Guild Wars 2

I would like to know what is the general strategy to deal with the harpies in the unidentified fractal.

Most people will just kill them 1 by 1 as they go forward, but this often results in a lot of deaths from kbs (even when using reflects).

I wonder if it is possible just to run past them.
I guess this should be done as a group. What do you think is the best way to go about this (with and without thieves)?

Shield of avenger, wall of reflect, stability skills, feelback, swirling winds… any projectile stoppers, aegises.

All melee them down, no one sit back at range. Stick together as a group and melee with your projectile stoppers in front of you then move to the next as a team. When ur all together, you know exactly where those KB balls are gonna land, and you’ll be ready.

Oh yeh, (was tired earlier and didn’t read op properly XD) if you want to just run through them, usually 2 guards can chain aegis and stability as you run, if they have maces, they can block an extra attack as they run (Protector’s strike) so long as everyone runs withing the guard’s little bubble, and a shield they can use to stop and block if they run out of cooldowns. One of the ways I’ve done it, but it was ages ago not sure if it’s been changed up.

You can strafe endlessly on a platform to avoid almost all their attacks (some arrows will hit you, but the KB ball will never hit).

If you have a thief and mesmer, they can also bypass every harpy in the map with stealth, and portal you when they’re upstairs. At higher levels, when just one arrow from a harpy can hit pretty hard, it’s often easier that way.