Guild Wars 2

Ok, I know it’s not supposed to be easy. However, I’m having three problems that are a long way from fun and beyond frustration, so some help and sympathy would be appreciated.

1. Huge hairy tigers and chunky Norn’s – My toons aren’t large, and I can’t see when the big chaps are jumping around at the same time. Wouldn’t be a problem if there was no timer and melting snowflakes. However, it’s much worse…

2. At the stairs of exploding presents. Even if I wait a looong time until there’s no one else around, as jumping with other people is extreeemely difficult and totally random, I can’t seem to press the jump button fast enough, my old, war wounded hands just can’t take it :’(

3. And what do old people suffer from the most? WIND! Yep, it doesn’t help that I’m freezing to death (and we’re not just talking about the price of electricity in the UK here), with my health running low, but random gusts of wind keep blowing me out of safe spots.

The exploding presents and random winds are just too random, and way too frustrating. I really like jumping puzzles; as a test of skill, but the random nature of the latter part of this puzzle is provoking my PTSD….

RAAAAAAAGGGEEEEE!!!

Thankyou

I really dislike the change with the exploding presents. It’s a lot more trolly than it used to be. You get a backlog of people waiting for it to be safe, aka when they first spawn, but it seems that when that many people start jumping it makes them explode even faster. Also you could be midway with the first bit at have no snowflakes to jump on and have to wait for them to appear. I can deal with that bit, but I’m finding the new presents to be quite frustrating. I never had much of an issue with them last year, but this year is a different story and making the JP not as enjoyable.

1. considering there are 3 paths, and you can choose when you wanna go now and not have to do this in large groups. this complain is invalid to me.

2. They haven’t changed at all, they exploded later year, they will explode next year. The random nature IS the point of that climb other wise it be pointless. Tip= Jump once the red/whites have formed but not the blue ones. it is a pretty easy jump and it gives you a lot more time.

3. again the wind has always been there. Its in fixed spots so if you know its coming it shouldn’t blind side you.

The exploding presents…

Frustrated to tears. That’s me.

The puzzle was so enjoyable last year.

Anyway, I am slowly getting the hang of it… I just don’t like it, anymore. PvP setup makes everything uglier. :/

Yeah, I gave up at the presents. Got through once at completely random, then had half a dozen tries where the gifts disappear right in front of me and then under me.

Piece of kitten puzzle desing, Mad King’s Clock Tower was actually enjoyable compared to this kitten.

chaotic, the present have changed… Last year they exploded according to certain pattern and rhythm. So once you figured a safe path you could easily rinse repeat.
This year however they’re totally random, and as someone said, if multiple peeps jump on them they rapidly explode, with enough people on them even instantly. So they’re just a massive aggro point. I can faceroll the rest of the puzzle easily, but the presents are a hit and miss depending on how many kittenbags jump on them at the same time i do.

The presents are a pain now due to the groups of people trying to get across, not only that but the timer, you made it more of a pvp jp then what it really was. I loved the jp last year, but this year, no thanks.

Took me a while to figure out as well, so made a quick annotated video. Hope it’s helpful for some of you. Make sure to enable annotations (available both in German as well as English).

Basically, there are just a few easy and simple things to consider making the whole thing a lot easier to get through:

• Try to play with 30+ fps. This makes it a lot easier. I’m usually able to play with 30-60 fps, but on my first attempt at recording my fps dropped below 20 and it became rather hard.

• Don’t rush. You can wait at the start as well as right before the parcels, especially if there are many others starting right now as well.

• If you’re lacking time in the first part of the puzzle (platforms), try skipping some of them. There are at least three plattforms you can skip quite easily.

• Don’t use the keyboard to turn around, keep your right mouse button pushed during the whole run and turn with your mouse. This requires some practice but gets you faster and more precise movement.

Regarding the parcel/present part

• Ignore the blue parcels. Those are supposed to make it easier, but they really limit the time you’ve got to finish the puzzle.

• Wait for respawn, but start jumping the moment one of the red parcels next to your platform is up. Don’t wait for the blue ones and you’ve got a few more precious seconds to do it.

The last part (snowballs)

• Don’t try to skip any of the “resting platforms” along the way.

• The pattern repeats itself, but not with every snowball. I’ve noticed there’s an easy pattern (no ice dropping right before the last resting point) as well as a hard pattern (two ice crystals dropping before the last resting point; making it almost impossible).

The post above pretty much explains it all. There is a way to make it, even if you’re jumping in a large group.
The only criticism I have about the gifts is that they don’t all explode once the first explosion has been triggered. Sometimes the first group makes it to the top so fast that more than half of the presents remain, at which point you’ll see a large crowd of people waiting around the campfire for ‘that one idiot’ who thinks he’s gonna make it and drop to his inevitable death.

CorneliusCoffin.3169:

The post above pretty much explains it all. There is a way to make it, even if you’re jumping in a large group.
The only criticism I have about the gifts is that they don’t all explode once the first explosion has been triggered. Sometimes the first group makes it to the top so fast that more than half of the presents remain, at which point you’ll see a large crowd of people waiting around the campfire for ‘that one idiot’ who thinks he’s gonna make it and drop to his inevitable death.

Hahaha this!

And it’s funny every time!

It’s going to become less funny as more people wisen up and keep on waiting and waiting.

My sole problem is with the wind. There doesn’t seem to be any way to anticipate or avoid it so it is all luck on whether you make it. Does anyone have any solution for the wind or is it just RNG instant fail?

Didn’t expect they actually would make it harder. Easy to get to mid checkpoint(unfortunately can only save you 1 time). But after that it is harder. With the exploding presents this really got buffed and they explode much faster than last year.

Part after that I haven’t tried enough. Will try tomorrow after doing some Nightmare living story stuff.

ArthurDent.9538:

My sole problem is with the wind. There doesn’t seem to be any way to anticipate or avoid it so it is all luck on whether you make it. Does anyone have any solution for the wind or is it just RNG instant fail?

Yes.

The addition of the mid way point is helpful as is the fact that there is no waiting to start again, however the downside of having multiple players starting at different times becomes apparent when you find you have to stop for a few seconds as there is nowhere to jump to because the flakes ahead haven’t formed yet – Not Good.

The exploding boxes do seem a little harder than last year and I don’t remember the explosions and totally random gusts of wind (especially on the safe areas) on the run in. No wonder players complain and get frustrated when random gusts of wind push you off when you you are standing in the only spot available to avoid the rolling snowballs.

One step forward two steps back.

Aircool.9527:

2. At the stairs of exploding presents. Even if I wait a looong time until there’s no one else around, as jumping with other people is extreeemely difficult and totally random, I can’t seem to press the jump button fast enough, my old, war wounded hands just can’t take it :’(

It may be a latency issue, if you don’t have particularly good latency at that part you’re probably never going to make it because the game wont register the jump when you jumped.

lol Looks like I’m lucky as all kitten, because I did it 4 times and never fell down from the presents or the wind or anything after. Praise the lord!
But seriously, everything I did was the same as last year and that had yet to fail me.

RNG instead of player skill is BAD AND NOT FUN. Dependency from other players push this issue even further.
Please, consider reverting exploding presents and wind to the state of first version of puzzle.

ArthurDent.9538:

My sole problem is with the wind. There doesn’t seem to be any way to anticipate or avoid it so it is all luck on whether you make it. Does anyone have any solution for the wind or is it just RNG instant fail?

Dodge roll it. It only pops up in a few spots anyways.

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.

nekretaal.6485:

ArthurDent.9538:

My sole problem is with the wind. There doesn’t seem to be any way to anticipate or avoid it so it is all luck on whether you make it. Does anyone have any solution for the wind or is it just RNG instant fail?

Dodge roll it. It only pops up in a few spots anyways.

how can you dodge roll it when you are on a tiny snowflake? and only a few spots? i get randomly blown off from any snowflake. maybe 1/20 times i can make it to the midway safe point without being randomly blown off a snowflake

edit: finally made it to safe platform, wind blew me off there while i was talking to the npc…

Twiggy.2138:

nekretaal.6485:

ArthurDent.9538:

My sole problem is with the wind. There doesn’t seem to be any way to anticipate or avoid it so it is all luck on whether you make it. Does anyone have any solution for the wind or is it just RNG instant fail?

Dodge roll it. It only pops up in a few spots anyways.

how can you dodge roll it when you are on a tiny snowflake? and only a few spots? i get randomly blown off from any snowflake. maybe 1/20 times i can make it to the midway safe point without being randomly blown off a snowflake

edit: finally made it to safe platform, wind blew me off there while i was talking to the npc…

Erm.. there’s only a couple places where the wind even exists. Both are after the mid-way safe point… sooo not sure what you are looking at then.

Got dodge-roll bound to the wrong key, or double-tap to roll enabled?

biofrog.1568:

Erm.. there’s only a couple places where the wind even exists. Both are after the mid-way safe point… sooo not sure what you are looking at then.

Got dodge-roll bound to the wrong key, or double-tap to roll enabled?

no, its not dodge rolling, i know how to play the game. I am uploading a video to youtube but its going to take forever, ill update when its done. this wind is most definitely before AND after the midway safe point. Infact i have even had the wind blow me off the presents, off the ledge while running between boulders, everywhere.

Aircool.9527:

Ok, I know it’s not supposed to be easy. However, I’m having three problems that are a long way from fun and beyond frustration, so some help and sympathy would be appreciated.

1. Huge hairy tigers and chunky Norn’s – My toons aren’t large, and I can’t see when the big chaps are jumping around at the same time. Wouldn’t be a problem if there was no timer and melting snowflakes. However, it’s much worse…

2. At the stairs of exploding presents. Even if I wait a looong time until there’s no one else around, as jumping with other people is extreeemely difficult and totally random, I can’t seem to press the jump button fast enough, my old, war wounded hands just can’t take it :’(

3. And what do old people suffer from the most? WIND! Yep, it doesn’t help that I’m freezing to death (and we’re not just talking about the price of electricity in the UK here), with my health running low, but random gusts of wind keep blowing me out of safe spots.

The exploding presents and random winds are just too random, and way too frustrating. I really like jumping puzzles; as a test of skill, but the random nature of the latter part of this puzzle is provoking my PTSD….

RAAAAAAAGGGEEEEE!!!

Thankyou

The presents explode when players jump on the blue presents at the front. If you can manage to jump to the first white present, without touching the blue (or anyone behind you touching the blue) you will be able to jump straight to the ledge without anything exploding.

Twiggy.2138:

biofrog.1568:

Erm.. there’s only a couple places where the wind even exists. Both are after the mid-way safe point… sooo not sure what you are looking at then.

Got dodge-roll bound to the wrong key, or double-tap to roll enabled?

no, its not dodge rolling, i know how to play the game. I am uploading a video to youtube but its going to take forever, ill update when its done. this wind is most definitely before AND after the midway safe point. Infact i have even had the wind blow me off the presents, off the ledge while running between boulders, everywhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOmkVrvYZpU

That looks like a bug, it’s the animation that plays when you fall and get sent back to start – yet it plays when you haven’t fallen. Having run the puzzle about 30-40 times today, I have not once seen that animation (or been knocked off by wind) unless I fell and and was sent back to the start.

I gave up last year, and sadly, looks like i’m going to skip this again. I made it to phase 2, but i just can’t get past the boxes phase. At the least, we should be able to start there once we get there. I came back to GW2 to experience it again, but jumping puzzles was always one of my least favorite things about it, and my time is better spent on something else, which isn’t as frustrating. A-Net still hasn’t learned how to balance frustration and fun.

Been trying for over an hour and alas have failed constantly.. It’s ridiculous really, the first part, only having two attempts at the second part and if you die you have to repeat.. sigh.

I’m having the same issue with the wind bug. Found it beyond frustrating. It’s virtually impossible at this point. I did it easily last year, on like my second attempt. Then every day.

It happens continuously throughout the whole puzzle, is unavoidable and completely random on any of the snowflakes. I play from the UK on a US server but I never have latency issues as I have a 100mb fiber optic line. This isn’t about jumping at the right time or falling or lagging, it’s just a weird wind bug taht strikes when u hit a snowflake.

It’s exactly as the video posted by Twiggy.2138 shows. Random and making it impossible. Shame, this was probably my fav JP

ahh. since i found out it was a bug not a feature i have closed everything on my computer (skype hates me) and finished the puzzle 3 times in a row with no wind issues! Being in australia.. i assume this is the problem. i really feel for you though squirrelbane! i was ready to jump on the ‘i hate anet’ train if this was how the puzzle was actually meant to work :P

hah xD Oh I’d never jump on that train I’m uttely nuts for da Anet love

(confess……ya…ok..i was ready to shout “WORST CHANGE EVA!” until I saw your post lol)

I’ve got skype up too…not that it uses much bandwidth. I’ll try closing everything and see if that helps. Odd tho…doesn’t normally interfere with the game, especially with my beast of a line.

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.

No. As mentioned I think we are only used to the old version from last year which was easier despite having no 1-time safe checkpoint. Especially at the exploding gifts.

Tons of players waiting at the exploding gifts making them all explode at once and much faster(even if you only go by yourself seems faster).

Last year not all of them exploded. They did a major change here and it is luck based a bit because I don’t have a unlimited jump range and if all others in range are going to explode it is a bad thing. Almost going to use the checkpoint anytime now. Sometimes that 1-time checkpoint can help. Sometimes you die 2 times in a row at gifts.

But certainly seems nearly impossible to do without checkpoint.

Clocktowers on other hand was much easier this time(last year it was different and clock tower was harder).

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.

Well, bully for you.

As you say;

It’s a skill based game and like it or not, Jumping requires some skill.

As you may have noticed, this discussion is about elements of the puzzle where skill is irrelevant, due to one reason or another.

I don’t have problems with the other jumping puzzles, I quite like them. I even did quite well at the clockwork tower despite my ageing reactions.

No, the problematic parts of the puzzle that I’ve highlighted are actually lacking in true ‘puzzle’ elements.

I suppose I should note that I’m terrible at PvP, as well as the Thief and Elementalist classes, I die so easily. However, as far as I’m aware, I’ve never asked them to be buffed to cater for my woeful inadequacies. That also rings true for the Wintersday jumping puzzle; no buffs requested.

I take on board your point about the mesmer portals; I wouldn’t even be able to get out of bed in the morning without my mesmer portal being on hand…

Luthan: Check out the video I linked above (starting at 1 minute 40 seconds): Just jump as early as possible, before the blue presents appearing. This buys you additional time and most players won’t try to jump so early and/or fail (since it requires some practice).

Note on Dodging: Tried it and it’s indeed possible to just dodge through the snowman blowing to the left. This way you’ll never have to wait for it to stop, which buys you precious seconds and allows you to wait for the right snowball/crystal pattern if you really have to.

I am fine with almost the entire jumping puzzle, except those atrociously implemented exploding presents!

They are a complete troll, it was obviously not play tested very well before release. I loved it from last year and never had a problem then, this year it is severe frustration which completely mitigates any fun it was meant to generate.

They absolutely have to tone down the exploding presents.

Tried my advise from above? I confess, from time to time they still despawn under my feet (if unlucky), but it’s a lot easier if you start early and ignore the blue presents.

I haven’t been able to make the jump to the red presents while carrying a present(though had no problem with it when I forgot to talk to the NPC)…am I just screwing up or am I missing some sort of speed boost for it?

Just bad luck or timing. There’s no difference with/without a present. Don’t forget GW2 acts a bit like classic Super Mario Bros games: You can jump last moment, even if you’re almost off the platform.

What they did to the JP was kittenty as hell.

It was fine last year, even with the waiting.

This puzzle is a nightmare now. The exploding present staircase is so seemingly random it is ridiculously difficult to get to the top. Now, I am really just looking forward to completing it one time so I don’t have to do it again. Course I may get so frustrated with it I’ll stop caring about doing it all together. Last year it did seem a little easier.

Wow, I thought the JP was WAY harder last year! I love it either way, but this year definitely seems easier to me. I’ve done it 70-80 times so far.
I would agree with those who are saying not to jump the presents when the blue ones are there. It’s just really unstable. Wait for the other ones to load. It also helps me to use a trackball mouse, since my hands SUCK.

Farther down the Wintersday forum, I made a guide that might help a few of you. I think that some of you might just be too frustrated, which is totally understandable.

I wish all of you good luck if you keep trying and my sympathies if you don’t. I have carpal tunnel, so I can understand hands not doing what you want sometimes.

I as well am frustrated with the random exploding presents. Don’t understand how adding rng in a timed jumping puzzle makes it more enjoyable. If you complete it, you may as well just be lucky

Are the presents exploding randomly or is it that people aren’t avoiding the ones that cause the explosions? I’m wondering if this changed or if people just forgot how to avoid the blue ones?

Aircool.9527:

Ok, I know it’s not supposed to be easy. However, I’m having three problems that are a long way from fun and beyond frustration, so some help and sympathy would be appreciated.

1. Huge hairy tigers and chunky Norn’s – My toons aren’t large, and I can’t see when the big chaps are jumping around at the same time. Wouldn’t be a problem if there was no timer and melting snowflakes. However, it’s much worse…

2. At the stairs of exploding presents. Even if I wait a looong time until there’s no one else around, as jumping with other people is extreeemely difficult and totally random, I can’t seem to press the jump button fast enough, my old, war wounded hands just can’t take it :’(

3. And what do old people suffer from the most? WIND! Yep, it doesn’t help that I’m freezing to death (and we’re not just talking about the price of electricity in the UK here), with my health running low, but random gusts of wind keep blowing me out of safe spots.

The exploding presents and random winds are just too random, and way too frustrating. I really like jumping puzzles; as a test of skill, but the random nature of the latter part of this puzzle is provoking my PTSD….

RAAAAAAAGGGEEEEE!!!

Thankyou

TBH – I felt the same way you did for the first 10-15 tries of this – I was kitten ed that it seemed so hard.

But don’t give up hope! it does get easier. Once I completed it for the first time, the second time came soon after, and then 3-6 were relatively easy. I expect to get to 20 tonight without too much trouble.

I think the JP was done really well – I liked the challenge once I got the hang of it – seemed like an accomplishment.

I was looking forward to this jumping puzzle. It is the JP where I really honed my jumping skills, and where you needed skills to finish it. Now I am posting this from the middle of the JP, in complete safety, whether you finish it in 2 minutes or 15 minutes doesn’t matter. Oh I just got kicked out for inactivity, yeah that makes sense /facepalm. Now whether you finish or not is about 30% rng, 60% depending if other people do the present stairs with you, 7% lag, and 3% skill. Please Anet, stop ruining existing content! At least now that I no longer do fractals because you completely ruined that, I have plenty of time to try to finish this JP daily.

Yeah, I’m fine with all the changes (kinda anyways) EXCEPT the kitten exploding gift box section. Why the hell was it changed to be completely random? It use to be based on people stepping on them, wasn’kitten Now (even with the ability to restart once at that point) its based pretty much entirely on chance. Revert the changes to that (and the kitten scoreboard/popup thing and its restart) and at least I’d be happy with it.

Katz.5143:

Are the presents exploding randomly or is it that people aren’t avoiding the ones that cause the explosions? I’m wondering if this changed or if people just forgot how to avoid the blue ones?

Ohh, I’m pretty sure its random (or a bug). I sat there and watch them just randomly explode, both individually, in sections, and even a giant chain of exploding ones (this was when no one was even on the presents, we were still on the mint with Tixx) where it wiped all the presents.

There is nothing random about any of this. The present are not random, they explode in a predetermined pattern, they always have. The wind is not random it gusts in a predetermined pattern, it always has. If you wait and watch you can figure out the pattern, it’s not even hard. You can just sit there in front of them indefinitely now since there isn’t a timer.

The only thing that’s changed is the pacing of the run.

My only negative with this is a reward. 3 stupid presents for this is just a joke. Paths getting very repetitive when you completed them several times and there is become no challenge. So why should i bother in repetitve and static JP for 3 gifts, if i can do more fun things?

Aircool.9527:

Ok, I know it’s not supposed to be easy. However, I’m having three problems that are a long way from fun and beyond frustration, so some help and sympathy would be appreciated.

1. Huge hairy tigers and chunky Norn’s – My toons aren’t large, and I can’t see when the big chaps are jumping around at the same time. Wouldn’t be a problem if there was no timer and melting snowflakes. However, it’s much worse…

2. At the stairs of exploding presents. Even if I wait a looong time until there’s no one else around, as jumping with other people is extreeemely difficult and totally random, I can’t seem to press the jump button fast enough, my old, war wounded hands just can’t take it :’(

3. And what do old people suffer from the most? WIND! Yep, it doesn’t help that I’m freezing to death (and we’re not just talking about the price of electricity in the UK here), with my health running low, but random gusts of wind keep blowing me out of safe spots.

The exploding presents and random winds are just too random, and way too frustrating. I really like jumping puzzles; as a test of skill, but the random nature of the latter part of this puzzle is provoking my PTSD….

RAAAAAAAGGGEEEEE!!!

Thankyou

1. Wait a few days, there will be less people in there

2. Jump before the blue presents spawn, use jump dodge.

3. get gud

Opened other thread saying the same about the presents.

1) It’s less of a problem for me than last year because not everyone start at the same time.

2) Sometimes you see a bunch of people at the checkpoint to wait for someone to sacrifice.

3) I don’t have problem with wind. Did they change anything? It is not random.

Lippuringo.1742:

My only negative with this is a reward. 3 stupid presents for this is just a joke. Paths getting very repetitive when you completed them several times and there is become no challenge. So why should i bother in repetitve and static JP for 3 gifts, if i can do more fun things?

THIS!
Rewards are like in PvP! Just a bad joke…