**** Complete Guide to the Wintersday 2007 Event ****

Table of Contents:

Note: Use CTRL+F and search for each topic listed below...

• General Event Information
• Which characters can join in with the Event?
• Towns Redecorated for the Wintersday Event?
• Collectable Item: Candy Cane Shard

How to get them?
What are they used for?

• Wintersday Quests

Support Dwayna Quests

The Greatest Snowman Ever Made
1. Save the Reindeer
2. Find the Stolen Presents
3. Spreading the Wintersday Spirit

Support Grenth Quests

A Very Grentchie Wintersday
1. White Mist
2. How The Grentches Stole Wintersday
3. The Gift of Giving

• Snowball Fight Arena PvP (Dwayna Vs Grenth)

How do I enter it?
Arena Rules and Setup
Snowball Arena Skills
Playing Tips
Prizes

• Snowball Fight Quests PvE (Dwayna Vs Grenth)

Support Dwayna

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grenth
Strength of Snow

Support Grenth

In Grenth's Defence
Straight to the Heart

• Feature: The Winter Dwarf
• Wintersday Henchman: Enchanted Snowman
• Present Hunt
• Festival Finale

Wintersday 9 Rings Game (Dwayna Vs Grenth)
Hat Information
Dwayna's Hat

Wreath Crown

Grenth's Hat

Ice Crown

• Wintersday Collectors

Prophecies
Nightfall
Special: Wintersday Gift Giver

• Candysmiths
• Wintersday Collectable Items

Eggnog
Spiked Eggnog
Snowman Summoner
Fruitcake
Peppermint Candy Cane
Wintergreen Candy Cane
Rainbow Candy Cane
Winter Gift
Wintersday Gift
Glob of Frozen Ectoplasm
Yuletide Tonic

• Guild Wars Wintersday 2007 Contest Winners
• Updates to Guide
• Contributors

General Event Information

The event begins on Friday, December 21, 2007 (12:00 pm PST).

Time Conversion Tool:

http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc




Which characters can join in with the Event?

Any character can join in this event, providing that they have access to Prophecies or Nightfall campaigns. As the event doesn't take place anywhere in Factions.

But you can still join in Snowball Fights by going to the Great Temple of Balthazar.




Towns Redecorated for the Wintersday Event

Towns that have been redecorated for this event included:

• Lion's Arch
• Kamadan, Jewel of Istan
• Droknar's Forge
• Ascalon City

Changes include the following:

• Snow as far as the eye can see
• Wintersday Trees
• Snowmen
• Carollers
• Giant Candy Canes
• NPCs who throw snowballs
• Giant Gift Boxes

Special Collectable Item: Candy Cane Shard



A Candy Cane Shard is a special item only available during the Wintersday special event. They are classed as both a collectable drop and a Salvage Item.

How to get them?

• Every monster, throughout the game (but only during Wintersday 2007 event)
• Three candy cane shards are awarded to each member of the winning team in PvP snowball fights.

What are they used for?

• You can exchange 5 candy cane shards for a 1 Wintersday Gift by speaking to the Wintersday Gift Giver [Collector].
• You require 1 candy cane shard for each game in the Festival Finale you play in.
• You give these items to Candysmiths who will craft you Candy Cane Weapons in return. See next section for more information.

Wintersday Quests

During the festivities, special quests were offered:


Support Dwayna Quests:

The Greatest Snowman Ever Made

You get this quest Old Nickoles in Lion's Arch:

1. Speak to Joy, priestess of Dwayna, and learn how to aid the goddess of light and turn the tide of winter. For the children.
2. Make Scrappy happy.
3. Ask around for 2 pieces of coal... There must be some out there somewhere.
4. Ask around for a pipe made out of corncob or some other material... There must be one out there somewhere.
5. Ask around for some a magical hat... There must be one out there somewhere.
6. Return to Scrappy Jhim and help him make the biggest snowman ever.
7. Take back Nebo Village for Dwayna! Destroy the Grentches and Humbugs.
8. See Joy for your reward.

You can collect the items in any order. The items themselves can be found from the following NPCs:

• Vanguard Kyle has the 2 pieces of coal in Ascalon City next to Symon the Scribe.
• King Jalis has the pipe in Droknar's Forge
• Magi Malaquire has the magic hat in Lion's Arch

The following 3 quests are done in a chain:

1. Save the Reindeer

Acquired from Grandfather Kringle in Kamadan, Jewel of Istan

1. Meet with the Frost Maiden in Fahranur, The First City.
2. Find the kidnapped reindeer in Fahranur, The First City. You have found x of the 2 groups of kidnapped reindeer.
3. Return the reindeer to the Frost Maiden.
4. Meet with the Frost Maiden in Mehtani Keys.
5. Find the kidnapped reindeer in Mehtani Keys. You have found x of the 2 groups of kidnapped reindeer.
6. Return the reindeer to the Frost Maiden.
7. See Grandfather Kringle for your reward.

The locations of the reindeer are as follows:

Fahranur, The First City:


Mehtani Keys:


Note: You must free all 4 Reindeer in each area and speak to the Frost Maiden without leaving the area. If you map travel or leave the area after freeing the Reindeer you will need to free the Reindeer again.


2. Find the Stolen Presents

Acquired from Grandfather Kringle in Kamadan, Jewel of Istan

1. Speak to the Frost Maiden on the Plains of Jarin and learn how to find the stolen presents.
2. Guide Rudi around the Plains of Jarin to find the stolen presents. You have recovered x of the stolen presents.
3. Return the stolen presents to the Frost Maiden.
4. Meet the Frost Maiden in Issnur Isles.
5. Guide Rudi around the Issnur Isles to find the stolen presents. You have recovered x of the stolen presents.
6. Return the stolen presents to the Frost Maiden.
7. See Grandfather Kringle for your reward.

The stolen presents can be found in the following locations:

Plains of Jarin:


Issnur Isles:



3. Spreading the Wintersday Spirit

Acquired from Grandfather Kringle in Kamadan, Jewel of Istan

1. Meet with the Frost Maiden in Zehlon Reach to learn how the Festive Moa can spread Wintersday spirit.
2. Escort the Festive Moa to the village so she can entertain the locals.
3. Play some music to put the Festive Moa in a dancing mood.
4. Tell the Frost Maiden about the Moa's performance.
5. Meet the Frost Maiden in Issnur Isles to continue spreading Winterdsay spirit.
6. Take the Festive Moa to the village so she can entertain the locals.
7. Play more music to inspire the Festive Moa to boogie down.
8. Tell the Frost Maiden about the Moa's performance.
9. See Grandfather Kringle for your reward.

You need to take the Festive Moa to the following locations:

Zehlon Reach:

Issnur Isles:


Note: The Festive Moa is "not an animal" and cannot be charmed.


Support Grenth Quests:

A Very Grentchie Wintersday

You get this quest Old Nickoles in Lion's Arch:

1. Speak to Vehemus to learn how you can assist Grenth.
2. Ask around for some termites... There must be some out there somewhere.
3. Ask around for some gunk... There must be some out there somewhere.
4. Ask around for some garlic... There must be some out there somewhere.
5. Ask around for a pair of unwashed socks... There must be some out there somewhere.
6. Return the four ingredients to Vehemus.
7. Meet Vehemus and the Grentch outside of Lion's Arch.
8. Travel to the Ascalon Settlement with the Grentch and destroy all the Wintersday gifts from Dwayna. X of 7 Wintersday gifts remaining.
9. See Vehemus for your reward.

Please check Guildwiki for item locations: http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/A_Very_...hie_Wintersday

Once all the items are acquired, talk to Vehemus then leave from Lion's Arch to pick up the Grentch and destroy the presents (7 total) in the Ascalon Settlement; click on a present to destroy it.


The following 3 quests are done in a chain:

1. White Mist

Acquired from Elder Skruuj in Kamadan, Jewel of Istan

1. Rendezvous with the Humbugs on the Plains of Jarin.
2. Destroy the Freezie Wannabes. x of 3 remain.
3. See Elder Skruuj for your reward.

Collect the Humbugs right outside of Kamadan and proceed to the nearby Freezie Wannabe and destroy it. Next make your way to the other two Wannabes are outside of the Sunspear Great Hall and destroy them.

Freezie Wannabes have a low resistance to Fire damaged, so use fiery weapons and fire magic to take them down easily.


2. How The Grentches Stole Wintersday

Acquired from Elder Skruuj in Kamadan, Jewel of Istan

1. Rendezvous with the Grentch squad in Fahranur, The First City.
2. Capture the Wintersday stocking by destroying its protectors. X of 5 groups remain.
3. See Elder Skruuj for your reward.

Depart Jokanur Diggings and meet up with the the Grentch Squad. From there proceed South along the eastern path, taking the final bridge towards Fahranur. There are five mobs of Level 12 Brrrls, some of the mobs also having a Yeti, you need to kill all these mobs. One of the mobs, the one closest to the bridge, has the boss Ursula the White.

Snowmen mobs have a low resistance to Fire damaged, so use fiery weapons and fire magic to take them down easily.


3. The Gift of Giving

Acquired from Elder Skruuj in Kamadan, Jewel of Istan

1. Deliver a special present to Bahbukar in Churrhir Fields.
2. Deliver a special present to Timahr in Plains of Jarin.
3. Deliver a special present to Ashigun in Zehlon Reach.
4. Deliver a special present to Kanyama in Issnur Isles.
5. Deliver a special present to Tesserai in Mehtani Keys.
6. See Elder Skruuj for your reward

The usual monsters will be found in the area, so be careful. You need to click on the NPC to deliver the present, at which time you can map travel to the next location.

Maps:



Snowball Fights Arena PvP (Dwayna Vs Grenth)

The snowball arena is where players can join and fight for Dwayna or Grenth (selected a random) and earn prizes, faction and gamer points:

How do I enter it?

Simply speak to any any Wintersday Priest to teleport to the starting location. From there you can enter the arena solo.


Arena Rules and Setup

The following rules apply for this arena:

• Level: Any
• Team Size: 4
• Teams: Random
• Side: Random (Dwayna's or Grenth's team)

Character Rules:

• All characters may enter regardless of level. (See reason below)
• Equipment, including armour and weapons, is disabled and has no effect during the match.
• The Yuletide effect sets everyone's maximum health to 500, maximum energy to 40, energy regeneration at 4, and prevents attacks with weapons.

Snowball Arena Skills

Regardless of what your skill bar is when you enter, you skills are replaced with the following skill bar:


The skills you are provided with are described as follows:

• Snowball - Spell. You throw a slow-moving snowball at target foe. That foe takes 50 damage if it hits.
• Mega Snowball - Spell. You throw a very slow-moving snowball at target foe. That foe is knocked down and takes 75 damage if it hits.

Skill 5 will be one of two skills depending on which God side you are currently fighting on:

• Avalanche - Skill. Target foe and all nearby foes are Crippled for 10 seconds.
• Yellow Snow - Glyph. Lose one Condition. Your next snowball causes Disease for 10 seconds. (Note that this will replace Hidden Rock since its also a Glyph)

Skill 6 is replaced with one of the following skills, depending on your current primary profession:

Warrior:



Elementalist:



Mesmer:



Monk:



Necromancer:



Ranger:



Assassin:



Dervish:

The Avatar of Dwayna:



The Avatar of Grenth:



For 30 seconds, whenever you use an attack skill, you Steal 5 Health from your target. This Skill is disabled for 60 seconds.

Paragon:



For 10 seconds, the next time each ally within earshot throws a snowball, that snowball moves 100% faster.

Ritualist:



Create a level 5 Spirit of Jack Frost. This spirit's attacks deal 50 damage. This Spirit dies after 60 seconds.


Playing Tips

• Presents spawn every 30 seconds, starting 15 seconds into the match. Presents can spawn in front of the waterfall in the south west and cave in the north east, or at the top of the cliffs behind them.
• Dwayna is to the east, north of the red resurrection shrine. Grenth is west, to the south of the blue resurrection shrine.
• Players must pick up presents and carry them to the avatar of "their" god.
• The victors will be decided by which team brings 5 Presents to their god's avatar first. In the event of a tie both teams lose.
• There are fake presents that explode and do 250 damage to the player who picked it up. Roughly 1 in 3 presents are fake, there is no way to distinguish them from regular presents without picking them up.
• Presents reduce movement speed to roughly 50%.
• Presents are dropped if the player holding it is knocked down.
• Players who die resurrect every 5 seconds
• Dying in the arena does not count as a real death. This means people aiming for the Survivor title can die in the arena without losing their progress.
• Some of your weapon stats do work in snowball fights. Vamp mods for example make you lose health, a monk using enchantment mod gets a longer ice breaker, shields with condition duration reduction work when you get crippled by avalanche or poisoned by yellow snow or dazed by hidden rock.

Prizes

• 100 Balthazar Faction for each unique kill
• 50 Balthazar Faction and 3 Candy Cane Shards for winning
• 50 Balthazar Faction for a Flawless Victory
• 50 Balthazar Faction for 5 and 10 Consecutive Wins
• Gladiator points are NOT awarded to teams winning 10 times in a row.
• 10 points toward the Gamer title track are awarded for each victory

Snowball Fight Quests PvE (Dwayna Vs Grenth)

The PvE snowball fights are special repeatable solo quests where you will use Snowball Fighting Skills instead of normal skills. To do any of the solo quests, you need to speak to the Rift Warden in Kamadan, Jewel of Istan or Lion's Arch. The quests are as follows:


Support Dwayna

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grenth

This is a solo quest.

Speak to the Rift Warden when you are ready to enter the Underworld.

1. Recover all the stolen presents. x of 5 gift bundles recovered.
2. See Rift Warden for your reward.
3. *BONUS*: Survive for as long as possible.

• Upon entering the Underworld, all other party members are removed and your skills are replaced with the snow fighting skills.
• In order to "capture" the presents you must clear the enemies from around each gift bundle and stand by it. In the Mission Progress section of your interface a bar will measure your capture progress. Red means the enemy control the gift bundle, while blue means you have captured it.
• BONUS - Upon finishing the mission an Avatar of Dwayna appears. She offers to send you back to town or you can try the bonus, which is to survive as long as possible. There are 6 rounds of 6 Grentches to fight. You receive one Candy Cane Shard for each completed wave.

• Drops include Candy Cane Shards and Globs of Frozen Ectoplasm. See sections below for what you use these times for.

Strength of Snow

Note: Eye of the North expansion is required to access this quest.

This is a solo quest.

Speak to the Rift Warden when you are ready to enter the Secret Lair of the Snowmen.

Summary

1. Speak to the Rift Warden when you are ready to defend the Secret Lair of the Snowmen.

You need to make your way to Freezie in the area where he is normally located within the Secret Lair of the Snowmen Dungeon.

Along the way you will find Snowmen fighting Grentches (and losing). Help them out since it'll make it easier for you to kill the Grentches with Snowmen taking hits. However any surviving Snowmen won't help afterwards, as they'll flee to the exit. A few Grentches will also pop up along the way but well before they're in your aggro circle, so you can prepare for them.

Once you get to Freezie, there will be several waves of Grentches descending upon him and his small army of Snowmen. They'll come from 2 different locations, the groups are randomly composed.

Any Snowman that are killed during these waves will automatically respawn after a short while regardless of foes in the corpse's range (for EotN NPC's to respawn under normal circumstances, there can't be a foe withing earshot of the corpse, so it's not the case here).

If it gets too hot and the snowmen are going down to quickly, you can run outside of aggro range of the Grentches and dodge/Ice Fort their attacks for a while, while the Snowmen respawn under their feet, basically having the Snowmen doing all the work.

Reward message:


Reward

• 1,000 Experience
• 5 Candy Cane Shards

Also upon completing the quest, a Wintersday Chest spawns as well. This will provide 5 random Wintersday items including any of the following:

• Eggnog
• Spiked Eggnog
• Wintergreen Candy Cane
• Rainbow Candy Cane
• Peppermint Candy Cane
• Fruitcake
• Snowman Summoner
• Yuletide Tonic

You only have 15 seconds to pick them up once you open the chest, so be quick!


Known Bug:

• In each quest you get a boss on your side, Freezie/Magnus Grentch for Dwayna/Grenth respectively. When they die, you get a morale boost, which is odd to say the least.

Support Grenth

In Grenth's Defense

This is a solo quest.

Speak to the Rift Warden when you are ready to defend the Underworld.

1. Destroy all followers of Dwayna who attempt to breach the Underworld. They must not reclaim the stolen presents.
2. See Rift Warden for your reward.
3. *BONUS*: Survive for as long as possible.

• Upon entering the Underworld, all other party members are removed and your skills are replaced with the snow fighting skills.
• You must defend the stolen presents from 24 level 15 Snowmen of various professions, as well as a level 19 boss named Freezie.
• Use Yellow Snow to remove conditions.
• Also you should consider using a Ritualist who has access to the skill "Jack Frost". Cast Jack Frost and simply keep it up all times to take damage and use Hidden Rock and then a Snowball to shut the enemy down.
• BONUS - Upon finishing the mission an Avatar of Grenth appears. It offers to send you back to town or you can try the bonus, which is to defend the presents for as long as possible. There are 6 rounds each containing 6 Snowmen. You receive one Candy Cane Shard for each completed wave.
• Drops include Candy Cane Shards and Globs of Frozen Ectoplasm. See sections below for what you use these times for.

Wintersday Henchman: Enchanted Snowman

Enchanted Snowmen are special henchmen available during Wintersday. They are Elementalists which specialise in Water Magic. Their level varies from 3 to 20 depending on location and which mode (Norma Mode or Hard Mode) your playing the game in. Their appearance is like this:


The Skills Bar they use is:

• Aura of Restoration
• Frozen Burst
• Ice Prison
• Ice Spikes
• Resurrection Signet

Also those from Lion's Arch or Droknar's Forge also have:

• Ward Against Harm (Elite)

Note: Try to avoid using Fire Magic or Fire Damage weapons as doing so will negate their Ice Prison hex, which is removed if mobs receive any fire damage.




Present Hunt

This is a mini-game played in Lion's Arch and Kamadan, Jewel of Istan. Periodically a present will randomly spawned.

Players must quickly pick up the present and deliver it to one of the Young Children in town before any of the Grentches reach the present and destroy it. Grentches could also destroy presents held by players if they come within adjacent range. When a present spawns the Grentches would run all the way to the spawn point before chasing someone who had picked it up.

Note that Grentches move much faster than players, however if you use a Sugar Rush sweet item, you can easily outrun them.

In return, the child would hand the player a Candy Cane Shard or, if the present is handed to Scrappy Jhim in Lion's Arch, a Winter Gift which will unwrap into a random Wintersday collectable item.



Festival Finale

On January 1st, 2008 in Lion's Arch and Kamadan, the Avatars of Grenth and Dwayna will appeared for their annual challenge. This is a game everyone in each town district can play. Which god wins will affect which hat you will be provided with.


Wintersday 9 Rings Game (Dwayna Vs Grenth)

Playing is very simple, each game costs 1 candy cane shard to play, so make sure you have some in your inventory.

This Wintersday 9 Rings finale game consists of 3 rounds per finale, 5 games of 9 Rings per round, so for a total of 15 games. You will therefore need 15 candy cane shards per finale to play in all the games.

Players could stand in blue (Kamadan) or green (Lion's Arch) rings for Dwayna or red rings for Grenth with a Candy Cane Shard as the wager, players standing in the the chosen ring were rewarded with a Wintersday Gift.

The winning and adjacent rings were awarded 1-5 candy cane shards depending on which ring they stood in, and also had their winning shard count added towards the score of their side's god.

After the match ended, the god with the highest total was considered the winner, and all players in the district were given a festival hat.

Note: Any wagers of candy cane shards do count towards the Lucky and Unlucky Titles.

A table of the prizes are as follows:



Hat Information

Gaile Gray has provided the following information in regards to the Wintersday hats this year:

Also you do not have to join in the 9 rings game in order to get a hat. Everyone in the district gets the hat of the God who gets the most points in that district.

Last year there were agreements that an odd numbered districts are for Grenth, and even numbered districts are for Dwayna.


Dwayna's Hat

Wreath Crown

• This is a free item given out during the Wintersday 2007 event.
• It have zero AR... Headshots are deadly in PvP and PvE. So watch out!
• It comes pre-customised and thus should not be traded.
• It can be infused!
• This mask cannot be dyed.
• You can add runes to it, for your primary profession only.
• It cannot be salvaged.

Grenth's Hat

Ice Crown



Original design:

• This is a free item given out during the Wintersday 2007 event.
• It have zero AR... Headshots are deadly in PvP and PvE. So watch out!
• It comes pre-customised and thus should not be traded.
• It can be infused!
• This mask cannot be dyed.
• You can add runes to it, for your primary profession only.
• It cannot be salvaged.

Wintersday Collectors

All collectors offer Eggnog, Spiked Eggnog, Fruitcake, Snowman Summoner, Wintergreen Candy Cane. Yuletide Tonic however is currently only available through Terum the Tonic Maker and Tina the Tonic Maker and from Wintersday Gifts.

The following collectors can be found during the Wintersday event:

Prophecies

• Ascalon City

- Dwayna - Priest Erwin collecting 2 Ornate Grawl Necklaces
- Dwayna - Priestess Clara collecting 3 Charr Carvings

- Grenth - Necromancer Ichibaun collecting 2 Stormy Eyes
- Grenth - Priestess Clara collecting 2 Singed Gargoyle Skull

• Lion's Arch

- Dwayna - Priestess Siara collecting 1 Shadowy Remnants
- Dwayna - Priest Meran collecting 3 Decayed Orr Emblems

- Grenth - Dark Priest Calmein collecting 2 Feathered Caromi Scalps
- Grenth - Necromancer Kalvori collecting 2 Hardened Humps

- Terum the Tonic Maker collecting 1 Glob of Frozen Ectoplasm

• Droknar's Forge

- Dwayna - Acolyte Rockhammer collecting 1 Frozen Remnant
- Dwayna - Abbot Silverbeard collecting 3 Stone Summit Badges

- Grenth - Dark Priestess Velna collecting 1 Dredge Manifestos
- Grenth - Dark Priest Shadowvein collecting 2 Frigid Hearts

Nightfall:

• Kamadan

- Dwayna - Monk Sutoni collecting 3 Sentient Roots
- Dwayna - Priestess Mahni collecting 3 Copper Shillings

- Grenth - Dark Priest Bandeh collecting 2 Silver Bullion Coins
- Grenth - Necromancer Dunbari collecting 3 Juvenile Termite Legs

- Tina the Tonic Maker collecting 1 Glob of Frozen Ectoplasm

Candysmiths

Candysmiths are special collector NPCs who provided candy cane weapons in exchange for Candy Cane Shards.

Candysmiths are located in Ascalon City, Lion's Arch, Droknar's Forge, Kamadan, Jewel of Istan and the Snowball PvP arena starting location.

The Candy Cane weapons available are as follows:

Primary Weapons: Weapons cost 9 Candy Cane Shards depending on which town your in:

• Candy Cane Axe: Slashing Dmg: 10-10
• Candy Cane Bow: Piercing Dmg: 15-15 (Longbow)
• Candy Cane Hammer: Blunt Dmg: 15-15
• Candy Cane Staff: Cold Dmg: 10-10
• Candy Cane Sword: Slashing Dmg: 10-10
• Candy Cane Wand: Cold Dmg: 10-10
• Peppermint Daggers: Piercing Dmg: 5-5
• Peppermint Scythe: Slashing Dmg: 10-10
• Peppermint Spear: Slashing Dmg: 10-10

Off Hands: Given in exchange for 12 Candy Cane Shards:

• Gingerbread Focus, Energy: +5
• Gingerbread Shield, Armour: 8
• Peppermint Shield, Armour: 8

Wintersday Collectable Items

The following collectable items are available during the Wintersday 2007 event:

Eggnog



Collectable item: has only one use. Eggnog makes you drunk. When used in excess it causes various effects such as a blurred screen and involuntary sitting and /emotes. Mixing normal Eggnog with Spiked Eggnog has extreme graphical effects.

• Provides 1 minute towards the drunkard title.
• Each Eggnog counts towards 1 level of drunkenness.
• In Tyria they were obtainable from collectors of Dwayna
• In Elona they were obtainable from collectors of Grenth

They are a random reward from a Wintersday Gift (See below), or can be gained from collectors.


Spiked Eggnog



Collectable item: has only one use. Spiked Eggnog makes you drunk. Drinking one while sober boosts the drunkenness level to the max (Level 5). Spiked Eggnog differs from Eggnog in the way that it gives the screen a purple tint and has also been known to temporarily remove the skills on your Skill Bar.

• Provides 3 minutes towards the drunkard title.
• Using one Spiked Eggnog will immediately take you to level 5 drunk. So they are good starting drinks.
• In Tyria they were obtainable from collectors of Grenth
• In Elona they were obtainable from collectors of Dwayna

They are a random reward from a Wintersday Gift (See below), or can be gained from collectors.


Snowman Summoner



Collectable item: has only one use. Using this item will summon a snowman to your current location. If the snowman pops out of the ground, lasts about 10 seconds and then disappears.

However, there is a chance the Snowman Summoner will malfunction and result in a snowman plummeting out of the sky at top speed and smashing on the ground at a characters location.

They are a random reward from a Wintersday Gift (See below), or can be gained from collectors.


Fruitcake



Collectable item: has only one use. Eating it while in towns enchants you with Sugar Rush. Sugar Rush ends if you leave the outpost. Sugar Rush makes you run 25% faster for 5 minutes.

This item only works within towns and outposts, so use them for running about the larger towns. They also provide 1 point towards sweet tooth title track.

They are a random reward from a Wintersday Gift (See below), or can be gained from collectors.


Peppermint Candy Cane



Collectable item: has only one use. Double-click to remove all Death Penalty. This item cannot be used in PvP. They also provide 2 points towards sweet tooth title track.

They are a random reward from a Wintersday Gift (See below).


Wintergreen Candy Cane



Collectable item: has only one use. Double-click to remove 15% of your Death Penalty. This item cannot be used in PvP. They also provide 1 point towards sweet tooth title track.

They are a random reward from a Wintersday Gift (See below), or can be gained from collectors.


Rainbow Candy Cane



Collectable item: has only one use. When used it will give your party a 5% morale boost. This morale boost does not cause skills to instantly recharge. This item cannot be used in PvP. They also provide 1 point towards sweet tooth title track.

They are a random reward from a Wintersday Gift (See below), or can be gained from collectors.


Winter Gift



Collectable item: has only one use. This item can be obtained by collecting a present from the ground and giving it to a NAMED Young Child, such as Scrappy Jhim in Lion's Arch. Other Young Child NPCs will only give you a single candy cane shard instead. The Winter Gift can be opened to get a random Wintersday item.

Winters Gifts can contain any of the following:

• Eggnog
• Rarely a Spiked Eggnog
• Peppermint Candy Cane
• Snowman Summoner
• Rarely a Rainbow Candy Cane
• Candy Cane Shard
• Yuletide Tonic

Wintersday Gift



Collectable item: has only one use. You can gain Wintersday Gifts during the Wintersday finale and from Collectors. You can obtain gifts by doing the following:

• You win 1 Winter Gift if your standing in the winning circle during the finale ring game event.
• Wintersday Gifts, which are specifically assigned to your character, are dropped near where your character is standing. Pick them up by clicking on them.
• Finally Wintersday Gift Givers [Collectors] will trade 1 Wintersday Gift in exchange for 5 Candy Cane Shards.

Wintersday Gifts can contain any of the following:

• 2 Eggnogs
• 2 Spiked Eggnogs (Rare)
• 2 Fruitcakes
• 2 Snowman Summoners
• 10 Candy Cane Shards
• 1 Yuletide Tonics
• 1 Peppermint Candy Cane
• 1 Rainbow Candy Cane
• 2 Wintergreen Candy Canes

Glob of Frozen Ectoplasm



Collectable item: Glob of Frozen Ectoplasm is a collectable drop which drops randomly from Grentches and Snowmen during You're a Mean One, Mr. Grenth and In Grenth's Defence, including during the end bonuses.

Give this item to Tina the Tonic Maker in Kamadan, Jewel of Istan, or Terum the Tonic Maker in Lion's Arch. They will give you 1 Yuletide Tonic for each Glob of Frozen Ectoplasm.

Note: Globs of Frozen Ectoplasm cannot be converted into normal rare material Ectoplasm, don't be scammed by people.


Yuletide Tonic



Collectable item: has only one use. This item will embody the spirit of Wintersday. You will turn into a Wintersday Elf for 50 minutes and will perform male mesmer emotes. This item cannot be used in PvP.

The effect is as follows:

Updates to Guide:

Note: Updates at the bottom of the list are most recent...

• Removed some references to last year's Wintersday
• Added image of what the Grenth Wintersday Hat will look like.
• Added additional tips for Snowball PvP
• Corrected a mistake in Spiked Eggnog info
• Made some corrections to the details of the Winter Gift item
• Added some notes in regards to Present Hunt and Winter Gifts not being in game yet.
• Added information on the new Wintersday quests - Thanks to SirJackassIII
• Corrected mistake in Candy Cane Bow information
• Updated information on Peppermint Candy Canes, Winter Gifts and the Present Hunt
• Added additional information on the two new Wintersday quests, and also added an image of the Winter Dwarf.
• Added a complete for the Straight to the Heart quest.
• Corrected some minor typos.

Contributors:

RTSFirebat, Guildwiki, SirJackassIII, GhostRaptor, TheGuildWarsPenguin, Qwertyfied, Stormlord Alex, Freeze_XJ

So what help do I need?

You can help by sending me information, corrections and mini-guides via a forum PM. Generally I'm requesting any of the following:

• Pictures and information about new event items
• Information and if possible pictures of any new in-game bugs introduced during the event.
• Any pictures of interesting locations such as towns, event NPCs or quests.
• Information, tips and mini how-to guides for any event mini-games.
• Any information on event quests or missions.

Guidelines:

• I will not accept any screenshots with interface stuff like health bars and skills bars blocking things. Please send clear screenshots only.
• Please do not submit any massive images such as ones at file size: 1024 x 1280. Please resize them to 640 x 480 first.
• All information submitted must be accurate and confirmed! Speculation or similar information won't be accepted..

All submissions will be of course credited in the Contributors section of the guide.

Also please make sure to submit all information via a PM (Private Message), as I won't actively be checking feedback in the event thread.

Wow, once again a great job. Thanks for all your hard work.

Awesome job! Some of the stuff there I haven't seen (I remember it was there last year) such as the present spawning in Kamadan... but I'm sure it will turn up soon. Great guide, Going to do some snowball arena with your great tips

Someone dosen't see the light of day much =o

jk, nice guide though. helped a noob <<<me >>>

Nice, so is it possible to get 1 Dwayna and 1 Grenth hat, by changing districts, or are we stuck with the first 1 we get?

Cheers for putting in the hours once again! Awesome guide!

WOW, thanks for this full guide

i hope all will read the guide!!!!

You should be able to change districts, but you may want to do two visits as jumping straight out of a district as soon as you get the hat might mean you missing the gift drops. I could be wrong but IIRC the prezzie drops start just after you get the hat.

I was hoping they'd move the rings closer together this year to prevent the christmas present pile-up that happened last year in Kamadan (gifts getting stuck up on the walls by the rings) , the lag from all the drop effects up on those walls got beyond silly by the end of the day....

Nice job, RTS! Thanks for doing a sticky, I'd been keeping an eye out for it.

It was pretty bad however there were some GM's who moved people onto the ledges to collect there gifts.

Another great guide RTS, thanks.

Great guide, thanks for doing it. In previous years to make it easier to get both hats Even numbered districts have been Dwayna ones and odd numbered Grenth. That way it's easy to pick which one you need. If I could make the suggestion that this be followed this year and maybe added to the guide?

they have added one of the new quests, its set in the Secret lair and you team up with some grentchies and high your way through, Obtained form the rift warden, it looks really hard tbh.

It is pretty difficult but when you complete it a wintersday chest spawns that has 5 winterday items in it(random I guess).

Its not at all difficult, infact you don't even really have to fight as long as you hide in the corner.

(For the dwayna one)

Does anyone know if you need to participate in the "ring game" that costs a candy cane shard to receive a hat or can you just be standing in the district without playing and still receive a hat from the winning deity?

I mean the grenth one is difficult especially since you have to deal with snowmen and ice dart traps at the same time at one point(and there are much more enemies them the dwayna one.

That's because the grenches, for me at least, refused to help.

I'd like to mention that the new quest The Strength of Snow is on the "Secret Lair of the Snowmen" Map and there are waves of grentches attacking Freezie and a bunch of other snowmen.

im pretty sure you can just stand there and still recieve a hat.
it was like that for halloween so it shouldnt change just for wintersday
pretty sure tho, you just have to be there.

Great guide!!!

Does anyone know if the "nine rings" game starts earlier or we have to w8 for january 1st?

I've heard talk that some people can't get Straight to the Heart or Strength of Snow. Is EOTN required for these 2 quests?

Snowball place. Two childern. Don't know the exact spelling but I thought this was a funny "easter egg."

Ahni Ohkli = Annie Oklie + Bihli the Kidd = Billy the Kid

They won't agro outside their range and since they run behind you the snowmen in front won't trigger their attacks. I found I had to run up nearer to the snowmen to trigger the grenches attack and then run behind the grenchies right away to avoid getting spiked.

Oh - and i suppose most figured this out right away but....if you are a melee character you might want to equip a range weapon in the PvE snowball fight quests because your toon will tend to run into melee range of the snowmen/granches when you target them instead of staying at snowball range.

That's what I've been doing as well, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. Lag or death. It would be nice if the GW staff tweaked the quest a little. I simply can't motivate myself to play it repeatedly since its such a pain to go through. >.>

Anyway, I was going to file a report to the website about it. Maybe they can do something to improve it. *sigh*



On a completely unrelated note, How frequent are Frozen Globs of Ectoplasm drops in the other quests? I'm getting about 1 per quest. I was just wondering if anyone else was experiencing a similar drop rate.

So the new quests are up? I'll update the guide in a bit when I have the chance thanks for all the nice feedback so far.

Of course if anyone has any maps or info on the new quests they'd like to provide, then by all means e-mail me.

2 new quests:

Straight to the Heart (Grenth)



Strength of Snow (Dwayna)

You mention that presents drop randomly again like previous years.

But I have yet to see any, has it actually started yet?

straight to the heart is a good one for farming shards, just never complete it and keep going back on and you will end up with stack in a few hours

Quest summaries:

Both quests are done in the Secret Lair of the Snowmen. CC droprates are high, and can even drop if you were outside of aggro range when a foe is killed by an ally.

Dwayna:
Make your way to Freezie (he's located at the same place as the normal SLoS quest). You'll find Snowmen fighting Grentches (and losing). Help them out since it'll make it easier for you to kill the Grentches with Snowmen taking hits. Any surviving Snowmen won't help afterwards, as they'll flee to the exit. A few Grentches will also pop up but well before they're in your aggro circle, so you can prepare for them.
Once you get to Freezie, there will be several waves descending upon him and his small army of Snowmen. They'll come from 2 different locations, groups are randomly composed. Any Snowman that dies respawns a bit later regardless of foes in the corpse's range (for GWEN NPC's to respawn under normal circumstances, there can't be a foe withing earshot of the corpse, so it's not the case here). If it gets too hot and the snowmen go down, you can run outside of aggro range of the Grentches and dodge/Ice Fort their attacks for a while, while the Snowmen respawn under their feet, bassically having the Snowmen doing all the work.

Reward message:


Grenth:
Will be posted when the Grentches suck less <.<

Upon completing the 2 new quests, a Wintersday Chest spawns as well.
You get 5 random Wintersday Items (Eggnog, Spiked Eggnog, Fruitcake, Snowman Summoner, Wintergreen CC), but you only have 10 seconds to pick them up, so hurry up (should be increased to 20-30 seconds).


A few bugs:
- In each quest you get a boss on your side, Freezie/Magnus Grentch for Dwayna/Grenth respectively. When they die, you get a morale boost, which is odd to say the least.
- In the Grenth quest, Grentches won't attack your target if it's outside of their range. You basically have to run to about 1/2 aggro circle distance for them to do something, which is annoying to say the least.

Yes, I would like to know when this event begins as well. I thought it was fun getting a gift to a child before a Grench got you.

It dosn't really matter if you don't pick them up in time, since when you zone back to LA/Kamadan, they will be in the unclaimed items.

Thnx for the guide

I still had gifts from last year, those gave the above items. I also traded about 160 ccshards for this years gifts however I didn't get any candy cane shards.

If this years finale is the same as last year how many ccshards are you guys saving for the rings game?

In Guild Wars Site I don't see Winter gift listed, so it might be that the present hunt that gave these Winter Gifts (green gifts) isn't included this year.

Not sure, hopefully they will implement it soon. No sign of them so far. If its not in soon I may remove that bit from the guide for now.

In fact I've amended the guide to reflect that Winter Gifts and the Present Hunt are no in-game yet.

SirJackassIII thanks for the quest info as always

You can go ahead and complete if you want - as long as you don't have strength of snow active it will show up again at the rift warden when you rezone. It saves a few seconds of rezoning time if you don't complete it. On the other hand, you miss out on the wintersday chest drops.

OK my post is now void as theyve taken away the XP gain from killing snowmen during In Grenths Defence

Ah.. that explains why I couldn't get it again. I could have sworn it said repeatable on the GW site.

Edit: Yup, it does: