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.

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.

Kel’Thuzad 10-man Boss Strategy Guide

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Kel’Thuzad is the 2nd and final boss of both Frostwyrm Lair and the entirety of Naxxramas. Once the chief agent responsible for the spreading of the plague across Lordaeron, Kel’Thuzad was struck down by Arthas in the 3rd war. Following his mortal demise Kel’Thuzad was reborn as a Lich and sent by Arthas to the floating necropolis of Naxxramas.

Kel’Thuzad Abilities

Phase 1 Abilities

• Skeleton - These skeletons will cast dark blast on themselves, when they hit someone this will blow up dealing 3,000-4,000 AoE damage.
• Abominations – Apply a healing debuff on hit, -10% healing per hit, stackable.
• Ghosts – Deals a 6,400-8,600 AoE knock back.

Phase 2 Abilities

• Frost Bolt – single target frost bolt on random player, deals 10,000-12,000 damage.
• Multi-Frost Bolt - AoE frost bolts across the entire raid, deals 4,500-5,500 damage.
• Shadow Fissure – Summons a red circle object on the ground under a random player. After 5 seconds the shadow fissure will go off, dealing 62,000-100,000 damage.
• Frost Blast – Casts an ice block on a random player, this will chain to all players within 10 yards, casting ice block on all of them. Deals 104% of their maximum HP over 4 seconds.

Kel’Thuzad Boss Strategy

Phase 1 Tactics

Phase 1 is fairly straight forward. The entire raid will start in the center of the room, after a few moments this phase will begin. Monsters around the perimeter of the room will start to walk towards the center of the room, don’t panic though, only a few will come at a time.

These monsters must be killed before they reach the middle, specifically the skeletons and the ghosts, who both have strong AoE attacks. You’ll want to rely heavily on your ranged DPS here, as melee venturing out too far can risk pulling additional mobs or getting AoE themselves. Phase 2 begins after a few minutes of killing mobs.

Phase 2 Tactics

You’ll know phase 2 is starting when you see all the additional mobs around the perimeter despawn. You’ll have to kill the remaining ghosts, aboms, and skeletons as phase 2 is starting. Just make sure your main tank is ready for Kel’Thuzad at this point.

Healing Pointers

Healing wise there are several things we’re going to be looking for. First, we’ve got the frost bolts, both single and AoE. These are going to be firing off the entire time so be prepared to immediately heal your raid up. You don’t want to leave anyone below max HP for long.

More importantly though, let’s talk about the main issue that may kill people, frost blast. You’ll need to be quick on the heals here. After the ice block lands on the player you have exactly 4 seconds to get some sort of heal on them, otherwise they are dead. Make sure your healers are spread evenly around the room, preferably towards the center so you can heal anyone in your raid without worrying about range.

Positioning and Frost Blast

Frost blast is bad enough on a single player…let alone multiple, but it will chain to additional players within 10 yards of the original targeted player. For this reason you need to have aprx. 10 yards of separation between everyone in the raid. If it casts on 2-3 people per blasts chances are someone is going to die.

Phase 3 Tactics

Phase 3 really isn’t a new phase, it’s simply the spawning of 2 nerubian crypt lords. These adds both spawn at 40% and must be immediately picked up by your off tank. All other phase 2 abilities will continue during these phase.

Kel’Thuzad Video Tutorial

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.

Grand Widow Faerlina 10-Man Boss Strategy

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Grand Widow Faerlina is the 2nd boss of the spider wing in Naxxramas. This encounter features 4 adds in addition to the primary boss, Faerlina. For this reason you’ll definitely need both a strong main and off-tank.

Grand Widow Faerlina Abilities

• Poison Bolt Volley – Hits the closest 5 players with a poison that deals 2625-3375 damage and applies a Dot that deals 1480-1720 nature damage every 2 seconds, lasts 8 seconds. This poison is dispellabe.
• Rain of fire – Casts rain of fire on a random location in the room that deals 2775-3225 fire damage every 2 seconds.
• Frenzy – Used every 60-80 seconds. Increases melee damage by 150%, haste by 50%, and size by 50%. To stop the frenzy you must kill a worshiper add.

Worshiper Notes

• 4 Worshipper adds
• These must be off tanked
• Killing a worshiper add will cast widow’s embrace on Faerlina. This will remove her enrage if she is enraged and silence casts / delay the next enrage for 30 seconds.

Grand Widow Faerlina Boss Strategy

There are 3 fairly basic boss elements in this encounter that we’re going to have to deal with.

First, the poison bolt volly. As I mentioned above the poison bolt will hit the closest 5 players within range. You’ll want to make sure your poison dispelers in the raid are aware of this and quickly get the DoT removed.

Secondly, we have the rain of the fire. Nothing too suprising here…don’t stand in the rain of fire / if you’re in the rain of fire move out. The rains are random, so just be on the lookout of the fire and adjust to it’s position.

Thirdly…

Tanking Faerlina & Worshipers

You’ll want to have your main tank on faerlina and your off tank holding aggro on all 4 of the adds. Neither Faerlina or her adds hit all that hard, until the frenzy goes off. If you want to be really careful you’ll need to do the following.

1. Get one worshiper fairly low, under 10%
2. As soon as Faerlina enrages be ready to finish it off so you remove the enrage
3. Following the first enrage get another worshoper low so you may repeat this step for the next enrage

Groups with geared tanks or healers won’t have to be this precise. You could even try for the achievement on Faerlina, which requires you not kill any of the worshiper adds. If you can handle zero adds down then go for it, otherwise simply kill a worshoper each time you need to remove / prevent an enrage.

Position Side Note

Unlike most encounters in Naxx position isn’t a huge issue on this fight. Just spread out around the room so no more than one person gets nailed by a rain of fire. Tank Faerlina towards the middle of the room and off tank the adds up on the stage / platform area.

Anub’Rekhan 10-Man Boss Strategy

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Anub’Rekhan is the 1st boss of the spider wing located in Naxxramas. In my opinion this is one the easiest fights in Naxxramas, which makes the spider wing a greater location for new guilds to start their Naxxramas learning curve.

Anub’Rekhan Abilities

• 2,200,000 Health
• Impale – Impales a random player in the raid, which sends all players in a small AoE line around that player flying up. Deal 4800-6200 damage and drops you from a height which will deal 50% fall damage.
• Locust Swarm – Casts every 1-2 minutes. Anub’Rekhan casts locust swarm that deals AoE damage around his model. Those caught in the radius will have a DoT applied that deals 875-1125 nature damage every 2 seconds and silences. The locust swarm also reduces his movement ability to 75%. During the locust swarm an elite crypt guardian will also spawn. Locus swarm lasts 16 seconds.
• Summon Corspe Scarab - Anub’Rekhan can summon scarabs from any corspe, both player and crypt guardian . This is random, he won’t always spawn scarabs, but can.

Fight Breakdown

I go into greater depth of each individual class types role below, but here’s a quick breakdown of each sequential step.

1. Main tank leads charge and takes Anub’Rekhan to the back of the room.
2. DPS and Healers take up positions as indicated on map below.
3. Be prepared for impale as they may occur at any moment (though never during locust swarm)
4. Locust swarm starts, tank must kite around the perimeter of the room and take Anub’Rekhan to the other side.
5. As soon as the locust swarm starts a crypt guardian (elite spider) will spawn and needs to be picked up by your off tank. These should be immediately killed by your DPS.
6. After locust swarm stops and the crypt guardian is dead you can resume DPS on Anub’Rekhan.
7. At this point be prepared for impale again and a new abililty, summon corspe scarab. Since a crypt guardian body is now on the floor Anub’Rekhan may choose to summon scarabs from the body.
8. Continue DPS until dead. You may have to complete another locust swarm rotation back to the top of the map if your DPS is not sufficient.

Anub’Rekhan Video

Tanking Anub’Rekhan and Position

Generally speaking, this is another standard tank and spank style fight. The only odd mechanic of Anub’Rekhan revolves around the locust swarm. During the locust swarm no one can be around Anub’Rekhan, the DoT just deals too much damage for anyone…both tank or otherwise to be near. For this reason we have to temporarily kite Anub’Rekhan.

My guild’s solution to this problem was simply to kite him around the perimeter of the circle to the other side of the room (as indicated on the map below). By the time you get the other side of the room the locust swarm should be down and you can continue tanking Anub’Rekhan like normal.

If you have a hunter in the group you should use his aspect to assist the tank’s running speed during this phase. It’s not require, not it will dramatically help your tank make an easy kite and transition through this phase.

Off Tanking Crypt Guardians

In addition to a main tank you’ll need an off tank who can pickup the crypt guardians when they spawn during the locust swarm. These crypt guardians do not hit all that hard, but they must be off tanked and killed immediately. Make sure you pull the crypt guardians far enough away from Anub’Rekhan that you are not getting hit by the locust swarm.

Healing Anub’Rekhan

Healing on Anub’Rekhan is not all that difficult either. There are a few things we really need to watch out for though.

1. Impale - As soon as the impale goes off you need to be trying to heal your raid and get everyone topped off. If possible heal the lowest HP players while they are still in the raid, you don’t want to lose someone via the impale.
2. Locust Swarm – While no one should be ever getting hit by this ability sometimes it does happen, players who get hit should be calling out on vent so you know they are going to be in trouble for a while. You can heal through this ability, though it will be somewhat mana heavy.

Thaddius 10-man Boss Strategy

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Thaddius is the 4th and final boss of the abomination wing in Naxxramas. This encounter is without a doubt one of my favorites. It’s a very unique encounter which provides a formidable challenge for any aspiring guild.

Thaddius Boss Strategy

Feugen’s Abilities

• Static Field – Inflicts 2.5k nature damage every 3 seconds to everyone within a 60 yard range.
• Magnetic Pull - Pulls the Stalagg tank over to Feugen’s platform and swaps aggro between tanks.

Stalagg’s Abilities

• Power Surge – Increases haste by 200% for 10 seconds.
• Magnetic Pull – Pulls the Feugen tank over to Stalagg’s platform and swaps aggro between tanks.

Phase 1 – Feugen and Stalagg

Phase 1 includes the killing of the 2 adds, Feugen and Stalagg. Neither of the adds hit all the hard, the only quarky mechanic of this portion of the fight is the tank “swap”, for lack of a better word. You’ll want to start by splitting your raid into 2 groups of 5. Generally, you should put casters in a group for Stalagg and melee in a group for Fuegen, this is simply so they avoid pushback via the static field ability that Fuegen casts.

That said, this is optional and casters or melee could kill either boss with ease. Either way, you’ll want your DPS to be fairly balanced. You must kill both Fuegen and Stalagg within 5 seconds of each other or they will be resurrect at full life.

When I mentioned the “swap” earlier, I was referring to the literally swapping of tanks. Both Fuegen and Stalagg cast the ability, magnetic pull, which will pull the other tank through the air to the opposite add platform. This pull also swaps aggro. Tank wise it’s no big deal, just continue building threat on what ever add you’re currently in front of. Just make sure your healers of aware what tank is currently on what platform.

Phase 1 Complete, Jump, and Position

Once you’ve killed Fuegen and Stalagg the entire raid must jump off to the platform below where Thaddius is standing. Note, you cannot just walk off the elevated platforms, you must jump right at the edge in order to make it to the lower platform.

At this point the entire raid should stack up on on the right side of Thaddius (right side as if you were entering from the Gluth’s room). Now we are prepared to enter phase 2 as Thaddius is about to awaken.

Thaddius Abilities

• Chain Lightning – Casts every 15 seconds, hits 3 random players for 3600-4400 damage.
• Polarity Shift – Aprx. half the raid will become negatively charged and half the raid will become positively charge. When the same charged players are near each other they provide a 10% damage buff per player, but if an opposite charged player is near the debuff will deal 3,500 damage to the player of the oppositve charge (IE…1 negative in 5 positives, 5 positives will hit negative for 3500 * 5, while the negative will hit each of the 5 positive players once for 3,500 damage). Casts every 30 seconds.
• Ball Lightning – Thaddius will cast a ball lightning for 17,000-22,000 if no one is within melee range.
• Enrage - Thaddius will enrage after 8 minutes, increasing his damage output by 1000%.

Phase 2 – Killing Thaddius and Positive / Negative Debuff Mechanic

A few seconds after you begin Thaddius will cast a positive or negative debuff charge on the entire raid. This debuff is 100% random, but 5 people will have a negative charge and 5 will have a positive. This debuff mechanic works just like the first boss in Mechanar heroic. All the positive charges should stay where they are on the right side of Thaddius, while all negative charges should move to the other side (left).

At this point you should have all 5 positive charged players on one side and all 5 negative charged players on the other. This will award you with a strong damage buff that increases your damage by 10% per player (40% total). If a player has the wrong charge they will “blow up”, causing and receiving lightning damage from the opposite charged players around him. This almost always leads to their death.

For this reason it’s incredibly important you look to see what buff you have immediatly following the polarity shifts. New players might consider having their raid leader or otherwise vocal strategy orriented players calling out the switches immediatly prior to their casting.

Making the Transition

When you’re switching make sure you don’t run to the side of Thaddius or indirectly to the other side in any manner. You must run directly through Thaddius’ model and to the other side. You don’t have much time during these transitions, and even a few moments of hesitation or indrect pathing will cause you to deal / receieve damage.

This really is the only element of this fight that should cause a wipe. Tanking is essentially a tank and spank fight, while healing involves primarily AoE healing. Thaddius himself does not hit all that hard, so if you can make it through these charge rotations then you’re going to be fine.

Side Note: Getting a Battle Rez Off

Due to the nature of the debuff mechanic there is only one way to successfully get a battle rez off. First, the druid must run out the raid (without bumping opposite charged players) to the green “safe battle rez zone” I’ve indicated above.

Here, you’ll be out of range of other players and can cast the battle rez. The player who is getting battle rezzed can go ahead and accept the rez, but should not move from this position until the polarity shift phase is complete and he /she has a new charge. If you don’t have a charge and attempt to go back into the raid you’ll get blown up just like you had the oppositve charge.

Once they have a new charge they can join their correct side.

Gluth 10-Man Boss Strategy

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

Gluth is the 3rd boss of the Abomination Wing in Naxxramas. This plague-dog is by no means a push over, and should offer you and your companions a challenging and exciting boss encounter.

Gluth Abilites

• 3,200,000 health points
• Melee hits on plate targets, 3000-4000 damage
• Mortal Wound – Does 150% weapon damage and reduces healing received by 10% for 15 seconds, stacking up to 10 times.
• Enrage - Gives Gluth +100% attack haste for 8 seconds.
• Terrifying Roar – Gluth casts fear on all targets with 20 yards, lasts 5 seconds.
• Devour Zombie – Gluth eats a nearby zombie (all those within aprx. 5 yards), gaining 5% of his maximum HP.
• Decimate – Reduces both player and zombie health to 5% of its maximum value and causes all zombies to walk towards Gluth so that they may be consumed.

Zombie Abilities

• Infected Wound – Increases damage taken by 1,000. Applied every time a zombie hits you once, stacks infinitely.
• 500,000 Health. Zombies must be kited.

Gluth Boss Strategy

Gluth is a fairly simple fight that can become exponentially harder due to the various “panic mode” aspects of the fight (which we’ll discuss below). There are many elements in this fight, so let’s just start with the first one, the entry.

How to Start Gluth

You start Gluth by simply running down the tunnel. Note the gap on the left side of the tunnel, make sure you run down the right side so you don’t fall in. The tank should lead your charge and immediately aggro Gluth. Upon aggro your tank should take Gluth all the way to the back of the room, make sure you’re facing him the entire time and slowly back him up to the wall.

Understanding the Zombie Mechanic

This entire encounter revolves around managing the zombies, but first you must understand how they work. Zombies will spawn on both of the grates towards the front of the room. These zombies need to be picked up by a kiter (which we’ll discuss in a moment) and kept towards the back of the room.

We keep the zombies in the back of the room due to decimate. When Gluth casts this spell all the zombies are going to move towards him and he’ll consume any that get close and regain health. After the decimate goes off all your DPS must move off gluth and kill the zombies. The zombies only have 20,000 HP after they take the decimate damage, so you can kill them quickly.

Setting Up Your Kite and Position

Now that you know a bit about the zombie spawn / consume mechanic let’s go over how to actually setup the room.

• Orange Circle – location tank should stand with his back against the wall after pulling gluth.
• Green Circles – location of ranged DPS and healers, melee DPS should stand on the rear of gluth.
• Pink Circle – this is the AoE / kill all the zombies zone, in an ideal Gluth kill you’ll have all the zombie adds down before they leave this area
• Blue Box – this area is the overall kiters zone, ideally you want to keep all zombies in this vicinity to keep them off your DPS and healers.
• Teal Line – possible kiters path, there’s no definite route here, but this is what has worked for my guild in the past
• Teal Circle – ideal location where you want all the zombies to be when decimate goes off

Effectively Kiting the Gluth Adds

This really is where you make or break the fight. Whoever you choose to kite will likely need help from other members of your raid to assist their kite. These may include shaman’s earth bind totems, hunter’s frost trap, piercing howl, etc. Anything which snares in AoE will be sufficient.

These abilities / spells / etc should be used in the path of the kite, typically the middle between the 2 grates. This should allow your kiter to continually pick up new mobs from the grate and continually snare them without taking excessive hits that will stack the infected wound.

If infected wound is stacked too high (much over 50) you may want to try getting the debuffs to drop from your kiter by having something else temporarily kite. Generally you’d want to do this immediately after a decimate, so you’ll have extra non-kite time.

Tanking Switches for Gluth

Due to mortal wound you’ll have to have both a tank and off tank for Gluth. The mortal wound buff only lasts 15 seconds, so the off tank won’t have to go long. However, once the debuff hits 3-5 stacks (depending on the proficiency of your healers) you’ll need to have your off tank taunt and temporarily hold aggro on Gluth.

As soon as the mortal wound debuffs drop from your main tank he should taunt back and continue tanking.

Finishing Off Gluth

Killing Gluth isn’t much harder than that. If you can successfully kill all the zombies in 1-2 rounds you’ll have gluth down no problem. Just master the kite, keep heals on your tanks, and don’t let your mortal wound buffs stack too high. Complete these steps and you’ll be another step closer to completing the abomination wing.

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