Grand Empress Shek'zeer Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

• Remember that you can not be healed while inside Dissonance Fields; pop out before the Sonic Discharge goes off, or if you are low health.
• Do not kill the Set'thik Windblades until you have made 2 Amber Traps; this may not be a problem early on, but will likely need to stop DPS on them when players are more geared.
• Running near the tank with the Poison-Drenched Armor will grant you the Poison Fumes buff, adding Nature damage to your attacks for 30-seconds; try to refresh this as needed.
• Phase 3 is all about surviving the overwhelming raid-wide damage that Grand Empress Shek'zeer will be dealing; help your healers out by using personal defensive cooldowns here as needed!

• Phase 1 can have high burst damage on random targets, try to keep everyone topped up to prevent deaths in this Phase.
• While people can not be healed while standing inside of the Dissonance Fields, absorbs such as Power Word: Shield still work; try to any absorbs and a defensive cooldown on players with Cry of Terror inside the Dissonance Field.
• Phase 2 can see some very high burst damage on tanks when the adds have multiple stacks of Band of Valor; be mindful of when adds are converging together on 1 tank and keep them alive.
• Phase 3 has an absolutely crazy amount of healing needed to keep the raid alive; constantly have defensive or healer cooldowns rotating during this Phase.

• Be mindful of the other tanks Eyes of the Empress debuffs and Taunt before they reach 5 stacks.
• Keep the Kor'thik Reavers faced away from the raid.
• Use damage mitigation cooldowns during Phase 2 if you are tanking multiple mobs with the Band of Valor buff.
• On Heroic difficulty, "intercept" the beam from the Heart of Fear if you are not currently tanking Grand Empress Shek'zeer.

Grand Empress Shek'zeer is the sixth and final boss found within the Heart of Fear; here players will face-off against the Sha-corrupted ruler of the Mantid, working with the Mantid Paragons to free their stronghold from the Shas corruption. This encounter takes place across 3 Phases, with players facing some of most difficult challenges yet to be presented. In Phase 1 players will attack Grand Empress Shek'zeer herself for 2-minutes 30-seconds, at which point She will retreat and Phase 2 will start; Phase 2, also lasting 2-minutes 30-seconds, will see players facing off against the Empresses army of Mantid soldiers. Phase 1 and 2 both last 2-minutes 30-seconds each and will cycle back-and-forth (Phase 1 > Phase 2 > Phase 1 > Phase 2) until Grand Empress Shek'zeer reaches 30% and Phase 3 begins.

Tanks will need to deal with Eyes of the Empress, a stacking debuff applied frequently by Grand Empress Shek'zeer; if this debuff reaches 5 stacks, the tank will become mind-controlled and must be killed. To prevent this, tanks should perform a taunt-swap after every 3-4 stacks of Eyes of the Empress. The raid will need to spread out for Dread Screech, which targets random players (2 on 10-man, and 5 on 25-man), dealing high Physical damage to the targeted players and any allies within 5-yards. Stay spread the whole fight and keep people topped up.

The main mechanic of Phase 1 are the 2 Dissonance Fields that will spawn in 30-seconds into the Phase, and again 1-minute 30-seconds into the Phase. The Dissonance Field are unattackable "yellow-and-orange circles of sound", which will slowly deplete their own life. When a Dissonance Field dies it will explode with Sonic Discharge, dealing high Physical damage to the entire raid. The goal is to prevent both of the Dissonance Fields from dying at the same time, as 2 Sonic Discharges going off at once will cause a wipe. As the fields are unattackable, this can not be achieved through normal means; instead, players will need to move inside of one of the Dissonance Fields, where their spell casts while inside the field will cause that particular Dissonance Field to die quicker. Players standing inside the Dissonance Field will take moderate damage-over-time, but can not be targeted by outside spells, this includes hostile spells as well as friendly spells such as healing. Players must be mindful of their health while inside a Dissonance Field, stepping out to become healable when they reach lower health before the coming Sonic Discharge when the field dies.

Grand Empress Shek'zeer will also cast Cry of Terror on a random Ranged player every 30-seconds, causing them to pulse moderate Shadow damage to the entire raid for 20-seconds. Luckily this damage can be prevented by having the Cry of Terror debuffed player move into one of the Dissonance Fields, which will prevent the raid-wide damage from Cry of Terror; note that the debuffed player will still take the damage from both the Dissonance Field as well as the Cry of Terror and will be unhealable while inside the field. The player with Cry of Terror should quickly move into the nearest Dissonance Field, using a personal defensive cooldown to help reduce damage taken. This player should always be mindful of their health, stepping out of the Dissonance Field to quickly get topped up when needed. An easy way to handle this is to utilize Hand of Protection on the affected player before the Dissonance Field will die, as the Sonic Discharge explosion deals Physical damage; this will allow the Cry of Terror debuffed player to sit inside the Dissonance Field until it dies, reducing the raids damage taken.

Phase 1 will last 2-minutes 30-seconds, at which point Grand Empress Shek'zeer will retreat, becoming unattackable. This can also be tracked by watching her energy bar, which is simply a tracker for the start of Phase 2.

The only difference between Normal and Heroic mode for Phase 1, aside from the increased health and damage, is that one of the Dissonance Fields will turn into a Corrupted Dissonance Field. This Corrupted Dissonance Field will deal high Shadow damage to the entire raid every second until it is killed; you must make killing this field a priority, having the Cry of Terror move into the Corrupted Dissonance Field.

After 2-minutes 30-seconds Grand Empress Shek'zeer will retreat, becoming unattackable, and call in 2 Kor'thik Reavers and 6 Set'thik Windblades to aid Her; these adds will spawn evenly on both sides of the room (1 Kor'thik Reaver and 3 Set'thik Windblades per side). Have a tank pick up both of the Kor'thik Reavers and tank them near the stairs. The Reavers need to be faced away from the raid at all times as they use Toxic Slime, a frontal conal attack. The Kor'thik Reavers will also debuff the tank with Poison-Drenched Armor, dealing moderate damage-over-time, and buffing nearby allies with Poison Fumes; players should grab this buff periodically (lasts 30-seconds) to add Poison damage to their attacks, allowing them to kill the adds much easier. Lastly the Reavers will use Poison Bomb on random targets, dealing moderate Nature damage and placing a 10-second poison on them; nothing to do about this one, just heal through it.

The 6 Set'thik Windblades will be the adds we focus in this phase, as the Kor'thik Reavers have too much to kill with normal means. Set'thik Windblades will Fixate on random targets, chasing them around while reducing their own movement speed by 75%; this makes them incredibly easy to kite, and no one should have trouble avoiding them. Try to keep the adds somewhat near each other, allowing them to be AoE'd and keeping their abilities nearby. The Set'thik Windblades will use Sonic Blade often on their Fixate target, dealing damage and interrupting any spells being cast. They will also occasionally try to cast Dispatch, a channeled spell dealing high Physical damage to a random target every 2 seconds; this is a cast and should be interrupted as often as possible. Remember that the Set'thik Windblades will be getting kited around, so Ranged players should be ready to interrupt ones that are far away.

These Set'thik Windblades have a special ability of interest, Sticky Resin, which creates a Pool of Resin nearby; this Pool of Resin can be "picked up" by having a player run through it. Players will take periodic Nature damage every second while the Pool of Resin is "attached" to them, and the only way to remove the debuff is by combining 2 Pools of Resin together. When 5 Sticky Resin Pools have been combined, a Amber Trap will be created, which traps the first enemy to walk through it, dealing 5% of their max health per second. These Amber Traps are crucial to this phase, as the Kor'thik Reavers have too much health to kill with traditional means.

It's crucial that the Sticky Resin Pools are handled properly, as its possible to combine multiple pools into many piles, never reaching 5 total combined to form a Amber Trap; make sure a specific spot is designated for the current trap, placing all of the Sticky Resin in that Pool until a trap has been made. It's important to note as well that the Amber Traps will trap the first enemy that walks on top of them, including the Set'thik Windblades; make sure to never kite these on top of the traps, as they have very little HP. For this reason, we recommend having 1 tank assigned to tank both of the Kor'thik Reavers, as this will allow them to easily move them onto the traps. If your raid has high damage you may need to stop all damage on the Set'thik Windblades until they have created enough Sticky Resin (at least 10 Pools), allowing you to create the 2 Amber Traps needed.

All of the adds will gain a stack of Band of Valor for every other add near them, increasing their damage dealt by 30% and reducing damage taken by 5% per stack. This is mostly only an issue at the start of Phase 2, when all of the adds are stacked together; once the Set'thik Windblades begin to Fixate tank damage will drop down. Your tanks need to use damage mitigation while tanking more than 3 mobs here, as they can easily die from the multiple stacks of Band of Valor; this is especially true on Heroic difficulty, where you will want to have a defensive cooldown up on your tanks for most of this Phase. Phase 2 will last 2-minutes 30-seconds, or until all adds have died; Grand Empress Shek'zeer will reappear and Phase 1 will start again, with Phase 1 and Phase 2 repeating themselves until Grand Empress Shek'zeer reaches 30% health and enters Phase 3. Make sure to clear any remaining adds or Dissonance Fields that remain, stopping damage on Grand Empress Shek'zeer if needed; you are almost guaranteed to wipe if these are alive for long in Phase 3.

Phase 3 is by far the most difficult part of the fight, and you may want to have upwards of 6-7 Healers for Normal mode, and 8-9 Healers for Heroic mode kill attempts to make it through the staggering amount of raid-wide damage. You will want to use all major DPS cooldowns such as Bloodlust once everyone is in position. For this Phase we will be stacking up behind the boss and dragging her down the stairs, giving us a level floor to fight Her on. The only ability that Grand Empress Shek'zeer retains from earlier phases is Eyes of the Empress, requiring the tanks to perform a Taunt swap every 3-4 stacks of the debuff.

The raid will be getting bombarded with multiple AoE spells every few seconds, the first of which is Sha Energy, dealing moderate Shadow damage to random targets (2 on 10-man, and 5 on 25-man). Amassing Darkness will be used every few seconds, and each time it's used it will hit 1 additional target; starts off hitting just the tank > 2 players > 3 players, and so on. Calamity will go off every 10 seconds or so, dealing 50% of all players current health; while ideally you would like to keep players health low, to reduce the damage dealt by Calamity, there is far too much raid damage going out to do this. These 3 abilities must simply be healed through, with the goal of keeping players above 120k health at all times to survive multiple abilities at once.

Every 35 seconds Grand Empress Shek'zeer will target a random player and cast Consuming Terror in a frontal-cone in that players direction. After 2-seconds all players remaining in front of Grand Empress Shek'zeer will take high Shadow damage, get feared for 20-seconds, and take Shadow damage-over-time; dispel this if anyone gets hit, but you should simply avoid this by running through the boss. Saving the deadliest spell for last, every 20-seconds Grand Empress Shek'zeer will use Visions of Demise on random players (2 on 10-man and 5 on 25-man). These players will be marked for 4-seconds, after which they will become feared for 20-seconds and take high Shadow damage-over-time; anyone within 8-yards of these targets will also be feared and take damage-over-time. The marked players should quickly move out of the raid and spread out, standing near enough to each other that a Priest is able to Mass Dispel all of the fears afterwards. Dispel any remaining fears that the Mass Dispel may have missed and quickly stack back up behind the boss to help the healers.

Grand Empress Shek'zeer gains only 1 new spell on Heroic difficulty, Heart of Fear. This is a whitish "heart" that floats around the room at random, choosing a random target and shooting a beam at them; this player will take high Shadow damage every second. This beam is rather easy to deal with by simply having whichever tank is currently not tanking Grand Empress Shek'zeer "intercept" the beam by standing in its path. This tank will take the damage-over-time instead of the intended target, making it a bit easier to mitigate the damage taken. The main difficulty of Heroic difficulty will come from the enormous amounts of healing required, with up to 9 Healers being recommended for Heroic mode kills early on.

3.

Grand Empress Shek'zeer Loot

Celestial Normal Heroic

Below you will find all of the loot available for this boss encounter. Use the different buttons to view the different loot between all difficulties.

3.1.

Celestial Dungeon Loot

Item
Leggings of Shadow Infestation
Shadow Heart Spaulders
Crown of the Doomed Empress
Hood of Dark Dreams
Legplates of Regal Reinforcement
Claws of Shek'zeer
Kri'tak, Imperial Scepter of the Swarm
Chest of the Shadowy Conqueror
Chest of the Shadowy Protector
Chest of the Shadowy Vanquisher

Below you will find all of the loot available for this boss encounter. Use the different buttons to view the different loot between all difficulties.

3.2.

Normal Difficulty Loot

Item
Leggings of Shadow Infestation
Shadow Heart Spaulders
Crown of the Doomed Empress
Hood of Dark Dreams
Legplates of Regal Reinforcement
Claws of Shek'zeer
Kri'tak, Imperial Scepter of the Swarm
Chest of the Shadowy Conqueror
Chest of the Shadowy Protector
Chest of the Shadowy Vanquisher

Below you will find all of the loot available for this boss encounter. Use the different buttons to view the different loot between all difficulties.

3.3.

Heroic Difficulty Loot

Item
Leggings of Shadow Infestation
Shadow Heart Spaulders
Crown of the Doomed Empress
Hood of Dark Dreams
Legplates of Regal Reinforcement
Claws of Shek'zeer
Kri'tak, Imperial Scepter of the Swarm
Chest of the Shadowy Conqueror
Chest of the Shadowy Protector
Chest of the Shadowy Vanquisher

Achievement	Description
Heroic: Grand Empress Shek'zeer	Defeat Grand Empress Shek'zeer in Heart of Fear on Heroic difficulty.
Timing is Everything	Defeat two Kor'thik Reavers within 10 seconds of each other, and then defeat Grand Empress Shek'zeer in Heart of Fear on Normal or Heroic difficulty.
Heroic: Grand Empress Shek'zeer Guild Run	Defeat Grand Empress Shek'zeer in Heart of Fear on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.
Ahead of the Curve: Grand Empress Shek'zeer	Defeat Grand Empress Shek'zeer in Heart of Fear on Normal difficulty, before the discovery of the Throne of Thunder.
Cutting Edge: Grand Empress Shek'zeer	Defeat Grand Empress Shek'zeer in Heart of Fear on Heroic difficulty, before the discovery of the Throne of Thunder.
Realm First! Grand Empress Shek'zeer (25 player) / Realm First! Grand Empress Shek'zeer (10 player)	First guild on the realm to defeat Grand Empress Shek'zeer in Heart of Fear on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.

Grand Empress Shek'zeer is just one of the six encounters present in the Heart of Fear raid of Mists of Pandaria. If you would like to learn more about the others, please see our other pages for the raid below.