Essence of the Dragon I


 * Daybreak forum thread: Getting Essence of the Dragon I (Group) [ Kar'Zok immunity ]

The Empires of Kunark achievement Essence of the Dragon I (Group) grants immunity to Aura of the Kar'Zok and Gust of Atrebe. These auras are extremely damaging and can easily kill characters quickly.

Kar'Zok (green) sarnak in both Empires of Kunark and Ring of Scale have Aura of the Kar'Zok, and some, including the Kar`Zok Overlord, also have Gust of Atrebe.

The achievement is listed in the Achievements window under Empires of Kunark > Progression.

This article tells you have to get the achievement Essence of the Dragon I (Group) in the fastest and easiest way, without including any tasks unnecessary for the achievement.

You gain immunity to the auras by completing the quest Methods of Sarnak Destruction. In order to request Methods of Sarnak Destruction, you must first complete most of the Empires of Kunark group progression.

Once you complete Methods of Sarnak Destruction you gain the achievement Essence of the Dragon I (Group). Below is a list of what you need to obtain Methods of Sarnak Destruction.

A number of these tasks are group missions, which you can do at any time if someone else requests them. In addition, you can get task adds to the group missions no matter where you are in your progression. Requesting any task (other than Concerned Citizens and Disappearing Dragons) does require doing the previous one(s), so doing the solo tasks without the prerequisite previous one(s) is not possible.

For each character in a group who is actively working on a solo quest, additional quest pieces will drop from mobs. Therefore, if a group member does not need the task, they can still get it to help those who do need to obtain parts quicker.

When more than one task is listed on a line with a greater-than (>) sign between them, it means that you must have completed the previous one to request the next one.

While most Mercenary tasks are not needed for Kar'Zok immunity, it is still a good opportunity to get them done while you are working on this. Most mercenary kill tasks will get completed just as you are doing these tasks. Frontier Mountain mercenary tasks are an exception to this.

Once you gain Essence of the Dragon, you need to go to your Mercenary AAs and purchase it for zero AAs in order to grant it to your mercenary.

Lceanium
The four tasks here are solo tasks. Concerned Citizens and Disappearing Dragons do not have any prerequisites other than being at least level 95.
 * Concerned Citizens > Contacting the Leadership - Contacting the Leadership is automatically given to you upon completing Concerned Citizens.
 * Disappearing Dragons > Sneaky Sarnak

For Contacting the Leadership, the Drachnid Cave, where you use the Drachnid Repellant, can be a challenge. This thread on the Daybreak forum discusses some strategies.

For the next step, we have Scorched Woods listed first, then Chardok (Empires of Kunark), then Frontier Mountains (Empires of Kunark). Note that Frontier Mountains (Empires of Kunark) tasks only require you to do the Lceanium tasks to request them, so you can request the Frontier Mountains (Empires of Kunark) tasks before the Scorched Woods and Chardok (Empires of Kunark) ones if you wish. Of course, since the Frontier Mountains (Empires of Kunark) tasks are group tasks, you can do them at any time if someone else requests them.

Scorched Woods
Scorched Woods contains two important NPC faction sides. The Burynai (badgers) are on The Clawdigger Clan faction. The Centaurs are on the Majestic Centurion faction. Each side opposes the other. Killing one side reduces your faction with that side while improving it with the other. It is, however, possible to have both sides not hate you. Characters will start out with good faction with at least one side, depending upon your race.

It is recommended that you do the tasks for the faction you are friendly with first, then you can kill NPCs of that faction to get faction for the other side. Once your faction with the opposing side has improved, you can do the other side's tasks. It is possible to switch your faction before completing a task and get the other side's task, as well as the 'neutral' tasks. This should cut down on the number of mob kills and travel you will need to complete this zone.

Some illusions can also temporarily improve your faction, which may be enough to get some tasks. Dark Elf (Teir'Dal) and Iksar illusions should help with the Burynai. High Elf (Koada'Dal) and Wood Elf (Feir'Dal) illusion help with the Centaurs.

A double faction potion, available in the Marketplace, can help you gain faction faster.

Not required but useful to improve your Burynai (The Clawdigger Clan) faction is the quest Bad Horses (solo). This also reduces your Majestic Centurion faction.

Not required but useful to improve your Centaur (Majestic Centurion) faction is the quest Burrowing Desecrators (solo). This also reduces your The Clawdigger Clan faction.

By placing a Burynai and a Centaur on your Extended Target Window, you can check your faction with them at any time. This enables you to know when you have completed enough factioning.


 * Burynai: Digging Yourself Deeper (solo) - Requires Kindly faction or higher with The Clawdigger Clan.
 * Centaurs: The Last Grove (solo) - Requires Kindly faction or higher with Majestic Centurion.

The task, On Nobody's Side is a group task. It is recommended that you do this task after finishing the Burynai and Centaur tasks since unless members of your group have high faction with both the Burynai and Centaur you may have to kill some of them. However, it is not very important, as the faction loss from killing only a few can be quickly restored. Still, it is faster to be able to simply ask for items with good faction than having to kill for them.
 * Where is Burning Woods? (solo) > On Nobody's Side (group)

Chardok (Empires of Kunark)
The three tasks here are group tasks.
 * Probing the Fortress > Their Own Medicine > Destabilizing Chardok

Frontier Mountains (Empires of Kunark)
The four tasks here are group tasks.
 * Pentalateral Negotiations
 * Informal Diplomacy
 * Rocks Boom for Twigslam > Sarnak Among Us

The Temple of Droga
The five tasks here are group tasks.
 * Corrupt Before the Fall > Purifying the Purifier > Corrupting the Corrupt > Pure Success > Rebellion of the Pure

For the quest, Purifying the Purifier, the following items needed (three of each) can be pre-looted:


 * Drogan Ore from slaves in The Temple of Droga (NOT Dronan Ore).
 * Goblin Mushroom Loaf found in supply crates/barrels. Have to be broken open, and looted old fashioned way).
 * Drogan Medicinal Herb Bundle looted from goblin adepts.

If you have a rogue in your party, the following will help complete Pure Success more quickly:

Werglra is on a bridge, a couple of pathers to watch out for. When no pathers around, unhide and say "combine," this will update the quest. Gentza is in a small cave, with two gobs near him, but backs turned toward his position. Get behind him, unhide only (keep sneak on) and say "combine," this will update the quest. Snally is in the far south east room. One spider paths into the room that you need to watch out for. Get behind Snally, unhide and say "combine", this will update the quest.
 * 1) Have rogue request task to get the injector.
 * 2) Take the group down to the Depredator Overlord Boilwart (Allakhazam, Magelo) area.
 * 3) Group starts to clear out room with Boilwart in it (one goblin + 2 slaves, + 2 wandering mobs)
 * 4) While group is clearing out the room, rogue does his Hail run
 * 5) Rogue injects himself with injector (make sure you have no illusion on, else it won't take)
 * 6) Rogue runs to Wergla, Gentza, and Snally
 * 1) Rogue runs back to group at Boilwart. When Boilwart room is clear, say "combine" to Boilwart, he will go active. Kill him.
 * 2) Rogue goes and turns in task, gets next task. Group stays in Boilwart area, keeps it cleared.

If you have a rogue in your party, the following will help complete Rebellion of the Pure more quickly:

Say "me" to Werlgra for update. Say "dronan" to Gentza for update. Say "control" to Snally for update.
 * 1) Rogue requests task to get injector.
 * 2) Rogue heads in and immediately heads to one of the first three goblins named above, after injecting himself and turning into a goblin.
 * 1) Rogue runs back to Boilwart. When Boilwart room is clear, say "stronger" to him. Three blue con goblins will spawn. Kill these.
 * 2) Rogue runs back to Frontier Mountains for turn-in.

Gates of Kor-Sha
The three tasks here are solo tasks.
 * Preparations for Forward Action I > Preparations for Forward Action II > Preparations for Forward Action III

Kor-Sha Laboratory
The two tasks here are solo tasks.
 * Investigating the Mysterious Sarnak > Methods of Sarnak Destruction

Upon completion of Methods of Sarnak Destruction you gain Essence of the Dragon I (Group), the immunity.

Methods of Sarnak Destruction tradeskill combines
To complete the task Methods of Sarnak Destruction, you will require seven items (two of each):


 * Intact White Dragon Scale - These drop from Yeti in Lceanium.
 * Meteorite Fragment - These drop from Burynai in Scorched Woods.
 * Giant Lymph Node- These drop from giants in Frontier Mountains.
 * Dronan Ore - These drop from goblins in Droga.
 * Imperial Ore - These drop from sarnak slavedrivers and slavemasters in Chardok.
 * Korshan Sarnak Scale - These drop from sarnak in Gates of Kor-Sha.
 * Ancient Sarnak Bone - These drop from goblins in Kor-Sha Laboratory.

These will drop during your adventures in Empires of Kunark and are pre-lootable. You can also trade or buy them in the Bazaar, if someone is selling them.

At the appropriate step of the quest, you will combine them in a forge using tradeskills. This combine will automatically fail. It is required that you fail this combine to continue the quest.

Going through the quest, you will reach a point where you have to combine one of each of them them with a Vial of Viscous Mana, in various tradeskill containers to get:


 * Cleaned White Dragon Scale
 * Enchanted Meteorite Fragment
 * Enchanted Giant Lymph Fluid
 * Enchanted Dronan Ore
 * Enchanted Imperial Ore
 * Cleaned Korshan Sarnak Scale
 * Enchanted Ancient Sarnak Bone

This EQ Traders Corner link shows how the Vials of Viscous Mana are made by enchanters: Vial of Viscous Mana. You can trade or buy the Vials of Viscous Mana. You will need seven of them. No tradeskill expertise should be needed.

You can also just trade or buy the items that are already combined with the Vial of Viscous Mana and do the 'Collect update' method above, for this stage of the quest.

Then you have to create Mana of the Sarnak. This has a blacksmithing trivial of 178. This requires the items above plus the Korshan Portal Resonance which is obtained by standing in the portal in the northeast corner of Gates of Kor-Sha with a Vial of Viscous Mana in your inventory.

No smithing skill methods
Should your blacksmithing not be adequate, you can have someone with the skill create Mana of the Sarnak Compressor (note that despite the item link, it is actually an eight slot container) for you. This takes the same ingredients as the Mana of the Sarnak, along with an extra Enchanted Dronan Ore and Enchanted Imperial Ore. Once you have a Mana of the Sarnak Compressor, you need to take the seven cleaned and enchanted ingredients plus the Korshan Portal Resonance and combine them in the Mana of the Sarnak Compressor. The Mana of the Sarnak Compressor is used up in the combine.

Alternately, you can buy a Draught of the Craftsman from the Marketplace store. Drink it when you are ready and it gives 100% salvage for two hours, plenty of time to do all the combines. Even if you have no tradeskills at all, you can combine over and over again until you get it.