Guild Wars 2

If I recall correctly, last year you could farm gifts from mobs.

I’ve been killing hordes of Risen in Orr and haven’t had a single gift drop. Is this intentional?

How else can I farm gifts?

Are the Mysterious presents still out in the open maps?

Haven’t seen a single one in Orr.

Going to explore the low level areas to check… but that’s still slower than just killing stuff =/

The mysterious presents are back in the open maps. I have only seen one so far though and that was in Kessix Hills.

dolyak escort in lions arch. Its triggered quite a bit. they keep dropping presents as they go, usual they catch up to each other halfway and then your getting between 15-30 easy every 10-15 mins (time may vary for servers)

I had a horde of princess dolls, plush griffons and toy ventari (from gifts) try to beat the stuffing out of me in Frostgorge today. There’s plenty of them!

Where does this start? I already saw this event and I saw “donation drive” mentioned in patch notes but I don’t see some icon in LA on the map and I’m too lazy to look for myself without icon. But I might want to help to donate stuff to start the event.

Matt, is it intentional that the Mysterious Gifts are not marked on the mini-map this year?

Yeah the dolyak escort seems to be the best bet while lots of people are in Lion’s Arch doing it. You can also get up to 8 gifts from the bell choir (for 6 songs) if you do well.

I think there are diminishing returns on the Dolyak Escort in LA. I can’t prove it but today I went from 23 boxes to 13 to 14 to 9 to 11. Not sure what the mechanic is that determines box drops from the dolyaks.

Also Ho-Ho-Tron is broken and we’re stuck only with one dolyak to escort right now.

Luthan.5236:

Where does this start? I already saw this event and I saw “donation drive” mentioned in patch notes but I don’t see some icon in LA on the map and I’m too lazy to look for myself without icon. But I might want to help to donate stuff to start the event.

The Donation event starts by the crafting area. Next to the Huntsman and Leatherworker area.

Oh okay. So there is an “event” and I probably see some orange circle at the map then? And can only donate when there is a pre-event? I will look for that later. I hope it is not too rare. Don’t want to wait 5-10 minutes doing nothing only because of achievement.

The two NPCs take donations until their “bar” is full. Then the escort starts. They can both go at once or be offset. The dolyak drops packages along the way during the escort that everyone can pick up. Once the escort is done, it seems like they start collecting again pretty quick. The escort itself can take a little while though.

The collection NPCs have the collection icon (orange with an arrow) on the mini map when they are collecting.

Luthan.5236:

Oh okay. So there is an “event” and I probably see some orange circle at the map then? And can only donate when there is a pre-event? I will look for that later. I hope it is not too rare. Don’t want to wait 5-10 minutes doing nothing only because of achievement.

If you don’t want to wait…

Guest to a high-population server, go out into the open world and look for Mysterious Presents (stealth is useful if you don’t want to fight the mobs), or participate in the various mini games that rewards gifts.

Alternatively, farm anything you like, sell, and buy the gifts on the trading post. (IMO, they are currently overpriced for the current value of their contents, but that will vary over December and in 2014.)

Aroha.2875:

I had a horde of princess dolls, plush griffons and toy ventari (from gifts) try to beat the stuffing out of me in Frostgorge today. There’s plenty of them!

lol