Can somebody explain combo fields? There is something I just don't quite understand.

[Vreely.9527]

I play a Ranger, and I have never figured out what combo fields do for my build - so I keep ignoring them. Now I'm hoping one of your more experienced players can shed some light on it for me. I finally buckled down and did some tests.I found a nice safe area where I could target some non-agressive mobs in PvE in and then laid down a Poison field (Vipers Nest trap). My understanding is that if I fire a projectile finisher while I am standing "In this field" or if I fire it "through this field" then I would put a 2s poison stack on the target mob. So I fire a point blank shot while I'm standing in it.Nothing.I then made another field and fired a point blank shot through it. Still nothing. I tried with a Fire field (Flame trap). Still nothing. I tried with the hunters shot, the quick shot, the concussion shot, the crippling shot. All in the field, all behind it. Still nothing.For reference, all these shots are projectile finishers for the Short or Long Bow. The target mob is not immune from the poison (or burning) damage.

Clearly I just don't understand how this works. So I reach out to the community. Can somebody please explain to me how to use combo fields? The wiki apparently is not enough for me.

Thanks! From what I've read, you guys have this game down to a science; eventually I won't die constantly if I learn enough from you :)

[Artemis Thuras.8795]

projectile finisher requires the projectile to go through the field.Indeed if you had the trap active, you should have gotten burning or poison from the respective traps.

Something I am wondering ( and I apologise if this comes across as condescending), is did the trap trigger? aka, did flame trap actually sprout flames?

Also, I can't remember off the top of my head which of those skills are guaranteed projectile finishers, and which are only a % chance. Skills with a %chance to be a finisher are only sometimes a finisher. Which may account for why some of your tests didn't yield a combo effect.

Another thing that may ( though unlikely in your tests) affect it, is height. a projectile could in theory shoot clear above ( and therefore outside) the combo field. ( the way I wrapped my head around this is that aoes are not 2D circles, but 3D spheres. An effect much more easily seen with aoes used underwater. it's also more obvious with some skill animations).

There are a lot of nuances with combos, but for a simple 1 finisher + 1 field test they shouldn't really matter.

[BunjiKugashira.9754]

The only reason you didn't get a combo that makes sense to me right now is, that your traps didn't trigger. Ranger traps only activate their combo fields once they are triggered by an enemy or neutral creature.

A skill that places an easier to experiment with combo field is Bonfire. It places it's combo field right after using it. Just weapon-swap to your bow and try your combos.

[Vreely.9527]

Super helpful! Thanks guys! Yes, indeed, the trap was not triggered. It was not clear to me that the trap needed to be triggered since the white circle was on the ground I just assumed that it was a combo field. It is things like this that are not clear to new players like me.

Once the trap triggers, then it is a big harder to see the finishers since the trap itself puts poison (or burning) stacks on. However, I did verify that the projectile finisher increased the count.

Again - thanks for clearing this up.

[Locust.6293]

It's actually quite easy to identify combo fields, including what type they are, at a glance. If the skill produces only a white circle, it is not a combo field. (Eg. Unactivated traps, Elementalist's Fire Staff 5) A combo field, though, will have a colored circle with effects that indicate the type. For example, once that poison trap is activated the circle border should go green and have an effect resembling poison gas. Likewise, a fire field will turn orange and have a flame-like effect on the border. Chaos, Light, Water, etc all have their own colors and effects. So experiment a bit more to learn the differences. Then you'll be able to identify them on the fly and it will be easy to take advantage of them even when other players have dropped them.

I'm not aware of any graphics or interface settings that disable these colors and effects, so i think you should be able to see them no matter what your current settings are.