[BrM] 10m Sha of Fear - Any tips?

[Forumchibi]

Going back to Sha of Fear for the second time tonight (stupid holidays completely messed up progression for about 4 weeks, so we'd fallen way behind until last week). Any tricks or suggestions you all have? I'm glad I read the Lei Shi thread, the kill went so much smoother this week when I was spamming the Healing Spheres on myself!

On the attempts we got on the one night we tried last week, on the side platforms I picked up orbs as often as I could, and was using Xuen to tank the archer so the healer would have one less person to worry about. I would use a cooldown to pick up orbs during the Blossom attack while everyone else hid behind the pillars (I never thought to use Zen Meditation though, does that break from the attack?).

The problem I was having the most with was tanking Sha. The Thrash damage seemed particularly devastating, and he did it so often that I'm not sure how to handle it. I tried to use something for it immediately after hearing the warning on DBM, but it felt like I was almost always hovering at 50% health during that entire phase. I couldn't tell if it was me or the healer (and I don't have logs right now to verify). I won the junky tank trinket from Tsulong on my coin roll (rather than my staff, sigh!) and gave that a try, didn't seem to do much at all. Once we got the platforms figured out, it was mostly just tank deaths that would mess things up, and I think our best attempt was 40%.

It doesn't seem like a complicated fight and maybe we just didn't try it enough, but I thought I'd ask in case I missed something about magic or physical damage, or some other trick. If there's any advice I should know, it would be appreciated!

[Kisho]

Elusive Brew. Get enough crit and it'll be up for every Thrash; you don't need many stacks, just 2-3 to ensure it stays up while he does the Thrash. The cooldown is short enough to ensure it can be used for every Thrash as well.

If you don't have enough stacks for each Thrash, get more crit. Alternatively, use a different cooldown for each Thrash (Dampen Harm works a treat here) that you don't have EB for. But yeah, EB is king, as well as keeping Shuffle up (obviously).

Now, for the rest... Xuen isn't necessary on the archer platforms, as far as I can tell they're untankable anyway. They'll just swivel around and shoot whoever they feel like. Could be wrong on this though, but yeah. Primarily get those orbs, then do some DPS. And if your healer needs mana, let them pick up some orbs as well.

I use Fortifying Brew to survive the Death Blossom, should be up every time you're sent to a shrine. I don't know if Zen Med would work here, haven't tried it myself.

Think that's your questions answered. Any more, feel free to throw them in this thread. The main thing is get more crit and use EB for every Thrash.

[Shinchib]

First of all, healers don't really have anything to do when on Sha besides heal the tanks. I tanked it for the lolz last week and found myself getting pooped on from Thrash (25m) but we have great healers that were saving their sacs/pain sups etc specially for me >_> There is very little raid damage going out. Also, they should be blowing there healing CDs on the platform and eating the spheres to gain all their mana back. As for actually tanking it, I'll save my thoughts for a more veteraned answer since I'm MS MW.

---------- Post added 2013-01-23 at 10:13 AM ----------

Now, for the rest... Xuen isn't necessary on the archer platforms, as far as I can tell they're untankable anyway. They'll just swivel around and shoot whoever they feel like. Could be wrong on this though, but yeah.

You are correct. They are untankable.

As for your EB suggestion, during that one Sha kill, I found out very quickly that if I had EB stacks, I should be using them (even if i only had 2-3 stack) for those thrashes every time! I got trucked for about 400k on one hit and got a "holy f***" from my healers at which point I replied and told them to suck it up and heal me harder. =P

[Deleted]

I have limited experience on Sha but I've got the tanking part figured out I believe:
1. Xuen for platform, it's where you need the burst dps and to offload the healer.
2. I use Relic of Nizao, with elusive brew up, I get 85% avoidance, this is huge vs thrash
3. Elusive brew right before the thrash comes, even a few stacks will be enough if you time it right.
4. 15 stacks of EB are good for 2 thrashes
5. I use healing elixirs on Sha, the reason being that diffuse magic is next to useless (except on platform a little) and dampen harm doesn't trigger of the autoattack of Sha, which is all he ever does. Healing elixirs will be used with great regularity and will help your healer
6. Remember that even if you're not on the platform, there's only 5 of you there, including a single healer. In an ideal situation, the healer should only have to heal the tank. If he doesn't, tell him to focus on you.
7. Recast statue. Everytime you shift you'll lose the statue (I think). On the platform and on Sha will your vengeance be high enough to raid heal a respectable amount.
8. The deathblossom on the platform is physical dps and can be staggered, get a single shuffle for it, use your lvl30 healing skill for the rest (I go chi wave). Save a guard for the deathblossom and you should be fine without Zen med.
9. If you get unlucky and don't have the elusive brew stacks for the next thrash, pop guard.
10. Try to purify after every thrash and only if you get hit enough to go in orange stagger.
11. Make sure to be shuffling on sha (but this goes without saying)
12. Use Zen med and fort brew only for when shit hits the fan, example red stagger, shuffle drops of and you don't have EB stacks for next thrash. Zed med, will stop a single attack, you'll wanna pop it if the next attack will kill you. Fort brew is best used when you still have a reasonable amount of health left but if you're going to be in serious trouble in 3s.
13. The Sha's thrashes every fourth attack. It will be the first attack after DBM signals you. You can focus on the Sha's animation to time it better.

But the most important thing is trying to EB every thrash. It's worth equipping 2piece set bonus, no matter the ilvl. If you manage to pull this off, you'll take half the damage any other tank takes (with some allowance for hyperbole)

Having said the above, the old saying does apply extremely well to this boss IMO: a tank death is a healer's fault. If you're doing the above with 70% efficiency, you shouldn't die, ever.

[arisoh]

I use EB stacks each time, just cause.

Thrash 1 - Guard
Thrash 2 - DAMPEN Harm
Thrash 3 - Guard should be back up, if not, FB
Thrash 4 - FB if wasn't used previously, if not, Guard
Thrash 5 - Zen Meditation the 90% reduction is lol if timed right

Other than that, ask for externals. Save a chi for PB immediately too.

Oh make sure your healers have the "ANNOUNCE THRASH" option checked in DBM set up. Tell them to make sure you're topped up. If you find that you're having a hard time timing your CDs look for http://www.wowhead.com/spell=131996 debuff on the Sha.

[Deleted]

Concerning the platform, there is no big problem to deal with usually. Xuen can't tank the archer, but still pretty good if you have some timer problems (mainly on 10 man fights).

For the tanking oh the Sha of fear, Kisho said the essential :

Elusive Brew. Get enough crit and it'll be up for every Thrash; you don't need many stacks, just 2-3 to ensure it stays up while he does the Thrash.

Use your Elusive brew before Thrash, doesn't matter if you only have 2-3 stack. that's enough to avoid 1 or 2 attack of him. When it's on CD, use you guard, or fortifying brew. Dampen Harm can be an option too, but in theory Elusive brew and Shuffle are enough.

[Forumchibi]

Good feedback, much appreciated - thanks, all!

I know the archer was doing a spread shot randomly on people, I wasn't sure if he was specifically targeting me the rest of the time. I was using Xuen for a DPS bonus anyway and thought it was interesting he was successfully taunting, so I just let him do his thing.

Also the EB, I can't recall now if I was using it successfully every time or not, but I will definitely look into that. That's very likely what I was missing, so I'll see how I do tonight and reforge into some more crit if I need to.

Does Dampen Harm actually work? I don't know if I was getting hit for 20% in a single hit, so I don't think it did much for me, like most boss abilities that are multiple swings or DoT.

[cyqu]

dont need to hide behind pillars on normal for death blossom, everyone use a defensive cd and just kill the archer. tank can pick up all orbs and yes zen mediatate wont break from death blossom.

you can use EB every single thrash in the fight its the most op thing for that fight making BM the best tank for sha, dodge all day never take any damage.

[djtravitrav]

With shuffle and elusive brew up for thrash you should be hovering somewhere around 70-85% avoidance (depending on gear and 4pc etc). Not sure if you have a disc priest healer or not, but that avoidance paired with a PW:Shield or Spirit shell means you take ZERO damage from thrash. Monks are actually THE best selection of tanks for this fight. Elusive brew is up for every single thrash, and our avoidance is the greatest out of all the tanks. The trick with elusive brew is that it gives you 30% dodge (35% with 4pc) for a set amount of time, if you time it perfectly, 1 second of elusive brew will allow you to avoid every single thrash.

For platform, make sure you drop black ox statue for your friends, use xuen on every other platform, the 2nd use will have 45sec or so but he will be usable by the time the archer is around 40% health, so it's worth using. Use chi wave on cooldown here, the more healing you put out to everyone, the better. Use guard on cooldown as well. When death blossom comes out, don't even worry about dying, dont use your expel harm until you're below 35% and you can just use it 3 times fast due to having no CD under 35% and be out of death blossom at over half health.

[Alucin]

Yeah, elusive brew. If that's up, that's all I use for thrash. I rarely need to purify afterwards. Usually, health doesn't move. If no eb stacks are up, guard, dampen harm, fort brew. Only use 1 cooldown for any thrash though.

And make sure you are watching for the debuff on the boss, not a raid timer! I did this wrong to start with and wondered why I was spiking so much. Once it's on the boss you have probably 2s to get something up.

Xuen on platform is good, even if it's not tankable, it's a dps increase where dps is most important, he's up each time and he's another shoot target so others take less damage. Xen meditation doesn't break and is perfect for death blossom.

[Deleted]

- Use Glyph of Enduring Healing Sphere. It makes your Gift of the Ox spheres last over 3 minutes instead of 20 seconds. It means you always have a huge heal always waiting to your left and right, and it's very easy to collect them on this fight since the boss won't move.

- Remember to put down Statue every time you switch between Sha and Archers. It won't be in range otherwise.

- The archers do Shoot on their aggro targets, so having Xuen tank does help. With momentum you can collect most of the orbs. Try to Keg Smash on cooldown though as you run past him. Chi Wave helps if your healer is having problems.

- This is one fight where you'll be glad to have good 1-handers. I don't have any personally, so I'm stuck with a 2-hander. Even though I reforge and gem primarily for crit, I still sometimes get no elusive brew procs for a thrash. The worst streak has been 30+ seconds with no crits. Even with a 2-hander you should be getting at least 3 charges for 95%+ of thrashes though. Just make sure you have something else (like fortifying brew) to use in case you get unlucky with EB.

[Forumchibi]

Huzzah! Got a kill tonight I did amazingly well thanks to actually knowing when to use EB and how to play my freaking class! >_< I feel like such a n00b, and that a light has dawned on me... LOL! Took 5 or 6 attempts, and none of the wipes were because I died :P

Thanks again, everyone!

[Robb]

Wiggle wiggle wiggle. So many people forget how great our healing orbs are, especially on a fight like that with limited movement.

Gz on the kill ^_^

[Deleted]

I made a huge post which somehow is lost. As others have said, EB timing is everything. Save CD's for when EB timing fails. I use relic of niuzao for the on-use dodge. You'l get to use this 2, so the uptime is better as you'ld think. I also talent healing elixirs. The reason being that dampen harm doesn't proc reliably in for me while I get health every 2 EB's with healing elixirs.

[Forumchibi]

Wiggle wiggle wiggle. So many people forget how great our healing orbs are, especially on a fight like that with limited movement.

Gz on the kill ^_^

Thanks And yeah, the Healing Sphere suggestion was helpful as well, as I did spike on occasion for one reason or another, so having the orbs around fixed that real quick.