Ice Wind Dale

Icewind Dale is the third major area and holds the story about the resurgence of Akar Kessel and his minions and the after effects of the Crystal Tower. The fragments of the Crystal Tower have given birth to strange and powerful substance, Black Ice. Black Ice can be found all over the zones of Curse of Icewind Dale. Mining it and crafting with it are a central theme to Curse of Icewind Dale and is what draws players to this new, well designed game update.In this DDM’s Realm player guide and walkthrough we will help you navigate the many different currencies, locations, and factions. Use this player guide to make the most out of your time in Neverwinter’s update 3, Curse of Icewind Dale.

 

Players are going to need to have 10,000 gear score and rank 3 boon to be able to start this campaign.  Dale is harder content and at max level. Once you have these things you can talk to Sergent Knox and get the quest. Then head down near the southern exit in Protectors enclave and talk to the NPC who is recruiting players to come help. That NPC will not take you if you are not powerful enough. If you are, off to Caer-Konig you go.

 

Cear-Konig holds a central place in the campaign, and you will need to visit it before you can access the ice wind pass or dwarven valley. These new region need a access pass, and you can only get it in Cear-Konig

 

First you should go through the few short mini quests to learn about the area before they spam the zone with how to do basic things. It only takes a few minutes to learn what you need to about where your quests are, where the NPC’s are, and how you can get decked out in Black Ice gear.

 

These slow down the deterioration of Black Ice gear for an hour. This is a must for players that don’t want to spend all their time farming Black Ice to maintain their gear. Mind that the black ice gear, is outdated and replaced with the relic gear.

 

Fractions

Ten Towns and the Arcane Brotherhood. These are mainly here to set up the PVP part of the areas but each one also has a unique quest that can be done. Otherwise, each faction shares all of the other quests so it really does not make a big difference which faction you choose. In fact, you can switch back and forth if you choose to without any repercussions. If you are a player that wants to earn achievements you will need to play out both factions for a while to earn the Achievement of completing 100 quests for each faction.

 

The Arcane Brotherhood is the other half of the PVP factions here in Icewind Dale. This faction does have access to one different daily quest than Ten Towns, but it is nothing special. Otherwise you will be doing the same quests that the Ten Town faction is doing.

You can cancel your contract if you have not completed the daily quests. Otherwise it will reset the next day or if you remain logged out for 12 or more hours.

 

 

The Curse of Icewind Dale Currencies

Caer-Konig Reputation is the main currency, or thing, you have to earn to advance through the Curse of Icewind Dale campaign. Players can only earn 10 Caer-Konig Reputation a day by completing the Daily Quest the faction you are currently under contract with. This quest is to gather 300 Raw Black Ice and completing one Heroic Encounter. This is very easy to do. So make sure you do this quest if nothing else until Icewind Dale is unlocked. It will take 35 days to complete this.

 

Konig Coin is the next most important currency. It is earned by completing Daily and Weekly quest in Caer-Konig. You can also turn in Kessel’s Sigils at a rate of 5 Kessel’s Sigils for 1 Konig Coin. If you are interested in getting Black Ice gear as soon as possible, be sure to keep track of how much you earn. There is nothing worse than unlocking the ability to forge your Black Ice gear but being unable to do so because you do not have enough Konig Coin.

 

Kessel’s Sigils are the bounty item for Curse of Icewind Dale. These should mainly be used to get Konig Coin until you have enough. Then spend them on potions to reduce Black Ice decay. Once you have many of those, you can use them on gear or Seals of the Unicorn. Kessel’s Sigils are dropped by the enemies that you battle in the Curse of Icewind Dale zones, Icewind Pass, Dwarven Valley, and Kessel’s Retreat.

 

Auril’s Tears are the quest currency you will receive from doing quests in Icewind Pass. These will be needed to unlock many of the Icewind Dale campaign rewards.

 

Dwarf Gold is the last of the currencies players will collect. Dwarf Gold can be earned by doing quests in the Dwarven Valley. These will also be needed to unlock many of the Cures of Icewind Dale campaign rewards.

 

By unlocking the Auril’s Tears part of the Curse of Icewind Dale campaign, players can get access to a daily quest that will grant the player a Coalesced Potion of Agility or Defense. This will also unlock the next step in the tree, granting the player access to the Yeti Hunter Fashion Set at the Frozenfar Expeditions store.

 

A Need for Mead

By unlocking the Dwarven Coin side of the Curse of Icewind Dale campaign players will get access to a Daily Quest that will grant them a Coalesced Potion of Precision or Force. Also, this will allow you to take the second step in this tree to access the daily quest Need for Mead. It is a short (5 minute) quest that is very straight forward. The one kicker to this quest is that occasionally a yeti will spawn near the end. This yeti drops yeti treats which you can use to try to befriend the yeti outside the quest. If you are successful when giving it the Yeti Treat you will get a new defender yeti companion!

 

At 200 Caer-Konig Reputation, players will get access to another quest.

 

Heroic Encounters

 

Neverwinter has introduced Heroic Encounters in Curse of Icewind Dale.

 

Heroic Encounters are randomly spawned encounters that will appear in both Icewind Pass and the Dwarven Valley. They come in three strengths: Minor, Major, and Epic.

 

Minor Encounters can be accomplished with 1 or 2 players fairly easily. Heroic Encounters scale up to the Epic Encounters that will take at least 10 players to complete. The difficulty and deadliness of each type of Heroic Encounter scale as well. So be careful starting an Epic Encounter with only a few, as the mobs will be very tough. Each of these encounters will display objectives on them and are timed. If all objectives are completed before time runs out, every player involved will earn a reward for participating. Rewards will scale depending on the more involved you are in the encounter. With a fleeting presence you may earn a skimpy 25 Raw Black Ice but if were heavily involved them you may earn up to 180 Raw Black Ice, Black Ice Enchantments, Black Ice Crafting ingredients, Mod 3 potions, and epic gear.

 

There are many different encounters and they are all easy to figure out. Most involve killing waves of monsters. A few have extra steps such as reviving wolves or freeing prospectors that are being held prisoner.

 

Minor Heroic Encounter

On completion the rewards are usually 25-75 Raw Black Ice, Enchantments, and sometimes green or blue ingredients and potions. These can be solo’d most of the time. These will show a small orange pillar of magic in the distance to mark them. These are easy to farm but don’t expect great loot.

 

Major Heroic Encounters

On completion the rewards are usually 25-150 Raw Black Ice, Enchantments, any crafting ingredients, potions, and rarely epic gear. A full group of 5 players will be needed at minimum to complete one of these encounters. These will show a very tall white pillar of magic to mark them. These are not so easy to farm but you do get something nice on occasion.

Epic Heroic Encounters

 

On completion the rewards are usually 25-180 Raw Black Ice, Enchantments, any crafting ingredients, potions, and sometimes epic gear including black ice gear. Two full groups of 5 players will be needed at minimum to complete one of these encounters. These will show a very tall and broad purple pillar of magic to identify these. These are crushed pretty fast when they spawn since they have the best drop rate for all of the good player items. Get in there and get helping so you can have a chance at the great loot.

 

When approaching a Heroic Encounter, be cautious. There might be enemies that have wandered out of the area. If people are fighting the encounter, help them out. If there are a couple of people looking at the encounter but nobody is starting it, charge on in! Soon you will have many people helping you. I often start encounters and always have people join in. It is a quick and easy way to get lots of Black Ice and crafting ingredients as well as other more rare items.

 

Players can purchase most of the Black Ice gear in Caer-Konig at the smith but they will need to get their main hand weapon as well as their bracer/hand slots from Major or Epic Heroic Encounters.