Four Horsemen 10-man Boss Strategy Guide

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

The four horsemen are the final bosses of the military (aka Deathknight) wing of Naxxramas 10-man instance. The four horsemen are a part of Kel’Thuzad elite guard, representing the most powerful Deathknights in all of Azeroth. This encounter was largely inspired from the four horsemen of the apocalypse, part of the Christian Bible’s book of Revelations.

Four Horsemen Abilities

• Mark of the Four Horsemen – each horsemen will apply his respective mark, these marks stack infinitely and deal more damage with each successive mark.
• 1 Mark – 0 damage
• 2 Marks – 500 damage per tick
• 3 Marks – 1500 damage per tick
• 4 Marks – 4000 damage per tick
• 5 Marks – 12,500 damage per tick
• 6 Marks – 20,000 damage per tick
• 7 Marks or more – adds 1,000 additional damage for each additional mark at this point. Note: you will never get to this point.

Than Kor’Thazz

• Meteor - deals 13,775-15,225 fire damage split amongst as many people as the meteor hits in a 8 yard AoE. Cast every 15 seconds.
• Applies the Mark of Kor’Thazz

Baron Rivendare

• Unholy Shadow – deals 2160-2640 shadow damage to primary aggro target. Additionally, applies a shadow damage DoT which deals 4,800 shadow damage over 8 seconds.
• Applies Mark of Rivendare

Lady Blaumeux

• Shadow Bolt – deals 2350-2650 shadow damage, range of 45 yards. Cast on the closest player to Blaumeux.
• Void Zone – Summons a shadowy area on top of a random player, deals 2750 damage per tick to anyone within the void zone. She casts one every 15 seconds, lasts 75 seconds.
• Applies Mark of Blaumeux

Sir Zeliek

• Holy Bolt – deals 2350-2650 holy damage, range of 45 yards. Cast on the closet player to Zeliek.
• Applies Mark of Zeliek

Four Horsemen 10-man Strategy

The Raid Setup

Ideal Raid Setup:

• 3 Healers
• 2 Tanks
• 5 DPS, with at least 1 ranged DPS

Possible Raid Setups:

• 2 Healers
• 2 Tanks
• 6 DPS, with at least 1 ranged DPS

Note: duo healing this encounter is certainly more difficult than 3 healers, but it is possible. I don’t recommend duo healing it if it’s your first time attempting the encounter, but after a few clears you could give it a try.

Raid Position and Setup

I want to preface this section with a short note, that is that there really is no right or wrong way to setup this fight. The only real encounter requirement is that you don’t want any one mark to stack more than 3 times. That said, I’m going to discuss the strategy my guild uses in addition to another variation you can use to complete this encounter.

Map Diagram Explained

• Pink Circle – Kor’Thazz position
• Green Circle – Rivendare position
• Red Circle – Ziliek position
• Blue Circle – Blaumeux position
• Red Box – zone to stand in to take holy bolts from Ziliek
• Blue Box – zone to stand in to take shadow bolts from Blaumeux

There are going to be 4 individual groups on this fight, one for each horsemen.

Front Groups:

• Kor’Thazz: 1 Tank, 1 Healer, 1 DPS (preferably melee dps)
• Rivendare: 1 Tank, 1 Healer, 1 DPS (preferably melee dps)

Back Groups:

• Blaumeux: 1 Healer, 1 DPS (preferably ranged)
• Zeliek: 2 DPS (preferably ranged)
• Note that the healer in the back will be responsible for healing all of the DPS in the back.

My guild uses this particular raid position setup for the purpose of completing the associated achievement. Said achievement requires you kill all of the horsemen within 15 seconds of each other.

Additionally, my guild often only uses 2 healers on this particular fight. This certainly adds a new level of difficulty, but between HoTs, self-heals, and healing during swaps most healers can handle it. I know I said it once, but if this is your first time on the encounter I strongly recommend you use 3 healers.

Optional Raid Position Setup

There are going to be 4 individual groups on this fight, one for each horsemen.

Front Groups:

• Kor’Thazz: 1 Tank, 1 Healer, 2 DPS
• Rivendare: 1 Tank, 1 Healer, 2 DPS

Back Groups:

• Blaumeux: 1 Healer, 1 DPS (preferably ranged)
• Zeliek: n/a
• Note that the healer and DPS in the back will be responsible for both Deathknights in the back of the room.

Group Rotations Explained

The most difficult aspect of this encounter to initially learn is going to be the group rotations. Both the frontal and back groups will rotate throughout the fight as the marks stack up. Note that these marks apply at random, for this reason you’ll want to have a different group transition caller for both front and back groups on vent.

When the mark hits 3 you’ll want to call the switch. When the switch is called both the groups on the respective side (front or back) must transition together. This will prevent any double marking and will lead to fewer headaches for your tanks and healers.

The front groups are the more tricky transition as a taunt is required. If you’re the tank on the a front Deathknight you’ll want to pull both mobs to to a central location between the 2 sides (note the map above), both you and the opposing tank will taunt each other’s boss and you will continue to drag that death knight to its original location.

The back groups are a bit easier, as no taunt is required. If you’re using my first raid setup (with 3 ranged DPS and 1 healer) you’ll simply swap the 2 groups. Since you’re probably dealing with ranged DPS in the back here you’ll want to be very cognizant of your position, IE…make sure you are not eating both marks.

As the healer in the back you’ll simply be healing who ever is taking the bolts on each side.

Interlude on Meteor

While none of the deathknights hit particularly hard the meteor still has the potential to drop a tank or dps if the group does not stack. Everyone who is on Kor’Thazz absolutely must stack up on the tank, particularly if you only have a total of 3 players on that side.

Killing the Four Horsemen

If everything goes as planned with the rotations you should have no problem in completing this encounter. That said, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind to ensure a successful kill.

1. Do not let the marks stack up beyond 3
2. Make sure you are not eating double marks
3. Stack up on the Kor’Thazz so the meteor is always split
4. If duo healing be very aware of your mana efficiency, this fight will test you

Noth the Plaguebringer 10-man Boss Strategy Guide

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Noth the Plaguebringer is the 1st boss of the plaguewing in Naxxramas. Noth was once a mighty alchemist of Dalaran, but turned his back on the light and quickly joined forces with Kel’Thuzad and the Lich King. During the 3rd war Noth began to regret his decision to join the scourge, having witnessed needless murders. In order to quell further disloyalty Kel’Thuzad froze Noth’s heart in his chest, effectively making him more undead than alive.

Noth the Plaguebringer Abilities

• 2,780,000 health
• Curse of the Plaguebringer – Randomly curses 3 players with a DoT that ticks for 10 seconds, at the end of this 10 seconds the curse will inflict Wrath of the Plaguebringer on all raid members with 30 yards.
• Wrath of the Plaguebringer - Deals 3700-4300 + a 1300-1700 DoT that ticks every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. This damage bomb will occur for every curse of the plaguebringer not decursed.
• Blink - Teleports around 10 yards in any direction, complete aggro wipe.
• Cripple - Cast immediately after he blinks, slows movement by 50%, attack speed by 100%, and reduces strength by 50%. Can be dispelled.
• Summon Plague Warriors – Summons 2 adds every 30 seconds. 100,000 hp, cleave, should be picked up by off tank and pulled out of the raid.
• Beserk - Beserker enrages after 3 complete skeleton phases (IE, teleport to balcony), increases damage by 1000%.

Noth the Plaguebringer Boss Strategy

Phase 1

Start the fight by having the entire raid run towards the middle of the room. Keep Noth in the center and have the raid spread out a bit as you start to DPS him down. Right away there are many aspects of this fight you’ll need be watching out for.

1. Noth will periodically cast Curse of the plaguebringer on 3 random people, this needs to be removed immediatly before it turns into Wrath of the plaguebringer. All your decurses need to be watching for this.
2. Every time Noth blink he’ll cast cripple, this should be immediately removed from your tanks and melee DPS, with everyone cleansed after a few seconds.
3. Plague warrior adds will be spawning during phase 1. These should be picked up by your off tank and and immediately killed your raid’s DPS.

Phase 2

Phase 2 begins when Noth teleports up to his balcony. During this phase adds will spawn, these must be tanked and killed as quickly as possible, as there are several waves. The adds are all fairly straight forward, have one of your tanks pick them up and immediately burn them down. The only real hitch in the road comes in the form of the Plagued Guardians.

These will cast AoE for 4,000 damage so you’ll want to try to keep the out of the raid. You should note that these only appear in the 2nd and 3rd skeleton spawning waves. Due to Noth’s low HP it’s quite possible that you won’t see these guardians at all.

Phase 2 ends when Noth teleports back to the floor, at which point phase 1 / 2 will continue to repeat until you’ve killed or wiped to Noth.

Sapphiron 10-Man Boss Strategy

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Sapphiron is the 1st boss within the final wing of Naxxramas, Frostwyrm Lair. This ancient blue dragon was once servant to Malygos and the head of his brood until he was struck down by Arthas. Arthas used what was left of his necromantic powers to resurrect Sapphiron as a frost wyrm. Sapphiron, now an implement of chaos for the scourge, guards the final passage way to the very lair of Kel’Thuzad.

Sapphiron Abilities

• 4,250,000 HP
• Frontal Cleave, 180 degrees
• Rear Tail swipe, ~45 degrees
• Phase 1
  • Frost Aura – deals 1200 damage per second to every member of the raid throughout the fight.
  • Life Drain – deals 2200-2800 shadow damage to targeted player and heals Sapphiron for 4400-5600 every 3 seconds. This is a curse, it can be dispelled. Players who get this should immediately call out on vent to be dispelled.
  • Chill aka Blizzard – this blizzard like spell deals 3500-4500 damage every 2 seconds to those standing within it’s AoE. All players need to be aware of the Chill’s position and do what they can do avoid taking any damage from it.
• Phase 2 – every 45 seconds
  • Ice Bolt – puts 2 players in your raid in a block of ice, dealing 5000-7500 damage to the player and players close by in a small AoE. The raid must stand behind these blocks to survive frost breath (see video below).
  • Frost Breath – anyone not behind the blocks of ice will be 1 shot (over 100,000 damage).

Sapphiron Boss Strategy

The Entry and Healer’s Setup – You’ll want to split your raid into 2 groups. Group 1 should go left and group 2 right. Each group will have 1 dedicated healer who will be solo in charge of healing that group. With mediocre gear it’s still possible to duo heal Sappphiron, but difficult. For players just learning the encounter I would suggest using 3 healers, where there 3rd healer’s primary job is healing the main tank.

note: scroll all the way to the bottom for the video tutorial of these steps.

Phase 1 – Generally speaking this phase is a standard tank and spank fight. I’ve mentioned the phase 1 abilities above, so you’ll need to be aware of all of these. Simply keep the AoE heals cooking and don’t let anyone get too low, especially as you’re nearing the phase 2 transition. This transition is when most player’s are going to die due to the potential spike in damage due to the ice bolt.

Positioning and Liar Layout

• Red circle – this is the outer wall of Sapphiron’s lair
• Green circle – this is the interior green circle on the floor, I use this as a point of reference below regarding phase 2
• Blue oval – Sapphiron’s body, note that Sapphiron’s head should be facing towards Kel’Thuzad lair

Phase 2 – This phase begins as Sapphiron flies up into the air. He will go up and ice bolt 2 players at random, these players now act like shields for the frost breath. Players nearby should all gather behind these players, doing so will prevent you from being hit by the frost breath.

Note: it’s helpful to gather up during this phase so you aren’t so spread out that you can’t get behind the ice block shields. My guild collapses around the green ring in the center, staying close, but also spreading out in a circular fashion around it’s perimeter. You need to spread out a bit to avoid the AoE frost impact damage on the ice bolt.

As soon as the ice bolt block is up you should immediately get behind it and healers should be topping off the raid.

Note for DPS Players – As a DPS there isn’t much you need to worry about…but there are a few things.

• Watch out for the frontal cleave, if you get hit by this and aren’t wearing plate you’re probably dead. It’s 180 degree frontal cleave, so make sure you DPS closer to the hind legs.
• Watch out for the tailswipe, simply stay away from the tail, not very difficult.
• Be aware of the blizzard’s positioning in the room and do your best to avoid taking any damage from it. There’s no need to put additional pressure on your healers.

Phase 1 / 2 Continuation – At this point you’re essentially in a loop of the above 2 phases of listed. Phases 1 and 2 will continue until you’ve either killed or wiped to Sapphiron. Simply continue the steps I’ve listed above and you’ll be well on your way to your first Saph kill!

Sapphiron 10-man Video Tutorial

Instructor Razuvious 10-Man Strategy

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Instructor Razuvious is the first boss of the military wing, otherwise known as the death knight wing, in Naxxramas. This encounter is certainly one of the easier fights in Naxxramas as it requires no real tank (which we’ll discuss below).

Instructor Razuvious Abilities

• 3,300,000 hit points
• Disrupting Shout - Hits the entire raid for 4200-4700 damage, cast every 15 seconds.
• Jagged Knife – Hits a raid member at random for 5000 damage with a 10,000 damage physical bleed in addition, cast every 10 seconds.
• Unbalancing Strike – Deals 350% weapon damage and reduces defense by 100 for 6 seconds.

Death Knight Understudy Abilities

• Blood Strike – Deals 50% weapon damage to the target, 4 second cooldown.
• Taunt - Taunts the target, 20 second cooldown.
• Bone Barrier - Reduces damage taken by 75% for 20 seconds, 30 second cooldown.

Instructor Razuvious Boss Strategy

The strategy for Razuvious really is fairly simple. There are 2 “mind control towers” for lack of a better word, that 2 players may use to control the death knight understudy adds. Your 2 controllers should be your tanks, since they likely won’t be doing any real DPS anyway.

These players will use the death knight understudy adds to tank Razuvious. Please note that instructor razuvious cannot be tanked by any normal tank, he hits for 30,000+ on plate, for this reason we’re going to use the adds exclusively.

Controling the Tanking Add

As soon as you take control of the add go ahead and taunt Razuvious and use your bone barrier ability. After you’re bone barrier ability drops go ahead and have your other controller who has the other death knight taunt Razuvious. Much the same, go ahead and use bone barrier. This rotation should continue throughout the fight, where the only real hitch in the road is when you have to drop the controls to re-click and refresh your mind control timer.

Your controllers should be communicating on vent regarding taunts, bone barrier cooldown, and when they are dropping to re-cast the MC ability. You should never both drop MC at the same time, this will without a doubt lead to a player or players dying.

Healing 101 for Razuvious

Much like tanking, healing is fairly straight forward on this fight. Generally, we have one healer focus on keeping the adds HP up while a 2nd healer keeps the raid topped off. There isn’t much raid damage in this fight, so typically one healer can handle it. The healer on the adds should be casting their longest and most efficient heals, there’s no reason to spam quick heals here due to their insane amount of HP.

The only thing that you may need to watch for is the jagged knife ability, this can dish out 15K pretty fast, and if the player is already a bit damage it can easily be a kill. Make sure you keep an eye on raid debuffs for this bleed.

Panic Mode Tanking

In the event you get to the very end of the fight and just don’t have enough HP on the Death Knight understudies you still might be able to get a kill. Have your tank taunt and immediately shield wall. Granted, you don’t have the same health as a Death Knight understudy, but this can often buy you a few seconds for additional DPS.

This should be considered an action of last resort. If you follow the steps I’ve listed above you should be able to clearly Razuvious without any problems.

Maexxna 10-Man Boss Strategy

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Maexxna is the 3rd and final boss of the spider wing in Naxxramas. This spider queen is a very exciting encounter for all class roles and “tosses” players into positions they haven’t ever encountered in World of Warcraft before.

Maexxna Abiilties

• 2,500,000 hit points
• Web Wrap – The first cast goes off 20 seconds after engaging and each subsequent web wraps occur every 40 seconds. This will send a player flying back to the wall, encasing them in a web that deals 2475-3025 nature damage every 2 seconds. The web encasement must be destroyed by other players to free the trapped victim.
• Web Spray – Casts every 40 seconds stunning the entire raid and dealing 1750-2250 damage. This effect lasts for 6 seconds.
• Poison shock – Deals 3500-4500 damage in a frontal cone.
• Necrotic Poison – Reduces healing taken by 75% for 30 seconds. Can be dispelled.
• Frenzy - Increases physical damage by 100%, haste by 50%, and size by 15%. Occurs at 30% health.
• Maexxna Spiderlings – 8 small spiders are spawned 30 seconds are the fight begins and each subsequent spawning occurs every 40 seconds after that. These spiderlings are a good marker for the web spray, which occurs aprx. 10 seconds after the spiders are spawned.

Maexxna Boss Strategy

As you probably already gathered from the sheer number of abilities that Mexxna has in this fight…there’s a lot going on. For this reason this is sometimes a difficult fight to learn, but once you’ve got the basics down it’s a fight you should be able to 1 or 2 shot every time.

Pulling Maexxna and Tanking Maexxna

To pull Maexxna the tank will simply want to run all the way through her model and tank her towards the middle of the room. Make sure she is facing away from the raid to avoid poison shock on the entire raid. Once she is securely being tanked in the middle DPS may engage.

Healing Maexxna, Web Spray, and Web Wrap

As a healer there is going to be a lot of things going on for you. Let’s just go through each one by one so you know what you should always be looking for during each stage of Maexxna.

1. Tank Healing – Healing the tank is pretty standard. Maexxna hits quite hard, so you’ll need to be on your A game. Always be on the lookout for Necrotic Poison and immediately dispel this in the event it’s applied to your tank.
2. Web Wrap – Every 40 seconds you’re going to have to heal the web wrap victim. Generally this only requires a single lesser heal (…or flash of light, flash heal, etc). Have your raid calling out on vent if they get tossed onto the wall so you know who you should be healing and your DPS know who they should be shooting down off the wall.
3. Web Srapy – This is by far the most difficult aspect of the fight. During web spray you obviously can’t cast heals, so you need to do everything you can to make sure that the tank has been pre-cleansed of necrotic poison and is topped off before the web spray goes off. Additionally, if you’ve got any HoTs or other over time heals you can cast use them (HoTs, Earth Shield, shield, etc.).
4. Spiderlings - The spiderlings don’t do a whole lot of damage, but considering the numbers that are spawned you may need to cast a few AoE heals to get caught up on the raid before the web spray goes off.

Tank / Timing Interlude for Healers Benefit

There is one additional tanking aspect you should be aware of. The frenzy at 30% can be pretty brutal, so if at all possible you’ll want to wait till after the web spray ends before bringing Maexxna into frenzy phase. As soon as frenzy begins just burn her down.

If your DPS is strong enough you should be able to kill her now, if not the tank should be ready to pop cooldowns to keep himself alive (last stand, shield wall, etc.) during the web spray if he gets low.

Pointers for DPS

DPS have a pretty easy time in this fight, the only  major thing you need to worry about is the web wrap. Should this ever be cast on you you’ll want to let your raid know. This will enable healers to have you pre-targeted and start getting you topped off and also let your DPS on the wall duty know so they can shoot you down.

You’ll want to assign at least 2 players on “wall duty”, generally these should be ranged players so they don’t have to go as far. You need 2 players watching the wall in the event that one of the wall watchers gets tossed up himself.

The web encasements on the wall only have 6,000 HP, so they will die very quickly.

There isn’t much beyond that, simply keep your DPS up on the boss, stay away from Maexxna’s frontal cone attack, and help burn the spiderlings down as soon as they spawn.

If you can get through all of these steps you’ll be well on your way to a clean Maexxna kill.

Patchwerk 10-Man Boss Strategy

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Patchwerk is the first boss of the Abomination Wing, also known as the Construct Wing, and is one of the most challenging bosses to initially learn in Naxxramas.

Patchwerk Stats and Mechanics

• Health: 4,300,000
• Melee hits: Aprx: 4-5k
• Mechanics: This is a non-aggro fight, once the initial tank and off tank have aggro the DPS are free to put as much DPS out as Patchwerk will continue his hateful strike rotation until he’s dead or a dies. If a tank dies he will then hateful strike the next highest HP target within melee range (not the main tank though)

Patchwerk Abilities

• Hateful Strike – Patchwerk will use this ability every 2.8 seconds on the melee target with the most health. It does 19975-27025 physical damage and can be mitigated or avoided.
• Frenzy – At 5% HP Patchwerk goes into frenzy, doing 25% more damage and attacking 40% faster.
• Berserk – After 5 minutes Patchwerk goes into Berserk mode, increasing his damage output by 1000%.

In reality, this is a very simple fight…at least mechanics wise. There are two difficult aspects of this fight. Number one, learning how to properly time and space your healers in such a way that your tanks are always going to be topped off before the next hateful strike lands. And secondly, doing enough damage that you kill him before the 5 minute berserk.

Ideal Group Setup:

For new players I highly recommend a group setup that includes 3 healers. With gear and experience you could certainly 2 healer Naxxramas, but while learning I believe it’s necessary to go with 3. Additionally, you’re going to need 2 tanks. What you choose to tank with is up to you, there really is no huge advantage in the class you choose for your 2 tanks.

My guild has cleared Patchwerk using death knight / warrior and warrior / paladin thus far. In my opinion the paladin tank was a bit easier simply because Blessing of Kings added a nice chunk of heal to both players. Now, if you have another paladin in the raid with kings this would not be a factor.

Maximizing Your DPS

Your DPS absolutely has to be on their A game here. Unlike most fights, additional aggro is dumped onto both tanks upon engaging, so once you have a rotation of tank and off tank receiving damage and hateful strikes you should not have to hold back at all.

Start fast with a blood lust / heroism if you have a shaman and immediately start pouring on the DPS. All DPS should use a potion to further increase their DPS (mana pot if you’re running low on mana for casters). Ideally, you’d want to have the entire raid flasked up. Granted, this may be unnecessary, but some guilds that just need that extra bump will find this appropriate.

A good benchmark for DPS in a early level 80 gear should be around 2000 DPS, while many classes should exceed this number.

Healing Rotations

There’s no right or wrong way to effectively heal on Patchwerk, but here’s how we did it and the method I suggest you try. First, we use a tri-healer setup of double restoration shaman and restoration druid.

• One shaman watches the main tank
• Second shaman watches the off tank
• Druid keeps both tank and off tank hotted with an extra careful eye on the off tank, who is taking hateful strikes

Generally, the tank who is receiving hateful strikes takes more damage. For this reason the hateful strike tank healer may be running out of mana. This happened with my group initially and as a result we conducted a mid-fight healing switch. For this switch each of the shamans simply traded healing targets, so the shaman who had been healing the hateful strike tank could get a break on mana.

Since the damage is very periodic (…very small periods though), you can really time your heals for maximium effectiveness. I constantly started and stopped my healing waves throughout the fight waiting for my tank to drop to around 20,000 health (of his 27,500) before letting a healing wave go off. Using this method my mana held up throughout the fight and we were able to successfully make it through after a few practice attempts.

Naxxramas 10-Man Instance Guide & Boss Strategies

Naxxramas is an instance that was once located in the Eastern Plaguelands, but for the WotLK expansion it has been re-tuned and moved to Northrend. The instance is now floating above eastern Dragonblight and can be completed by 10 or 25-man groups by playing on normal or heroic modes, respectively.

The instance features four main wings (listed below). The wings may be completed in any order and are required in order to advance to the final wing, Frostwyrm Lair. Frostywyrm Lair holds the instance’s final 2 bosses.

Naxxramas is considered an entry level dungeon for Wrath of the Lich King, in being such it’s certainly more on the easy side. New level 80 players will find it an excellent challenge and place to hone their skills.

Abomination Wing

• Patchwerk
• Grobbulus
• Gluth
• Thaddius

Spider Wing

• Anub’Rekhan
• Grand Widow Faerlina
• Maexxna

Military Wing

• Instructor Razuvious
• Gothik the Harvester
• The Four Horsemen

Plague Wing

• Noth the Plaguebringer
• Heigan the Unclean
• Loatheb

Frostwyrm Lair

• Sapphiron
• Kel’Thuzad

New strategies will be added in the coming days.