The Tower of Frozen shadow can be a really great zone, for fun, experience and loot - here is some tips I've gathered along the way. Hope you find them useful -

Safe travels,

Caelym
L50 Cleric of Tunare
Cazic Thule

(aka: Zhaaz, lheezard monkey)

Notes:

• For key holders for floors 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, the keyholder will spawn from the death off a random mob. Simply killing the mobs on the floor will eventually spawn the keyholder.
• The keys in the Tower of Frozen Shadow are not soulbound. When you die, the keys you have will still be on your corpse. This can make doing CR tricky if not incredibly frustrating for a party if not well prepared. (See my section on doing CR in the tower) For those that don't know, soulbound keys are keys that will appear in your inventory after you have died enabling you to get back to your corpse.
• All of the keys in the Tower are no drop.
• Crowd control of some form is a must in the Tower. Aggro can get very bad, very quickly.
• Have multiple sets of keys on different part members. This will make corpse retrieval when one of the keyholders in your party dies easier.
• Generally, as you go up to the next floor, the mobs get harder (duh =p ).

Index:

• First floor
• Second floor
• Third floor
• Fourth floor
• Fifth floor
• Sixth floor (A)
• Sixth floor (B)
• Seventh floor
• CR in the Tower

Floor 1

The first thing you'll notice when entering the Tower is that there is a big hole in the floor of the main room. This hole is surrounded by a slippery floor. If you do fall in the hole, you will find 3 Shadowbone Skeletons waiting for you. To make pulling across the slippery floor easier, use levitate on the puller.

Keep killing mobs to get the key holder to spawn (A Large Undead Gnoll). If you already have keys, you can run straight through to the right mirror to get to the second floor, or the left mirror to go to the 7th floor (you need Tserrina's key to use the left mirror). To make sure you don't aggro mobs on this floor when you run through, use invisibility to undead.

Item drops on this floor

• A Crystal Key
• Gnome Skin Armor (looks pure black with no designs)
• Fading Shadow Weapons
• Shadow Bone Earrings (4 AGI 2 INT)
• Crystallized Armor

Floor 2

This floor is an old library filled with Erudite ghosts. Depending on your level, you may want to buff up with magic resistance since almost all of the mobs on this level are casters.

You can pull to the zone in area, or to the left or right side of the main room. There are four static spawns on this level: Librarian, Librarian Assistant, Ghostly Teacher, and a student who stands in the same room as the Ghostly Teacher. None of these mobs drop anything special.

The keyholder is the Angry Librarian. As well as then key for floor 3, she also drops the following:

• Three Toothed Key (Always)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
  WT: 0.1
  Class: ALL
  Race: ALL
  
• Students Homework (Uncommon)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
  +3 INT, +15 MANA, +10 MR
  WT: 1.0
  Class: NEC, WIZ, MAG, ENC
  Race: HUM, ERU, HIE, DEF, HEF, GNM, IKS
  
• Teacher's Syllabus (Rare)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
  +3 WIS, +3 INT, +20 MANA, +20 PR
  WT: 0.5
  Class: CLR, SHM, NEC, WIZ, MAG, ENC
  Race: HUM, ERU, HIE, DEF, HEF, DWF, GNM, IKS
  

The rare spawn on this level is Zorglim the Dead who drops Crystalized armor uncommonly, and the Crystalized Shadow Tunic as his rare.

Item drops on this floor

• Three Toothed Key
• Teachers Syllabus
• Student's Homework
• Gnome Skin Armor (looks pure black with no designs)
• Fading Shadow Weapons
• Velium Weapons
• Crystallized Armor

Floor 3

Turn right, then left at the shadowbeast room. It's all the way down this hall, last entryway on your right.

This level is much like the first two - keep killing mobs until the keyholder drops. Good experience and semi-decent loot and items are to be had on this floor.

The keyholder, An Enraged Shadow Beast drops the following:

• Frosty Key (Always)
• Chilled Scythe (Uncommon)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
  Skill: 2HS Atk Delay: 48
  DMG: 23
  +4 STR, +4 DEX, +15 HP, 20 MANA, +20 CR
  Effect: Shock of Frost
  WT: 1.0
  Class: WAR, SHD, NEC
  Race: ERU, DEF, TRL, OGR, GNM, IKS
  
• Finely Crafted Velium Ring (Rare)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
  AC: 2
  +3 STA, +3 AGI, +15 HP, +8 FR
  WT: 0.1
  Class: ALL
  Race: ALL
  

Item drops on this floor

• Frosty Key
• Chilled Scythe
• Finely Crafted Velium Ring
• Gnome Skin Armor (looks pure black with no designs)
• Fading Shadow Weapons
• Velium Weapons
• Crystalized Weapons
• Crystalized Armor

Floor 4

This floor is the toughest floor out of the first five floors. The reason for this is the number of roaming and static mobs that make adds very dangerous. Some sort of crowd control is a must here because of the number of casters and mobs that can jump a group. I have seen L50s go down in seconds on this floor because they got over their heads with bad adds.

The shadows on this floor cast Force Shock, mummies and oozing flesh will disease you. I would definately suggest buffing up with a magic resist to help with the number of spells.

Warning: Shadows will try to gate when they are low on health. If they do gate, you can bet that they will bring a bunch of friends to your party.

If you do have the misfortune to fall into a trap, you will find yourself in a room with a few random mobs. Run into the fire in the center of the room and you will be teleported back to the zone in point.

To limit the amount of wanderer-adds, I would suggest moving immediately upon zone-in (unless you're jumped) to the hallway behind the locked door. There are a few spawns in this hallway, but there are hardly any wanderers. The added bonus of course is that your party is nice and close to the mirror if you need to beat a hasty retreat.

The keyholder is called Cara Omica (L42). She always spawns in the same place, and seems to spawn when one of the rares is killed (Amonepheta or Narmek). She drops the following:

• A Rusty Key (Always)
• Embalmers Skinning Knife (Common)
  MAGIC ITEM
  Skill: Piercing Atk Delay: 25
  DMG: 4
  Effect: Summon Bandages
  WT: 2.0 Range: 20
  Class: WAR, RNG, SHD, BRD, ROG, NEC, WIZ, MAG, ENC
  Race: ALL
  Note: Summon Bandages is a PROC. Can be equiped in Range.
  
• Magnetic Dirk of Distraction (Rare)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
  Skill: Piercing Atk Delay: 23
  DMG: 8
  +4 STR, +10 DEX, +5 MR
  Effect: Distraction
  WT: 3.0
  Class: WAR, RNG, BRD, ROG
  Race: ALL
  Note: Proc is the spell True North, this item is cursed.
  
• Sorcerous Bowl (Uber Rare)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
  Skill: 1HB Atk Delay: 25
  DMG: 1
  -5 CHA, +7 WIS, +7 INT, +50 HP, +10 MANA, +5 FR, +5 CR, +5 MR
  WT: 0.5
  Class: NEC, WIZ, MAG, ENC
  Race: HUM, ERU, HIE, DEF, HEF, GNM, IKS
  

Rare spawns:

Narmak Berreka (L35)

• Frost Covered Tome (Common)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
  +3 STR, +3 STA, +30 HP, +15 FR
  WT: 1.0
  Class: WAR, PAL, RNG, SHD
  Race: ALL
  
• Shield of Shadows (Uber Rare)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
  AC: 15
  +6 INT, 20 MANA, +12 MR
  WT: 6.0
  Class: SHD
  Race: HUM, ERU, DEF, TRL, OGR, IKS
  

Amonepheta (L35-L40)

• Sparkling Soul Necklace (Uncommon)
  LORE ITEM
  AC: 2
  +5 DEX, +6 AGI, +5 DR, +5 MR, +5 PR
  WT: 0.5
  Class: ALL
  Race: ALL
  
• Prophecy Scroll (Rare)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
  +2 CHA, +8 WIS, +50 MANA
  WT: 1.0
  Class: CLR, SHM
  Race: HUM, BAR, ERU, HIE, DEF, HEF
  

The Magot Infested Flesh drops the following:

Fingerbone Hoop
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
AC: 2
+3 DEX, +3 WIS, +3 AGI
WT: 0.1
Class: WAR, SHD, MNK, BRD, ROG, SHM
Race: HUM, BAR, ERU, DEF, HEF, TRL, OGR, IKS

Item drops on this floor

• A Rusty Key
• Gnome Skin Armor (looks pure black with no designs)
• Mummy Wrappings (just for sale)
• Fading Shadow Weapons
• Velium Weapons
• Crystalized Weapons
• Crystalized Armor

Floor 5

Note: It seems that most of the mobs on this floor are generally lower than the forth floor MOBs. The exception to this is the keyholder (See below).

The first thing you will notice when you zone in to the fifth floor is the Golem Ushers standing guard. There are six of them (two behind the wall which you can't see unless you walk into the hallway). From the start of clearing the Golem Ushers, the respawn time is roughly 24 minutes.

Pulling any of the first four will aggro all four unless you have a high level to pull for you or use a pacify/harmony-type spell.

Directly ahead of you is the main wedding hall with the groom (Nosja) and his bride (Daman). Ceremonial wedding swords drop off all the guests rarely and signet rings seem to drop uncommonly of almost anything. Most of the guests will be green to a L40 character.

The keyholder on this level is An Enraged Relative. The Enraged Relative spawns from an Undead Usher which is spawned from the death off of a random mob (although every time I have seen the Undead Usher spawn he has spawned off of a Golem Usher). Be prepared: The Enraged Relative is L45 and hits for over 115 on average.

An Enraged Relative

• Bone Fingered Key (Always)
  
• Crystallized Shadow Belt (Uncommon)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
  AC: 1
  +1 CHA, +2 INT, +2 AGI, +10 HP, +5 MANA
  WT: 0.2
  Class: WAR, CLR, SHD, MNK, BRD, ROG, SHM
  Race: HUM, BAR, ERU, DEF, TRL, OGR, GNM, IKS
  
• Beer Stained Coldain Tunic (Uncommon)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
  AC: 12
  +5 STR, +5 STA, +15 HP, +5 CR, +5 MR, +5 PR
  WT: 2.0
  Class: WAR, CLR, PAL, RNG, SHD, DRU, MNK, BRD, ROG, SHM
  Race: DWF, HFL, GNM
  
• Velium Spiked Skull Helm (Common)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
  AC: 10
  +5 STR, +5 CHA, +20 MANA, +5 CR, +5 DR, +5 FR, +5 MR, +5 PR
  WT: 0.0
  Class: WAR, CLR, PAL, RNG, SHD, BRD, ROG
  Race: ALL
  

Nosja

• Signet Ring (Common)
  
• Ceremonial Wedding Sword (Uncommon)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
  +5 STR, +3 DEX, +3 STA, +3 AGI, +6 MR
  WT: 5.0
  Class: WAR, PAL, RNG, SHD, BRD, ROG
  Race: ALL
  
• Diamond Wedding Band (Rare)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
  AC: 2
  +3 DEX, +5 WIS, +5 INT, +15 MANA, +8 FR, +8 CR
  WT: 0.1
  Class: ALL
  Race: ALL
  

Daman

• Laced Veil (Uncommon)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
  AC: 2
  +4 DEX, +8 CHA, +3 AGI, +5 FR, +8 DR
  WT: 0.1
  Class: ALL
  Race: ALL
  
• Rune Etched Wedding Band (Rare)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
  AC: 2
  +3 STR, +4 STA, +6 AGI, +15 HP, +8 DR, +8 PR
  WT: 0.1
  Class: ALL
  Race: ALL
  

Be careful when pulling the main room depending on your level. There are quite a few mobs in there which may or may not come with respect to con. I would suggest getting a higher level (L44 does nicely) to pull Nosja first, then Daman. Nosja is a shadowknight.

Item drops on this floor

• Bone Fingered Key
• Beer Stained Coldain Tunic
• Velium Spiked Skull Helm
• Signet Ring
• Ceremonial Wedding Sword
• Diamond Wedding Band
• Laced Veil
• Rune Etched Wedding Band
• Crystallized Shadow Armor (Belt)
• Gnome Skin Armor (looks pure black with no designs)
• Fading Shadow Weapons
• Velium Weapons
• Crystalized Weapons
• Crystalized Armor

Floor 6 (A)

This level has much the same types of mobs as the first level, but higher level. The level is quite straight forward, however one must be careful when pulling because most MOBs are close to each other. This floor is really split up into two parts because the second half of the level is accessible only by clicking on a mirror which does not require a key (you could call 6B floor seven, but you don't need a key to get there). See the next section for information about 6B.

The keyholder is called VhalSera, an efreeti, and is in the second part of the level, 6B (see the next section for more information).

There are two rare spawns on this level, An Incoherant Spirit (L38 SHD) and Lucid Spirit of Abram (L40ish SHD). The Incoherant Spirit drops Abrams Axe of the Stoic rarely. The Lucid spirit is a rare random spawn from the death of any MOB on the level. He is involved in a quest in Kael Drakkal and The Wakening Lands. Be warned: If you are fighting any mobs near the Lucid Spirit when he spawns, he will aggro on you.

This floor has a few features which deserve special attention:

1. The room containing the mirror out (second left from the zone-in) contains a dragon statue with burning paws. If you approach the statue, you will trigger an AoE spell trap which will affect anyone in the entire room with you. The effect of this trap is a fairly substantial direct damage and debuff.
   Warning:The trap will continue to trigger/cast until the person(s) who triggered it back off out of trigger range of the trap. I have seen this trap take a caster type down to less than 1 bub in just a few seconds.
2. When on your way to the mirror to 6B, be careful of the platform just to the right. This platform is directly above the second room full of spectres - they will aggro if you are too close to the edge of the platform.

VhalSera is the keyholder mob on floor 6B. He is in fact, spawned by killing a mob on 6A, which can be rather frustrating if you are on 6B and VhalSera is no where to be found.

The mob you need to kill on 6A is "a ice shade". The trick to identifying him is that he looks exactly like a regular specre. You will notice that all the normal ice shades on this level are the "new" Velious spectre-type model with white cuffs on their gowns and larger more menacing axes. VhalSera's spawn-mob look exactly like a normal old-world spectre, there are no white cuffs, and he has a scythe, not an axe. The "a ice shade" will also summon a pet if you leave him alone long enough. Please note that shades are called both "an icey shade" and "a ice shade" and they both look identical.

The best way to get "a ice shade"-spectre to spawn (if he isn't already) is to just clear the two spectre rooms and check the other main floor spawns to see if he has popped (in essence clear the main floor ;).

Item drops on this floor

• Abram's Axe of the Stoic
• Gnome Skin Armor (looks pure black with no designs)
• Fading Shadow Weapons
• Velium Weapons
• Crystalized Weapons
• Crystalized Armor

Floor 6 (B)

The zone-in point for the second part of floor 6 is a large platform in a large dome-shaped room. The platform stops just short of the wall which forms a sort of moat filled with water between the inner platform and the dome wall. Be careful when you zone-in, as there may be roaming Shrouded Bats (more on these critters later).

In the middle of the platform you will notice a raised dias with an arched bridge reaching up towards the level proper. The bridge opens into a larger room which contains the main set of mobs on this level.

The spawns on floor 6B start to show some of the nastier mobs in the Tower. Shrouded Bats are mid-30s mobs (green to L49). The bats are not too bad at all and go down quite quickly. When any Shrouded Bat dies, it insta-spawns "An Enraged Vampire" which is a mid-40s mob. These vampires are no pushovers, and have a good amount of hitpoints, proc a stamina tap and can also cast Gravity Flux. Be prepared to fight double the amount of mobs when you see Shrouded Bats.

If you have spawned VhalSera, he will be waiting somewhere up in the main room. Just a note about aggro here - VhalSera seems to have a very large aggro range, so be warned.

VhalSera is quite a nasty mob. He has lots and lots of hitpoints, and is probably the second hardest mob in the Tower next to Tserrina. As well as Tserrina, he is also very magic resistant. He *can* charm, so buff up with Magic Resist. (I was in the middle of re-buffing with MR when he aggroed on my party, and partway through the fight he charmed our L50 warrior for a few seconds giving our Paladin a few moments of discomfort). The bottom line is that VhalSera is not a pushover.

Clear the bats, and VhalSera, and you will get to a hand holding a ruby - click the key on the ruby to zone up to Floor 7.

VhalSera

• Key to the 7th level (Always)
  
• Talisman of Vhal Sera (Possibly Common or Uncommon)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
  AC: 2
  +4 CHA, +3 WIS, +3 INT
  WT: 0.0
  Class: BRD, SHM, NEC, WIZ, MAG, ENC
  Race: HUM, ERU, ELF, HIE, DEF, HEF, GNM, IKS
  
• Vhal'Sera Skull Earring (Drop Rate Unknown)
  MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
  AC: 2
  +2 STR, +20 HP, +15 MANA
  WT: 0.5
  Class: ALL
  Race: ALL
  

Floor 7

There are a few types of mobs on this level, Shrouded Bats (our little friends from Floor 6B), Torches (look like Shadows holding torches), drakes, Enraged Vampires and Tserrina herself. Killing any bat can spawn Tserrina. Most of the mobs are standard fare, the bats are the only tricky mobs here. Have a care when pulling and with runners, it can be very easy to get overrun with adds (just like floor 4). Again, crowd control is essential.

Tserrina herself has earned a bit of a reputation for being a real pain to fight. She melees for 115+ and can cast up to three (3) stacking DoT spells. Make sure your party members give clerics heads up if they are dotted so they can be cured. I have heard storied many times of tanks being killed by her DoTs and not realizing how much damage they were taking. Like VhalSera, Tserrina can also charm - so be prepared. Magic Resist is a must on this level.

One special note about Tserrina's key - this key will port you from the left mirror on floor one directly to Floor 7.

Corpse Recovery in the Tower

1. All keys are nodrop and are not soul-bound (contrary to popular belief of people who have never had to do CR in the Tower).
2. Invisibility works differently on different Tower floors (eg: on floor one you can walk about with invisibility to undead, but on the third floor there are undead and live mobs mixed but regular invisibility works here)
3. MOB aggro and trains

1. Keys : You can't have enough keys. I would strongly suggest that at least two party members have complete key sets to get to the floor you will be fighting on. These two could be anyone in your party, but I would suggest a caster who has regular invisibility and a cleric or paladin who has invisibility to undead so that you can get through the floors without having to fight your way through. The other option is having a rogue in your group with a complete set of keys. A rogue will be able to sneak through most of the Tower without any problems.

2. Unless you have a rogue who can sneak-hide past almost every mob in the Tower (I have not heard of any who can see a rogue yet), you will need two people doing CR so that you can get back to the level that you need to do retrieval on safely and quickly.

3. It is possible to run through a Tower floor without invisibility. However, you will die at some point when the mobs catch up.

Warning: it seems that when you aggro a mob on a floor, and move to another floor using a mirror, the mobs can follow you. Sometimes they don't seem to, but I've seen mobs follow a party too many times to take the chance that they won't. If you aggro mobs, either stand and fight, get to an exit mirror, or evac. Aggroed mobs from another floor seem to take their sweet time getting to you after you have left that floor, but they will come looking for you - bet on it. For example:

- Going from Floor 2 to Floor 3 having aggroed a bunch of ghosts on floor 2, getting to Floor 3, thinking we were safe, but 20 seconds later all the ghosts from floor 2 showed up and were non too pleased with us.

- Going from Floor 3 to Floor 4 - same thing - aggro'd some mobs, then eventually popped up onto the 4th floor

- On 6b, aggroed some bats, mirrored back to 6a, we were able to med up for almost a full minute before the bats showed up.

I'm not quite sure if this is a feature of the Tower, or a bug, who know (perhaps VI ;)

Rogues are great for the Tower because they can sneak-hide almost anywhere safely, making CR much easier. Classes that don't have invisibility might want to invest in some invisibility potions for emergencies, or make a rogue friend ;) Please note that the traps will pop your invisibility (whether it be of the rogue sneak-hide, undead or regular variety).

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