Venerable Mantid Pincers?

I always enjoy fitting my characters out it collector armor until they reach end-game. Two of the 5 armor collectors need these and I'm having a devil of a time getting many of them.

I think that the 3-4 packs just outside the "closer to the stars" mission are the only place you can kill venerable mantids.

They bust enchants and have armor piercing life-steal. About the best I've managed to do is kill all the groups with a war-healer hench-spirit hench team.

Does anyone have an idea how to off these guys solo?

Are these guys necro by any chance? I think I remember them doing Well of Weariness. I think there's a monk monster or two in there as well. Soloing will be very difficult if not impossible on a 55hp build.

If you're a ranger you might try trapping and pulling to see if you can smack a few of them.

I took my ritualist with talon-healer-spirit hench to the same place.
I did it out of principle. It took several runs just to get 4. I dont understand why they would make it so hard there must be somewhere else these things are in smaller gruops then 20. The drop rate sucked. Maybe because Anet fixed the drops the collectables drop less? Maybe if you could get some minions up before you got there you could beat them with less hench.
my 2cents

During FPE I wanted some collector item that required 3 Gaki Jujus. (Incredible sounding isn't it?) As it turns out there are Gaki in the Drazach Thicket. Sadly, I had to take the 2 healer henchmen along because I didn't have a solo build (being that it was FPE). Well I farmed that area for 4 hours straight and ended up with 2 Jujus. I had to come back on the 2nd day of FPE and spend another hour to get the 3rd.

Honestly, I think ANet should consider upping the drops for any items required by armor collectors. It's not like you're going to get rich crafting collector armor. Besides, most people who want it are short on coin anyway. The low drop rates just make the game more "grindy."

Just my $0.02