Quick Facts

Series

1.	Battle for the Skies
2.	Worthy of Passing

Storyline
The Wandering Isle The Lesson of the Iron Bough The Lesson of the Iron Bough The Lesson of the Iron Bough The Lesson of the Iron Bough The Lesson of the Iron Bough The Lesson of the Iron Bough The Lesson of the Iron Bough The Lesson of the Sandy Fist The Lesson of Stifled Pride The Lesson of the Burning Scroll The Disciple's Challenge Aysa of the Tushui Items of Utmost Importance The Missing Driver The Way of the Tushui Ji of the Huojin The Way of the Huojin Kindling the Fire Fanning the Flames The Spirit's Guardian The Challenger's Fires Only the Worthy Shall Pass Huo, the Spirit of Fire The Passion of Shen-zin Su The Singing Pools The Lesson of Dry Fur The Lesson of the Balanced Rock Stronger Than Reeds Finding an Old Friend The Sun Pearl The Sting of Learning Shu, the Spirit of Water A New Friend The Source of Our Livelihood Rascals Still Good! Missing Mallet Stronger Than Wood Raucous Rousing Not In the Face! The Spirit and Body of Shen-zin Su Morning Breeze Village Tools of the Enemy Rewritten Wisdoms Stronger Than Stone The Direct Solution Do No Evil Monkey Advisory Warning Stronger Than Bone Balanced Perspective Dafeng, the Spirit of Air Battle for the Skies Worthy of Passing Small, But Significant Unwelcome Nature Passing Wisdom The Suffering of Shen-zin Su Bidden to Greatness Preying on the Predators Stocking Stalks Wrecking the Wreck Evil from the Seas Handle With Care Urgent News None Left Behind Medical Supplies From Bad to Worse An Ancient Evil Risking It All The Healing of Shen-zin Su New Allies A New Fate Joining the Alliance Joining the Horde

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by wgrinolds

If you click one of the fireworks launchers while The Onyx Serpent is not around, you get your hint about what to do here.

You don't strictly have to wait until he is directly above the fireworks launcher before you click it. As long as he is alive and in the air, just keep clicking the fireworks launcher until he's dead - the fireworks automatically target him.

Comment by Krastopic

After collecting this quest, proceed outside and you will see the Oynx Serpent flying overhead. You will see jars that are sparkling as targets, these are the fireworks launchers. As long as Oynx is reasonably close overhead, the fireworks will target him - he dies - falls to the ground and you are DONE.

After downing the beastie, Master Shang Xi will appear in the area in the middle of where the jars were and you turn in your quest to him. Before you turn in however, be ready for the next quest which is a classic escort quest.

Comment by 943939

It would help if he didn't keep evading everything right now. will wait till after the next reset.

Comment by 585542

If you stay still too long he hits with a decent size AOE, but as long as you keep moving you should be fine. Also the lower his health is the faster he moves and the more he attacks, just stay out of the way until he lands again then go all out.

Comment by Henderman

Avoid AOE, use fireworks when he is near, melee when he is down... rinse, repeat, profit.

Comment by Bettievamp

THIS IS NOT AN EASY QUEST! After dying TWICE, what I did was just move as quickly as I could counter-clockwise from one fireworks to another until he came down (avoiding his infernal AOE all the time, mind you) and finally was able to kill this guy. If the next one still has is AOE around it, go to the next one because otherwise you will NOT survive. Hope this helps! Not sure if this matters, but I'm a lvl 9 hunter.

Comment by twistedsista

This is one poorly written quest - there are several poorly written quests, from BC to MoP and I can't help but wonder if those, specifically, are created by the same illogical person.

I agree with Bettievamp: this is a very difficult quest.

Comment by Veradas

I have to say that this is one of the most irritating quests I have ever done! After dying 5 times on my lvl 8 rogue I came here to WoWhead to get some tips for completing this one and after I rezed and went back, I was lucky enough to find another player who had wittled that mo-fo dragon down enough for me to get this mission impossible quest completed. I don't think I would have done it otherwise with this class character. I wish I could backslap the idiot developer who made this quest so damn hard to do!

The least that Blizz can do is make this a group quest for 2 players, which is what it should have been in the first place, because this is what it actually is in all practicality.

Comment by 1030026

The serpent travels in a counter-clockwise pat. Go clockwise, and light off a firework launcher whenever he's roughly above it. Don't stand and admire it - he'll hit you with his AOE. Keep moving all the time to avoid the AOE in between firework launches.

Comment by 983937

It takes TWO to tango.
You can kill the beast if someone else is on the quest at the same time.

Comment by Lauraline

I hated this quest, dying my though it on my monk, but today helping my daughter on it I finally understood the trick to it.

You run counter clockwise as said in previous posts.
But also you will launch only every other or third launcher you get to...cause this is when the serpent is close enough.

You stand at the launcher prepaired....and when you se the lightening of his AOE beginning to form and come towards you, (just as it forms like a lightning) you click the launcher
and, eventhough you cant see if the firework is launched, you run!
This is important.
Cause clicking it it feels like "nothing happened" and you might be tempted to wait that one millisecond to se it go off and then the AOE will hit you.

Just trust that it will launch at one click and then run.... it will hit him roughly when the AOE hits where the launcher is.....
with you at a safe distance on the way to the next spot. (2-3 launchers away)

I got hit only by one AOE doing it this way and also went over the green bubble for a quick heal...so mainly full health (at this lvl 9 hunter with pet dismissed) when he finally went down.

Good luck on this.

Comment by burningglove

I was wondering if anyone else had the same problem I had with the dragon. I have managed to defeat it before with a shaman, but not so far with a monk. After numerous attempts all ending in death I managed to get it on the ground with the fireworks, but both times it has taken off again even though I was attacking it. It then killed me again..of course. In the end I got through this by fighting it at the same time as another player. Thanks nameless stranger!

Comment by Wimbleton

After dying the second time and inventing some new swear words, I found that you can actually go far enough away to be out of combat, use the bandages you don't have, then run back and your NPC teammate will still be engaging him. He doesn't automatically reset. All else is true - counterclockwise, etc. Fighting him on the ground was amusing but for a monk, fairly meaningless. Kind of like pelting a Bengal tiger with cotton balls.

The Time-Constrained Player isn't allowed to try a quest twice and I was wondering if abandoning this one was going to cause sequence problems when he finally died. 16 minutes of irritating glitchiness. It's a kind of minor torture, like listening to fourth-graders trying to learn how to play the violin.

Comment by 1069604

^_^ THANKS AGAIN WOWHEAD! lol. took me twice to die too. i didnt even SEE the little Life Orbs either : / will keep an eye out, and will STOP admiring fireworks ;) hahaha

Comment by 782960

As a lvl 9 Priest and Shaman, I found if I ran counter-clockwise, skipping every other fireworks barrel and range firing when he lands, I did ok (read died 2-3 times). BUT, as a melee monk, after dying 5 times, I ran clockwise staying ahead, and not fighting at all when he lands, until the final few seconds of health, I was able to stay alive much longer. The life orbs gave me 44 health, 1 click per orb, not much when i'm down 2-300. A lvl 11 warrior offered to help, but couldn't get back into the zone. I thank the earlier posters for their suggestions.

Comment by 1128358

This quest was probably the dumbest one I've done. Whoever created it is an idiot. I am currently a level 9 on my Pandarian Monk and I died twice before coming here. I used the advice of not stopping to see if the fireworks have launched and I launched every other one.For my monk I went CLOCKWISE not counter-clockwise. When the serpent came down I didn't bother to attack and just let the NPCs dps him down. I still got credit for the kill without getting in a single hit. This also prevented him from doing any damage to me when he whipped his tail. When I was done I hadn't lost any health and didn't use any of the green orbs which I hadn't noticed in my previous attempts. Good luck!

Comment by Fluffmeister

Pfft! After going to all that trouble to kill him, you'd think he'd be skinnable!

Comment by GibbleFenwick

I came here to comment how impressed I was with this quest.
And was surprised to see all the comments complaining about the quest. :o

I do realise this quest introduces a number of new concepts with only minimal guidance.
So while I agree that the lack of guidance is a flaw, I must disagree with all the comments blasting the quest itself.

Up until this point, all combat quests for a new Pandarens have been exceptionally easy.
There hasn't been much opportunity to avoid damage; but that hasn't been necessary either. All classes would have had no trouble dealing damage much faster than their enemies up until this point.
This quest adds to combat game-play, providing something more substantial than mundane: "mash your attack actions till it's dead".

I also note there is a lot of misinformation on this page. Even the comments that are helpful all tend to be a bit inaccurate.
So I'll try clear things up, and hopefully entice a better appreciation of this quest. :)

First, this quest absolutely is soloable. And elements of the quest suggest it was deliberately designed for that. (a) You have the assistance of 2 NPCs. (b) So the dragon doesn't focus on you when it lands. (c) And you get minor healing. (d) Also, the fireworks provide a way for melee classes to attack the dragon while flying.
The advice to get out of the AoE lightning pools is good. For the first time, failure to avoid specific dangers means you'll be likely to die. The AoE does high damage, and there's no chance of killing the dragon quickly enough if you just stand still. This is something that would not have been a concern before. (I did wonder if some people couldn't see the AoE; which would have explained the difficulties. But even on lowest graphics settings, it's quite clear; though sometimes a small portion is hidden by sloping ground.)
You are told by one of the NPCs to use the fireworks in both chat and audio. It's important to use them when the dragon is close enough; otherwise they don't work.
The advice to run clockwise/anti-clockwise/use every second fireworks is all inconsistent. It will help some people, but as you can see from comments, it doesn't work for everyone. This is because it's not quite right. If the circle you move in is smaller or larger, this changes the timing of when the dragon is in range. Instead, the easiest way to tell, is by watching for the dragon's shadow on the ground. Try run towards fireworks 1 or 2 bundles ahead of the dragon's current path; and adjust for distance or lightning pools that need to be avoided. The shadow doesn't have to be directly on the fireworks. Just close enough; and you'll quickly get a sens of what works.
Very important: you don't have to rush the kill. It's better to focus on avoiding unnecessary damage taken. (This is quite different from previous battles, where if you're too slow doing damage, you'd die because the incoming damage is unavoidable.) Whenever the dragon is grounded, it's much safer, and you can focus a little more on the damage. But move away just before the dragon flies again.
Note that ranged classes don't actually need to use the fireworks at all. The dragon will land after dealing enough ranged damage. However, you still have to move around to get close enough to attack. Also bear in mind that for some classes the fireworks will probably ground the dragon faster.
Advice to keep moving is good, but not essential. Sometimes (I estimate 1 in 3) the dragon does target you directly. And if you're already moving, you'll likely be outside of the AoE when it lands. However with reasonable reflexes (and latency) and by paying attention to the lightning spell effects, you should still be fine.
The fireworks activate very quickly if the dragon is in range. So you never need to stand for long. When it activates, there a fireworks sound-effect and sparkles in all over the screen. So the cues are good.
Next up: the floating green bubbles. This is the minor healing I mentioned earlier. Do run through them to regain health. And note that this is not actually new to this fight. You might have noticed them with the quests where you gather fireworks. (Though they weren't explained there either.) It's also an ability that becomes available to the monk class.
Finally: the only real concern you have while the dragon is grounded, is the tail swipe as it takes off again. It knocks you in the air, and you can take significant damage when you fall, even though you're
Bouncy". So, if you see a gold bar filling, it's time to run away. You might be safe on the side (this is often the case for dragons, but I haven't been able to confirm here yet). That said, running definitely works :). Another option is to ensure you're standing with a hill behind you. So that if you do get knocked back you're less likely to take falling damage.

Hopefully this clears up some confusion.
This is really one of the most enjoyable low level fights, and it's a pity blizzard's failure to provide sufficient in-game information about the mechanics has left such a sour taste for many people.

Links

Battle for the Skies

Defeat Zhao-Ren, the Onyx Serpent with the aid of Ji's fireworks.

	Zhao-Ren slain (1)

Description

Dafeng, the spirit of air, is terrified by Zhao-Ren, the Onyx Serpent. We must help him face that fear, or face it for him ourselves.

When I told Ji of the serpent, he said he had an idea and would begin preparations outside of the chamber. Despite his rash nature, I must admit, I envy his passion and conviction.

Let us go outside and confront the Onyx Serpent.

Completion

Rewards

You will be able to choose one of these rewards:

	Cloak of the Fiery Skies

You will receive:

Gains

Upon completion of this quest you will gain:

250 reputation with Shang Xi's Academy

See if you've already completed this by typing:

/run print(C_QuestLog.IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(29786))