Guild Wars 2

Now I know Super Elixer is a decent healing skill in a group fight, its healing power however is small beans compared to the healing power of a water field being blasted for a zerg wide heal. The problem with SE is that it is a light field and will overwrite a water field that is already down. This is really really bad for a zerg that wants to heal up after an engagement and can at times directly result in a wipe.

I’m pretty sure a lot of people already know not to drop light fields on top of water fields, however there still is a depressing amount of these incidents happening. So before you drop a Super Elixer on a group, please please make sure you are not overwriting an even more important fie.d

I was under the impression that when multiple fields were dropped it went in order of oldest to newest (at least that is what the wiki says, but I often see it being the other way around). I don’t think the issue is with light vs water specifically, as much as people not understanding the order for the fields, hell I have been playing since beta and can’t even tell you the overwrite priorities because of the chaotic conditions that often times are associated with having multiple fields lumped up. But yes as a general rule you don’t want water fields overwritten by any other fields, though most likely it is simply unintentional given the hectic nature of combat.

Even if it is by order like wiki says, if one were to drop SE first it would negate the waterfield for 10 sec which might be what chiken is reffering to. I have seen this happend before but more so cuz of guardians symbols than SE.

It is indeed as ShadowPuppet says : there is no “overwriting” fields. OP’s PSA premise is just plain wrong, sorry.
When a finisher is used on overlapping fields, the oldest field is used. So this should only be an issue if the people laying down the water fields are careless.
Furthermore, engineers are hardly the main “offenders” when it comes to light fields : guardians put light fields all over the place (hammer 1 chain end, mace 2, staff 3, greatsword 4…). Do you think Super Elixir in particular is troublesome because it is hard to tell what type of combo it provides ?

NeryK.5301:

It is indeed as ShadowPuppet says : there is no “overwriting” fields. OP’s PSA premise is just plain wrong, sorry.
When a finisher is used on overlapping fields, the oldest field is used. So this should only be an issue if the people laying down the water fields are careless.
Furthermore, engineers are hardly the main “offenders” when it comes to light fields : guardians put light fields all over the place (hammer 1 chain end, mace 2, staff 3, greatsword 4…). Do you think Super Elixir in particular is troublesome because it is hard to tell what type of combo it provides ?

Not to mention Guardian’s utility skills (and some mesmer skills too).

I am quite sure guardians are causing more light fields than engineers, which are the rarest profession in WvWvW. I often see 10 times more guardians in a large group, compared to the sole lone engineer. But I of course understand why good commanders do not want light fields messing up their area healing.

However the combo field things are way too over the top in WvWvW and one of the main reasons why zergs are so powerful and can even counter concentrated enemy siege fire etc.

These combo fields need their effect to be toned in a WvWvW setting:
water (reduce its healing by 33%)
fire (2 stacks of might, instead of 3)
lightning (50% less swiftness duration)
smoke (cap total consecutive duration of stealth to 8 seconds max, then 4 s revealed)

What if only attacks which actually hit enemy targets can trigger combo effects?

Carighan.6758:

What if only attacks which actually hit enemy targets can trigger combo effects?

The problem is that the smoke combo would be useless since it would cancel the stealth once the blast/leap hits

Deniara Devious.3948:

I am quite sure guardians are causing more light fields than engineers, which are the rarest profession in WvWvW. I often see 10 times more guardians in a large group, compared to the sole lone engineer. But I of course understand why good commanders do not want light fields messing up their area healing.

However the combo field things are way too over the top in WvWvW and one of the main reasons why zergs are so powerful and can even counter concentrated enemy siege fire etc.

These combo fields need their effect to be toned in a WvWvW setting:
water (reduce its healing by 33%)
fire (2 stacks of might, instead of 3)
lightning (50% less swiftness duration)
smoke (cap total consecutive duration of stealth to 8 seconds max, then 4 s revealed)

This would pretty much destroy their usefulness in pve, so unless anet plans to balance for even a third split instead of just spvp/other, then simply no.

I would have to agree with Shadow , the combo field uses rewards smart plays imo.