Combo Finishers, Combo Fields, Blasts, Leaps, Projectile finishers. All these terms can be a bit confusing, especially when you are starting off as a new Guild Wars 2 player.
The idea of Combos is something that you would commonly see in MMOs, but GW2 does it a bit differently, and this is through Combo fields and finishers. Here is everything you need to know about this mechanic.
What are Combo Fields?
A Field is simply an area effect that shows up on the ground for a short period of time after performing certain skills. This Field can be of multiple types, and you can perform another ability, which is called a Combo Finisher to create a certain “Combo Effect” as long as your Finisher is done while inside the field, or if it goes through it.
We will cover those Combo effects by the end of this guide once we have covered both fields and finishers.
Combo Field types
As I mentioned before, there are different field types, and performing a combo finisher on different types will result in different effects, here is a list:
| Field type | Example | Visual representation |
|---|---|---|
| Water | Elementalist – Healing Rain (Staff) | 
|
| Poison | Chillblains – Necromancer (Staff) | 
|
| Smoke | Thief – Black Powder (Pistol) | 
|
| Light | Guardian – Symbol of Resolution (Greatsword) | 
|
| Lightning | Elementalist – Static Field (Staff) | 
|
| Ice | Elementalist – Frozen Ground (Staff) | 
|
| Ethereal | Mesmer – Chaos Storm (Staff) | 
|
| Fire | Ranger – Bonfire (Torch) | 
|
| Dark | Revenant – Field of the Mists (Hammer) | 
|
The most common ones would be water, lightning, fire, ice, and smoke.
What are Combo Finishers?
Combo Finishers are abilities, that apart from their basic usage, grant special effects when performed on or through Combo Fields. Those finishers also have different types just like fields, and the end result effect that you will get depends on the type of both field and finisher.
Important note: If two or more fields are overlapping, then your finisher will interact with the earliest field that you entered. Moreover, if your field will be prioritized over any field that other players place on top of yours.
Combo Finisher types
As I mentioned before, there are multiple finisher types, and they are as follows:
- Blast finishers – The effect will be applied to all allies or enemies surrounding the field.
- Leap finishers – The effect will either affect you or a single foe you’re targeting.
- Projectile finishers – The effect will be applied to either the targeted enemy or allies surrounding the field.
- Whirl finishers – This finisher causes multiple projectiles to shoot out from different directions.
Putting them together
When combing a Finisher and a Field together, you will end up with a “Combo Effect” that will either be spread out to all enemies or allies around the field, or to single targets, depending on the combination. A complete list of Combo Effects can be seen below.
Some of the names in the table are changed to make things easier, for example, Life Steal Bolts are really called Leeching Bolts, and Confusion Bolts are called Confounding Bolts.
| Field | Blast finisher (Area) | Leap finisher (Target) | Projectile finisher (Target) | Whirl finisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | Healing | Healing (Boon) | Regeneration (Boon) | Healing Bolts |
| Poison | Weakness | Weakness (Condition) | Poison (Condition) | Poison Bolts |
| Smoke | Stealth | Stealth (Boon) | Blindness (Condition) | Blinding Bolts |
| Light | Condition Cleanse | Light Aura | Removes a Condition | Condition Removing Bolts |
| Lightning | Swiftness | Daze | Vulnerability (Condition) | Vulnerability Bolts |
| Ice | Frost Aura | Frost Aura | Chill (Condition) | Chilling Bolts |
| Ethereal | Chaos Aura | Chaos Aura | Confusion (Condition) | Confusion Bolts |
| Fire | Fire Aura | Fire Aura | Burning (Condition) | Burning Bolts |
| Dark | Blindness | Dark Aura | Life stealing | Life Steal Bolts |
Some bolts from Whirl Finishers are not guaranteed to apply the effect, and this can be seen on the tooltip of the skill.
Here is an example of a Fire field into a Blast finisher combo.
Here is another example of a Lightning field into a Projectile finisher combo.
That’s everything there is to know on Combos in Guild Wars 2, now go to the training golem, and start practicing your combos, and showcase those skills to your guildies.
