Lei Shen Detailed Strategy Guide (Heroic Mode included)

Last updated on Jul 28, 2013 at 20:12 by Vlad 13 comments

Table of Contents

Boss Icon - Lei Shen

Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with Lei Shen in Throne of Thunder. It is targeted at anyone who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.1.2.

Lei Shen is the 12th and final boss in the Throne of Thunder. This is a long and complex encounter, which will test your raid's ability on every level.

While this is the final boss of the instance on Normal mode, it is important to mention that, on defeating this boss in Heroic mode, your raid will gain access to another, Heroic-only boss.

1.

General Information

1.1.

Health Values

1.1.1.

Boss

Difficulty Lei Shen Diffused Lightning Ball Lightning Unharnessed Power
10-man 329M 2.2M 1M ???
10-man Heroic 580M 3M 1.7M 5M
25-man 990M 4.6M ??? ???
25-man Heroic 1,746M 6M 4.5M 15.3M
LFR ???M ??? ??? ???
1.2.

Enrage Timer

Lei Shen will enrage after 10 minutes.

1.3.

Raid Composition

Difficulty Tanks Healers DPS
10-man 2 2-3 5-6
10-man Heroic 2 2-3 5-6
25-man 2 5-7 16-18
25-man Heroic 2 5-7 16-18
2.

Loot

2.1.

Armor

Item Name Armor Slot Main Stats
Gloves of the Maimed Vizier Icon Gloves of the Maimed Vizier (LFR, Heroic) Cloth Hands Intellect/Spirit
Legwraps of Cardinality Icon Legwraps of Cardinality (LFR, Heroic) Cloth Legs Intellect/Hit
Grips of Slicing Electricity Icon Grips of Slicing Electricity (LFR, Heroic) Leather Hands Intellect
Fusion Slasher Chestguard Icon Fusion Slasher Chestguard (LFR, Heroic) Leather Chest Agility
Leggings of the Violent Gale Icon Leggings of the Violent Gale (LFR, Heroic) Mail Legs Intellect
Conduit-Breaker Chain Leggings Icon Conduit-Breaker Chain Leggings (LFR, Heroic) Mail Legs Agility
Lei-Shen's Grounded Carapace Icon Lei-Shen's Grounded Carapace (LFR, Heroic) Plate Chest Intellect
Doomed Crown of Lei-Shen Icon Doomed Crown of Lei-Shen (LFR, Heroic) Plate Head Strength/Mastery
Legplates of the Lightning Throne Icon Legplates of the Lightning Throne (LFR, Heroic) Plate Legs Strength
Legplates of Whipping Ionization Icon Legplates of Whipping Ionization (LFR, Heroic) Plate Legs Strength/Dodge
2.2.

Weapons

Item Name Type Main Stats
Torall, Rod of the Shattered Throne Icon Torall, Rod of the Shattered Throne (LFR, Heroic) Mace Intellect/Spirit
Lei-Shen's Orb of Command Icon Lei-Shen's Orb of Command (LFR, Heroic) Off-hand Frill Intellect
Shan-Dun, Breaker of Hope Icon Shan-Dun, Breaker of Hope (LFR, Heroic) Polearm Agility
Uroe, Harbinger of Terror Icon Uroe, Harbinger of Terror (LFR, Heroic) 2H Axe Strength
Ultimate Protection of the Emperor Icon Ultimate Protection of the Emperor (LFR, Heroic) Shield Strength/Parry
2.3.

Amulets and Trinkets

Item Name Type Main Stats
Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen Icon Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen (LFR, Heroic) Trinket Intellect/Crit on proc
Soul Prism of Lei-Shen Icon Soul Prism of Lei-Shen (LFR, Heroic) Neck Intellect/Spirit
Lightning-Imbued Chalice Icon Lightning-Imbued Chalice (LFR, Heroic) Trinket Intellect/Healing on proc
Rune of Re-Origination Icon Rune of Re-Origination (LFR, Heroic) Trinket Agility
Soul Barrier Icon Soul Barrier (LFR, Heroic) Trinket Stamina/Absorb on hit
3.

Overview of the Fight

The fight against Lei Shen is a long, complex encounter. It is comprised of three main phases, and two shorter, transition phases.

The central element of the encounter are the 4 conduits located in the 4 corners of the platform.

When Lei Shen is in the proximity of a conduit, he receives an additional ability specific to that conduit, and the conduit gains Energy over time, which caps at 100. On reaching 100 Energy, the conduit levels up, and its Energy is reset. For each level that the conduit gains, the ability that it grants to Lei Shen becomes more powerful.

If Lei Shen is not near any of the conduits, he casts a very damaging ability that will eventually wipe your raid. In addition to the abilities granted by the conduits, Lei Shen has a number of abilities that he uses, depending on what phase he is in.

  1. Phase One lasts until Lei Shen reaches 65% health. During this phase, you will need to handle several of Lei Shen's abilities, as well as the extra abilities granted by the conduits.
  2. The First Transition Phase begins when Lei Shen reaches 65% health, and lasts for 45 seconds. During this time, Lei Shen himself is unattackable and does not cast any abilities, and instead you need to deal with all 4 abilities granted by the conduits, at the same time.
  3. Phase Two lasts from the end of the First Transition Phase, until Lei Shen reaches 30% health. During this phase, Lei Shen uses a different set of abilities from the ones he used in Phase One, as well as extra abilities granted by the conduits.
  4. The Second Transition Phase begins when Lei Shen reaches 30% health, and lasts for 45 seconds. As with the previous Transition Phase, Lei Shen is not a target during this phase, and you will have to deal with the abilities granted by 3 of the conduits (1 of the conduits becomes destroyed after the First Transition Phase).
  5. Phase Three lasts from the end of the Second Transition Phase, until Lei Shen is killed. During this Phase, the conduits are no longer active, and all you need to deal with are several abilities used by Lei Shen.

We have released a video preview of the fight against Lei Shen, based on very early PTR testing. While the preview does not offer a complete look at the fight, and several aspects have changed since then, we still recommend checking it out to get a visual understanding of the encounter.

4.

DPS Requirements

Under the assumptions that a tank does half the damage of a DPS and that the raid will have a maximum uptime on the boss of 8 minutes and 30 seconds, the DPS requirements are as follows:

  • 10-man with 5 DPS: 107k DPS;
  • 10-man with 6 DPS: 92k DPS;
  • 25-man with 16 DPS: 114k DPS;
  • 25-man with 17 DPS: 108k DPS;
  • 25-man with 18 DPS: 102k DPS.
5.

Class-specific Advice

On our forums, we are maintaining threads with class-specific advice for each of the fights of Throne of Thunder. So, make sure to check them out, and if you have things to share, do not hesitate to contribute!

6.

The Conduits

There are 4 conduits, located in each of the four corners of the platform where you fight Lei Shen. These conduits play an important role during Phases One and Two, as well as during both Transition Phases, so we feel it is appropriate that we begin by explaining them.

6.1.

Generalities

There are 4 conduits, each one located in one of the 4 cardinal points. While these are NPCs with health pools, they cannot be targeted, damaged, or killed.

Each conduit grants Lei Shen a specific ability if he is within a certain range (about 30 yards) of the conduit. Each conduit has an Energy bar, with a maximum capacity of 100. When a conduit reaches 100 Energy, it levels up. Its Energy is reset to 0, and each level that it gains causes the ability granted to Lei Shen to be more dangerous in some way.

  • When Lei Shen is near a conduit, the conduit gains Energy at a rate of 2 Energy per second, and Lei Shen uses the specific ability granted by that conduit.
  • When Lei Shen is not near a conduit, that conduit does not do anything whatsoever.
  • When Lei Shen is not near any of the 4 conduits, he spams a raid-wide damaging ability, called Discharged Energy Icon Discharged Energy.

Finally, it is important to note that at the end of the First Transition Phase, the conduit that had the highest amount of Nnergy going into that phase will be destroyed by Lei Shen.

6.2.

Abilities

6.2.1.

North Conduit: Static Shock

The North Conduit grants Lei Shen Static Shock Icon Static Shock. Lei Shen applies a debuff on a random raid member, which, 8 seconds later, causes that player to deal a large amount of Nature damage, split between all players within 8 yards.

The higher the level of the conduit is, the more targets will be affected by Static Shock each time it is cast.

6.2.2.

East Conduit: Diffusion Chain

The East Conduit grants Lei Shen Diffusion Chain Icon Diffusion Chain. This is a chain lightning ability that targets a random raid member and deals a moderate amount of Nature damage to them, before jumping to other players within 10 yards. With each jump, the spell deals more damage.

For every player hit by this ability, an add called Diffused Lightning spawns. These adds keep casting a mildly damaging Chain Lightning attack.

The higher the level of the conduit is, the more powerful the Diffused Lightning adds are.

6.2.3.

South Conduit: Overcharge

The South Conduit grants Lei Shen the ability to place a debuff called Overcharged Icon Overcharged on a random raid member. That player becomes rooted for 6 seconds, at the end of which a ring of electricity expands outwards from their location, dealing a moderate amount of Nature damage to any players it hits, also stunning them for 3 seconds. The area directly around the player affected by Overcharged is safe, however, and players standing there will not be hit by the ring.

The higher the level of the conduit is, the more targets will be affected by Overcharged each time it is cast.

6.2.4.

West Conduit: Bouncing Bolt

The West Conduit grants Lei Shen Bouncing Bolt Icon Bouncing Bolt. Lei Shen targets random locations on the ground with bolts of lightning. When the bolts land, they deal a moderate amount of Nature damage, split between players within 6 yards of the landing location. If a bolt does not hit any player, an add called Unharnessed Power will spawn at that location, and the bolt will bounce again.

Unharnessed Power adds do not have any abilities, and they just melee their targets.

6.3.

Strategy

Depending on the phase of the fight, you may need to deal with these abilities slightly differently. However, the same general tactics will apply.

For Static Shock Icon Static Shock, several players should stack on the raid member affected by Static Shock, so that the damage it deals is split among them. 1 player stacking on the affected raid member is enough in 10-man (although 2-3 makes it easier to heal), whereas 4-5 raid members are recommended for 25-man.

For Diffusion Chain Icon Diffusion Chain, your raid should be spread out at least 10 yards apart, so that the chain lightning does not affected any players other than the initial one. When Diffused Lightning adds spawn, they should be killed as a priority.

For Overcharged Icon Overcharged players, everyone should stack on them before the 6-second debuff runs out, in order to avoid being hit (and stunned) by the subsequent electricity ring.

For Bouncing Bolt Icon Bouncing Bolt, players should stand in the locations where the bolts will land, soaking them, thus ensuring that no Unharnessed Power adds will spawn. Should any adds spawn, they should be killed. Despite the fact that the damage Bouncing Bolt does when it lands is split between all affected players, the damage is low enough that a single soaker per bolt is enough.

7.

Phase One

Phase One begins at the start of the fight, and ends when Lei Shen reaches 65% health.

7.1.

Abilities

During this phase, Lei Shen will cast the ability granted by which ever conduit he is close to, and if he is not close to any of the conduits, then he will spam Discharged Energy Icon Discharged Energy on the raid.

In addition to these abilities, Lei Shen uses several other abilities during this phase.

  • Decapitate Icon Decapitate targets Lei Shen's current target, and, a few seconds later, deals a massive amount of damage to them (more than enough to kill them instantly). The amount of damage is lower, the farther away that player is from Lei Shen, to the point where tanks who are 20-30 yards from Lei Shen will easily survive. In addition to this, Decapitate leaves behind a debuff on the affected player, which lasts for 30 seconds and causes them to take 100% increased Physical damage. This requires a tank switch.
  • Thunderstruck Icon Thunderstruck targets a random location on the ground, which is struck by lightning a few seconds later. This deals raid-wide damage, which is extremely high in close proximity of the impact location (being lethal for all intents and purposes), and which decreases the farther away players are from the impact location.
  • Crashing Thunder Icon Crashing Thunder are damaging void zones that Lei Shen spawns at the locations of random raid members, which persist for 45 seconds.
7.2.

Strategy

We remind you that when the First Transition Phase ends, Lei Shen will destroy the conduit that had the highest amount of Energy at the end of Phase One. Therefore, before going over any other specifics, we should mention that you will want to ensure that the conduit that you deem to be most damaging should end up having the highest amount of Energy at the end of the phase, so that you do not need to deal with it again during Phase Two and during the Second Transition Phase.

The strategy for this phase revolves around dealing with Lei Shen's 3 core abilities, all while making sure that he is always near a conduit. You will want to move him from one conduit to another, so that he does not spend enough time near any one conduit for it to level up.

We will summarise your tasks during this phase, before going into more detail.

  • Perform a tank switch each time Decapitate Icon Decapitate is cast. The tank that was tanking Lei Shen at the time of Decapitate needs to run away from the boss as soon as the other tank taunts, so that there is enough distance between them and Lei Shen for them to survive the damage of Decapitate.
  • Make sure everyone moves away from the location of Thunderstruck Icon Thunderstruck each time it is cast (20 yards away is enough to be safe, but the farther away players are, the safer they are).
  • Do not stand in the Crashing Thunder Icon Crashing Thunder void zones.
  • Take Lei Shen close to one of the 4 conduits, and keep him there 10-20 seconds, before moving him to another one, and so on until the boss reaches 65% health, all while making sure that no conduit reaches 100 Energy, and that the conduit that you wish Lei Shen to destroy before Phase Two has the highest amount of Energy.
7.2.1.

Decapitate

Decapitate Icon Decapitate is very damaging, but handling it is not complicated. From the moment that Lei Shen targets a player with Decapitate, there are a few seconds before that player is actually hit by Lei Shen's axe. In this time, the other tank needs to quickly taunt Lei Shen, and the first tank has to move as far away from Lei Shen as possible.

Abilities such as Heroic Leap Icon Heroic Leap or Roll Icon Roll, as well as any other movement-speed-increasing effects help tremendously.

Once one player has been decapitated, their Physical damage taken is increased by 100%, so they should not tank Lei Shen until this wears off. The cooldown of Decapitate is higher than 30 seconds, though, so by simply taunt switching on each Decapitate, that should take care of the debuff as well.

7.2.2.

ThunderstruckLeiShen

There is not much to be said about dealing with Thunderstruck Icon Thunderstruck. Players will just need to quickly move away from the target location (which is marked very clearly on the floor), so that they take as little damage as possible.

7.2.3.

Conduit Order

To begin with, you should aim to always have Lei Shen in the proximity of one of the conduits. This is not always possible, since wile moving him from one conduit to another, there will be a brief time during which he will cast Discharged Energy Icon Discharged Energy, but this should not cause problems.

The order in which you take the boss to the conduits does not really matter, as long as you make sure that he does not spend enough time near any one conduit for that conduit to level up.

The most important decision to make will be which conduit to leave with the highest amount of Energy, so that it will be destroyed before Phase Two. We recommend the East Conduit, since Diffused Lightning, which requires you to spread out, is very annoying and disruptive.

Therefore, you can start at the East Conduit, and keep the boss there until the conduit reaches 86-90 Energy. When the conduit is at this level, move Lei Shen over to an adjacent conduit, and keep him there until this conduit reaches 60-70 Energy. Repeat the process with the other two conduits, and by the time you are done with the 4th one, you should be entering the First Transition Phase. Moving in a clock-wise or counter-clock-wise fashion is recommended since you get to minimise the amount of time when Lei Shen is not near any of the conduits (as opposed to crossing through the middle of the room).

8.

First Transition Phase

This phase starts when Lei Shen reaches 65% health, and it lasts for exactly 45 seconds.

8.1.

Abilities

Lei Shen will move to the center of the platform, where he cannot be damaged. For 45 seconds, he will activate all 4 conduits, which means that your raid will have to deal with all 4 of the conduits' abilities at once.

8.2.

Strategy

The best way to handle this phase is to split your raid into 4 groups of players. In 10-man, this means two groups of two players, and two groups of three players, while in 25-man it means 3 groups of 6 players and one group of 7 players. This is especially important because you will need to be able to soak the casts of Bouncing Bolt Icon Bouncing Bolt wherever on the platform they are cast (otherwise, Unharnessed Power adds will keep spawning and you will become overwhelmed).

Each group should be assigned to one quarter of the platform, and they should handle any abilities cast within that area. It is important to note that the abilities cast by the conduits are not restricted to the quarter of the platform where that conduit is active. Indeed, players located in any given quarter may have to deal with all 4 conduit abilities. In 10-man, you will have fewer healers than groups, so healers should try to stand near the borders between two quarters, so that they can reach more players to heal.

Within each quarter of the platform, nothing changes from the usual way of handling the conduit abilities, and you should still follow the guidelines we mentioned above.

9.

Phase Two

Phase Two starts when the First Transition Phase ends. The conduit that had the highest amount of Energy at the end of Phase One is no longer active, so you will only have to deal with the remaining 3 conduits, whose Energy has been reset to 0.

The quarter of the room with the inactive conduit becomes compromised, as Phase Two starts. Any players who stand in this part of the room will take a moderate amount of Nature damage every second.

This phase ends when Lei Shen reaches 30% health.

9.1.

Abilities

In addition to the abilities granted by the remaining 3 conduits, as well as Discharged Energy Icon Discharged Energy (when not close to any conduit), Lei Shen will cast several other abilities.

  • Fusion Slash Icon Fusion Slash is a damaging attack that Lei Shen casts on his current target. It deals a high amount of Nature damage, knocks the player back, and debuffs them with a stack of a debuff that causes them to take 100% increased damage from Fusion Slash for 1 minute. This requires a tank switch.
  • Summon Ball Lightning Icon Summon Ball Lightning summons a number of adds called Ball Lightnings at the location of random raid members. These adds deal a small amount of Nature damage in a 6-yard radius of the location where they spawn, and then deal damage to random raid members while they are alive.
  • Lightning Whip Icon Lightning Whip deals damage in an area on the floor of the platform. There is an animation that lasts a few seconds, indicating where the damage will be dealt. The damage done by this ability is very high. Additionally, for about 10 seconds, lines of lightning will remain on the ground in the affected area, which deal a moderate amount of damage to any players that walk over them. Jumping over them does not cause players to take damage.

It is important to note that at the end of the Second Transition Phase, Lei Shen will compromise the quarter of the room associated with the conduit which has the highest amount of Energy at the end of Phase Two. This means that, together with the quarter of the room belonging to the first destroyed conduit, two quarters of the room will be unaccessible during the final phase of the fight.

9.2.

Strategy

With 3 conduits left, it will not be possible to prevent any of them from leveling up before you bring Lei Shen to 30% health.

Since Lei Shen will destroy the conduit with the highest amount of Energy at the end of the phase, your goal is to make sure that this conduit is next to the conduit that was previously destroyed. So, if Lei Shen has already destroyed the East conduit, then you will need to make him destroy the South or North conduit. This way, you will have a full half of the room to work with after this phase.

In addition to the abilities granted by the conduits, which you should handle in the same way that we mentioned above, you will have to handle Lei Shen's three phase-specific abilities.

Fusion Slash Icon Fusion Slash simply requires a tank switch. It is worth noting that the application of Fusion Slash knocks the target back, so tanks must be careful not to have their backs at the edge of the platform, as they risk being knocked off (which results in them dying, with no possibility of being resurrected).

Summon Ball Lightning Icon Summon Ball Lightning requires that your raid be spread out to minimise the damage taken from the spawning of the adds. Afterwards, you should DPS these adds down.

Finally, Lightning Whip Icon Lightning Whip's area of effect must be avoided at all costs, since the damage it deals is very high. Afterwards, players can jump over the lightning lines left on the floor if needed.

10.

Second Transition Phase

The Second Transition Phase begins when Lei Shen reaches 30% health, and it lasts for 45 seconds. It is identical to the First Transition Phase, with one exception. The conduit that had been destroyed at the end of the First Transition Phase is no longer active, so you will only have to deal with 3 conduits.

10.1.

Strategy

Your handling of this phase will be very similar to the First Transition Phase. Since the quarter of the room where the destroyed conduit is deals damage to raid members who stand there, you will be confined to the remaining 3 quarters of the platform, and your group assignments become can be more lax this time around.

In our experience, the Bouncing Bolt Icon Bouncing Bolt does not target the inactive quarter of the room, but in case this happens, you will simply have to kill any resulting adds.

11.

Phase Three

Phase Three starts when the Second Transition Phase ends. All 3 remaining conduits are permanently disabled, and they are no longer a concern for your raid. The two quarters of the room associated with the conduits that had the highest amounts of Energy at the end of Phases One and Two are compromised, and any raid members standing there will take damage.

11.1.

Abilities

During this phase, Lei Shen casts a number of abilities.

  • Overwhelming Power Icon Overwhelming Power is a stacking tank debuff that causes the tank to take extra damage from each of Lei Shen's melee hits. It requires a tank switch.
  • Violent Gale Winds Icon Violent Gale Winds does two things. First of all, at regular intervals, air currents will blow across the platform, pushing all raid members in a certain direction, and dealing damage to them. Secondly, a debuff will stack on all raid members, that increases the damage that they take from Violent Gale Winds.
  • The boss retains Thunderstruck Icon Thunderstruck from Phase One, and Summon Ball Lightning Icon Summon Ball Lightning and Lightning Whip Icon Lightning Whip from Phase Two.
11.2.

Strategy

During this phase, the strategy is very simple. You will need to perform a tank switch when the current tank has about 10 stacks of Overwhelming Power Icon Overwhelming Power, and all raid members must be careful not to be blown off the platform by Violent Gale Winds Icon Violent Gale Winds. Healers will also need to take care of the increasing damage that Violent Gale Winds will deal as the phase goes on.

Regarding the other 3 abilities, you should handle them precisely as in the previous phases. Move away from the location of Thunderstruck Icon Thunderstruck, kill the adds that spawn from Summon Ball Lightning Icon Summon Ball Lightning, and avoid Lightning Whip Icon Lightning Whip.

12.

When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp

We recommend using Heroism Icon Heroism/Bloodlust Icon Bloodlust/Time Warp Icon Time Warp during Phase Three, in order to burn Lei Shen down before the damage from Violent Gale Winds Icon Violent Gale Winds ends up overwhelming the raid.

13.

Learning the Fight

The fight against Lei Shen is very long and complicated. Fortunately, due to its structure, you are forced to learn to handle phases and abilities in succession, so there are not very many decisions for you to make in terms of optimising the learning process for your raid.

Simply take the phases as they come. We recommend worrying exclusively about the phase you are progressing on, and not cluttering your raid members' attention with instructions for how to handle future phases that they have not even seen yet.

For example, only start talking about how to handle the First Transition Phase when you have had at least one successful attempt reaching it, and so on with the other phases. This will allow your raiders to focus on the current abilities, instead of trying to plan for things that they have not yet seen. The only exception to this is Phase Three, which is, surprisingly, quite easy. Once your raid is finishing Phase Two successfully, you can start explaining Phase Three, because the Second Transition Phase should not present any novelty.

14.

Heroic Mode

The Heroic mode of the Lei Shen encounter presents what is probably the most challenging fight in the entire Throne of Thunder instance. This is a gruelling fight, the difficulty of which does not come so much from the complexity of the mechanics as from the high degree of personal awareness and responsiveness needed, as well as from the tight tuning.

14.1.

Differences From Normal Mode

In addition to the increased health of all mobs in the fight, and the increased damage dealt by these mobs through all of their attacks, both of which are to be expected from a Heroic mode, there are several important changes.

  • Diffused Lightning adds now fixate on the target from which they spawned, meaning that they cannot be taken out of the raid.
  • The debuff applied by Discharged Energy Icon Discharged Energy lasts longer than in Normal mode (and longer than it takes for a single conduit to reach full Energy). This means that the stacks on the raid will increase each time the boss gets to cast Discharged Energy (since they will not have time to fall off while he is next to any one conduit).
  • Conduits that are "overloaded" (inactive) at the end of the transition phases, namely the conduits that had the highest amount of energy at the end of the respective transition phase, are no longer inactive. While the quarter of the room that belongs to the overloaded conduit is still compromised, the conduit itself remains active for the remainder of the fight, permanently granting Lei Shen the ability of that conduit.
  • During both transition phases, Lei Shen gains a new ability called Helm of Command Icon Helm of Command.
    • Helm of Command Icon Helm of Command is an ability that pushes a number of random raid members (1 in 10-man and 3 in 25-man) away from Lei Shen and towards the edges of the platform. Players can counter some of the speed at which they are being pushed by running forward towards Lei Shen, as well as by using movement-speed-increasing abilities. It is possible to be pushed all the way off the platform.
  • Ball Lightnings now deal damage in a 3-yard area around their random targets, instead of simply to the targets themselves.
14.2.

Strategy

The overall strategy for the encounter follows the Normal mode strategy quite closely, with several key differences (although several of these can simply be considered tips for a smooth kill). We will discuss the issues pertaining to each phase in a separate sub-section.

14.2.1.

Phase One

The first change that you will have to make to your Normal mode strategy is to choose which conduit to overload first, while keeping in mind that in Heroic mode, this does not take that conduit out of the fight after the Phase One, but rather it permanently grants Lei Shen that conduit's ability until the end of the fight. With that in mind, we advise you to overload the West Conduit first. This will cause Lei Shen to gain the Bouncing Bolt Icon Bouncing Bolt ability and retain it throughout Phases Two and Three.

The other issue to consider during this phase (as well as during Phase Two) is that the debuff applied by Discharged Energy Icon Discharged Energy will continue to stack, causing the raid to take increased damage from this ability, especially towards the end of the phase. There is no way to avoid it, but in order to minimise the amount of stacks that the raid gains, you should make every effort to move the boss from one conduit to another in the shortest amount of time. Brewmaster Monks are ideal for this task because their taunt (Provoke Icon Provoke) increases the movement speed of the boss, so they can first get into position on the conduit where the boss is to move, and then taunt Lei Shen from there (not to mention that they can use Roll Icon Roll to cover the distance quickly).

14.2.2.

Transition Phases

There are two common issues to consider during both transition phases.

The first issue is handling Helm of Command Icon Helm of Command. This ability in itself is not difficult to master: all it requires is that players stand close to the center of the arena when the ability is about to be cast, and that the targeted players run in towards Lei Shen, using any movement-speed boosts that they may have. Players who end up being too close to the edge can be pulled back by Priests using Leap of Faith Icon Leap of Faith, to prevent these players from being pushed off the platform and dying.

The problem with Helm of Command is that it adds extra positional strain on players during a phase where there are already many positional requirements in effect. In particular, players who are targeted by Helm of Command are unable to soak the Bouncing Bolt Icon Bouncing Bolt casts that go out at the same time.

The second issue during transition phases is making sure that all the players in each quarter of the room can survive the Static Shock Icon Static Shock casts that target them. Since their damage is high, any players who can bypass these abilities by using immunities should do so.

14.2.3.

Phase Two

During Phase Two, you will have to choose which conduit to overload next (at the end of the Second Transition Phase). For 10-man raids, things here are not as strict as for the first conduit, so you can choose based on preference. 25-man raids must overload the North conduit, causing Lei Shen to gain the Static Shock Icon Static Shock ability.

The other major issue to consider during Phase Two is that Ball Lightnings now deal damage in an area around the random raid members that they target. 10-man raids can handle this mechanic with relative ease by having ranged raid members spread out away from the boss, and then simply having the resulting adds killed when they spawn.

25-man raids, however, have to employ a more complex strategy. It is ideal to have all the Ball Lightnings gripped together on top of the boss each time they spawn (through a Death Knight's Gorefiend's Grasp Icon Gorefiend's Grasp), and AoE them down before they have another chance to jump. In order to ensure that all the Ball Lightnings spawn within range of the same Gorefiend's Grasp, you should position 8 ranged raid members in an arc around Lei Shen, no more than 20 yards away from the boss (the range of Gorefiend's Grasp) and at least 3 yards apart from one another. The rest of your raid should be stacked on the boss. The result is that all the Ball Lightnings will spawn on these 8 ranged players, and they can then be gripped in easily.

14.2.4.

Phase Three

Phase Three presents only one added concern from Phase Two, which is that you will have to find a clever way to reconcile the positioning requirements of Thunderstruck Icon Thunderstruck with the reduced area you have to work with. Taking advantage of the fact that tanks, melee players and Mistweaver Monks cannot be targeted by ThunderstruckLeiShen, you should have Lei Shen close to one of the edges of the platform, and you should have everyone except the untargetable players mentioned above run to the other end of the platform. As soon as one of these players is targeted by ThunderstruckLeiShen (which should now be as far as possible from Lei Shen), everyone should run back to the boss.

An additional potential hindrance to your raid's movement is the fact that sometimes ThunderstruckLeiShen will be cast at the same time as Violent Gale Winds Icon Violent Gale Winds, in which case you should use a Stampeding Roar Icon Stampeding Roar to compensate.

15.

Concluding Remarks

This concludes our raid guide for Lei Shen. We hope you have found it helpful. Please do not hesitate to post any feedback you may have on our forums.

16.

Changelog

  • 28 Jul. 2013: Added Heroic mode.
+ show all entries - show only first 2 entries