Quick Facts

Screenshots

Videos

Secrets of the Talonpriests

Obtain an Elixir of Shadows from Severin and use it to find and slay Talonpriest Ishaal, Talonpriest Skizzik and Talonpriest Zellek in Skettis. Return to Commander Adaris after completing this task.

	Talonpriest Ishaal slain
	Talonpriest Skizzik slain
	Talonpriest Zellek slain

Description

Thank you for paying heed to my fevered rants. All along we had been trying to identify and destroy the Skettis chain of command; we had learned of three clerics known as the talonpriests, but we'd never seen them with our own two eyes. Now we know why.

Talk to Severin to obtain more of the elixir he discovered. Use the elixir to find and kill the three talonpriests: Ishaal, Skizzik and Zellek. They're rumored to dwell in Veil Ala'rak, near the eastern shore of Blackwind Lake.

Completion

Gains

Upon completion of this quest you will gain:

10,820 experience
250 reputation with Sha'tari Skyguard

Guides

Nether Ray
in a Day

Comments

Comment by SaltLick

Ishaal 68,78 up top in the tree

Zellek 69, 74 up top in the tree

Skizzik 69, 82 in the hut

For this quest you have 15 minutes to do it before the buff that allows you to see them wears off. They are all surrounded by a few guys but everything is easily soloable.

Comment by regarr

If you run out of time you'll need need another elixir from Serevin, who will require 6 more Shadow Dust to make it.

Comment by DoorToDoorCook

Approximately 3 minute respawn on each of them.

Comment by Kuwaii

Post by SaltLick confirmed, those coordianters are correct.

Ishaal hit me with shadow word: pain which ticked about 413. (No shadow resist)

Skizzik used Psychic scream.

Comment by Puckish

This is one of the most annoying solo quests I've done in ages. First you have to grind on these annoying hard-hitting Skettis mobs for six Shadow Dust simply so you can *see* the mobs you need to kill.

And then when you do, you also see a lot of other "Time-Lost" mobs, all standing on top of the regular mobs so you're often aggroing a half-dozen at the same time!

On top of that there are Elite treants wandering around the area, and when you try to fly up to the mobs in the treehouses the Monstrous Kaliri will aggro you -- and they don't even drop any loot!

When you inevitably die you have to get six more Shadow Dust just so you can try again.

What an absolute pain.

Comment by Ebrech

Coords are good but the npc are random to those place,, i saw a different one each time i went for zellek

Comment by zang1983

Be prepared to die a gazillion times to shit respawning on top of you and birds aggroing from above while you're already fighting three mobs. One of the most annoying quests I've ever done.

Comment by Kiminara

It's hard to solo as a healer. also to do it within the time-limit you have. bring someone along with you if you're healing specced.

Comment by jl4788

One of the worst / most annoying quests in the game. Died twice, killed 0 Talonpriests. Hardcore chain linking, flash healing, evade bugging mobs

Comment by absorb

not to mention they chase you forever till ur dead

Comment by Khabal

This wasn't as bad as I read here. With this area farmed so much, most (if not all) of the extra trash was being killed by everyone and their brother, leaving the re-spawning bosses pretty out in the open.

I'm sure it will be harder once this area isn't being farmed so much.

If you're a Mage, keep a stack of Light Feathers so you can Slow Fall off the towers in case you get overwhelmed.

Comment by Tiriestel

First priest, no problem, killed a couple guys and pulled him onto the bridge - the healers were annoying but no big deal. After that though... evading birds, nuff said :-/

Comment by Jeyjey

Skizzik is bugged for me, killed him twice. Dont get the quest done.

Comment by TheImbued

As a protection Warrior this was quite hard. The first two priests, Ishaal and Zellek were not too bad but Skizzik proved to be a royal pain in the behind! :-)

Due to all the other "hidden" mobs getting to him was fairly difficult because of their large aggro range, however I have found a good technique now:

Only use the Elixir of Shadow when you are inside the hut that he occupies (once you have killed the normal mob inside first). This means you won't pull any other mobs to you and you can kill him with ease.

:-)

Comment by quant

Coord's right. If it didnt' work for you when you killed them double check to make sure you aren't in a raid. Even if you left your raid the night before sometimes it puts you back in it when you log back on.

Comment by renowator

350 shatari skyguard rep

Comment by Sta7ic

As you're doing this quest you will pick up Ishaal's Almanac which gives you another quest http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=11021

Comment by PleegWat

Ishaal was the only nasty one (lock solo). 2 adds quite close too him, and the area isn't farmed so you have to clean the rest first yourself too. Managed it when I pulled the adds separate

Comment by alaij

Anyone else having issues completing this quest? Not from a difficulty standpoint, but actually not being able to complete it even after killing all three priests?

I must have killed Ishaal four or five times but haven't gotten credit for it...

Comment by Vespers

Ishaal is the most important priest to kill. This quest has no direct follow-up; you have to loot Ishaal's Almanac to begin the questline that eventually has you kill Terokk.

If you really want, you can just kill Ishaal, get the Almanac, and ignore the rest of the priests.

Comment by fezly

AVOID the bridge when going to Ishaal.
All those annoying birds fly right over it and you will aggro at least 3 or more of them.

Comment by Mintasman

Even if you need the Elixir a few times you get rep every time you turn in the dust for it anyway. Win Win

Comment by Zaroxen

And a good hint is to NOT drink the pot at the location of where the Talonpriests are supposed to be. :P
Noobish me did that and instantly had 5 of High Priests on me.

Comment by st0rmy1

Just a note about Skizzik, when you enter the hut be warned, he likes to fear which will no doubt send you running outside and possibly aggroing mobs. When I did it the first time, he came with an add that ended up stunning me so watch out for those nasty stun/arcane missile/fear combos.

Comment by PomPyro

If you die on this quest the Elixer buff goes away = (. I also got feared into more mobs from Skizzik so definitely clear some of the mobs outside first.

Comment by Lillane

As a Full Holy Pally i solo'ed this quest. I have a spell damage set with only about 5-6 hundred spell dmg. On Ishaal this is what u do. Mount up and fly to ishaal, demount on top of him.... pop a consecrate and exorcise or w/e just do a bit of burst dmg on him and fall off the tower... bubble or not... heal up and wait for them to come (it takes a while) when they come, do your normal burst dmg sequence on him and keep backing up. At a certain point the other (if u dont keep hitting them) will stop and despawn and you can fight ishaal solo. His "Flash Heal" heals for quite a bit. I just popped wings and a trinket after a Hammer of Justice and did exorcism, holy shock, judgement and then Hammer of Wrath and he died within the 6 sec stun and he never got a heal off. Any class can do this just when you jump off use a HS/Pot and bandage.

Comment by slidewithme

They're only easily soloable if you can interrupt their heals, or you have really high DPS. Getting more than two on you is also a really bad idea. -_-

Comment by StrangerWifCandy

Also, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet but you can pull the Time-Lost and regular living guys seperately, e.g. There's a time-lost priest and a Skettis Wincaller standing on top of each other, if I use throw on one of them, the other won't aggro.

Comment by Graun

Most. Annoying. Quest. Ever.

I (lvl70 fire mage) died four times for different reasons when trying to kill Ishaal. You die, the buff is gone, and then you can start collecting Shadow Dust again for the drug cocktail.

Stack up on cocktails, people, you might need a few.

Comment by RealUnimportant

Zellek is on the tree WITH the ramp... I fought my way to the second tree (where the escort can spawn) only to find I'd gone straight past him :(

Oh, priests - don't forget that a) these mobs are undead, so can be shackled; b) these mobs are undead, so can't be feared.

Comment by mhk0af

what a bunk quest, bugged to all hell. Half the npcs I attack are immune to everything, but I'm not immune to their attacks. I dropped this a wont ever pick it up again

Comment by monosuke

On my 70 mage(currently specced arcane for al'ar) i downed these guys without a hitch....just be smart and pull the adds so you dont have too many at once, and dont be afraid to reset them if you have to.

Comment by Tsark

Interestingly, if you're a healer and grouping up with someone, you do not need the Elixir of Shadows to be active on you. I was helping a friend by healing him, because I was in Skettis and had forgot my Elixirs in the bank. I got full credit for the quest, and once the Time-lost arakkoa were dead, I could even loot them (and get the Almanac from Ishaal). Of course, you actually do need the Elixir to target him and dps.

Comment by Mmootimus

Using the coordinates on here, I flew through this with 9 minutes left, from the 15 minute potion.

Ele Shaman, so no CC, but I fully admit to being over-geared (full-epic Tier 4 level gear). I was able to 3 shot all the named mobs, who literally died before they had chance to do anything.

Ishaal did only have one priest near him though, and the pull wasn't linked.

This was easy for me, but only because I am over-geared and my class is good for burst damage. I can understand why some speccs could have problems.

Comment by Nina

Totally shitt quest, most annoying ever. It takes app 30 min to gather the mats for a 15 min buff that fades when u die, which u will do if u aint full t6 rogue or something. This Q says that it isnt a group Q, but guess what, bring 2 others with u or dont ever bother. :@ Gotta hate blizzard for afflicitng u with this pain!

Comment by spiffedwow

Me (70 shammy) and a bud of mine (70 balance druid) 2-manned this quest to make it go quicker... the druid died from one of the MANY adds in the fight and i survived... i hav the potion effect and the druid didnt so i asked if shed help me by healing me and id do the same when she got her potion... turns out when i killed the 2nd priest she got credit even though she couldnt attack or even see him... so the lesson is - dont waste an hour getting 5 potions... just hav a bud go with u. if one dies, than thats still ok =D Hope it helps

Comment by TheMuffinMan

Easily solo'd as a Frost Mage. I actually three-shotted Ishaal.

Overall, the real problem is clearing out mobs, or if you're melee.
Just bring plenty of potions if you're a Rogue or Warrior and you should be fine, or at least able to kill the Priest before the adds kill you.

Comment by Bob2

Easy as a rouge, just went in, used all my cooldowns on the and then vanished after the talonpriest died

Comment by mordret

Quest is easier now. You have 20minutes on the buff so you don't have to hurry so much. Soloed at lvl 70 combat rogue

Comment by faceman28208

Anyone claiming this can be soloed, is probably full of it. As soon as you drink the potion there are ghosts attacking you from all directions. Maybe a tank can survive this but anyone with ranged attacks can expect two or three on top of them. Ranged attackers also will face line of sight problems.

Comment by Foozah

The buff is no longer removed when you die.

Comment by haloman800

If you die the Elixer of Shadows Presists thru death

Comment by Kytti

Even as a hunter this quest is not easily soloable. There is too much agro to take at once and they can heal.

Comment by brotos

the people who say they solo this are just lucky. do yourself a favor and take a friend. and by the way, you can't see them without using the elixir of shadows.

Comment by antinosa

This quest is not that difficult. I was able to do it with no probs with my Demonology/Destruction lock. You just have to kill the surrounding mobs first before attacking the Talon Priests.

Comment by djllb03

i just did this as a prot warrior wearing all blues.

with sikizzik and zellek, i just ran in there and took out all the mobs, but with ishaal i jumped onto him, activated shield wall and took him out then ran from the mobs, only used the single elixir from the first bit of the quest.
i used a mixture of last stand and super healing potions while killing ishaal

Comment by EthanAJS

Terrible quest when you only get 7g or so, I used map notes to help me out, and died once...but I did it in 7 minutes.

Comment by Rygaux

wasnt that hard as a boomkin... Ishaal and his mobs chased me off of the tower and follwed me down to the ground... i rean to break combat and only Ishaal followed, the others reset... The flash heal was a pain in the ass until I casted my Trents. Along with the druid dots, he was dead within seconds.

Comment by Contay

I was struggling with this quest on my Shadowpriest until I realized after trying to psychic scream three off of me, when I realized...

"Hey! These are undead!"

Shackle works wonders for this quest. Made killing the last two priests a breeze, being able to deal with only one add or just maybe even the priest itself, then a moment to bandage. =)

Comment by Pyder

The coords 68,78 are a little misleading... he is not on top of the tree planted in the island. Also my elixir gave me 20 min of being able to see them.

Comment by Echuu

I pulled ishaal with 2 other priests but managed to take him with life drain and stuff like that. Pretty easy if you take him alone, at least as a lock.

Comment by Patros

This quest is practically impossible to solo as a resto druid. He's got a huge mana pool and there's no way to interrupt his flash heals reliably.

Comment by Guntak

Better coordinates, in order from closest to the quest camp to farthest:

Zellek: 70.0, 74.2 Tree

Ishaal: 69.0, 78.2 Tree

Skizzik: 69.8, 81.1 Hut

Comment by Noussolini

Soloed as a 70 combat/hemo rogue. No trouble except with Ishaal, but I was able to kill him before the adds overtook me.

Make sure to loot him though, he drops a book that starts a quest.

Comment by Spittfire

SaltLick 's coords were a little off. I found them here:

Ishaal 69.19,78.42 (up the tree that has tunnel, NOT tree on island)
Skizzik 69.88,82.10 hut
Zellek 69.92,74.40 top of tree
I hope this helps! I myself had problems cause of the coords i followed (before i found these) and only could do the quest once my warlock friend helped me lol

Comment by CloudFish

In my opinion this quest was easy! Took less than 10 mins as a level 70 feral druid with ok gear. All i did was find the locations of the mobs (with the coordinates) land on the closest bridge (both times i aggroed no birds) and drink a elixir, then i stealthed to the location of the named mob, these seem to have realy low health, only a few mangles and they died, even with 2-4 mobs i stayed in cat and quickly killed the priest, then healed and tanked the adds, closest i came to death with 3 extra mobs was 3k health, NONE of the priests used any spells/abilitys because i took them down too fast, so seems the best think to do is burn down the priest befor he has the time to act and THEN go for the adds. this was ny first try so could have gotten lucky

Comment by drame

easyly killed ishaal as a combat specced rogue i put on adrenalin rush and blade flurry + slice and dice and just hit him with mind numb poison II easy killed when done i vanished

Comment by JonnyBigBoss

This quest is rather difficult to solo. I am a demonology Warlock and was barely able to handle some of the pulls. I recommend 2 manning this if you aren't a very good soloing spec.

Comment by Tero

This is easily the most annoying quest I have ever had to undertake. Downing the talonpriests was easy, the adds were pie but those damn Monstrous Kalari kept gang raping me. I died at least 8 times doing this and went through 3 elixers. Take some potions and do it at peak hours on your server so the place is relatively clear from mobs etc.

(70 frost mage)

Comment by Alistin

Gosh, dont fight Ishaal at the bridge if you can avoid it, i got the birds as well and adds. Sure i did beat him down since i could FD to reset the others but damn.

Comment by Ulurjah

Just got done doing this quest. The mobs were where the top post stated. For the two that are up on tree platforms, there's a simple trick to fight them alone. Land on the ledge where they are, aggro them and then jump off and run away. The talonpriests will follow you for a FAR greater distance than the other mobs you'll aggro.

Once you have just the talonpriest still on you, kill it. This will work for Ishaal and Zellek. Skizzik is in a hut with one other mob. The best bet is to save a potion just for him. Go into his hut and kill the mob there, then use the potion. He will fear you once every 30 seconds and life siphon every 20 seconds. Should be easily soloable for any class.

I did the whole thing solo as a holy priest.

Comment by Sniperkit10

Should also be noted that you use the "Elixir of Shadows" vial in order to see said mobs ;)
I was kind of dumb and went to the coords listed and realized I couldn't see a named mob, but then saw the comment said at the end of the post :P

Comment by thamior

Remember to loot Ishaal... I didn't, and then found out I had to loot his almanac for another quest >.<

Comment by Clicks

AS A BM HUNTER THIS IS STUPID, MY PET APPARENTLY CANT C THE MOBS AND CANT ATTACK THEM SO IM TRYING TO KITE LIKE A &*!@ING MORON ON THE BRIDGE #$%^ING STUPID BLIZZ

Comment by gilean23

So am I missing something? Somehow as a hunter, even if I use Hunter's Mark on one of these mobs, my pet will NOT attack them at all, turning me into a crappy warrior wearing chain... which of course doesn't end up working out well at all.

Edit: he will attack once per attack command... if I keep spamming "pet attack" it's enough to keep aggro for long enough to get some damage done.

Comment by jokemantrade2

When i did it, as a hunter, my pet wouldnt target the shadow mobs that appear with the elixir including the three you need to kill for the quest. I had to annoyingly kite, pull extra mobs, and three or four times die cause my pet wouldnt fight at all. I dont know if it was glitched for me, but it was very annoying.

Comment by dpaschal

If you run out of the elixir after you managed to kill all but one talonpriest, do you have to abandon and get the elixir again and start over?

Comment by DoulosTheos

The Elixir of Shadows does not apply to pets which can make this quest very frustrating for a hunter. I tried running in with guns blazing and met a quick death due to the number of adds. I also tried kiting 1-2 mobs at a time but that also failed due to the difficulty of kiting on the tree tops and the unseen bird adds.

What finally worked for me was to switch to melee as my primary attack. Pulling the shadow mobs one at a time and using the following sequence got me through each of the talon priests on the first try (you're mileage may vary based on gear).

Drop a Freezing Trap, pull while standing in front of the trap to save it for later or for adds
Pull single mob with Serpent Sting + Arcane Shot (adding a concussive shot may allow you an extra ranged attack)
Melee with Raptor / Mongoose Strike as often as they are available

Notes:
Recommend stepping back for an arcane/multi anytime your targeted mob starts a spell castStep behind your trap anytime you need to bandage or pop a health potion

Comment by enchantroll

Be warned, take the potion before you land somewhere in a tree. You'll likely be surrounded by mobs, which if you're a clothie, means death. I just drank the potion in aggro range of 3 of them, to my dismay. Wish I had known this beforehand.

Comment by Tribut

This quest...was..super..easy...wtf...for a 70 boomkin in quest gear and 3 Reg MgT blues

I took out zellek first. pulled the 3 adds from a nearby ledge with a starfire, then killed and flew over killed Zellek.

Next comes ishaal...Dropped in AOE'd him and 3 adds with trees and hurricane easily...

Then comes the so called "hard one"...skizzik...I insect swarnemed him out of the hut..startfire crit moonfire dead....no adds at all

Comment by skaeglos

thx for the map when you know where to go easy hunter lvl 70 pet helldog by ishael just landed on bridge pulled birds finished them and just picked the rest of one by one the pet is very usefull delayl spell casting

Comment by chailey

Does not count toward the Terror of Terokkar Achievement.

Comment by PiDlopX

.....after i killed ishaal i leviated off the tree but i dced in the air when i logged back on i was floating beside the tree but i was dead O_O......weird

Comment by Tomkin

I ran around for 15 minutes not finding anyone and yelling "WHY ARE YOU SHOWING ME THE WRONG LOCATIONS BLIZZARD! THEY'RE NOT THERE!" Then I read you need to drink the elixir... Suits me right for not reading the quest.

Comment by surfaceftp

The quest was 'bugged' for me, kind of.
I was killing the guy in the hut, and his name was in green (in other words I couldn't have attacked him)

I had to attack him with AoE spells

Comment by Goddessa39

Updated coords

Skizzik 69.88 82.29
Ishaal 69.2 78.2
Zellek 70.20 74.63

Comment by zara2133

i tried this like 5 times an i keep getting my rear kicked i got the elite dude the annoying preist bird things on my bck an thoose damned birds attacking me as soon as i res i need somone to help me with this quest plz if ure on the horde side look for mystia i really need somone to help me with this annoyinly damned quest i keep wasting money on repairs cos of thoose damned things i needs some help plz my guild are useless i just want to fin this blooming quest so i can move on to better quests help me plzzzzzzz

Comment by Deathnugget

Sadly this does not count towards Loremaster!

Comment by Wyndsor

Sadly, this does NOT count towards Terror of Terokkar. Nor do any of the quests you pick up in the same area (Blackwing Landing).

Comment by trudslev

Here are the coordinates in Tom Tom format for the ones doing rep for the mounts:

/way Terokkar Forest 70.0 74.2 Zellek (Tree)
/way Terokkar Forest 69.0 78.2 Ishaal (Tree)
/way Terokkar Forest 69.8 81.1 Skizzik (Hut)

Secrets of the Talonpriests

Description

Completion

Gains

Guides

Related

Contribute