Coldain Ring Quest Walkthrough

[Caali]

Anyone know where I can find a decent one? I have Alla's but hoping there is something a little better organized around.

[Maeceo]

Here is the one that I posted on my guild boards. It is from a bard point of view, solo, and taken from experience and ripped off from other places. So no, I am not the true source of this. However, I have done this 5 times now, so it works for sure. Hope this helps, I also added a few tips to each that need it from a BL perspective, it may or may not help.

Here is a little solo spoiler from a bard perspective:

Ring 1 (Coldain Hunting Blanket): This is probably the longest step in the whole quest with the exception of waiting for certain NPCs to be up or spawn. You need 2 HQ cougar pelts (common) and 2 HQ Kodiak pelts (very uncommon). I prefer to do rings 2 thru 5 while I'm hunting for kodiaks. Cougars will be adds often enough so getting the cougar pelts is easy. I have too many to count. My strategy for hunting the kodiaks is simple. Use track, use line of sight, and gather up as many as 4 kodiaks at a time. Sometimes I'll swarm kite them, sometimes I'll gather 4 and fear kite one with a pet while the other two get feared away and come back. If you make the blanket yourself, you'll need a decent tailoring skill (mine is 73). You can have someone else make the blanket and then MQ the 2nd ring with you though.

Ring 2 (Boradain's Broken Axe): This is one of the guys that you need to catch being up. You can track him from the front of the orc fort. He's up on a plateau on a hillside to the NW of the orc fort. After getting the axe from Garadain, go clear the entrance of the giant fort. There are usually 2 guards there and the occasional captain. I take the 2 guards and let them duke it out for one round of charm. Then I charm again and fear kite one down, then finish off the other with a fear kite. Give Boradain the axe and protect him at all costs. The little dorf likes to aggro on any orc and giant about. Boradain's first stop is the giant fort. If the captain is there, kite him away to a safe distance and snare him.

addition for a BL you can do this solo. The important thing with this is that you clear the road in front of him. Start by clearing the front two mobs in the giant fort, then start the walk with him, then worst case you are having to engage the captin, assuming he is there, when you arrive there. After that kill you can get ahead of him in the jail area and kill the two orcs and the giant that are normally in that little holding pen which is where he paths to. Make sure you kill the final mob that spawns, I typically get above the little guy and kill the kodiak before he even knows he is up, then hand in the axe. The following tells more about the walk.

It is best to do this part of the quest as a duo so that you don't have to worry so much about Boradain getting killed along the way. Have Lull mem'd and use it on every mob that will pass near Boradain. You can use it on Boradain as well although I don't recommend it if you're doing this solo. Occasionally Boradain will resist it and come after you. If that happens you'll have to camp to clear aggro while keeping the little guy mez'd. Lull works amazingly well on this quest, too.

Boradain heads to the prison camp after a short break from the giant fort. I used lull on 3 mobs that Boradain stood right next to and none of them aggro'd him. I'm thinking about trying this on the giant fort as well. Boradain takes another break to "rest" cuz he's "sleepy" and then heads to the orc fort. You'll have enough time to aggro the 2 entrance orcs if they are even there. Most people camp the orc fort so you shouldn't have a problem. If the 2 are up, just fear them away before Boradain gets there. You won't want to use fear near Boradain because you'll have to camp to clear aggro. The orcs will then run back to you and you can then safely kite them away. Again, do this part as a duo so that one can watch the dorf while the other takes care of nearby mobs. I might change my mind about duo'ing it when I check how well Lull works on the giant and orc fort entrance mobs.

Once he passes the orc fort he will head back to his plateau. When he sits down, a Rabid Kodiak will spawn very near to where you first find Boradain to begin the quest. Kill the Kodiak and loot the rabid kodiak pelt that it drops. If you do it quickly enough you will be able to hand the pelt to Boradain and get the broken axe before he despawns. I think both the pelt and the axe are No Drop but they are not Lore. If you miss the window of opportunity to give Boradain the pelt, you'll have to wait til he is up again. Yet another reason to do this part duo'd. Warning: Do not use the Howler illusion near Boradain since he will attack you in that form.

Ring 3 (Coldain Hunting Knife): If you make the knife yourself, you'll need to forage a skinning rock and have a decent smithing skill. You can have someone else make the Knife for you since it is tradable but they will have to forage their own skinning rock since it is No Drop. You can raise your smithing skill to 73 fairly fast and cheap. It only took me about 50pp. Besides, you'll wind up finding so many skinning rocks, you'll want to do it yourself just to get rid of them. The Knife is also not Lore so you can have many of these on hand for MQ's.

Anyway, skinning rocks are more commonly found near the ST entrance. Just run around it in a larger and larger circle and you'll eventually find one if you don't have one already. You'll also need a HQ walrus hide (common) and a Wooly Rhino Horn (uncommon but not rare). I'm sure you already know which mobs drop the necessary items but I'll mention it anyway. Walrus hides drop off of walruses and the horns drop off of Wooly rhinos - I know you're shocked aren't you? Both mobs are fairly common near the prison camp.

Ring 4 (Coldain Smithing Hammer): This is one of my favorite parts of the quest simply because solo'ing 4 giants gives me great joy. You need to find Tain Hammerfrost. He spawns over an embankment to the West of the icebridge. Hail him and tell him, "I will help." This triggers 4 giants to spawn over the same embankment. If you're doing the quest solo, quickly run up to the embankment and target a giant for charm. Charm and send it back to the other 3. At this time, take the opportunity to find the named giant of the 4 (Ghrek). Target him, buffer him so you don't have to worry about targeting him again, and tell your pet to attack him. Warning: You don't want to charm Ghrek since having him poof on you would be bad. He can withstand to be charmed and probably recharmed a 2nd time before he would take too much damage from the other 3 and die.

You're only after Ghrek so having your other pets die is of no consequence. Keep sending the other giants after Ghrek until you're down to just him and one other giant. Fear kite the named down with your giant pet in tow or use whatever method works best for you. Kill Ghrek, loot the Elixir and if enough time hasn't passed yet, Tain will still be up and you can hand him the Frozen Elixir to get the Coldain Smithing Hammer. The hammer is not Lore and is tradable as well.

addition for BL When you do this it does not matter if tain dies. So take your time, it is 3 giants and the named, the named is the one you need. If you can slow them all and pet tank them all down, regardless of how long it takes, you can just let Tain despawn, get the drop you need, and wait on the respawn. Or buy the hammer in advance and run it over to him and you are done.

Ring 5 (Invasion Plans): This is the last ring that can be done out of order. The rest of the rings require that someone have the necessary ring to activate the quest or complete it. The invasion plans drop off a Ry`Gorr messenger that spawns at the prison camp and runs directly South to the orc fort. I've been told he's a fairly common spawn but expect to wait an hour for him. I was lucky and while I was sitting on the ridge North of the orc fort, the bastage ran up and hit me. The invasion plans are tradable and not Lore.

I recommend doing this part as a duo as well. It gives you the opportunity to get the jump on the orcs that spawn when you hand in the plans to "a coldain lookout." The orcs spawn to the West and slightly North of the Coldain huts near a pair of trees. Scarbrow will be right in the middle of 2 - 3 orc invaders *and* 2 - 3 oracles.

What worked best for me was to target Scarbrow and mez him. This aggro's the invaders while the oracles stay put and attempt to cast on you. Run out of spell range with the invaders in tow. Target an oracle, charm it, and have it attack Scarbrow. The other oracles will assist in killing your pet. The best scenario is to have only 2 invaders and 2 oracles so that you can then swarm kite the invaders onto the casters otherwise you'll need to run the invaders around until you have only Scarbrow and 3 other mobs. Once you are down to either no oracles or one oracle and 2 invaders, charm the remaining mobs (if a caster is still left, charm it first) and have them attack Scarbrow one by one. This turns into your common swarm kite.

Some people will train the coldain camp with all but Scarbrow and kite Scarbrow away. That method is by far the easiest way to do it but you then have to wait for all the dorfs to respawn since the orcs *will* slaughter all of them. But it is far less risky if you do it that way. Loot Scarbrow's head - I can't remember if it's No Drop or Lore. I'll come back and edit this when I find out.

addition for BL I would let them slaughter the coldains and let the camp respawn. Again, scar is all you are concerned with so when they get there target him, pull him out of them, run him off a little, kill him and then camp out and back, let the camp respawn and move on.

Ring 6 (Korrigan and Rodrick the Traitor): You'll need ring 5 to activate part of this quest. Korrigan spawns on the south end of the zone near some huts with Icefang in one of them. He will either spawn at 10pm game time or 12am game time. I've seen both times occur so if he's not up at a little after 10pm game "/time" then wait for 12am. You'll need to hand Korrigan your 5th ring. He hands it right back so don't worry about it. This causes a new Icefang to spawn in place of the one in the huts. Follow Icefang to the orc HUTS to the North of the icebridge. It's best to do this duo'd so you can have one person clear the orc huts while the other follows Icefang around. It is possible for some to be KoS to Icefang but I think it has to do with Coldain faction.

It is necessary to follow Icefang since he will attack any orc and giant along the way. He's pretty tough since Korrigan does buff him a bit but he will die in a one on one fight. He'll even KS you while you're protecting him. Also, Icefang can sometimes take a rather long journey around EW before he gets near enough to the orc huts which will cause 3 oracles and Poxbreath to spawn. Some have reported 4 oracles spawning but this hasn't been the case every time I've done this part.

Use swarm kite tactics to take out Pox first and the oracles later. Icefang will attack the oracles when he gets there and Icefang will die. I've yet to able to have Icefang live through the encounter (some day soon I hope). Loot a Note from Kromrif off of Pox.

addition for BL A 65 should be able to target pox and pull him out single, kill him and move on to the next part.

Next is Rodrick the Traitor. You have to wait for a Ry`Gorr Emissary to spawn out in front of the geos exit from CC. It is directly West of the Ry`Gorr fort. Wait for the Emissary to leave and then pull Rodrick solo. Charm a pet onto him and melee him. I couldn't fear or snare him so you can either reverse charm kite him or try to go toe to toe. Kill Rodrick and loot his head along with the Dirk of the Traitor. You'll need it to do ring 9 which I don't have a guide for just yet. Note: It's possible to keep respawning Rodrick if you kill the Oracle of Ry`Gorr in the orc fort. This prevents the Oracle from dismissing the Ry`Gorr Emissary and causing him to despawn. After the Emissary gives his text to no one, he makes his way back to the spawn point for Rodrick where he will cause another Rodrick to spawn.

addition for BLYou may not be able to slow Roderick, just as a FYI, I could never land it on him with my bard and for a rogue he hits hard from the front, so do not turn your back to him!

Ring 7 (Rescuing Corbin): You need to have ring 6 to finish this part of the quest. I also recommend doing this as a duo. It's just safer that way. If you solo it, which is doable, you'll need to be sure you stay close to Warden Burke (to get the shackle key to free Corbin) as he begins his death walk so that he doesn't warp back to his spawn point and cause 40 giants to spawn.

Killing Warden Bruke. You'll need to kill his PH if he's not up. His PH is a Kromrif Prison Guard (all CAPS on first letters). Respawn is about 6 minutes. When Bruke spawns, don't aggro him from the front. You'll want to pull him out the back of his "area" to avoid having his guards add to you when they spawn. Keep throwing pets at him; wooly rhinos are great for this. His MR, CR is too high to land those dots so if you want a really long boring kite, you can dot him down with just Chant of Flame. But remember to stay near him when his health begins to get low or he will warp back to his spawn point and if you've taken too long to kill him, it's possible to have another Burke up. You won't be able to pull him out from his spawn point if he warps back but you can finish dot'ing him down by running around the open air building that he spawns in while continuing to dot him. Eventually he'll die but you'll have a ton of giants chasing you. You'll have to either wait for them to despawn or kite them far enough away so that you can run to his corpse to loot the key.

addition for BLThis is a good plan for the solo person, drag Bruke to the coldain camp that is sorta west of the location that Bruke spawns, do no damge to him and do not slow him, hit him with dispell and pull him there. He will get jumped and take heavy damage from the coldain camp, he will kill them all and be at about 20% health at that point, just finish him off and stay in melee range when he flees to avoid warping to spawn.

Freeing Corbin. There are 2 giants, 2 orcs and 1 Interrogator guarding Corbin. Pull each solo and kill them off. To free Corbin, hand him your 6th ring and the key off of Warden Bruke. Corbin begins to walk to the huts to the East where Dobbin Crossaxe is. Corbin will get about 1/3 of the way there before he says something about being tipped off and found out. If you're doing this solo, IMMEDIATELY smack Corbin and run him back towards the prison. This allows you to snare all the adds that ambush him (there are 2 Kromrif Soldiers, 4 Ry`Gorr Bashers and Commander Bahreck). Kite them all far enough away while keeping Corbin in tow. When you've lost all the adds by snaring them (or just charm one and have it attack the others - it's better than snaring), run Corbin to the huts where Dobbin is. Mez or charm Corbin at this point and camp out. Log back in and wait for Corbin to despawn and for Dobbin to ask for your ring. Give Dobbin your ring and he gives you a note to give to Garadain for your 7th ring. Note: The last time I ran this part of the quest, Corbin was "tagged" so well and quickly that NONE of the spawned mobs had a chance to aggro Corbin. Every mob ran straight to the /loc where Corbin announced the ambush and then just stood there dumbfounded.

addition for BLThe following is key, sorry, but with no ability to mem wipe you may want a friend for this OR you need to drag him over to the side, put the lowest level pet on him to occupy his attention while you log out and back to clear aggro. Give him some time (can be 5-10 min of standing there) for him to start the script again and to path to the fort that he will go to, then you will be fine to finish this off. I prefered to bring a FD friend as the camping to clear aggro thing sucks.

If you do this as a duo it's best to have a class that can FD (necro, SK, monk), or a class that can root and camp (many classes), or a class that can Atone (cleric). For duo'ing, you'll be the one to aggro the giants and orcs that spawn and kite them away. When your duo partner gets to the huts, have them tell you so that you can make sure to kite the adds far enough away and get to the huts before Corbin despawns. I did this with an SK the first time and it took a while for Corbin to despawn so that Dobbin could ask for my ring. Corbin seems to be on some sort of timer so you may have to wait a bit before he'll continue his walk over to Dobbin.

Ring 8 (Garadain's War): You'll have to wait for Gloradin to spawn (24 hours +/- 2.4 hours) so that you can begin the War. Tell Garadain that you are ready and he asks for your 7th ring. Hand him your ring and he gives you a note to give to Gloradin. Handing Gloradin the note begins the War. Run immediately to the orc fort and invis your way inside or use lev to get over the back walls, or to the west side wall which is the prefered. I was able to pull the Chief solo out the back wall as was suggested in tCH guide. I no longer feel this is necessary. I duo'd this and we went back in and single pulled the rest of the fort spawns (Firbrand the Black, Oracle of Ry`Gorr...) within the back of the courtyard. I even used the orcs that were back there for pets.

There are 5 spawns that are in the Courtyard - the Chief, 2 Kromrif giants, Firbrand the Black and an Oracle of Ry`Gorr. I was able to single pull them at level 57 using Chant of Flame. So you can do this if you're high enough level either solo or with a group within the courtyard.

addition for BL get in the fort invis, make a pet fast, target the chief that spawns there in the middle of the pack, pull him (he will come single) and kill him, he flees so get him fast before he gets on the other side of the wall or stuck in it. Then loot the head and head up to the ridge invis. Some say you no longer have to wait on the "CHARGE" call to do the head turn in, I still wait, his script is forever slow, but I prefer to be safe then sorry.

When you're done killing the Chief, run immediately to Garadain and hand him the head. You do not have to wait for him to shout charge. I don't know exactly what has changed since the quest was implemented but waiting for the CHARGE shout is no longer necessary. I think it has something to do with NPCs not caring about items they don't need. Garadain despawns when you hand in the head and he gives you the 8th ring.

Summary:
Handing in the Coldain Hunting Blanket = ring 1
Ring 1 + Broken Axe = ring 2
Ring 2 + Coldain Hunting Knife = ring 3
Ring 3 + Coldain Smithing Hammer = ring 4
Ring 4 + Head of Scarbrow = ring 5
Rings 1 thru 5 are MQ'able easily
Ring 5 + Note from Kromrif + Head of Rodrick = ring 6
Ring 6 + Key from Warden Bruke frees Corbin
Handing ring 6 to Dobbin yields note to Garadain
Handing note to Garadain yields ring 7
Handing Head of Chief Ry`Gorr to Garadain = ring 8

[Caali]

Excellent thanks!

[Maeceo]

One addition to the corbin thing. When you are walking him, just follow him close, you will see the text that is relation to "being discovered" you literally have 3 seconds to tag cobin and move him away. My prefered direction is straight east towards the water, then straight south towards the huts that he will end at. You will literally see the stuff pop and run straight to where corbin would have been if you had not tagged him. They despawn. If you move corbin close to the huts you can put a buffed up low level pet on him, enough to hold him in place so that you can log out, then log in and you can wait for him to walk the rest of the way, like I said, he may sit there not moving for a good 10 min before getting back on script.

[Nusa]

They do NOT despawn, at least not right away. Instead, they roam south and if not stopped will kill Garadain and his friends (they can handle a few, but not the whole pack). Just means you have to wait for him to respawn to do your turnin.

As for deaggroing Corbin, I found it easier to just flash-of-light him and camp as he's running away. You'll easily have the 30 seconds required before he can get back to you.

[Maeceo]

at least not right away

Each time I have done it I watched them despawn. Yes they start to wander back that way, but I am certain I saw them vanish (unless they warped or something to somewhere). FoL is a good idea, never really thought of that.

[tkyn]

Another way to camp out would be:

/pet attack
/pet guard
/pet hold
/camp

[Cawlle-BB]

IS it true you can MQ the ring? Cause if you can I'll spend my time looking for a MQ instead. :-P

[Maeceo]

100% true, you can MQ the 7th ring to get the 8th ring.

When you start the 8th ring war you lose the 7th ring when you do the turn in to get the battle plan (or what ever they are called). What gets you the 8th head is non-kos faction and looting the actual head of the chief that spawns when the war starts. That's it, nice and simple. On luclin the 8th ring MQ goes for around 15k. Decent DS item, instaclick for when you need it, etc. I am doing the same thing on my beast. I did up to ring 7 on my bard and now just need to MQ it, to myself, with them on the same account.....

[Soullbash]

Had to do this twice due to the Chief warping out of the fort, but I found him and killed him so I had the head when I start the war the second time.

This is great for debuffing mobs since you don't have to target yourself and it's instant.  I makes Klandicar so much easier.

[DontPetBear]

I've done the Corbin part 3 times, and on the two that i didn't kill all the Giants they went to Garadain's camp and killed them all.  This really sucks if Gloradin is up and you or someone else wanted to do Ring 8.

This is a great quest and I soloed it all up to ring 7 at level 52.  I tried Ring 8 solo, but couldn't bring the Chief single and got mobbed down.  Easily duo'd with a 54 Nec tho.

The hardest parts are Ring 4 (I just ran till all Giants but Ghrek lost agro, then turned around and casted a pet quick), and Ring 7 ( Left some mobs with pet and Corbin, and ran others away till they lost agro).  Duo'd with a 50? Ranger pretty easily.  Wouldn't solo this again unless no other help available.