Zen Daijun (mission)

Objectives
Find the source of the plague.
 * Togo must survive.
 * ADDED Kill Afflicted Yijo.
 * ADDED Kill Afflicted Farmer Xeng Jo.
 * ADDED Kill Afflicted Kana.

Primary
Simply follow the road through the mission. Henchmen here are level 16, so it is inadviseable to be much lower level than that. Doing nearby quests will raise your level quickly.

Allies
You will be led by Master Togo and Headmaster Vhang. Master Togo is level 20 and Headmaster Vhang is level 15, so your group could take on relatively large groups of opponents.

In addition you can ring the bell at any of the Shrines of Zunraa to summon Zunraa. Zunraa is only level 13 and will not help overly much with fighting, but the Blessing of the Kirin it provides will help manage conditions as well as miasma. In addition to that, you may want to bring some condition removal skills, as there are many Afflicted Rangers around, who like to use Throw Dirt. In case Zunraa dies, you cannot resurrect him, but you can simply summon him again at a shrine. There are several Shrines of Zunraa along the road.

If you do not want to take care of Master Togo and make sure he survives, you can leave him at the beginning of the mission by hugging the left wall when leaving from the starting position. This will leave Togo at the beginning, waiting for your party to follow him.

Miasma
Beware of purple smoky clouds along the road, often found at road intersections. These infect you with Miasma, which causes -5 health degeneration, and spreads between characters, similar to disease, but overall is not too much a threat. Zunraa's Blessing of the Kirin helps greatly in overcoming the miasma's effects.

There are occasions where enemies sit in the miasma. Fighting them in there will quickly overwhelm your healers with the constant health degen. Either lure the enemies to you, out of the miasma, or run through the miasma past the monsters and then turn around to fight them. The Afflicted can often be attacked from odd angles to minimize the amount of time spent in miasma.

There are paths around all but one of the miasma clouds, however following them will slow your party down. Depending on your party composition, it may be advisable to ignore the bonus, and take the alternate paths, especially if you are weak on healing. Alternatively, you can pull mobs out of the miasma to fight them, run through it, and then wait for it to wear off on the other side.

Showdown
At the end of the mission, you will first have to fight two high level bosses on the bridge towards the Daijun Library; when battling these two, focus primarily on Afflicted Yijo - his Spirit Rift skill will tear through clumped players, so either interrupt it or spread out. The other boss is Afflicted Farmer Xeng Jo.

After they have been defeated, you will then fight a group of regular Afflicted as well as the boss The Afflicted Kana. It appears that they are standing in miasma, but the miasma cloud won't affect your group.

Master's Reward
You have a lot of time to complete the mission, and henchmen, Togo, and Vhang provide more than enough firepower to complete the mission in well under 20 minutes. There's no need to rush, and you can stop to wait for miasma to wear off at times if needed.

Hard Mode
Zunraa and Headmaster Vhang are both level 20 in hard mode. With Togo and Vhang, you effectively have a party of eight (or nine while Zunraa is alive), so it can help to treat it like a party of eight and bring three healers. You have plenty of time, so you can go with a heavily defensive party, wait for miasma to wear off or groups of mobs to move apart, and still get master's reward with several minutes to spare.

There are three logically separate parts to the mission. In the first, which comprises most of the mission, many groups of mobs will wander fairly long distances. It's easy if you only pull one group at a time, but if you aren't careful, while you're fighting one group, one or two additional groups can hit you. It's best to clear a couple groups to the south of the first bridge before trying to clear the group of six mobs that forms to the west when you approach.

Just after the crossroads (second blue dot), leave both paths and head west on the grass. Go around one large stone obstacle to the west, then wade through Tei Lake, and then return to the north path. This saves some time, but more importantly, makes it easier to only pull one group at a time in that area. Upon returning to the path, wait for the two groups that sometimes congregate in the miasma to separate before pulling one. Further west, also clear the group that wanders back and forth across the miasma covered bridge, or else they may attack you from behind.

When you approach the end, you want to clear an Afflicted Warrior/Afflicted Assassin group by itself, then an Afflicted Necromancer/Afflicted Elementalist group by itself, then a group of three Afflicted Bulls and another group of three assorted afflicted. You may have to wait for mobs to move around to get the first two groups by themselves, but the last two groups can safely be fought simultaneously.

The second part of the mission is the fight against Afflicted Yijo and Afflicted Farmer Xeng Jo. The two bosses are not linked, so you can approach and run away, often get only one to follow, and kill it by itself. Yijo's Spirit Rift hits extremely hard, and can kill some henchmen and heroes in one shot. Try to move out of it, though flagging henchmen and heroes around can be awkward in the narrow space. A mesmer hero with interrupts can interrupt it much of the time, but the cast is too fast for a human to interrupt without substantial luck.

The final part is the group at the end that includes The Afflicted Kana. Pull them way back so you can stand on the bridge to fight. If you run away, Togo and Vhang will safely follow. This lets you get a slight height advantage, but more importantly, prevents henchmen and heroes from standing there shooting the stairs, and thus doing no damage.

NPCs

 * 13 Zunraa
 * 15 Headmaster Vhang
 * 20 Master Togo

Monsters

 * Afflicted:
 * 11 Afflicted Ravager
 * 13 Afflicted Bull
 * 14 Afflicted Warrior
 * 14 Afflicted Ranger
 * 14 Afflicted Monk
 * 14 Afflicted Necromancer
 * 10 Afflicted Mesmer
 * 10 Afflicted Elementalist
 * 14 Afflicted Assassin
 * 12 Afflicted Ritualist
 * Mantises
 * 11 Mantid Queen
 * 11 Mantid Destroyer

Bosses

 * Afflicted:
 * 16 Afflicted Farmer Xeng Jo
 * 16 The Afflicted Xai
 * 18 The Afflicted Kana
 * 18 Afflicted Yijo

Animals

 * Tigers
 * Cranes

Cutscene dialogues
Entry cutscene:
 * Master Togo: "I'm glad you have come."
 * (a scream)
 * Party leader: "What was that?"
 * Master Togo: "I do not know. But let us hope that whatever made that sound did not suffer long. Be on your guard. Who knows what foul things we may find inside."
 * (catching sight of the Afflicted)
 * Party leader: "They look just like Minister Cho."
 * Master Togo: "Whatever it was that infected my old friend has spread. We must get to the bottom of this. Come."

Mission completion cutscene:
 * Master Togo: "I had hoped that my eyes would not bear witness to this symbol again."
 * Team leader: "Master, what is it?"
 * Master Togo: "This is the harbinger of the deceiver, the mark of the wicked. The guild symbol of Shiro Tagachi."
 * Team leader: "The man whose death turned the forest to stone and the sea to jade?"
 * Master Togo: "The very same. This does not bode well for Cantha. We must head to the mainland and get to the root of this evil before it can . . . Well, let us not think about that yet. I have sent a message to Mhenlo of Ascalon, one of my former students. He will no doubt be making his way to Cantha shortly. If this symbol means what I think it does, then we could all be in great danger. I must find my brother in Kaineng City. He will want to know of this. You will come after and meet me. Talk to First Mate Xiang to book your passage to the mainland. He will get you to the other side safely."

Follow-up

 * Upon completion of the mission players will find themselves in: Seitung Harbor
 * To continue the storyline, take on the following Primary Quest: A Master's Burden