Shado-Pan Monastery Challenger

Shado-Pan Monastery Challenge Mode

So, we had heard that Shado-Pan Monastery's Challenge Mode is pretty tough. My group cleared it on Bronze with maybe 3-4 minutes to spare, but then again, we weren't chain pulling and wiped a few times learning it, so make improvements on this to get Gold. This is written with the assumption that you know how Heroic mode already works.

We used a Blood Tank (me), an Affliction Warlock, an Elemental Shaman, a Shadow Priest, and a Holy Paladin, but any combination should be good enough for Bronze if you don't wipe. Getting Gold will take an effort in calculated chain-pulling, clever use of stuns, and tank/healing skill to survive heavy damage.

Trash up to Gu Cloudstrike

A solitary mob (Shado-Pan Wardens, I think) summon a 5-6 Ambushers. Pick them all up so they don't go anywhere. They don't hit especially hard, so clear em out. A group of Shado-Pan Stormbringers will be next. Interrupt them or mass stun them so your team doesn't get too much damage from the Stormbringers focusing the ball lightning in between them. You'll then get another group of Ambusher/Wardens. Deal with them the same way.

Gu Cloudstrike

The AOE zone is HUGE. Don't get caught in it, cause it hurts more too. When the dragon comes down, since it's on the balcony and not movable, it is critical that your tank faces him to one side, and the group stands upon another. The breath is deadly. We're talking, "holycrapwhere'smyhealthhealmecrapi'mdead". That fast. When the magnetic shield comes out, spam heal one player in the group so that the shroud's healing cascades and removes them all from the group. After the dragon is beat up, it's a race to beat the boss up before you are killed. His chain lightning does more damage the lower your health is, so the healer has to keep everyone at as high health as he can manage. Everyone should use survival cooldowns as well.

Trash after Gu

Bunch of Sha in a hallway. Nothing too hard. After the hallway, the Ice Arrow gauntlet features A TON more arrows. They also hurt a lot more. Dodge them like Neo dodges bullets.

Once you make it into the Novice gauntlet, there are a bunch more Novices, and none of them respond to threat. Your entire team needs to make sure they handle the special abilities: stay out of dusty clouds from Fire Flower or Hundred Palm Strike, attack Novices using Parry Stance from behind, etc. After beating the novices, his elite trainees come. Make sure you run away from the one performing a whirlwind, she'll chase a random player of the group. Nothing too hard yet.

Master Snowdrift

The main difference between normal and heroic is naturally bigger numbers. You handle everything else the same. Be sure to side step his fireballs to avoid a lot of damage, and don't let him reach you when he chases you. He'll piledrive the life out of you.

Fire Arrow Gauntlet

You'll be facing groups of Sha while dodging AOE zones caused by fire arrows. Priority should be as follows:

1. Regenerating Sha. One person needs to interrupt their heals.
2. Destroying Sha. Face them away from the group, and interrupt their frontal breath. Just one of them is very, very deadly.
3. Everything else. Kill very fast so Consuming Shas don't build up their strength over time.

The Volatile Energies now do 150,000 damage upon exploding. Needless to say, don't gather a whole bunch and AOE. If you have to, single target them one at a time.

Sha of Violence

Handle it exactly the same as heroic mode. There will be more Volatile Energies, so the tank needs to get them under control. Melee and the tank must run when the Sha spins. The tank needs to be cleansed when he becomes disoriented or the Sha will eat another player.

Final Stretch

You MUST kill four groups in order to complete the challenge mode. regardless of whether or not you cleared the entire instance previous. You can't jump off the bridge and skip most of them. The easiest are naturally the first four. You may skip the last. They aren't very hard, you got a few casters in the mix, but just handle them like any trash pack.

Taran Zhu

The difference, once again, is just numbers. Make absolutely sure your team cleanses their hate before the orbs start pulling them in. Those things need to die ASAP, so you can't waste time being CCed while meditating. On the plus side, while Meditating, you won't be able to move or cancel early. On the minus side, that means don't use it while in a death zone.

The tank must make sure Taran Zhu is far enough from ranged so that his whirling wall of death doesn't touch them. Melee must keep with him when he's kiting, or run out. Interrupt Rising Hate. It hurts way too much and inflicts too much, uh, hate to let go.

And you're done. At a pace of 2 minutes per section, you should get through the entire place in 16 minutes, a bit shy of the Gold. This should be doable without wiping. Have your tea