Chardok Pipe - Monk Epic

[dancingclown22]

I'm recently new to the server and I am looking to start my monk's epic quest soon. Most of the quest still seems pretty straight forward as I remember doing it 12 years ago, except the Chardok pipe.

I know that the iksar betrayer is now a random zone spawn, and I also realize there are plenty of AE groups that go through there and sell them. Have any monks actually gone in with a standard non-AE group and gotten this? If so, was there a particular area that seemed to work better? Or is buying the MQ Pipe the only way to do it nowadays.

Thanks all