The VTs in the new area, or even the VTs in the second Gate maps are both very easy to kill. Generally, on DRG/SAM, I'll get a kill with a single skillchain, which takes probably about 8-10 seconds? If they survive the skillchain of Drakes -> Camlainn's, then they won't last long after that. When I was cycling between a Trizek, Facility, and Capacity Ring, for a while I was getting roughly 25-30 JP/hr. Today, in a few 20-minute sessions, I've not only managed to get about 320ish merits and nearly 125ish JP, going from around 470ish to just shy of 600 JP total. The majority of that was getting a merit just about every kill with no EXP Ring (hitting 5-6k early chain, and up to >10k in later chains), while CP was anywhere from 2-4k without a ring, 3-7k with Capacity ring, and 6-13k with Trizek or Facility Ring. Chains would generally make it to about 28 or 29, and then I'd get called away or I'd have an NM to deal with (I choose not to use the Mollifier so I can get stones, beads, and NM kills towards Spoils Vorseals from Ascended mobs).

The point of that ramble is that you're not going to get "mauled to pieces" if you're moderately well geared and aware of your surroundings. I can't even pull on DRG/SAM, I have to run in head-first, so you have the advantage of being able to use a spell to pull to you, such as Glutinous Dart. Kills shouldn't take longer than it takes for you to do two CDCs to Light, if that.