Downed
“You are downed. Fight to survive.
— In-game description
A character enters downed mode when their health drops below zero. Weakened, but not yet defeated, a downed character may continue fighting with a special set of downed skills—and might rally to regain their life.
Contents
Overview[edit]
Mechanics[edit]
Guild Wars 2 has three separate life states: alive, downed, and defeated. When a character is downed, they fall to the ground and lose their movement but gain triple their base health and a chance to fight to survive. The character's weapons and skills are replaced with downed skills for their profession. (A downed ranger gets the ranger profession's downed skills.) Downed characters cannot dodge, nor can they move or evade attacks unless their downed skills enable them to do so. Health while downed steadily drains at a rate of 2.5% per second and suffers enemy damage as normal.
When a character loses all of their downed health, they become defeated and lose all their available actions. A defeated character may wait to be revived or teleport to the waypoint of their choice.
Being downed is accompanied by visual and audio effects like screen fading, blood-tinted vision, and bass dampened sound.
Drowning[edit]
Drowning is the state of being downed while underwater, with some differences:
- A drowning character can move.
- Drowning characters have their profession's drowning skills.
- The downed text prompt changes from "Fight To Survive!" to "Swim to the Surface!".
Downed skills[edit]
Each profession has three specific downed skills and a recovery skill common to all professions called Bandage. The first skill is an autoattack inflicting either direct damage or conditions. The second skill is a defense skill based on profession, with examples like the warrior's Hammer Toss or elementalist's Vapor Form. The third skill becomes available after a cooldown period and offers special utility—for instance, a warrior can use Vengeance to fight normally for a short time while an elementalist can use Grasping Earth to immobilize and damage a foe.
The fourth skill, Bandage, allows the player to channel a healing effect. Using another skill or suffering direct damage will interrupt the heal and place the ability on a short cooldown.
- Downed skills from masteries
In PvE mode, training the Spectral Aid mastery gives access to a fifth downed skill: Signet of Agony. Like other signets, it has a passive effect and an activatable effect. Its passive effect grants lifesteal to downed attacks, while its active is a channeled attack that gains increased range the longer it is charged. Spectral Aid is not available in raids, World vs World, or PvP.
Recovery, rally, and reviving[edit]
Defeating a monster or another player rallies the character, instantly reviving them from downed state. (See:kill effect. Killing an ambient creature will not rally a player.) Healing to full health, such as from the Bandage skill, will also revive the character. Other players can rapidly heal a downed character with the revive skill. To revive a downed character, move next to them and press the interact key (default: 'F'). Direct damage interrupts revive attempts. Note that players can revive both downed and fully defeated characters. Whether from defeated or downed state, characters revive with 25% health.
Leveling up by any means also rallies the player.
Downed penalty[edit]
Successive downed states weaken a character further. Each downed state inflicts one point of downed penalty, reducing downed health by 25% per point. Downed penalty lasts for one minute and stacks by intensity. Holding four points of downed penalty (100% health loss) will instantly defeat a player.
Finishing enemy players[edit]
- See also: Finish
In World vs World and Structured PvP, downed enemy players can be finished for an immediate kill. When near a downed enemy, the game displays the message, "FINISH THEM!! [F]". Pressing the interact key (default: 'F') begins the finishing action which takes about 3 seconds to execute. Moving or being disabled will interrupt this action, but taking damage will not.
The channel time of "FINISH THEM!!" does not change with the quickness boon or the slow condition.
Related traits[edit]
Strength of the Fallen - Lose conditions at a set time interval. Health degenerates more slowly while downed.
Vengeful Return - Vengeance has an increased chance to rally and gain more health and endurance when you rally.
Jade Echo - Use Jade Winds when you are downed. Deal increased damage while downed.
Serpent's Touch - Stealing inflicts poison. While in the downed state, your attacks apply poison.-
Concealed Defeat - Create a smoke screen when downed. Deception abilities recharge faster. 
Death's Embrace - Inflict vulnerability when you strike a foe below the health threshold. Deal more damage while downed.-
Last Rites - As long as you are not downed, allies near you do not bleed out while downed. Gain Healing Power based on your current health. -
Fear of Death - Your fear effects have increased durations. Inflict fear on foes when you are downed. -
Death Nova - When you or one of your minions is downed, create a Lesser Poison Cloud. Summon a jagged horror when you kill a foe. 
Persisting Flames - Executing blast finishers on fire fields grant fury. Fire fields last longer. Create a lava font when you go down.
Related consumables[edit]
| Level | Duration | Item | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 10m | Rabbit Offering | +20% Downed health |
| 0 | 30m | Bowl of Salsa | +20% Downed health |
| 15 | 30m | Bowl of Bean Salad | +30% Downed health |
| 40 | 30m | Bowl of Avocado Salsa | +50% Downed health +6% Damage while downed |
| 45 | 30m | Bowl of Chickpea Salad | +60% Downed health +10% Damage while downed |
| 70 | 30m | Bowl of Mango Salsa | +80% Downed health +14% Damage while downed |
| 80 | 30m | Bowl of Fire Salsa | +100% Downed health +20% Damage while downed |
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- The downed system does not unlock until level 5. Lower level characters that lose all health are defeated instantly. The second slot unlocks at level 7 and third slot at level 9.
Trivia[edit]
- The "FINISH THEM!!" message is a reference to the Mortal Kombat video game series where the announcer says the same line as a player delivers the FATALITY.
- Prior to the September 2014 Feature Pack, all characters regardless of level had access to the downed state.
- The "downed state" is conceptually similar to a state in the Left4Dead series of games, and may have been based upon that functionality.
