Quick Facts

Series

1.	Sha Can Awe Striking the Rain Ahead on the Way
2.	In the House of the Red Crane
3.	Hope Springs Eternal

Storylines
Krasarang Wilds What's Eating Zhu's Watch? Finding Yi-Mo Materia Medica Cheer Up, Yi-Mo Why So Serious? Apply Directly to the Forehead Zhu's Despair The Arcanic Oubliette The Lost Dynasty Squirmy Delight Blind Them! Where are the Pools Threat from Dojan Lotus Tea The Pools of Youth Immortality? Poisoned! Skitterer Stew Blind Them! Threat from Dojan Herbal Remedies The Mogu Agenda The Pools of Youth Life Into the Wilds Into the Wilds Into the Wilds Into the Wilds Unsafe Passage The Murksweats Blinding the Riverblades Tread Lightly Sha Can Awe Ahead on the Way Striking the Rain In the House of the Red Crane Sudden, Unexpected Crocolisk Aggression Build Your Own Raft The Lorewalker on the Lake Wisdom Has A Price Balance Balance Without Violence Buried Hozen Treasure Going on the Offensive Going on the Offensive No Sister Left Behind Re-Reclaim Sever Their Supply Line The Mantid The Stoneplow Convoy The Lord Reclaimer The Waters of Youth Going West Going West For the Tribe The Greater Danger Re-Reclaim The Stoneplow Convoy For Family Krasarang Wilds The Arcanic Oubliette The Lost Dynasty Squirmy Delight Blind Them! Where are the Pools Threat from Dojan Lotus Tea The Pools of Youth Immortality? Going on the Offensive Going on the Offensive No Sister Left Behind Re-Reclaim Sever Their Supply Line The Mantid The Stoneplow Convoy The Lord Reclaimer The Waters of Youth What's Eating Zhu's Watch? Finding Yi-Mo Cheer Up, Yi-Mo Materia Medica Why So Serious? Apply Directly to the Forehead Zhu's Despair Into the Wilds Into the Wilds Unsafe Passage The Murksweats Blinding the Riverblades Tread Lightly Sha Can Awe Ahead on the Way Striking the Rain In the House of the Red Crane Warn Stoneplow Hope Springs Eternal The Swarm Begins The Mantidote It Does You No Good In The Keg Students No More Retreat! The Savior of Stoneplow The Gratitude of Stoneplow Krasarang Wilds Poisoned! Skitterer Stew Blind Them! Threat from Dojan Herbal Remedies The Mogu Agenda The Pools of Youth Life Going West Going West For the Tribe Re-Reclaim The Greater Danger The Stoneplow Convoy The Mantid For Family What's Eating Zhu's Watch? Finding Yi-Mo Cheer Up, Yi-Mo Materia Medica Why So Serious? Apply Directly to the Forehead Zhu's Despair Into the Wilds Into the Wilds Unsafe Passage The Murksweats Blinding the Riverblades Tread Lightly Sha Can Awe Ahead on the Way Striking the Rain In the House of the Red Crane Warn Stoneplow Hope Springs Eternal The Swarm Begins The Mantidote It Does You No Good In The Keg Students No More Retreat! The Savior of Stoneplow The Gratitude of Stoneplow

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by GustoGA

Straight forward quest - find, talk and kill.

Center building walk straight in down 2 flights of stairs, talk and kill.

Hard part is getting the order.. kill the east AND West from the proceeding quest Ahead on the Way. I walked into the room before killing the West and sat clicking on things with nothing happening.

Nice rings replaces any Epic 397s might be equal to heroic 410s

Comment by Enquillion

Anduin backpedals, I'm joining Horde.

Comment by Brainsnack

Remember, killing the echoes this Sha summons will replenish your health, because of Aura of Hope.

Comment by Jester323

Make sure to kill the adds to heal yourself, and try to interrupt Gloom Whirl, it hits pretty hard.

Comment by 1014647

I died twice as a shadow priest since I could not recoup enough health by killing the adds to survive the massive AoE move the thing does. I tried hiding in a few places in the room but could not survive through it after being hit once previously. After a few attempts I used the stairs to escape some of the damage and made it though.

So kill all the adds (pulling them toward the stairs as you go) and then go up a few stairs to make the AoE manageable.

Comment by fordahord

Yup, kill the echoes; take a shot at the Boss. Kill the echoes; take a shot at the Boss. Rinse and Repeat.

It is not a cakewalk (I blew *all* of my cooldowns), but I managed it as a level 87 frost mage.

Comment by Dannis

I found this extremely easy as an 86 Disc Priest. I used the stair trick and moved there as soon as the fight started. I was up the stairs almost to the first platform. I ignored all adds and focused on the Sha of Despair. Keeping shield up and using the instant flash heals from surge of light when health dropped it was a piece of cake.

Comment by 899614

An interesting side note, as a member of the horde on this quest, I was hit by an alliance aoe (barely any dmg), and Anduin Wrynn turned hostile towards him and chased him down for a good two minutes trying to kill him.
If you were not aware, Anduin Wrynn is the son of King Varian Wrynn, the leader of the Alliance.

Comment by Lyariana

I'm a level 87 fire mage and I died horribly first time round. The below works - stand at the top of the stairs, pull the baby sha to you, dot the boss up and blow all your cool-downs.
I downed him after two rounds of baby sha the second time round.

Comment by harod

You have to go up some stairs before going down some stairs into the basement. Don't be a noob like me and run around the perimeter of the building looking for a basement entrance.

Comment by 1044838

It's because of quests like this that I will be quitting WOW after five years and never look back. Way to ruin a good game. This whole game is going back hard core. So be it, I'll save my money for something that is fun and not just a frustrating GRIND!

Comment by 699182

Did this quest chain last week and when I was looking at some of my achievements I saw that the Sha of Despair is needed for the " Tranquil Master " achievement . Saw that it wasn't popped on the Achieve, anyone know if why I didn't get credit for the kill ? Is the quest/achievement bugged ?

Comment by Flitzy

This quest is a group quest, even though it's not labelled as such.

Seriously, don't make the same mistake I did and try this alone. Ugh, Blizzard. -.-

Comment by Umiamz

A tricky quest after the ones leading up to it but do-able as a BM Hunter. Keep pet on Sha of Despair, back up the stairs to manage AOE and kill adds that spawn for healing. I was down to what looked like an empty HP bar at one point but killed an add just at the right time to get some health back.

Comment by Brunhill

I got one shotted the first time i went with my crane (tanking pet) as survivalist hunter. Came here, read the comments and went back for second attempt This time I sent in the bird on the boss, and shot from the steps. Mobs eventually came my way and as i backed up the stairs shooting multi-shot, I backed too far and boss reset! I was down to about 35% health but kept at it, with pet and dire beast pet. We did manage to beat it and complete the quest. I would suggest for any hunter to throw down ice trap at base of stairs to slow down the mobs. Otherwise just be careful not to go all the way to the top of stairs or the quest restarts. I was level 86 with 402 gear level from questing so doable as a solo but of course, would be way easier with a couple of players. Have fun!

Comment by 1051759

as a Marksman Hunter, Level 87, I died 12 times and got so frustrated I started to tear up. Then read that this is a group quest and died a little on the inside. . .

Comment by Osteoporozis

I feel like this was meant to sound like "In the Court of the Crimson King". I hope so, that would prove my theory that this game was made by a bunch of hippies

Comment by Silarn

It's absolutely key to interrupt Gloom Whirl. It is the one and only truly dangerous mechanic in this fight. I would even largely ignore the adds to keep an eye on the boss and focus all your attention on interrupting it, silencing it, etc. Even melee only have a split second to react as only a few moments after the Sha of Despair starts casting, it will throw you back out of interrupt range and hit you hard.

That being said, if you are a class that can do quick on-demand AoE (anything non-channeled or burst AoE) without taking your eyes of the Sha, casting it to kill off the lesser ones is a big help as they have very little health (~9k?) and will heal you on death. (As mentioned above.)

If you absolutely can't interrupt (or silence), it may be best to save a big damage reduction cooldown to soak up as much of the damage as possible when it starts casting.

Comment by 880817

I died 4 or 5 times before coming here and reading the comments. The stairs helped me so much. I also got him down only after 2 rounds. Make sure that you kill the baby sha. That helps with your health. Wish that i would have came here sooner.

Comment by Eric2351

If you are trying for the achievement Tranquil Master then you must talk to Chi-Ji first to start the event. You will get quest credit for the kill if someone else has started the event, but you won't get the achievement.

Comment by 1059697

Came here and read up on the comments before tackling this as an 87 Demonology Warlock. I stayed at the top of the stairs and sent my Wrathguard in first before summoning a Terrorguard to help out. I just sort of slowly whittled away at it's health after that. I didn't bother attacking the baby sha and used Drain Life on the big one itself to keep from the little ones killing me and had him down in less than a few minutes.

Comment by smahoney61

86 Demo lock: CoElements to pull and send void in. This also draws him closer to stairs so you can stay on the first landing between flights of stairs and still reach him with casts. Summoned doomguard for added dps from 1st landing. Surprisingly, his big AOE never touched me on the 1st landing and though it did knock void up and back, void didn't take too much damage from it. Went down stairs just to be able to pull the furthest adds, then back up to landing to finish them and refocus on him. Healed void only a couple times, but not really needed. He went down rather easily.

Comment by Cissy44

I am a lvl 88 hunter, my pet with me was Loque and I died 3 times trying to finish this quest and my gear was pretty much all yellow so I decided to go collect my remains and gate home. When I got back downstairs there was a lvl 87 warrior battling the big guy. I sent in Loque and helped him finish off the Sha. Well lo and behold, I got credit as well. I was one happy camper. And made a new friend as well. So if you see someone else on their way in, help them...and you both will get credit. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Comment by Nuinbot

As an 87 rogue, this was somewhat difficult at first. I died twice before checking these threads, another after. Solution? First off, the mobs are decoys. During the fight, he will spawn them in an attempt to lure you in for the AoE. Ignore them and do this:

Fight the Sha of Despair as normal, dropping whatever dots and debuffs you can.
When he heads to the center of the room (ignoring you), that is your queue to move to the outskirts of the room, right against the wall.
Kill whatever mobs come to you while waiting for his AoE to finish.
Rinse and repeat.

You can kill the mobs for health if you need it during the fight, but I waited until the AoE phase since they don't hit too hard.

Comment by 1027041

Where can i start the quests for killing Sha of Despair?
I have been tracking the quests back, but i can find where the start of the quests is :s

Comment by 999483

Whatever you do, if someone else is in the middle of downing the Sha and you die. Don't release. I died just as the Sha was downed, but I didn't realize there's a very short scene afterwards. Don't release until the scene is done or the quest will bug out and you will have to re-kill the Sha yourself.

Comment by DeliaDelilah

Conquered as a des lock at level 89 without much trouble. Had strong heal potion on hand and used healthstone and heal from herbal proff. Kept rain of fire on him and kept emmolate continuous with Fel Flame refreshing the duration. Unending resolve and Dark Bargain assisted in damage control and also used Dark Soul: Instability during the onslaught. Used one drain life channeling once I had a chance with the DOT s in sync. Then finished with Shadowburn. I made sure all Embers were charged before encounter and healthstones ready.Used soulstone - just in case. Happy Hunting!

Comment by 1071279

I was expecting to die after reading these comments. So i ask, has it been nerfed?
87 afflic lock, popped doomguard + using voidwalker. Didn't get below 90% health. I just killed the minions with the doom and voidy focused on the sha of despair. Over very quickly and painless too!

Comment by 1071709

Hey all,
Just solo'd this quest as 87 rogue.
Died a few times till I got him.
Basically I just popped vendetta and Combat readiness, opened with Garrote, Mutilate and hit him with 5 point rupture, then kited spamming fan of knives. Had evasion up when I could. As I slowly built up more points I would run in again, refresh rupture, and if I got a chance used Dispatch, but otherwise kept on the outer spamming FoK
Hope this helps
Cheers

Comment by 1082967

Must be current changes with the latest patch plus my lower ability with my warrior. I soloed this w all 8 of my other toons but even trying the suggestions here I must have died a dozen times w my arms warrior and didn't even faze him.
Dropped the quest.

Comment by Vladia

I breezed through this with my Hunter, Priest, and Warlock. For my Arcane mage, this was awful. I died so many times, even following the hints posted here. Last night I posted a whiny punk rant saying to just forget it, let it go, get on with life. Of course, I didn't follow my own advice. I was pondering this after I logged and thought "ok, my other characters have powerful pets or powerful AOE, arcane mage, not so much." So today I flipped to my Frost spec and tried it again, died the first time, got it the second! It was tough.

So, here's what worked for me:

As everyone stated, the guy doesn't really do that much damage, other than his super-whammy kill your butt spell, interrupt that, you're gold, blow it, you're in trouble.
Your Water Element isn't much, be he distracts him just fine allowing you to focus on...
Interrupting the aforementioned "super-whammy kill you butt" spell. It seems like as soon as he starts spinning his arms, that's when you want to Counterspell. An add-on telling you what they're casting and when might be helpful. You can just wait for the spell and let the elemental do most of the work. If you miss it, and I did the second time in the fight, Ice Block right away. He clobbered my elemental while I was frozen, but I just re-summoned it when I came out. The big guy and the mini-shas really don't do that much damage.
His mini-shas seem to run right underneath him when the come out, like they're hiding under mommy's skirt. That's where you Blizzard and Flamestrike the area the Sha is standing.
When the mini-shas that come at you, Cone of cold. Doesn't do much, but it's something. They go down pretty easy.
Keep Nether Tempest on the Sha, his little buddies will charge right into it when they spawn.
If you totally messed up, use Greater Invisibility to slink out and try again before he kills you. Just saves time.

As a warrior, this was not even a challange

Comment by Fyler

Worst. Quest. Ever. The end.

Comment by mbradleyc

To heck with this. My 90 paladin still can't get anywhere with this. The best I can manage is to stay alive. Forget it. I can fly. That's all I care about.

Comment by paralize24

I did this on my ele shaman 87, died a couple times, when I released and came back the dude was still there.... then stood on the stairs, dropped searing totem. Sent out my rock elemental dude. Burned him down, never took out any of the adds. Hit a quick healing surge somewhere in all that.

Comment by DeviantxDesires

My strat for this as an 86 assassination rogue was:

Open hard and heavy on him until he summons adds, running a few steps away every few seconds just in case he was about to start his AoE.

When the adds come, focus your efforts on kiting the sha around the room in a circle as you kill adds, so it's easier to see him stop that split second before he starts his AoE.

Make sure to keep rupture up on the boss and recuperate up on yourself. He'll die eventually, and if you're lucky, you won't.

Took me 3 attempts, and even when I succeeded, I was nearly dead.

Comment by 572487

I was able to solo this as an 87 fury warrior no problem. Just remember to kill the adds whenever you see them -- not only do you get health from Aura of Hope, but it means you get to more and more health from Victory Rush. You'll get low on health every once and a while, but after he sends another wave of adds, you should be able to get full health again. I used Bladestorm as much as possible. Killed the adds when they came, and then went back to the boss. As long as you can manage the adds and remember to use Victory Rush, shouldn't be a problem for a fury warrior. Good luck!

Comment by KiritaWindwalker

As a mage i found this painful. I wont lie, I died SEVERAL times. But then I found one trick. The WORSE atack he has is that gloom whirl. Most classes have the abilityy to silence so just pop it on your bar and hit it everytime he starts. it'll reduce the damage by atleast 80% making it easy to solo the boss!

If for some reason you CANT silence, I suggest running up the stairs, just make sure you run back down or he'll reset.

Either method, I suggest using a few AoEs every 10 secs to kill the mini sha that will be hitting you, you'll stop their damage while geting a heal and haste bonus!

Btw, to those after the Tranquil Master achieve, I didnt get credit till AFTER I turned the quest in. So you'll probably have to suffer the chain too. I killed him alone and still no credit till it was turned in.

Done as 87 Arcane Mage, iLvl 402.

Comment by Celano

Rogues rejoice! This fight is not as serious as they try to paint it.

After dying a couple of times to this jerk on my 87 rogue and feeling rather cross about it, I decided to swap strategies.

1. Do not switch targets to the adds. Keep the Sha as your target. FoK the adds. It is sufficient to kill them fast enough. If you get 5 combo points and there are still adds, hit Crimson Tempest. If not, hit Sha with whatever you think will hurt him most.

2. Interrupt Gloom Whirl. Getting that Kick in at the right time is your top priority. Gloom Whirl eats your health like candy otherwise.

Lather, rinse, repeat until he's dead!

Comment by 306434

Trying to complete any of the quests in the temple of the red crane are challenging to me. Makes me want to throw something, lol. I have died multiple time trying to cleanse the pagodas and this one is really hard for me as a shadow priest. Still trying to beat it now, but I don't know if it's just that hard or I suck or both, but the adds are crazy.

Comment by 1104618

I have tried everything... even killing the adds, I die within 30 seconds. No give or take. The aoe wipes me out.
Lvl 87 hunter with bear tank.

Comment by iamAugis

Soloed as a level 86 feral druid in first try. dropped everything I had in the beginning, left him with Rip and Rake, after he was done summoning adds, I went a bit up stairs and started AoEing (Thrash>Swipe>Swipe>Swipe) adds as soon as he started spinning. Did the job and then managed to nuke him down WHILE he was calling adds second time.

Comment by 234286

L87 /IL 405 Arcane Mage. Recount: 18.3k DPS.

Stood at door, blew all DPS CDs at start, spammed Arcane Blast. Most adds did not aggro me. Popped a potion to get more mana/health, and used Evocation.About 5 adds were alive when he died, they despawn when he goes down. Seems it's best to focus on him, not the adds. I could have used Frost nova and blink to CC and isolate the adds, if I needed to.

Easy kill.

Comment by Tyrosus

More likely than not a reference to the song "House of the Rising Sun". Chi-Ji represents the rising sun in Pandaren culture. Woo blizz :)

Comment by Emma8Night

/target Chi-ji
/cast Tame Beast
/cast Tame Beast
/cast Tame Beast
/cast Tame Beast
Invalid target?
What? No! Your so awesome looking!

Comment by Emma8Night

/target Chi-ji
/cast Tame Beast
Invalid target?
What? No! Your so awesome looking!

Comment by 930723

I got a bit lucky on this one with my Shadow Priest, but want to share how I did.
When starting the encounter, make sure to pull the Echo towards the stairs and go up a few steps before the spawns spawn.
When they do spawn, they'll spawn in the middle of the room, and thus out of agro range. If you just keep the Echo around the lower parts of the stairs you should be fine.

Comment by 1121213

I have been having a heck of a time with this quest, asked for help but just my luck the region was empty. So I'm putting it off until some guildies are online and hopefully one will be kind enough to help. Then I can put this quest chain behind me. *Fingers crossed* oh 88 combat rogue at this point btw, hating this quest. I was able to manage the others shas but this one kills me everytime. My repair bill just can't take it much more.

Comment by Bengarion

Interrupts. It's all about interrupts.

Again, as previously stated, Blizzard has fixed the "running up the stairs" to avoid the Gloom Whirl. The aoe radius of the Gloom Whirl is large. So large that running is no longer a viable option. If your class doesn't have an interrupt get a friend that does. Or else expect to have rather large repair bills.

As soon as the Sha of Despair starts the Gloom Whirl IMMEDIATLY target him and interrupt. The GW does a massive amount of damage and all but the most geared will be able to survive it. The first time.

During the fight you need to concentrate on the "little guys" - Echo of Despair. Only concentrate on the Sha when they aren't around. Anduin more or less tanks the Sha and killing off the adds both heals you and prevents the Sha from healing.

There is a visual cue when Sha starts his Gloom Whirl - a whirling sound and visual graphic. But it can be somewhat hard to catch in time during all the confusion. (Huge boss, tiny addons.)

What made the job of detecting the GW was the addon TellMeWhen. Set the Sha as your focus. Set up TMW to monitor the focus and when it uses the buff Gloom Whirl and set up an Event to play a sound when it pops. (I used Algalon: Beware!. Depending on what addons you have that may or may not be available.) Use a sound that you will be able to hear in all the racket.

Set up a hot-key with:
/target focus
/cast (stick your interrupt ability here)
(i.e. for a rogue: /cast kick )

When you hear TMW pop, immediately target Sha and do your interrupt. I tried to time the GW intervals but couldn't. It seemed about 30-60 seconds between Gloom Whirls.

Be good.

Comment by quelgar

Man that was hard as a Balance Druid.

The main thing is to avoid his big attack. Solar Beam will interrupt it, but the cooldown is too long to get every one. Use Barkskin and run away for the others.

Try to keep DOTs up on the boss, but always focus on the adds. Save Starfall for the adds. DOT them if they're spread out, but they'll often group under the boss and you can hurricane them no problems. Other than the big attack, the damage is not too bad.

Comment by cmacord

Ok, I'm not being a wise-ass, so don't vote me down, but my 89 Hunter (in quest gear) had no problem whatsoever with this fight. After reading here, I proceeded down the steps scared to death. I set an Ice Trap, as suggested here, at the bottom of the steps, and sent my goat in. The fight didn't take that long...he nuked me twice with an AoE of some sort, each one took about a third of my health - I was getting low on health after the 2nd one, so I used a healing pot. When the adds came, I feigned, and all of them left but one, which died the Multi-Shots I started firing at that time. I sent my pet in with a HoT, and his health never really got that low. That was pretty much it...

Comment by 1128171

Died a few times on this one, tough quest. Although, once I found out you could interrupt his Gloom Whirl the fight became almost laughably easy. As a lvl 87 Feral Druid all I had to do was bleed the boss, kill the adds one by one (do this near the boss as they damage him and also heal you) and then skull bash as soon as he does his Whirl. Get a few hits on the Sha when you've got nothing pressing to do. Oh, and don't stand in the fire (Surge of Despair).

Comment by KitSileya

Managed this as a lvl 88 frost mage, simply by running around in circles, blasting arcane explosion at the adds. Worked like a charm after twice dying while trying to kite the adds up the stairs. Arcane explosion killed the adds, which increased my health, and the running made it difficult for Sha to hit me with his huge whammy.

Comment by 1131313

did this as hunter and failed ...i simply gave up quest rather than quiting wow
not fun and prince wasnt any help just stands there blabing but no healing

Comment by 658062

as a priest easiest way to do this is with holy nova. pace it so u dont run out of mana and then when he 1/4 way life left let it rip. i also kept my shadow word pain and vampiric embrace on him as i am killin adds with holy nova.

Comment by 1137407

I beat the Sha alone, Level 87 DK. All it takes is constant attacks to the Sha and whenever it summons its echos you NEED to kill them first. They are fairly easy and after they are killed you have about 20 seconds of hit time on the Sha and it usually will take quite a bit of damage. I used the time while fighting the easy echos to heal while in the heat of battle since whenever I ran up the stairs the sha's health regained. I defeated it my 4th time, I went and did more quests and got better armor and then it worked so take this advice ti worked like a charm for me!

Comment by shakezula

As a 87 Hunter I just stayed on the stair landing and didn't take any damage. The adds didn't even come near me, didn't kill a single one. Too easy! After dying twice on the floor near the Sha.

Comment by Morcheeba

Enhance shaman chiming in.

Our AoE options are kind of limited. What finally worked for me (after a half-dozen deaths) was keeping the big guy targeted with Flame Shock up, hitting Lava Lash (when he was in melee range) and Flame Nova whenever I got the chance to take down the adds, and using Chain Lightning whenever Maelstrom was stacking up (instead of healing myself). Also Lightning Shield.

And interrupting Gloom Whirl, of course. Wind Shear has a 25 yard range so it's pretty forgiving if you miss the first pushback.

Ended up popping Feral Spirit and Shamanistic Rage near the end but I lived. Good luck.

Comment by THuD29

Is there a quest after this? Now i have Anduin following me...

Comment by 1195165

I have a lvl 88 frost mage (both hp/mana are 200k-ish). First time I died. Second time I killed him very easily.

Here is how I did it.

First time I went into the circle and start atk it like normal mobs, then when he used his big attack on me (for me was 26k dmg per click) I panic a little and started running around, aggroing half of his summoned minions. I was killed during the third cycle of his attacks.

Second time around I just stood on the stairs at 40yd and spam all my spells (frostbolt/bomb/frost orb). When he comes towards me and deals the big damages I just pull back a little bit and use first-aid/pot. He would go back to the center of the room to summon his minions, but the minions are now far away from me so I can pick them off to get heal, after I get max health I would turn back to do more damage.

Killed it under 2 minutes.

IMO key to defeat him is that his minions are not aggro on summon but instead aggro by proximity. Use this to your advantage and you will kill him without breaking a sweat.

Comment by Afterwalker

Just finished this quest and it seems like there are no more available quests in the surrounding area of Pandaria. Could anyone tell me where to look next? Isn't there a follow-up quest?

Comment by FireEmerald

Start of the questline:

The questline which will guide you to this quest, starts for the alliance at a camp in the Krasarang Wilds at 77.3 9.0 (Flight point).

Name on the map: "ZHUS WATCH".
Quest / NPC: Into the Wilds / Mei Barrelbottom

Just accept all quests there and you will come to this one later.

Comment by Boxofbeer

In the House of the Red Crane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFC6RJzY2nI

Comment by WoWGnGP

i made i playthrough of this quest if anyone wish to see how to do it :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drqw7lrUC1M&feature=youtu.be

Comment by allOf

In the House of the Red Crane https://youtu.be/MSUixW-WpzY

Comment by Fluffmeister

I struggled as a lvl 93 frost mage. Second time I tried getting my elemental to attack it, together with Anduin while I ran around trying to avoid the Sha. I was still leaking health like crazy when a bunch of horde warriors turned up and killed the Sha stone dead, and I got credit for it :-)

Comment by Seeley

If after all the help you got from these comments, you still can't beat the boss. Here is the easiest way to beat the boss.
Every class can do it this way.
Just fight the boss untill he goes back to the middle of the room.
That is your queue to move back up the stair you came from. When you are on the first flight of stairs the AoE attack won't hit you.
Repeat this 3 times.
Most of the small mobs will stay on the outer rim of the room so won't even attack you. You don't even need to bother about them.
I ensure you, this will help you.

Comment by schu0169

If you are like me and go to the area max level not doing any quests you can't just go and talk Anduin to get the quest. To start go to the northeast most point of the map to Zu's watch and do all the quests there. Eventually it will lead to the incursion site. Do all the quests there and you will get a quest to escort Koro Mistweaver. Once you do that quest you can talk to Anduin and do one quest. You have to do a few quests Koro gives before you can talk to Anduin again, who will give you the quest Sha Can Awe. This leads to the quest to kill the Sha of Despair.

However, you need the two quests from Koro to get the next quest in the chain to kill the Sha of Despair, so make sure you grab them before you go to the temple.

Comment by NeonInuGanetto

As of WoW 9.1.0, this quest is impossible playing as an Arcane mage - the ads move too fast to the boss and there is barely enough time to kill them to heal yourself. The boss almost always has enough to deal massive AoE damage, and walking up the stairs stops and resets the battle.

Skip this quest.

Comment by GreenOrion

AOE kills in one hit

Comment by Kharliah

What a ridiculous quest.

Did this as a 40 rogue. Pull him to the first landing on the staircase. Let him bugger off to do his AoE. Once he's done he'll back.
Pretty easy once you know you cant just tank and spank.

Comment by Ehayen

"I can't possibly talk here. Walk back through all these trash mobs and we'll talk over there. Because reasons."

Links

In the House of the Red Crane

Enter the basement of the Temple of the Red Crane and defeat the Sha of Despair.

	Sha of Despair slain (1)

Description

"Broken are the bodies wherein hopeless hearts reside - the blight of despair strikes forth from inside."

This was the last piece of wisdom the Red Crane imparted to me, just hours before the Sha outbreak. It makes sense now...

$p, when the Sha attacked, they broke forth from the temple's basement...

All of his teachings - the very Way of the Crane itself... it's all been preparation for facing the Sha of Despair.

The Red Crane has been expecting this conflict for centuries!

Completion

Rewards

You will be able to choose one of these rewards:

	Nayeli Cord			Mortbreath Belt
	Deepwild Waistguard			Narsong Clasp
	Angkhal Cord			Riverblade Belt
	Sarjun Waistguard			Korjan Girdle
	Dojani Girdle

You will receive:

Gains

Upon completion of this quest you will gain:

250 reputation with The August Celestials

See if you've already completed this by typing:

/run print(C_QuestLog.IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(30273))

Guides

Wowhead's Guide to the August Celestials