Best way to farm black ice?

zachisrising · March 2016

What's the best way to gather black ice for the elemental equipment?

robisawesome · March 2016

Is it offline atm? i can get on

urlord283 · March 2016

Again run the quest and find the outcrops... Need for Mead also

Have fun

kisakee · March 2016

Buy the epic tool from Zen Shop and enjoy happy node hopping in PvP area, good luck. Or buy black ice profession packs in AH and hope for some refined ice.

robisawesome · March 2016

i cant get online atm is NW offline?

darthpotater · March 2016

black ice master pack

kisakee · March 2016

Maintenance, should be some info in the browser window.

niadan · March 2016

Quests, HE's, Nodes, Open PVP

urlord283 · March 2016

niadan said:
Quests, HE's, Nodes, Open PVP

Yep

Forgot about Open PVP

mantera47 · March 2016

Do Kessell's Retreat. You get about 670 or so Rough BI in the end chest every completion. Also, if you use the KR key for the 2nd chest, there's the same rough BI in there also.

urlord283 · March 2016

All very helpful comments

zachisrising · March 2016

Thanks

I think I'll do the kessel retreat

plasticbat · March 2016

Go into PVP area and dig when the contest is not running.

zachisrising · March 2016

What do you mean dig and what contest and where exactly?

plasticbat · March 2016

zachisrising said:
What do you mean dig and what contest and where exactly?

In both DV and IcePass, there is a PVP area. The area is flagged red in the map.
In certain time, there is PVP contest running. i.e. people kills people to get reward.

Since you don't even know about PVP area, I assume you don't PVP. Hence, you should avoid the contest.

When PVP contest is not running, the area should be empty (besides NPC).
And yes, you still can be killed if somebody has nothing better to do and be a jerk.
There are Black nodes in there. Those nodes are bigger than the nodes outside of the PVP area.
Dig means you dig the black ice node.

zachisrising · March 2016

Thanks for breaking that down for me

darkstarcrash · March 2016

If you need to mine a lot of black ice, it is well worth it to buy a Hammertone Runeforge Kit. The kit costs 1k zen -- you can buy it off the AH for AD -- and it permanently upgrades your pick, which triples the amount of black ice you receive per swing of the pick, and halves the time.

And the PVP nodes give you 4 or 8 chunks of black ice, instead of the 3 or 6 from non-pvp nodes, and gives an extra 20% BI each time.

So, instead of 150 BI from a single small rock in the non-pvp area with a normal pick, you can get up to 1440 BI from a large rock in PVP areas with a Hammerstone pick.

zachisrising · March 2016

Wow thanks. I'll do that

niadan · March 2016

Find an instance that is not populated and the Black Ice Domination is up. Cap nodes, win for your side, and mine a huge mountain of BI by yourself. Alternative to this is jump in area when your faction is the dominant faction and mine the big mountain with the group.

wylonus · March 2016

there is 2 special nodes in valley that i know, it yield 4 pulls and give extra units, others give 3 pulls, and 1 of special node with 6 pulls.
i never went to pvp section, i tried to get a couple pulls and got send to campfire. not very good zone design.
i really hate that "dangling carrot on the stick" bait when going to hostile faction pvp zones.

as other said, it is better with bigger group protecting each other backs.

beckylunatic · March 2016

Meh, you can often mine in the PvP areas unmolested, these days. There are lots of people wandering around in them looking only for ice to mine and not to fight. But if you don't want to run the risk of getting killed by other players at all ever, then don't go in there. If you can deal with the idea that someone might decide to attack you because you're flagged, then go ahead.

My experience right now though is that very few people will attack you when Black Ice Domination isn't running, if you act like you just want to mine in peace.

The zone design is fine*. There are lots of ways to obtain black ice via PvE, even if mining in the PvP flagged area is more efficient than mining outside of it.

The nodes in PvE zones that give extra ice are misplaced/misflagged PvP nodes.

*Or would be if the open PvP wasn't such a largely failed venture.

juleadream · March 2016

Mobs in Kessels Retreat drop Black Ice too. An average run of KR should get you at least 1k ice, if not substantially more.

yokki1 · March 2016

kessel's retreat is by far the fastest and most profitable one. also dont forget if you salvage the things u get from the chest (rings belts etc) you get black ice from the salvaging.
do NOT waste zen on the pick. you are not going to get even close as much as you will from kessel.

zachisrising · March 2016

Hmmm

namelesshero347 · March 2016

Biggrins Tomb gives 1200 BI. It's only once a week, but doesn't have to be converted.

dsn1118 · March 2016

yokki1 said:
kessel's retreat is by far the fastest and most profitable one. also dont forget if you salvage the things u get from the chest (rings belts etc) you get black ice from the salvaging.
do NOT waste zen on the pick. you are not going to get even close as much as you will from kessel.

I second this

urabask · March 2016

darthpotater said:
black ice master pack

^

This. 2500 refined black ice with a very reasonable drop rate from packs that cost 7.5k AD. And you can usually flip professions asset/tool/craftsman for ~ half the cost of the pack.

beckylunatic · March 2016

yokki1 said:
kessel's retreat is by far the fastest and most profitable one. also dont forget if you salvage the things u get from the chest (rings belts etc) you get black ice from the salvaging.

You get AD from salvaging Kessel drops now. They're alliance gear, not black ice gear.

darkstarcrash · March 2016

To put some hard numbers on mining black ice in PVP zones, I spent 30 minutes in Dwarven Valley (timer started when I entered the zone). I mined one normal node on my way to the pvp area, then I spent the rest of the time in the pvp zone or mining the 4 nodes along the edge that give you the pvp bonus BI. Again, this is with the Hammerstone pick.

It was under pretty much the worst conditions: enough lag that it would often take several seconds before I could interact with the node again, at least 3 other people competing for the black ice nodes so I had to do more traveling to find BI, and active pvp from the opposition. I died 3 or 4 times, but you revive just above the pvp zone, so there isn't a long ride back.

In the 30 minutes I mined 13,050 black ice.

I would be surprised if you could do better running KR -- at least with the pugs I run with, and not counting the second chest, since most people won't have a bunch of keys.

plasticbat · March 2016

darkstarcrash said:
To put some hard numbers on mining black ice in PVP zones, I spent 30 minutes in Dwarven Valley (timer started when I entered the zone). I mined one normal node on my way to the pvp area, then I spent the rest of the time in the pvp zone or mining the 4 nodes along the edge that give you the pvp bonus BI. Again, this is with the Hammerstone pick.

It was under pretty much the worst conditions: enough lag that it would often take several seconds before I could interact with the node again, at least 3 other people competing for the black ice nodes so I had to do more traveling to find BI, and active pvp from the opposition. I died 3 or 4 times, but you revive just above the pvp zone, so there isn't a long ride back.

In the 30 minutes I mined 13,050 black ice.

I would be surprised if you could do better running KR -- at least with the pugs I run with, and not counting the second chest, since most people won't have a bunch of keys.

With a fast group (i.e. with my guild), KR finishes in 8 minutes.

beckylunatic · March 2016

So you're looking at 4 completions in a half hour(ish). If we accept the figure of 670 per run and assume most players do not have the keys for the bonus chest, that is 2680 raw black ice for 4 Kessels, but with the addition of some AD, seals, and salvage.

Personally, I am unwilling to pay for a separate pick upgrade on 8 characters, since each class currently has to handle their own equipment (though they can make items for alts of the same class).

Best way to farm black ice?

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