.

Whelp I’m forced to eat my words it seems. I always chalked to up to something else I guess.

This skill is bugged. It work with Frozen Ground all the time but almost never work with Healing Rain anymore.

I always run Arcane Brilliant for a healing blast finish but I had to take it out now…

In additional, AB sometimes don’t even work with Air Staff 5! (I’ve just test it in AC dungeon path, was expecting to give a team speed boost but it didn’t work like it used to be.)

We should post this on the bug report section.

I’ve been using it for a while now and can definitely confirm it works how Kravick said. It is a bit weird but I think it gives us a bit more freedom with regards to blast finishers. It also means that I don’t need to stay in my own field to get the blast, so long as I start the heal inside the field. I think I actually prefer it this way. Allows me to stay mobile.