Guild Wars 2

Not sure what was supposed to have changed in the patch applied a couple of hours ago, but this is what happens when I try to open presents in Gendarran Fields, now:

1. Open present.
2. 6 dolls spawn.
3. Dolls are immune to spells for about 2 seconds (“Immune”, no damage, impossible to CC).
4. Dolls spread out (while immune) so they’re out of range of AoE (at most, AoE spells will hit 3 of the 6).
5. Dolls instantly give me 12 stacks of confusion, so if I hit one of them, I lose half my HP (the confusion can be cleared, but they do it again within 5 ~ 10 seconds).
6. Dolls give themselves protection and fury.
7. Dolls do about 200 DPS each, or 1.2k DPS as a group (my HP in this zone is ~3k).
8. Their attack uses homing projectiles, so it cannot be avoided by moving.

The obvious counter to this would be damage reflection, except:

a) Not all classes have it.
b) Reflected projectiles do almost no damage to the dolls, which suggests they either have a huge HP pool or a ton of toughness (probably both).

The only way to kill them seems to be to use pets / minions, or “enlist” some of the local fauna as disposable tanks (i.e., pull some wargs to the present and hope the dolls target the warg while I kill them).

If I don’t cast anything at all after opening the present (just as a test), I’m dead within 4 seconds (2 of which were just the dolls spreading out, so I’m effectively dead in 2 seconds).

Just for comparison, I walked into the cave at the NW corner of Gendarran Fields and pulled every mob in there (including 3 veterans, IIRC). I killed them all without ever seeing my health drop below 70%.

I’m all for a challenge, but if I, as a level 80 character in exotic gear (with plenty of toughness), am having to use other mobs as distraction just to be able to kill these dolls, I can only imagine how they must seem to “real” level 27 players.

I’m fine with having some high-level creatures in low-level zones (to keep players on their toes), but label them correctly. It doesn’t make any sense to label these dolls as “level 27” when a single one is harder to kill (and does more damage) than three level 28 veterans.

Here’s how I do it:

1. Open Box
2. Run and wait for them to group up again
3. Use AoE (and CC if you have it)
4. Remove Confusion if you can…if not, don’t attack (turn around or disable auto-attack)
5. Kite while AoEing and knocking them out

It’s a bit long, but it’s doable

they need to be reworked and less harsh.

yea and the present is gone by the time you get even half of them killed if your still alive
add in that the leeches are speculating on the items buying up thousands and repricing
its become buy gems or log off and dont bother i chose log off

Here’s how I do it: Open box, get thrown 15 feet away, get attacked before I even get a chance to stand up, hobble toward the gift, pick it up, run like hell.

I’d really like to be able to kill them, since I got some really nice drops off the toy Ventari. Even in all exotics, my survivability is ridiculously bad.

Advise is to go to a low lvl area(Yes u will get scaled down) and open presents. It is way safer and easier.

By doing this you help lower lvls get their gifts and save yourself some repair cost.

I open the present, get blown back, run up and grab the gift, then make a run for it. It’s just quicker.

The only real success I’ve had with it is in groups of 4 or more. Otherwise I swoop in, get the gifts and get outta dodge.

Kitty La Boom Boom.4065:

Here’s how I do it: Open box, get thrown 15 feet away, get attacked before I even get a chance to stand up, hobble toward the gift, pick it up, run like hell.

I’d really like to be able to kill them, since I got some really nice drops off the toy Ventari. Even in all exotics, my survivability is ridiculously bad.

This seems to be the preferred tactic as I’m seeing more and more of these mobs just left in groups with no presents to be seen.

My issue isn’t tactics; like I said, I can kill them easily (well, not easily, but reliably) by using pets or pulling nearby animals.

The issue is that this looks like a bug, but comes right after a patch (a patch released after the developers acknowledged scaling issues with the toy mobs). If anything, the dolls are tougher than the ventari.

Maybe they fixed the ventari (which don’t spawn anymore, AFAIK) instead of fixing the dolls? Maybe tomorrow we’ll get a patch that fixes the dolls while replacing them with a new (unfixed) toy…?

If they want the dolls to be (a lot) harder than the skritt (or any other creature in the zone), that’s fine by me, but label them correctly (ex., as being 7 levels higher than the zone).

Ventari toys still spawn, along with skritt and now the Dolls. Each day the presents get harder and harder… I’m really not looking forward to the upcoming toys.

Liavain Axon.1972:

Ventari toys still spawn, along with skritt and now the Dolls. Each day the presents get harder and harder… I’m really not looking forward to the upcoming toys.

Hehe! I know, huh.

Related side note: Anyone else run in to the level 31 mobs in the level 13 zones? /splat But I couldn’t help laughing.

Pennry.9215:

Liavain Axon.1972:

Ventari toys still spawn, along with skritt and now the Dolls. Each day the presents get harder and harder… I’m really not looking forward to the upcoming toys.

Hehe! I know, huh.

Related side note: Anyone else run in to the level 31 mobs in the level 13 zones? /splat But I couldn’t help laughing.

Happily, I have not experienced this bug yet. I am somewhat limited this weekend due to (hopefully) try and get my wife more hooked into the game. We have been running around as a group of three warriors and an elementalist and popping presents in the 25 and under zones. My wife just dinged 25 today.

So far my husband, wife, and son are having a blast running from present to present… As long as the boxes are not stingy and refuse to drop gifts. >.<

Yeah, the dolls are completely insane. I don’t even bother with them anymore. I just do the “open box, rush for the present, and then run like kitten.” They just aren’t worth killing.

It’s not a bug. The developers hinted at the mobs coming from the presents getting harder each time more and more as the mobs change. Tomorrow should be the Charr miniature soldiers, which certainly have to be a nightmare to deal with.

I’m only assuming that once Tixx reaches Lion’s Arch, the boxes will contain a mixture of all the toys together. That will be when the real fun begins.

P.S. I don’t think these boxes are by any means meant to be soloed by a single person. They’re like micro Dynamic Events for several players been 3-5 estimated. They’re not hard for a group set up, because that’s their design.

Liavain Axon.1972:

Pennry.9215:

Liavain Axon.1972:

Ventari toys still spawn, along with skritt and now the Dolls. Each day the presents get harder and harder… I’m really not looking forward to the upcoming toys.

Hehe! I know, huh.

Related side note: Anyone else run in to the level 31 mobs in the level 13 zones? /splat But I couldn’t help laughing.

Happily, I have not experienced this bug yet. I am somewhat limited this weekend due to (hopefully) try and get my wife more hooked into the game. We have been running around as a group of three warriors and an elementalist and popping presents in the 25 and under zones. My wife just dinged 25 today.

So far my husband, wife, and son are having a blast running from present to present… As long as the boxes are not stingy and refuse to drop gifts. >.<

Your husband and your wife? You player, you. (sorry couldn’t resist)

Seriously, those dolls are a mini nightmare on your own. I can snipe them, but then by the time two/three are down the presents are gone. >:

Edit: They’ll get progressively harder? JP farming 4 lyf…

Siphaed.9235:

It’s not a bug.

Since you are not an Arena Net employee, and since there have already been developer posts acknowledging that the ventari were tougher than intended, I’ll assume the dolls suffer from the same bug (or a related one).

It’s one thing to have mobs that are “tough”, it’s another to have mobs whose degree of difficulty bears no connection to their displayed level. If a single level 27 regular mob is intended to be harder than 3 veterans one level higher, then the level displayed in their portrait (or the “veteran” tag) is meaningless.

Siphaed.9235:

I don’t think these boxes are by any means meant to be soloed by a single person.

Well, it would be even harder to solo them with two people – I’d go as far as to say impossible.

They’re like micro Dynamic Events for several players been 3-5 estimated.

There is no “group event” pop-up (there was with the Halloween doors, BTW, and those were scaled correctly for each zone) and, again, the issue isn’t being hard. The issue is they don’t match the displayed level. If they were meant to be this hard, they should be labelled with a higher level and a veteran tag. One of the two things is a bug (either the scaling or the description).

As an engineer with Turrets it’s fairly easy. I did switch to PnS for reflect and blocking. worked for me. just have the turrets on auto heal and 30% damage reduction and you should be able to hold out ,if not use them for decoys and snatch and grab.

on a side note: LOL those dolls remind me of the dolls from Condemned 2. cept those were creepier and uglier.

They give bunch of boons to each other including regeneration and 33% damage reduction along with some others. Combine that with Confusion that stacks and that they are ranged so you can’t even kite em I’d say this is a bit too much. Some classes might be able to handle it but not all and since this is in open world and not labeled as group stuff it should be tuned down a bit.

The biggest problem I have with these Ventari and Dolls is they seem to be a continuation of a trend that started with Orr continued with the Lost Shores (Reef Drakes) and now this:

“Hard PvE content” seems to me you aren’t allowed to do anything.

Most of the ‘hard’ enemies use at least one of the following: Pulls, Knockbacks, Knockdowns, Retaliation, and Confusion. All of which have the same effect. You don’t get to do anything but die for X number of seconds.

I also happen to play a ranger which means I have no reflects, poor on-demand condition removal, and no way to strip boons. Worse still is most of the ranger’s good weapons/abilities are lots of little hits so retaliation and confusion are a nightmare.

That said I can and do manage in all areas. I soloed the Tixx dungeon when it was in the Grove (couldn’t be bothered with the Divinity’s Reach one after a group run). I just don’t like this “You don’t do anything for X seconds” approach to game play. It’s boring and the opposite of what I like about GW2, fast paced active combat.

I actually love the dolls, they offer a little challenge. All you need to do really is be mindful of confusion. As long as you dont attack with 8 stacks of confusion on you, you’ll be fine.

@Unspecified

you dont get to do anything for X seconds because you’re not prepaired to deal with the situation. you got condition removal skills. You have healing Spring, Signet of Renewal and spirit of nature. The only poor on demand condition removal is signet of renewal which passively takes away a condition every 10 seconds. However you can still use that to move the conditions to your pet (poor pet). You could also use that in combination with protect me which will prevent the pet from attacking for a while getting no damage from confusion. Rangers have options as well.

neon.4863:

Your husband and your wife? You player, you. (sorry couldn’t resist)
.

No, I’m not talking in third person. I have a wife (legally married) and a husband (“Common-law” marriage) :P

Back on topic-
The Princess Dolls are Mesmers, what class are the Ventari toys? I’m not looking forward to Necros…

Well, with enemies like the dolls it makes playing a mesmer or necro a lot more rewarding I guess. In general PvE the signature abilities of these classes are not utilized at all. Finally you get an enemy that actually needs boon and condition removal to fight. It makes fights more complex.

But classes aren’t equal in GW2, I hope they do something for classes that don’t get boon or condition removal abilities. They’re annoying enough to fight as a guardian, I can’t imagine being a warrior fighting them.

Liavain Axon.1972:

The Princess Dolls are Mesmers, what class are the Ventari toys? I’m not looking forward to Necros…

why? if they are anything like we are they should be easy, don’t go in with boons on and just wait for them to throw down their wells then step slightly to the left. now if they put in a thief toy. five or six hard as nails mobs with easy stealth and condition removal, and enough mobility that once I am in combat I cant escape, yea, I wont even bother trying if they do that.

I don’t even fight the dolls now, they are tough and don’t drop loot most of the time. the ventari toys were slightly tricky but were worth it because they dropped gifts five times more often than the skritt. honestly, if the mobs are going to get harder to beat every day I expect a better reward for my effort, as things are there are better ways to get gifts so I don’t know why i should bother.

I don’t have a problem soloing them. As a warrior I pop doylaks and CC them before they have made a move. Works the same in every level as I do this in all areas from 1-80. What I do have a real issue with atm is that I have to waste my time clearing them after someone popped the present and then run and left “the mob” there in my way. People are cutting corners and quickly taking “the gift” and leaving the dolls as someone elses problem, which is really selfish. There are places where this happens and you spawn in the middle of them too, like the shatterer waypoint and your being attacked by them before you can even see them. Again, I just CC them and if it becomes a problem I back off and pick them off from range. But you should not be able to take any present until “the mob”is killed. Im wasting my time clearing them because someone else isn’t skilled enough to do it or they are exploiting the system through stability and swiping the present and running.

I loathe ‘hard PVE’ in open world environments, I’ve been a guild leader since 2004, and I’ve seen it happen time and time and time again. Our casuals, those with physical handicaps, those who aren’t that much into PVE to start with, they simply stop participating and often just quit the game entirely. This is a special event. Special events should be inclusive, should be something EVERYONE can enjoy, not just the best geared and the most hardcore. If people want to prove how macho they are, they can go run dungeons in hardmode.

Never has any problems with dolls on my GS warrior (solo). What i did find annoying is “glancing” hits on them 50% of time when they are lower level than me and 2sec invulnerability after spawn (i managed to hit them before they turn invul, so they get this buff 1-2sec after spawn for some reason)…

Well, the things is, they want people to group up and “participate” with other people. I don’t think these presents with toys/dolls were designed to be soloed or to show how macho people are.

They were probably expecting it to work out the way the doors did for Halloween, where there always seemed to be multiple people hitting the doors at the same time. To be honest, these things are super easy when you aren’t alone.

All that aside, I play a ranger mostly, and I was able to solo the dolls. But, it wasn’t worth it at all. It takes forever to kill them all because of confusion and their protection. Constantly having to turn off my attacks and just stand there looking dumb until the debuff fades. I was mostly letting my pets do the work and just focusing on not killing myself.

Really, though, I found the dolls easier than the Toy Ventari with retaliation. At least, with the dolls, the confusion does fade and have gaps between them. The retaliation on the Ventari was basically permanent.

Kitty La Boom Boom.4065:

Here’s how I do it: Open box, get thrown 15 feet away, get attacked before I even get a chance to stand up, hobble toward the gift, pick it up, run like hell.

I’d really like to be able to kill them, since I got some really nice drops off the toy Ventari. Even in all exotics, my survivability is ridiculously bad.

This is exactly what I do, too. The mobs are ridiculously hard, especially in “level-appropriate” areas. (As in, my level 50 thief didn’t have a great time trying to kill a bunch of level 52 dolls.)

I just don’t open them anymore, those dolls are a nightmare & the drops aren’t worth the hassle

There was only nice drops from the spawn the very first morning of the event. Now even in a group the new spawns are very rarely even dropping an extra present, so its just not worth it to kill the mobs. Just grab the present and run.

Yeah, I couldn’t believe how difficult the Ventari were. I got gobsmacked several times by them this weekend before I, too, turned to the “Grab present – RUN” strategy. Even then, THEY WILL HUNT YOU DOWN. I’m pretty sure I’m not a fan.

By comparison, the dolls don’t seem quite as difficult, but still, they’re overly hard.

Grumbles.2804:

I open the present, get blown back, run up and grab the gift, then make a run for it. It’s just quicker.

Yep, figured that one too. Open, dodge away, wait, go back and pickup—and just leave.
No point in fighting. BTW, they leave you alone if you run far enough away.

I hate to say it, but I would look upon opening packages and leaving those nasty dolls for some poor low level character to find, or new player, as griefing.

I had considered doing it myself earlier tonight when working on zone completion in Metrica and my 67 warrior was being owned by level 9 dolls, while level 11. The buffs those dolls have are just insane. I was not about to go get my necro out just to kill dolls, I was there to do my daily and complete the map.

When I let the confusion wear off, and go back and pull them one at a time with a rifle I was able to kill them. Ridiculous amount of time… and the present despawned by then. Stupid.

I don’t know what to suggest the solution is. Make sure you remove the confusion debuff, but even so the protection buffs they have are … unfair. The difficulty increase between the ventari and the dolls is absurd.

But don’t open packages and leave the mobs. Not cool. Get packages another way.

Ack, confusion stacks, yeah they hurt.

Even worse, they toss weakness on you too!

I’ve been killed a number of times because my elixir gun’s heal-field decided to strip weakness (which I don’t really care so much about; most of my damage comes from conditions anyway) instead of stripping the 8+ stacks of confusion. Next thing I know, I’ve accidentally auto-attacked twice, and I’m lying on the ground.

:S

They also buff themselves… alot.

I don’t mind fighting the mobs even if they are challenging, but they aren’t really reasonable for a player of the mob level to tackle. If they are intended as a group events, they have neither been listed as such, or said to be such anywhere. And in most areas, good luck finding even a few people around to help with boxes when there are handfuls of boxes in the zone at the same time and population in the zones is minimal to start out with. It’s mostly people getting map completion or a few leveling alts, and now you have a few farming presents.

After not having a present even spawn in 3 out of the last 4 princess doll boxes, I don’t even bother with them. You can get more gift boxes from random mob drops and they aren’t a pain in the backside to deal with, so frankly I don’t see the point in opening them. The drops from the box mobs haven’t been any better than random mobs anywhere for me either.

So if you want a challenging fight against multiple mobs, open the boxes, although they may spawn with no present or the present may despawn before you are able to kill them all. You’ve got the grab and run method, if a present spawns as well. If you just want to get presents, I’d recommend just killing normal mobs. You don’t have to worry about the above problems, or about possibly getting caught in a bad situation against a group of tough mobs that leads to repair bills, and frankly per given time period you get more from normal mobs.

I run the prezzies with my warrior – I pop Dolyak signet, open the gift, spam F until i get the gift, and run away if the evil dolls appear. I can usually take out the Ventari or Skritt if they pop, but not those little “princesses”

LordYz.8941:

Advise is to go to a low lvl area(Yes u will get scaled down) and open presents. It is way safer and easier.

By doing this you help lower lvls get their gifts and save yourself some repair cost.

Be aware that I found 2 Presents in Plains of Ashford that released Level 31 toys, they destroyed my charr a level 7-12

it must be a bug, unless the recent updated changed it….

so heres my plan… u lure the dolls into other players or other mobs and let them help u kill the dolls.

dunno whats so hard killing those…

Those present mobs are crazy OP. They have much higher DPS and HP then equivalent on level mobs. They are also ranged, ranged mobs in this game in general are much stronger than melee as well.

The charr with popguns are so kitten cute!!! I love them. And I can kill them too. Mwhahahahaha.

Wow. That’s harsh. I’m not bragging, but here’s how I do it: Ranger sword plus Dagger, endurance recovery trait, and a sigil of stamina. I have 4 evade skills (including one 2 part chain), accelerated dodge bar, and my dodge refills completely every time I kill one of the brides of chucky.

Either get some evade going, would be my suggestion, or get some decoys. For example I also have 4 spirits and 2 bird pets (my raven and a tropical bird) following me (spirits unbound + runes of the pirate, Yarr!). At least this option works (unevenly, I suppose) for Rangers, Mesmers (clones), and Necros (minions). I’m not sure what other profs have at their disposal.

Doesn’t matter though, it sounds pretty silly to be overleveled and still be whammed by dolls… it is kind of a silly season though :/

<3 <3 <3

when the gifts explode, i have a difficult time evading the explosion. i interact with it, it grows to explode, but i am locked at the present, so i am always guaranteed to be knocked back and down for the 3 seconds.

with the skritt and ventari toys, it’s not a problem, but the princesses, with their OP-ness, stack all that stuff on me while i am still knocked down, and i lose half my HP before i get up from the explosion.

i want to be able to evade the interaction explosion. at this point in time i cannot (unless it’s been fixed today).

zbrkesbr.4173:

dunno whats so hard killing those…

The fact they they normally cast spells, instead of just standing there doing absolutely nothing, as in that video…? Also, every time I got dolls from a present, they were immune to all damage and CC for about 2 ~ 3 seconds after spawning, so again it looks like the dolls in that video were “special” (or maybe those were normal, and the majority of presents is just spawning the wrong type).

Toy Soldier scaling seems fine, at least in the areas I checked. They’re about in line with the local mobs of the same level (i.e., a group of six level 28 soldiers is about as hard as a group of six level 28 spiders or griffons).

Grumbles.2804:

I open the present, get blown back, run up and grab the gift, then make a run for it. It’s just quicker.

Exactly what he/she said. Open present grab gifts then just run

Catamaran Nights.2630:

Grumbles.2804:

I open the present, get blown back, run up and grab the gift, then make a run for it. It’s just quicker.

Exactly what he/she said. Open present grab gifts then just run

That would always be “quicker”. The issue is that the dolls seem to be scaling incorrectly in most zones (unlike the toy soldiers, for example, which are comparable to other mobs of the same level – although you get 6 of them, of course).

The dolls start out immune to damage and CC, immediately buff themselves with protection, regeneration and fury, apply tons of confusion within 2 seconds, have homing projectiles, etc.. If this was intended, I’d expect them to at least be tagged as veterans, so it’s probably a bug.

So far the Toy Soldiers seem fine (slightly harder than the skritt, but still in line with their level).

Hermes.7014:

They also buff themselves… alot.