Mysterious Present -> Princess Doll: Your experiences?

[Cyberman]

I don't like saying so, but most of the times I run away from them as soon as I grabbed the presents.

When I do fight them, I very nearly die, and have been downed several times.

Doesn't matter which region I'm in, btw.
Most of the others I can handle - golems are annyoing, but having a pet helps (they stun me, but not Ravage - at least not always).

So, what about you? Am I the only one who runs away from a princess doll?
(That sentence looks weird.)

[RD]

Aren't princess dolls the easiest if you pay attention to the Confusion? They do very little damage on their own, no?

[Cyberman]

Aren't princess dolls the easiest if you pay attention to the Confusion? They do very little damage on their own, no?

I don't know.
All I know is I start to fight them, and a few seconds later I'm dead because they drain my health faster than I can restore it. It must be a spell of sorts, but how do you keep track of what five of them are doing at the same time?

[Nemeon Lion]

I don't know.
All I know is I start to fight them, and a few seconds later I'm dead because they drain my health faster than I can restore it. It must be a spell of sorts, but how do you keep track of what five of them are doing at the same time?

It's easy. If they start crouching and screaming they are trying to apply 5 stacks of confusion to you. Each doll. If there's 5 of them that's 25 stacks of confusion on you so you quickly die if you try to use skills.

How to beat them? Either get away from them when they do that or wait for the confusion stacks to go away.

Did you really never notice that you were being bombarded by confusion?

[RabidCoqui]

Depends what I'm playing. On my warrior I have no problem once I learned to just use my bow. My mesmer does OK but I usually have to break combat midway.

The golems are the only ones that give me issues with either character. I get stunlocked and can't do anything. My warrior can slowly take them down but my mesmer can't take the dmg.

[RabidCoqui]

Are you melee? If you're close to them they apply lots of confusion... I think it's when they scream.

[Cyberman]

Are you melee? If you're close to them they apply lots of confusion... I think it's when they scream.

Ranger, but still close - otherwise I couldn't use my skills and they run towards me anyway.

Did you really never notice that you were being bombarded by confusion?

No, how/why should I?
All I see is a lot of enemies, me attacking them, suddenly my health drops rapidly. I don't really have time to check each icon that appears. It's all a blurr of color anyway, was similar in GW1, didn't really check the symbols there either.

I'd have looked up their specs on the wiki, but I don't think there are too many people writing on it. Or perhaps it's just all too new yet, and too much to do at once?

Hm. I looked that confusion up on the wiki - does it really only apply when you activate the skill? It's going so fast, I'd not be surprised if it were per hit (Throwing axe - bounces, second skill hits multiple at once.)

[Raye]

Yes, confusion is evil. Generally speaking, that's why mesmers spam it. I don't understand people who say confusion is useless in pve... it is not.

Condition removal alone is sometimes a problem. Guardian went from 75% health to downed when using Smite Condition.

As a guardian, you could trait yourself to remove conditions with your F2 virtue... it's a major trait on the virtues line. Just a suggestion =] I'm not sure if the virtue counts as a skill. (i.e. not sure if it would or wouldn't trigger confusion)

No, how/why should I?
All I see is a lot of enemies, me attacking them, suddenly my health drops rapidly. I don't really have time to check each icon that appears. It's all a blurr of color anyway, was similar in GW1, didn't really check the symbols there either.

I'd have looked up their specs on the wiki, but I don't think there are too many people writing on it. Or perhaps it's just all too new yet, and too much to do at once?

Hm. I looked that confusion up on the wiki - does it really only apply when you activate the skill? It's going so fast, I'd not be surprised if it were per hit (Throwing axe - bounces, second skill hits multiple at once.)

Yes, you should pay attention to your conditions or they kill you =P
Like I said earlier, confusion is just like empathy + backfire in gw1... you'll just die if you don't take them off or wait them out. Conditions are on top of your utility skills, where your sigil and signets show up? Around there. Confusion has a swirly red icon. In addition, when you have confusion on you, you'll see purple clouds around your head.

About the activation of confusion, your auto-attack is a skill, so as long as you're attacking them with confusion on, you'll be damaging yourself. You need to cancel that stuff as soon as you see the confusion signs.

Edit to add: I think confusion is probably the worst condition to have on. Maybe on-par with some decent stacks of bleeding.

[nkuvu]

As a guardian, you could trait yourself to remove conditions with your F2 virtue... it's a major trait on the virtues line. Just a suggestion =] I'm not sure if the virtue counts as a skill. (i.e. not sure if it would or wouldn't trigger confusion)

I have all of five points in Virtues. *shrug* My point is that the condition removal skills don't always help, but I've seen a lot of people claim that condition removal is the way to prevent any damage from confusion. My necromancer was downed by Consume Conditions and confusion.

Also, have been out and about opening presents today. Found one with all dolls inside, and looked at combat log after killing them. Their basic ranged attack (Shoot) was doing 25-40 points of damage. With down-leveling in Metrica Province, my guardian has 870 health maximum. Just 25 points of damage doesn't sound like a lot, but with five dolls that's 125-200 points per volley. Not exactly something I'd call very little damage.

Final edit (no, really)

Found some toy golems in the same spot as the dolls. Golems were doing 15-23 damage (or so) with their ranged Shoot attack. Their Overload skill did 31-32 damage, and Pound did 40 damage (only hit with that one once).

So dolls are definitely doing more damage with their ranged attack, not counting confusion.

[Nemeon Lion]

No, how/why should I?
All I see is a lot of enemies, me attacking them, suddenly my health drops rapidly. I don't really have time to check each icon that appears. It's all a blurr of color anyway, was similar in GW1, didn't really check the symbols there either.

I'd have looked up their specs on the wiki, but I don't think there are too many people writing on it. Or perhaps it's just all too new yet, and too much to do at once?

Hm. I looked that confusion up on the wiki - does it really only apply when you activate the skill? It's going so fast, I'd not be surprised if it were per hit (Throwing axe - bounces, second skill hits multiple at once.)

That's your problem right there. You can't just charge in and spam attacks hoping for things to die. That's not exactly deep gameplay.

If this was release day, I would understand, but 3 months in you really should be able to identify all possible boons and conditions just from their icon and world effect (in the case of the confusion, the purple clouds). If not, train yourself to be able to do so.