This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of theencounter with Sha of Pride in Siege of Orgrimmar. It is targeted at anyonewho desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft MoP 5.4.

The Sha of Pride is the fourth boss in the Siege of Orgrimmar. This is thefinal boss before the raid reaches the gates of Orgrimmar, and it is acreative and very intense fight. Raid members will have to very carefullymanage a fight-specific resource called Pride, and the fight has a very brutalend where your raid must race to kill the boss before it is too late.

1. General Information↑top

2. Loot↑top

In addition to the items listed below, the Sha of Pride drops the tokens thatyou will need for buying your Tier 16 Chest parts:

• Chest of the Cursed Conqueror (LFR, Flexible, Heroic);
• Chest of the Cursed Protector (LFR, Flexible, Heroic);
• Chest of the Cursed Vanquisher (LFR, Flexible, Heroic).

2.1. Pets

The Sha of Pride has a chanceto drop two rare pets: Droplet of Y'Shaarj and Gooey Sha-ling.

2.2. Armor

Item Name	Armor	Slot	Main Stats
Self-Reflecting Mask (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Leather	Head	Intellect
Crown of Boastful Words (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Head	Intellect
Greaves of Sublime Superiority (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Plate	Feet	Strength

2.3. Weapons

Item Name	Type	Main Stats
Gaze of Arrogance (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Staff	Intellect
Greatsword of Pride's Fall (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Two-Hand Sword	Strength
Shield of Mockery (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Shield	Strength/Parry

2.4. Amulets and Trinkets

Item Name	Type	Main Stats
Necklace of Fading Light (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Amulet	Intellect/Spirit
Prismatic Prison of Pride (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Trinket	Amplifies stats/Intellect on heals
Assurance of Consequence (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Trinket	Agility/Cooldown reduction for major abilities
Choker of the Final Word (LFR, Flexible, Heroic)	Amulet	Strength/Dodge

3. Overview of the Fight↑top

The fight against the Sha of Pride is essentially a single-phase fight,although once the boss reaches 30% health, you enter a very intense DPS burnstage which could be considered a phase on its own.

All players have a Pride resource bar during the fight. Players start with0 Pride, and certain abilities in the encounter (some avoidable and someunavoidable) will grant players Pride. The encounter revolves around a raid-widedamaging attack that the boss regularly uses, called Swelling Pride. Inaddition to dealing damage, this spell also causes various negative effects toplayers based on how much Pride they have; the more Pride a player has, the moreharmful the effects will be. Players who have maximum Pride (100) become mindcontrolled when Swelling Pride is cast, and this must be avoided at all costs.

When the Sha of Pride reaches 30% health, everyone's Pride is reset to0, and the boss begins dealing constant raid-wide damage. Moreover, after thistime, everyone unavoidably gains 5 Pride every 10 seconds, meaning that your raidhas a limited amount of time to defeat the boss before they become mindcontrolled.

Videos:

• PTR Preview —a short overview of the boss, based on PTR testing, which is extremelyuseful for getting a rough understanding of the fight.
• Video Guide— a video guide of the boss, based on live-realm experience.

4. Class-specific Advice↑top

On our forums, we are maintaining threads with class-specific advice for each of thefights of Siege of Orgrimmar. So, make sure to check them out, and if you have things toshare, do not hesitate to contribute!

Class	Forum Threads
Death Knight	Blood Frost/Unholy
Druid	Balance Feral Guardian Restoration
Hunter	All specs
Mage	All specs
Monk	Brewmaster Mistweaver Windwalker
Paladin	Holy Protection Retribution
Priest	Discipline Holy Shadow
Rogue	All specs
Shaman	Elemental Enhancement Restoration
Warlock	All specs
Warrior	Arms/Fury Protection

5. Pride↑top

Pride is a resource that all players have during this fight, and it is a centralelement of the encounter.

All players start out with 0 Pride, but Pride can be gained in various waysthroughout the encounter. Some means of gaining Pride are unavoidable, whileothers are avoidable (for example, if the tanks fail to react properly tothe tank switch mechanic, they will gain some Pride). The only way for players toreduce their Pride is to bring the Sha of Pride to 30% health, at which pointeveryone's Pride is reset to 0. Obviously, this can only happen once per fight,and aside from this, any Pride that players gain is permanent (including Pridegained after the reset).

Simply having Pride is not harmful, the resource itself having noproperties of its own (with one exception, explained below). However, every 60seconds, the boss will cast an ability called Swelling Pride that, inaddition to damaging players, also causes an effect for each player in theraid, depending on how much Pride they have. We discuss this ability, and theeffects it has on players in the relevant section ofthe guide.

Players who have 100 Pride receive a buff (this is the exception wementioned above) called Overcome which increases their healing anddamage done by 50%. When these players are hit by Swelling Pride, they becomepermanently mind controlled.

6. Abilities↑top

The Sha of Pride is stationary in the center of the room, and it uses Reaching Attack to deal damage to the entire raid if no one isin its melee range.

In addition to this, the Sha of Pride uses a number of abilities againstyour raid.

• Wounded Pride is a debuff that the Sha of Pride applies on itscurrent target. While this debuff is active, any melee attacks from the Sha ofPride cause the player to gain 5 Pride. This ability requires a tankswitch.
• Corrupted Prison is an ability that the Sha of Pride casts 45 secondsafter the start of the fight, and every 60 seconds after that. Around the room,there are 4 titan prisons, essentially large circles on the floor.When Corrupted Prison is cast, 2 raid members in 10-man and 4 in 25-man areimprisoned (in 25-man, one player is imprisoned in each of the 4 prisons). Asa raid member is imprisoned, anyone standing within 12 yards of the prisonis knocked back, takes a large amount of damage, and receives 5 Pride.
  • Players who are imprisoned are stunned, being unable to do anything. Whilein the prison, the player takes a high amount of Shadow damage every second,also gaining 5 Pride per second. The only way for a player to be freed from atitan prison is for other raid members to stand on the locksof the prison, which are clearly indicated by a glowing orange colour. Thereare 2 active locks in 10-man, and 3 in 25-man, so that is how many playersare required in each raid size. This immediately frees the player.
• Mark of Arrogance is a Shadow damage DoT that the Sha of Pride applieson random raid members. This DoT can stack, so multiple applications on thesame player will deal increased damage. The DoT has an unlimited duration, butit can be dispelled. Dispelling the DoT causes the dispeller to gain 5 Pride.There is a mechanic, which we explain below, that grants players temporaryimmunity to Pride gains, and players can take advantage of this mechanic todispel Mark of Arrogance.
• Swelling Pride is the central mechanic of thefight. This is a raid-wide damaging attack that the boss uses every 60seconds (the timing of the attack is also indicated by the boss' energy bar,which serves no other purpose except to indicate when Swelling Pride is goingto be cast). Swelling Pride deals high raid-wide Shadow damage, grants allplayers 5 Pride, and causes additional effects on players depending on howmuch Pride they have, as follows:
  • Players who have between 0 and 24 Pride are unaffected.
  • Players who have between 25 and 49 Pride are affected by Bursting Pride. This creates a void zone at the locations of theseplayers, which explodes after 3 seconds, dealing a high amount of Shadowdamage to anyone within 5 yards. Players hit by the explosion also gain 5Pride.
  • Players who have between 50 and 74 Pride are affected by Projection. This creates projection of the target, 15 yards awayfrom the respective player. 6 seconds after appearing, the projections explode,dealing a high amount of raid-wide Shadow damage and granting all raid members 5Pride, unless the player from whom the projection spawned is standing on topof it. It is easy for each player to see their projection, since these aremarked visually.
  • Players who have between 75 and 99 Pride are affected by Aura of Pride. This places a debuff on the player, lasting 25 seconds,which deals high Shadow damage every second to any allies standing within 5yards. Any players hit by Aura of Pride also gain 5 Pride.
  • Players who have 100 Pride (i.e., who are Overcome) havetheir health increased by 100% and become permanently mind controlled.
• Self-Reflection is an ability that the Sha of Pride regularly useson a number of raid random raid members. Reflections (small adds thatmelee, but who have no other abilities) spawn from the locations of theseraid members 2 seconds later, dealing a large amount of Shadow damage within2 yards of the area where they spawn. Players who are hit by the spawningdamage of the Reflections gain 5 Pride. The Sha of Pride casts thisspell 20 seconds into the fight, and roughly every 60 seconds after that. Eachtime this spell is cast, the Sha of Pride will choose players who have higherPride than those chosen for the previous cast (the first cast targets playersregardless of how much Pride they have, the second cast targets players with at least 25 Pride, the third targets players with at least 50 Pride, and soon).
• 60 seconds after the start of the fight, and roughly every 60 secondsafter that, the boss will summon one add called Manifestation of Pride in10-man, and 2 in 25-man. These adds melee and they have two abilities.
  • Mocking Blast is an interruptible nuke that targets a random raidmember, dealing a high amount of Shadow damage to them and granting them 5Pride.
  • Last Word is an ability that causes the two nearest players to theManifestation of Pride to gain 5 Pride when the mob dies.
• When the Sha of Pride reaches 30% health, the Pride of all raidmembers is reset to 0, and the Sha of Pride becomes Unleashed. The bossdeals very high, constant raid-wide Shadow damage (which ticks every 10seconds). Each tick of this damage also causes all raid members to gain 5Pride.

There is one other ability that is used during this phase, although it doesnot come from the Sha of Pride, but rather from Norushen, who is assisting yourraid. Several random raid members will regularly be chosen and buffed with Gift of the Titans. This buff lasts 20 seconds and it grants these playersimmunity to Pride gains (while the players are chosen randomly, one or morehealers are chosen each time, which makes it possible to dispel Mark of Arrogance regularly).

Moreover, when all players who are buffed with Gift of the Titans stackwithin 8 yards of one another, they all gain another buff, lasting 15 seconds,called Power of the Titans. Power of the Titans increases the haste anddamage done of these players by 15%.

7. Strategy↑top

Despite what may appear to be complicated mechanics, the strategy for thisfight is very simple. We will summarise it before going into moredetails.

• Have your tanks perform a tank switch on the Sha of Pride each time oneof them is affected by Wounded Pride.
• Have the tank who is not currently tanking the boss pick up theManifestations of Pride, and have your raid focus these adds down quickly.Interrupt any casts of Mocking Blast.
• Make sure everyone is ready to move away from the areas of the floor fromwhere Reflections will spawn, when Self-Reflection is being cast.Have the resulting Reflections picked up by a tank, and AoE themdown.
• Make sure no one stands on top of titan prisons, but have players readyto move there very quickly when a player is imprisoned, in order to freethis player.
• Have any healers who are under the effects of the Gift of the Titansbuff dispel Mark of Arrogance from as many players as they can.
• Handle the Swelling Pride effects as needed.
  • Players must make sure to avoid taking damage from the Bursting Pridevoid zones.
  • Players who are affected by Projection must move to their projectionswithin 6 seconds.
  • Players who are affected by Aura of Pride must stay at least 5 yardsaway from other raid members until their debuff expires.
• Make sure that no one in the raid reaches 100 Pride.
• When the Sha of Pride reaches 30% health, use offensive anddefensive cooldowns and finish the boss off before the entire raid reaches100 Pride.

7.1. Positioning

Your raid should be stacked up in melee range of the boss (with theexception of the tank, who should be in melee range on the opposite side ofthe boss). There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, by stacking your raid up you will gain the most from the Gift of the Titans buff, since the players affected by it will immediatelygain Power of the Titans.

Secondly, by keeping your raid behind the boss (who is stationary in thecenter of the room), you are automatically keeping everyone away from the4 titan prisons (this is important because players who are near a titanprison take damage and gain Pride when a player is imprisoned there).

There are certain implications to keeping the raid stacked up, of whichyou must be well aware. By stacking up, your raid is susceptible to takinglarge amounts of damage (and gaining additional Pride) from Self-Reflection, Bursting Pride, and Aura of Pride. So, if yourraid is stacking behind the boss, everyone must be very quick to move awayas needed.

Finally, if your raid is stacking behind the boss, it is important that theManifestations of Pride not be killed right on top of the raid, since thiswould make it difficult to control who the 2 nearest players to it are(something that is important, because you need to control who will gain 5Pride, with the goal of prioritising players who are low on Pride).

7.2. Managing Pride

As we have stated, it is not possible to reduce your Pride (except for theone-time reset when the Sha of Pride reaches 30% health), so everyone must bevery careful not to receive any additional Pride. In the sections that follow,we will explain how to handle each Pride-generating ability.

7.2.1. Corrupted Prison

Players who are imprisoned must be freed as soon as possible, since theygain 5 Pride per second while imprisoned. You should place a raid marker oneach of the four prisons, and you should assign players to each prison.In 10-man, each raid group (tanks excluded) should be assign to twoadjacent prisons, and in 25-man, four groups should be assigned, each to oneprison. As soon as Corrupted Prison is cast, the assigned players shouldrun to their prison and free the player trapped there.

7.2.2. Self-Reflection

Self-Reflection has two components. Firstly, 2 seconds after the spellis cast on players, Reflections spawn from the ground, dealing damageand granting Pride to players within 2 yards. This is the most important partof the spell, and it means that when Self-Reflection is cast, everyone mustmove away from the affected areas on the ground.

Secondly, your raid will have to handle the Reflections themselves. Theseadds are not problematic, and you should just AoE them down while one of thetanks holds aggro on them.

7.2.3. Mark of Arrogance

Dispelling Mark of Arrogance can only be done through single-targetdispels (so, not through spells like Mass Dispel), and it should only bedone by players who are affected by the Gift of the Titans buff. This willensure that no additional Pride is gained this way. Your healers will simplyhave to heal up the damage that Mark of Arrogance does before it canbe dispelled.

7.2.4. Manifestations of Pride

When it comes to Manifestations of Pride, there are two things ofconcern.

First of all, you should keep these mobs permanently interrupted, preventingthem from casting even one successful Mocking Blast.

Second of all, you must be very careful about which players are closest tothe Manifestation of Pride when it dies. The 2 closest players gain 5 Prideeach, so you have to make a wise decision. Naturally, no one who hasdangerously high Pride should be soaking this ability. More than that, however,it is ideal if you have players soaking this ability who are very far froma new Swelling Pride threshold. So, the player with 25 Pride is a bettersoaker than the player 20 Pride, because in the case of the latter, the nextSwelling Pride would be more difficult to manage by virtue of having anadditional player affected by it.

7.2.5. Bursting Pride

Avoiding the damage (and Pride) of Bursting Pride is quite simple.Everyone in the raid must move away from the locations where Bursting Prideis about to explode (these are essentially large void zones).

An easy way to handle this mechanic is for all players who have between 25and 49 Pride to move away from the rest of the raid when Swelling Prideis about to be cast. This will ensure that the explosions will not happen closeto the raid.

7.2.6. Projection

As far ensuring that the raid does not take any damage from Projection, players who have between 50 and 74 Pride should be on thelook-out for the projection when Swelling Pride is being cast. Afterthat, they have 6 seconds to move on top of the projection, something thatis entirely feasible given that the projections will not be more than 15 yardsaway.

7.2.7. Aura of Pride

Avoiding the damage and Pride gains of Aura of Pride is done by makingsure that the players who have between 75 and 99 Pride move out of the raid(and away from each other) when Swelling Pride is being cast. Theseplayers will then have to remain spread out until their debuff expires (so,for 25 seconds).

7.3. Sub-30% Phase

When the Sha of Pride reaches 30% health, everyone's Pride is reset to0. So, provided that none of your raid members have died or become mindcontrolled, your raid gets a clean slate at this point of the fight.

That said, from this moment on, all raid members will gain a steady amountof Pride, specifically 5 Pride every 10 seconds. Obviously, all other meansof gaining Pride are still in effect. Depending on when exactly your raidbrings the boss to 30% health, you will have more or less 200 seconds beforeyour raid becomes Overcome. After that, you will have as much time asthere is before the next Swelling Pride to finish the boss. Naturally,this assumes minimal Pride gains from other sources, which may not be thecase.

So, this part of the fight is a rather strict DPS burn phase, but thetuning on live servers will tell just how strict it is. From a strategy pointof view, not much is different here from before. The only change is that thereis now high raid damage (a large burst of raid damage every 10 seconds), whichwill require an adequate response from your healers.

8. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp↑top

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp after theSha of Pride reaches 30% health. This part of the fight is the most intense,since the raid will be taking heavy damage from Unleashed. Anotherreason why it is ideal to use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp here is that yourraid will have a very limited amount of time to finish the boss' remaininghealth before wiping (roughly 200 seconds, give or take).

9. Summing Things Up↑top

In this section, we will very briefly summarise what the players belonging toeach of the three roles have to do during this fight.

9.1. Tanks

• Perform a tank switch on the boss.
• Pick up Manifestations of Pride when they spawn.

9.2. Healers

• Dispel Mark of Arrogance whenever you are buffed by Gift of the Titans.

9.3. DPS

• Prioritise DPS on the adds when they are alive.

9.4. Everyone

• Stack up behind the boss.
• Beware of how the next Swelling Pride will affect you, and actaccordingly.
• Make sure not to gain any more Pride than you absolutely have to.
• Do not stand on any Corrupted Prison locations before CorruptedPrison is cast.
• Free Corrupted Prison targets immediately.

10. Learning the Fight↑top

The most important aspect of this fight, and, indeed, the only one webelieve it is worth focusing on in this section, is Pride management.

While there are many mechanics in the fight, some of which are quitedifficult to deal with, having each and every raid member minimise the amountof Pride they gain is imperative, and it is the first step towardssuccess. Players must always be looking out for the next ability to be cast,and they must be prepared to leap into action with minimum delay, whether itbe freeing someone from a Corrupted Prison, moving to one's projection,or interrupting Mocking Blast.

11. Heroic Mode↑top

The Heroic mode of the Sha of Pride encounter has two major differencesfrom the Normal mode version, but the execution of the fight remains quitesimilar overall.

11.1. Differences From Normal Mode

In addition to the mobs in the fight having increased health and damage,there are two new mechanics that your raid will have to deal with.

• Banishment is an ability that is first cast 35 secondsafter the start of the fight, and then every 75 seconds after that. Banishmentselects one random raid member in 10-man, and 3 in 25-man, and sends theseplayers into a Sha Realm, leaving a copy of their bodies(called Corrupted Fragment) behind in the Normal Realm. Players willremain inside the Sha Realm until their Corrupted Fragment is killed. Insidethe Sha Realm, players are forced to constantly move forward (your characterruns forward on its own), and they will have to navigate through a maze, thewalls of which deal lethal damage when touched. In addition to the walls ofthe maze, there are also some adds that move around and that deal lethaldamage to players who come too close to them (the range seems to be around5-10 yards). There are also several friendly adds called Orbs of Light, and coming in contact with these orbs heals players andcauses their Corrupted Fragment fragment from the Normal Realm to take 25%increased damage (the effect stacks).
• Unstable Corruption causes Rifts of Corruption (smallvoid zones) to regularly spawn throughout the room, for the entire duration ofthe fight. While a Rift of Corruption is active, it regularly deals damage torandom raid members, granting them 5 Pride each time this happens. Rifts canbe closed, which is done by having a player simply walk over it. Closing a riftcauses the player who closes it, and anyone else in an 8-yard radius to takea moderate amount of Shadow damage. Players who take this damage also receive adebuff called Weakened Resolve that prevents them from closing a rift for1 minute.

11.2. Strategy

The strategy for the Heroic mode is based on the Normal mode strategy,with the addition of having to correctly handle Banishment and Unstable Corruption.

• To handle Banishment, make sure that the entire raid is stacked up closeto the boss when the ability is about to be cast. This makes killing theCorrupted Fragments very easy, meaning that players will only have tospend a few seconds inside the Sha Realm.
• To handle Unstable Corruption, your raid will have to be loosely spread outaround the room, and all raid members should close Rifts of Corruption wheneverthey can (that is to say, whenever they are not debuffed by Weakened Resolve).

While inside the Sha Realm, players will have to make sure not to touch anyhostile adds, or the walls of the maze. Any Orbs of Light that they manageto pick up will cause their Corrupted Fragment to die faster. Realistically,the Corrupted Fragments will die quite quickly, so players will only need tosurvive for a short time inside the Sha Realm. This part of the fight hasbeen likened with Pac-Man.

Since the Rifts of Corruption spawn constantly and all over the room, yourraid can no longer stack up behind the boss as in Normal mode. The ideal way tohandle the rifts is to assign groups of players to different areas of theroom. Then, these players can simply close any rifts that spawn near themwhenever they do not have the Weakened Resolve debuff (while making sure thatmore than 1 player is never within 8 yards of a closing rift). It is importantthat no one closes a rift while they are affected by Mark of Arrogance,since the increased damage can cause them to die.

Your raid should still stack up for Self-Reflection, just like inNormal mode, so that the resulting adds can be picked up and killed. Naturally,as soon as Self-Reflection is cast, everyone should make sure not to bestanding where a Reflection actually spawns.

A good goal is to bring the boss to 30% health before any raid member everreaches 50 Pride. This means that Projection and Aura of Pridenever have to be dealt with, making the strategy simpler. Depending on whathappens, this may not always be possible, but it is a good DPS goal to gofor. Healers can dispel Mark of Arrogance even when they are not affectedby Gift of the Titans, assuming that this will not cause them to exceed50 Pride before the boss reaches 30% health.

12. Concluding Remarks↑top

This concludes our raid guide for Sha of Pride. We hope you havefound it helpful. Please do not hesitate to post any feedback you may have onour forums.

13. Changelog↑top

• 26 Nov. 2013: Made a few small improvements to the Heroicstrategy.
• 22 Nov. 2013: Added two missing pieces of information to the Heroicsection of the guide: that players who are banished automatically move forwardall the time, and that there are also hostile adds inside the Sha Realm (thatdeal lethal damage to players who touch them).
• 13 Nov. 2013: Added Heroic mode strategy.
• 16 Sep. 2013: Added a link to the video guide, and also added thatin 25-man 2 Manifestations of Pride spawn each time.
• 15 Sep. 2013: Made several updates.
  • Added 25-man health values.
  • Clarified several aspects of the fight, and corrected the number ofCorrupted Prison targets in 10-man (2), and the number of players neededto free a Corrupted Prison target in 25-man (3).
• 29 Aug. 2013: Added Summarising Things Up section.