Comments

Comment by Instaggibed87

The easiest way to solo farm this is to unlock the Something Vile This Way Comes storyline. You need to first unlock Shadra, the Minor Loa from Classic Hinterlands (questline also starts in Witherbark Village). One you unlock that, and youre level 90 (I could not get it on lower level alts), talk to the Witherbark Leader, Vun'zarah. who will start you with Dirty Deeps#comments:id=6257553. Once you talk to the scout and get the next part, Send Dem Home, youll also be given an ability "Shadra's Gift". Using it deal damage to your target and also afflict the with a damage over time (can stack). Additionally, youre given a buff which increases your size, increases your damage, and restores 8% HP every 2 seconds, stacking up to 10 times.

Simply do not turn in the quests, farm the area until you get your 1000 essences. Its going to be hours worth of farming, but still a fraction of what it wouldve taken if you already completed the questline and no longer have access to the Shadras Gift. Perfect time to do it is during Preseason when you cant even queue heroic dungeons or M0.

Comment by varenne

Abandoned Ritual Skull is located in the Zul'Aman zone in a small cave and contains Hexed Vilefeather Eagle loot

This one is probably the hardest treasure to open right now because it requires to

Farm 1000x Vile Essence from mobs (Knife Priestess Hezzia, Vile Boneguard, Vile Tormentor) nearby in the elite area
Probably the best way to do it is to farm in party
But if you want to go solo and still have side quest Dirty Deeps you can use ability Shadra's Gift during following quest in the questline Send Dem Home. Still will take hours to farm

Location video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsSAw3DqsR8

/way #2437 45.84 40.15 1 Farm Vile Essence 1000 from mobs
/way #2437 44.23 43.50 2 Abandoned Ritual Skull Cave entrance
/way #2437 44.72 44.10 3 Abandoned Ritual Skull

Part of the Treasures of Zul'Aman

ID	Name	Coordinates	Note	Loot	Video
1	Abandoned Ritual Skull	44.72 44.10	Requires 1000 x Vile Essence	Hexed Vilefeather Eagle	https://youtu.be/UsSAw3DqsR8
2	Sealed Twilight's Blade Bounty	21.89 77.38	Solve 4 Towers Puzzles	Arsenal: Twilight Blade	https://youtu.be/jlgnohcLmhQ
3	Burrow Bounty	41.99 47.78	Easy	Phial of Burrow Balm	https://youtu.be/20ZiBytKJJU
4	Secret Formula	40.48 35.96	Easy	Fetid Dartfrog Idol	https://youtu.be/2rR0lBzW1pU
5	Honored Warrior's Cache	46.83 81.86	Collect Bear Tooth + Lynx Claw + Dragonhawk Feather + Eagle Talon	Ancestral War Bear	https://youtu.be/YPi8DCM5F8I
6	Bait and Tackle	20.84 66.54	Easy	Abyss Angler's Fish Log	https://youtu.be/GGheT7BVY-w
7	Mrruk's Mangy Trove	52.33 65.99	Easy	Tolbani's Medicine Satchel	https://youtu.be/q8t9kKNR_NY
8	Abandoned Nest	42.64 52.44	Easy	Weathered Eagle Egg	https://youtu.be/py4Tq4gfHGA

Comment by snowdown

i tried to start to farm these things. It's horrible... the droprate is not consistent i didn't get more than 1 from a mob.

Maybe they change it in the future.

i stopped for now unless someone realy wants to do it, write down here a comment.

Cheers!

Comment by akaRaven

WHAT

THE

ACTUAL

#$%^

Even taking into consideration some very big cheese, I still get around 1 per minute

I need 1,000.

I can no life, basement farm this non stop and it will still take me 17 hours.

Comment by Bhruv

This grind is long, regardless, got it done in about 5.5 hours wthout break. If you create a group (5 man party, not raid) and go around in circles pulling mobs, it becomes routine and easier. Started from 0 and focused on each hundred, 100, 200, 300, etc and eventually got a 1,000. You can do it, mount is worth it.

Comment by IKLFax

One of the most disgusting grinds I've ever seen, not because it's incredibly long but because it just feels horrible.
- The mobs are placed in a horrible manner
- Half the mobs cannot drop the vile essence
- The drop rate of the essence is really low in the first place
- You can't solo farm it in follower dungeons because you just can't OK?
- You have to rely on a quest exploit or waste 6 hours of your time with a group.

Simply put, it's not good to say the least.

Comment by Lemistio

Low mob density, lots of spread out casters that won't group up, low drop count, no hyperspawn, disguisting 1000 of these required for mount, who came up with this #$%^?

Comment by Eltep

its insane that you only need 150 for the harandar version of the achievement..

Comment by LuckerNr1

Do this with Send Dem Home active to farm Vile Essence and get the mount Hexed Vilefeather Eagle. You get an NPC that hits like a truck and an extra button for even more aoe dmg.

Comment by Onysablet89

For this being a requirement for Treasures of Zul'Aman I feel it is highly bloated in time to complete vs the other sub requirements or other zone treasures. Hopefully they fix the drop rate and spawn rate of mobs

Comment by Roija

They need to fix this and nerf it. Make it match the Harandar one at 150 or something. I am completely done with Sojourner EXCEPT these quests because I feel like I can't turn them in unless I want to nerf my grinding for this. And considering you get roughly 100 per hour (possibly worse), staring down a 10 hour grind to finish all treasures + Sojourner SUCKS.

This needs a nerf ASAP. Who the heck thought this was acceptable?

EDIT: This was removed from the meta for the Zul'Aman treasures. But this still doesn't address the problem. The same as they did removing A Frayed Scroll from the Midnight Lore meta. Instead of addressing or fixing the issue, they just remove it and continue on. You are STILL incentivized to not complete the quest giving you Shadra's Gift, thus not completing Sojourner because of how bad this grind is. Blizzard always missing the mark with this stuff and never recognizes the actual problem.

Comment by Hrodvig

It doesn't even guaranteed to drop from rare elite mobs, WTF is this?

Comment by Rawveggie

BE ADVISED this is NO LONGER part of the Meta as of the last few days patches. I just got the meta and I did NOT do this. Don't waste your time. ;)

Comment by Chronokatan

That was a nice grind. I wish Blizzard would do more of those, reminded me of old Furbolg or Nightsaber grinds in Classic.

Took me around 5.5h~. Met some nice people suffering along the way and the mount looks absolutely amazing! When you have a good group moving together in a triangle through the zone the respawn isn't too bad. Was a fun and watched some movies on the side.

Good luck everybody :)

Comment by sakara123

It's not a super fast mount, expect 6-10 hours. But the people complaining that it's not mindless are wild. How terrible that you can't completely turn your brain off for a free mount. Overall pretty chill grind, throw on some music and do it in a part of 5. The quest helps, but it's far from necessary.

Comment by deplorable

this made no sense, in another zone getting 500 mysterious skyshards, drop quite regularly.... whereas these vile essences don't. blizzard really made a mess of this one which is why the removed it from meta, because they're not the brightest.

Comment by valinrista

Doing laps in a group of 5 you get about 170-200 an hour all things considered this is actually not that bad when it comes to mount / cosmetics farm

Comment by Zetsuu

Just finished grinding these out, here are my tips:

Make sure you are on the quests De Vile Diminished, Respect de Totem, and Send Dem Home. You do not technically need all three, but take them anyway (there's a reason for this).
If you have already completed these quests, do this grind on an alt. It's that important.
DO NOT COMPLETE THE QUESTS. DO NOT TURN THEM IN.
If you are running an auto turn-in addon, TURN IT OFF.
You are basically unkillable with the buffs these quests give you. If you maintain your buffs, you will have 100% increased HP, 200% decreased damage taken, 50% increased damage done, and 80% of your HP regenerating every 2 seconds.
I recommend putting your extra action button, Shadra's Gift, on a hotkey.
If your extra action button disappears, abandon one of the quests. Once you have abandoned all three, re-acquire them from the nearby questgiver (this is why I recommend taking all three quests).
It may be advantageous to just do this grind solo (that's how I ended up doing it). Mob density is pretty low. If you're in a five stack you'll just have to wait for spawns. I still had to wait sometimes even when solo.
Since you will be extremely buffed, do the grind in warmode if possible. You will have less competition for mobs.
Take breaks. Grind will be about 6-7 hours if you are moving quickly.

A word on maintaining buffs:

You will get Reciprocal Power every time you use Shadra's Gift. Stacks up to 10 times, 5 minute duration.
You will get Guardian Spirit every time you kill a Wild Guardian. Stacks 10 times, 3 minute duration.
Wild Guardian are the small, non-elite mask mobs, not the big elite ones. You won't get a refresh on your buff if Dak'zor gets the last hit, so make sure it refreshed correctly.

Good luck and happy farming!

Comment by Whiesenthal

Did 404 in exactly 2 hours in a group.

Comment by Mest450

This quest reminds me of the Farm for Netherdrake in Outland. I like it. Means you cant get it without putting in the work. It will actually mean something instead of being a pick me up like every other mount.

Comment by MrRoosevelt

How do you track these? I see that I'm looting them but they aren't in my bags and I cant find which area of currency to see.

Comment by Kurathos

And here I was thinking that Blizzard actually cared about players time

Comment by Dekabe

I'm gonna space this out farming only 50 for 20 days. The amount of mobs is so sparse 1000 is insane

Comment by Calethy

lotta comments about the grind, but how many have the bone white primal raptor? 9999 items :D

Comment by Razaara

Why is this not farmable in the dungeon located literally right there? Would make grinding these out a little more tolerable.

Comment by Vonka

It seems I kill and nothing drops , until I DIE, then they drop all the time.
Could be a coincidence or that is how you get them to drop, so if you are awsome and never die good luck.
If you are like me and die stupid you will probably get the mount quicker.
Or I could be out to lunch.
Give it a try.

Comment by Zermatt

this is worse than farming the chitin for Seisbarg....

Comment by iamnotreece

It's an exercise in masochism, unfortunately not the fun kind.

Comment by Croppson

for those who farm it for mount, here is simple macro that will show and tell you how many have you in the bags

#showtooltip item:259361
/run print("Vile Essences: " .. GetItemCount(259361))

Edit: here is more complicated one that does not show item count in tooltip but gives more details about this item in bank spaces:

/run local i=259361 local b,p,r,w=GetItemCount(i),GetItemCount(i,1),GetItemCount(i,1,0,1),GetItemCount(i,1,0,1,1) print(format("Vile Essence Total: %d\nin bags: %d\nin personal bank: %d\nin reagent bank: %d\nin warband bank: %d",w,b,p-b,r-p,w-r))

Comment by Kastchei

This is much easier in a group.

You can have a better chance solo if done while on the storyline Something Vile This Way Comes, but they nerfed it a lot. The questline starts with Dirty Deeps. The next three quests give you a troll companion who is good at tanking the elite mobs in this area. But the real benefit comes from a special ability and two stacking buffs that you can get while on this quest. I am doing my collecting while on the quest De Vile Diminished. I simply haven't turned it in yet.

During the early parts of the storyline, while you have your troll companion, you get an extra ability called Shadra's Gift. It looks like a poisonous barb, and it's a special action button. When you use it on an enemy, it does a lot of damage to that enemy and closeby enemies. For me, it does ~60k damage with a small cast time and a moderate cooldown (8 seconds). It makes killing rounded-up mobs a lot faster.
The first stacking buff is Reciprocal Power, which you receive each time you use Shadra's Gift. They work really well together. It lasts 3 minutes, which you'll never risk losing, because you'll be using Shadra's Gift every 8 seconds. Each stack of the buff increases your size by 10%, your damage by 5%, and heals you for 8% every 2 seconds. You used to get 10 stacks, but now only 3. So you'll do 15% more damage, but get 24% healing every 2 seconds, which is still helpful.
The second stacking buff is Guardian Spirit, which you receive from killing the floating hexxed masks, Hex Guardian. You have to land the killing blow on them yourself. This buff also lasts 3 minutes. Each stack increases your health by 10% and reduces damage taken by 20%. Again, it used to stack 10 times, but now only 3. After 3 stacks, you have 30% more hit points, and 60% damage reduction according to the tooltip; however, I think the damage reduction stacks multiplicatively, rather than additively, so it works out to be about 50% reduction (80%³).

The two buffs work together well, because when your health goes up from Guardian Spirit, the healing from Reciprocal Power does more. You can still solo most everything, including the cobra and super elite troll, but you need to be much more careful than before the nerf.

Two issues.

It's easy to lose Guardian Spirit, because it's only 3 minutes and you have to find a Hex Guardian to kill. Luckily, the smaller hexxed masks, Wild Guardian, that are not hostile (yellow nameplate) are easy to kill and also give the buff. Since the nerfs, Shadra's Gift no longer one-shoots the Wild Guardians, so it can be frustrating to kill it before your troll companion does.
Sometimes the special action button for Shadra's Gift will disappear. If this happens, /reload didn't work for me. However, logging out and logging back in did; however, relogging does remove both buffs, so be sure to do this in a safe spot and take it slow at first after loading back in. Also, sometimes the buff counter disappears; however, it was still being applied, as I could see my size get bigger and the heal-over-time meter working. And I didn't die.

I teamed up with someone else doing this and got about 300 in a few hours. I found a team of 5 tonight who were much better geared than I, and I pounded out my last 400 in a few hours. Good luck!

Comment by Ahnfelten

So unfortunate for me that this bugged out right before I hit 1000. At 934, the game stopped dropping 'em. I'm stuck at 934 now and no mount in sight. I've submitted a bug report. Hopefully they fix this soon. Such a dissapointment.

Comment by Maiven85

Drop rate seems to be fixed, i just killed a bunch at 45.54.42 and got 9 Vile Essence, still a long way to go but at least they are dropping

Comment by Blaumeise

I get the feeling that something's not quite right with the drop rate. If I start grinding on a given day, it’s perfectly acceptable. About every other mob drops an essence. After 2–3 hours, the drop rate slowly drops to zero. It’s entirely possible to kill 10 mobs without getting a single essence. Well, just 294 more to go, then I’ll be done.

Comment by Kayarie

I've noticed that even when ungrouped, if there are multiple people farming in the area, the drop chance seems to lessen. I farmed for an hour the day before when the server was dead and managed 100 vile essences. Today I've farmed for an hour while the server is very much active and only managed 23.

Comment by Gaffa

Looking for another way to farm these up?

If you're doing The Curse of Ula'tek quest-line and get to part 12 in the quest, Memories of Malacrass and Digging Deeper then Zul'jan will accompany you down into Maisara Deeps and he's basically a great and endless tank, he nicks and holds aggro from everyone, if he dies then he returns in seconds. I farmed up 25 in about 10 mins.

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Vile Essence

Item Level 1
Binds to Warband
Unique (1000)

"Condensed necromantic energy. There's probably a use for this, if you don't mind the unsettling chill it sends down your spine."

Max Stack: 1000

Sell Price: 15

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