Grand Empress Shek ' zeer Grand Empress Shek ' zeer is the sha - corrupted queen of the mantid . Shek ' zeer is the main antagonist of the Dread Wastes storyline and is the one responsible for the mantid swarm plaguing Pandaria . Despite the Sha driving her being a remnant of the mantid ' s patron god Y ' Shaarj , the Klaxxi and their Paragons believed the Empress was leading their race to ruin and made it their goal to depose her . They were successful with the aid of the adventurers who awakened them . She is responsible for the deaths of Klaxxi ' va Ik , Klaxxi ' va Kek , Klaxxi ' va Krik , Klaxxi ' va Set and Klaxxi ' va Zan . Dungeon Journal . " The ancient Klaxxi order has come to a mournful decision : the tainted grand empress Shek ' zeer must be deposed . Traditionally , mantid rulers are displaced in their old age by a carefully chosen successor . However , Shek ' zeer ' s intended replacement is still too young and weak to unseat her , leaving the Klaxxi with no choice but to kill the current empress . If action is not taken against her soon , all of Pandaria may crumble before the mantid ' s ravenous swarms . " Abilities . Stage 1 : A Perilous Battle . Grand Empress Shek ' zeer health : Stage 2 : The Empress Retreats ! When the Empress runs out of sha energy , she retreats to her chrysalis and calls for her royal guard . Set ' thik Windblade . Set ' thik Windblade health : Kor ' thik Reaver . Kor ' thik Reaver health : Stage 3 : Ultimate Corruption ! At 30 % remaining health , the Sha of Fear breaks the Empress ' chrysalis and imbues her with a profound corruption . Strategy . Shek ' zeer is a three - phase encounter , cycling between phases one and two until she reaches 30 % health . Phase one . Start out with the two tanks charging in and the rest of the raid spreading out in a wide semi - circle in front of her to avoid Dread Screech splash damage . The tanks will need to taunt off each other after every few Eyes of the Empress casts , as if it reaches five stacks , her current target will be charmed and deal a lot of damage to the raid . Shek ' zeer will summon three Dissonance Fields at random locations in the raid . Dissonance Fields absorb magic cast by players , whether voluntarily or not . This is useful for mitigating the Cry of Terror , where a randomly selected player deals Shadow damage to the entire raid every two seconds unless standing in the field . After absorbing enough magic , the field will explode with a Sonic Discharge , doing a healthy chunk of raid - wide damage . It is very important to get the three Fields to pop at different times to keep the fields from dealing unhealable amounts of damage to the entire raid . In Heroic mode , the Sha of Fear will occasionally Corrupt a Dissonance Field , causing it to deal Shadow damage to random members of the raid until the field discharges . Phase one lasts until Shek ' zeer runs out of sha energy ( 150 seconds ) or she reaches 30 % health . Sha energy is displayed as her power bar that counts down from 150 . When she runs out , she will retreat and summon her royal guard , starting phase two . Phase two . Phase two brings out royal guard , in the form of several Set ' thik Windblades and Kor ' thik Reavers . All guards within eight yards of each other are affected by the Band of Valor and deal 20 % more and take 10 % less damage for each guard within range . Thus , the most effective way to kill them is to keep them in two groups ( one for each tank ) , then pull one away from the group and focus it down . Reavers tend to lob Poison Bombs at random players but may use their frontal cone ability Toxic Slime . They will also inflict Poison - Drenched Armor on their current target , which causes that target to occasionally deal bonus Nature damage . Reavers have a huge amount of health , to the point that it is faster to use the amber traps to kill them . Let windblades create sticky resin pools and have players run through them to congeal them to amber traps , then kite reavers through the traps . Windblades will either Fixate on a random target , who must kite it around the room lest it get hit with Sonic Blade , or channel an interruptible Dispatch ability , which acts much like a rogue ' s Fan of Knives . Windblades also coat the ground with Sticky Resin , which acts as a void zone . If enough resin - coated players run into a pool of Sticky Resin , it will congeal into an Amber Trap , dealing 5 % of the victim ' s health as damage every few seconds . The trap only works on mantid , not on players , so use this to defeat the reavers . Windblades will try to free trapped reavers , so focus on on the windblades to ensure the reaver dies in a reasonable amount of time . Phase two lasts for a set length of time or until all adds are dead , at which point phase one restarts . Phase three . At 30 % remaining health , phase three begins . All members of the raid except the tanks should stack up immediately behind the empress for group healing purposes . Shek ' zeer retains Eyes of the Empress , but otherwise gains a new set of abilities . She starts casting Sha Energy , dealing Shadow damage to 2 - 5 random players . She will also use Calamity , which knocks off half of each member of the raid ' s remaining ( not total ) health . She casts a dispel able Visions of Demise on a random player , which after four seconds causes that player to run in fear for 20 seconds and deal damage to nearby allies . Her big ability this phase is Consuming Terror , which will do a large amount of damage and fear targets caught in a 70 - yard cone in front of her for eight seconds . She also casts Amassing Darkness , which bounces a small amount of damage around the raid . In Heroic mode difficulty , she will also cast a Heart of Fear in the direction of a random target . However , a player can stand between the heart and the target , taking the damage instead .