Quick Facts

Storyline
Balance of Power The Power Within The Power Within The Power Within The Power Within Eye of Azshara: The Heart of Zin-Azshari A Vainglorious Past Darkheart Thicket: Fallen Power Tempering Darkness Lucid Strength The Wisdom of Patience The Emerald Nightmare: In Nightmares The Emerald Nightmare: Essence of Power Essential Consumption Focusing Our Efforts Saving the Guard Seeking Refuge Repaid Debt Lost Knowledge Court of Stars: Literary Perfection The Arcway: Rite of the Captain Vault of the Wardens: Borrowing Without Asking Twisted Power A True Test Seeking the Valkyra The Mark Maw of Souls: Retrieving the Svalnguard A Feast Fit for Odyn Neltharion's Lair: Presentation is Key Halls of Valor: Odyn's Blessing Preparing to Move Planning the Assault The Nighthold: Delusions of Grandeur The Nighthold: Into the Nighthold The Nighthold: Darkness Calls Balance of Power

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by Windscar

It is possible to get more than one per boss in the Emerald Nightmare (0, 1 or 2).

Currently you are able to loot on Normal and Heroic.

Essences do not drop in LFR and is marked as intended.

BREAKING NEWS: EMERALD NIGHTMARE RAID QUESTS
With the opening of the first wing of the Emerald Nightmare in Raid Finder difficulty this week, we wanted to mention that the quest items for Essence of Power and In Nightmares do not drop in LFR. The description for these quests will be updated with an upcoming patch and they are meant to be completed on normal difficulty or higher.

Will update the maximum amount of drops I can report/find.

Nythendra - 2
Elerethe - 2
Il'gynoth - 2
Ursoc- 2
Emerald Dragons- 2
Cenarius- 2
Xavius - 2

Comment by Joejr82

~~The essence doesn't have a 100% drop chance per boss, so will take some time to gather all 30.~~

Since the hotfix, they always drop from each boss now and can easily do this quest within one week!

Comment by Kimera666

I did the spider and dragon boss and not a single essence from either of them >.<

Comment by Tadarlis

Not only does the Corrupted Essence not have a 100% chance to drop off each boss, but thusfar, it appears each boss can either drop 1 or 2.

Ended up with 2/30 after a full clear of Normal, with a drop from Il'gynoth and Xavius a piece. Friend ended up with 5/30, with two dropping off of Nythendra.

Basically, looks like this is the new Titan Runestone-esque quest.

Comment by wowgamerpro

So can anyone tell me wtf this questline leads to? What is the end reward here?

Comment by tefadem

do we have the chance to collect them after the raid is locked for the week ?

Comment by mamav

And I got 0 from full clear of normal EN... Is it some weird bad luck or it has happened to anybody else?

Comment by Goreguttz

Does anyone know for sure by experience whether or not these will drop if you have already looted the boss for that week? I'm sure they probably don't as we have seen with past legendary-esque quests with raid drops.

Surprised no has made this clear already! :/

Comment by LafzPyne

how do i begin this questline? i cant find it

Comment by Roa92

And so the grind begins anew!

Comment by nikimoney

Since lockouts are only "loot lockout" now, can you run the raid loot-locked and progress on this quest?

Comment by Tantypops

I cleared EN N first and killed Nythendra on heroic this week. From normal I had 4 and got 2 more from Nyth H, so I think all modes have their separate lockout for this quest item as well.

Comment by BlizzardCS

Hello all,

We just wanted to clarify that this quest cannot be completed in LFR; it can only be completed on normal or higher difficulties, and this is working as intended.

Additional commentary was recently offered here:

It is intentional that the quests “In Nightmares” and “Essence of Power” cannot be completed on Raid Finder difficulty. That quest chain is intended to provide a cosmetic reward for participating in organized, non-matchmade content. As such, we wanted to keep this step in line with the previous steps in the chain, which require completing Mythic Dungeons.

This restriction is specific to this quest chain, which has a cosmetic-only reward. Other quest chains, such as “The Stuff of Dreams” from the Suramar campaign, will be completable through Raid Finder. We’ll be making some additional changes in Patch 7.1 to more clearly communicate when and where these restrictions apply.

Comment by Averagejoedirt

Does not drop in LFR which for those of us who can't sit and play this game for hours on end, or hope to get accepted into a group is BS. I have 2 jobs and a family, I use this game as an escape from those responsibilities. At most I get an hour and a half to play a day, which most raiding guilds look for active players for multiple hours. This expac is awesome but this ruins it for me personally. Back to another 2 year hiatus if not more for me.

Comment by Cropz

I do hope everyone realizes all this quest rewards at the end is an Artifact Appearance, you're not losing anything by not being able to complete this in LFR, there are multiple other appearances gated behind PvP or other activities that you'll probably not get as well, and I don't see outrage about those.

Comment by 1329875

... so it is an optional story quest? because i think it be pointless for those whove already trasmoged artifacts to other looks (like me) to do then if it is only cosmetic

Comment by humankillerz

so like legion runestones, do you get more in heroic then normal? i remember it was way more comment to get tons per boss in heroic then it was in normal.

so is heroic better to get your stones in? or can you get stones by clearing normal then clearing heroic as well? or are they locked once gotten?

Comment by Casslynda11

Just adding a link to the reward for this chain as it was annoying to find -
Improving on History

Comment by beatforce

I just rerolled from being a DH tank to a druid healer.
And Im having troubles getting this quest on my druid, is there anything I need to do before this, to get it in Aszuna?

Comment by Silkdad

Does anyone know what is between completion of this quest and the "Balance of Power" quest that ultimately gives you the artifact appearance?

After 2 weeks of full clears, I have 6/30. figuring it will take (probably) about 8 more weeks to get to 30/30.

Wondering if maybe we have to wait for the next raid to open and do something similar to get to "Balance of Power"?

Comment by Calda

I'd just like to provide some more stats:
My first week I got 10 Essences (Full normal clear + Dragons H)

Second week was 3 (Full normal clear + First 5 Heroic)

This week, so far, I've gotten 6, with Full normal clear and Dragons/Nythendra on H.

Meaning there is still hope for everyone to get it this/next week. However the drops seem extremely varied

Comment by Dreins

I just finished this quest. After handling the 30 essences, you'll receive a quick quest that awards an AP item (2375 @AK 7) and Kalecgos asks you to meet him at Shal'Aran.

The following quest requires revered with the Nightfallen. You need to buy an item that costs 125g at exalted, then you finally receive 3 more mythic dungeon quests, which I couldn't find in wowhead at the time I wrote this post:
Literary Perfection (Court of Stars)
Rite of the Captain (Arcway)
Borrowing without asking (Vault of the Wardens)

They all require an item found in the dungeon and to defeat the final boss, should be simple. I'll update this post once I finish them.

PS: for those wondering, it took me 18 heroic and 19 normal kills to get the 30 essences. Proof: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/character/1008266/latest/

Comment by artog

Next quest in the chain is Essential Consumption.

After that Repaid Debt takes you to Shal'Aran in Suramar.
There you get Lost Knowledge that have you get
Scroll of Elun'dris, which requires revered with The Nightfallen.

After completeion of this you get three different quest to complete three different mythic dungeons:

Borrowing Without Asking, Vault of Wardens
Rite of the Captain, The Arcway
Literary Perfection, Court of Stars

Comment by sharpnova

Is there any reason, other than elitism, that no one has mentioned which wing(s) you get the items from?

Comment by ResoLite

One thing worth noting about these drops is that if you miss out on an essence drop off a boss on normal mode, you do get another chance at it on heroic mode. My raid team completed Nythendra on norm at the start of a raid night last week; no corrupted essence drop. Towards the end of the same raid night we ran heroic mode nyth, who did drop an essence for me.

Whether this means you just get another chance at an essence drop if you missed out on a drop from your norm kill, or that you can get two sets of essence drops off the same boss (one from norm and one from heroic) i'm not sure. Also not sure if this is 'working as intended'.

Potentially this works for mythic mode too, i.e. you miss out on norm, then miss out on heroic, then get a third chance on mythic mode. However I have not raided mythic so again can't verify this.

Comment by Wowsucksnowadays

People say well "rng is rng" but that doesn't excuse at all the low prog occurance at any givin interval, which never sticks with their "%" chance they tell the player. Normaly you would observe then estimate %, now we get % and have to observe if it fits occurance, and it never does. 90% for the players succes is 50% at best, while 10% for an npc would be 50% too. And when it comes to RNG no &*!@ing machine can make conscious decision. They have just preset the occurance. So 5 out of 10 should be 50%, but again theoretically if their scale is like 500 out of 1000, and it is the last 500 of the thousands you would still have to do it 501 times to get it, and it would still be 50% chance, you would just have to do somehting a thousand times for it to actually be 50% for you, but in their program its 50%, even though it would be of no relevance to the player.

So with corrupted essence the drop chance could be 50%, but its estimated out of a 1000, then they can say whatever % and make it drop at any giving rate and it seems random. random in computer games just means a predetermined order you dont know? its still fixed as $%^& ffs. RNG has really ruined that game.

Comment by theredsox

A lot of people in my raid group have this quest, but I still do not have it. It says it starts at Senegos, but he does not have that quest for me. A poster says it's from your class hall with unknown requirements. Does anyone know for sure what the requirements are for this? I'm exalted with nightfallen and well into revered on everything else, no order hall quests left, have both the normal and heroic quests for cenarius. I have a quest from Senegos, but its to do mythic eye.

Comment by Fkhimagain

I mean WTF man blizzard how can you do this? Making 4 Diffrint (colors) Weapon appearances Locked by 1 fking achievement that not cant be completed until next year when NH is gonna be released how the fking hell can you make poeple wait that long for so much afford that they make FIX this its getting boring looking to the same Artifact for months and its taking away the lust to game !

Comment by Rasengam

Took me "only" 36 Normal kills and 33 Heroic kills. Gotta love RNG

Comment by Ceresc

I find it incredibly disheartening to have 16 kills and 0 (zero) essences. At this point in the tier, it seems a bit exaggerated :/

Comment by rajtantajtan

Completing the quest leads to Essential Consumption, which rewards you with a decent amount of Artifact Power. At Artifact Knowledge level 14, I received roughly 47k AP.

Comment by Eillesthis

Previous: Lucid Strength

Parallel: The Emerald Nightmare: In Nightmares

Comment by Firestar1111

shame the drop rate is so piss, have done EN every week still only have 9.... all well guess wont be gettin this skin

Comment by Iceleaf

"Each of these fiends carry within them corrupted essence, as Oakheart did, but far more potent. Gather all that you can, and we will turn their corruption against them."

Fool me once..well, jokes on me I guess

Comment by Vintus

Anyone noticed an increased drop rate on these since the 17th? Or was I just lucky? I got 7 total just from normal mode.

Comment by Hsgames

Might be asking a dumb question but can you multi run N/H En runs to get the Essences or is it like loot...Once you kill you are locked out for that type per week?

Comment by ModishVision

Turn in is at the Azurewing Refuge, in Azsuna 48.4 , 28

I was so frustrated nobody mentioned it.. so here you go.

Comment by Foxies

Introduction
This quest is part of a comment-size guide for "Balance of Power." questline. Quests are pretty much self-explanatory and all it takes is some time and good will to complete them. Completing this questline rewards Artifact Appearance (Appearance 3, Tint 1).

Part 1
Image of Kalec appears in your Order Hall and gives you the following quest:
The Power Within (Meet Archmage Kalec at Azurewing Repose in Azsuna.)
Reasons behind appearance of Archmage Kalec in your Class Order Hall are not yet completely understood but most people noticed him few days after they completed their Class Campaign.

Part 2
From there you take a next quest from Senegos:
The Heart of Zin-Azshari (Retrieve the Heart of Zin-Azshari and defeat the Wrath of Azshara in the Eye of Azshara on Mythic difficulty.)

Part 3
After completing the previous quests you receive a few new quests (exactly 3: two from Senegos and one from Archmage Kalec).
Senegos:
A Vainglorious Past (Obtain a Vainglorious Draught from Veridis Fallon.)
- You can purchase Vainglorious Draught from Veridis Fallon in Crumbled Palace in Azsuna for 150g (Requirement: Court of Farondis - Honored).

Fallen Power (Recover a Corrupted Essence from Oakheart and defeat the Shade of Xavius in Darkheart Thicket on Mythic difficulty.)

Archmage Kalec:
Tempering Darkness (Obtain 30 Blood of Sargeras.)
Should not be a problem since by the time you get that quest and if you did not spend any Blood of Sargeras you should have some stacked up simply by completing Dungeons and World Quests.

Part 4
Archmage Kalec:
Lucid Strength (Absorb the power from the Corrupted Essence using the Heart of Zin-Azshari.)
Right next to you.

Part 5
Senegos:
The Wisdom of Patience (Await the opening of The Emerald Nightmare, then report back to Senegos in Azsuna.)

Part 6
Archmage Kalec:
In Nightmares (Obtain a Deathglare Iris and the Horn of the Nightmare Lord from The Emerald Nightmare.) NOTE: NOT doable with LFR. It has to be Normal difficulty or higher. In order to complete this quest you need to kill 2 bosses: Il'gynoth and Xavius and loot mentioned quest items.

Senegos:
Essence of Power (Collect 30 Corrupted Essence from The Emerald Nightmare.) This quest gave me a weird WoD and Khadgar flashback. NOT doable with LFR. Only Normal or higher difficulty. Essences ~~do not~~ have a 100% drop rate and bosses can drop 1-2 3 Corrupted Essences at the time.

Part 7
Senegos:
Essential Consumption (Absorb the combined power of the Corrupted Essences using the Heart of Zin-Azshari.)
Right next to you.

Part 8
Archmage Kalec:
Repaid Debt (Meet Archmage Kalec in the Shal'Aran in Suramar.)

Part 9
Thalrenus Rivertree:
Lost Knowledge (Obtain the Scroll of Elun'dris from First Arcanist Thalyssra.)
- Costs 120g. Requirement: The Nightfallen - Revered).

Part 10
Thalrenus Rivertree:
Borrowing Without Asking (Recover a Containment Crystal from the Vault of the Wardens on Mythic difficulty.)

Syrana Starweaver:
Rite of the Captain (Take Advisor Vandros' Eon Winder from The Arcway on Mythic difficulty.)

Lothrius Mooncaller:
Literary Perfection (Find Lothrius' first edition copy of "Wards, Sigils, and the Nightborne Way" in the Court of Stars on Mythic difficulty.)

Part 11
Syrana Starweaver:
Twisted Power (Use a Greater Portal Stone to summon Vizuul the Twisted at the Altar of End Times in Faronaar and collect his runebindings.)

Part 12
Syrana Starweaver:
A True Test (Absorb the power from the Twisted Runebindings using the Heart of Zin-Azshari.)
Right next to you.

Part 13
Archmage Kalec:
Seeking the Valkyra (Seek out Ashildir at the Vault of Eyir in Stormheim.)

Part 14
Ashildir:
The Mark (Prove your worth to the Valarjar, then receive the Mark of the Valkyra from Eyir.)

Part 15
Ashildir:
Retrieving the Svalnguard (Retrieve the Svalnguard and defeat Helya in the Maw of Souls on Mythic difficulty.)

Part 16
Ashildir:
A Feast Fit for Odyn (Acquire flank meat from Thunderhoof in Stormheim, Spinesever's spine in Highmountain, and a steak from Leytusk in Azsuna.)

Presentation is Key (Retrieve 4 Adamantium Casing Scraps and defeat Dargrul the Underking in Neltharion's Lair on Mythic difficulty.)

Part 17
Ashildir:
Odyn's Blessing (Obtain Odyn's blessing in the Halls of Valor on ~~Heroic or~~ Mythic difficulty.)
- Use Grand Feast of Valhallas when you enter the dungeon - at the start. You can enter the dungeon alone, put the feast down, get out and then get a group to defeat Odyn and get his blessing. After you defeat him wait for him to finish his speech (RP) and then you can collect his blessing on the loot chest.

Part 18
Archmage Kalec:
Planning the Assault (Await the opening of the Nighthold, then meet Archmage Kalec in Shal'Aran.)

Part 19
Archmage Kalec:
Into the Nighthold (Collect 20 Nightshards from the Nighthold on Normal difficulty or higher.)
- Try and complete this quest without killing Gul'dan because if you kill him before acquiring The Nighthold: Darkness Calls quest in Part 20 he won't drop quest item for you this week and you'll need to wait for a next reset to complete The Nighthold: Darkness Calls quest in Part 20.

Thalrenus Rivertree:
The Nighthold: Delusions of Grandeur (Collect the core of Trilliax and Grand Magistrix Elisande's Millennia Tome in the Nighthold on Normal difficulty or higher.)

Part 20
Archmage Kalec:
The Nighthold: Darkness Calls (Bring one Gul'dan's eyes to Archmage Kalec on Normal difficulty or higher.)

Part 21
Archmage Kalec:
Balance of Power (Absorb the combined power of the Nightshards and the Eye of Gul'dan using the Heart of Zin-Azshari at the Lunar Crucible.)

Congratulations on completing this questline and acquiring new Artifact Appearance. Enjoy!
Foxies, out.

Comment by Einsteinwv

Is this going to be revamped at all now that balance of power is going to be required for flying?

They have always said it will be a cosmetic only thing, but legion flying is more then a cosmetic thing, and with this still not dropping on LFR and a horrible drop rate people who took a break are at a huge disadvantage for flying.

Comment by quarny

With the recent hotfix the bosses always drop between 1-3 , also you can get a new item called Seething Essence which contains 5.

Comment by 9361984

If you get Seething Essence before you receive this quest, mind that opening the item will yield you nothing at all, it simply disappears, wait until you are actually on the quest.

Comment by Jorvalt

Does the corrupted essence no longer drop on more than one difficulty per week? I went through Heroic EN only to be at 29/30 corrupted essence, then did Normal and didn't get even a single essence.

Comment by Dravenor

It seems like they have raised the drop rate significantly. I did my first run some months back and I got 5. I ran it again today, and I got 30.

Comment by angimal68

If the content isn't BRAND NEW, then these kids are NOT going to want to do it. When Blizzard decides to throw another expansion pack at us and all of this content is basically obsolete then what is the point in making it all interlocking? You MUST quest to raid/dungeon or you MUST raid/dungeon to quest seems like a foot-stomping, temper-tantrum throwing attempt by some graphics developer to get more people to see their stuff. And making achievements that solely follow this concept is not allowing room for future players because there is going to be NO ONE to run what will soon be old content. Already the kids are doing mythic+ and finding normal raid groups or dungeon groups is getting to be impossible. Why would someone run for 825 gear when their character is wearing 890+? LFR fills the need to get random players together who actually are just now building their characters or working on alts and it would be GREAT if random quest junk that we have to gather was included in this. Gathering 80 Lingering Soul Fragments on a one-by-one basis in mythic or heroic dungeons or gathering 30 Corrupted Essence is straight up BS if it isn't your main or you have a character that doesn't do great in raids or dungeons. Not exactly thrilled with being told I MUST do something in order to get my character non-sucky gear only to try to join a group and get kicked because they've already got the gear and turn their nose up at those of us who have actually got the Insurrection storyline completed or play more casually that the average sugar junky kid. Doesn't make us BAD players, makes us different players and we feel like Blizzard is punishing that.

Comment by NoIexion

You are only able to loot the Corrupted Essence once a week per boss regardless of difficulty.

You will NOT be able to loot this item when killing the same boss on a different difficulty on the same week where you have already received this item.

Comment by 1363783

Got mine from a LFR run and handed them into Senegos with no probs
Perhaps Blizz have relented

Comment by Channelle

Don't know if I was either lucky or the drop rate is really high right now, but I only needed to do (less than) 2 full runs to get 30x Corrupted Essence for the quest.
You also get Seething Essence frequently from bosses, which contains even more Corrupted Essence. For me it was always 5, but I read people saying they got another amount.

Comment by NinjaFlibble

anyone know if the item is still only out of normal and higher as of 7.2? I really would like to get it on more than my main (and her only if I manage to stomach a pug for that long.)

Comment by oplix

I easily did this in a pickup group. stop complaining.

Comment by Magus2002

Just as a heads up for someone who might've gone for this quest a few months ago and became disheartened due to only 1 or 2 items from a full clear.. I got only 1 from a full clear 5 months back, went at it again today post-7.2, got TWENTY items, in one full Normal clear. So yeah they definitively buffed this :)

Comment by ChessieTiger

Hey all! I just ran EN normal and was able to go from 0 to 25 in that one run. So it IS POSSIBLE to get them in one run, RNG was on my side. I was with others who were not getting any drops. Or only got one from one boss.

Good luck!

Comment by Dyzdaemar

Did Emerald Nightmare LFR got 23 essence. Completed norm and heroic EN and it said I had 30 essence at the end of heroic. I had also looted Horn of the Nightmare Lord which completed another quest I had there and turned that in fine but when I tried to hand in the Essence of Power quest it now says I have only 23 essence and it will not let me complete it..

Comment by PlebTM

Ran Normal and got 24 essence, ran heroic right after and did not get a single one. I don't thing you can rerun higher difficulty and get more, one run only.

Comment by Bullcorn1542

21/30 on Heroic. Guess they've increased the drop rate. They must have because I usually do not have any kind of luck whatsoever. ;)

Comment by RewindDB

Just got exactly 30 in one normal EN run. Most bosses gave 5 each.

Comment by DonStronk

Done this quest chain 6 times now, on every run i was left at 28 or 29/30 essences, truly infuriating to get cucked at 99% simply because blizz loves to troll, just raise the damn droprate to 100% already, it's bad enough we have to run every single awful legion dungeon :/

Comment by Semavi

Don't know if they buffed this but, when i did it during 7.2 or something i had to do it in 2 weeks but today i got 2-3-5-5-5-5-5=30 in a single run, not sure if lucky or they changed it.

Comment by Sambucca

As I get the whole understanding as it must be a regular raid and not LFR. Time constraints on many people does cause this questline to be slightly outdated with new content incoming. You really should release it to LFR as it will become useless soon. Im just saying.

Comment by DraethDarkstar

There are several tertiary requirements that you'll need to meet to be able to progress along the Balance of Power quest chain at various points. You can and should work towards completing these as soon as possible if you want to complete the quest chain quickly. If you wait to pursue these objectives until you're forced to by a quest, you'll increase your total time required to complete this chain significantly, as, especially in the case of Reputations, progression is time gated.
In the order they become relevant, they are:

Complete your Order Hall Campaign through A Glorious Campaign, Forged for Battle, and Roster of Champions. This is required for Kalec to appear in your Order Hall and offer The Power Within. It usually takes him 1-3 days after you've done this to appear.
Complete the "Behind Legion Lines" quest objective of Azsuna Matata, beginning with Into the Fray and ending with Dark Revelations to unlock and then complete the "Defending Azurewing Repose" quest objective of Azsuna Matata, beginning with Journey to the Repose and ending with Hunger's End in Azsuna. This is required before you can turn in The Power Within to begin the Balance of Power chain in earnest.
Earn Honored Reputation with the Court of Farondis. This is required to purchase the Vainglorious Draught from Veridis Fallon for A Vainglorious Past. This is the last tertiary objective you'll need to have done before you can begin Emerald Nightmare for your 30 Corrupted Essence for The Emerald Nightmare: Essence of Power. which will take you at least two raids to do unless you are extremely lucky.
Complete the "Nightfall" quest objective of Nightfallen But Not Forgotten, beginning with Khadgar's Discovery and ending with Arcane Thirst, then complete Shal'Aran to unlock and then complete the "Moon Guard Stronghold" quest objective of Good Suramaritan, beginning with Not Their Last Stand and Fate of the Guard, and ending with Last Stand of the Moon Guard in Suramar. This is required before you can complete Repaid Debt and progress the Suramar portion of the quest chain.
Earn Revered Reputation with The Nightfallen. This is required to purchase the Scroll of Elun'dris from First Arcanist Thalyssra for Lost Knowledge which you'll need to do as soon as you begin the Suramar portion of the quest chain.
Earn Revered Reputation with the Valarjar to prove your worth to Eyir and receive the Mark of the Valkyra for The Mark in Stormheim. This is the last tertiary objective you'll need to complete, and is required before you can progress the Stormheim portion of the quest chain.

Lastly, while not a requirement, it is recommended that if you manage to collect all of the Nightshard for The Nighthold: Into the Nighthold before you kill Gul'dan, that you return to Shal'Aran as soon as you have them and The Nighthold: Delusions of Grandeur completed, because you will not be able to loot the Eye of Gul'dan during the same week for the next and final quest, The Nighthold: Darkness Calls, if you have already killed him.

Edit: As of Patch 8.0.1, The Nighthold: Darkness Calls appears to be available alongside The Nighthold: Into the Nighthold and The Nighthold: Delusions of Grandeur instead of being made available after them.

Comment by Fremm

If you are receiving no essence at all and you are running Emerald Nightmare on Normal/Heroic/Mythic, you may be "quest loot locked" (for lack of a better term) for the week. Blizzard Support confirmed to me that the Corrupted Essence will only drop on the first kill of the week, regardless of difficulty. So if you kill any bosses then receive the quest, you will not be able to receive Corrupted Essence from the defeated bosses on other difficulties until the weekly reset.

I ran Heroic Emerald Nightmare for the related quest (In Nightmares), received this quest then ran Normal Emerald Nightmare without a single essence drop.

Comment by ThisIsSonor

After running 10 characters through EN, collecting data from 9, here are my results:
62 bosses killed that could reward essence (joined late to 1 hence 7*9-1)
9x I got 1 essence
13x I got 2 essences
13x I got 3 essences
27x I got 5 essences ( Seething Essence needs to be opened (duuh) )
This comes to an average of 3.37 essences per boss.
It's just under 15% chance to recieve 1, just over 20% to recieve 2 and to recieve 3 essences with 5 being the most common with just under 44%.
All the runs were either normal or heroic with no noticeable difference in dropchance.

Comment by Wownomo

Just ran this on my umpteenth alt and received a Seething Essence (with x5 Corrupted Essence) off each boss including another one off Xavius even though I had my 30 at that point.

Guess they hotfixed this for the rest of the xpac to help ppl get it done quicker.

Comment by Shiva20

I was hoping with the new Patches this would be looteble on different difficulties again. It's not :(

Comment by Suzaku

If you're working on soloing Balance of Power in Battle for Azeroth, Emerald Nightmare should be fairly trivial at 120 with ilvl 340~ gear on 10-man Normal difficulty, depending on class and spec. Ursoc is the only DPS check; pop DPS and survival cooldowns after he enrages, and use Azerite Traits like Resounding Protection if necessary.

It will probably take you two weekly resets (slightly more than one full clear) to collect all the necessary Corrupted Essences as of Patch 8.0.1.

Comment by hagonm

For anyone doing this in later expansions! You need to have an artifact equipped to loot these.

Comment by Ttenn

Just a heads up. As of patch 8.25. Do not do LFR and then on to normal/heroic/mythic and expect essence drops. If you do LFR first you will be essence loot locked out of normal/heroic/mythic. As this was in my case. First week i had 23 essence drops then my 2nd week I went to LFR thinking they would drop but no. Then I went on to mythic to claim my final 7 essences only for nothing to drop whatsoever on all 3 difficulties.

Comment by cfmcghee

As of April 9, 2020:

Ran this raid on Normal and received 30 Essences in one run. Don't know if Blizzard increased the drop rate or my bad luck rolls finally balanced out. Out of 7 bosses, 5 of them dropped Seething essences.

More data is required though.

Comment by f4th3ffr

Patch 8.3, 450 DH, I've had to do this through 3 weekly resets. First time i got none. Second time i got more and third week and im still 20/30 and i did all 3 difficulties. WTH

Comment by booster363

475 DH. 20/30 on Mythic run.
Posting for data.

Wish this could be done in one run. 9.0 is just around the corner.

Comment by Majikayo

Why is this quest still time gated? I got 20 out of Normal difficulty, then changed to heroic and nothing dropped. Are you kidding me? This questline already consists of 20 quests and yet you are still timegating it, now I'll have to wait until the next week for nothing. Such reasons are really a reason to quit. I understand when it is present expansion it is okay to timegate things but this is legacy content.

Comment by UnknownAK

I got 28/30 from 1 normal run, it's really irritating being so close but still having to wait a week

Comment by Mackon

So I have just done this on my 473 Frost DK on Mythic and I got 28/30 in one run. Why haven't they upped the drop rate on this by now so that you can get them all in one run?

Comment by arisyn

Pro-tip for people farming this after Legion...run it on a Monday night and then again on Tuesday morning after reset and you're done!

Comment by dukerattlehead

Trying to complete the Balance of Power storyline on my druid to get the glowy bear forms now you can change appearance in SL pre-patch.

I've run The Emerald Nightmare on all difficulties, Normal, Heroic and Mythic and not a single Corrupted Essence has dropped.

Even with bad RNG, I'd expect at least one to drop? Is this a bug?

Comment by VeckGB

Idk if i'm just extremely lucky or Blizz made some changes. Got a seething essence from the first 6 bosses. Done in one run!

Edit: 1 Seething Essence from every single boss. Even Xavius

Comment by Sternon

It's possible this is fixed as of 9.0 since I have just finished EN on Normal difficulty and all bosses dropped 5 Essences except for Xavius and Il'gynoth who dropped 3-3 each. It's important to know that bosses only drop essences for the first kill of the week - as it was the case in the past as well, and regardless of difficulty. If you already completed the raid on any difficulty during the week before picking up the quest, you will have to come back next week.

Comment by Mooshrums

On 9.0.1. (prepatch) the "weekly lockout" is still applicable.
Good luck all!

Comment by Tiandrah

I absolutely HATE this RNG b.s.!

I have done 3 clears a week for 3 weeks (one in each difficulty....duh) now and only have EIGHT of these bloody things!

Comment by Razraptre

Week 1: 6 from normal, 0 from heroic or mythic
Week 2: 23 from normal, 0 from heroic or mythic
Week 3: 1 from normal

Are these just heavily weighted to drop from normal?

Comment by garhyde

For those doing this solo, ensure you have your artifact from Legion equipped while killing bosses.

Comment by Massiter1

22-4-2021: Completed the raid on normal, heroic, mythic, not a single essence. life is good bois.

Comment by Bahthalend

Absolutely asinine that this gating still exists for old content. I mean if their going to make us do this long ass chain for every alt instead of just making it account wide why not just make it a guarantee that you'll get 30 in one run? Time gating is already bull!@#$ for current content but it's completely pointless for legacy stuff.

Comment by Thera83

Decided to do this on my shaman this week. 29/30 in one run (mythic). Come on blizzard you really had to me make me wait an additional week gg.

Comment by NinaNoodles

seems there is a bug right now (2021-09-12) that they are working on.
First week i got 19/30 essences, second week none.
I did normal, heroic and mythic.
Somehow the "lockout" for not gaining more items on another difficulty carries over the wednesday reset.

Comment by madda

First run, 9.1 on my 60 and got 27/30

Comment by ChinPirako

There seems to be a weekly cap on how many essences you can get, which is shared across all your characters...

Comment by zunit3z

As of 9.1.5, I just got 24/30 on Normal Difficulty. Killed a few bosses on Heroic and noticed in a comment somewhere that you can only receive these items once per week regardless of difficulty. I'll be back next week in hopes of looting 6 more.

Comment by Italusx

Shouldn't the drop rate be 100%?
just did mythic not a single drop for quest items.

Comment by yockster

Well, just as it says below, this is still time-gated on the quest, I got 16/30, and now have to wait until next week to finish one alt, and 2 more weeks on alt due to not seeing the quest to pick up when too late. Therefore, all your alts or even mains going to take time getting this old content still.

Comment by Rcls

No idea what happened (maybe lucky or patched?), but ran this on my paladin and every single boss up to Cenarius dropped 5x essence and I got it done on one run on normal difficulty.

Comment by coffinpsalms

I just looted exactly nine of these on a full heroic clear, which means it could potentially take me a month to complete this quest. Lots of bosses dropped zero. This is asinine for legacy content. I have no idea how anyone was getting 28-30 of these in a single run.

Comment by Eggleburt

Ran EN for the second week today, had 16 corrupted essence the first week and was extremely disappointed to only have 24/30 at the end of my run today. I checked my mailbox just now and found that i had 2 Seething Essence that had been sent to me because my bags were full, they gave me a further 10, so I have everything and can complete the quest! If you dont have all 30 after 2 weeks, check that this may have happened! I was so happy to see those and I had no idea that could happen

Comment by Maruniax

i finished Mithic solo and i got 30

Comment by Mattkroz

Sucks that before this quest you get the one you have to get xavius's horn and ilgynoth's eye and after you do it and get to this quest, EN bosses will not drop the essences until next week reset, even if you do the raid on a different difficulty where you'll get loot from the boss, super lame, and then you get to this quest where it usually takes 2 weeks or more to finish. Balance of power needs to be account wide due yesterday.

Comment by Mokogundo

Just got 30 essences from 1 mythic run on my demon hunter(nerf?). First time its happened so far after doing the questline more than 5 times.Is it because my sub is running out Blizz?

Comment by RpgHero

Just did this today got 8 essences total out of 30 on first run, zero "seething essences" several bosses dropped zero, then a few dropped 2 or 3.

What a joke.

Comment by Ct214476

I did Emerald Nightmare earlier in the week for transmog farm, and I only got essences from Cenariuis, who I didn't kill in LFR. The reason why I have a problem with this is LFR doesn't drop the essences.

Comment by Demod

Just did Mythic EN...0 Essences...not even one ffs...

Comment by Alienatedflea

did a NORMAL run...got 18/30...so maybe it was luck...

Comment by HoeCakez

13 Dec 2022 - Dragonflight patch 10.0.2

Received 23/30 Corrupted Essence on full Mythic clear.
Will only drop once per boss regardless of difficulty as discussed so it looks like it will take 2x clear to achieve 30/30.

Comment by JacksonWrath

To reiterate more explicitly, the drops share a loot lockout with ANY difficulty, even if you ran EN before you picked up this quest. If you mess up like I did and don't pick this up when you pick up The Emerald Nightmare: In Nightmares, (or just ran it for mogs already or something), you'll have to wait until next weekly reset to get the drops.

Comment by fleps

No changes for patch 10.0.5.
Did a Mythic run today, 29/30 essences. 😑

(Seriously Blizzard?)

Comment by Chuglife222

Yesterday (02/22/2023), I was able to get 29/30 essences in one heroic clear.

Comment by HrdScp

I thought people that got 29/30 just got unlucky. Il'gynoth gave 1, Xavius gave 3, the others gave 5. This has to be intentional

Comment by NstKnight

This is supposed to drop from normal and higher difficulties. GM Tirayalnys responded to my issue of it no longer dropping after clearing once.

"Thank you for reaching out to the Blizzard support team, I am Game Master Tirayalnys, and it's an honor to meet a fine Paladin like yourself.

First of all, I would like to thank you for the detailed explanation as it allowed me to understand the situation much better. Your patience during the time it took us to get to you is very appreciated, our queues are very busy at the time and we are doing our best to provide the best support we can!

I see that you are trying to complete the quest "Emerald Nightmare: Essence of Power", but it looks like you are missing a Corrupted Essence.

After taking a look at your situation, we could not find any known issues regarding Corrupted Essences not dropping. We want to clarify this item can drop as long as the raid boss difficulty is Normal or higher, and if all the other requirements were met too. https://support.blizzard.com/article/000058281

Also, the postmaster will not send the Essences through mail if they have not been looted from the boss. The postmaster usually sends a mail for other items in the same scenario, but this is not true for the Corrupted Essences.

The best we can do here is ask that you submit a bug report to our development team. This way they may learn more about this issue and look further into it. There are two ways you can do this, in-game through the Support menu with the "Bug Report" option, or you can do it on our Bug Report Forum, that you can find here: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/c/support/bug-report/17

I hope my answer was understandable and clarified you in this matter.

If you have any further inquiries, please do not hesitate in contacting us at any time.

Best regards and see you in Azeroth!

Game Master Tirayalnys"

Comment by CroLunatic

Done it on Normal,Heroci and Mythic...ZERO DROP! Not a single boss droped hahaha What kind of dog P**P is this?

Comment by PeckNeck

I might be incredibly lucky or they buffed the droprate, but it only took me 1 Mythic run of the raid in 10.1.5, it gave me 31/30, sometimes the boss gives you an openable item that gives you 5/30

Comment by Skonkier

I've just started chain quest and I dropped today (06.10.2023) all 30 Corrupted Essence's at once from Mythic mode raid.

Comment by QuartrDollarKing

Decided to do the difficulties in order since you can get the attunement in one run. That was a mistake, I got eight Corrupted Essences from the Normal run then the Heroic and Mythic runs didn't drop any.

Comment by Pwnders

Did this today 01.11.2023. I got 27/30. Not even changed a bit... so ridiculous not getting all, and having to wait one week when its DF season 2 and so long since this got released.

Also: Remindee you can only loot bosses once a week for the essence, no matter difficulty.

Blizzard: Start caring for your players that run older content as well.

Comment by Astralmight333

You can only complete this quest on Normal difficulty. I was able to get 19/30 Corrupted Essence from both what drops from the bosses and the Seething Essence that pops up in your inventory.

Comment by Ranadicus

Ran on Mythic and got 29 of 30 :|

Comment by BananaCat

You can still only get these drops on one type of difficulty per week, and it seems like you'll always be 1-10 short until the next reset.

I did the raid on Normal and this is how much each boss dropped:
Nythendra - 1 Corrupted Essence
Il'gynoth - 1 Seething Essence (contains 5 Corrupted)
Elerethe Renferal - 1 Seething (5 Corrupted)
Ursoc - 2 Corrupted
Dragons of Nightmare - 1 Seething (5 Corrupted)
Cenarius - 2 Corrupted
Xavius - 1 Corrupted

Total: 21 Corrupted Essence.

I guess it's possible you could get super lucky and get enough of the Seething Essence drops to complete it with just one run, but by the looks of the other comments it doesn't seem like this can happen (and if it can then it's very unlikely).

Comment by Zarilla

As of Dragonflight 2.5 - January 2024

For those running this raid on N, H, or M - NOT through timewalking or other LFR/LFG groups - pause before you become very upset from the "drop rate" in the dungeons. You will get some basic Corrupted Essence but you will also get Seething Essence - large red and white circle items. I was gearing up for another run through the dungeon on a different level. becasue I only got three Corrupted Essences on my first run.

Clearing my bags I assumed the read and white circles were the Corrupted Essence required. I only had received three Corrupted Essense and saw the screen notice of three received. But then as I was cleaning my bags I was able to right click on the three Seething Essences and those drop the Corrupted Essences. I received a total of 26 out of 30.

Still need to go back and kill one maybe two bosses but then I will be done. This does not need to e a multi-day/week process. You just can not go through using Archmage Timear or LFR. I don't know if this will work in Keystone dungeons but it is always a good try. This raid is long and tedious but it can be done in under an hour.

Comment by Clandestiny

BEWARE - pick up BOTH quests otherwise you have to wait an ENTIRE week to do the 2nd quest. :D thanks blizzard for being absolutelllly incompetent.

Comment by ZelpharRvn

At this moment, the items you need are still locked (and likely remain this way) to 1-3 per week, on only 1 Difficulty. Meaning you can't run multiple difficulties to get more.
Of course, there is the chance to receive the item with 5.

I just ran mythic and got 19/30. See you next week!

Comment by ThyrazOnSpotify

This game is pretty good at pissing me off at times especially when I set out to do something on a certain day only to find out by the near end of it that I have to wait until next week to finish the task for no particularly good reason at all. Looking further down the questline it seems I will likely have to wait again due to a similar quest in the Nighthold. Why can't I just run it on different difficulties and finish it up when I want to?

I'm putting this here as feedback. I heavily dislike when I come across this situation.
It's really annoying for me being an achievement farmer trying to catch up to current content by finishing up all the older quests in the game.

I'm already struggling with my questlog being too full and I don't want more unfinished quests sitting there wasting space.

At the very least increase quest log capacity and while I'm also at it I need more bag space.

Comment by DCCXVIII

Turns out, the quest borks itself when you attempt to complete it when you already have an in-progress lockout of the Emerald Nightmare raid (of any difficulty). So even though you may not have killed all the bosses (or any of the bosses on another difficulty) and the bosses you didn't kill actually still drop the quest item, you will not be allowed to loot them regardless. You will have to wait for the weekly reset before you can actually loot the quest items. Kinda stupid but there you go

Comment by vaultcoach

Make sure that you do your N/H/M run before LFR, otherwise lockout applies. Good Luck All.

Comment by Dependakittie

Killed 4/7 on mythic for The Emerald Nightmare: In Nightmares.
Full clear on heroic and received 1xSeething Essence and 2xCorrupted Essence from bosses not previously looted.
Cleared remaining bosses on mythic and received none.
Cleared normal and received none.

week 1: 7/30

Update...
week 2: 28/30 after a full mythic clear (3xSeething Essence and 6xCorrupted Essence) >.>

Comment by wdfblizz

It's 2024 and I got 29/30 in one run. Another week of waiting I guess!

Links

The Emerald Nightmare: Essence of Power

Collect 30 Corrupted Essence from the Emerald Nightmare on Normal difficulty or higher.

	Corrupted Essence (30)

Description

Now that we have a better understanding on the Heart's capabilities, it is time we tap into its true potential.

In the Emerald Nightmare you will find creatures that should not be; monsters that defy all that the Dream stands for.

All that the green flight itself stands for.

Each of these fiends carry within them corrupted essence, as Oakheart did, but far more potent. Gather all that you can, and we will turn their corruption against them.

Progress

Completion

Rewards

You will receive:

Gains

Upon completion of this quest you will gain:

See if you've already completed this by typing:

/run print(C_QuestLog.IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(43521))

Guides

Emerald Nightmare Raid Guides and Rewards Quick Guide to Legion's Attunements