ICY Dragon Sword (IDS) Solo Farming Video Tutorial

Kapper

Kapper

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

The Nemesis Enforcers (TNE)

Mo/Me

Title pretty much says it all. I made a video tutorial explaining and showing how to solo to obtain an Icy Dragon Sword. It's a little large at 150MB but I wanted to show everything from start to finish to make it as easy as possible.

A few notes:

1) The spawn locations of the enemies in Mineral Springs in particular vary a bit. Some runs are harder than others and require different tactics.

2) In my video I didn't encounter any trolls in the cave but if you do, take them out first. Their disrupting attack on your healing signet can be annoying so wait for them to use their disrupt (they often try to use it vs desperation blow), before using your signet, if possible.

3) Since making the video I have found it much easier and faster to simply alternate Sprint and Charge! through all of Tasca's Demise rather than wait for the bridge patrols as I do in the video. Sometimes the spawns require you to wait, but often you can just race through the whole area.

Comments are most welcome as are donations of candy canes or frigid hearts. =)

I hope this helps a lot of people in the community get their GW Holiday present!

** Edit**
Here is the link to it from FileFront:
http://files.filefront.com/Icy_Drago.../fileinfo.html

And here is the secondary download source, FileFactory:
http://www.filefactory.com/get/v3/f2...a8d242451637fa

*****


- Shinobu Shinrei (Kapper)

********************************

Overview (Recommended the video be watched to best understand how it works):

Warrior/ Mesmer

Attribs:
Swords: 11+1
Tactics: 11+1
Strength: 8+1
Inspiration: 3

Skill Bar:
Sever Arterty, Desperation Blow, Sprint, Charge{Elite}, Healing Signet, Watch Yourself!, Dolyak Signet, Elemental Resistance

Armor: Gladiator with Knight's Boots and Denravi Hex Helmet Recommended

Sword: +5 Defense Recommended
Shield: +45 Health -2 Damage in Stance or Similar Recommended

Warrior Ezech

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Nov 2005

nice going to watch it now.

I soloed now 8 times with my W/Me but still have no drops

Warrior Ezech

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Nov 2005

Nice movie, you lucky ***** i never find a IDS.

I have almost the same skills, but im taking Balanced Stance instead of charge and have 2 axe attacks.

You had a nice spawn btw its harder when there are trolls.

twicky_kid

twicky_kid

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

Quite Vulgar [FUN]

this site doesn't allow me to dl this.

can you put it on filefront.com

that site accepts all browsers.

M1h4iL

M1h4iL

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2005

Perth, Australia

Downloading, thank God for broadband. Nice of you to make a video and show how its done properly

Watched the video, very nice and informative even with commentary! Anyone who doesnt know how to solo farm must watch this. GJ Shawn

Sab

Sab

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Dec 2005

I'm having problems downloading this as well - that site is giving me a headache with those ads and popups. Also, I'm convinced that the site has installed some spyware on my computer. Please host this on FileFront.

Ultimate Tanker

Banned

Join Date: Sep 2005

Indianpolis

I Lords of Midnight I [LofM]

W/Mo

holy holy crap, that is the biggest freaking file i ever seen. i got a pretty good comp and it said it would take 50 mins to download it.
that is nutz.

Kapper

Kapper

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

The Nemesis Enforcers (TNE)

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultimate Tanker
holy holy crap, that is the biggest freaking file i ever seen. i got a pretty good comp and it said it would take 50 mins to download it.
that is nutz. Your computer has very little to do with your download speed. It mostly comes down to your internet connection. Most people with broadband download it in 8-15 mins as Filefront and FileFactory have some very fast servers. If you are using dialup or your provider is slow, it will take much longer, yeah. Sorry, but I wanted to show people the run from start to finish. Almost 900 downloads in the first day now so hopefully it isn't a problem for most.

(145M is the biggest file you've ever seen??)

Tasr is here

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Dec 2005

Society Of Stalwart Adventures[SOSA]

Me/E

Aww it toook me like 4hr's last night and today it's 1hr hmm internet must work faster in the day can't wait to see it!

ikilledkenny

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2005

W/

Kapper, thanks man beacuse of you i was able to get my own IDS on my second run. i died a few times.....Candy canes to the rescue thou... anyway i just wanted to say thank you.
I killed kenny

Kapper

Kapper

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

The Nemesis Enforcers (TNE)

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by ikilledkenny
Kapper, thanks man beacuse of you i was able to get my own IDS on my second run. i died a few times.....Candy canes to the rescue thou... anyway i just wanted to say thank you.
I killed kenny Glad to hear it. I got two off of around 6 solo runs, made the movie...and ever since am 0 for 14. =) I'm glad more people are getting them now and that it is being spread around more. Keep at it everyone.

Spoonman

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

The Vindicators [Vind]

Mo/R

What music did you use in this? It's pretty addictive :P

Kapper

Kapper

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

The Nemesis Enforcers (TNE)

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spoonman
What music did you use in this? It's pretty addictive :P At the very end of the video, I scroll the song credits. They are in order of appearance.

Gildor Took

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jun 2005

Australia, 3rd rock from the sun

Mo/

this works quite well in killing the imps Thanks for such an impressive guide.
BUT 19 runs no IDS

Gildor~

Spoonman

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

The Vindicators [Vind]

Mo/R

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kapper
At the very end of the video, I scroll the song credits. They are in order of appearance. Oh thanks, didn't watch the credits...


And an interesting side note, I've done this about 4 or 5 times solo with no IDS drops, but whenever I go in a group of 4+ people at least 1 drops for someone...

agent of ascalon

agent of ascalon

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

San Antonio, Texas

[Holy]

W/

god dam this is a big file!

Shadow Wonder

Shadow Wonder

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2005

i dont get it..so were do the icy swords spawn?..:P

Kapper

Kapper

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

The Nemesis Enforcers (TNE)

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadow Wonder
i dont get it..so were do the icy swords spawn?..:P You get one if you can solo Glint.

Shadow Wonder

Shadow Wonder

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2005

impossible...
ANd I RLY WANT 1!!! but i am ranger/warrior and i am not full warrior :"(

Shadow Wonder

Shadow Wonder

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2005

dont they spawn in beetletun somwhere too?

Kapper

Kapper

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

The Nemesis Enforcers (TNE)

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadow Wonder
dont they spawn in beetletun somwhere too? Oops, my bad. You need to solo the undead quest. The frog mentioned you can only use candy cane or gingerbread items, though.

Kapper

Kapper

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

The Nemesis Enforcers (TNE)

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadow Wonder
impossible...
ANd I RLY WANT 1!!! but i am ranger/warrior and i am not full warrior :"( Just to be clear, I'm kidding about Glint or the undead quest. Or am I???

In all seriousness though, a ranger/warrior should be able to do very well soloing here. I mean they have 100 base armor vs elemental to begin with and have lots of running skills. I haven't tried to come up with a build, but my gut just says it shouldn't be very much harder and perhaps even easier if you go ranger/mesmer. I don't have a PvP ranger so I can't experiment but Storm Chaser is easy to get up to almost 20s long out of every 30s. You obviously have troll ungent. You can speed up kills by spreading poison once you get there. You can go dual mesmer to make the imps do mostly 0 damage to you...seems good at first glance to me, anyway. Anyone played around with it as Ranger?

Shadow Wonder

Shadow Wonder

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2005

ummm...well, cna you take pick of your map and edit it, for the way to go u can send thriugh pm if u dont want others to see :P
I RLY WANT THIS SWORD

Kapper

Kapper

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

The Nemesis Enforcers (TNE)

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadow Wonder
ummm...well, cna you take pick of your map and edit it, for the way to go u can send thriugh pm if u dont want others to see :P
I RLY WANT THIS SWORD Ummm...how about you watch the video where I show the exact route I go by?

killerklayton

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

split second killers

W/Mo

what denravi hex helm? never heard of it?

Former Ruling

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Oct 2005

Cedartown, Georgia

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by killerklayton
what denravi hex helm? never heard of it? Helm crafted in Denvari has a mod that causes hexes to last half as long on you.

macko

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

hey so... it's 142.2 mb..
this better be worth it.
and I have a crazy feeling that it will be.


edit// does anyone know if this weapon is here to stay, OR if it's going away long with the winter decorations (quite pretty, by the way...)

berko

berko

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2005

Canada

N/Me

Well I got my copy of IDS last night. Second succesfull run and there it was. I've had a few unsuccesfull runs before though because of the monster spawns.
The worst one was when Avicara and Imps together spawned right in front of the cave and no way I could've avoided them.

I do have a couple of pointers though for what hopefully I believe is a faster run.

First I want to thank you Kapper, for the build and the video, without you I would've been able to get the sword.

1. In the video, you take the path that leads right once you enter Mineral Springs (which also activates a resurection shrine close to the Giants. I would recomend going left and here is why.
- Once you go left main thing is you won't activate the shrine *(and that is goodd I'll explain why)
- I believe going left is easier and faster. At one point you will encounter like 3 Ice Imps and a Ice Golem on the way and I always take my time and kill them just so they won't mess with my running speed since there's always Avicara spawned right after them. Once you kill them its easier to get to the cave in my opinion (Shorter Distance plus there's no Giants to knock you down).

Here is a reason I take this way. My first run last night was succesfull but it didn't give me IDS. So what I did was aggro the avicara next to the cave and died. I spawned at the shrine at the begining of Mineral Springs. What I did then was took to Portal to Tasca's Demise to respawn to Imps and took it back to Mineal Springs and did my second run, and this one paid of.

So basically this just eliminats the uneccessary run from Citadel to Springs and if you take left path you don't have to face Giants' knockdowns (if they bother you, like they bother me) and I believe it also does save some time in the process.

Viruzzz

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

pretty sure its gonna stay like other oliday items.


anyway

i'm tired of my luck. i've run this 6 times now and not once have i gotten to kill any imps.
thde main annoyance is the ele avicara boss and his iron mist. it hurts.
and then theres the avicara spawn right next to the imps.
and somtimes the tundra giants simply block that narrow valley you have to go through

the build works great for running. allthough i'm not using a zelous hilt. if you have 2 energy regen, you can keep sprint+charge up indefinitely

i will keep running this though. i want that sword. but i can't afford to buy one

Kapper

Kapper

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

The Nemesis Enforcers (TNE)

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Viruzzz
pretty sure its gonna stay like other oliday items.


anyway

i'm tired of my luck. i've run this 6 times now and not once have i gotten to kill any imps.
thde main annoyance is the ele avicara boss and his iron mist. it hurts.
and then theres the avicara spawn right next to the imps.
and somtimes the tundra giants simply block that narrow valley you have to go through

the build works great for running. allthough i'm not using a zelous hilt. if you have 2 energy regen, you can keep sprint+charge up indefinitely

i will keep running this though. i want that sword. but i can't afford to buy one I only switch to my zealous sword when fighting the imps. Otherwise I want the 2 energy regen, yes.

You can run the other, shorter path to the cave as some prefer and as berko suggests (in the video I bear right immediately at the first avicara when I enter mineral springs...go straight past them instead).

You should only get the elementalist avicara up there by the mountain giants once out of every 6 times but he is indeed quite annoying. The denravi helm helps greatly as it cuts the hex time in half. When I encounter him, I usually get past that group of avicara with only 100 health or sometimes even less. He blows.

berko

berko

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2005

Canada

N/Me

If you alternate between Sprint and Charge, most of the time you encounter the Elementalist Avicara Boss he won't get to use Iron Myst and you'll just fly by him. I think 9 out of 10 time I encountered him he didn't use it, only time he did get to use it was when other Avicara blocked me for a second so I had to go around them and that's when he had time to use the skill.

Also it's really pain in the butt when Avicara blocks the cave enterance along with the Imps. First time I encountered them I died and had to rezone, but last time they were there I just pulled them out of the Imp's crowd and killed them one by one. Make sure you don't fight them all at once. I think some will follow you while others try to stay close to the Imps, that way you can kill 'em one by one without dying. If Ardent is trying to stay with the Imps, let him and finish the other Avicara, but if he follows try to kill him first. It might take some time but it worked for me.....Even though I didn't get the IDS that time I did Infuse my Armor one more time ... On the other side of the cave there's Azure Shadows and the Ice Beast (Eoldon) who drops essence which you can take o the Seer close by . It took me like 20 minutes to kill hte beast but Kapper's build works fine against it and also works great against Azure Shadows. ::::

xDeathsWishx

xDeathsWishx

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Nov 2005

Mo/W

think this would work with Me/W?
(i got all the skills you listed, Kapper)

Kapper

Kapper

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

The Nemesis Enforcers (TNE)

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by xDeathsWishx
think this would work with Me/W?
(i got all the skills you listed, Kapper) I think it is safe to say it will be significantly more challenging.

You armor will be 40 less vs physical and 20 less vs elemental. You won't have the half time hex helmet and you can't pump up STR or use warrior runes.

Make sure and get some screenshots if you pull it off!

xDeathsWishx

xDeathsWishx

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Nov 2005

Mo/W

I decided to give it a try... though i did fail, i got pretty far.
It made me wonder: there are Ice Imps out side of Ice Caves of Sorrow... Why don't people farm there?

Instead of dolyak signet, i used Balanced Stance (so Strength wasn't really an issue, and it did save me from the giants). Also, i only put 11 into Swordsmanship because my sword only required 11, and Sever Artery only lasted 1 more second when it was on 12.


Woo, made it to Mineral Springs! =P


That stupid boss killed me once... (used some spell that knocked off 135 damage and slowed me down). I made it past him the second time.


One candy cane, and one healing signet later, this is where i die. Bad spawn? IMO, YES!


Well, at least i tried and i'm glad I did. I hope it will motivate all other Me/W's to at least give it a try =)!

EDIT**: Sorry the pic's are small, they got resized at photobucket.

dont feel no pain

dont feel no pain

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2005

Uk,Wales

yeah i had that spawn earlier it realy anoyying , but good job trying yay!

RSX77

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

Rt/R

Thanks to Kapper everyone in our guild already has 1000 IDS each and we're screwing up the entire GW economy. :P heh. j/k.

Kapper

Kapper

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

The Nemesis Enforcers (TNE)

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by RSX77
Thanks to Kapper everyone in our guild already has 1000 IDS each and we're screwing up the entire GW economy. :P heh. j/k. Post a video about how to hack the storage slots.

berko

berko

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2005

Canada

N/Me

I just got my second one, after like 10 runs or something....but I also got a 10/10 Sundering Bow String somewhere along the line

Sir Edri

Sir Edri

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

McAllen, Texas

Black Metal Clan

W/Mo

I've been running almost the exact same build. But I bring balanced stance for those annoying Tundra Giants...And yes the Lieutenants Helm from Denravi works well specially when you have to face the elementalist Avicara, I put it on when I have to run past him..hehehe. Oh by the way very nice Vid Kapper.

Sir Edri

Sir Edri

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

McAllen, Texas

Black Metal Clan

W/Mo

I've been running almost the exact same build. But I bring balanced stance for those annoying Tundra Giants...And yes the Lieutenants Helm from Denravi works well specially when you have to face the elementalist Avicara, I put it on when I have to run past him..hehehe. Oh by the way very nice Vid Kapper.