Military Quarter/Deathknight Wing
Instructor Razuvious
Commander Eligor Dawnbringer: "Pay attention. This is Instructor Razuvious, Kel'Thuzad's appointed trainer of all death knights. It is said that his own technique is so potent, only a disciple of his could possibly withstand his might."
Instructor Razuvious has roughly 10million hp in 25man and about 3.4million hp in the 10man version. This is one of the few fights that is significantly different in 10man than it is in 25man. In the 10man version the two tanks will use Mind Control crystals to MC the 2 Understudies in order to "tank" Raz, while in the 25man version there are 4 Understudies and 2 at a time must be MC'd be Priests since there will be no crystals. In both versions he can hit plate wearing tanks for 30,000 damage on a melee attack.
Abilities:
Disrupting Shout - This is an AoE that inflicts 7-8k (4-5k) physical damage on the entire raid. The attack cannot be avoided and he uses it roughly every 15secs. (Annoying raid damage, but otherwise very healable) Note: This attack does NOT interrupt Mind Control in either version of the fight.
Jagged Knife - Randomly hits one member of the raid about every 10secs. This attack hits for 5,000 damage and applies a bleed effect that causes an additional 10,000 damage over the next 5secs. Can be line-of-sighted. (Also annoying, but healable)
Unbalancing Strike - This attack hits for 350% weapon damage and reduces the target's Defense skill by 100 for 6secs. The attack can hit a plate wearer for roughly 105,000 damage. (Obviously this will kill anyone it hits, so only an Understudy should ever be taking this attack and all other attacks for that matter)
Soft Enrage: None
Hard Enrage: None
Adds:
Death Knight Understudies - These are the students of Instructor Razuvious and will serve as the raid's "tanks" for the fight. They have roughly 400,000hp and there will be 4 of them in the 25man while only 2 in the 10man version.
Blood Strike - This instant attack inflicts 50% weapon damage to it's target. 4sec cooldown.
Taunt - Taunts Raz into attacking them, lasting 10secs. 20sec cooldown.
Bone Barrier - Reduces damage received by 75% for 20secs. 30sec cooldown.
Strategy:
This entire encounter must be tanked by the Death Knight Understudies because no tank will be able to withstand Instructor Razuvious' attacks. In the 10man version you should use your 2 tanks to "tank" the fight by using the provided orbs at the bottom of the ramp. In the 25man version you will need at least 2 Priests to cast Mind Control on some of the Understudies in order to tank Raz. Other alternative strats have utilized a 3 Hunter Distracting Shot rotation, and a 1 Priest/1 Hunter strat, but 2 Priests should still work best.
Good communication between the "tanks" is key to this fight, so both people should be able to hear and speak on Vent. While MC'ing two of the Understudies, you will have 3 abilities to use: Blood Strike - Use this whenever it's up as it will add dps to the fight and help with threat somewhat, however it is not a vital ability either. Taunt - Use this to get Raz's attention and hold it. Bone Barrier - You MUST cast this BEFORE using Taunt. Without Bone Barrier up, the Understudies will be taking massive damage and won't be able to stand against Raz for long.
When pulling Raz you should wait for him to patrol to the back of the room for extra time. One back there, the tanks/priests will move to the bottom of the ramp and MC their respective Understudies. In the 25man version, let 1 Priest start the fight while the other holds off on his MC for a few seconds to better the odds of not having them both drop MC at the wrong time. Because there are extra adds in the 25man version, a tank should be at the bottom of the ramp waiting to pick up aggro before they kill the Priest, and/or have a Pally shield the opening Priest.
The Raid itself can pretty much stand around the top of the ramp and heal/dps just fine from that position. The "tanks" should hold Raz at the bottom of the ramp, just inside the circle area. Melee will need to stay down here with the boss, but once an Understudy has Taunted Raz, everyone should be able to open up immediately and lay on the dps. Because of the extra adds in 25man, one of the actual tanks should hold all of the extra Understudies off to the side within easy reach of the MC Priests. It is important that the tank only hold them however, and try not to dps them anymore than necessary; this also means no AoE attacks from the rest of the raid.
Once the fight has begun, the two people MC'ing the adds will need to communicate what is going on at all times. Once the first Understudy is being controlled, the MC'er must hit Bone Barrier and then immediately Taunt Raz. Because Taunt only lasts 10secs with a 20sec cooldown, and Bone Barrier only lasts 20secs with a 30sec cooldown, the 2nd MC'er should Bone Barrier and then Taunt when the first person's Bone Barrier has ~16secs or so left on cooldown. Remember, that's time remaining on COOLDOWN, not how long it lasts.
In 10man, the orbs will only work for 1min at a time, so after Taunting twice and switching off, the Understudy should be moved towards the back of the room and then released so it can be re-MC'd. You MUST right-click the pet portrait and select "Release" in order to break the MC. In 25man, the Priests should release their Understudy whenever they would like to re-MC. At the least, I would recommend the same 2-Taunt strategy for releasing, but releasing and re-MC'ing between every Taunt is fine as well. Unlike the 10man version however, the Priest should walk the Understudy over to the add tank and release it there instead of the back of the room. Note: In the 10man version you will gain a vehicle bar while MC'ing. Using the "Leave Vehicle" button does NOT work for this... right-click release only.
After Raz is defeated, the fight isn't quite over since all remaining Understudies will need to be dealt with still. They do, however, take 1000% damage after Raz falls.
Tanks: In 10man you will still tank, but with the MC orbs instead of yourselves. In 25man at least one tank should be holding the unused Understudies, while another tank either dps's or stands inside the raid group in order to pick up any loose Understudies.
Melee and Ranged DPS: Once Raz is Taunted and under control, unleash and don't stop until the fight is won.
Healers: There is quite a bit of raid damage to watch throughout the fight, but the tanking Understudies will also need dedicated and massive healing. Have a few people dedicated to raid healing and make sure someone is watching for Jagged Knife attacks. Other than that, healers will need to spam some of their biggest and most mana-efficient heals on the Understudies throughout the fight in order too keep them up. Remember, once these are dead there is no "battle rez" and if the fight isn't almost over, losing them will spell a certain wipe.
Video:
Tankspot VideoGothik the Harvester
Commander Eligor Dawnbringer: "Gothik, the Harvester. A master of necromancy and conjuration, Gothik is said to be able to beckon forth legions of the undead at a moment's notice. It is with his guidance that even the weakest of Death Knights can raise the dead."
Gothik the Harvester has roughly 2.5million hp in 25man, and only a little over 800,000hp in 10man. He has fairly low hp compared to all the other bosses in Naxx, but that's offset by the almost 4min of adds the raid must contend with before reaching that point as well. This fight is fairly easy in 10man, while the in 25man the adds can become quite overwhelming if the raid is undergeared and unprepared for what's to come.
Abilities:
Shadow Bolt - This is Gothik's primary attack and he will chain cast it about once a second on his main aggro target. The attack does roughly 4,500-5,500 (3,000-3,500) Shadow damage. (As long as the tanks are taking the hits, this shouldn't be a problem)
Harvest Soul - Gothik uses this ability every 15secs once he teleports down and it reduces everyone in the raid's stats by 10% each application, stacking to 9x. (At 9 stacks this becomes much more difficult to heal through and dps takes a massive nose-dive)
Soft Enrage: After 9 stacks of Harvest Soul it's only a matter of time before the raid will become unhealable; Gothik needs to die asap at this point.
Hard Enrage: None
Adds:
Live Side: The first 3min 44secs of the encounter will see 3 types of adds spawning from the 3 alcove areas on the left side of the room.
Unrelenting Trainee - 35 (24) of these non-elite adds will spawn during Phase 1 of the encounter. They have roughly 25,000hp (10,000hp) and do not need to be tanked.
Death Plague - Disease that is applied on a melee attack and causes 170 (85) Nature damage every 3secs for 15secs; stacks infinitely but is dispellable.
Unrelenting Death Knight - 14 (7) of these elite adds will spawn during Phase 1. They have 85,000hp (34,000hp) and will need to be tanked.
Intercept - 3sec stun.
Shadow Mark - Melee range whirlwind attack that applies the Shadow Mark debuff; hits for about 5,000 (3,500) on plate wearers.
Unrelenting Rider - 4 of these elite adds will spawn during Phase 1. They have 136,000hp (55,000hp) and will need to be tanked. When killed they become 2 separate adds on the Undead Side.
Unholy Aura - Aura that inflicts 500 (350) Shadow damage every 2secs to everyone with 20 (10) yards. Resistible and lasts until Rider is killed.
Shadowbolt Volley - This volley will hit anyone afflicted with the Death Knight's Shadow Mark debuff for 6,000 (4,000) Shadow damage.
Undead Side: Whenever an add is killed on the Live Side, they will become ghosts and float to one of the 5 bone piles in the Undead Side, with Rider becoming 2 different adds.
Spectral Trainee - These non-elite ghosts have about 36,000hp (10,000hp) and do not need to be tanked.
Arcane Explosion - They tend to spam this ability and it hits for about 700 Arcane damage in a 20 yard radius in both versions.
Spectral Death Knight - These elite adds have about 79,000hp (33,000hp) and will need to be tanked.
Whirlwind - Hits anyone in melee range for about 4,000 (2,700) damage to plate wearers.
Spectral Rider - These elite adds have about 160,000hp (55,000hp) and need to be tanked as well as focused down first.
Unholy Aura - As in life, they retain their aura in death, causing 500 (350) Shadow damage every 2secs to players within 20 yards.
Drain Life - This single target attack drains 12,000 (6,000) life over 5secs; can be interrupted.
Spectral Horse - These elite horses will spawn with their Rider in the Undead side. They have about 40,000hp (16,000) and should be tanked with their riders.
Stomp - A physical AoE attack that does roughly 2,500 damage to anyone within 10 yards, also slowing their movement speed by 60% for 10secs.
Strategy:
The raid will need to be split into 2 self-reliant groups for the majority of this fight. In 10man this is fairly simple to do: 1 tank on each side, 1 healer each side, then split the dps. In 25man this can take a little more consideration however.
When the fight begins, the gate between the two halves of the room will close, sealing off the two groups from one another. The left half of the room will be dealing with living, humanoid mobs, while the right half of the room will have to deal with everything killed by the other group coming back as undead mobs, as well as an additional add from the Riders. Because of this, it is best to split the raid by assigning 1 tank to the living and 2 tanks to the undead side (if you have 3 tanks to work with). If you have an odd number of healers, give the undead side 1 extra healer as well, and try to split up the druid healers if you have more than 1 in the raid. When assigning sides to tanks, try to give the best geared tank to the Undead side, preferably have a prot Pally tank the Undead side. If using a feral tank, it would be best to make them the OT for the Undead side, but if they are one of your only 2 tanks, place them in the Live side. Any ret Pally dps you have should also go on the Undead side. After that, split the dps up by assigning most of your highest AoE dps to the Undead side, but make sure you don't place all clothies only in the Undead side either. Try to split up the melee between both sides of the room so that they can take some of the hits instead of cloth wearers.
When ready to begin, have someone from the Live side run up to Heigan and use a ranged attack/spell to get his attention and start the encounter. The raid on the Live side should back into the bottom right corner as shown, while their tank stands a little in front of them, between the raid and the alcoves lining the left wall.
Phase 1 will last the first 3min and 44secs of the encounter. After that no more adds will spawn and you have about 50secs to finish off the remaining ones until Gothik teleports down to begin Phase 2.
The Undead side should stack up near the center of the bottom wall with the tank between and just in front of the closest two bone piles. Everytime an add is killed by the Live side, their spirits will run along the wall and drop onto one of the bone piles, spawning an undead version of the add.
The most important part to remember about Phase 1 is that, as the tank, you do NOT need to grab every single add, it's just not possible and you will waste taunt cooldowns trying to do so. Try to pick up all of the Knights and Riders/Horses that you can, but you can almost ignore the Trainee adds since their melee attacks typically aren't enough to kill people before being brought down. Another important thing to remember is that on the Live side, try not to AoE all of the adds down or you can quickly overwhelm the Undead side. Stay calm, burn mobs down, and stay alive... if you make it to Phase 2 with most of the raid alive, you should have no trouble defeating Gothik at this point.
Another tip for the Live side: when the first Rider spawns, burn him down as soon as possible. When the second Rider spawns, leave him until you finish off the other adds you had up already. After that use your own discretion and focus on staying alive.
Phase 2 begins at 4min and 34secs into the encounter, whether you're done with the adds or not. When Phase 2 starts, Gothik will teleport down to the center of the Live side, lined up with the central gate. From this point on he will cast Harvest Soul every 15secs and teleport to the opposite side of the room. When Gothik reaches 30% health, the central gate will reopen and the two groups can rejoin. If he teleports to the opposite side, and his hp is getting close to 30%, start heading towards the gate so that you can join up as soon as it opens.
Tanks: Any tank is good for this encounter, but Feral Druids are definitely going to have the hardest time here, especially on the Undead side. As stated before, don't try to pick up every single add or you'll waste cooldowns and miss the important ones. Save taunts for the Riders, Knights, and Horses above anything else.
Melee: Stand with the tanks and try to pick up the non-elite adds before they start picking off healers.
Ranged DPS: On the Live side, pick off mobs with single-target attacks. On the Undead side you can AoE down adds when they start getting overwhelming, but also be sure to burn down the Riders quickly and don't rely solely on AoE.
Healers: The first phase of this encounter will require a lot of raid healing. Do your best and try not to pick up healing aggro from newly spawned adds. Keep the tank up as your priority, but work in as many HoTs and AoE heals as possible.
Video:
Tankspot VideoThe Four Horsemen
Commander Eligor Dawnbringer: "The most powerful death knights within Naxxramas are the four horsemen. They represent the pinnacle of Kel'Thuzad's guard. The first, Thane Korth'azz, holds the power of flame. The next, Lady Blaumeux, calls forth the power of shadows, drawing the souls of the living into the voracious embrace. Sir Zeliek, a paladin in life, so strong in his faith, that even in undeath, the power of the light still heeds his call, smiting his foes in battle. The final death knight, Lord Mograine, was the finest warrior that the death knights had ever seen. However, after the events of Azeroth, he vanished without a trace. Kel'Thuzad has appointed Baron Rivendare in his place."
This is a somewhat unique fight in that you will be facing off against 4 bosses at once, and each of them will need their own setup pulled off simultaneously in order for the raid to survive. All 4 of the horsemen have the same amount of health as well as one specific move that they all share in common: Marks of ___. In 25man all 4 horsemen have about 2.4million hp each, while in 10man they only have about 800,000hp.
Abilities:
Thane Korth'azz: A former Dwarven king, now a Death Knight and will-less servant of the Lich King. He is a melee fighter, and will run to the front left corner when pulled. He represents the rider of Death.
Meteor - This attack does roughly 50,000 (14,000) Fire damage split between all targets within an 8 yard radius of the target of the attack. This is cast randomly on a target within 20 yards every 15secs. (This is why everyone must stack up on Thane so that the damage from the attack is minimized)
Mark of Korth'azz - See below.
Baron Rivendare: The former Mayor of Stratholme, Rivendare was sent to lead the Four Horsemen after Highlord Mograine freed himself from the will of the Lich King. He is a melee fighter, and runs to the front right corner when pulled. He represents the rider of War.
Unholy Shadow - This ability is cast on the primary aggro target every 15secs and causes 4,500-5,500 (2,100 - 2,800) Shadow damage and applies a DoT that causes an additional 12,000 (4,800) Shadow damage over 8secs; cannot be dispelled. (Just needs to be healed through)
Mark of Rivendare - See below.
Lady Blaumeux: A female Human Death Knight, she is a ranged combatant and runs to the back left corner when pulled. She represents the rider of Famine.
Shadow Bolt - This is her main attack which will she chain cast when not casting Void Zone or her Mark. The spell has a 2sec cast time, 45 yard range, and causes 8,500 - 9,500 (2,400 - 2,600) Shadow damage; used on the closest player to her. (Very dangerous in 25man and the "tank" will need constant heals; try to stand far enough away to give the spell travel time in order to let heals stay caught up)
Void Zone - Every 15secs this ability is cast on a random person with 45 yards, creating a black void zone with a 5 yard radius on the ground that lasts 75secs. Standing within the Void Zone causes 4,300 (2,800) Shadow damage/sec. (Don't stand in the void and you'll be fine)
Mark of Blaumeux - See below.
Sir Zeliek: A fallen paladin turned into a Death Knight by the Lich King. He represents the rider of Conquest.
Holy Bolt - His main attack, Zeliek will chain cast this on the closest player when not casting Holy Wrath or Mark. The spell has a 2sec cast time and a 45 yard range, doing 9,000 - 10,000 (2,400 - 2,600) Holy damage. (Again, very dangerous in 25man and the "tank" will need constant heals; try to stand far enough away to give the spell travel time in order to let heals stay caught up)
Holy Wrath - Cast every 15secs, this spell only does 2,700-3,300 (900-1,100) Holy damage, but will jump to anyone within 10 yards of one another, increasing the damage each time by 50%. (This can easily kill the people at the end of the jumping if too many people are close together)
Mark of Zeliek - See below.
Marks of the Four Horseman - These work and do the same damage in both versions of the fight. The first application will do 0 Shadow damage, the second 500 damage, the third 1,500 damage, the fourth 4,000 damage, the fifth 12,500 damage, the sixth 20,000 damage and this will increase by another 1,000 damage with every application.
The Mark of Korth'azz and the Mark of Rivendare are cast simultaneously about every 15secs, while the Mark of Blaumeux and Mark of Zeliek are cast a little less frequently but also at the same time. The Marks have a 45 yard range, 25sec duration, and will reduce the threat of those hit by 50%. If no one is in range to receive a Mark, the Horsemen will use a raid wide AoE attack that will effectively wipe the raid.
Soft Enrage: None
Hard Enrage: After 100 uses of their Marks (roughly 25min of combat), the 4 Horsemen will enter a Berzerker enrage and cause 1,000% damage.
Adds:
None.
Strategy:
The setup for this fight is fairly important and will change a lot depending on the raid composition.
If you have 2 tanks and 3 healers in 10man you will send 1 tank and 1 healer to Rivendare's corner, 1 healer and 1 ranged dps to the back corners, and everyone else to Thane. If you only have 2 healers you will need some kind of hybrid such as a ret Pally, Boomkin, or Shaman that can heal and send them to the back corner with another dps.
In 25man you will basically do the same setup but you will need 2 ranged DPS for the back along with 2 dedicated healers, 1 for each corner that can spam heal their "tanks."
Start on Thane, but remember to STACK UP. Everyone, including the ranged dps and healers will need to be right on top of Thane so that when Meteor goes off, everyone will be within 8 yards of whoever it hits and the damage will be very negligible since so many people will split the difference. If people aren't stacked up, a couple of people will likely die, especially in 25man.
Because of how deadly the Marks become, everyone will need to switch sides after 3 Marks. Keep in mind that the groups in the front will switch at a different time than the groups in the back. The best way to time the switch in the front is to wait for 3 Marks, and then switch immediately after Meteor goes off again. The tanks and everyone else with them will begin running to the opposite corner and the tanks will Taunt the opposite boss off of the other tank, returning the bosses to their original corner. Switch back after the opposite Mark has worn off. The group in the back of the room needs to be within 45 yards of their bosses, but close enough to one another to heal also. These people will also need to constantly switch every 3 Marks until the end of the fight.
Another good strategy works well if you have the dps for it and usually requires a Shaman. Once the Thane tank has control of the boss, pop Heroism and burn Thane down as quickly as possible. You should be able to do this within the first 5 Marks or you don't have the dps for it. Once Thane falls, that group moves to Rivendare and burns him down, while the Rivendare tank and healer head back to Zeliek.
In both strats, the dps group should finish Thane and then move onto Rivendare, with the tank and healer of that boss moving to the back of the room to relieve the groups there. After finishing off Rivendare, the dps group will move to Zeliek. This transition can be very dangerous however, and people will need to do their best to keep a 10 yard distance between themselves as they head to the back. A badly place Holy Wrath can end up killing a number of people, so spread out and move as group. Once in the back, the group on Zeliek should move to Blaumeux and everyone now in the back will need to keep swapping sides every 3 Marks until both bosses are downed. An important thing to remember here is that the two bosses in the back of the room will target the CLOSEST person to them for their attacks, so be sure to let the tanks get in first and they will need to stand almost on top of the bosses so that melee can get in close enough to dps. When switching onto Blaumeux, be mindful of the void zones that will by now be littering the ground around her.
Tanks: This fight will require you to possibly switch bosses in the front of the room. The easiest thing to remember for this is that when told to swap, begin heading straight in the direction of the other boss and try drop targeting of the boss you were on and target the next boss. When you cross paths half-way between the corners, Taunt the other boss and keep going. Because the Marks lower threat by 50%, it shouldn't be hard to pull the boss off of the other tank. When you get to the back of the room you will just need to be the closest person to the boss to hold their attention, so try to stand right on top of them so that the melee can get in close enough to do their jobs.
Melee: Burn down the bosses in order and head to the back. When moving in for the kill on the back bosses, be sure to let the tank head in first so that you're not taking massive damage running in ahead of them. Also watch your distance while fighting the back bosses. If you notice Blaumeux or Zeliek have you targeted instead of the tank, try to back away some so that you're not closer than them.
Ranged DPS: Remember that on Thane you will need to be within 8 yards of the person targeted for Meteor. Because of that, stay stacked up as close as possible to the boss like everyone else so that people are not taking more damage than they should be. When transitioning to Zeliek, remember to stay 10 yards from everyone else so that you don't chain the Holy Wrath attack to others.
Healers: Keep your tanks up as best you can. The healer in Thane's group will need to keep the tank up as well as do a lot of raid healing after Meteor and Marks. Once Thane is down there should be less raid healing, but be very careful on Zeliek and watch for Holy Wrath chaining on people, especially the melee. The healers in back will need to be close enough to keep their tanks up as possible spot heal the others in the back with them. In 10man this becomes even more important since there won't be 2 full time healers in the back of the room.