Originally posted by Religion LOL:

These things in the plains are just horribly unbalanced. I get they shoot at you in bursts and that solo they are pretty easy to time. Thing is when five of them are all hopping at you from different directions and all shooting at you in different intervals it's horrible. Each hit of tar should not reset my 10 second debuff. That is too much.

You never should have 5 at once, 4 spawn at a tar pit at one time. I wouldn't recommend trying to fight all 4 at once.

Try using ranged attacks to lure them in, or walking a bit close to pull out each one at a time.

Used ranged attacked if you don't feel comfortable with melee and keep your distance, they'll never even fire an attack at you.
If you are in melee, just watch out for the attack animation and then roll sideways to avoid it.
Also remember the roll animation isn't slowed down by tar, so even if you do get hit you can still roll out the way of their attacks.

I used to find them a massive pain until recently, but the things I say above have turned me into a growth slaying machine.

Also put a ton of workbenches up around the pit to stop them from respawning if it's close to your base.