CONFIRMED: Icy Dragon Sword

If anyone cares, here's my W/Me build. It can deal with practically anything: 15+ imps at once, 2-3 mountain trolls among them if they happen to show, and also gets me past Hyl Thunderwing after he slows me down. It doesn't kill really fast but it gets the job done every time. A particularly nice touch is that none of the key skills are interruptible.

Skills:

Victory is Mine, Elemental Resistance, Watch Yourself, Dolyak Signet, Healing Signet, Gash, Sever Artery, Sprint.

Attributes: Strength 10, Swordsmanship 10, Tactics 14, Inspiration3. (Only using minor runes for a high life total.)

Once at the cave here's how it works: have Elemental resistance up at all times. (It recharges before it ends) Have "Watch Yourself!" up at all times and Dolyak Signet as often as possible. With an Ascalon Helm, a superior absorption rune and a -2 stance shield, I take 0 damage from standard imp attacks and maelstroms, and just a few points from their Ice Spears and Mind Freeze. To heal, use Sever Artery, Gash followed by Victory is Mine, for 128 points. This also kills the imps. Dolyak signet isn't too bad because you'll be slowed down by the imps anyway. When you do get into trouble use Healing Signet once or twice while all defensive skills are up.

Lastly, pick up your IDS.

The Seer and myself are best mates now. WTS: 250 Frigid Hearts

I've only gotten 4, and I've been going since the OP started this thread.

16 Swordsmanship and -2 Stance -3 Hexed shield is the way to go.

That has what to do with my post?

My post discusses the usefulness of buying an IDS right now given possible future events. The fact of it being a holiday only item was never factored in, thats merely a reason for someone to buy it, not a rational for its current price.

But if you must go there - I do beleive it is a holiday only item. An "I think" from an employee is more proof than 1000 "I knows" from Joe Nobody..

I finnaly got my build down. The only pro was, no IDS : $

well wouldnt he no, since hes an employee? -.^

FINALLY got one tonight, and after all those monk runs it was, funnily enough, my first solo run as a ranger that got me the sword. Thanks to Kassad for the build.



As for those wanting to know the build I use for monking, it's no secret - just the standard SoJ invincimonk build. I've had Bonettis on there but, like I said, it's not really necessary for this region and I think it would be easier as a Mo/Me, maybe with an interrupt. Further testing required.

Little problem im sure other ppl are running into too...wat to do with my IDS? Im currently holding on to 6 or 7, and dont know wat to do. On one hand, i could sell em for 75-80k each for some good bank, but then if they are removed and become very valuable, im out of a lot of money. On the other hand, i could hold on to em hoping they are removed, but if they stay or are handed out in events later this week, im out of the 75-80k.........any suggestions or ideas or interpretations of gaile's message would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

I'm thinking the rumor of them not dropping anymore was started by people selling them to push the price up. I mean, ANet know how shaky the economy gets. Why would they destroy it by making an extremely popular weapon not drop anymore? The other weapons they got rid of weren't widely popular until they were removed and people figured out what they were missing.

People know about these, alot of people do. If they stop the drops, the people that managed to get them become filthly rich, and the ones who didn't become poorer just to get one. Don't count on them getting removed after the winter event.

Having Charge! is maybe going a bit overboard... Sprint is enough, really, if you're careful. If anything I'd take Savage Slash to actually take down the Ice Beast and interrupt Maelstroms(and do more dmg).

Yep, I tried the war/mes build, and it seems to gets chewed by most melee mobs like giants, trolls, and avicara braves. I finally settled on a pure tank build that can take on everything in mineral springs...

at last :P ,,got my ids yesterday. I'm soloing them with my w/mo works fine.. man how many times i had to try :S

There's a pic of a Gaile gab session in LA ID1 where she says she think's it's a special holiday item.

Are they still dropping today? I did 8 solo runs with my W/Me but still dont have a IDS

Will try again when im back from work.

As long as you're happy with how much money you have, don't worry about it. Keep one for yourself to customize, one or two for collector's purposes, and sell the rest at the guaranteed current price. It's a gamble. If you're worried about a price spike, then farm for a few more.

Avicara you can run by (and you just GOTTA show me a video of your build that can survive Iron Mist, Phantom Pain, Ineptitude, and Fragility on you ALL AT ONCE when you run into Thunderwing's bunch, and still kill them all whilst getting pounded with Lightning Orb, Deadly Swarm, and sword and bow attacks. I need to see it!!!). Giants are a joke, I took the "scenic route" once and ran into 8 of them and killed them all without a pause (with Dolyak and WY up, Giant Stomp does 25 damage, their rocks only do 0-1 damage each. Can't imagine how that killed you). Trolls, you just bleed them from the onset and keep them bleeding and hope DB lands a deep wound. Heal only when taking that chance means life or death.

As for the OP, you haven't seen this before, by any chance have you?


Wonders never cease...

yeah, went up with a few other W/Me, had a fun night running away and such. Only got 2 IDS drops, but it was worth it....good times!

Damn, 6 or 7. I'm struggling to get my first one ffs. Life is not fair. The Guild Wars drop system isn't fair either. :P

I finnally get my build down working like a charm, i did the caves 3 times yesterday and 1 time today, NOTHING

Damn, absolutely amazing! I'm so jealous
I'm missing 2 skills.. (look in the picture above)
the 5th skill and 7th elite skill
anyone know where to get those?

ember light camp

sunday:1
monday:3

so ------ lUCKY!!!

went up there last night, only 2 dropped...huzzah!

And luck is indeed all it is. I got 6 of them Sunday, but zero yesterday. Someone from these forums was chatting with me while I was playing, asking for pointers, etc. Whilst online with me, (s)he got 2 to drop in the same run (it does happen, because I've had that twice). It's all luck. Some people have never gotten a black dye; I've gotten 15 since I started palying. Even though I've gotten 12 Icy Dragon Swords since last Thursday, I might never get another, no matter how many runs I make. You have no control over it; you just have to keep trying.

Sweet, I just aquired Charge! last night too. I was hoping that someone would make one of these. I tried going up there last night, but the mobs bleed and syphoned my bootwa to death. I must have had a bad spawn...

Going to try this tonight, thanks!

Either Friday or Saturday ( I can't recall, the days all blur together from lack of sleep ) I got an Icy Dragon Sword on my third run. I saw one drop on my second run for a guild mate. I have been on five more, and haven't seen one drop since... granted 2 of those groups never made it to the imps (gah!)

RE: why isn't it gold because it has 15%^50... not all golds have that mod why should this be gold? IMO gold does not always = better. I have weapons and offhands that are purple or collectors, that are better then most of the golds that I have found. I like to think that people who pay more for gold are silly, or people who turn down excellent purple items that have every inherent and other mod on it that they want (or better), and don't purchase because it isn't gold are REALLY silly.

ALSO: TUNDRA GIANTS? How the heck are YOU guys getting there? All I ever see are the stone summit, stupid chickens, and a few ice golems - before I get to any Ice Imps.

There are two routes, the northern one and the southern one. The Tundra Giants are on a hillside in the southern route. I think they're about the same distance, but which you choose depends on what solo build you're running (and, for me, whichever route does NOT have the ele boss).

Saturday: 1
Sunday: 1
Monday: 1 (only 1 run, so maybe I'll find another one)

I got another IDS last night. This happened after my second run when we killed of all those imps near the seer. In fact, out of that whole mobs, we got two IDS dropped.

I do agree with everyone that the drops has been reduce.

Is the IDS drop favor based or something? :/

Could anyone give me a link to a pic or message or watever that showes wat Gaile Gray says about the IDS? id read through all 27 pages to see if its been posted yet but im lazy

there... and you can mod these sword with +health or +armor pommel right?

Any chance of anyone being willing to sell an IDS for a more realistic price than everyone else is? (Realistic = not over 20k) If so, please, by all means add me to your friends list, and pm me when I'm next on.

My main played IGN - Clintoph Supreme

Reks: I like Charge! for two reasons...1) It allows me to run virtually non stop so I get to the cave much faster (need to occassionally pause for a signet in Mineral Springs, otherwise it is a continuous run for me now). 2) It is insurance to get away from particularly pesky Avicaras or bad Giant spawns (without having to use balanced stance). Farming is about speed of accomplishing what you set out to do (experience, gold, items, etc), and I find using Charge! gets me there around 2 mins faster. As I'm sure you saw in the video I initially had Savage Slash but Maelstroms are so rare that I found it just not worth it. With Desperation Blow you can hit for +34 every 7s so I find that very useful. Use it while Dolyak's is up and you won't fall down.

kvndoom: Actually, I hadn't seen your post. But as I'm sure you know there are dozens of similar posts all over GWGuru (and all the fansites), many from days before you posted yours. I experimented with many combinations of things I saw on the sites before I settled on the one I currently use. Obviously what I use is very similar to yours but it has quite a few small differences as well. I have seen many people posting their build info which was helpful, but felt that just as with soloing the UW, a video tutorial showing how it is done can be extremely useful for most people. I'm not trying to claim I am the first person to come up with a build similar to this (and I assume you aren't, either, right??? )

lord_shar: The idea is to simply get to the cave as fast as you can and then fight the imps as the ice cave ice imps are the only ones who drop Icy Dragons. That's very cool you can take on all the enemies solo in Mineral Springs, though. Please feel free to post your build and strategy. It would be useful for skill capping and farming them.

Warrior Ezech: In my original post, I acknowledge I had no trolls so made sure to post the strategy vs them. I have no trouble with them, but they do require you kill them first. As for axe, I'm sure it works as it was the first weapon I used. However, I find bleeding to just be incredibly useful as I rotate between 2-3 imps near each other to make several bleeding at once (6 damage a second for 21 seconds adds up). In any case, axe/sword...whatever one prefers. It'll kill em. I just find sword faster.

Those With Download Problems: I am uploading it to FileFront right now and will edit the initial post when it is done (in around 40 mins).

**Edit**
Here it is for convenience:
http://files.filefront.com/Icy_Drago.../fileinfo.html



*Admin Request* When I initially typed in the title of the thread I typoed and put "(ICS)" rather than "(IDS)". I immediately edited it to fix this; however, the thread still shows up in the forums as saying "ICS" even though the title when you click on the thread shows "IDS". Is there any way to fix ihe forum thread title as well?

Please rehost, putfile or filefront or something similar.

I was only picking. Yeah, it's pretty much everywhere now. But funnily enough you go to Granite and there's still a ton of people forming groups. I think with such a low drop rate, grouping is self-defeating.

I'm not trying to single you out, but I got something to say about the pricing of the IDS. I hope you end up getting one for yourself .

I have been selling my IDS swords for 60k each, and they usually sell in less than 2 minutes. Most of my customers seem very satisfied and one of them even said he will keep buying them from me at 60k a piece if I get more. I can get 75k for them if I have the patience to go around all the towns spamming, which I have done once, but I'd rather continue playing. The sword itself isn't spectacular. It's essentially the same as the Droknar Weapon guy's sword with an Icy hilt which cannot be removed. However, almost everybody wants it for the coolness factor (ecto should be worth 100g each, their merchant value, since Fissure armor does not improve your fighting ability in any way, but that's never going to happen), which is why Granite Citadel is full of people spamming LFG IDS. After some people figured out a solo build (Wa/Me), ANet nerfed the drop rate so even soloist have to do something like 5 runs to get one of them (according to many reports on the forums and my personal experience). For people who cannot solo, they must join 5-6 man farm groups, and at the rate of one sword for the party every 4-5 runs, it takes about 20 runs for someone to get one (and it takes a very long time each run). It's much more economical to pay prices as high as 80k than to spend two days doing IDS runs, because 80k can be made RELATIVELY quickly with some of the known farming builds posted around the forums. For example, it's possible to do 4 Mountain Troll runs faster than an IDS run (it takes me about 5-7 minutes for a troll run). Even if I make a extremely modest estimation of 1k per run (you probably make 2k-3k just in gold drops and selling items to merchant), that is 80k gold already, not counting the chance of getting some really good rare item.

Simply ignoring what the IDS does for a moment: Many people are willing to do IDS runs all day to get one. Just that fact alone makes the item very valuable, because they can save hours of time if they buy it. You can think these people are crazy, and maybe they are, but that is the reason why the IDS is worth so much (the same is true for Ecto and Shards, Fissure armor is more worthless than the IDS, which at least has the perfect 15>50 mod, but it's worth well over a million gold).

What does it mean"event-only item" ? the sword ll be removed in a few days? :/

I assume the sword Galie was refering too was the candy cane sword, not the IDS.

Heh - you guys are talking about making so many runs, how about making about five ATTEMPTS at runs, never even to make it to Lyssa's cave. Either bad PuG's, disconnections, or just plain bad luck, I gave up on trying to make it all the way out there.