You need the value of the first promise at the end of the chain - what do you do?

pattern1.js

var p1value;
var final = promise1
  .then(function (r) {
    p1value = r;
    return getPromise2(r);
  })
  .then(function (p2value) {
    return finalResult(p1Value, p2Value)
  });

pattern2.js

var final = promise1
  .then(function (p1value) {
    return [p1value, getPromise2(p1value)]
  })
  .spread(function (p1value, p2value) { 
    // spread is a Q function - alternative is to do function (args) and expand manually
    // careful: do other libraries (Promises/A+) expand an array to unwrap all promises?
    return finalResult(p1value, p2value);
  });

pattern3.js

var final = promise1
  .then(function (p1value) {
    return getPromise2(p1value)
  })
  .then(function (p2value) {
    return processValue(p2Value);
  })
  .then(function (processedValue) {
    return [promise1, processedValue]; // use the promise - don't closure its value
  });
  .spread(function (p1value, processedValue) { 
    return finalResult(p1value, processedValue);
  });

pattern4.js

var promise2 = promise1
  .then(function (p1value) {
    return getPromise2(p1value);
  });

var promise3 = promise1
  .then(function (p1value) {
    return getPromise3(p1value);
  });

var final = Q.all([promise1, promise2, promise3])
  .spread(function (p1value, p2value, p3value) {
    return finalResult(p1Value, p2value, p3value);
  });