Monday 18 February 2013

Terrace of Endless Spring: Sha of Fear

Monday 18 February 2013 - by Evlyxx 0

2013-01-31_exhumed_toes_sha_001

The Sha of Fear is a single-phase encounter during which he will summon adds and send a tank, a healer and 3 DPS to a remote platform to fight a Terrace Guardian and only after he dies can they return to the main platform, if he does not die before the next group of 5 players are banished the raid will wipe.
  • Tanks MUST stand in the circle of light as this will create a safe zone, called the  Wall of Light, behind the tank. The raid must stand within the Wall of Light so they take 10% less damage, and gain immunity to Breath of Fear.
  • Healers can remain within the safe zone for the entire fight. 
  • Ranged DPS will sometimes have to exit the safe zone to deal with adds spawning on the platform. 
  • Melee DPS will spend most of the fight behind the boss (so outside the safe zone) and they will occasionally move to deal with the adds that spawn on the platform or to take cover within the safe for Breath of Fear.
While the fight is not difficult to understand, there is a high DPS requirement and as you must have 2 tanks (1 on the boss and 1 on a platform) you will have to 2 heal the fight. The real tough parts of the fight are getting the balance between DPS on the boss and killing adds as well as avoiding much damage as possible by avoiding the impact locations of Penetrating Bolts and not getting caught outside the Wall of Light when Breath of Fear.

On the Terrace Guardian platforms, players must master consuming the Sha Globes as the 5% heal will likely result in a wipe as will failing to line of sight Death Blossom.

Dealing with the Sha
The Sha of Fear makes use of 4 main abilities:
  1. Thrash is a buff that the boss gains after every 3 melee attacks that he makes, which causes him to attack 3 times instead of just once on the 4th attack.
  2. Eerie Skull is a spell that the boss essentially spams at the raid. It deals a high amount of Shadow damage to a random raid member, and anyone else within 2 yards of their location.
  3. Breath of Fear is a spell that the boss casts every 30 seconds, whenever his Energy bar fills up. This deals a massive amount of Shadow damage to anyone on the platform who is not within the  Wall of Light, fearing them for 5 seconds.
  4. Ominous Cackle is the spell that the boss uses to send a group of 5 random raid members to an adjacent platform, where they must defeat a corrupted Terrace Guardian. The Sha of Fear casts this spell roughly ever 90 seconds in 10-man, and every 45 seconds in 25-man. We detail this part of the fight in a specific section.
The Sha of Fear also summons Terror Spawns on the main platform, these cannot be damaged if attacked from the front and cast Penetrating Bolt continuously, which deals a large amount of Shadow damage in a 3-yard radius at the location of their target, getting hit also applies a stacking debuff which increases Shadow damage taken by 10% per stack so avoiding them is essential and easily done.

Positioning
Players must spread out more than 2 yards apart, to minimise the damage taken from  Eerie Skull while staying inside the Wall of Light. The only exception to this are DPS players in between casts of Breath of Fear in order to attack and kill the Terror Spawns and melee DPS who will need to stand behind the boss until they need to get into the Wall of Light to avoid Breath of Fear.

Dealing with Terror Spawns
Minimising the number Terror Spawns is essential and will mean that the raid takes less damage and need to move less frequently.

As these cannot be attacked from the front, DPS players will need to leave the safe zone to DPS and kill themwhile not being caught outside the Wall of Light when the boss is about to reach maximum Energy and cast Breath of Fear.

It is not practical to be free of Terror Spawns as you need to balance between DPS between the adds and the Sha of Fear but too many will overwhelm your raid.

Healing Concerns
Healers and tanks must be aware of when Thrash is coming up as this may result a tank death if they are not prepared.

Healers will need to heal the damage that random raid members take from Eerie Skull, as well as the damage that players will sometimes take from Penetrating Bolt.

Dealing with Terrace Guardian Platforms
Every 90 seconds the boss casts Ominous Cackle and a group of 5 raid members (1 tank, 1 healer and 3 DPS) will be sent to fight a Terrace Guardian on a small round platform with many pillars which players must use to line of sight the Terrace Guardian who has 4 main abilities:
  • Shoot: Cast on the main aggro target and deals moderate Physical damage;
  • Dread Spray: is a shadow volley attack that is cast in random directions for 8 seconds, firing a total of 16 volleys. Getting hit 2 times, within the same Dread Spray, will be feared for 2 seconds, this can be dispelled;
  • Death Blossom: is channeled attack that deals a large amount of Physical damage to all players in line of sight;
  • Sha Globes: these are placed on the ground and can be consumed by running into them, they deal a small amount of Shadow damage but also will refill the a player's primary resource over time. If a Sha Globe is active for 8 seconds the Terrace Guardian is healed 5%;
After defeating a Terrace Guardian players must click the golden globe that appears near the corse to return to the main platform. The 5 players will also recieve the Fearless buff, which increases movement speed, damage and healing done and provides immunity to Breath of Fear for 30 seconds.

While on the Terrace Guardian platform players must:
  • Consume all the Sha Globes within 6 seconds;
  • Non tanks hide behind the pillars when Death Blossom is cast;
  • Tank stay out and collect Sha Globes when Death Blossom is cast;
  • DPS the Terrace Guardian;
While the directions Dread Spray cast are fired appears random, it does actually follow a specific pattern. 

While it is possible to avoid all it isn't necessary as their damage is not very high. Dispelling the fears is also not recommended as it is low duration and mana intensive.

Line of sighting the Death Blossom spell is always needed, as the damage done by Death Blossom is Physical and very high. As Sha Globes still need to be consumed during this time and the tank will take little damage overall they should stay out and consume the Sha Globes instead of line of sighting Death Blossom.

A final note, a death of a player while on the Terrace Guardian Platform will result in a raid wipe if the boss has anything above a 10% HP as when that group gets sent back to a platform they will almost likely not be able to kill the Guardian before the next group gets their summon. You should therefore wipe if that player cannot be ressed while on the platform as this will save you from wasting time.

About the Author

By day I'm an IT Server analyst for a major telecoms compnay in the UK and I've been playing World of Warcraft since November 2005 when a pair of colleagues bullied me into playing! I have evolved into a raider (summer 2006), an auction house wheeler dealer (2007), a guild officer (2007), an altoholic (2008), a raid leader (2008), a Warcraft blogger (2010) and a PVPer (2012)

My main has, and always will be Evlyxx, a priest and I love to heal. I started as Holy in vanilla, dabbled with the shadow side during the middle part of Burning Crusade, before returning to Holy but I have been mostly Discipline since mid-Wrath.

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About the Author

By day I'm an IT Server analyst for a major telecoms compnay in the UK and I've been playing World of Warcraft since November 2005 when a pair of colleagues bullied me into playing! I have evolved into a raider (summer 2006), an auction house wheeler dealer (2007), a guild officer (2007), an altoholic (2008), a raid leader (2008), a Warcraft blogger (2010) and a PVPer (2012)

My main has, and always will be Evlyxx, a priest and I love to heal. I started as Holy in vanilla, dabbled with the shadow side during the middle part of Burning Crusade, before returning to Holy but I have been mostly Discipline since mid-Wrath.

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