Guild Wars 2

Still a newb at 80

Been playing Staff lately in soloing. Crazy fun and very different from the S/D I’d been running since the 20s. Mostly I like it because I enjoy attunement switching and trying to optimizing fields and finishers. Bunch of questions on the latter:

1. If you drop multiple fields on top of each other, only the first field effect is used by the finisher, right?
2. If you drop multiple fields in a row (e.g., a Geyser on yourself, a Lava Font between you and the mob, and Static Field on the mob) and then throw an Arcane Bolt or Stoning that passes through all three fields, which boons/conditions get applied?
3. Does the boon/condition get applied at the beginning of the cast of a finisher, or at the end?
4. Where do the players and mob need to be in relation to the field when the finisher is cast? I’ve seen at some points: cast Healing Rain over the meleers at the mob, then cast Stoning: fellow ranged folk well outside the Healing Rain get the Regeneration boon. But I’ve also seen sometimes that Lava Font and Stoning only gives Burning to meleers (though I could be missing it).
   1. Similar question but regards to two ground targetted fields/finishers. For example, if I cast Lava Font and then Eruption, do people within the Eruption circle get the +Might while people outside of its range only get the combo effect off of Lava Font (assuming they throw a Blast, Whirl or Projectile)?
5. Seems like all my finishers are in Earth (Earth 1, 2, 5) or Utility (Arcane Blast/Wave). Is that it? Wondering what I’m missing because even with 30 in Arcane I run into inaccessible finishers often.
6. Are Elemental pets or their abilities considered finishers?
7. Do Elementals pets gain boons

Thanks!

so many good questions i hadnt even thought of – subscribing in hopes of seeing good answers!

1.) I think the finisher applies to all, but don’t quote me on that. I vaguely remember at one point placing a lava front, then switching to water and dropping a geyser, then dodge rolling (evasive arcana) into them and getting BOTH the might and area-healing. But I also don’t watch my combat log like a hawk, so I could be wrong. Perhaps someone else can answer better.
2.) Unsure, this could be tested easily in the mists.
3.) Different skills have different timings. For example, I believe that Dragon’s tooth finisher applies the instant you cast it, and at YOUR location (not where the tooth lands) whereas Churning Earth’s finisher applies at the end of the channel (but I think it accounts for fields that were present when you started casting).
4.) Unsure
5.) Pretty much that’s it. I wish they would make Flame Blast (skill #3) a blast finisher as well (I mean the skill name has “blast” right in it), but alas, such is not the case. This is why many staff builds use evasive arcana (30 pt arcane trait) to provide tons of extra blast finishers with every dodge roll (note, the blast finisher applies even if the skill associated with it is on the 10 second internal cooldown).
6/7.) No idea actually, these are great questions. I await answers from others

Note: I am by no means an expert here, all my answers are simply based on anecdotal observations. There are likely others lurking these forums that are far more reliable than I

1+2: Generally, the first field, which the finisher touches, is applied. I don’t know what happens when 2 fields are exactly ontop of each other.

3: Depends on the skill. Most blast finishers trigger the effect where they explode and when they explode (Eruption, Phoenix). Dragon’s Tooth and Comet, however, trigger at your position as soon as you finished the cast.

4: For Projectile finishers, you have to shoot through the combo field. It doesn’t matter if the player or the enemy is standing in or outside the combo field.

4.1: I have no idea. I can think of even 3 possibilities: the field’s range, the finisher’s range or each combo has its own range, no matter what skills have been used.

5: For staff, yes. Scepter has finishers on fire (#2, #3) and earth (#1, #2), focus on earth (#4) and water (#5), dagger on earth (#3, #4, #5). I hope, I haven’t forgotten something.

6: Hm… noticed that the elite ice elemental has a ice field, but other than that, I haven’t noticed any fields/finishers. (I did not pay much attention though)

7: Yes. As an auramancer, I love shielding my elementals.

I tried to Arcane Wave (blast finish) a Lava Font + Static Field, I only got the Might effect, and not the Quickness. The cast order was Lava Font, Static Field, Arcane Wave… given the obvious visual nature of Static Field, I am pretty sure I did not miss the time window.

Right after that, I tried Static Field, Lava Font, Arcane Wave, and got only the Swiftness bonus. So it seems to finish the first field it encounters.

This answers Q1, and may be the case for Q2 as well

I vaguely remember seeing a combo symbol popping up over my ice elemental once while it did that wave/blast move; not sure if it was actually the elemental, though.

1. The oldest combo field is the only one that triggers, yes.
2. It uses the effect of the first combo field it flies through, if more than one combo field starts at the very same place it uses the oldest one.
3. It depends from skill to skill; e.g. Phoenix applies it boni when it explodes, Mighty Blow (Guardian Hammer 2) looks for combo fields at start up but applies the effect at the end of it.
4. Arrows apply the effect to every enemy/ally that it pierces once it touches the combo field, it doesn’t matter if the enemy/ally stands in the combo field. Leap finishers have to touch the combo field at any point, they neither need to start or finish inside the combo field. Blast finisher need to start inside the combo field but doesn’t need to end in it.
4.1 I don’t really understand the question. The size of a blast finisher is afaik independent of the skill that is being used, e.g. Might Blow has an as big blast finisher AoE as Eruption.
5. Afaik that’s correct. However it seems not every finisher is listed as one; I’ve heard Magnetic Grasp (Dagger Earth #3) is a whirl finisher but I cannot confirm it.

Awesome, thanks all. This is very helpful. I’ll do some tests tonight.

To be honest, this is the kind of thing that really gets my OCD going I’m not really a min/maxer, when it comes to gear, but I love trying to get the timing down to just right. One of the main reasons I was S/D for so many levels, just loved trying to hit that 24th +Might stack…

I should mention too this is entirely PvE and dungeon focused. Haven’t done any PvP yet, but can imagine it’s much harder to set something like this up because players sit still.

DesertRose: thanks for insights onto #4. On #4.1, I didn’t ask it very well. Might be easier with a diagram. So I dug out Powerpoint. Basically I’m wondering how boons apply in cases where the field and the finisher are both ground target AOEs. Diagram “Question4_1-diagram.jpg” I think asks it better.

I include Question4-diagram to seek verification.

Thanks all!

1. Yep.
2. The first one it passes through.
3. I get the boon right when I hit Arcane Wave (not until the blast finisher animation completes)
4. It appears to be longer than the blast finisher from what I’ve noticed.
5. You can get two more blast finishers if you put 30 into arcane traits and get evasive arcana. It’s really nice.
6. Yes. You can use the ice elemental as a frost combo field and obtain frost armor. I do it all the time. Also, the fire elemental has a blast finisher when it does that diving move. If the fire elemental combos with me, I can stack up to 17-ish might in one combo.

Eruption > Lava Font (3) > Evasive Arcana Roll (6)> Arcane Blast (9) > Burning Retreat + Evasive Arcana Roll (12) > Fire Elemental Blast Finisher (15) > Glyph of Elemental Harmony (With Inscription Trait) (17)

17’s a lot of might stacks and I can get that if everything goes well. During long fights, I can stack up to 20 ish might stacks (probably due to the inscription might stacks and +%boon duration runes).

7. I believe they do. I’ve seen mine have frost armor when I use a blast finisher in a frost field. I wish frost armor lasted longer.

EDIT
I’m not sure why they’re underlined…

Awesome thanks SecondtoNone. And yea I’ve been meaning to get that second magic book so I can get to the 30th point in Arcane. Evasive Arcana seems like it’d be great for S/D too.

30 in arcane = evasive arcana, every dodge is a blast finisher, but the effect of staying in the same attune goes on 9 sec cd. So dodging twice in water will give Cleansing Wave + dodge finisher, and dodging again within 9 sec will net a blast finisher but no cleansing wave as it will be on cd. You can also water dodge for CW then fire dodge for Fire Burst (cool down is only across the one element)

Another not for dagger off handers. When casting churning earth, the first part of the cast starts the combo finisher, but you don’t get the buff till the skill goes off. So if you start in a fire field, then the fire field wears off, then you finish churning you will still get might. Have only tested in the fire field, haven’t tried in a healing field yet.

You also have access to more fields/finishers through your other skills with summoned weapons and Whirlwind(whirl finisher). Frostbow has projectile finisher on 2, Axe has 2 fields(3, 4) and a leap finisher on 5, Lightning Hammer has field(5) and leap finish on 2, and Greatsword has whirl finish on 3.

I favor staff and these to make some crazy combo field + chains in my personal playstyle – but it is a lot of quick flipping around between attunements & summoned weapons.

Hey Revitte, which conjured item is your favorite for comboing (or general use) and why? I’ve been thinking of picking up a conjured spell for pvp and wvw, but I’m not sure which one to use.

I really like the AoE blind for lightning hammer but Im not sure how practical it is for a staff ele. Definitely like the staff finisher though. Frost bow has the really nice AoE that inflicts confusion too.

@DesertRose, Magnetic Grasp is a leap finisher, and if you go through a fire field with it it will proc Fire Aura, or Chaos Armor and so forth. With regards to pet comboing, I’m only aware of the ice elemental’s ice field, which you can proc Frost Aura with either doing a blast inside the field (AOE frost aura) or with Magnetic Grasp.

I still need to test this, but I was noticing while doing some Orr events the other day that the water and air dodge spells — along with the well-known earth and fire ones — with Evasive Arcana seemed to be working as blast finishers, or at least notably water seemed to be proccing combo effects. The blind on air is something I’ve found difficult to land, but if it did act as a blast finisher then it’d be worth dodging through fields no matter your attunement. Can anyone confirm this working for them?

Revitte.1936:

You also have access to more fields/finishers through your other skills with summoned weapons and Whirlwind(whirl finisher). Frostbow has projectile finisher on 2, Axe has 2 fields(3, 4) and a leap finisher on 5, Lightning Hammer has field(5) and leap finish on 2, and Greatsword has whirl finish on 3.

Lightning Hammer has also a blast finisher at the end of the auto attack combo.

@DesertRose
Yeah, but it happens so slowly you can’t self-combo with it. I’ve tried to use lava font and then summon lightning hammer and tried to use the blast finisher of the auto attack combo. Doesn’t work.

You need to combo with someone else (or the ice elemental).

@SecondtoNone

I can’t really say for WvW/PvP since I don’t do much of this – so this info is based on my PvE experience:

For general use – Frost Bow, by far is my favorite. It has an almost permanent spot on my bar because it is so good for the control it brings. Deep Freeze(5) is amazing!

For sheer combo use – Fire Axe is my favorite. It does a nice amount of damage & is great for stacking more might. In a chain, I typically use it just after setting down eruption, summon ring of fire over the eruption blast to get might, roll backwards from 3, then 5 to leap finish over the flames to get fire shield.

Lightning hammer blast finisher.. yea… I forgot to mention this one, since I almost never use it – it’s really only useful with it’s own field from 5.. like you mentioned it’s too slow to use with much else.

Let me know how this works out for you if you give it a try! I’d love to hear your thoughts.