Tower of Frozen Shadow, First Floor

The first floor of the Tower of Frozen Shadow is an excellent hunting spot for characters of level 27-33 (or even up through 36, although mobs start turning "light blue" as early as 33). It has an excellent Zone Experience Modifier, so all characters level quickly here.

Recommended Classes

The zone is especially popular with Clerics, Necromancers, and Paladins. All three have agro-reducing spells (eg. Pacify or Rest the Dead), which is useful as many mobs are clumped together in groups of 2-4.

Also, all three have anti-undead spells (eg. Dismiss Undead) (as do Shadow Knights, although they lack Rest the Dead at this level). Finally, all these classes have Invisibility versus Undead, which helps with exploration and corpse recovery.

Unlike the rest of the Tower, the first floor does not require a key to access, and since you can bind outside, recovering after a wipe is simple.

Binding at Zone out

I recommend binding at the zone out area, ie. the area to the right when you face the entrance portal (if you're unsure, just zone in and out). No mobs path through this area, so you can safely recover there.

Risks

The first floor has two main risks. First, it contains a pit surrounded by an icy floor, and inside are two shadowbone skeletons. Move slowly around the pit to avoid falling in.

Second, after any mob dies the floor's "boss" has a small chance to immediately spawn. He's tough enough to kill you, but if you move away as soon as he spawns, he won't agro you. You can then safely use invis/pacify spells to avoid him, until another player kills him (or until you bring a higher-level alt to do it yourself).

Getting There

A portal to the Tower of Frozen Shadow can be found outside the tower itself at 2000,3000 in Iceclad Ocean.

There are two Shadow Guardians outside, but you can usually avoid them with Spirit of Wolf or Journeyman's Boots. If you're unlucky, you might get hit, but only for around 100 damage.

Entrance

If you proceed from the magic mirror you arrive through, you will enter a room with a large pit in the middle. NOTE: To explore safely, cast Invisibility versus Undead before entering the room.

Pulling to the Entrance

If you want, the entrance room is a safe pull area. However, mobs can flee from this area into the pit, so if you lack a snare ability, you might want to fight in their respective hallways.

Where to Level

When you reach level 31 or 32, you should be able to kill A Lesser Ice Shade in the back of the pit room. Before that, you'll want to avoid them. You'll also likely want to avoid the backmost rooms (ie. the ones closer to the shades), to save mana on Calm or Invisibility versus Undead to avoid them.

From (roughly) 27-30 it's recommended that you stick to the first two hallways (the first left/right ones in the pit room). After that the whole level opens up, and at 33 mobs starting becoming light blue (so you may want to explore to find dark blue mobs). If you completely run out of blue mobs, you'll likely have acquired a key by that point, and can move on to level two.

Pit Room

The entrance hallway leads to a room with a pit, with two Lesser Ice Shades beyond it.

As mentioned above, the floor around the pit is "icy", so move around it slowly to avoid sliding in accidentally. If you fall in there is a "staircase" out of the pit, but there are also two Shadowbone skeletons who will agro and make finding the stairs more difficult.

Six other areas connect to this room, although the back areas will require you to deal with the shades.

To the left (coming from the zone-in) is a hallway leading to Shadowbone skeletons. Another hallway to the left (past the first) also leads to a room of (three) Shadowbones. Past that is still one more leftward-facing longer hallway, which leads to two more Shadowbone skeletons.

To the right is a hallway leading to two rooms of Shadow Beasts. The rightward hallway beyond it leads to a mix of mobs.

At the end of the pit room is a short hallway ending in a mirror. Once you acquire the key, clicking on this mirror will transport you to level two.

Skeleton Hallway (Left Front)

To the left (coming from the zone-in) is a hallway with a single Shadowbone at the end. Before that it has a room containing three more Shadowbones.

This room can be single pulled with Calm (to start calm the forward/left skeleton first, then the back/right skeleton, then finally pull the skeleton behind the forward/left one).

Skeleton Room (Left Middle)

This room contains three Shadowbones.

Skeleton Hall (Left Back)

At the end of this hall are two Shadowbones.

Shadow Beast Rooms (Right Front)

This hallway has two rooms. To the right is a room with two shadow beasts. To the left is a room with three shadow beasts, plus a fourth one hidden in a back room.

Mixed Room (Right Back)

This room is the only one containing a mix of mobs, with a shadow beast and several Shadowbones.

Time to Move On

While mobs on this level start becoming light blue (ie. high green) at 33, the shades remain blue even at level 39. However, most will want to move on to Tower of Frozen Shadow, Second Floor around 33-35.