Gothik the Harvester 10-man Boss Strategy Guide

Make sure to check out the complete Naxxramas 10-Man Instance and Boss Strategy Guide.

Gothik the Harvester is the 2nd boss of the Military Wing (aka Death Knight wing) of the Naxxramas 10-man instance. This powerful necromancer uses his powers to raise the death and pour out his corruption and destruction across Azeroth.

Gothik the Harvester Abilities

• Health: 839, 000
• Live Side (phase 1)
  • Spawned Mob: Unrelenting Trainee – 10,000 hp, applies death plague which deals 85 damage ever 3 seconds for 15 seconds, stacks infinitely, this is dispellable. 24 will spawn.
  • Spanwed Mob: Unrelenting Deathknight – 34,000 hp, intercept stuns for 3 seconds, applies shadow mark via whirlwind. Anyone hit by the whirlwind will get the mark, which deals aprx. 8,000 damage (mitigated by armor). 7 will spawn.
  • Spanwed Mob: Unrelenting Rider – 55,000 hp, deals unholy aura which deals 250 damage per second to all raid members within a 45 yard range, continues until he is killed. Also shoots off shadow bolt volleys to anyone with a shadow mark (see unrelenting deathknight). 4 will spawn.
• Undead Side (phase 2)
  • Spawned Mob: Spectral Trainee – 10,000 hp, casts arcane explosion which deals 700 damage in a 20 yard AoE.
  • Spawned Mob: Spectral Deathknight – 33,000 hp, whirlwinds for aprx. 6,500 (mitigated by armor)
  • Spawned Mob: Spectral Rider – 55,000 hp, deals unholy aura which deals 350 damage per second to all raid members within a 45 yard range, continues until he is killed. Also casts drain life, which steals 6,000 hp from the highest aggro target.
  • Spawned Mob: Spectral Horse – 16,000 hp, casts stomp, which ceals 2300-2700 damage in a 10 yard radius, also slows movement speed by 60% for 10 seconds.
• Shadowbolt – Deals 2800-3500 shadow damage to primary aggro target.
• Harvest Soul – Reduces the stats of the entire raid by 10%, cast every 15 seconds, stacks 10 times.

Gothik the Harvester Boss Strategy

Encounter Spawning Mechanics

First and foremost let’s discuss exactly how this encounter works. Unlike traditional encounters you don’t get even attack Gothik until you’ve killed all the mob spawning waves. Mobs spawn on the live side (the side which gothik’s balcony is over) and once they are killed they spawn on the undead side as ghosts. Mobs will continue to spawn for the first 3 minutes and 44 seconds of the encounter and Gothik will come down at the 4 minute 34 second mark.

Note: the sides will be physically prevented from crossing over when the encounter begins, a gate will close in the center and will remain closed until Gothik comes down.

Setting up the Raid

Since the door splits the raid we’ll need to assign specific players to each individual side. My guild and I split the raid as follows:

• Live Side: 4 players
  • Put your DPS casters on this side
• Undead Side: 6 players
  • Put your melee DPS on this side

Completing the Spawning Wave

This phase of the encounter is not difficult, simply kill the mobs as they spawn and avoid taking damage when possible. The only mobs that you really need to be worried about are the riders. These do a lot of damage and can quickly 2-3 shot a DPS or healer if they are not picked up quickly by your tank.

• Purple Circles – spawning locations
• Blue Box (in middle) – center gate
• Red Line – center dividing wall

Killing Gothik

At the 4 minute 34 second mark Gothik will come down off of his balcony and to the living side. At this point the central gate is still closed, and generally the undead side will just be killing their final spawns. At this point harvest soul will start being applied to the entire raid. After a few seconds on the live side Gothik will teleport to the undead side. This rotation will continue two more times and then the gate will finally open.

After Gothik completes 4 teleports the gate will open and the entire raid can DPS him down. At this point the only thing that can really wipe you will be the harvest soul stacking up too high. For this reason you’ll want try and save all your biggest damage cooldowns for when Gothik comes down. Just keep your DPS high and burn him down as fast as possible.