Guild Wars 2

You know toys are overpowered when they take down a champion and his wolf pack. Yeah you read right.. Two sets of toys from two gifts took down The corrupted svanir and his wolf pack. A friend and I stood and watched til he was about less than half health laughing when we decided to help finish him with no effort since the toys did 99% of the damage. He totally ignored us.

In the low level areas, where your vit is reduced, 4 gift toys can just massacre you.

Particularly them kitten golems, since they all use stun repeatedly so you cannot move, you cannot fight, you cannot do anything. You are just dead.

many threads like this recently ^^;
Yes they are oped, especially princesses, but…they are kitten cute this way

Pretty funny being in the Norn starter area taking the scenic route to frostgorge, come across a package full of princesses and go from 0 to 25 stacks of confuse in less than a second.

Amusing, but probably kittens for the lowbies.

Spawn of Chucky

Slither Shade.4782:

Spawn of Chucky

Ditto on that, those things are evil!

I shouldn’t do this, being Christmas and all, but if the present contains even two of the dolls or golems I try to race in, take the gifts and run run run. If there’s others in the area I scream at them to stay away, then help when they go down. But yeah, those dolls are dynamite.

So why are we using those explosive golems to bring down the Claw… we should just drop a crateful of Princess Dolls on that guy, sit back, relax and loot its smoking, broken corpse once the screaming ends.

I made a new char yesterday, and even one of those toys insta gib me.

rhodoc.2381:

I made a new char yesterday, and even one of those toys insta gib me.

I actually discovered an interesting thing: toys sux in underwater combat…. but they know it. If you manage to have them jump into water, their will be powerless (basic spam auto attack is the only thing they can do) and you can proceed to their massacre.
As I said, they are aware of their underwater nabness and will try everything to get out of water baiting you outside.

I’ve been finding the same thing. Skritt are what you pray for. Soldiers, griffons… you can more or less handle. Ventari depend on how alert you are. Princesses or golems will confuse or stun you to the point where if you get more than one or two of them, you might as well just grab the presents and run – even if you win, the presents will be gone by the time you’ve killed them anyway.

I have found that lower-level characters seem to be more kittened than high-level ones. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m better with the higher-level characters, because the higher-level characters have more tools to deal with it (my successful engagements with anything higher than ventaris on the threat scale above have all involved popping an elite, for instance), or simply that the toys have been scaled poorly for low levels.

I know this game strives to be be hard, grindy and whatnot, but seriously: why must be opening one of these presents be a death sentence?
I cursed some unchristmasly words humanity did not know they exist while trying to collect some of these.

bad/lazy design – you know its bad when players skip or avoid certain content because its too hard, not fun or not rewarding.

It can be really tough without the perfect builds. On my 56 ele, I had to go d/d with toughness and healing power gear to survive long enough. That’s the only character I can solo gift mobs on, but a group of princess dolls still owns me every time. I might try a build with even more condi removal instead of regen and see if that works.

I pretty much always just open the present, rush in, grab the presents, then run away (with my pet usually slowing down the pursuit).

End result is that I probably leave a trail of angry toys in my wake for someone else to clean up. If there are other players in the area who attack the toys I create, I will join in and help finish them off.

But if you are simply going for the presents and hoping for something decent, the time it takes to kill the mob of 5 toys isn’t worth it. And the toys themselves often don’t seem to have any decent drops to make it worth killing them.

I useally summon Hounds of Balthazar, drop a meteor shower, then throw a lava font down on the present THEN open it. As soon as the toys spawn, they are already taking damage. I very rarely have any problem taking them all down myself, regardless of what they are.

Slither Shade.4782:

Spawn of Chucky

Hahaha how did I not think of this

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

I useally summon Hounds of Balthazar, drop a meteor shower, then throw a lava font down on the present THEN open it. As soon as the toys spawn, they are already taking damage. I very rarely have any problem taking them all down myself, regardless of what they are.

Any sort of traps, bombs, or other skills that you can cast before unwrapping help. But it’s relatively easy to unwrap, grab your gift, and escape. I don’t find them OP’d, but they can be tedious in the L1-15 zones.

I actually pray for the princess dolls. The ventari toys kill me with their wicked retaliation, the golems stunlock me to death, and the griffons just bring the smackdown with raw damage. A bit of confusion I can handle.

After a while I just started to ignore the presents. You can get plenty of gifts dropped from just roflstomping low level mobs in starter areas when the player base is light (so you’re not stealing everything from newbie chars/players). The one or two, and often ZERO (who thought that would be fun?) presents that pop from those things aren’t worth the effort about 75% of the time.

A better approach, IMO, would have been to have the big presents spawn their 1-2 presents (never 0!) visible but have them ungatherable until the last mob is killed. In addition, give the spawned mobs a high(er) chance to drop extra gifts, and/or random Xmas stuff, and simultaneously severely reduce the drop rate for same from random world mobs. I.e. make the presents important and worthwhile.

This, hand in hand with scaling down the dangerousness of the mobs in lower level areas (not just by blithely scaling level). Didn’t ANet realize most presents would be opened by lone players? That maybe a 6v1 with chain stuns, massive Confusion stacks, knockdowns, AoE, multiple self-buffs, etc. would be a little too much for many players? Especially low-level guys with limited skills to choose from? And new players who are still fumbling around with their first batch of skills? Man, talk about ice water in the face.

A little careful tailoring would’ve gone a long way to making these things something for everyone to chase after beyond the first couple days.

draxynnic.3719:

I have found that lower-level characters seem to be more kittened than high-level ones. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m better with the higher-level characters, because the higher-level characters have more tools to deal with it (my successful engagements with anything higher than ventaris on the threat scale above have all involved popping an elite, for instance), or simply that the toys have been scaled poorly for low levels.

Makes sense, as elites usually provide long duration stability. Need to keep that in mind if i ever decide to pop a present while playing necro again. Going lich may well be the thing to do…

Kruhljak.2705:

Didn’t ANet realize most presents would be opened by lone players? That maybe a 6v1 with chain stuns, massive Confusion stacks, knockdowns, AoE, multiple self-buffs, etc. would be a little too much for many players?

It sometimes feels as if the map designers didn’t get the message about the game mechanics not supporting tank and spank. You find open world mobs that pull in 2+ nearby mobs if you attack one of them, and unless you then swap to kiting and aoe auto attacks you are likely to get very intimate with the down state. Never mind story quests that drop us into confined spaces and then proceed to spawn wave after wave of mobs on us.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

I useally summon Hounds of Balthazar, drop a meteor shower, then throw a lava font down on the present THEN open it. As soon as the toys spawn, they are already taking damage. I very rarely have any problem taking them all down myself, regardless of what they are.

Any sort of traps, bombs, or other skills that you can cast before unwrapping help. But it’s relatively easy to unwrap, grab your gift, and escape. I don’t find them OP’d, but they can be tedious in the L1-15 zones.

I actually like fighting them, have actually gotten some decent drops, and even got my scrit slayer achivement.

@digiowl: I wasn’t thinking of the stability, actually, although that would help with the initial knockbacks and the golem chain-stuns. My higher-levels are a guardian, a mesmer, and an engineer, so it’s things like bringing in reasonably durable alternative targets or gaining invulnerability and/or invisibility to give yourself a bit of a breather.

I don’t think the map design issue is one of the designers not getting the message about the game not supporting tank and spank, and perhaps more one of buying into their own propaganda of all professions being able to fill all roles equally. While every profession can play the kite-and-shoot game if they need to (some might just take longer to finish it than others) the bottom line is that there are definitely some professions that can handle waves in confined spaces better than others.

As long as the toys don’t decide to bug out…
Level 31 toys when i’m leveled down to 12

I haven’t ran into them again so i hope it was patched :P

My favorite was the Centaur champion Warlord in Harathi hinterlands. I ran up and popped the gift next to him. Princess dolls kicked his but and his allies. Myself and another thief finished him off. I really wish I had fired up Fraps for it though.

It was Epic Lolz

Chain CC = bad design

Its not challenging when you’re just stunned over and over or have 5+ stack of confusion on you non stop. Its just kittening annoying. When you force players to run a specific set of skills only, you limit counter play, and when there is only 1 way to combat the enemy, the game gets boring. Thats why no one bothers to open presents anymore, its not fun.

They’re tough, but a bot playing with a ranger can take a swarm of them + many mobs. Seen it. Don’t know how the bot did it, but it looked very easy for them.

Can I just use this thread to tell everyone how much I hate these god kitten princess dolls?

Aequitas.6402:

Can I just use this thread to tell everyone how much I hate these god kitten princess dolls?

Always mind your manners!

Grizledorf.5290:

I just want to say any of you who die to the toys more than once,

you are total noobs.

Do what your human brain was designed to do and adapt yourself to new situations.

This game is so easy that people don’t ever try new ideas. They complain that things are too hard instead of trying new strategies. While they continue to use the same exact traits, same exact utilities, same weapons for every encounter they approach. Posting here that the game is a failure when the truth is it’s their methods that really failed them.

It’s nice that you’re such a super uberleet player, brah.

But the rest of us don’t think that monsters with the ability to stun-lock you are very well balanced and would like to have a discussion about that without being called “total noobs”.

So you can go away and leave this discussion to us, thanks.

The toys are utter crap, and I would use stronger words if I was allowed.

Grizledorf.5290:

I just want to say any of you who die to the toys more than once,

you are total noobs.

Do what your human brain was designed to do and adapt yourself to new situations.

This game is so easy that people don’t ever try new ideas. They complain that things are too hard instead of trying new strategies. While they continue to use the same exact traits, same exact utilities, same weapons for every encounter they approach. Posting here that the game is a failure when the truth is it’s their methods that really failed them.

Your elitejerk words represent everything that is wrong with “serious” MMO players and communities. I would love to drive an imaginary truck into your imaginary car and then tell you you just don’t know how to dodge.

The toys have made very very small skirmishes in WvW interesting. I’ve been in a 2v2 skirmish near a gift where an opposing server member went and opened a gift and then it became 2v5v2, lol. I have also seen it where escaping opponents would open a box to help escape, due to the toy enemies being able to stun and snare.

mjhungness.8059:

I shouldn’t do this, being Christmas and all, but if the present contains even two of the dolls or golems I try to race in, take the gifts and run run run. If there’s others in the area I scream at them to stay away, then help when they go down. But yeah, those dolls are dynamite.

Feedback and invisibility help lots.

At the risk of being lumped in with Grizzledorf, I want to say I also like the really freaking hard toys. I used to run screaming from golems and princesses. But when I’m out exploring, just having a good time, now I like to fight them. They’ve made me better at my class. I kite better, I’m more accurate with my conical AOEs, better at timing my channeling… good training.

It is good to know there’s a time limit on the presents. Gotta grab those before they disappear.

psoramar.2073:

As long as the toys don’t decide to bug out…
Level 31 toys when i’m leveled down to 12

I haven’t ran into them again so i hope it was patched :P

Oh man – that’s instadeath in a brightly wrapped box! Someone’s been bad this year!

I actually like that they’re there, the Princess and Golems. You don’t know what you’re going to get and the variations seem to be huge, with mixes of different types in one box. Sort of like a pop-quiz, never knowing how the battle is going to be played out. One thing I would change for next year – make the presents like the Jack-in-the-box from Elf. Ta duh, ta duh, ta duh-didy duh…

I think the number of toys spawned from each present was excessive. 2 – 3 toys should have been the limit. They’re actually no harder than standard mobs if you’re facing them one-on-one (well, OK, maybe 50% harder); it’s just that they come in such a large group, making it easy to get overwhelmed.

All the same, I have to admit that I’ll kinda miss luring toys into enemy bastions like the Bandit Camps in Brisban Wildlands and watching them massacre all the enemies for me. XD One time I saw 5 Princess Dolls almost successfully take down the Unseen Hunter!