In the spirit of A Hunter’s Guide to Karazhan Bosses, I now present you with: A Hunter’s Guide to Naxxramas Bosses! A quick reference guide for those of you who are perhaps newer to Naxx. Remember though, you may or may not do the bosses in this order… so a handy-dandy navigation menu for you (articles will be linked to as they go live):

Navigation:
Spider Wing: Anub’rekhan, Grand Widow Faerlina, Maexxna
Plague Wing: Noth the Plaguebringer, Heigan the Unclean, Loatheb
Abomination Wing: Patchwerk, Grobbulus, Gluth, Thaddius
Military Wing: Instructor Razuvious, Gothik the Harvester, Four Horsemen
Frostwyrm Lair: Sapphiron, Kel’Thuzad

MILITARY WING:

Instructor Razuvious:

“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.”

Primarily a fight for whoever is going to be operating the mind-control-dealybobs, this is a DPS fest pure and simple for hunters. Well, aside from the giggling that you’re allowed to do at the expense of Razuvious’s crew-cut. *cough* Be careful when using Multishot because I’ve seen the Mind Control wear off for a second sometimes. Other than that, be watchful for a knife that is going to be flung around to various raid members and will put a big DoT on you. You may have to call this out over Vent if your healers are newer to the instance and not expecting it.

Gothik the Harvester:

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.

This is another one of those “put your pet on Defensive” fights. So do that!

Fight goes like this: the raid will be split up into two groups, one for “Live Side” and one for “Dead Side”. “Dead Side” is the one with piles of skulls in it, so you know where to go if you’re assigned there.

Stuff is going to show up on Live Side and when they die they’ll show up as ghosts on Dead Side. DPS them down. Starts out slowly but gets more hectic as time goes on, and I’ve seen more wipes here than I care to admit (mostly from Live Side going too fast and overwhelming Dead Side).

Eventually Gothik will show up and teleport back and forth between the sides before the gates open and everyone can just focus on him. He goes down very surprisingly quick and for the most part, when he shows up, you know you’ve won– go directly to epics, do not pass Go, do not collect 200 gold.

Take your pet off of Defensive after this fight. >.>

Four Horsemen:

“The most powerful Death Knights within Naxxramas are the four horsemen. They represent the pinnacle of Kel’Thuzad’s guard.”

I adore this encounter. It may take a little while for you to realize what’s going on, and strategies differ from group to group, but I still <3 it. If you are in the “front”: There are two main strategies here. The first strategy, and the one commonly used if your DPS is still gearing up, is for the two tanks to swap out their bosses. What this means is that you will DPS a boss until you get three “marks”– a stacking debuff– on you, at which point the tanks will run to the middle and switch our their bosses, and this will continue until the two bosses are down. The second strategy, commonly used if your DPS is good and/or you have a shaman for Heroism/Bloodlust, is to burn down the first boss and then run over and burn down the second. Either way, be sure you are standing as close to the boss as you can while still maintaining range– there will be issues if you are standing far away!

Once the two bosses in front are down, head to the back and take turns DPS’ing the two bosses back there. Just keep an eye out for your own marks on you, if you get a stack of three you want to head to the other boss for a while.

If you are in the “back”: Hunter tank! Woot! I love the back. I always volunteer for it. I know it’s silly, but hey. You’ll be back here with someone who can heal and so your main job is, literally, to “tank” a boss back here. They don’t hit very hard and are casters, so basically you’ll just be shooting them and then swapping to the other boss with someone else when necessary – i.e, when you’ve got three marks on you. I would advise against sending your pet in– Ferocity pets die pretty quickly unless you know your healer will be keeping him up. Also, these bosses target whoever is closest, so you can keep your pet by your side, just turn a little so you are the closer to the boss of the two of you.

And that, as they say, is that.

And so our heroes make their way to the dreaded Frostwyrm Lair, home of some of Azeroth’s most vile denizens. Find out why Sapphiron is Mister White Christmas and Mister Snow tomorrow… same time, same place!