Straight to the Heart

Straight to the Heart
Section	Festival Event Quests
Event	Wintersday
Given by	Rift Warden in Lion's Arch or Kamadan, Jewel of Istan
Type	Festival quest  (Solo Quest)
Map(s)
(Click to enlarge)

With the help of Grenth's grentches defeat the snowmen!

Quest information

Requirements

• Guild Wars Prophecies or Guild Wars Nightfall
• Guild Wars Eye of the North
• Must not have The Strength of Snow in your Quest Log.

Objectives

• Speak to the Rift Warden when you are ready to assault the Secret Lair of the Snowmen. [sic]
• Roast all the snowmen.
• See Rift Warden for your reward.

Reward

• 1,000 Experience
• 5 Wintersday Gifts
• Random items from the Wintersday Chest

Walkthrough

During this quest, players will be under the effects of Yuletide and have the Yuletide skill bar with Yellow Snow instead of Avalanche. You start with Grentchus Magnus and 5 randomly selected Grentches as allies.

8 groups of grentches will pop up at set points to join the grentch group and help you defeat the snowmen. If a group of grentches won’t join, you’ll have to go closer to them.

Make your way to Freezie, killing all the snowmen in your path. You can avoid the second charging group of snowmen if you’re quick to move to the side wall. The Area Map is not needed, and there is no other benefit in that section, so the group of snowmen there can also be bypassed. Thus, the "Roast all the snowmen" objective is a tad misleading. When you see the Moas, go to them directly to spawn another batch of grentches and avoid another charging group of snowmen.

There are 2 ways to go about this mission: kill snowmen one by one or try to have all of your grentches attacking the enemy.

1. The first way allows you to prep for each enemy and is safer but takes much longer. Use the Hidden Rock / Ice Fort or Yellow Snow / Mega Snowball. Then step away, heal, and repeat.
2. The second method uses the grentches to overwhelm the enemy. This requires that you pull the grentches into aggro range of the snowmen, exposing you to danger. You can use this to your advantage; however, by drawing the first volley of Snowballs towards you and dodging them or using Ice Fort to protect against them. Drawing the Snowballs helps keep your army alive which means you will kill faster. The snowmen tend to lose interest in you if you’re not attacking them and will target grentches if they’re in range.

A combination of these tactics works best; use the first for narrow areas and the second for wide areas.

• Rest before approaching the two traps as there is an Avalanche trigger that can do 100 points of damage. It damages in a small area at the trigger point so if you’re moving then the grentches following you will be hit.
• One avalanche is on the far edge of the Moa area. The other is ??
• Be sure to collect all your grentches; some only appear as you approach their spawn points.
• The Angry Snowman holds the Dungeon Key that you will need to get past the locked door.

Collect the dropped Candy Cane Shards before opening the Wintersday Chest, as a very fast timer counts down to your return to the city where you started the quest.

NPCs

Allies

Demons

• 15 Speedy Grentch
• 15 Hasty Grentch
• 15 Frozen Grentch
• 15 Flashy Grentch
• 15 Icy Grentch
• 15 Dodgy Grentch
• 15 Veracious Grentch
• 15 Shifty Grentch
• 15 Hungry Grentch
• 15 Sacrificial Grentch
• 15 Sneaky Grentch

Bosses

Demon

• 19 Grentchus Magnus

Foes

Snowmen

• 15 Bustling Snowman
• 15 Cordial Snowman
• 15 Glimmering Snowman
• 12 Angry Snowman
• 15 Chilled Snowman
• 15 Playful Snowman
• 15 Industrious Snowman
• 15 Impeccable Snowman
• 15 Blessed Snowman
• 15 Grumpy Snowman
• 15 Mischievous Snowman
• 15 Pious Snowman
• 15 Roguish Snowman
• 15 Rotund Snowman
• 15 Snowman

Bosses

Snowman

• 19 Freezie

Dialogue

Initial dialogue

Rift Warden

"Grenth's followers have located the secret lair where Dwayna's intolerable snowmen dwell. We must strike a great blow to Dwayna and roast those frosty, and annoyingly cheerful creatures, thus insuring Grenth's domination over Wintersday. Will you show your dedication to Grenth and rid us of these annoying irritants?"

 Accept: "Snowmen heads will roll."

 Decline: "You're as cold as ice."

"Are you ready to assault the Secret Lair of the Snowmen? You will be separated from your party for the duration of this task. Once at the lair, you must roast the snowmen before Dwayna can send reinforcements. Are you ready?"

 Accept: "I was born ready."

 Decline: "I'm a born coward."

Intermediate dialogue

Grentchus Magnus: We must clear out those snowmen before Dwayna realizes we've found their lair. Hurry!

Glimmering Snowman: They found our secret lair! Snowmen, to arms!

Mischievous Snowman: Those who leave muddy bootprints in these hallowed halls do not leave alive. They leave...on ice!

Industrious Snowman: None dare enter our secret ice lair! You shall meet the same frigid fate as the Dwarf King!

Freezie: The Grentches are here!

Freezie: Give it all you've got snowmen we must prevail!

Reward dialogue

Rift Warden

"Word of your service have already spread throughout the Underworld. Perhaps Grenth will emerge victorious with you on his side."

Notes

• The Quest Log displays "Rift Warden (Kamadan, Jewel of Istan)" even if your character acquired this quest in Lion's Arch.
• Always pre-cast Hidden Rock and Yellow Snow so your next Snowball causes knock down, daze, and disease.
• The grentches follow you around. They are allies, but not in your party, and will not engage snowmen unless attacked or they come into range. If you engage the snowmen at long range, the grentches will not be aggroed and will not help. This means you need to get closer to the snowmen than Snowball range, in order to get them to engage the snowmen.
• Alternatively, hit and run tactics can be used in many places to preserve grentches for other battles. For instance, Hidden Rock, move in and Snowball, sidestep left or right (default: Q or E key), Snowball twice, sidestep, Snowball. Also Hidden Rock, Snowball, Mega Snowball, Snowball, Snowball when available. For enemies that move, it is often best to use Yellow Snow and start retreating, pulling all of the aggro into the disease. It is possible to beat this mission without using Ice Fort or "Mmmm. Snowcone!" this way, but much faster to use mixed tactics.
• Snowmen near the Angry Snowmen can be pulled away from the traps in groups of two (zig-zag as you retreat). The traps can cause disease and pulling them allows for the grentches to heal, as well.
• The grentches die easily. Once you engage a group of snowmen, you should use Ice Fort or dance back and forth in order to keep aggro and let the grentches do the killing, without them getting targeted often.
• Similar to The Strength of Snow, the foes in this quest can randomly drop a Candy Cane Shard, but not a Eggnog, Frosty Tonic, Fruitcake, Mischievous Tonic nor Snowman Summoner.
• The snowmen in this mission drop Candy Cane Shards more reliably than the grentches in The Strength of Snow, and you can get about 30 in one run even while avoiding as many snowmen as possible.
• If Grentchus Magnus dies he will respawn but only if no enemies are near.
• It is not necessary to defeat all the snowmen, only to defeat Freezie's group.
• Completing this quest will cause a Wintersday Chest to spawn.
• Deaths in this area do not count against the Survivor title track.
• A "MISSION FAILED: You were plowed by snowmen" message appears if the mission was failed.

Anomaly.Snowmen will sometimes spawn behind the wall near the area map. These are unreachable on this map (this also happens in the dungeon, as well, but they can be reached after completing the dungeon or by teleporting)

Anomaly.After killing a Grentch, snowmen will sometimes become inactive if another target isn't immediately in range and can be hit by 2-3 snowballs before they start throwing again. This is most apparent when using hit-and-run attacks with Sneaky or Sacrificial Grentches

Bug.A grentch knocked down after spawning but having not started moving toward their activation point will often not move again. This happens most often from a hidden rock at the first spawn point.

Bug.There is a position on the far corner of the bridge to the Area Map that allows snowmen to target grentches but not anyone on or behind the bridge to hit that snowman directly. Indirect attacks and disease from nearby snowmen will still affect it.

Trivia

• This quest was introduced in Wintersday 2007.
• The name of the quest is possibly a reference to the song by Toto with the same name.
• The accept dialogue is possibly a reference to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
• The decline dialogue "You're as cold as ice" is a reference to a song of the same name by Foreigner.
• Prior to Wintersday 2010, this quest awarded 5 Candy Cane Shards instead of Wintersday Gifts.