The original incarnation of the instance was regarded as the most difficult pre-Burning Crusade raid, and required 40 well-equipped players to complete. In the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion, Naxxramas was moved to Northrend and retuned to be an introductory level-80 raid dungeon. Like all other Wrath raid dungeons, Naxxramas has both 10-man and 25-man versions. In this guide we are going to deal with the aspects of 10 man raiding.
As a general gear check, lvl 80 blues should suffice. It is advised for tanks to have 20k+ Unbuffed health and 21k+ Unbuffed armour, as well as being defense capped (unless you are using a Druid tank.)
A web-covered wing of Spiders and Cultists of the Cult of the Damned. Three bosses. This is the entry level quarter, usually the first one targeted by guilds to gear up their players. Bring Poison Cleanse abilities and consistent DPS.
Once you enter the area where Anub'Rekhan is located, have a hunter misdirect (if available) onto the main tank and pull the boss to the actual entrance doorway area and tank it there while the rest of the raid runs forward and splits into a semi-circle roughly in the center of the room. Have your secondary tank behind everyone, where the adds spawn. All ranged DPS should spread around to avoid the impale. The offtank can add some DPS or even some off-healing to the party, but be ready to pick up the adds that spawn in the back, as they can easily one-shot a cloth wearer. Once the add spawns and the offtank picks it up, all the DPS has to do is simply turn around and burn it down. Do the same when the Corpse Scarabs spawn. This tactic is meant to reduce any kind of confusion in the kiting method, so separating the boss and the add makes the fight really simple. Remember that this method only really work if your healers keep the main tank topped up, especially during the locust swarm. Due to the massive damage that tanks take from the end of a Locust Swarm, any off-healers—such as shamans or paladins—should assist in keeping the main tank alive during this phase.
Note: The adds do not hit the offtank really hard, but with a low-DPS group the damage debuff can stack and be really painful. A nice way to prevent extra damage is to stun, as this prevents them from casting the debuffs at all; these debuffs last for 10 seconds and are reapplied every 2 seconds, so if you can cast a stun (such as Hammer of Justice) when your tank has 8 seconds left on the debuff, and add one more at 2 seconds, the debuff will start to 0 again, largely reducing the damage taken. The goal is to have a chain stun ready when the elite is around 50% health to reduce the overall damage taken. The adds are undead, so the paladin undead AoE stun can work for 1 sec.
Extra Note: The small adds that spawn from the corpse are really fast and can get out of a consecrate.
Grand Widow Faerlina is the second boss of the Arachnid Quarter.
Easier than 25man. You will need two tanks. One tank will pick up the worshippers and offtank them right under the stairs on the left side. Any tank class is good at tanking them, as they don't deal high loads of damage. The main tank will pick up Faerlina after the OT pulls the rest and drag her to the middle of the room where everyone will spread out around her. Every DPS should focus ONLY in Faerlina, ignoring the four adds till the enrage phase is near.
The off-tank will pick all four adds, and start DPSing one of them: the one who must be killed in order to stop Faerlina's enrage.
When the frenzy is about to come off cooldown (10 secs or so) every DPS should stop all DPS and switch target to the worshipper marked to kill. Do not start attacking it, just target it and be in range for attacks. The main tank should go where the OT is, the closer the better, taking Faerlina with him. The Offtank should have lowered the worshipper's health to 15% or less.
When the enrage is up, all DPS should burst their CD to insta-kill the worshipper. If done properly Faerlina's enrage should fade, and MT can move Faerlina back to the center of the room, where DPS can resume on her.
Rinse & Repeat every time the enrage timer is close.
Note: Off-Tank should stop DPS worshippers at some time, because he/she will kill them all otherwise.
Maexxna is the third boss of the Arachnid Quarter.
This is a quick encounter that will be over in 2-3 minutes and hinges almost entirely on keeping the tank alive through web spray. You will need one tank. The tank should pull Maexxna near a wall and face her towards the centre of the room, the raid should position themselves behind Maexxna. Ranged DPS classes will be on killing cocoons. At the 30 second mark Mages will need to be on top of Maexxna to frost nova the Maexxna spiderlings. At this point the raid needs to AoE them down within 10 seconds before Web Spray. If any are left alive it is likely they will kill someone during it as they attack very quickly. Healers will need to apply abolish poison and all of their heal over time effects on the tank just before Web Spray. It is advisable to stop DPS at ~33% and wait for a Web Spray then blow all cooldowns to kill Maexxna so that she never does a Web Spray while frenzied which will likely kill the tank.
Plague Quarter
A wing of strange fungus, ghouls, gargoyles, maggots and other plagued monstrosities. Three bosses.
Noth the Plaguebringer is the first boss of the Plague Quarter.
As with the 25-man encounter, prompt removal of the Curse of the Plaguebringer is critical. Cripple should also be dispelled as soon as possible, especially on the tank. It is possible to heal through one missed curse/wrath, but the total damage to the raid can be as much as 100,000 per application and this should be viewed as a last resort.
If no decursing is available, those targeted with the curse need to run to three separate locations more than 30 yards from the raid, so that Wrath only hits them.
Easiest for entry-level raids is to pursue a slow and steady strategy, where some dps is devoted to keeping the skeleton adds down to a reasonable number, and it is accepted that Noth will reach phase 2. This is most reliable if the raid has good healing endurance but overall dps is less than 14000. Assigning two dps (as well as a tank) to adds should be enough.
A quicker strategy, for raids with good dps (14000 or greater) and a suitable tank, is to tank all of the skeleton adds and just burn down Noth. In this case the goal is to kill Noth before he enters Phase 2, avoiding the Plagued Warriors entirely. If dps comes up short it is not necessarily a wipe, but as many as eight adds will be up at the beginning of Phase 2. Alternatively, this strategy can be done intentionally and the adds can be aoe'd down as a group at the start of phase 2. This tactic can be used for a group with two solid tanks and two heals focuses on each, as well as suitable aoe damage dealers.
In either case, two tanks are needed — one to pick up the adds as they spawn on the bone piles, and one for Noth. The better geared tank should be assigned to add tanking as the damage output of the skeletons will be greater than that of Noth once five or more of them are being held.
Heigan the Unclean is the second boss of the Plague Quarter. This is the famous dance boss that is well-renowned all over the game. If you master the dance then you master the fight. Some may view this as an easy feat, while many players struggle to master the concept.
The RED square is safe from Eruption. During phase 1, all ranged DPS and healers stand here. During phase 2, a heavy damage disease DoT is placed on the platform.
The BLUE dots and lines are where the boss is tanked and moved between every lava burst.
The GREEN line is an approximate of where the lava bursts are split.
The PURPLE dots represent the gauntlet from the old 40 man Naxx, and the YELLOW dot and line was where you were teleported and how you had to run back to the boss. The new 10/25 version does not involve that area in the encounter.
The fight goes as a 135 second cycle:
Phase 1: Heigan is in the field for 90 seconds. Ground Eruptions move slowly, the tank has to move Heigan through the positions shown in the graphic.
Phase 2: Heigan teleports on the platform for 45 seconds. Ground Eruptions speed up, the entire raid needs to move through the safe zones. The platform has to be empty. Heigan will not use Spell Disruption, Teleport and Decrepit Fever during phase 2.
Tips
Whenever a phase change occurs, the safe zone is reset to zone 1.
Safe zones move in the following order: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 2 - ...
Aggro does NOT reset between phases.
Due to latency, other players may or may not appear in the correct position for you. Move at your own pace, do not try to follow other players.
One of the most common reasons for death is running too far on either side of the room. If you are running from section 3 to section 4, you only need to take a few steps (between other pieces, you need to cross the entire next section, something not necessary for their sections one or four). It is possible to cast in the time this buys.
Safe zone cycle is, for phase one: 1-2-3-4-3-2-1-2~3. So, it is the way to 4, back to 1, and then almost to 3. It is this way at least for 10man. At the moment Heigan teleports, move QUICKLY back to zone 1. It will reset the cycle to zone 1 again.
In phase two, move forward as soon as you see the lava coming up (not too quick, though). The best timing is to move to safe spot, stop ONE second, then move to the next safe spot. JUST one second.
There is no enrage timer on this fight, so it can go on as long as you can keep some sort of DPS up. Heigan has been killed in fights taking longer than 15 minutes (due to deaths.)
Loatheb is the third and final boss of the Plague Quarter.
Raids are usually made up of 2 tanks, 3 healers, and 5 DPS. Therefore, a "little kids soccer game" mentality can be used to properly manage the spores - the critical aspect of this fight. As with any soccer game, you have spectators and the kids out on the field that run amuck while the ball bounces around the field.
Position Loatheb in the center of the room. Two healers should be positioned between him and the entry door, closer to Loatheb than the door. Assign one healer to the main tank, and other one to the off-tank and all remaining members. Tip: Tanks can swap aggro to balance damage. This means Group 1 of the raid is built from 2 tanks, 2 healers, and 1 DPS - the "spectators".
Group 2 is the "soccer team", and is built using 4 DPS and an AOE Healer. The 1 DSP from Group 1 should be assigned to following this group. When a spore ("ball") pops into existance, the team rushes over to pop it making sure that all 5 DPS (4 from G2 and 1 from G1) are near the spore. The healer needs to be close, but no closer than any DPS. All DPS then turn all fire onto Loatheb from where they are standing. When the next spore emerges, they all run over and "kick" it to get the buff, then return to DPS.
It's important that all DPS obtain the buff 100% of the fight, or you may not be able to sustain enough DPS. Using in-game tools, 12k DPS should be enough to defeat Loatheb.
This method of a group migrating around the room and firing from spore locations will keep the DPS far more consistent than having two groups alternate. Any movement should be reduced as much as possible, as that lowers your raid's overall DPS. It's good to mark the AOE healer so that stragler DPS can find their way quickly. As the fight progresses, you may want the AOE Healer to pick up the buff from one of your DPS. This will aid in keeping the group alive as you near Doom #20 or even #25.
Military Quarter
A wing of Death Knights and their steeds. Three bosses.
Instructor Razuvious is the first boss in the Military Quarter.
There are 2 Death Knight Understudies and 2 controlling orbs in the 10-man version. The 2 orbs should be controlled by the tanks and the encounter is started by each tank selecting their own understudy, walking up to their orb and right-clicking it to control them. Razuvious will immediately aggro onto them and whichever tank is decided to tank first must immediately hit "6" on your new hotkey bar (pet bar) for Bone Barrier, then "5" to taunt. While tanking use the "4" key repeatedly to Blood Strike for holding aggro. Keep Razuvious tanked near the back of the circle where the understudies are located before the encounter starts, this way when you refresh your orb spell you will have plenty of time to re-control your understudy before he can run all the way to you. Bone Barrier lasts 20 secs so the 2nd tanking understudy must hit their Bone Barrier and taunt before the first tank's Bone Barrier runs out. There is a 30 second cooldown on the Bone Barrier. To help your healers and ensure the understudies always have Bone Barrier up, taunt closer to every 16 seconds, rather than 20. The tanks can see the Bone Barrier icon's 30 second cooldown timer on the pet bar. Once it goes past halfway, the tank should call out for a taunt. Calling out is helpful because when a tank has to dismiss and re-control an understudy, he can lose track of the timer. ALWAYS use the Bone Barrier ability BEFORE you taunt. This is all the fight is, the tanks trading taunts to ensure the tanking understudy has Bone Barrier up 100% of the time. Healers will need to help heal the understudies even with their Bone Barrier up to ensure both stay alive through the entire encounter.
When clicking an orb to control an understudy you will see that your character is channeling the spell and the channel lasts for 1 minute. To make sure the channel does not break while tanking Razuvious. Each tank should refresh the channeling spell every 2 taunt cycles. In order to do this after you've been taunted off of the second time IMMEDIATELY right-click the understudy's pet frame and select "dismiss". NOTE: you cannot use the "leave vehicle" button that shows up in the "=" of your hotbar, it does nothing, you must dismiss manually. As soon as you have dismissed the understudy click the orb again to control him, this refreshes your channeling spell and will leave you with enough time for the 5 second cooldown on your abilities to be off before the current tank's Bone Barrier falls off.
Tips: Tank the boss in the far center of the green floor. Whenever you need to dismiss and re-control the add, move the add to the right/left, far-end of the room. This way, the add will come straight to you and because all melee players are in the center, you have clear sight of him to target. Even better, you can start the fight by using /focus on your add, and click on his portrait to target it whenever you need to take control of it again. Dismiss, click on portrait, wait 2-3 seconds for the "uncontrollable" buff to wear off, and right-click on the orb without moving to re-control him again.
This technique is sometime hard to explain to people, however there are a few things the main tank can do to aid the off tank. If your off tank has not taunted the mob off, you are able to tank a few hits, and with 3 healers in the group, you can heal through the damage if they focus (i.e. 2 priests and druid, spam healed for the entire fight and survived the 10-man version).
Gothik the Harvester is the second boss of the Military Quarter.
Phase 1
Split the team in two half on living side half on the undead side. At the start of the fight, make sure you DPS mobs on the living side slowly. Each mob that dies spawns on the undead side and the undead side has harder mobs, so its easy to overrun your other team if you kill the living side mobs too quickly. You may want to stack an extra DPS on the undead side for a 4-6 split. Typically tank, healer, dps, dps on living side and tank, healer, healer, dps, dps, dps on undead side.
Remember that you can more easily crowd control (CC) the living mobs (poly, sap, and frost nova) than you can with the undead mobs, as only non-elite undead can be shackled. You will also want to put logical classes on each side; for example retribution paladins should be on the undead side as they deal added damage and priests can shackle. Mages and rogues should be on the living side for their CC'ing abilities. Note that a good group should have no problem DPSing either side down, and so CCing often becomes ignored unless necessary for stopping trash from attacking healers. If this is your first time here, split your group like this: Undead - Best tank, best healer, best DPS. This is because the mobs are harder to pick up and harder to kill on Undead side. Also if your weaker group is on the living side, then it becomes easier for the undead side, as the mobs are coming in slower.
Since trainees and their undead equivalent are so weak (10k health), you should ignore them when worrying about slowing down DPS. Riders are especially important to fight correctly, because when they die they spawn two enemies on the other side (this second mob has 16k health and deals a significant amount of damage). Communication is vital once wave 9 hits; you should not be killing the stronger mobs on the living side if the undead side is overrun.
If anyone dies, it will probably be a wipe as DPS won't be high enough to fight off the final waves and take Gothik down far enough for the center gate to open. If the players on the undead side go down, the living side will have to take on the remaining undead mobs when the gate opens. Although you may be able to clear the undead, your DPS will probably not be strong enough to take down Gothik.
Phase 2
Gothik will teleport down to the middle of the living side, and after about 10 seconds he will teleport to the undead side. During this time, all remaining adds must be killed on both sides. Gothik will continue to go back and forth between the two sides until he reaches 30%, at which point the gate in the middle will open up. Players on the opposite side of Gothik can now join with the other group. DPS Gothik as fast as you can, as the Harvest Soul debuff will be stacking (even at 10 stacks, a full party should have no problem surviving to get him down).
The Four Horsemen are the third and final boss encounter in the Military Quarter.
Easy 10-man Strategy
Need: 2 tanks, 3 healers (tested with 3, probably 2 possible too), at least 1 caster dps, preferably with selfhealing ability's.
Why / when to use: when your party dies from taking too much mark damage. This tactic will put less marks on the dps (@ switch from 3 to 3and1 instead of from 3 to 4and1) and migrate damage a bit more to the tanks (meteor, marks) instead of party, so in most cases it will become easier to heal. We got them down the first time using this tactic, after having problems with high raid damage.
All 4 horsemen will run to a corner, where they need to be tanked. The key in this fight is that you need to switch tanking targets after each few marks, or the stacking damage from the marks gets too big. You need to split up raid into groups, and let them stick in a corner.
Group yellow, west corner: healer
Group green, south corner: ranged dps
Group red, north corner: tank + healer
Group blue, east corner: tank + healer + rest of dps
When the encounter starts, all groups start getting aggro on the bosses in your corner. BLUE group go ALLOUT on Kor'Thazz, with skills, cooldowns, etc. he needs to be down fast because of the meteor. RED group just tank Rivendare and stay alive. YELLOW, tank the ranged boss in your corner, and heal yourself and green/rangedtank. GREEN, tank your ranged. (note that Blaumeux and Sir Zeliek cast-attack the closest target in range, so all yellow and green need to do is stay with boss and don’t die. Though ofc any dps is nice)
Now comes the switch. At the moment the 3rd mark hits, YELLOW and GREEN need to switch. They do this simply by running to the others position, because the boss will target the closest person. Now they start to tank the other boss and stack 3 other marks. Switch again after 3. After the 3rd mark hits, the RED and BLUE tank move towards each other, so they can switch targets with taunt, before mark 4. Then move back to your old corner. Start dps/tanking/healing again. Switch every other 3 marks. Repeat till Kor is dead, then move to Riv, followed by Blau, then Zel. Congrats!
Classnotes
Tanks
Remember to coordinate with the other tank, move to each other after mark 3, taunt quickly, move back fast. Don't forget that marks lower threat by 50%.
Healers
Yellow heal yourself and green. Red heal yourself and red tank. Blue heal yourself and blue tank and DPS (AoE heals).
DPS rest
Nuke Kor’Thazz, save skills and CDs for Rivendare. Don’t walk along with the tanks or you may get an extra mark.
Construct Quarter
A wing of toxic slime filled with abominations and their creators. Four bosses. Also known as the Abomination Wing.
Patchwerk is the first boss of the Construct Quarter. He is typically seen as a gear check, and is a prime example of a tank and spank fight. The tank should be the first to engage Patchwerk who will then aggro to the tank and cannot be pulled off by any other player, unless the Tank dies.
You must clear Patchwerk's entire room or else Patchwerk will aggro all other mobs onto you when you pull him (confirmed on 10-man).
This is an extremely simple encounter that will test your gear and the sheer numbers your raid can put out. You will need one main tank and 1 Hateful strike tank.
The main tank and the hateful tank will run in first and will start taking massive damage immediately. Patchwerk will hateful strike the 2nd on his aggro list in melee range. Both tanks should be careful on the pull to establish threat immediately (otherwise, the main tank will take both melee strikes and possibly 1-2 hateful strikes), and melee dps should wait a few seconds until the two tanks are clearly established as the top two on the aggro list before beginning dps.
Once the pull has begun, Patchwerk will still melee the main tank, who will be first on aggro, and hateful the person second on threat; this makes it important establish tank aggro correctly and promptly when the fight begins). At this point it is simply a test of killing Patchwerk before his berserk timer and keeping the tanks alive. You will need 12,000 raid DPS to do this. Patchwerk also does a soft enrage (Frenzy) at 5% health, this should only last a few seconds before he goes down. Damage mitigation cooldowns (e.g., Shield Wall, Divine Protection, etc.) can be helpful to mitigate damage during the short soft enrage period. It is generally unnecessary to save dps cooldowns (e.g., Bloodlust) for the enrage period, though, as Patchwerk will normally be killed before the end of any tank cooldowns that are applied.
Edit: Assuming you have 2 tanks, it is advised to let your "Best" Tank (the one with most Health and armour - Dodge is useful) Be the Hateful tank, and have your lesser geared tank take patchwerks normal hits.
Grobbulus is the second boss of the Construct Quarter.
10 & 25-man Alternate Easy Strategy
Ranged and Healers stand in the middle of the room and move only to reposition themselves closer to the MT and Melee DPS as they go around the room.
An OT needs to pickup Fallout Slimes as they spawn. These should only spawn from the MT, they are from his spray. Melee DPS needs to be sure they are on his side, if they get hit with his spray, more slimes will spawn.
To begin the pull, have the tank stand on the grating by the ramp. The boss will body pull from here. Everyone else needs to stand back from the ramp.
The tank will then begin to kite the boss counter-clockwise keeping him on the grating. I find the best pace is for the tank to toggle his walk/run key to make him move at a walk speed. Once on the other side of the grate, from the ramp pulling position, go just a bit further out to be parallel to the ramp then turn in and head straight for the ramp. Once to the ramp get back onto the grate and continue as before.
When someone gets injected they will run behind the tank, where no clouds from Grobbulous are, and to the wall. This ensures that everyone knows where to go, that there is not a buildup of clouds and that the group is not closed in on by clouds.
By the time you get to the ramp again after kiting the boss around the grate and across the top of the room to the ramp, the first clouds emitted by Grobbulus will have dissipated allowing you to continue kiting him on the grate.
Gluth is the third boss of the Construct Quarter.
Tanking this encounter requires switching, and if vent is not avaliable, make a macro with a Raid Warning "Tank Switch" when the stacks get too high. Our tanks (although it was our first time in naxx) were fully geared from Heroic's and emblems, so we could survive 3 stacks of the de-buff then switch - if your tanks are def capped with low avoidance, or not def capped switch more often - however if you are not def capped it is unlikely u will make it this far.
The main tank should always be tanking gluth, unless he has 3 stacks, the OT will hold aggro for 12-15seconds while the de-buff wears off the main, tank, so the tank can take over again. Positioning here dosent matter, but if your healers are inexperienced and jumpy, its a good idea to position the off tank behind gluth till he needs to taunt. this makes gluth turn around, so the healers have a visual aid for the tank switch. (the off tank will run through gluth and take the Main Tanks place) Experienced groups can just stack the tanks on top of each other.
The most difficult part of this encounter is the zombie chow, as correctly stated above, they spawn from the grates periodically. in the 10man you only need one kiter, and the most effective is a frost mage,(if they are willing, have a mage re-specc for this encounter) Keep the chow as far away from the boss as possible, to avoid devouring, and use all slow/stun moves to aid the kiter.
WARNING! DO NOT ATTEMPT TO KILL THE CHOW. Even on normal, they have 500k health and there is usually 5-10 up at a time, and if a raid can do that much aoe damage they shouldn't be focusing on the chow :P.
After decimate have your mage use whatever shield he/she has access to and use frost nova, the rest of the dps shoul then run in and Aoe the chow. In the case of starter raids (slightly undergeared) divert all DPS onto the chow, leaving just the tank and Off tank on the boss.
One of the hardest things for new groups is actually beating gluths enrage timer, once the mage has got the kiting perfected, you need to focus on maxing dps. Soft cooldowns (anything which resets in 3mins or less) should be used on entry, with heavy cools like bloodlust, being saved.
There seems to be a fault with the Deadly boss mod enrage timer, where enrage does not happen till 32seconds after the mod declares it. so ignore it.
With your mage busy with the adds and your hunter/ ranged dps switching back and forth, you are heavily reliant on good melee dps to bring down gluth. shaman totems to enhance melee damage, warrior shouts/ paladin blessings and death knights "horn of winter" should be kept up at all times, Gulth has approximatly 3million health (assuming that your kiter lets a few chow through) so your dps needs to max out damage as often as possible.
After the 3rd decimate, roughly 4-5mins in, you need to hit all your Cool's, soft cools wil have refreshed, and big cools like bloodlust should be hit. gluth should be on approximatly 25-35% health, if he isn't chances are you will not beat the enrage timer. (well established groups may well have downed gluth by this point so ignore this)
This is the point where you burn your mana, healers should be running low, so top off the tank and use whatever youve got to do some extra boss damage, before using your "shadowfiend" type move. if gluth does not die before the next decimate, you will inevitably wipe at the decimate, because the chow will be piling up and your mage will be oom. have your dedicated healer leave the mage and apply some last min DPS on the boss. If he is below 5% at the next decimate, leave the adds alone, focus your fire and kill the boss, slowing not slaying the adds.
Notably, the pacing of dps on Feugen and Stalagg may have to be monitored more carefully in this version of the fight. For a 10-man group running 2 tanks, 3 healers, and 5 dps, splitting the raid will mean that one side has more dps players than the other. Consequently, dps on one side may need to slow down for a brief period of time, to ensure that Feugen and Stalagg are killed within 5 seconds of each other and do not resurrect.
The two polarity techniques for this encouter are the "Two-point" and "Four-point" - If you have done 40man naxx at level 60, you are likely to have learn't the 4point, but i would reccomend the two point here.
It basically involves assigning a direction to each polarity (usualy Minus = left and Plus = right). As you look in the room before you attack the two mini bosses you will see thaddius, to the left of him (as you are facing) and to the right are what is refered too by left and right.
You only need to get this bit right Once!
when you pull thaddius stack up on the tank (use raid markings on the tank so people know where to go - but remove it before the polarity shift) then when he does it a first time:
Go RIGHT if you have a PLUS LEFT if you have a MINUS
From then on the fight becomes simple. Stack ontop of each other in melee range - this assures that everyone gets the buff and due to thaddius's huge hitbox, you can be well out of range of the other group members with different charges.
Correct me if i'm wrong but, out tanks never got the same polarity throughout this encounter, so one was always at each side, if this is correct, you can then mark both tanks and use those so people know where to stack.
When Thaddius changes polarity again, you must look carefully - if your Polarity has CHANGED, run through the boss and stack on the other side.
If it didnt change STAY WHERE YOU ARE!
continue this for 4-5 mins and you will either kill him or kill yourself depending on how well your group has mastered the movement technique.
This technique requires fast reactions and good awareness of de-buffs - as there does seem to be some fault with some mods for this encounter. If you are part of the same group that Downed Grobbulus, you are likely to be able to posses the IQ to do this encounter.
In 10 man if one person messes up - this does not mean a wipe, if you are unsure where to go, move our of melee range and stand as far away from the boss and both groups as possible, until you understand the mechanic.
Things that go wrong!
Your ranged dps do not stack in melee range, and cannot run through the boss in time in the 5 seconds.
Someone in the group gets the polarity wrong and stands at the wrong side (usually wiping half the raid - this can be made up for if thaddius is almost dead - <10%>
The Frozen Heart of Naxxramas, unlocked by completing the first four quarters. Two bosses.
The tank should engage Sapphiron and point him towards the door to Kel'Thuzad's chamber. Healers and DPS should spread out on one side of Sapphiron. Do not have people on both sides or they may be unable to reach the ice blocks in time during Deep Breath. Melee should stack up near Sapphiron's hind leg and be ready to move out should an ice storm drift towards them. Decursers and healers will need to be in a position to reach everyone in the raid. Missed curses not only may kill a player but will also heal Sapphiron a considerable amount. Be aware of the massive hitbox of Sapphiron's cleave. It is advisable to simply heal the tank through Chill should it be on him. Moving Sapphiron is very dangerous. Everyone else should take great care to avoid being hit by Chill as the slow effect may prevent you from escaping and Chill hits quite hard.
After Sapphiron takes to the air, everyone (including the tank) should spread out around the first player to be Ice Bolted. It is important not to immediately stack on top of the Ice Block as the second Ice Bolt's AoE will then hit multiple players causing a lot of unnecessary damage. It is also quite possible a Chill will drift over the first block meaning the raid should run behind the second. As soon as Sapphiron casts his last (third) Ice Bolt the entire raid must get behind one of the Ice Blocks and ensure they are out of line of sight of Sapphiron for his deep breath. As soon as the ice blocks are shattered the tank must run and pick up and reposition Sapphiron as he will land immediately and phases one & two repeat again until Sapphiron is dead.
Note: As mentioned above, it is recommended to have at least 300 frost resist for the 25-man version of Sapphiron. Keep in mind that Sapphiron's frost aura is hitting for more damage and is hitting even more players, giving frost aura a huge boost to total damage done. A player's aura or totem only gives 130 frost resistance which equals roughly 23.5% frost damage reduction. This means, Sapphiron's frost aura will be hitting the raid for 30,604 damage every second. A player with 300 frost resist, which is easily obtainable at level 80 (All armor crafting professions make 3 bind on equip pieces of frost resist gear), reduces Sapphiron's frost aura damage by 54.2% which equals to 18,316 damage every second, making this fight "considerably easier" for the healers. It is also recommended that the tank should not use frost resist gear, unless he or she can do so while remaining at 540 defense.
Chill Kiting
Chill is possibly the most dangerous ability in the Sapphiron fight because it can easily wipe the raid in the event that one or both ice blocks are caught in it and it spawns with some deal of randomness, creating an X-factor for the fight. Chill Kiting is a strategy developed and employed by Guild:Reciprocity (Emerald Dream US) as a means of limiting the damage caused by Chill, allowing healers to conserve their mana.
Using the tactics above, the ranged group will also be responsible for coordinating the Chill Kiting which can require some coordination between the tank, melee group, and ranged group. As Chill approaches the ranged group they should attempt to keep the Chill blizzard to their left shoulder while maintaining DPS and heals. They should start DPS from the back side of Sapphiron and slowly move towards the head as the Chill blizzard follows them.
As the ranged group approaches the head, the tank should slowly rotate Sapphiron a quarter of the way around, putting the ranged group back towards the back quarter of Sapphiron.
When Sapphiron enters Phase 2, the ranged, melee and tank should converge and make their way around the room, counter clockwise (keeping their distance to avoid AoE from the Ice Bolt), until they are a sufficient distance from the Chill blizzard or until the first Raid member is Ice Blocked. At that point, they should wait for the second member to be Ice Blocked and run behind either one (whichever is the safest distance from the Chill blizzard).
When Sapphiron lands, the Chill Kiting continues from the beginning and follows the same procedures until Sapphiron is downed.
Note: Chill has a 10 second duration and may spawn at another random location in the raid, which could be on top of one of your ice blocks, but in most cases Chill Kiting will save all, if not a few seconds, of healing required due to Chill, which can mean a big difference in your end result.
(Pre-Patch) The 10-man abilities only comprise of the Frost Bolts (single-target frost bolt can be interupted), the Raid-wide Frost Bolts (must be healed through) Mana Detonation (positional), and Shadow Fissure (instant death if in the area of effect). Healers, it's important to keep the raid topped off and heal the frost bolted target ASAP. A best case scenario will have a designated healer(s) watching for Frost Blast, a healer for the tank and aoe/chain heals for the raid-wise frost-bolts. The frost raid healer will need to stand more towards the center of the raid to have access to the entire raid. Healers should also be ready to heal each other in case of Frost Blasts, and to fill in for each other as needed.
