Snowball skill bars confound me.

I don't understand any of this snowball junk. The skills, the environment, the setup, and everything about "snowballfightwars" confounds me. Whenever I try to approach any of this, I immediately begin to frown. Heck, whenever I zone into EotN, LA or Kamadan, I do a reflexive /eyeroll and try to tune out the freaky, out-of-place brikabrak that's all over the zone.

I have about 10-15 minutes' worth of practical experience with running a "snowballfight" skill bar from like 3 years ago, and that's it. All I remember is a weird, generic skillbar which I couldn't change (and which was set by the class I chose at character creation) with freaky skills that all look the same, and no way to heal. I just remember starting a match and getting WTFPWNT in a few moments, and being very frustrated with the entire experience.

So then I read threads about how this year there's a whole science on how to farm one of the quests/events ("SD") for lots of "Party Animal" and "Sweet Tooth" loot. So I want to maybe try it out, just because I'm interested in those titles.

Any tips on how I can remove the chip from my shoulder and view the whole "snowballfight" thing in a more positive light? It just seems so... aggrivating.

I don't know what kind of advice I'm really lookin' for, maybe just a sympathetic ear. The "bah humbug" is strong with me. :P|||Snowball is your standard attack, and it builds adrenaline for megasnowball. Spam those in 1vs1.

Flurry of ice (ranger) is the best attack against many foes. Spam on clumps of foes if you have it, otherwise play a ranger. Seriously, it's recommended.

Hidden rock & yellow snow are skills you use to prepare your next attack. I wouldn't use them during combat, but if your target is in a fort for example, good time to use them while you wait. Use them before the fight starts too.

Ice fort protects you for a while if you don't move (but you can attack). Hmmmm snowcone heals you plenty, but makes you useless during some time, so it's recommended you use that time to get out of a danger zone.

Anything else you can disable on a ranger, it's not useful enough to bother with it.

If you go 2 rangers, your basic strategy is to spam on clumps of foes and stay alive. You'll do enough damage that you'll get wins almost everytime. There's also a ranger + necro strategy on wiki that works better (so I hear, I haven't done a comparison) but it's a bit more complicated.|||Wintersday farming can suck it.

(But then again, it might be just me because I don't need any of the con-titles for GWAMM nor HoM.)|||Thanks, alaris, I don't mean to be a mega humbug. I tried it a couple times, and every time I go, I get focused by the npc's... chain interrupted, and killed. I spam #1 for all I'm worth, but I get drilled big time.

I'll watch the youtubes and maybe walk my ranger up there, she hasn't seen any action in a few years.|||Snowball bars are epic, next to the costume brawls is this the most fun temporary arena there is.

All you need is some practise, and if you ever played a snowball fight in real life it's pretty obvious. Pee on snow and it makes people ill, put a rock in snow and it knocks people down and gives people a concussion, an uber mega snowball puts anyone on the ground, an avalance more or less slows you down, snow down your skirt tickles and means you can't do anything at all, an ice fort protects you and a nice snowcane heals any wounds!

In the beginning you think it's hard, once you get used to it, it's dead simple and a lot of fun! Especially the PvP variants, in my opinion. The special skills make more of a difference, compared to PvE spam away flurry or degen, as long as it's AoE. I love blinding snow |||Try doing the Strength of Snow quest from the Rift Warden for practice with the skill bar. It's slower and you can take it at your own pace while working your way to Freezie, giving you a chance to get used to the skills. Then just hide up by the door and go afk for a few minutes while Freezie finishes off Grenchus. When you're comfortable with the skills, then you can tackle SD.|||Snowball is awesome because it's balanced now they finally after 3 years of everyone with a clue telling them to ****ing remove avalanche or do something similar, actually managed to do it.

Now all that remains is to remove the retarded concept that is fake presents.

In pve it's pretty imbalanced in both directions in different quests, but since the AI already sucks and definitely isn't made to handle snowball skillbars, you can just endlessly dodge.

I must say though, it feels saddening how so many people are so bad at snowball when it's so simple. It isn't like I expect everyone to be able to do DnD perfectly, or properly transfer the presents inbetween them, but really a lot of people don't seem to even know what the objectives are.|||I should add that in SD, wait for your team to go in too... don't go alone!|||ccrazool, I was right there with you when the snowball bar first came out. It can be a little daunting to try and figure out while you are in the middle of the chaos of a mission/PvP/etc.

First thing to do is be patient. Do not run up on the large group in Snowball Dom. Hang back and go in last. Secondly, learn how to kite. A quick side-step when you see a snowball coming for you can make all the difference. Third, if an NPC (or player in PvP) is running towards you, they are trying to use Snow Down The Shirt, an interrupt enabling skill. RUN AWAY! but not toward other red dots. Use Ice-Fort when you can and hold out until Snow Down The Shirt expires. Sudden direction changes while running can prevent them from using a hidden rock snowball on you. Forth, when you have a little break ALWAYS use Hidden Rock but not while you are being attacked unless you are in an ice-fort.

As others have said, try Strength of Snow. It is a very easy quest once you learn how to use ice-fort, kite and hidden rock. The end of Strength of Snow is really easy. Just hang back at the door at the very end and let the snowmen rez and deal with the Grentchies. It may take a while but they always, eventually, win.

The biggest thing to remember in Strength of Snow is skip the first group. Just run past them through the door on the upper right. Not every Grentchie needs to be killed.|||I’ll recommend running ‘In Grenth’s Defense’ or “You’re a Mean One…’ to get the hang of snowball fights. The enemy spawns one by one at the start then picks up to a few at a time. “Strength of Snow’ is more about getting you’re your grenchies into agro range so they all fight rather than sitting back letting you do all the work. It will go faster and be more fun but you want to learn to use the skills.

Changing the rules to what you will most likely be doing, farming presents. Don’t bother with ‘snow down the shirt’ it takes you into range to get ‘spiked’ hold off on this till you are comfortable with the fight. Generally load up a rock or yellow snow when you aren’t fighting at the moment. If you are dying use ‘mmm snow’ you will disable your skills but it’s better than dying. Ice Fort keeps you from getting hit, so throw that up when you will be taking damage, but don't move, you will leave the protection of the fort.

Once you get the hang of it start running ‘Snowball Dominance’ read up on the tactics to make it a 2 min farm (necro hero works great) but this will come with practice. At 2 min a run you get 10 presents 500 gold and vanguard pts, great PvE farm that doesn’t require finding other that hopefully can do the run too. Your eyes will bleed with boredom but isn’t that what people like with farms?

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Yuletide