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

Loatheb 10-man Boss Strategy Guide

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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

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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.

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

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.

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.

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.