Fear not, fellow farmers

yay i figured out that 3 times i had a bad spawn but this time it was all good i got my first IDS on my first kill WOOHOOO

luckyy, i had my first IDS after killing like 300 imps.
and if you can't pass the tundra giants use the upper route, no giants there.

Ok, i can get to the cave every single time I do this no problem. But once I get to the cave (and every time i get there) there's two or three golems hexing and tridenting me. Additionally, the Avicaria are extremely close to this group, and there's often trolls in the mix too. Did they nerf the spawn or something?

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still doable...less attack...it's about dmg reduction and avoidance not healing and damage dealing...think about it...

How do you get to the imp cave with those ice imps? Is that anywhere near the Ettins?

No, I'm kidding What a wonderful build! I would have never thought it was possible but it's so EZ! I got an IDS last night on the 7th run I think (it was also the first run I did when we had favor so maybe that helps the odds?). I can kill the ice beast with riposte, sever and gash in about 2 mins. The shadows will pop up one at a time if you take one step, pause, one step, pause,etc. After the kill just follow your footsteps and keep it up until you get all 6 b/c if all of em pop at once it's curtains. TY FOR THE BUILD!!!

i can get past ice golems now but now that ele boss just before cave is giving me trouble

alright... I'm trying to do this run and I constantly get raped in Tasca's Demise (or whatever its called, the first part of the run) by hexes and bleeding and water trident, etc. If anybody out there can give me some advice (or better yet, run through it with me in game) for a sword warrior on this run, that would be amazing.

I suppose I could show you sometime

IGN=sir lando griffen

its easy when you know how to do it, you can do it without meeting any siege golem.
after passing the first group keep going ahead, you wont meet any foe till you pass the bridge, sprint thru them and youll see a group with an heretic and a golem going down to the portal, wait till they go and come back, about 1 min wait but hey.. the whole path to the res shrine gets clear.

ok nevermind... I just watched the video tutorial and it was so helpful. Didn't know that I was supposed to turn right... away from the golems...

*edit*

Ok... I need some serious help. I can do the run just fine until I run into the tundra giants. They always rape me. Are there any skills or tricks I can use to get around these baddies?

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I always use balanced stance for that part, the only attack skills I really need are sever artery and either galrath slash or desperation blow.

Okay, been busier than I thought, but I wanted to at least get some screens up. I'll edit this post when I can.

North Route:

North vs. South (and no, not the Civil War...): I always take the north route. There are multiple reasons. For one, it's faster, since I don't have to deal with Tundra Giants. Second, and most importantly, when you die, you rez at the closest shrine. If you get a bad spawn at the cave entrance, or you've cleared the cave and want to rezone and do another run, the easiest way to do so is to die and then run to the zone marker just south of the rez shrine (see big green arrow). If you take the south route, the rez shrine is very deep into the run, and instead of just zipping past one pack of chickens to rezone, you have to backtrack through several. And it's a much longer way back. Personally, I'm trying to REDUCE the time it takes to get back to the Imps. That's what it's all about in the long run anyway, right?

Thunderwing: He's not a problem anymore, so seeing him blocking a bridge shouldn't even worry you. Here's how to survive. When you spot him, click on him to see his skill use, then start running. Get as far as you can, then when you see him about to cast Iron Mist, stop running, hit Dolyak Signet AND Elemental Resistance, and begin spamming Heal Signet until Iron Mist (and Dolyak) wears off. Then run like hell. Under IM you can only take damage from lightning, and of course Thunderwing casts Lightning Orb immediately after snaring you. However, degen still applies, so if you get Phantom Pain on you, you're gonna have degen with a deep wound to follow it. That's why you want as much health as you can have when IM wears off, so you can survive a couple hits from the melee or archer chickens and haul ass towards your destination. But I've tried this, and it does work quite well.

Equipment, Skills, and Stats:

Attribute distribution: I have a Superior Sword rune, in order to get 12 Swordsmanship and do 100% damage with my weapon. Beyond that, Minor Strength, Minor Tactics, Superior Vigor, Major Absorption.

Armor setup: Most of you guys are using Knight's boots, which is fine. I just got tired of their sheer ugliness, so I went with an Ascalon helmet for my -2 damage, since I can hide the helmet (which is equally ugly). Yes I know my desert boots and Ascalon Helmet are 80 armor vs. Elemental, but head and feet only account for 25% of all hits. 75% of the spells will hit me in the chest/leggings/gloves, which are 85 armor Wyvern. I can live with those odds. And PLEASE don't forget to stich back to your regular helmet when you get to the cave. YOu'll be quickly reminded to do so if you do forget...

The 45/2 shield is for running, the -2/-3 shield is for fighting once you get in the cave. I know perfect shields are expensive (I ought to know, since I bought one), but it's a huge help if you can afford it. At the very worst, just use your 45/2 shield the whole time. Not as efficient, but better than nothing. (High health) < (armor + damage reduction), except when facing Trolls or Shadows, since they have fixed damage attacks. In those cases switch back to your 45/2 shield for the extra health. You might even go so far as to bring an extra set of gloves with a minor swordsmanship rune, to switch and get 75 health back in a pinch. (I do now, and just switch to my Superior rune glves when I get to the cave)

Sword vs. Axe: Ahh, the debate goes on. As far as I'm concerned, the degen from bleeding far supercedes any extra damage an axe attack MIGHT do (with a 6-28 damage range, "MIGHT" is a very important consideration). And you get your deep wound in with Gash as well. There are a grand total of two enemy types that you'll be fighting that don't bleed- Ice Golems and Shadows- and their number are very small (7 Shadows and 4 golems tops for the entire run). Sever + Gash on an Imp is a very fast kill. Helps get rid of Trolls faster too. Do what you want, but I know what works best for me.

Fire damage weapon: EDIT: Imps are weak against fire, as well as Ice Golems, Ice Beast, pretty much everything in the cave. I tested today on all enemies, and switching between my Fiery Dragon Sword and a physical damage (zealous or Barbed) weapon showed a marked increase in damage per attack when using the fire weapon. I'd say at least 50% more damage per hit. I've found Zealous to be totally unnecessary for this run, because once I reach the cave, the only skill I use that requires energy is Ele Resistance, and my energy is always back at 20 when that skill recharges. So Fire damage is the ONLY way to go.

Water Trident=0. Maelstrom=0. Ice Spear=0.

-2 Helmet, -2 Rune, -2 stance, -3 hexed... saving yourself 9 damage per attack REALLY adds up.

4 Azure Shadows. It's what's for dinner.

Keep Dolyak up, heal often, just keep thwacking away. I've taken on as many as 6 at once and survived, it's not really that hard. I learned this morning that even though they have melee attacks, it's elemental damage, because I swapped between Sprint and Elemental Resistance for my stance, and under Sprint, the damage from melee attacks ranged from 4-15, but under ER it dropped to 1's and 0's. Food fer thought...

Ice Beast- if it bleeds, we can kill it:

Just found this out this morning. Even though under Mist Form the Beast can't take damage, your hits still count. So not only do you gain adrenaline, but Bleeding and Deep Wound still apply! Isolate the Ice Beast, then keep hitting him with Sever to negate his +3 natural regen. When Mist Form wears off (when your attacks actually do damage), hit him with Gash (you'll only be able to hit with Gash once before MF recharges, but it's good to get that +damage in). Then once he casts MF again, just keep the Bleeding up. Repeat till he's dead. Takes a few minutes, but it's totally worth it to get him out of your way since he sometimes body blocks you from other enemies.

Again, I'll add to this post as soon as I get more time.
3/24... put in some more info
3/25... added how to kill Ice Beast, tested and found Fire does more damage on all enemies

ok ive can now make it to cave. iv made it twice and both times i die. my att are same as yours too but i use a sup axe not sup strenght but it works out the same

I can also tank 4 Azures, but it takes a lot of concentration. I do not have as good as items as Etterwyn, but I've made it on several occassions and have farmed 8 IDS so far

If any of you want some help and see me on, I'm on as Meat Face. I'll glady help you guys.

Great, looks like they nerfed the resists. I'm running IDS right now and I'm taking a LOT of damage that I never took before.

Ehh, you SURE you didn't take Physical by accident? I just did a run, was taking the exact same damage as always, got 2 swords from it too.

And... updating my "final" post above, can now kill Ice Beast pretty easily.

I was using the exact same spells as before - maybe it was just a bad run. For some odd reason I was taking more damage than usual, hahaha. I've only gotten IDS once in the last 3 days.

Ive tried this run and ive followed virtually everything you have said kvndoom in your latest post. Ive come to the conclusion that the south route is a better option as the chances of death are better than the north route. Whenever i take the north route a Ice troll and Ice Imps kill me part of the way.

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It's different when i go into the cave because i stop running then and i changed my helmet from the Lieutenant's to Ascalon i call Elemental Resistance and Dolyaks with I Will Survive after. I simply prepare to fight them when i reach the cave but when I'm running they cast the hex the slows me down then they bombard me as i try to survive by casting elemental resistance, i will survive and both charge and sprint in hope that as soon as the hex wears of i can get out of there range before they cast it again. I've tried stopping and fighting me but the Avicara decide to join in as well as they are usually near from chasing me as i ran past.
Maybe it's me doing something wrong, it could be but i seem to have less problems going the south route.

I've had a problem that has been a problem for me everytime I do this soloing.
Its not killing the imps, but I keep getting hit, brutally. About 4 from mind freeze, and 7 from ice spear. I have on,
Denravi Helm of minor str
Wyvern plate of minor swordsmanship
Wyvern gloves of minor tactics
Wyvern legging of major vigor
and Knight boots of major absorption
I'm using an FDS of defense 14^50 and a crimson carapace shield.

Krytas - You need to switch helmets before fighting

Kindred - Keep to the right of the Avicara and run over the little humps. Sometimes it better to let the Avicara come at you a little before you hit Charge/Sprint but you should have room to out run them and stop before you get to the imps and Golem.

i have a mjor question......is it ABSOLUTELY neccacary to have a +7 armor vs ele no take 0 dmg....or is there somehting im doign wrong.......and does WY/dolyak protect against ele attacks

yes, it's general defence, not just against on thing

I keep on having problems with Avicara Wises and Guiles that never stop chasing me. There always seems to be a couple of them that just won't leave me alone, no matter how long I run away. If it wasn't for them, getting to the cave would be so much easier, but as it is I end up dying or having to rezone because of them. Is this a bug or what?

this is kinda a noob question, but i'm gonna ask it anyway... where exactly is this particular farming spot?

To get to the ice caves, you head west from Granite Citadel, through Tasca's Demise and into Mineral Springs. From Mineral Springs, head north and west until you reach a cave filled with Ice Imps, Seige Golems, and Mountain Trolls. That cave is where you get the IDS.

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