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.

Loatheb 10-man Boss Strategy Guide

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

Loatheb is the 3rd and final boss of the plague wing in Naxxramas. Loatheb is a unique encounter that features a healing mechanic unlike any other. This mechanic, which we’ll discuss below, is intended to force healers to be more than just a “healbot”…note Healbot is an anagram of Loatheb, an intentional joke on the part of the original Naxxramas developers.

Loatheb Abilities

• Necrotic Aura – Every 20 seconds Loatheb will cast this on the entire raid. It’s a debuff that reduces healing by 100% for 17 seconds. This means your healers only get 3 seconds to heal the entire raid back up.
• Deathbloom – Every 30 seconds Loatheb will cast this on the entire raid. It deals 200 damage per second followed by a 1200 damage “bloom” at the end.
• Inevidble Doom – Deals 4000 damage after 10 seconds. Loatheb won’t start casting this until the 2 minute mark of the fight, at which point it will only be every 30 seconds. After 5 minutes he will cast this ever 15 seconds.
• Fungal Creep – Increases critical strike by 50% and reduces threat by 100%. Applied when you’re in range of the spores upon their death, lasts 90 seconds. A maximum of 5 players can get the buff from a single spore.

Loatheb Boss Strategy

Starting the Encounter

First, you’ll want to setup the raid so that your best DPS are all in group 1. Everyone needs to know which group they are in, as we’re going to use these for the spore rotation (discussed below). The tank will want to hold Loatheb in the middle of the room, with melee players stacking near the tank and all ranged healers / DPS stacked up together in front of Loatheb. It’s important to stay close together so your AoE heals will have maximum effectiveness.

Spore Rotation

Almost immediately orange spores will start spawning randomly around the room. If you’re nearby when these spores die you’ll get a buff that increases critical strike chance by 50% and reduces threat by 100%. These buffs are crucial to your success during the fight, so it’s important the entire raid always have this buff. Generally you’ll want to have group 1 get the first spore and group 2 get the second (excluding the tank of course).

Understanding the Healing Debuff

Necrotic aura will be applied to the entire raid for 17 out of every 20 seconds. This will leave us with a 3 second window to heal the entire raid. So right away we need to get a little help from the rest of the raid in the way of staying close together. If the raid is too spread out you will likely have trouble getting the entire raid healed up before the next round of necrotic aura is applied. If you’re healing this fight you’ll want to be watching the debuff tick down, when it hits 1 second go ahead and queue your heal and select your second target for heal number 2.

Generally you can get 2 AoE heals and 1 instant cast heal during the 3 seconds (depends on your class). Don’t bother casting any HoTs during this time as they will have little effect. Just get as much healing out in the 3 seconds as you can. Here are some possible healing rotations you could use (and the one I use as a shaman).

• Shaman – Chain heal, Chain heal, Riptide
• Priest – Circle of healing, Circle of healing, Circle of healing
• Paladin – Holy Light, Flash of Light, Holy Shock
• Druid – Regrowth, Nourish, Nourish

Let the DPS Race Commence!

When it gets right down to the bottom line this fight is a DPS race. For this reason it’s extremely important you always keep the spore buff up on you, otherwise you simply aren’t going to have the damage necessary to kill him before 1) your healers run out of mana or 2) he starts inevidble doom every 15 seconds. Healing on Loatheb isn’t all that difficult, it’s just a matter of timing your first heal to go off the moment necrotic aura lifts and spaming during the 3 second healing period.

Once you’ve mastered these basic mechanics you’ll be well on your way to your first Loatheb kill!

Heigan the Unclean 10-Man Boss Strategy Guide

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

Heigan the Unclean is the 2nd boss of the plague wing in Naxxramas. This encounter was made famous for its “dance” mechanic. This truly unique encounter is fairly easy to master…if you can dance!

Heigan the Unclean Abilities

Phase 1

• Spell Disruption – 20 yard aura around Heigan, increases casting times by 300%.
• Decrepit Fever - Disease applied to a random player, deals 3000 damage every 3 seconds and reduces maximum HP by 50% of all players within a 20 yard radius.
• Eruption – 3 of the 4 quarters of the dancing area will erupt with green slim, dealing 6,000-7,000 damage to players caught around the edges, and dealing 12,000-14,000 damage to players in the middle.

Phase 2

• Plague Cloud – Deals 7,500 damage per second to anyone still standing on the platform after Heigan teleports back up there.
• Eruption – 3 of the 4 quarters of the dancing area will erupt with green slim, dealing 6,000-7,000 damage to players caught around the edges, and dealing 12,000-14,000 damage to players in the middle.

Heigan the Unclean Boss Strategy

Starting the Fight

Healers and ranged DPS will begin the fight by running to the platform that Heigan starts on, melee will simply follow the boss around. Positioning at this point is pretty straight forward. Players on the platform should try to stay at maximum casting range as to avoid the spell disruption aura. Likewise melee players will want to stay right on top of heigan’s model as the phase 1 dance starts.

Phase 1 Dance

The phase 1 “dance” isn’t nearly as difficult as the phase 2. Essentially you’ll have melee following your tank around the room while your ranged DPS and healers stand on top of the platform. As a melee DPS you need to make sure you aren’t hanging over the edge of an eruption wall. You don’t want to eat an eruption and cause your healers further healing.

As a tank you have the most important job on the fight. It’s your responsibility to make sure you move Heigan quickly enough and position him correctly before the next eruption goes off. Check out the phase 2 dance rotation map below, this is the same rotation used in phase 1 eruptions.

Note: Read / View the phase 2 dance strategy below, the same applies for tanking positions in phase 1.

Healing and Cleansing for Phase 1

As a healer this fight really isn’t too bad. The most important thing you want to be watching for is the decrepit fever. You need to dispel this immediately. Obviously a MT with 50% HP doesn’t make much of an MT. He / she could easily be dropped by Heigan.

Phase 2 Beginning

Phase 2 starts when Heigan teleports back to the platform. After a few seconds he will start casting plague cloud on the platform, which is why the entire raid must get to position 1 on the map below. The eruption dance will begin in a few seconds.

Dancing Your Way Through Eruptions

Now, Heigan will engage his eruption rotation. 3 of the 4 pieces of the room will eruption at the same time. The first safe location in the room will be 1, IE 2, 3, and 4 will erupt. After the first eruption the entire raid will move location 2, IE 1, 3, 4 will erupt. Then to 3, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc…The eruption will continue going left to right, then right to left continually for 2 complete rotations.

Note: It’s better to run closer to the platform as it reduces the total distance you must travel between positions due to the room’s curved perimeter.

At this point Heigan will run down from the platfor and go back to your main tank. Ranged and healers should return to the platform and melee DPS will resume Heigan as well. Now you simply resume phase 1 and continue the phase 1 / 2 dance rotation until you’ve killed Heigan.

Grobbulus 10-Man Boss Strategy

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

Grobbulus is the second boss of the Abomination Wing in Naxxramas and is truly one of WoW’s most unique encounters.

Grobbulus Abilities

• 2,900,000 HP
• Poison Cloud – Every 15 seconds Grobbulus drops a poison cloud. This cloud starts at around 3 yards and spreads to around 30, dealing 2000 DPS to anyone within the cloud.
• Slime Spray – Deals aprx. 7000 damage in a frontal cone. For each person hit by this slime a fallout slime will be created.
• Fallout Slime – Slime add spawned by Slime Spray. Has aprx. 75,000 HP, should be picked up by off tank and killed immediately by melee DPS.
• Mutilating Injection – This poison has a 10 second timer, at the end of the timer an initial 8,000-9000 damage nature damage explosion will be dealt in a 10 yard AoE followed by the creation of a poison cloud. These clouds start at around 3 yards and spread to around 30 and deal 2,000 poison damage to anyone standing within the cloud. Grobbulus will cast mutilating injection every 15-20 seconds.
• Berserk - Grobbulus will berserker enrage after the 6 minute mark, increasing his damage output by 1000%.

Grobbulus Boss Strategy

The entire Grobbulus strategy revolves around the mutilating injection ability. As Grobbulus loses more and more health he will use this ability more often, in order to effectively defeat this boss each person in the raid will need to be aware of this poison, when they get it, and the position they should take to deal with.

…what’s all that mean?

When you get the poison, you need to get as far away from the raid as possible. When you initially drop the cloud it’s no big deal, but as it spreads out there will be less room for you and your raid to work with, causing other players to possibly take damage from the slime cloud.

Dealing with Fallout Slime

Let’s start with the fallout slims. First, these globs are not difficult to kill and do not have much damage, but they will need your attention or they will become an issue if you get several up. It’s recommended that you put your off tank and 2 DPS on these globs. They die fairly quickly and shouldn’t detract too much from your overall DPS output.

Tanking Grobbulus

Tanking is also fairly straight forward. The big thing will be movement and positioning (discussed below). You must always keep Grobbulus facing away from the raid, if several people in the raid get slimed…

1. someone / some people will probably die
2. you’re going to have more fallout slime than you can deal with

Additionally…and more importantly, as the fight wears on Grobbulus is going to continue to drop poison clouds on top of the melee DPS. You will need to continually pull Grobbulus away from these poison clouds so your melee DPS can continue attacking. Take a look at the diagram below to see a tank position rotation my guild uses.

Healing Roles

Healing is also very simple. Grobbulus does not hit very hard at all, as I mentioned before this fight is all out the mutilating injection. So just make sure you heal up the person who got injected after they blow up and keep an eye on your tanks.

Dispeling Note: DO NOT DISPEL THE MUTILATE INJECTION. If you dispel the poison it will immediately drop where you dispelled it and AoE everyone around it. This WILL screw up your cloud position and cause many problems for you.

Poison Cloud Diagram

The following is the path my guild uses for tanking and poison cloud placement. You can use any method so long as it works for your group.

• Orange - Pull Grobbulus over by the stairs and start him along the back wall. Take him in a line all the way down the wall and up the other side.
• Purple - This is the initial drop zone rotation for the poison clouds. Take them about half way down the wall then start the green line.
• Green - This is the secondary drop zone rotation for poison clouds. Start your poison cloud at the edge of the very first drop by the meat wagon.