Sha of Fear

The Sha of Fear is one of seven prime sha. It was sealed by Emperor Shaohao in ancient times. The sha primes were freed by the Alliance-Horde war arriving in Pandaria. The Sha of Fear escaped its prison in Niuzao Temple and proceeded to corrupt the Mantid of the Dread Wastes. After Klaxxi-aligned adventurers killed Grand Empress Shek'zeer, the Sha prime retreated to the Terrace of Endless Spring.

The Sha of Fear is the fourth and final boss of the Terrace of Endless Spring as well as the end encounter for Tier 14. During the fight, the raid group will periodically be forced apart to battle both the Sha of Fear and its Terror Spawn adds, and the Shadows of the Golden Lotus. On heroic, the raid must contend with the Sha of Fear and even more dangerous adds as it drags the raid down into its home turf.

The Burdens of Shaohao
While traveling through the Dread Wastes, the Monkey King got stuck in the vines of a tree. Emperor Shaohao was paralyzed by fear as dangerous mantid started approaching his captured friend. Remembering the words of Niuzao, Shaohao braved his fear, and smashed the kypari tree. Giants blobs of sap fell onto the mantid and glued them to the ground, allowing him to free the Monkey King.

Mists of Pandaria
Soon after rising from his prison, the Sha of Fear takes control of the mantid empress and essentially becomes the ruler of the Dread Wastes. After escaping when the empress is killed, he challenges the heroes to meet him at the Terrace of Endless Spring in the Veiled Stair, where he is the final boss.

Adventure Guide
''The Sha of Fear is the physical manifestation of terror in Pandaria. Imprisoned by the legendary pandaren emperor Shaohao long ago, the entity has been newly strengthened by rising conflict across the island.''

The Terrace
The Sha of Fear looms atop the terrace, attempting to consume the pure light still emanating from its center. He goes Berserk after 15 minutes. This timer resets to 10 minutes the moment the Sha retreats to the Dread Expanse.















Terror Spawns
The Sha periodically summons a pair of Terror Spawns to attack players. Each Terror Spawn is protected by a bulwark of dark energy that deflects spells and attacks that strike the front of the creature.

The Outer Shrines
The group of players transported by Ominous Cackle must defeat one of three Sha possessed crossbowmen. The pandaren Yang Guoshi, Cheng Kang, and Jinlun Kun are former terrace guardians.











The Dread Expanse
On heroic difficulty the Sha of Fear retreats to the Dread Expanse at 66% remaining health, dragging players along with him. This watery wasteland is a place of the Sha's making where he has access to a new set of abilities.

















Dread Spawn
This creature fixates on the current champion of the light. If a new player becomes the champion the Dread Spawn will change targets.



The Terrace
One tank must always stand within the Pure Light to create the Wall of Light safe zone. The second tank should also stand within the Pure Light, as the boss will fixate on whoever is within the Pure Light when the current tank is sent to one of the Outer Shrines by Ominous Cackle (the second tank must always be standing within the Pure Light before Ominous Cackle goes off, otherwise Reaching Attack will quickly start wiping the raid). No other player should stand within the Pure Light, otherwise the boss may fixate on them instead.

The tank active on the boss will need to keep an eye out for when Thrash is coming up. Active mitigation abilities should be timed for Thrash, particularly on heroic.

Healers should stay within the Wall of Light at all times. Ranged will spend the majority of the fight within the Wall of Light, but will need to venture outside to help kill adds. Melee will mainly be attacking the boss from behind and helping with adds, and consequently will be outside the Wall of Light for most of the time; however, they will need to be inside whenever Breath of Fear is cast.

The adds (Terror Spawns) are shielded from the front and can therefore only be attacked from behind. DPS will need to venture outside the Wall of Light safe zone to deal with them before they overwhelm the raid by sheer numbers. However, it is critically important that DPS keep an eye on the Breath of Fear timer and make it back to the Wall of Light before Breath of Fear is cast, as anyone caught outside will likely die.

Players should spread out at least 3 yards to prevent splash damage from Eerie Skull. Penetrating Bolt from the Terror Spawns can be easily side-stepped so long as the Terror Spawn numbers are kept under control.

Ominous Cackle will always send one tank, one healer and three DPS (chosen randomly) to one of three Outer Shrines (the Outer Shine strategy is detailed below). This places the following constraints on raid composition:


 * In 10-man difficulty (both normal and heroic), this forces the raid composition to be two tanks, two healers and six DPS.
 * In 25-man difficulty (both normal and heroic), Ominous Cackle is cast every 45 seconds (it is cast every 90 seconds in 10-man and LFR). Unless DPS is powerful enough to deal with the Outer Shrine in under 45 seconds, three tanks and at least six healers are required.

The Outer Shrines
The group sent to one of the Outer Shines will be faced with a Sha-posessed pandaren, and must defeat him before Ominous Cackle removes the last remaining tank from the Terrace (failing which, Reaching Attack will start wiping the raid). In LFR and 10-man, the group will have 90 seconds. 25-man groups running with three tanks will also have 90 seconds, but will have only 45 seconds if the group decides to run with only two tanks (which requires the group to have insane DPS).

Besides the typical duties of tanking and spanking the pandaren, the group on the shrine must vacuum up the Sha Globes before they return to the pandaren and heal him up. This is less important on LFR (each globe will heal for 2%), but is significantly more important on normal (5% healing), and is pretty much mandatory on heroic (8% healing). The Sha Globes do minor damage to the player vacuuming them up, so players should be careful not to vacuum up any Sha Globes if their health is low.

Dread Spray can be avoided with practice (required for the achievement), but does not do major damage. The fear from players failing at Dread Spray can be dispelled.

Death Blossom can easily kill unprepared players, particularly on heroic. The three DPS and the healer should line of sight Death Blossom behind the pillars on the edge of the shine, while the tank pops a cooldown, eats the damage, and continues to vacuum the Sha Globes. Death Blossom damage is Physical, so the tank should be able to eat the damage without too many problems.

Once the pandaren is defeated, the group can click a portal to return them to the main fight on the Terrace. The returning group will receive a buff (Fearless) which gives them increased damage, increased movement speed, increased healing, and complete immunity to Breath of Fear for 30 seconds; consequently, the three returning DPS players should use this opportunity to mop up the Terror Spawns on the main platform (the returning healer can head straight for the Wall of Light, and the returning tank needs to head for the Pure Light puddle in time to take over tanking the boss on the following Ominous Cackle cast). They will not need to worry about running into the Wall of Light to avoid Breath of Fear while they have the Fearless buff, but it is important that they monitor how much time remains on their buff so that Breath of Fear does not catch them out after the buff duration ends.

Related Achievements

 * Terrace of Endless Spring (achievement)
 * Heroic: Sha of Fear
 * The Mind-Killer
 * Terrace of Endless Spring Guild Run
 * Heroic: Sha of Fear Guild Run
 * Ahead of the Curve: Sha of Fear
 * Cutting Edge: Sha of Fear
 * Realm First! Sha of Fear

Quotes

 * Intro
 * yell


 * Aggro
 * yell


 * Breath of Fear
 * yell


 * Ominous Cackle (last 2 quotes are the same by all 3.)
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell


 * Killing a player
 * yell


 * Heroic mode
 * yell


 * Submerge
 * yell


 * Huddle in Terror
 * yell

Raid Finder

 * Fury Warrior, LFR

10-man Heroic

 * (1080p) - Post-Patch 10% Nerfed, Mage, Boss Voice, Vent.

10-man Normal

 * (1080p) - Elemental Shaman

25-man Normal

 * (1080p) - Mage, Boss voice, vent
 * (1080p) - Mage, Boss voice, vent

Trivia

 * Sha of Fear is voiced by Steve Blum.