Are the loot drops for imbue mats fairly common ? Particularly the non essence ones (seeds of renewal etc)
Here is a map of the mini champ spawn areas in the Abyss and below it are some comments about completing the spawn in each of these areas solo with just a tamer character and a pet like a cu sidhe or greater dragon. (I haven't spent much time trying to hunt at these spawns with anything but a tamer, although I've used an archer at the Fel ruleset spawn areas.)
A general comment here that applies to just about all of the mini-spawn areas is that it usually works quite well to try to clear one corner of the area first and then use it as a place to lure stuff back to, in amounts that your pet can handle and leaving yourself plenty of room to continue backing up if necessary. It is very helpful to make sure you have a separate "Kill" and a separate "Stay" command for each pet you will be using. When you're trying to lure a monster that has a heat effect back to your killing zone, sic the pet on the monster in its original spot and then tell the pet to follow you. When you get to the spot where you want the battle to happen, tell your pet to stay but keep moving a few more tiles past that point with your tamer. When the monster catches up to where your pet is waiting, give your pet the Kill command. Use spells to heal from where you are safely standing away from the monster's area effect. If you used the Stay command to position your pet safely away from your tamer, be aware that it will start to wander aimlessly once the monster is dead, unless something else comes along to occupy it or you give it another command.
Another useful tactic with tough monsters that periodically cast invisibility on themselves is to use the Follow command on your pet's context menu to make it follow the monster it is fighting. As with the Stay command, once the monster is dead, your pet will wander aimlessly unless something else has it occupied and/or you give it another command. And don't forget to reissue a Kill command after using the Follow command on the pet's context menu. Otherwise it may just stand there looking dumb.
Keep in mind that it is your tamer character that must have line of sight to a monster that you want your pet to kill. Your pet can be standing right next to it, but if your tamer's path to the monster is blocked you will get the message that your pet can't see the monster.
Also, if your pet doesn't seem to want to break off from fighting stuff to follow you, consider changing your macro for giving the Follow command so it includes a Stop command, i.e. "All Stop" (first line) / "All Follow Me" (second line).
I've noted below a few of the spawns where you will have no problem picking up items for the Axem quests (i.e., the Ancient Pottery Fragments, Tattered Remnants of an Ancient Scroll and the rarely found Untranslated Ancient Tome). Note that you may also find these items as loot at some of the other spawn areas, but not nearly as many of them.
Lastly, in general, I think you may end up with more ingredients as loot if you don't try to rush through the spawn. Take your time and work through it carefully, unless it's one where the first level spawn doesn't drop anything special. You're less likely to end up being overwhelmed and dead too. I always like to try to lead the renowned monster off to the side a bit and clean up all of the other spawn before taking it out. I have no idea if that increases your odds of getting an artifact, but if the renowned monster is one that you can't stand close to because of an area effect, it sure does make your job of healing the pet with spells easier when you know nothing else is going to wander on-screen and go after your pet or your tamer. For some spawns, though, this may not always be the best tactic. For example, if you can isolate and kill the Renowned Wyvern at the Stygian Dragon Lair Entrance spawn, after a few moments the pixie dragons will spawn again and can quickly clean up any remaining forgotten servants and wyverns.
Lava Caldera - This is one of the areas where you want to make sure your suit's resists are top-notch. It's also a great area to practice luring your target away from the crowd because it includes a number of monsters with a fire/heat area effect. A GD or cu sidhe shouldn't have much trouble at all in this area, even with the renowned monster at the end, if you're careful to avoid letting your pet get overwhelmed. Valuable Loot Drops: Essence of Passion; Daemon Claw; Lava Serpent Crust; Seared Fire Ant Goo; Tattered Remnants of An Ancient Scroll; Ancient Pottery Fragments.
Skeletal Dragon - Essence of Persistence from this area has no known use, so I think this area is usually ignored. The first two levels move quickly and before you know it you can be surrounded by pesky bone mages and then almost immediately there are skeletal liches in the picture too. There's very little room to maneuver in. So let the corpses pile up near the bottom of the ramp and plan to pull the skeletal liches and especially the renowned skeletal dragon up the ramp a bit and away from that handy pile of corpses so you don't end up faced with a bunch of summoned stuff on top of your pet or your tamer. You'll have to stand clear of the mages, liches, and the dragon and heal pet with spells.
Enslaved Goblins - This is arguably one of the easiest spawn areas in the Abyss. Don't really need a tank in this area. The alchemist goblins like to throw potions and cause spectacular explosions that can cause some damage to your tamer, so give them a bit of extra room. I always enjoy the sound effects here, for some reason. I guess the goblin squeaks tickle my funny bone and I think it's kind of cool to hear the sound of the breaking potion bottles. Valuable Loot Drops: Essence of Control; Goblin Blood.
Fire Temple Ruins - This area has much the same spawn as the Lava Caldera area (including those pesky fire ants), but in a much more cluttered and smaller area. It's definitely more challenging to find a safe area to stand away from your pet as it kills stuff with an area effect without being spotted by the rest of the spawn. Be prepared for a lot of hair-raising escapes here if you aren't giving the spawn and your pet your full attention. Stuff will follow you for a fair distance if you run up the cliff toward the Secret Garden mini champ area. Valuable Loot Drops: Essence of Order; Daemon Claw; Lava Serpent Crust; Seared Fire Ant Goo; Tattered Remnants of An Ancient Scroll; Ancient Pottery Fragments.
Secret Garden - The spawn here is not terribly difficult. When the dark wisps spawn, the pixies go after them, so you have to decide whether you want to use the tactic of killing off most of the pixies before the dark wisps spawn or let the dark wisps kill them. Killing the pixies here (other than the Renowned Pixie at the end) does not cause any karma loss. Another thing to be aware of is that the Renowned Pixie will usually take care of the dark wisps for you too, although she (and your tamer and pet) won't be able to take out any dark wisps that spawn underground. Unfortunately those stuck dark wisps do have the ability to summon things from any nearby corpses, so plan accordingly. Try varying the order in which you kill things here and enjoy coming up with your own game plan on how to demolish the spawn. And be kind to everyone else and take the time to kill off the renowned pixie...it's great pet training and once in a blue moon you might be rewarded with a gargoyle-style artifact. (You'll probably find it laying on the ground, although some people have reported finding it on the pixie's corpse.) Valuable Loot Drops: Essence of Feeling; Faery Dust; Tattered Remnants of An Ancient Scroll; Ancient Pottery Fragments.
Lands of the Lich - One of my very favorite mini-champ spawn areas! It covers a huge area and has a ton of spawn and will take quite a long time to finish. As mentioned above, try to work it from one area to the next for each level of the champ spawn. Stand clear of the bone/skeletal mages, skeletal liches, and the renowned ancient lich at the end. Your pet will get a very nice workout here and you'll make some nice gold. Valuable Loot Drops: Essence of Direction.
Passage of Tears - I consider this one of the easiest spawns in the Abyss. Things to be wary of: standing too close to acid slugs and stepping in the nasty yellow stuff that the interred grizzles spit out. The renowned acid elemental at the end is a push-over. Valuable Loot Drops: Essence of Singularity; Vial of Vitriol; Acid Sac; Congealed Slug Acid.
Cavern of The Discarded - Unfortunately the spawn in this area is often "broken" and the low-level spawn other than the wolves in one area drop nothing useful. You want the mid-level spawn. In each area, you'll notice there are two types of mid-level spawn, one of which is aggressive and the other is not. Both drop valuable loot, just not in the quantities you could hope for, especially given how often the spawn system breaks down. The renowned monster for each area is mostly a time-waster, in my opinion, but if you're using a tamer, it can give your pet some valuable training and maybe, just maybe, you'll get an artifact...watch for it to land on the ground though. Grrrrrrrrr. Valuable Loot Drops: Essence of Balance; Abyssal Cloth; Arcanic Rune Stone; Crushed Glass; Crystal Shards; Crystalline Blackrock; Elven Fletching; Powdered Iron; Reflective Wolf Eye; Seed of Renewal; Unbalanced Scales. You may also find Lodestone, which has no known use.
Abyssal Lair Entrance - Kind of a fun spawn that covers a huge area. What's nice with this spawn is that the low-level mobs DO drop essence, in comparison to the Cavern of The Discarded low-level spawn. Make sure you check the whole area for spawn. The pit demons have a heat/fire area effect. The renowned at the end is kind of a push over. It does summon stuff, however, so stand a bit away from it and try not to hold the fight with it over a pile of corpses. Valuable loot drops: Essence of Achievement; Daemon Claw.
Crimson Veins - Fire ants again. I guess they keep us on our toes. *Sigh* Other than the heat-radiating gargoyles in the mid-level spawn, the spawn is similar to that at Lava Caldera and Fire Temple Ruins. Pretty much everything here radiates heat (the efreet are one notable exception), so put on your asbestos mana regen suit. Give the renowned fire ele at the end lots of room because it loves to show off....it's effects are pretty spectacular, actually. It also seems to be on a goofy two-point tether, so it can be hard to try to ditch it in one spot while you finish the rest of the spawn. I tend to use the top two bridges leading to this area as my primary fighting areas. Just watch out for forgotten servants, wyverns and/or the renowned wyvern from next door when you're on the middle bridge. It's kind of nice to pop over to this area after killing off a lot of fairy dragons to help replenish your karma a bit. Valuable Loot Drops: Essence of Precision; Daemon Claw; Lava Serpent Crust; Seared Fire Ant Goo; Tattered Remnants of An Ancient Scroll; Ancient Pottery Fragments.
Stygian Dragon Lair Entrance - You will end up with major karma loss after you finish this spawn. Killing the fairy dragons causes a lot of karma loss; killing everything else brings back some of that karma, but usually not enough to offset what you lost killing the fairy dragons. If you're doing this spawn solo, don't expect to always walk away with a lot of ingredients because the spawn fight among themselves and if you can't get to their bodies before they poof, a lot of ingredients can go to waste. There's definitely room here for one or two more people to join you; however, it's wise to be considerate of where you fight stuff because the fairy dragons and the forgotten servants both use spells/effects that will make them flag on your tamer if you're standing too close. The renowned wyvern at the end is a bit tough but doable with your pet if you are ready to vet and heal. If you start this spawn low on bandages, you can loot more from the pixie dragon corpses. You'll also pick up lots of gold, so a sending bag is essential. The renowned wyvern has no area effect, so you can stand next to your pet to use vet skill. Try not to drag it too far to the east end near the cliff. It can and will sometimes fall into the lava and be very difficult to kill without paging for a GM to move it. Valuable Loot Drops: Essence of Diligence; Faery Dust; Fairy Dragon Wings; Tattered Remnants of An Ancient Scroll; Ancient Pottery Fragments; Untranslated Ancient Tome. You may also find Fey Wings, which have no known use, along with Draconic Orbs that are used to do the Stygian Dragon peerless encounter.
