As I’ve been working on Frostfell activities this weekend, I came across the Icy Keep instance. This has been in the game for over ten years, but somehow I didn’t get around to completing it before.
It’s that slightly rarer beast, a challenge in a MMORPG that cannot be brute-forced, indeed combat with any of the monsters inside this castle will fail the mission. The instance was a fun combination of working out paths and clicking various locations. With the challenge coming from spotting where to go next and what needed to be done.
Even getting in confused me for some time as there are a couple of ‘could be’ entrances that are not, it’s possible to send your character plummeting to a fatal landing if (s)he gets too close to the edge of a ravine in this frozen fortress!
Chasms can be dangerous
Playing this instance reminded me of similar content in other games that I’ve experienced. It’s fun occasionally to have such a quest where combat isn’t the answer. Another example I’ve redone recently is the early mission from Scrag in DDO, the one where you have to escort some dogs out of the sewers.
The dogs in question are vicious enough to attack unprovoked, and you need to guide them out without killing them accidentally – beware armour that reflects damage back on the attacker!
Both quests were very different but imaginative examples of what can be added to a game beyond the usual combat-heavy fare. Do you have any favourite non-combat challenges?
GamingSF 
Wow! I can’t believe you’ve never done the Icy Keep before! Did you never farm it for tokens? Well, obviously not!
That first quest is one of quite a lengthy sequence and I think it’s the only non-combat one. I was running Icy Keep only yesterday for tokens – it’s infinitely repeatable once you finish the questline (possibly before that – I forget) and I expect to be back in there a few more times while Frostfell lasts.
I vaguely remember entering once but not having time to work out what was going on. It’s also the fact that often in EQ2 there is so much to do, and not all is obviously sign posted that I tend to miss stuff unless I read up on it or am really in an explorative mood. Not really a criticism but certainly a contrast to how obvious some games make content!
Reblogged this on DDOCentral.
Pingback: My favourite posts of 2017 | GamingSF