Guild Wars 2

Dodge-roll through the wind. I’ve only ever been hit with it twice. Once last year, then I always dodge-rolled. And once this year, because I forgot about last year.

I found this JP to be really easy…. Did it 13 times in 30 minutes. Ran it a total of 41 times to do the repeatable achievement though I can’t be bothered to run it 60 times lol.

I missed this puzzle last year and from the way it used to be, I can see it could be frustrating. I have my own set of issues:

The Present Gauntlet – I can understand that I can be a klutz and fail a jump here and there. But with the Presents, sometimes I feel like I could have saved time and just jumped from the platform to restart at the beginning. They are less of an obstacle and more detour back to the start.

Random Restart – I make it to the Present Gauntlet and a gust of wind blows across the platform and sends me back to the start.

What

The

Hell.

Another time I was at the starting platform and the wind sent me back 2 steps when I was about to jump on the first platform.

The winds are horrible trolls.

The Chest – I open it after completing the puzzle for only the second time. I got the Wintersday achievement and nothing out the chest.
For this I am not sure if this was by design or not, but I was hoping to get something at the end.

Those exploding presents are very frustrating . I like idea of this jumping puzzles , but that exactly part ruin entire fun . I won’t bother any more after an hour failing , rather going to fishing in Neverwinter

There’s a pattern to it and the trick is to keep moving. People take various routes across the presents with some being better or worse than others.

I am just going to add after 2 hours trying I can get to the the platform before the presents about 20% of my tries. The slow HP timer death, the wind, and the pointless nature of the PVP set up all demonstrate the devs ability to design really difficult content that highlights a major weak point in the game. There is really easy content, and really really difficult content and that big hole in the middle. That is a very frustrating aspect of the all the content in this game. I am not so sure it’s a great idea to make “holiday events” that point out one of the big reasons people stop playing.

I give up. I tried this for 2 hours straight this evening but this is ridiculous. First of all, there is nothing you can do in order to anticipate the snowflake fall, how many times did it happen that you are in the middle of the snowflake field with no option to jump to the next? But ok…the rng is decent on this one. The fun begins once the presents come in. The only chance how to pass is, is to go fast, once the last red line spawns and not later than the blue ones are here. If they come, you just sit there waiting for a sheep to go and pop all and fail. But ok…after taking your random chances you pass to what? RANDOM windfall that literally blows you to the start of the puzzle? Anet pls… this is neither fun, nor good design, its just plain simple masochism of the highest rate.
/end of rant

The snowflakes are on a set timer which means they are very much predictable. You have to keep moving and not stop. I suggest you get used to holding the right mouse button as you do this jumping puzzle and all others.

You do not need to wait until just the red presents are finished spawning. There’s a pattern to how they explode and I’ve made it up when there were not that many at the start. Just stand there and watch. You’ll see the pattern. There are also some routes over the presents that are better then others.

There are only two locations thatr have wind: after the presents and around the corner on the sloped platform you get on to avoid the snowball. The first can be completely negated by either waiting or dodging through it. The second should not be an issue as you do not need to go that high up on the platform to avoid the snowball.

The wind you see while the snowflakes is from when you fall. If you’re seeing wind push you off while jumping the snowflakes then that is lag. I’ve spent an entire round just trying to replicate it and I couldn’t. Others have as well and have also came to the conclusion that it’s lag.

I suggest those having issues to watch the videos on YouTube to see what people are doing. While doing the puzzles think about what you may be doing wrong or how you could perform better. Learn and adapt to the obstacles in the jumping puzzle. Don’t just keep trying the same thing over and over expecting to get a different result.

cmud.5689:

I give up. I tried this for 2 hours straight this evening but this is ridiculous. First of all, there is nothing you can do in order to anticipate the snowflake fall, how many times did it happen that you are in the middle of the snowflake field with no option to jump to the next? But ok…the rng is decent on this one. The fun begins once the presents come in. The only chance how to pass is, is to go fast, once the last red line spawns and not later than the blue ones are here. If they come, you just sit there waiting for a sheep to go and pop all and fail. But ok…after taking your random chances you pass to what? RANDOM windfall that literally blows you to the start of the puzzle? Anet pls… this is neither fun, nor good design, its just plain simple masochism of the highest rate.
/end of rant

Everything in the JP is on a timer. The snowflake despawns/respawns. The wind gusts (they also have an obvious visible tell). The giant snowballs rolling down the hill. Even the time it takes to get from the spawn point to the mid point. And yes, part of the challenge is that you need to go fast, or your HP will drop out.

It isn’t poor design just because you’re not good at it.

I have to say this puzzle was frustrating… at first. However, the more I did it the better I got. I won’t lie… it took me a looooong time to get comfortable with it overall. But it did become so much easier after attempting it over and over. I don’t regret sticking it out. I will say my wife would start laughing at the profanity coming out of my mouth when I’d fail.

My suggestion is to just keep on trying. But then again, I’m a glutton for punishment.

biofrog.1568:

I find it easy, collecting dozens of gifts last night already. I also find the changes are improvements from the first iteration.
Maybe those who keep failing are used to mesmer portals? I don’t know.

One thing that I would dislike is changes to make it easier. It’s a skill based game and like it or not, Jumping requires some skill.

And yet, it’s OK to be bad at parts of the game. I suck at sPvP, but I don’t go around asking to be buffed because I suck. I say try it, and if it doesn’t appeal to your sense of self-satisfaction, then move on.

The snowflakes are a piece of cake, as is the snowball run at the end. The gift boxes are another story- I spent multiple activity timers in a row standing on the platform before it and just watching, and could find no discernible pattern, except that it would always entirely self-destruct with too many people on it. It’s 50% rng and 50% relying on the intelligence of the people behind you to not overload to section (read: NOT a skill based segment).

This segment alone turned me off from coming back to the puzzle after my first completion. I did the clock tower daily, usually in a single try each day, and grinded all six levels of tribulation mode daily for about a week when it was out. I don’t rely on Mesmer portals- often enough, I make them. But I can’t bother myself to return to this puzzle even for the wintersday dailies. Kitten that.

Piogre.2164:

The snowflakes are a piece of cake, as is the snowball run at the end. The gift boxes are another story- I spent multiple activity timers in a row standing on the platform before it and just watching, and could find no discernible pattern, except that it would always entirely self-destruct with too many people on it. It’s 50% rng and 50% relying on the intelligence of the people behind you to not overload to section (read: NOT a skill based segment).

This segment alone turned me off from coming back to the puzzle after my first completion. I did the clock tower daily, usually in a single try each day, and grinded all six levels of tribulation mode daily for about a week when it was out. I don’t rely on Mesmer portals- often enough, I make them. But I can’t bother myself to return to this puzzle even for the wintersday dailies. Kitten that.

This.
There is no pattern that I can see.
Some presents seem to be set lower than others in the same row, and they can snag in place as the presents around you pop.
Some people can go though and presents will pop in their wake, leaving unpassable Swiss cheese for anyone after them.
While this has become a painful obstacle to deal with, it’s even more painful to watch players who skillfully made it through the rest of the puzzle, failing to get past, This.

about the exploding presents:

isn’t it like this: the ones which appear first, disappear first.

I attempted this jumping puzzle for around 2 hours when it was made available, never making it past the present section. I gave up and haven’t been back. I let out a sigh every time it comes up as the daily.

I agree the present section is half down to luck.

The snowflakes before, and the section at the end are not a problem – but I have no intention of doing it more than once because of the exploding presents.

You can choose to forget about some of the reward if you teleport back to the presents (works one time only, then back to start) so thats what I do, its only 2 presents.

Then if there are only a few presents left, I can be ‘that idiot’ and set off the presents, most of the time I make it but sometimes I dont and i just warp back to Tixx.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

It isn’t poor design just because you’re not good at it.

Is it poor design when you make it to the top of the exploding presents, wait out the snowball, head for the lozenge and then the PvP format decides that the game is over and knocks you back to the start?

To be honest I didn’t have much trouble with the puzzle this year, and that only happened to me once before I figured out to watch the timer and if it was down to low to wait it out. But I can see the complaint of having it in a PvP format when the whole 30 min cycle is not needed.

Aye.8392:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

It isn’t poor design just because you’re not good at it.

Is it poor design when you make it to the top of the exploding presents, wait out the snowball, head for the lozenge and then the PvP format decides that the game is over and knocks you back to the start?

To be honest I didn’t have much trouble with the puzzle this year, and that only happened to me once before I figured out to watch the timer and if it was down to low to wait it out. But I can see the complaint of having it in a PvP format when the whole 30 min cycle is not needed.

The clock is clearly displayed at the top of the screen. If you don’t have enough time, why attempt it?

at the exploding presents, wait the first players to jump before the blue presents spawn. Than wait a second to see if the presents will all explode, if not jump on the right blue one and then straight up. Works 95% of the time.