Guild Wars 2

The mystery boxes no longer spawn skritt…but a much harder mob. Why? I am level 80, fully geared with exotics and i cannot dodge these things! Every shot with my bow gives me damage.

Why did Anet change the spawn???

Anyone else notice this?

Yeah, there are Toy Ventari inside some of the boxes now and they are very hard to kill. I end up dying about half the time, so I probably won’t bother opening many.

yes i have noticed the same problem….

One of the earlier post from one of the moderators hinted at a change in the mobs that would spawn. I have run into a group of toys as well and did find the toys hard, taking out one at a time and running away to heal.
Maybe anet asumed more players would be on the packages so you would have some help to take them down.

Aha! I knew I wasn’t going insane.
Yeah, I stumbled ‘pon one in the Norn starting area, I couldn’t even kill two on my level 3 toon lol.

The hell was anet thinking…. retaliation + freeze? was bad enough with the skritt, now they had to make it worse?

You need those mobs for the monthly…

One bad design makes the entire event look bad. What a shame.

leveling up an alt at lvl 15 i get 5 lvl 14 ranged mobs with aoe and a ton of hit points repair bill for wintersday

lisamee.2408:

The mystery boxes no longer spawn skritt…but a much harder mob. Why? I am level 80, fully geared with exotics and i cannot dodge these things! Every shot with my bow gives me damage.

Why did Anet change the spawn???

i have done them on a 40 rouge and an 80 engineer, they are challenging but not that hard tbh, once there is one other body there it becomes quite easy, not sure what the big deal is.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

They will continue to change throughout the week as Tixx produces the different toys. There’s also a random chance to see a toy (or skritt) from an earlier day. I’m sorry that these are currently too difficult, have you tried tackling them with an extra person or two?

So we can all get one shotted? No offense but I think you need to tone down the difficulty on these guys…. In his workshop they were all right because we were scaled up, this feels like you took them directly from the work shop, plopped them into the mysterious present and so screwed anyone in low lvl areas.

Siccing level 31 creatures on people who are downleveled to 11 or 12 is not a challenge, it’s just mean. I opened a present with 4 level 31 creatures in it and me and the 4 other people who were there all got one-shotted. It’s just not possible. 3 of us were engineers and even laid all of our possible turrets out to try and distract them so we could hit them and we still hardly even got a shot in before killed.

Wait what?

I thought they were WAY easy to kill all at the same time, just they have a lot of HP

Maybe my necro is just to beastly.

epicsmooth.7825:

Wait what?

I thought they were WAY easy just take a while to kill.

Maybe my necro is just to beastly.

Seems like a scaling issue with these mobs.

I’m on my level 55 Mesmer, downkicked to level 24 in Dissea Plateau. I was doing an event when some random person ran in and activated a present nearby.

Toy Ventari spawned. They’re level 69.

I don’t… think that’s reasonable. Even if I find some other people that are merely downscaled and not on level for the zone, level 69 mobs in what’s a 15-25 seems like a hell of a bug, made worse by the mob’s gimmicky skills.

Oglaf.1074:

epicsmooth.7825:

Wait what?

I thought they were WAY easy just take a while to kill.

Maybe my necro is just to beastly.

Seems like a scaling issue with these mobs.

I wouldn’t know, since been doing them in frostgorge sound.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

They will continue to change throughout the week as Tixx produces the different toys. There’s also a random chance to see a toy (or skritt) from an earlier day. I’m sorry that these are currently too difficult, have you tried tackling them with an extra person or two?

They’re right on the difficulty, please don’t change a thing. In fact, in EB I ran through a crowd of JQ that were fighting these toys by some gifts….ran through and stole the gifts, downstated a JQ, and then died by them all turning on me. But, it was funny

They were hard but could be taken down with ranged weapons and a lot of moving around in and out of range to regain health if no one else is around. I did have one or two instances where none of my shots affected the health of the one I was shooting so just ran away until they stopped chasing me and then circled back in and started working back on the one furthest from the others. Yeah, died a few times but good challenge on trying to take them out and very satisfying when you masacree the little buggers….

Definitely not fun nor challenging to open one of those mystery boxes and those level 31 Toy Ventari (or Skritt) pop out, especially if you are in a low-level area like Plains of Asford (level 10 area just south west of Ascalonian Catacombs). Made like 4 attempts at them and cost something like >10 silver for wy cost/armor repair.

Actually, they are fairly easy to tackle on a well necromancer

(It is kind of nice to know that my profession rocks something for a change XD)

If you are having problems at lvl 80 with the ventari then you need to be better at this. I have a necro and an engineer at level 80 and they don’t even touch me. Bring a friend along and you can seriously tackle them with even more ease. Didn’t actually think it was an issue.

I am finding places where folk grabbed the gifts and just ran leaving the ventari behind for the next person to deal with. If you are in Timberland Falls and come in via the Talus Waypoint beware. I found two I had to revive because the package is fairly close and I guess they got caught by ventari someone else left behind. We took care of the little beggers and got some nice stuff out of them.

So let me get this straight, “I only damage 1 mob at a time” so its the events fault?

Pro Tip for you, AOE’s and weapons that damage more than one mob are helpful for killing more than 1 mob at a time.

I also noticed that the toys were ridiculously strong.

We had a couple of guild mates doing the starter event to get CoF opened. Someone ran into the mob they were fighting off, opened a gift box and ran off with the gift leaving the mobs from inside the box to add to the mayhem.

They were not amused because that very same person came back when the box spawned again and repeated the exact same action. There are some folks out there who are not sporting at all and tend to enjoy messing things up for other folks.

Its idiots like this that I wish the mob that spawns would just run after and ignore those around them who are not hitting on them.

Suggestion: move the gift boxes away from the event points for the dungeons. Because if the event fails, I understand the dungeon just will not be available and those who came to open it will be forced to wait and try again.

Galk the Bloody.4629:

So let me get this straight, “I only damage 1 mob at a time” so its the events fault?

Pro Tip for you, AOE’s and weapons that damage more than one mob are helpful for killing more than 1 mob at a time.

Please note that all the Toy Ventaris that I found in Fireheart Rise utilized constant Retaliation. I had to switch to heavy condition damage skills to take them out at all.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

They will continue to change throughout the week as Tixx produces the different toys. There’s also a random chance to see a toy (or skritt) from an earlier day. I’m sorry that these are currently too difficult, have you tried tackling them with an extra person or two?

It seems if I’m not the one to open the box, I don’t get a box reward. Furthermore, and maybe this is just unlucky timing of RNG compared with who starts the fight, but it sure seems like I get less presents if I’m not the one starting the thing. Which, even if only a perceived difference, doesn’t seem to lend well to the whole spirit of cooperation thing. Much like the Gift Bringer/Gift Stopper achievement.

Make the presents appear once all the critters are dead. 3-5 per big box. Littered around the ground, and they just stay there like nodes for 10 minutes so even if you get to the present late you can pick one up. I bet you’d find more bands of people running around together to do them, and then difficulty wouldn’t be an issue.

For the difficulty these little buggers are, they should drop precursors.

I found them a lot harder than Skritt though far from impossible. I play melee tank guardian, but its difficult to melee these guys with their constant retal + stacking AOEs. I switched to Scepter / focus when fighting them and its much easier, albeit a tad tedious.

Pro tip: the damn things can swim! And apparently AOE underwater as well, as I found out T_T

Edit: When I run into tools who open and flee, I enjoy messaging them afterwards that the mobs they abandoned dropped xmas weapon skins etc lol

Yeah those toy soldiers were a bit too hard. That is why I just do the jp over and over again.

In some gifts, the toy Ventari are very difficult (constant Retaliation and/or constant AoE) but in others they are “normal” difficulty.

Makes no sense. I was clearing Caledon Forest with a guardian yesterday and ran into both groups – one present held vicious little Ventari and the next held the more normal. And one present held BOTH toy Ventari and skritt (there was a wrapped present inside of a wrapped present) who proceeded to fight each other which was really funny.

Just spent a half hour running around caledon forest opening boxes for the monthly. None of the ventari gave me trouble, and I was solo the entire time save for when occasionally someone else nearby would help out a bit. Didn’t die once – balancing seems fine to me, don’t know what all the fuss is about.

Please don’t make things a walk in the park because a few people who cant play their classes cry on the forums, a challenge is a good thing!

You’re all doing it wrong. I was having a horrible time with it not being able to kill the spawns and dying a lot of the time, so I changed my approach.

Click the present, wait until the bounceback, and interrupts and whatever have finished. Then run in and ignore the mobs and click on the present. It’s very quick and youn don’t take much damage. Then run away from the mobs casting your heal and keep running until you lose aggro.

I don’t care that it’s the cowards way. I now get my presents and don’t die.

Cheers.

i’ve never had issues against these toys, i solo’ed several mystery boxes this morning to quickly finish my monthly, but then i did it on a guardian which is probably why, having Stability up as you open the box helps because you wont be knocked back.

The level 80 toys are tough. 350 damage retaliation on every hit, healing, ranged attack, buff stacking, and they have a lot of HP. They are easily 3 times as hard as the Skrit.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

They will continue to change throughout the week as Tixx produces the different toys. There’s also a random chance to see a toy (or skritt) from an earlier day. I’m sorry that these are currently too difficult, have you tried tackling them with an extra person or two?

If you can guarantee those extra people won’t snag the presents and run off to leave you on your own, that sounds like a smashing idea.

And now “Princess Dolls” Can barely kill them with 3 people, then the drop rate of their loot is junk. It was very fun the first morning….just the skritt and they were dropping about one rare and other goodies every 4 hours at least.

I am guessing the next days nerf will be that we can no longer just run in and steal the present without a fight?

Wtf? I farmed these Ventari toys yesterday on my level 80 thief to complete my monthlies and I didn’t find them to be particularly strong.

In the past I have soloed a champion mob or two. Now I just got my but handed to me by dolls…..

They remind me a LOT of the Fire Elemental, before they changed it. They have that same unlimited distance, with tons of area effect that is almost impossible to avoid.

Princess Dolls – HORROR. I’m geared with master level armor (level 14) and died in 3 seconds after opening a box with level 2 dolls. Tried with a group of THREE of us on a box with level 5 dolls. All of us died in about 5 seconds, and didn’t kill a single doll. So far 7 boxes opened with dolls, 7 deaths. Toy Ventari are actually nicely soloable at lower levels. But those dolls need to be squished. Their awesome regen rate is not much of a help either.

Fairly often there is no gift inside at all, only mobs. Is that intentional?

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

The presents inside the box work the same way that resource nodes do. Everyone can loot them. The major difference is that they disappear shortly after they appear. This may lend to the perception that someone else has taken the present, but I can assure that this has not actually happened.

The trick or treat bags that came out of the haunted doors worked the same way, but no one complained because those doors were prone to zerging.

My guild mates and I went on a present hunt yesterday and had a blast. Yes some of the mobs were difficult, some easy, but I missed seeing two different groups fighting one another. That would have been a sight.

I can attest to the fact that, if you are close enough, you have to use your sprint to get there before the present despawns. Would like to see the spawn timer increased a bit though.

We did run into a box dropping on top of another box we were just about to open. What a surprise that was. AOEs work really well on the mobs and yes, even the difficult ones pose a great challenge.

Some of them I tried soloing late last night and ended up having to rally because they came close to defeating me. But what I ended up doing was jumping up and doing a roll out once the knock back was done and managed to kite them a bit before getting back into the fight.

Got a sling shot skin, old sweaters, socks and hats. Not much else unfortunately. In all the time we did this present hunt I was the only one who did not get any dyes or specialty things. I got a couple of regular dyes I already had when I was soloing these later, but not anything else.

Collecting the sweaters, socks and hats to see what I can get later. Some of the presents I plan to get going forward, I may not open right away just to see what happens later.

Markeh.8109:

Just spent a half hour running around caledon forest opening boxes for the monthly. None of the ventari gave me trouble, and I was solo the entire time save for when occasionally someone else nearby would help out a bit. Didn’t die once – balancing seems fine to me, don’t know what all the fuss is about.

Please don’t make things a walk in the park because a few people who cant play their classes cry on the forums, a challenge is a good thing!

Caledon is a low level area and the toys there are reasonable for the level (unless you get one of the bugged presents that spawn toys 20 or 30 levels above you). However, in high level areas, the toy ventari and the princess dolls are waaaay “overtuned”. Which is to say, they’re OP. Six toys all spreading ranged aoe damage and all having multiple buffs and retaliation=dead pc.

Stop being wimps! The ventari are more difficult than skritt but not impossible. Some ppl give up too easily. What I found a problem was that I was aggroing everything else in the area so had to take out other stuff first but some times they were re-spawning before I’d finished the ventari which was crap. Also more presents would be nice. afterall it is Wintersday.