Mists of Pandaria Shado-pan Monastery

The Shado-Pan Monestary is a new instance in the Mists of Pandaria expansion.  The instance is meant for players level 87-90 and can be found in the Kun-Lai Summit zone. 

The instance itself is home to the Shado-pan Clan which is a martial arts based Pandaren force dedicated to protecting Pandaria.  The problem however is that the evil Sha have invaded the Monastery and taken over some of the inhabitants.

Your mission in the Monastery is to rid it of the Sha’s influence by defeating four different bosses.

Gu Cloudstike - Abilities

style="padding: 5px; float: right; width: 170px; text-align: center;"> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/233019"
width="170">

Invoke Lightning – This attack hits a random player for lightning damage and then deals additional higher lightning damage to anyone within 5 yards of that player.  This means that players need to maintain a 5 yard separation at all times.

Static Field – This is a ground effect lightning AOE that deals heavy initial damage, and further damage every second to anyone that remains in it.  It remains in play for about 20 seconds.

Gu Cloudstrike - Encounter

Essentially this is a two phase fight, but is setup as three phases.  The first phase involves dealing with Gu Cloudstrike on the ground and the Azure Serpent in the air.  The second phase is about dealing with the Azure Serpent when it lands, and the third phase is finishing off Gu, however it is really the same as phase one, but this time you do not have the static fields to deal with
During the first phase the tank needs to hold agro on Gu and move him any time he puts down a lightning area on the ground.  This is a large AOE damage effect and is pretty hard to miss.  Simply drag him away.  During this phase as well, at least some DPS should focus on the Azure Spirit n in the air and get it down to 10-20% to make the second phase easier.

Once Gu’s health drops to 50% the Azure Serpent will descend and enter the fight on the ground, while Gu meditates to the side becoming invulnerable.  Once the serpent does enter the fight, the tank needs to hold the dragon faced to the side due to a really nasty lightning breath and the group needs to DPS it down.  There is a lot of damage during this phase due to an AOE ability called Magnetic Shroud that the Azure Serpent has.  This deals damage to everyone in range and prevents all healing until a pre-set healing limit is reached.  At that point the magnetic shroud is overloaded and all players in range split the healing that it had absorbed.  The shield then starts up a few seconds later.

Due to the fact that healing is very limited and that there is a very heavy AOE damage companent to the fight, dealing with a lot of the Azure Serpent’s heath before this phase begin (as mentioned above) is key to getting through it.

Once the Azure Serpent has been defeated Gu comes out of his meditation and re-enters the fight.  This is pretty much the same as phase one, however since the serpent has been defeated it can no longer help him out with static fields, making this part of the fight easier than the first phase.

style="padding: 5px; float: left; width: 170px; text-align: center;"> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/233020"
width="170">

Master Snowdrift - Abilities

Fists of Fury – This is a multiple fast attack that hits anyone in front of Master Snowdrift for fire damage.  It does have a cast time though therefore you simply need to get out of his frontal arc.  It does enough damage that even the tank should move out of it.

Tornado Kick – This is a spinning kick that damages and knocks back all players in melee range.  He moves while he does this attack and follows the player that has agro.

Master Snowdrift - Encounter

This fight is fairly simple, as long as players get out of the AOE damage effects.  The fight is two phases starting with just the boss, Master Snowdrift, in the middle of the room.  Engage him and DPS him down to 50% making sure to get out of his frontal arc when he casts Fists of Fury and to move away from him when he Tornado Kicks.

At 50% health the fight enters a second stage, where Master Snowdift clones himself into three versions.  Each of these versions appears in a triangular shape around the room.  To finish the fight you need to kill one of them, however that is not made clear in any of the fight information.  Every once the versions will switch position so make sure you find the one with the lowest health each time they switch around or the fight will become much longer.

Sha of Violence - Abilities

style="padding: 5px; float: right; width: 250px; text-align: center;"> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/233021"
width="250">

Disorienting Smash – This is a huge hit that deals significant damage and stuns the target for up to 4 seconds.

Smoke Blades – This is an AOE smoke attack that deals damage every second while in it.  In addition affected plays lose the ability to critical strike for a short time.  Once the debuff has ended you will gain a 3 second buff called Parting Smoke that makes the next attack that you do within the 3 second duration automatically crit and deal 100% more damage than normal.

Sha Spike – This is a spike of damage that erupts from the ground and knocks back players that are above it.

Enrage – Once you have the Sha down to 20% health he will enrage, gaining 50% attack speed.

Sha of Violence - Encounter

This is a relatively simple encounter with only moderate damage being caused overall.  While the smoke blades is neat mechanic and should introduce some fun to the fight, it just doesn’t seem to do enough that you need to worry about it.  The same with the sha spikes and players avoiding them, they don’t really do enough to have to worry about them.

The only mechanic in the fight that really is of any concern is the disorienting smash on the tank.  Since it does do quite a bit of damage, and causes a stun, the tank should try avoiding it as much as possible.

Other than that, engage, kill, loot.

Taran Zhu - Abilities

Rising Hate – An attack that hits multiple ranged targets inflicting shadow damage.

Ring of Malice – This is an AOE effect around Taran Zhu that lasts for 15 seconds at a time.  Anyone that remains in it suffers shadow damage and is slowed by 80%.

Sha Blast – Deals a large amount of shadow damage to his current target and knocks them back.  Taran Zhu only uses this attack while under the affects of Ring of Malice.

Gripping Hatred – This is an AOE ground effect that deals damage to everyone in it, and pulls players towards it.  In the center of each one is a manifestation of the hatred that needs to be killed to clear the AOE effect.

Taran Zhu - Encounter

This fight has a new and interesting mechanic to it called Hatred.  During the fight the Sha of Hatred that is possessing Taran Zhu will cause you to gain hatred over time.  In addition any time you are hit you will gain additional hatred.  If  your hatred bar ever fills you deal 20% more damage, but miss 90% of the time and heal for 25% less.  To clear this hatred you must meditate, which will be an onscreen button for you. It is a 3 second ability and while meditating you cannot move or act.

This fight is about movement and focused DPS.  First the tank needs to make sure that he keeps Taran Zhu moving away from the other players so that the ring of malice does not hit everyone when it activates.  Secondly ranged DPS must focus on the gripping hatred AOE effects to down them before they cover the entire floor pulling players in to them and sending everyone’s hatred skyrocketing.

Over time your hatred will max out and you will be forced to meditate, but if you avoid taking damage as much as possible you will not have to meditate many times in the fight.  The tank will of course need to several times so try to get some distance before doing it so that you do not take additional hits while meditating.  Several good ways to avoid being hit are getting yanked away by a priest or using the gripping hatreds pull ability to yank you away from the boss.

Manage your groups hatred, clear the AOE effects, and down Taran Zhu in a controlled manner and the fight should not be that hard for groups.  The only time it got difficult was when players didn’t focus on minimizing hatred and killing of the gripping hatred effects.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our World of Warcraft Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Byron has been playing and writing about World of Warcraft for the past ten years. He also plays pretty much ever other Blizzard game, currently focusing on Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, while still finding time to jump into Diablo III with his son.

Comments