Icecrown Gear Roundup Part 2: Frozen Halls

Icecrown Citadel is bringing with it an unprecedented three 5 man dungeons, collectively called The Frozen Halls. They're individually short instances, having a total of seven boss encounters culminating with player's first hostile encounter with the Lich King himself. You don't get to kill him here, but you do set the stage for his demise in Icecrown Citadel itself.

Normal mode loot consists of itemlevel 219 epics, heroic of itemlevel 232 epics - the zone is itemized at tier 8 equivalents, and drops emblems of triumph like all heroics, so this is a potential one stop shop for all your welfare gear needs. In addition, the heroics are the starting point on the quest obtain Quel'Delar: Lens of the Mind, an itemlevel 251 epic sword which will be an upgrade to anyone not packing a ToGC25 weapon.


I'll be covering the fights themselves in a bit more detail after I've had the chance to see them on lives servers, but for now, the loot lists are up and robust enough to be assumed complete, so let's check out the profit.

The first of the three zones is the Forge of Souls, where machines called Soul Grinders... uh... grind... souls. You know, for... stuff. I dunno what they do, but they drop loot, so hope they break well. You'll join forces with Sylvanas Windrunner or Jaina Proudmore (depending on your faction) in this zone.

Bronjahm, the Godfather of Souls
Not a cheesy name at all, but not a happy lot of loot for the warlocky types.
Normal
Cold Sweat Grips
Hit/crit cloth gloves
Heroic
Very Fashionable Shoulders
Hit/haste shoulders just begging for some flavor text.

The Devourer of Souls
Not much of a devourer if they have to be ground up first, doncha think? He's sure devoured a lot of nice loot, though.
Normal
Blood Boil Lancet
Crit/spirit staff. Not particularly a good one.
Essence of Anger
Hit/haste belt. Probably going to be forgotten in this era of crafted 2 socket monstrosities, but not a bad belt in it's own right.
Coil of Missing Gems
Crit/hit necklace. Not sure where the missing gems fell out, there's no sockets.
Heroic
Seethe
Hit/haste sword, nice option for the non-raider looking to upgrade their Black Knight dagger, nice stop gap until you can get your Quel'Delar.
Mordrethar Robes
Crit/spirit robes. The lack of gem slots gives it away, the ToC robe is going to give it a hard time I think.
Arcane Loops of Anger
Haste/crit necklace, a solid pick for the itemlevel.



The next zone up is the Pit of Saron, you'll need to clear Forge of Souls to unlock this instance. Here you have to free trapped allies to help fight Scourgelord Tyrannus, lord of this zone which appears to be a saronite stripmine. With three boss encounters, this is the longest of the three five mans.



Forgemaster Garfrost
Master blacksmith of the Pit, Garfrost doesn't like warlocks. You'll see why in heroic.

Normal
Unspeakable Secret
Unspeakable haste/crit staff. Slightly better one than Blood Boil, but it's still a staff. A good one, if you like that sort of thing.
Ice-Steeped Sandals
Haste/spirit boots. A solid addition to any nonraider's wardrobe.
Heroic
Shit. Unless you like MP5, in which case you're a bad person.


Krick and Ick
Krik's a gnome. Gnothing good comes from dealing with gnomes. Especially ones that ride things called Ick.
Normal
Wristguards of Subterranean Moss
Haste/spirit bracers, another solid drop in our list.
Heroic
Ancient Polar Bear Hide
Hit/haste robe, another solid option from the zone, but again I'm struck by the lack of gem sockets. ToC 5 man gear's going to give a lot of Icecrown 5 man gear a run for it's money because it was somewhat generous with gem sockets.
Braid of Salt and Fire
Not sure how you braid salt with fire, but you get haste/spirit when you do. Nice belt.


Scourgelord Tyrannus
The big bad guy of the Pit. This means he's got the longest loot list, and he has some of the more notable warlocky items of the zone.
Normal
Palebone Robes
Haste/crit robes. Still no gem slots, ToC 5 robe still has two. Underwhelming, but a solid pick nonetheless.
Rimewoven Silks
Sounds appealing to the crossdresser inside every male clothie. Haste/crit pants with a socket. A socket you say? Yep a socket.
Heroic
Engraved Gargoyle Femur
Hit/haste. Another good one. You know, if you're a staff person.
Nevermelting Ice Crystal
Now THIS is what I'm talkin' 'bout. 111 spellpower DPS trinket. The use effect isn't spectacular, it's just crit. But it's just NINE HUNDRED AND TWENTY crit, which is nothing to sneeze at. The buff lasts 20 seconds, but every non-DoT crit will cut 184 crit off the total. This will be of notable use for affliction warlocks - remember, Corruption updates it's spellpower level on EA refreshes, but keeps it's crit and haste as long as it doesn't expire. That's 20% crit to your corruption that you get to keep, if you use it effectively. 3 minute cooldown sort of hurts the trinket as a whole, though.

After clearing both previous zones, you get to to come into the last (and shortest) of the five mans, the Halls of Reflection. These are the Lich King's private chambers, where he comes when he's not sitting atop the Frozen Throne, where he cries himself to sleep every night because Tirion Fordring just doesn't feel the same way about him.

Falric and Marwyn
The first encounter in the zone is against two of Arthas's captains from his days among the living. Loyal unto death and then loyal unto death again, these guys have a fairly long combined loot list.
Normal
Marwyn's Macabre Fingertips
For some reason these supposedly drop off Felric. Crit/spirit gloves with a red socket, not bad. 4 intellect bonus, though, which is. Still, it's nice to see some gem slots where they belong.
Splintered Icecrown Parapet
Haste/crit sword, one of the better nonheroic options from the zone.
Frayed Abomination Stitching Shoulders
Haste/crit shoulders.
Heroic
Soulsplinter
Hit/crit wand, not a bad option, particularly if you don't have the triumph wand.
Bracers of Worn Molars
These guys have a body part thing going on in their gear. Like these hit/crit bracers.
Sightless Crown of Ulmaas
Hit/haste helm with a meta socket. A solid pick - PVE meta gem helms are always limited options outside of raid gear.
Suspiciously Soft Gloves
These drop from Marwyn. I think they're soft because for some reason Falric drops this poor guy's fingertips. Crit/spirit gloves, no gem slot this time around, but still, 105 spellpower's not bad for pre raid gear.

The Lich King
Jaina and Sylvannas come seeking a glimmer of hope that Arthas may yet be saved and bloody vengeance, respectively. This fight is merely a setback, you won't be defeating Arthas here, but this is the first chance the world will have to really gauge his power.
Normal
Chilled Heart of the Glacier
Hit/haste dagger with a gem slot. It's blue, and the bonus sucks, but the extra spellpower still makes this a very solid 219 weapon.
Tattered Glacial-Woven Hood
Haste/spirit helm this time, but still has the meta socket, with a yellow second and 9 spellpower bonus - a candidate for a spellpower/haste gem with that bonus. Meta sockets are always a nice thing pre-raid, they're even annoyingly sparse in tier 7 gear.
Heroic
Shriveled Heart
Haste/crit offhand, only one from the trio of zones, too. Likely going to be one of the best offhands outside of raids.
Strip of Remorse
Haste/crit belt.105 spellpower, but with no sockets this looks like another one lost in the status quo of dual socketed crafted behemoths.

And of course, they're not heroics without trash. The Frozen Halls aren't overflowing with trash pulls, but there is trash loot, and it's epic this time around. A nice touch for a 5 man area.

Normal
Coffin Nail
Haste/spirit wand, a good pick for people without the triumph wand.
Mantle of Tattered Feathers
Crit/spirit shoulders. There are some haste options around the zone that would be better.
Heroic
Ghostly Wristwraps
More crit/spirit trash loot. Again, there's more attractive options in the zone.

And of course, the Battered Hilt drops from trash throughout the zones, launching an epic quest line that will end with Quel'Delar, Lens of the Mind. On the PTR, the hilt was a BOE, so expect some frustration greed rolling this against others in your groups and some truly epic auction house prices in the first few weeks. The result is the undisputable pre-raid best in slot weapon, not to mention it looks pretty cool, being all long, curved, and vaguely phallic in the outlining.

All in all, not a particularly amazing collection of loot. After the ToC 5 man, I would have expected much more generosity with gem sockets, especially in the 5 man finale of Northrend. Nevermelting Ice Crystal looks like the main attraction here. It's not a bad trinket, abusable for affliction, but I'm not entirely sold on it, either.