Aside from the level 31 spawns in Plains of Ashford, which were already mentioned, I didn’t have any problems with the toy soldiers yesterday, but the dolls are just working me over. Picking them off one at a time with ranged weapons takes so long the gift box usually disappears. Sucks for solo players.
Die Historic on the Fury Road [MMFR]
Underground Salad Association [USA]
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.
Is it possible to extend the time a little i found quite a few times by the time i had beaten down the toy zerg the present had gone, not a lot of people round late at night to help out and not a lot of people interested in a tough fight for an old sock as a reward, if i wasnt saving for the toy sword i probably would leave them as well.
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.
Just had a change of heart after my first encounter with the dolls. Way too hard for lvl 30. I got killed quickly. rezzed & came back & wipe them but all I got for my trouble was a gear & it cost 1.7 to rez. Sux! It’s supposed to be a festival, a good time.
The princess dolls are the mobs you are talking about… and the reason you are being damaged every time you attack is because they stack a condition called “confusion” on you… this is not a “too difficult” problem… this is a “learn to play” problem… as harsh as that sounds, it is accurate. Start paying attention to the area of your skill bar that provides feedback about what boons and conditions what effects you are currently under, and then take appropriate action. I.E. Try using a condition removal ability… every class has them.
Best plan of attack is once the present is opened, even if you get knocked down, just run in and press the F key repeatedly to pick up all the stuff then start whacking on the mobs.
This method beats the despawn timer quite nicely.
That actually works as you run through them if plan to kite. You not only pick up the present, but some other drops as well that might be lying around. Once you finish your mobs off, go around and pick up all the shinnies they have left behind. Usually there are at least a few.
While I understand that you can run, hide, remove condition, and pick them off one by one…. I have found this to be unproductive. If you take too long the present despawns and they aren’t dropping that much themselves. So the Princess dolls are a waste of time to me. The skritt and ventari aren’t too difficult for me to kill with my level 80.
I’m not sure the Princess dolls are scaling down very well.
I would suggest that you have the presents persist much longer to give time to mop up the dolls and any other mobs in the area before they despawn.
Edit: Ok, I tried the grab the present and run tactic. I got the dolls to separate a little and gradually got the lot of them. I suggest that you take out all mobs in the area first just so you don’t end up with them as well as the dolls.
It’s a kitten conspiracy. Kittens gonna be kittens. All is vain!
Is there any way to deal with perma retaliation? I can’t figure out any way to fight them without killing myself.
It helps with groups, but of about 6 that I came across, only 1 of them had another player around to help. Everyone is doing the activities in the city or FotM.
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 does that mean by the end of the week we will need to run around with a raid group to do these presents?
genius design is genius. were not asking to solo Jormag but we should be able to solo these kitten presents, these events are supposed to be silly fun things not fricken raid bosses.
Oddly, the princess dolls freeze my game up. I have to x out or I just stare at a frozen screen. Not sure what’s going on. I don’t have that problem with the skritt or ventari.
Edit: Well the princess dolls have caused my game to lag out 3 times in a row now. Think I’ll skip the presents for now. Is anyone else having that problem?
Found out it was just the zone or perhaps the game disconnecting. Thought it was those evil dolls. :P
It’s a kitten conspiracy. Kittens gonna be kittens. All is vain!
The Chucky..err…i mean princess dolls need to be toned down ALOT. They are a mini kill squad. Kinda sad that when i open one of the presents and skritt pop out i give a big sigh of relief.
So nobody else sees something wrong with the whole thing?
Oh and the doors from halloween were zerged comment? They are zerged here. Difference is now you get a 4 sec knockback and knockdown, with big AOE mobs and a “gift” that despawns sily quick.
So nobody else sees something wrong with the whole thing?
Oh and the doors from halloween were zerged comment? They are zerged here. Difference is now you get a 4 sec knockback and knockdown, with big AOE mobs and a “gift” that despawns sily quick.
Oh, c’mon. Everyone knows high risk – low to no reward is extremely popular. I mean, look at all the players who fight champion events versus all…err…wait…
Hey I just met you – And this is crazy –
But here’s my body – So rez me maybe?
I suggest that you take out all mobs in the area first just so you don’t end up with them as well as the dolls.
Sometimes those mobs can help. Playing a thief and when solo, I vastly prefer for lots of other mobs to be clustered around. I would be near down, quickly tag those other mobs and then stealth, leaving those mobs to turn on the gift spawn. They help wear down the skritt/toys and give me a bit more time to recover and heal.
Well it must be nice being a thief. For the rest of us who actually have to deal with taking damage…
Use stability before opening the present, smash F until it’s picked up, use any kind of knockdown/knockback, speed away.
I can solo the skritt ones. Possibly the dolls but it would take forever and there’s no point. The Ventari are the ones i have the most trouble with as they have retaliation. Cannot beat alone..
It’s obviously a bug in low level zones, hopefully fixed soon.
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?
Yes, I have tried fighting them with multiple people and we all die. It isn’t, as one player posted earlier, purely a “L2P” issue. They stack boons on each other and regen health at an impossible rate, while still dealing absurd amounts of damage to all those nearby. I saw a group of five players (all appropriately leveled) blowing every cooldown and ability they could, and everyone died. These things need to be nerfed – it is not an issue with the players, or these problems would not be so universal. So far I had really enjoyed the event, but these dolls are an absolute horror.
The boxes should be renamed “Open this and you die”. The Princess Dolls are an instant death.
Not instant – they usually start unorganized espically if you drop a trap or a turret. Run in and grab the drops So they dont evaporate while you fight, run back and start to fight, trying to isolate.
If there is not drop, usually you can get socks or something from the dolls.
I try to aggro something near by so if I go down I have something easier to kill than a doll. works sometimes, but not always.
Haven’t noticed the over leveled toys – maybe I died too fast. :-(
Usually if you have 2 or 3 people you can kill them. not hard to pair up – ive done more grouping for present hunts than ever before.
“That’s more than I really needed to know.” – Adventurer in LA
I haven’t had a problem on either of my 80s with the Ventari’s.
I have killed them easily on my Warrior (Fully CoF Armor, Signet GS/Rifle Build)
and on my Guardian (Toughness/Healing Power gear, Scepter & Shield/Staff build)
And before someone says ‘were you with a zerg group?! that’d be why they weren’t hard’, No. I solo present hunt, and I haven’t had an issue with dying.
I suggest that you take out all mobs in the area first just so you don’t end up with them as well as the dolls.
Sometimes those mobs can help. Playing a thief and when solo, I vastly prefer for lots of other mobs to be clustered around. I would be near down, quickly tag those other mobs and then stealth, leaving those mobs to turn on the gift spawn. They help wear down the skritt/toys and give me a bit more time to recover and heal.
This evening in one area we opened a present just as an Ice Elemental spawned with the opening….lol little dolls fought with the Ice Elemental and beat it to death while we laid out AOEs on both.
Ha! Got the mob, got the Ice Elemental and got the present all in one move. Then immediately after that another Elemental spawned to give us more to fight.
i solo all the different spawns from the presents
i will admit the dolls are a bit more difficult, but i am able to take each group down alone
i play a ranger…i guess this is where those pets come in real handy
but…
i am wondering what the day after tomorrow will have in store for us
great job on everything so far, ArenaNet, i am having a great time at the Wintersday festival…thank you for all your hard work
The major difference is that they disappear shortly after they appear.
Could the timer be increased? The mobs in these presents are tricky, and they spawn/attack like a zerg. It punishes people trying to survive by attacking first to have the presents despawn so quick/.
I haven’t had a problem on either of my 80s with the Ventari’s.
I have killed them easily on my Warrior (Fully CoF Armor, Signet GS/Rifle Build)
and on my Guardian (Toughness/Healing Power gear, Scepter & Shield/Staff build)
And before someone says ‘were you with a zerg group?! that’d be why they weren’t hard’, No. I solo present hunt, and I haven’t had an issue with dying.
Dont worry the new boxes have been designed for those that think the current ones are too easy.
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?
The princess toys are indeed too difficult. They all seem to be Veteran Equivalents, which along with the retribution skill, means it takes forever to kill them, even with three or four players. On my server, no one is bothering to fight them anymore. Everyone is just grabbing the gifts and running. If that’s the intent, then good job. If not, then the imbalance has just forced players to modify their behavior away from the intended mode of play. (Now many players are avoiding fights no matter what spawns, because they have been taught it’s better to grab and run to the next spawn point, rather than engaging the content).
They aren’t nearly as tough in the actual instance, so something isn’t right. If the rewards were worth the effort, things might be different, but it’s just a waste of time as is.
Edit: Oh, something else seems to be wrong with them. Even when my scaled level is 2-3 levels higher than the Princess Doll level, I get an extreme amount of “glancing blows” when they are in huddle down/retribution mode, which is just icing on the cake!
The dolls are a challenge, but not that hard. I am a Ranger, and I just run in, get the gift(s) first, entangle, roll out, and then pick them off from range.. keep them moving around after the entangle and they won’t buff each other.
When I do get the confusion on, I just run away some till it wears off.
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.
Thank you for reporting this. We are aware and will have it fixed soon. There are only two instances of this problem out of hundreds of boxes. Hopefully you can find some elsewhere.
Translation: They wont get fixed before the event is over.
The dolls are easier than the Ventaris if you watch for Confusion and avoid killing yourself. And yeah, run in and grab the presents first thing. It’d be nice if they persisted a bit longer, but at least there’s a way around it.
the skritt and the ones that start with v arent too bad.
its the dolls that get me every time. ive seen them kill pairs of people trying to do them, they stack confusion way fast and regen their health pretty quickly. i just pop the box, loot the presents and run for it.
So nobody else sees something wrong with the whole thing?
A hearty ditto. I fully admit that I’m not that great of a player, but I can NOT beat the dolls without at LEAST two other people around. My dad and I ended up spending about 10 minutes on a group of them; we only stuck around that long because I ended up dying and he kept trying to come back and revive me. We finally got so fed up that we teleported out.
These boxes are now to difficult or too much work to enjoy. The 1st ones were okay then the drops got worse and then the toys or mobs got harder. It’s suppost to be a fun time and it’s not. Change the toys not the difficulty or keep it the same and give some rares or something if you want people to team up for a box. You already drop money to port to them only to see they are gone already by others. If you’re running there, forget it, it’s gone. What little you get from them seems like a waste also.
Hmm I am a bit surprised nobody mentioned the other oddity with these. All the mobs that spawn from the presents seem to be immune to the first AoE that hits the group. So far I’ve tried Static Field, Lava Font, Hammer Shock and Death Blossom.
Edit: Just fought a group of dolls in Queen’s Forest and then I went and poked the Champion Wasp.
Damage from Dolls – 34-52 (x5 = 170-260)
Damage from Champion Wasp 54-189
From what I’ve seen the Champion Wasp usually takes around 2-3 people minimum.
i too found them too difficult for my liking after trampling the spawns on the first day. i think part of what causes this distress is we come across them in open world where most people are used to running around smashing everything, and suddenly your faced with a situation more akin to a dungeon fight. i don’t really mind though because it’s an incentive to play with other people… something i admit i haven’t done much lately in open world aside from the occasional event zerg.
i prefer to just ignore them completely since they most the time give you nothing special when you do kill them, grab the box and run like a filthy skritt i say.
A problem i encountered yesterday while playing my thief: When doing my long-term stealth via Shadow Refuge and open the present, the spawned enemies can still see and target me even if i am still marked as being stealthed.
I suggest removing the gifts from SM in EB 3rd floor please!
I was manning an arrow cart raining arrows down on enemies inside the inner gate but outside lord’s room and doing my part in defending. A couple of guys popped up from behind farming gifts and spawned some skirtts whom then proceeded to destroy my AC. This was after I politely asked the guys not to open gifts near where I am.
Needless to say I got into a rage and berated them on map chat.
I haven’t had any problems with the gifts. The dolls are challenging but I have yet to see a gift despawn on me, and I like the feeling of danger. I didn’t even know gifts could despawn until I read this thread. The dolls hit hard but that’s what dodging is for. My low level necromancer with piece-meal armor hasn’t had any trouble getting gifts.
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.
I think you’re referring to my post above. I didn’t mean that the other guy snags and thus I don’t get it. I meant, he snags it and runs while the mob stomps me and the present disappears.
I have been farming these on my necro in high areas and have found them to be great fun, the dolls kick some serous butt lol, the rest i found not to bad, however what I am finding is the very total lack of rare gifts. Is this intentional that they don’t drop like it was stated they did or is the drop rate so low that its ridiculas?
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?
That’s insane. You shouldn’t have to be expected to find a party to go out in the field. Dungeon, yes, but not out in the field. If that’s the case, allow us to hire henchmen in zones no one visits anymore for us lower level people.
