Jingle Hells: Did the devs even playtest this?

Zombies not dropping armor plates makes the mode actually unplayable. No crafting benches seeing as there is no salvage. I get this is how zombies used to be, but when you are used to having armor it's hard to retrain your brain into not. 0/10 experience.

Edit Appreciate some of the responses from individuals. Might have to give this another go with a different mentality. Some potential for shields up gobblegums, frenzied guard with augments for team, and get used to not using the gun you spawn in with once you get an epic/legendary weapon from the gifts/snowmen.

It's just a completely different game to what we've been playing for almost two months. Is it a skill issue getting two hit by a vermin who jumps 20 feet away from you because you don't have armor? Possibly, however I think it's more of a game balance issue. I won't feel good about spending thousands of essence on armor from the wall, but it seems to be a necessary evil if you don't want to go down.

Few things from my limited playtime I noticed that could make the gamemode play better: Snowmen and presents not dropping Aether tools/pack crystals like it did in CW is strange. Vermin rounds are far too common, especially when you kinda already get a vermin round everytime you pick up a "naughty" stocking drop. The lack of plates means frenzied guard with augments is essential if playing with a team. Here's to possibly trying to play the mode again with a different mentality later tonight.