Guild Wars 2

Everybody knows it ~ the question is why? I was just fighting Level 21 Plush Griffons in Snowden Drifts, and the stupid things have about 6,000 hp at least.. As I see it, the world presents are just one big fail, everyone just runs in ~ grabs the gifts and then runs away.

They’re not solo content. I’m sorry, but you should bring a friend or two to fight them, as the devs have commented a few times. This is very much true when you’re in the lower level areas without higher tiered gear, all skills unlocked, and all trait points (stat perks) unlocked.

Wait till you run into L69 mobs when you’re in a L15 area.

Because getting them tagged to other mobs is too easy and would make them die way too quickly. Though, i agree that their defences might be in the top layer somewhere. Should have watched them take on the kraits in the middle of each borderland. They could practically take capture the place by themselves.

Seriously?

If you combined all the HP of those Griffs…. /mind blown

If you read the thread about how to kill the dolls, you will find some really good information. The trick is to not do direct damage. If anyone played GW Prophesies:

Remember Glint? Fight them like that and they go down brilliantly

I will work on my lowbie toons tomorrow to see about different builds, but here;s my Necro:

Spite: 10→ Spiteful Spirit
Curses: 5
Death: 20→ Minion Master→ Death Shiver
Blood: 30→ Blood Thirst→ Vampiric Master→ Fetid Consumption
Soul Reaping: 5

Weapon: Staff
Heal: Consume Conditions
Utilities: Shadow Fiend, Bone Fiend, Bone Minions
Elite: Flesh Golem

Staff is “Silence” with Sup rune of Demon Summoning..fun, but hardly a necessity
L 80 crafted Exotics with Sup Rune of the Mad King set. Those birds are kitten badkitten, and with FG 40 second CD, that means you can summon them every 45 seconds. Switch that out with Death Shroud for every other box, or use both if you get in a pinch. I didn’t die once tonight..as opposed to yesterday, when I died almost every time I tried to fight.

Dodge out of the red circles the Ventari cast, and don’t hit the dolls directly if you are debuffed with confusion, or you’ll just kill yourself. Those Dolls should be chanting : “Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself, neener, neener, neener”, lmao.

I’ve been soloing them ok with my level 25 Guardian. I also was able to solo previous days’ content with a level 25 Engineer. The only ones I just can’t reasonably take down are the Dolls, they apply too much confusion, heal too fast, they’re just impossible if you don’t have just the right options available. The Griffons are no trouble though. They seem to hit pretty hard, but they don’t do anything fancy like the Ventari or Dolls, and they like to group together for AoEs.

With my Guardian I’ve been using Greatsword, the shout that mega-buffs you, the one that regen/protects you, and the phantom sword. My tactic is to summon the sword, drop the GS4 field on the box, open the box, run in, grab the presents, GS5, Buffshout, GS5, GS3, GS2, GS1, GS4, and basically with the Griffons I just backpeddle while swinging away at them until they die, using my heals as necessary.

The Skritt are definitely the easiest, then the Charr, then the Griffons, then the Ventari, then the Dolls. When in doubt, if you keep getting killed, remember that you always have the option to hit and run. Pop the box, grab the visible presents, and get the heck out of there. You’ll get 1-3 level appropriate presents for your troubles, have very little chance of dying (unless it’s bugged and is spawning way high level enemies, in which case, don’t be an idiot and just get out of there), and all you’ll be missing is some XP and a slight chance of getting an additional box or two, but most of the time you only get a few cogs or something.

Here’s how I do it:

1) Approach present, hit F, get blown back
2) Run in, collect present(s)
3) Dodge roll
4) Dodge roll
5) Run away

moirweyn.9872:

Here’s how I do it:

1) Approach present, hit F, get blown back
2) Run in, collect present(s)
3) Dodge roll
4) Dodge roll
5) Run away

Run away ?! Never
I’m a MM necro , got alt bomber engineer too. I can solo all of them ( dolls , griffons and soldiers ) at once without any problem.

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

Seriously?

If you combined all the HP of those Griffs…. /mind blown

Aww they all just want a hug.

moirweyn.9872:

Here’s how I do it:

1) Approach present, hit F, get blown back
2) Run in, collect present(s)
3) Dodge roll
4) Dodge roll
5) Run away

Thats what I do lol but defeats the purpose of the mobs, hence the gifts being a fail really. There just isn’t any reason for the mobs to be insanely overpowered, I actually believe Anet can’t balance new mobs into the game properly, look at the Lost Shores Karka event with the mobs there being overpowered too.

moirweyn.9872:

Here’s how I do it:

1) Approach present, hit F, get blown back
2) Run in, collect present(s)
3) Dodge roll
4) Dodge roll
5) Run away

Yup. If someone else is there, I always stick around to help, but if I’m on my own, I don’t bother. Killing the mobs just isn’t worth it.

I understand that they’re not ‘solo content’, but I won’t make my friends run around maps with me to open a couple of presents.

Laufey.5129:

I understand that they’re not ‘solo content’, but I won’t make my friends run around maps with me to open a couple of presents.

But many of us can solo them easily .
No offense

Hey Tsukasa, your inventory is full.

Actually they are ‘Solo’ content btw.

Here’s how I do it as Thief:

1) Approach present, interact with it & get blown back
2) Blinding Power & haul kitten to safe distance away fr toys
3) Scorpion ‘Get over HERE!’ Wire to reel in 1 toy at a time
4) melee Chucky clone to death
5) repeat step 3 till no more mob left
6) grab gift & loot the bodies
7) change into fresh pair of undies (if required)

I’ve been leveling my thief (d/p and sb) and can’t think of what ‘not direct damage’ would be be (poison field I guess?). Kiting and AoE work great on all of them except the dolls. Those are some hearty little broads.

edit: haven’t found scorpion wire effective in single-pulling.

This made me laugh, sorry.
Nope, they aren’t OP.

Voltar.8574:

edit: haven’t found scorpion wire effective in single-pulling.

It’s abt picking out the one that is furthest away from others. Works fine for me

Strejda Tom.6108:

This made me laugh, sorry.
Nope, they aren’t OP.

Those dolls sure are. The amount of effort required to kill these brats on a lower level player is insane. L 80 players have gear, traits, and skills that lowers don’t, so it’s far easier for them, and still a challenge.
Tricky kittens.

Voltar.8574:

I’ve been leveling my thief (d/p and sb) and can’t think of what ‘not direct damage’ would be be (poison field I guess?). Kiting and AoE work great on all of them except the dolls. Those are some hearty little broads.

edit: haven’t found scorpion wire effective in single-pulling.

I tried that this morning on my L14 thief, and my experience on any class is that the mobs are tightly linked. I only had the birds so far, and they went down pretty easily. You can grab one with the wire and get him down before the others rally. That makes them a lot easier. The dolls are the only ones you need to worry about avoiding direct damage, and then, only if you are in confusion status. Disable your auto-attack so you can control your hits better, and kite/heal/stealth through the debuffs.

Try grabbing the box first, then run away to lose aggro. After that you can lay shrapnel and try using pistol and shortbow skills with poison attack. Just watch your debuffs.

My lvl 80 ranger has absolutely no issue. Rampage as One + Barrage and then all i got to do is grab the present and pick up drops. Also a trap or 2 on the present helps alot as well. I have never had an issue with them but my toon is lvl 80 and all.

No issue with them …. except with the darned devil princess dolls.
Best technique there when I open box and see those little princesses is run in the opposite direction ;-)

Stephen King fulfilled his medical marijuana prescription and went to work for the GW2 development team. The Princess Dolls are the stuff of pot-induced nightmares.

Someone on the design team is laughing their kitten off at these threads and the frustrations of gamers. All this hell for an ugly sweater. Right.

Have to agree with the OP. I’m Lv80 and even I’ve struggled with soloing the Ventari early on. I can see how that’d get pretty discouraging.

loneknight.8425:

Here’s how I do it as Thief:

1) Approach present, interact with it & get blown back
2) Blinding Power & haul kitten to safe distance away fr toys
3) Scorpion ‘Get over HERE!’ Wire to reel in 1 toy at a time
4) melee Chucky clone to death
5) repeat step 3 till no more mob left
6) grab gift & loot the bodies
7) change into fresh pair of undies (if required)

By the time you get to your 3th toy, the gifts have despawned.

The toys are to hard to kill, for far to little reward and can often take so long your gifts will have despawned.
Hence why its better to grab gift and just run away. There is no possitive incentive to kill them, only negative. And then someone else is going to run into 1, 2 or even 3 packs of these little demons stacked together.

Even with level scaling, they’re all the more irritating the lower level you are. A pack of mobs who individually have an obnoxious amount of hit points. At least the around the level 30 mark, the dolls, ventari and golems (all ranged attackers) are simply not worth the time and effort it takes to kill. Better to grab the ground presents and peg it.

The Demonic Spirit.3157:

Laufey.5129:

I understand that they’re not ‘solo content’, but I won’t make my friends run around maps with me to open a couple of presents.

But many of us can solo them easily .
No offense

None taken. I CAN solo them as well, it just takes me too long for me to consider it to be worth it. So I run.

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

moirweyn.9872:

Here’s how I do it:

1) Approach present, hit F, get blown back
2) Run in, collect present(s)
3) Dodge roll
4) Dodge roll
5) Run away

Thats what I do lol but defeats the purpose of the mobs, hence the gifts being a fail really. There just isn’t any reason for the mobs to be insanely overpowered, I actually believe Anet can’t balance new mobs into the game properly, look at the Lost Shores Karka event with the mobs there being overpowered too.

That’s a major hint for vertical gears progression! However, most players didn’t see it.

Its a known bug that some of the enemies from world presents spawn at a higher level than they’re supposed to. When they spawn at the right level, its not that tough to kill a whole group solo.

Solo – not worth the effort for the loot they drop. And if you don’t kill them fast enough, the presents are gone. Some areas you can’t kite very far out without dragging in more opponents.

Far faster and easier to farm Karkas; when they do drop, at least I get useful drops that go into my collection.

A snowball fight is festive, as are the decorations or building a snowman. Being swarmed by monsters that can 1 shot you, outrun you and have greater range isn’t what I would call festive. But then I’m old fashioned.

I do agree they are way OP, especially the dolls and the golems.

The mobs are maybe for some classes soloable, but for many they aren’t. And since everybody is doing Fractals and no one is in open world anymore, its really hard to find ‘someone to group up with’.

Grab and run is what I’ve started doing unless I feel like fighting the mobs just for kicks. Besides the skritt they are tough but since you can just grab the present and run I don’t mind that.

If you grab the present and run – you miss potential additional present(s) that you might loot from bodies. There is absolutely nothing hard in killing any of them.

The gryphons can easily be kited to death.

The skritt and toy soldiers are a little trickier, but still fairly simple.

The dolls, vantari and golems, with their ranged attacks are completely awful.

I don’t have that much trouble with my level 80, but at lower levels they’re an absolute nightmare. Doable, but not worth the faff.

The only ones I have trouble with are the Dolls, generally with them I either grab the present and run or see if I can get a 3 way fight going.

Only fought Golems once and it ended with my death so still not to sure about them but they do seem to have been taught how to fight by Risen from Cursed Shore.

I have to agree that the Dolls and the mini golems are the worse for lower levels. I got a 29 charr warrior and I can get the rest of the toys down pat but when it comes down to it this isn’t a solo fest for the other two.

Yea, good luck with the perma-stun golems. I no longer open any presents.

Unless there is someone around to help, fighting the toy mobs are just not worth it.

RUN AWAY!!!!
(after grabbing the loot, of course…..)

i remember when I was in the charr noob zone and i got 1 hit kill by lv 30 skitt
i’m only lv15-16 (max level in that zone) lol and its so funny no body notice the lv of those mobs and just come and die 1 by 1…. lol

These presents are a fail – they sit untouched on the landscape and rarely get opened. The mobs they spawned should have been made soloable and by all classes. Just what is there in this festival for solo players?

I can fight them easier in the higher level zones than lower level ones. I think they don’t scale down well. Lornar’s Pass upwards in level works about right for me. I haven’t tried them since the golems were added but I can solo the rest of them with my ranger.

1) Lay down 3 traps on the present
2) Hit rampage as one elite for stability
3) Open present
4) Barrage
5) Switch to shortbow

I’m using the wolf and the bear pets. Before I started using the stability I had a lot of trouble with the princess dolls. It seems using that and staying close in and getting the damage going right away made the difference. If I forget to hit my stability, I have to run from the dolls and then either try and pick them off one by one or just let them despawn.

We’re mainly talking lower lvl areas. The ppl who don’t have elites, or all their skills slots mainly, so they don’t have all the tools to combat them effectively, so no they are NOT Solo content if we can’t kill them in less than a group of 3 in a starter zone.

The ppl who insist they are soloable are talking the higher lvl areas, or are simply not lvling/making a toon during the event. There appears to be a problem with the scaling, as they far outmuscle and outlive any other normal mobs in the area. I feel like we’re punished right now for making or lvling a new toon during this event. Which is a shame, as I was looking to get some skins for some toons.

Why are people scared? I can solo all these with my Thief and a Short Bow. If you play smart, learn to dodge, and use hit and run tactics when your HP is low, you can win too!

You thought the dolls were bad, try the golems. There’s been several times when I have lost control of my character for somewhere between 5 and 10 seconds. They pump one disable ability after another. I’ve even sat back and watched them go after several waves of risen without dying.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Why are people scared? I can solo all these with my Thief and a Short Bow. If you play smart, learn to dodge, and use hit and run tactics when your HP is low, you can win too!

Oh yes? Half a dozen of these pop up. You have half a dozen dodges do you? Those golems stun over and over and over and over. Even if you have a means of overcoming a stun (which a lot of us don’t at low levels), it’s on a fortnights cooldown – or might as well be considering the way they hit you over and over with it.

I solo them too, nothing hard about it.

We all wondered who these gifts were addressed to….apparently they are to be opened by the manly, uber strong godlike “I got this” people who can solo them, and not the rest of us.

Well get crackin’ boys, there are a LOT of unopened presents around the world. No one touches them.

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

Seriously?

If you combined all the HP of those Griffs…. /mind blown

Well there we go. You are a Thief.
Pretty much the only class that can’t handle more than 1 “strong” mob at a time, except maybe if you play a “i have no skills so i spam D/D 3 all day long” build.

Better get used to being weak and not being able to handle content except with 1 or 2 no brainer builds, since.. well, let’s say Anet and the peeps don’t like Thieves.

Like the Karka and the Orrians, they are a collection of all the things that make combat against any enemy slow and boring.

Homing projectiles that hit you even if you dodge, Vulcan machine gun CCs, too high health pools, too much armor, effects and projectiles that bypass protections of all sorts, condition and boon spam, condition removal spam.

It’s like:
“Kids, here are the tools you can use to play the game.
And here are the monsters, against which these tools will not work.
Have fun!”

Seriously…