Light & Leafy

What sparkles, shoots out swirly gobs of light, and keeps warlocks’ mana pools full? Divine Illumination of course! This installment finally finishes up the ghoulish halls of Naxxramas! So, hang on to your robes fellow healers (I can say that because even pallies have robes nowadays!)! Kel’Thuzad, your time has come!

The giant frost wyrm is yet again a pile of bones settled on the cold stone floor in the antechamber. A wall of ice, presumably created by the slain dragon’s magic, crumbles to reveal a narrow hallway. A hollow laugh breaks the silence as you walk down the empty corridor — he knows you’re coming. The lich Arthas has placed in charge of the plagued citadel, Kel’Thuzad, eagerly awaits your arrival.
After all, such a powerful servant of the Lich King surely has some tricks to deal with pesty adventurers such as yourselves…

Abilities
Phase One Adds:
Soldiers of the Frozen Wastes – suicidal skellies that will die upon touching a raid member, causing damage to the entire raid. Low health pool and slow moving.
Unstoppable Abomination – large abominations that will need to be tanked because of their high melee damage and the 10% reduced healing debuff which can stack on their targets. Normal speed and large health pool.
Soul Weaver – When near its primary aggro target, the weaver casts a knock back spell to three nearby players that additionally causes shadow damage. Slow moving with an average boss-add health pool, the weavers must be attacked only by ranged dps.
Phase Two and Three:
Frostbolt (single) – a 2 second cast that MUST Be interrupted. Deals large amounts of frost damage to the tank.
Frostbolt (raid) – an instant frostbolt volley to the raid. Deals easily healed damage, and slows all members for 4 seconds. Happens once every 20-30 seconds
Mana Detonation – Debuff applied to a random mana user. After 5 seconds, the player will explode, causing damage to all those around him or her based on his or her maximum mana pool (Mana using melee dps will not cause extreme damage to their raid mates, but others can cause damage exceeding 25,000 HP). The player himself is not injured, but looses around 2k mana.
Shadow Fissure – Targets a random raid member, creating a large red pool around their feet. Detonates after 5 seconds, killing anyone inside the pool.
Frost Blast – Will encase the target and anyone within 10 yards in a tomb of ice, doing damage equal to 104% of the victims’ health over the span of 4 seconds, requiring all to be healed at least marginally until the ice melts. In 10 man, this ability cannot target the main tank, though in 25 man it can happen (though it’s rare).
Chains of Kel’Thuzad (25 man only) – KT will mind control up to 3 people at a time. The mind control cannot be removed and lasts 20 seconds, requiring raids to crowd control the inflicted members.
Guardians of Icecrown – At 45% health, the guardians will appear, each with the same amount of health as KT, meaning they just have to be off-tanked for the remainder of the fight. They have a buff which will increase their size and their damage significantly for each stack, giving the raid for all intents and purposes an enrage timer. They gain a stack of this buff once every 15 seconds.

Breakdown

The beginning phase of this fight really should be a piece of cake. Feel free to smite/judge/moonfire/lightning bolt any skellies that are getting too close to impact. You don’t really want to have to worry about them exploding and hurting your entire group. Usually, by the end of phase one you’ll still have one or 2 of the weavers around, so just be sure to dodge them or you’ll be knocked back. Phase 2 is really where things become tricky, though I personally find this fight to be easier to heal than Sapphiron. Healers should remain spread out throughout the fight, with assignments for either tanks or raid members. For 25, the raid healers should be in formation so that one is on the left side, one on the middle left, one on the middle right and one on the right side. That way, there is always at least one raid healer in range of that particular side of the room. Healers who are healing the add tanks should be on the side of the room the tank plans to be on; it’s important not to have to run to their tank because of the frost tombs, detonate manas and fissures. Raid healing will be a little heavy because of the aoe frost bolts, so healers should really try to keep inefficient healing to a minimum. Detonate mana will usually hurt anyone near a healer, because our mana pools are among the largest. The safest bet is to run as far back towards the alcoves where the adds were hanging out in phase one. So long as no one’s in a 10 yard radius though, you’ll be safe to explode =) With the way healer’s mana works, the 2k depletion from the detonate shouldn’t make much difference, unless you’re really unlucky and it continues to be cast on you. Fissures are pretty easy to avoid, especially if you have your graphics even a tad higher than the minimum setting. It just requires you to pay attention to your surroundings, and make sure you keep calm during the fight so you don’t accidentally get killed by one (but if you do, just remember than most people have in the past =D). The frost tombs are the hardest part of this phase. I like using the /range command to bring up a little tool tip that shows me who’s in a 10 yard radius around me. This way I can try to avoid being too close to anyone in range who might get the frost tomb cast on them (and, consequently on me if I’m cuddling up against them). Healers really do need to focus on healing the people in tombs; if they don’t receive at least 4% of their max health within 5 seconds, they will die. And, as a healer, that’s not something you (usually) like to see. A flash heal, penance, regrowth, holy shock or lesser healing wave should be enough to keep them up until you have more time to cast a larger spell. If there are a group of  frost tombs, a couple of healers in the vicinity should be able to keep them alive, even if only by a margin. Once the guardians spawn, the guardian tank healer(s) should be near their assignment. It’s incredibly important to burn KT through this phase, as the guardian’s self-buff will gradually become too much to possible heal through.
So as a recap — heal the people in ice, stay off the red circles and away from the big dark mind control players, and don’t ignite your mana near others!

 Tricks
Keep heroism/bloodlust available until the last phase. This will allow you to speed through the last 45% of KT’s health, and get you through the last phase when your mana will probably be significantly depleted. You can also use the circle in Sapphiron’s room to position people before heading into KT’s chambers. Staggering the ranged players can also help prevent unnecessary ice tomb chains. The last thing to be aware of is that if for whatever reason one of the tanks die, the tank on KT can keep a hold on the guardians if absolutely necessary. If that’s the case, however, the healers assigned to the extra tank should move onto the main tank as he will be taking increasingly more damage.


You’ve done it!  Congratulations on clearing Naxxramas! Next time, we’ll start getting into Ulduar and Trial of the Crusader!

Divine Illumination – quality installments of your favorite boss kills. Guaranteed to prepare you for all bosses between Sartharion and Anub’arak. All yours for only 3 small payments of $19.99. Please no C.O.D. Act now and receive your very own ghoul Plushy! *limited while supplies last* Not interested? Hrm. Maybe we should just start digging into the Sapphiron fight and call it a day…

Scarcely moments after Thaddius has been slain and his tortured souls released, you and your allies find yourselves teleported to an icy lair. Littered on the ground before you are countless bones, some indistinguishable under the cold blue lights. You take a step precariously into the room, wondering what horrors lie in wait for you. Suddenly, a blinding light emerges from the center of the room, and the once dormant bones noisily reassemble themselves in the form of tremendous frost wyrm. Sapphiron, once a noble blue dragon before being slain by Arthas, stands menacingly in front of your party, determined to guard the ruler of Naxxramas.

Let’s jump into her abilities after the break!

Abilities
Sapphiron is a standard dragon, and as such has both a tail stun and a frontal cleave, requiring melee dps to stand between his back legs and no where near Sapphiron’s tank.

Frost Aura – After Sapphiron is engaged, he will cast Frost Aura on the raid, dealing roughly 1200 frost damage every 2 seconds to everyone in the raid. This can be mitigated with frost resistance.

Life Drain – Every 24 seconds, Sapphiron will cast this on one (10 man) or 2 (25 man) random players in the raid. Not only does the curse drain player’s life every 2 seconds, it also heals Sapphiron. Can and should be dispelled.

Chill – During the fight, blizzards will be constantly moving around the room in a circular pattern. Any one standing in the middle of one of these blizzards will take fairly high damage every 2 seconds, but their movement speed will also be slowed considerably.

Ice Bolt – After Sapphiron flies up into the air (approximately every 45 seconds), he will cast Ice Bolt on 2 (10 man) or 3 (25 man) random targets. The targets will take moderate damage and will be encased in a block of ice until it is shattered by Sapphiron’s frost breath. Anyone around the target when he or she is ice bolted will take considerably higher splash damage.

Frost Breath – Once the ice bolts are cast, Sapphiron will emote “Sapphiron takes a deep breath,” causing a 7 second channeled breath attack that will hit anyone unprotected for upwards of 100,000 damage. The only way to avoid the frost breath is to be behind a player who was ice bolted and is encased in the ice.

Breakdown
Sapphiron is a healing intensive fight, even more so when doing it with 25 people. On 25 man, you will likely want 2 healers to focus on the tank, with everyone spread out evenly around Sapphiron and with instructions to heal those who happen to be around him (an example of this would be to have 1 healer standing to the far side near Sapphiron’s head, another by his tail, and 2 parallel to the middle of his body). Decursing is essential, and if no healers are able to decurse, mages and dps druids will have to pick up the slack.

The first phase, while Sapphiron is grounded, is much harder to heal through than his air phase. Make sure to keep out of the blizzard as it can easily kill an undergeared player or a healer with little stamina on their gear. Healing priority should be given to those who are trying to escape the blizzard and those who are cursed (until the curse is removed). Tank healers should be near their charge at all times, as Sapphiron is a giant creature and being at the opposite end will guarantee range problems. Tanks will be hit fairly hard, and need to be carefully tended.

The second phase is mostly chance. The targets for the ice bolt are completely random, and the quicker you can make it to one, the better as you will be able to survive the frost breath. Be sure to be spread out until both ice bolts are cast so that splash damage will not be excessive and kill players who may not be at full health. After safely behind an iceblock, there is a great opportunity to make sure those around you are brought up to full health to start the next phase 1.

After he reaches 10% health, Sapphiron will no longer fly up in the air, and the healers may find the last few moments of the fight fairly intense due to lack of mana and unrelenting aura damage.

Sapphiron will enrage after 15 minutes, causing his frost aura to tick for upwards of 7500 damage every 2 seconds.

Tricks
Popping heroism after Sapphiron lands from an air phase is usually the best idea as you’ll maximize the time spent using it. Just be sure the tanks have adequate threat before the dps goes all out. Another helpful trick for healers who will be decursing through the course of the fight (and maybe even doubly so for dps so they don’t have to constantly be changing targets) is a mouse over decurse macro like the one listed below:

/cast [target=mouseover, exists]Name of Spell

So, for a druid this macro may read:

/cast [target=mouseover, exists]Remove Curse

Congratulations! You’ve slain a massive undead dragon (how you can “slay” something that isn’t dead is a little beyond me…). Go and grab a nice mug of hot cocoa and a blanket before you move on to the master of the house!

Divine Illumination was so overwhelmed by the gargantuan constructs that were Patchy and Grobby, it needed to lie down and rest for a bit before it could continue forward. Now we bring to you the conclusion of the Construct Quarter — Gluth and Thaddius.

Gluth (aka Frankenpuppy, or as I like to call him, Frank)
Oh, Frank. Were you not loved enough when you were little and normal? I just want to pet you and cuddle you and make you not the diabolical animal construct Kel’Thuzad has made you to be. He’s the only boss I ever hate killing in Naxx.

Abilities
Mortal Wound – Every 10 seconds Frank will cast this on his tank, reducing healing taken by 10% for the next 15 seconds. It stacks, refreshing the 15 timer, and necessitating tank swapping.

Enrage – Frank’s melee haste is increased by 100 for 8 seconds, but this can be dispelled by rogues, hunters, and shamans.

Decimate – Every 90 seconds, Frank will decimate the surrounding flesh, dropping EVERYONE (including zombies) to 5% of their total health. Tanks should have priority heals after the decimate occurs.

In addition to all this, zombies will be spawning from the grates underneath the tunnel from which players drop into Frank’s room. Every zombie Frank munches on will give him 5% of his maximum health, making it essential for zombies to be kept away from him at all times and destroyed after the decimate when their health is at a manageable level for dps to take over.

Breakdown
Having a dedicated healer staying in the back with the add tank is crucial for their survival, as the zombies will infect the tank with a wound that increases physical damage done by 100 and can stack up to 99 times. If it can be done, a shaman is ideal for this position as he can also place down Earthbind totems to slow the zombies and reduce the number of times the kiting tank is hit. Otherwise, assignments should be given out for Frank’s tanks, as well as instructions on priority healing and group healing assignments after the decimate.

So long as the tanks are coordinated, this fight should be fairly easy to heal through. Preparing people for decimate with preemptive hots is also a good way to buy time to heal the entire raid to full again. If zombies should get loose and start attacking players closer to Frank, the best thing to do is have their target kite the zombie back to the zombie tank, allowing them to taunt the zombies into the rear of the room. It is essential the zombie tank is helped with slowing spells, such as earthbind totem and frost trap, so the infectious wound debuff does not stack too high. Once the tanks are topped off by the decimate, the rest of the raid should be healed while they are aoeing the zombie chow moving towards Frank at an alarming pace.

Tricks
Since Frank has a lot of hit points, it’s usually a good idea to save the heroism/bloodlust until after the zombie chow has been annihilated after a Decimate. Also, healers in the rear of the room with the zombie should watch out in case they also get stacks of infectious wound, and should not be hesitant to call for assistance or to switch spots with another healer if their stacks are too high, putting them at risk if they are attacked by a loose zombie.

Thaddius
Curiously charged with electricity, Thaddius is a titan monstrosity. Legend holds that the flesh of women and children were the main components of Thaddius’ construction, fusing their souls together inside the horrific rotting carcass. The female screams heard throughout Naxxramas before the beast’s demise are thought to be the victims used in its creation.

Abilities
Feugan and Stalag – Thaddius’ minions (or perhaps creators) stand on top of two platforms over looking Thaddius. The raid is split into two equal groups, with one taking down Stalag on the left and the other taking down Feugan on the right. During this initial phase, the tanks will be thrown periodically across the pool of slime underneath the platforms, forcing an involuntary tank swap. If they do not die within 5 seconds of each other, the one who died first will be resurrected with full health.

Chain Lightning – Every 15 seconds, Thaddius will cast chain lightning on a random raid member. It will jump to two other players.

Polarity Shift – Every 30 seconds, Thaddius cast Polarity shift, giving every player in the raid a positive or negative charge. Players with opposite charges will cause damage to one another every second until they are at least 15 yards apart. Players with the same charge should stack together as every person with the same charge adds a 10% damage increase buff which will be vital for working through the large amount of hitpoints this boss has.

Ball Lightning – If no one is in melee range, Thaddius will send out balls of lightning to raid members, killing most members (i.e. anyone with less than 20k health) instantaneously.

Thaddius will enrage after 6 minutes.

Breakdown
During phase one, healers should be split evenly between the two platforms. If your group has an odd number of healers, the extra healer should be on the side with Feugan as he has an aoe spell that will damage the dps section on that platform. Phase 2 is less focused on healing and more on dps and proper placement (usually Thaddius is tanked in the center of his platform, with his left and right side assigned specific charges). 3-4 healers should be enough to get you through this phase’s chain lightning and melee hits (as people usually do not survive crossing the polarities).

The most important aspect of this fight is to be aware of your polarity at all times. If you are on the proper side of your polarity, you MUST be stacked on top of the other raid members with the same charge. Even if you are strictly healing, you must provide the 10% damage buff to the rest of your team to ensure Thaddius will die given the large health pool (30 million on 25 man and 3 million on 10) and short enrage timer from the beginning of the encounter. Also, if you are not needed to heal, even minimal dps is better than none. That’s right. It’s time to bring out the smites, judgements, moon fires and lightning bolts. If anyone in the raid happens to miss the jump from the platforms to Thaddius, be sure they stay away from the raid until the following polarity switch — no charge is treated as though it is opposite to both positive and negative.

Tricks
Using heroism after the first polarity switch is key — you’re likely to have the most people alive at this point. Remember that dpsing is your friend, and help your groups as much as you can, even with 0 hit rating. Before the fight begins, establish a set way to move around the boss and set sides for each charge (for example, my raid team uses this set up, with directions applied as if facing the boss from the doorway to his room : Left side = negative group, right side = positive group, always move clockwise around the boss). This way, as people are getting into position after a polarity shift, people don’t accidentally cross paths. Also, Thaddius has a huge hit box and melee should use this to their advantage; they ideally should be able to stack close enough to the ranged dps so they can receive the additional stacks of the 10% damage buff and be at the edge of Thaddius’ hit box so hunters in the party can still shoot it.

Ex. of a macro used in raid chat to describe raid location and movement during phase 2 :

>>WALL>>
P THAD N
O THAD E
S THAD G
<<DOOR<<
Congratulations! You’ve slain the last two bosses in the construct quarter (and in the process freed the souls of a loving*** puppy and countless innocent women and children; heck, Thaddius even thanks you for slaying him!). Time to rest and relax before you move onto the top area of the fortress and the big baddie Kel-Thuzad).

***I say loving because all puppies, even undead ones, are capable and worthy of love.

Each installment of Divine Illumination is guaranteed to bring kumbayah, patcholi, and a couple of magic brownies to raids. They might not be THE magical brownies, but they’re so fluffy and tasty, nobody cares if they don’t infuse THC into your bloodstream. And what better way to add to raid unity than to slaughter a few hulking scourge constructs!

Here we are again: another Divine Illumination, and a few more bosses dead! Please bear through the verbosity of these last few posts; once we’re finished in Naxx, we’ll be putting out posts with only one boss fight per entry. Onto the third section of Naxx, the Military Quarter.

Looking through the archway into the Military quarter, you gasp at the sight of legions of undead warriors honing their deadly craft. Death knight pupils and their masters train continuously, preparing themselves for the Lich King’s dreadful war. A chill runs down your spine as you realize the only thing stopping these deadly foes is your small group of ragtag heroes, any of whom can easily be swayed into the Lich King’s service with one blow of a runed blade.

Instructor Razuvius
The most feared death knight trainer, Instructor Razuvius was appointed by Kel’Thuzad personally to oversee the instruction of all the Lich King’s death knights. He’s rumored to have a move so devastating only one of his own pupils can withstand it.

Abilities
Disrupting Shout – Hits the entire raid for moderate unavoidable damage once every 15 seconds.

Jagged Knife – Targets a raid member once every 10 seconds. On top of the immediate damage, the move also applies a bleed, causing 2,000 damage every two seconds for the next 10 seconds

Unbalancing Strike – Strikes the tank for 350% weapon damage as well as reducing their defense by 100 for the next 6 seconds. As this move hits for well over 100,000 damage on plate, the only people exposed to this should be his Death Knight Understudies.

Breakdown
Healing assignments are usually pretty easy for this fight. In 10 man, thanks to the mind control orbs, healers can focus their heals on the Understudies while one healer can take care of the residual raid damage. In 25 man, the composition changes a little in case you require healing priests to mind control the Understudies. If you use a tank to corral the remaining, hostile understudies, they should be given their own healer. 2 healers is ideal for raid healing as the disrupting shout hits a lot harder on 25 man difficulty. The rest should be used to keep the Understudies alive so that Razuvious never is allowed to freely roam through the raid.

The most important thing to heal through, especially on 25 man, is the bleed Razuvious casts on random raid members. It does a lot of damage, and if the bleed is on a person who is mind controlling the adds, it will shorten their channeling duration; this can lead to early releases which allow Razuvious or his Understudies free on the raid. Paying special attention to the Understudies is critical. While they may have a lot of health, the understudies cannot survive the entire duration of the fight if you do not heal them. Letting Razuvious kill all the understudies is not productive as he cannot be tanked in any other way.

A few tips for those mind controlling through the fight:

1. Mark the understudies so everyone knows which will be tanked off to the side for backup and which will be mind controlled by which player.
2. Always have at least 2 mind controls on 25 man, though 3 is preferable for beginning groups.
3. Create a line of communication between the mind controls. In a perfect situation, the first mind control should go in with bone shield and taunt, and 10 seconds later the next understudy should put on their bone shield and taunt. Following the bone shield cool down after this first swap will help keep things paced out (i.e. after the first switch, every time your bone shield cool down is up you should be taunting Razuvious).
4. As soon as Razuvious has been taunted off your underling, drop the mind control and recast to ensure you have the optimal channeling duration when it’s your turn to tank.

Tricks
Heroism/Bloodlust should be used early on this fight. The quicker the fight goes, the less problems you’ll have with mind controls dying. Also, for new groups, having the 2 extra underlings on 25 tanked to the side away from the group is a good contingency plan in case one of the mind controls are slain. And a reminder to the mind controls — when your mind control is over or released, you will have highest aggro. A bubble will help absorb damage and prevent casting set back while you try to regain control over the mob.

Gothik the Harvester
Another instructor of the Lich King’s Death Knights, Gothik is a master necromancer who can willing summon undead minions at a moment’s notice. Apparently, he and Heigan share a sense of fashion and a love of death charger skulls…

Breakdown
The general rule of thumb for this fight is that the dead side should receive about twice as many healers as the live side since the dead side is more likely to be overrun and the adds hit harder. Otherwise, it’s in everyone’s best interest to split the raid evenly, with those receiving extra damage to undead targets (*cough pallies*) to be positioned on the dead side of the middle gate, near the exit.
During phase 1, Gothik will be immune to any damage. Instead he will summon 19 waves of adds over the course of 3 1/2 minutes. The adds get progressively harder as the waves come, starting with easily killed Trainees, then the death knights, and finally a few Death Knight Riders. These adds will be spawned on the living side. Once the living side kills them, their souls will attack players on the dead side of the gate. As more and more adds start coming, it is up to the healers to keep players alive through the aoe damage. The trainees on either side do not pose much of a threat, but the death knights do whirlwind for heavy damage on both sides. The riders have an annoying shadow bolt volley while alive, and an potentially nasty drain life as undead; their spectral horses also have an AOE stomp on the dead side that will slow movement speed. The trick really is to have good communication between both sides so that the dead side team does not get overrun with souls. Healing is more difficult on the dead side due to the abundance of aoe damage and lack of control in deciding when the mobs are arriving.
After 4 minutes, Gothik will hop down from his balcony and start attacking the live side group. He’s quite a squishy mage; his damage primarily comes from his shadow bolts that hit lightly on the tanks. The real thing to watch out for is his Soul Harvest debuff, which will reduce everyone’s stats by 10% each time he adds a stack (which is once every 15 seconds). Essentially, this will wipe the raid at 10 stacks, or 2 1/2 minutes after he joins the encounter. Every 10 seconds, Gothik will teleport from one side to the other. At 30% health, the center gate will open and both sides can slaughter the Harvester at will.

Tricks
Heroism/Bloodlust really isn’t necessary in this fight, especially not against Gothik himself since only half the raid will receive the benefits of the buff. Healing doesn’t really get very tricky until the last section of the first phase when numerous adds are piling up, so conserving mana can be helpful to burn through the last waves of adds. If the raid happens to be strong on dps and especially AoE, an alternative strategy is to keep everyone on the living side and allow the souls to pile up on the dead side. Around the 11th or 12th wave, the center gate will open, and the undead adds will be able to be aoe’d down.

The Four Horsemen
The pinnacle of Kel’Thuzad’s Death Knight Guards, the four horsemen taunt players into their quarters. They are made of the formidable Thane Korth’azz, the fearsome Lady Blameaux, the former paladin Sir Zeliek, and the infamous Baron Rivendare.

Abilities
Marks – Each horseman casts their mark on nearby players, causing increasing damage with each stack of the debuff and decreasing the threat on the target by 50%. By the fourth or fifth stack, the marks become too damaging to live through, forcing players to switch to a different target. Thane and Baron will cast their marks in unison; Blameaux and Zeliek will cast theirs in unison as well. If no one is in range to receive a horseman’s mark, that mark will be cast as a much higher damage rate upon the entire raid. After they have cast 100 marks, the remaining horsemen will enrage, wiping the raid.

Meteor (Thane Korth’azz) – Summons a meteor on top of a nearby raid member. Like the meteors in the final trash of BC’s Arcatraz, the damage is spread out amongst nearby raid members, encouraging stacking of the team killing Korth’azz.

Unholy Shadow (Baron Rivendare) – Cast upon tank every 15 seconds, doing moderate shadow damage and leaving a shadow damage dot for 8 seconds.

Shadow Bolt (Lady Blameaux) – Unlike the front horsemen, Blameaux does not melee. Instead, she will shadow bolt the player closest to her for around 8.5k

Void Zone (Lady Blameaux) – Will cast a void zone on a target within 45 yards of her. The zone does over 4k damage every second, and lasts 75 seconds.

Holy Bolt (Lord Zeliek) – Also does not melee. He will continually cast holy bolt on the nearest player.

Holy Wraith (Lord Zeliek) – A holy bolt that will chain to nearby players, increasing the damage each jump by 50%.

Breakdown
In 10 man Naxx, the easiest way to heal this is to have one healer on each tank for the front two bosses, and 1 healer straddling the two “tanks” in the back of the room, or having the healer soak the magic damage for one of the rear bosses and healing both themselves and the other soaker. In 25 man Naxx, the spread can change a bit depending on your preferred way of killing them. Either way, there should be one healer on each soaking tank in the back (by tank, I mean a player agreeing to go in the back of the room where the two rear bosses run to soak the damage). If you choose to dps down Baron and Thane simultaneously, there should be one raid healer and one tank healer in each group. If you choose to down Thane first, and then move to Baron (i.e. not switching) there should be 2 group healers and a tank healer in Thane’s group and only a tank healer in Baron’s group.

While there can be a lot of juggling due to the Marks the horsemen cast, the fight is fairly straight forward. At the beginning, the biggest threat is Thane’s meteor — if people are separated from the rest of the group, it can easily kill them. Stacking up is really the only way of preventing player death. 3 marks should be when the bosses are switched if you are using that strategy, allowing people plenty of time to move before the damage becomes overwhelming and a burden on the healers. As the front fights on, the tanks in the back will have to pay close attention to their own marks and the healers will have to be sure to heal themselves as much as their comrades. Any time of multi-player heal (especially binding heal) works well while waiting for the front to finish and alleviate some of the stress in the back. So long as the front stays group together, the only real possibility of a raid wipe comes from the rear bosses killing a player and casting their mark over the entire raid. Therefore, having strong healers in the back is a good idea to ensure the raid survives to take on Blameaux and Zeliek. Once the raid is in the back of the room with Blameaux and Zeliek, everyone must look after their own marks and the space around them. On Blameaux’s side, the void zones are powerful enough to kill players who stand in them long enough to finish their casts (it’s not worth getting off a heal at the expense of dying). On Zeliek’s side, everyone needs to stay spread out, as only a few jumps of Holy Wraith will be enough to kill the next unlucky player to be hit. If your raid has made it to the rear, however, you’re all but guaranteed a kill =D

Tricks
Heroism/Bloodlust is best used on Thane to knock him down quick and keep the Meteor strikes to a minimum. Otherwise, it’s just on the healers to be attentive to their own marks and mana pools while keeping others alive. Don’t try to be the hero who saves the person standing in the void zone/has 6 marks on him; not only will he need to learn to move out of the icky patches, but it’s probably not worth sacrificing yourself over someone not paying attention to his surroundings.

Congratulations! After taking out a sizeable chunk of the Lich King’s army, you’ve won an all expense paid trip to the lovely Cape of Stranglethorn. Enjoy the lush greenery, beautiful beaches, and the great fishing. Take a visit to the ancient ruins dotting the coastline, complete with scalp-happy trolls and flesh eating zombies, or join Hemet Jr. on a wild hunting extravaganza. All of this, plus 4 nights food and lodging at the luxurious Booty Bay Inn. For more information, contact Zipper Travelsocket at 1-800-Go-Booty.

Every installment of Divine Illumination is jam packed with kittens, rainbows and cupcakes! Or maybe it’s just a healer’s guide of sorting through Wrath of the Lich King’s raid bosses. I think I like the first better… Last time, I covered the Arachnid Quarter of Naxx. Time to move onto what’s regarded as the second easiest section : The Plague Quarter.

Just beyond the nondescript doorway, a foul disease is being developed and continually improved upon. Multi-hued oozes and festering ghouls meet your group of adventurers as soon as you step foot over the threshold. Plague ridden gargoyles and maggots infest the corridors, but they pale in comparison to the three harbingers of destruction housed in this quarter.

Noth The Plaguebringer
Once a noted Dalaran mage and alchemist, Noth was corrupted by the Lich King and has been working to refine the technique of turning living beings into the undead. At one point repentant for his actions, Noth had his heart frozen in his chest by the lich Kel’Thuzad to prevent the adept plaguemaster from abandoning his research.

Abilities
Curse of the Plaguebringer – A curse placed on random raid members (10 in 25 and 3 in 10) which if not dispelled within 10 seconds will cause Wrath of the Plaguebringer

Wrath of the Plaguebringer – Caused when Noth’s curses are not dispelled. Every player within 30 yards of the cursed victim will take a sizeable chunk of immediate damage, and additional damage every second for 10 seconds after the explosion.

Blink – Noth blinks periodically throughout the fight, moving only a small distance but having a complete aggro wipe

Summon Plagued Warriors – Noth will summon these cleaving warriors through out the fight

Teleport – Noth will teleport every 110 seconds to his balcony. From there, he will summon waves of skeleton adds for the next minute. The champions are typical melee mobs will mortal strike and an aoe shadow move, and after the first add phase, guardians will also appear and will cast arcane explosion.

Enrage – After three teleported phases, or 9 minutes, Noth will enrage, increasing damage done by 1000% and effectively wiping the raid.

Breakdown
The usual breakdown of healers is 1-2 on the main tank, 1 on the offtank and the rest of the group raid healing. The more important aspect of this fight is the decursing, and using all the decurses you have is pivotal, especially in groups where the decursing may be slow. Using mages and DPS druids to supplement any trees and resto shamans is always acceptable; given Noth’s long enrage timer, the small sacrifice on dps can easily save your raid from wiping due to the excessive damage the curse creates.

While people can be fairly spread out, the room is thankfully quite small; everyone should be in range of the healers at all times, with the exception of tanks running to the far corners to pick up adds. Noth’s melee damage is quite easy to heal through, and the only worries the healers should have during this phase is possibly gaining the attention of newly spawned adds or someone not being dispelled quickly. The real brunt of the weight will be put on the teams’ decursers. Setting up decursing assignments before the pull might make this a little easier, ensuring the team is cleared of curses within the 10 second detonation timer. If the raid has even one person with the curse still applied to them, the healers will have quite the time bringing everyone back up quickly and safely (i.e. without garnering the attention of the skeleton adds). If more than 3 people are still cursed, it’s safe to assume there will be casualties. During his teleport phase, adds will be coming up fairly quickly, though making sure everyone is within 40 yards of each other will help clear the adds quickly with aoe as well as making healing easier through the guardian’s arcane explosion and the champion’s minor shadow shock. After the first teleport, the encounter becomes and easy rinse and repeat and you’ll be skipping through the easiest trash in the instance toward’s Heigan’s room.

Tricks
Keeping Noth in a corner will allow tanks to see the spawning mobs easily and assess their trajectory. Also, if there is any doubt that curses may be left on targets, there is always the backup plan of marking an area for cursed members to run to if they fear they won’t be dispelled quickly. Moving away from the main raid group prevents all the aoe damage from badly hurting the raid, even though the individual member will need to be healed. We also found that saving heroism/bloodlust for after his first teleport works best to get the most out of the buff.

Heigan the Unclean
A necromancer in the Lich King’s Service, Heigan is responsible for the plague cauldrons scattered around Azeroth. Heigan is also a lover of dancing and booby traps.

Abilities
Spell Disruption (Phase 1) – An aura with a 20 yard radius increasing casting speed by 300%

Decrepit Fever (Phase 1) – A dispellable disease that damages the target every 2 seconds as well as reduces the health of those around the target by 50%

Plague Cloud (Phase 2) – A large amount of damage done every second to players remaining on Heigan’s platform.

Eruption (Both Phases) – Three quarters of the floor in front of the platform will erupt in green flames, dealing considerable damage each second. Players standing on the edge of the flame will likely survive, while players in the middle of the flame will perish. During phase one, the time between the eruptions is much slower to allow for kiting between the quarters of the room. During phase 2, the eruptions come much more quickly, forcing players to essentially run wind sprints up and down the room.

Breakdown
During phase 1, the ranged dps and healers will stand on the platform at the top center of the room. The melee dps will follow Heigan as his tanks kites him up and down the length of the room, stand in the designated safe fourth of the room to prevent being engulfed by the eruption. The most important parts of this first phase are a. making sure to stay far enough away from Heigan to avoid the spell casting debuff, and b. making sure diseases are dispelled as soon as possible. The diseases will easily kill melee dps if not cleansed, and reducing health on a tank is never a good thing. There may be a few careless deaths due to the eruptions, but there’s not too much a healer can do to save those who cannot dance. Remember, the platform is fairly big, and if you notice that you have the 300% increased casting speed, you can always back up farther on the platform.
At the beginning of phase 2, Noth will port to his platform and render it unusable for the next 45 seconds. To avoid damage from his plague cloud, I recommend prompting all the healers and dps on the platform to jump into the first zone (near the room’s entrance and on the right side when you’re on the platform) immediately after the last eruption but before Heigan ports. This prevents a lot of unnecessary damage. The next 45 seconds are crucial. You’re going to want to save your uncoordinated friends — don’t. The fight can be done with 4 people (I’ve lived it) and chances are if you stop to seriously heal (i.e. cast anything more than an instant heal), you’ll die as well. And it’s really not worth the repair bill. At the end of this phase, Heigan will hop down off the platform and effect most, if not all, of the raid group with decrepit fever. Quick dispells are essential here. The fight will flip flop between these two phases until Heigan is dead. As there is no enrage timer, the fight will go on as long as there are people alive.

Tricks
Pop Heroism/Bloodlust as soon as you start the fight. This is the only time you are guaranteed to have the entire raid alive. Also, make sure that Ret/Prot pallies dispel some of their own diseases. This saves healer’s mana and can save the pallies their lives if the group is especially melee heavy. And above all, DO NOT RELEASE UNTIL EVERYONE IS DEAD! Common sense says that a raid boss at 40% health and with only 5 team members alive is a wipe. Heigan doesn’t do common sense. One raid I had had 4 people left standing, and it took us literally 8 minutes to get him down the last 30 percent. But we did it. Also, if you release and they kill the boss, you can’t get any phat lewtz. And that’s the making of one sad, plague covered panda.

Loatheb
Killing the two human inhabitants of the plague quarter has led you to the giant fungal monstrosity known as Loatheb. A fungal giant infused with the hideous plague, Loatheb can control the powers of healing itself. As a fun note, Loatheb is an anagram for “Healbot,” which is probably the devs’ cruel idea of a joke seeing as healing is limited to three second intervals throughout the fight.

Abilites
Necrotic Aura – Every 20 seconds during the fight, Loatheb will refresh this aura using a 3 second cast. During those 3 seconds is the ONLY time during the fight that healing of any kind (including stones, potions, and deathstrike) can be done.

Deathbloom – Every 30 seconds, Loatheb will cast this on the raid. It acts like a reverse Lifebloom, doing small amounts of damage every second then blooming for a larger amount of damage

Inevitable Doom – After 2 minutes of combat, Loatheb will start casting this on the entire raid, doing a large amount of shadow damage after a 10 second incubation. As the fight wears on, the inevitable dooms come closer together, giving Loatheb a practical “enrage” timer of 5 minutes (or when the inevitable dooms have only a 5 second cool down), even though he doesn’t technically enrage

Spores – Spores will spawn during the fight. When they are killed, they grant the 5 closest players with the benefitial debuff Fungal Creep. Fungal Creep increases chance to crit by 50% and also prevents all abilities and attacks from causing threat, allowing dps to wail on the boss without the worry of pulling aggro. It also allows healers the chance to land larger critical heals during the crucial 3 second spans of healing.

Breakdown
For this fight, I usually assign 2 healers to the main tank, as well as 1 healer to each group. This gives the healers a bit of focus towards the end when most of the raid is taking damage and there are only 3 second intervals to heal it.

While a relatively simple fight for the rest of the group (provided the tank does not get Fungal Creep), healing can be quite challenging at first, especially for players new to healing or new to their healing class (I can easily say it was INCREDIBLY different healing this fight as a holy priest or a disc priest or a shaman or a druid). Using a strategic placement of lightwell, if it exists, can be quite helpful to allow players the chance to heal themselves during the 3 second opening. The gimmick of this fight is all about timing. Around 4 seconds before the aura is off, everyone will get the message “Necrotic Aura Begins to Wane” on their screen as a boss emote. It’s at this time that players can start casting their longer, larger spells (Prayer of healing, holy light, greater heal, healing touch, healing wave, chain heal) so they hit JUST as the aura wanes, allowing for at least one more cast before healing is blacked out again. Using a Boss Addon with timers (such as Deadly Boss Mods or Big Wigs) can help a healer’s timing significantly as well. In pinches, spells that modify cast times can also be lifesavers. Also, don’t underestimate the power of the bubble. Power Word Shield can be quite useful to save people from damage during the Inevitable Dooms and the Deathbloom’s bloom.
What to do during the 17 second blackout? Well, you can always dps. If you happen to have hots, I suggest preemptively hotting people in the group up, that way at least one tick will heal everyone during the 3 second interval to help control the over all damage. But, if you don’t have reliable hots or feel like they aren’t worth the effort (though they are), turn your attention to Loatheb for the next 13-14 seconds to help down him quicker. Just be sure to be back in time to make sure your big heal lands just as the aura fades away.

Tricks
As a general trick, my team typically has melee dps run out and kill the spores near the ranged dps to prevent the tanks from accidentally acquiring the Fungal Creep (No good it the tank can’t put out threat either!). Bubbles will save lives. Don’t underestimate the power of a Discipline priest in this fight. The fact that Discipline priests can cast one bubble every global cooldown (other priests can only cast it once every 4 seconds on friendly targets) makes it easy to keep large portions of the raid shielded from damage. The most important thing to do is just to keep an eye on the timers to start casting heals so they land just as the Necrotic Aura fades.



You’ve survived the plague quarter! But, uh….could you please go wash off? Maybe use some Old Spices? Seriously dude, you spent way too much time near Heigan.

Sure, everybody loves a good guide to boss strategy. But how often do you find a good healing strategy for boss encounters? Presenting DIVINE ILLUMINATION. Every installment will try to break down our dungeon denizens’ special abilities and make sure to highlight the bits and pieces especially important to healers. Without further ado, let’s venture into the cobweb covered quarters of the first bosses in Naxxramas.

Hanging silently over the archway leading into the quarter, the stony predator seems poised to trap any prey who unwittingly crosses the threshold. At the end of the first short hallway, you and your brave companions catch glimpses of the hundreds of spiders skittering around the large room. There is no ambiguity as to which of Naxxramas’s deadly sections you foolhardy adventurers have stumbled upon; you are in the Arachnid Quarter.

By this point in Wrath of the Lich King, most raiding guilds have already defeated the many-legged foes found in what’s considered the easiest zone of the Naxxramas instance. Still, I’d wager there are a few players out there who have not yet stepped foot inside the quarter; there are also those who may have never taken a healer through this kind of content. And what better way to start than at the beginning. The Arachnid quarter is a 3 boss wing teaming with creepy crawly spiders from start to finish. Like the other quarters, there are no skippable bosses and the progression is linear. Defeating the final boss is paramount to opening up the last section of the instance, known as Frostwyrm Lair. The three bosses, with their abilities and recommendations, will be described in the order you’ll encounter them. On to the big baddies!

Anub’Rekhan

Our first foe is an Nerubian Crypt Lord. Once a proud spider commander under his leader, Anub’Arak, Anub’Rekhan fell victim to the Lich King’s scourge, and now carries out Arthas’ commands from within the halls of Naxxramas.

Abilities
Impale – A distanced raid member is impaled, doing a fair amount of damage and sending the player and all players standing in a straight line between Anubbie and his victim, flying up in the air.

Locust Swarm – An AOE Damaging spell that completely silences and immobilizes anyone in a 30 yard range. Anub’Rekhan’s movement speed is slowed while casting, and players can still use items such as lightwells, healing pots and healthstones.

Summoning Corpse Scarabs – Can be summoned from any corpse in the room (from his adds or from player deaths). Easily aoe’d down, but will likely attack healers do to their immediate healing threat.

Crypt Guards – Are present at the beginning of the fight and will be resummoned during Locust Swarm. They cleave and have a pretty mild poison debuff. When they are low health, they will frenzy and increase the damage done to their tank.

Breakdown
Usually, in a 25-man encounter, I leave 2 healers on Anub’s main tank, 1 on each of the Crypt Guard tanks, and the rest of the encounter raid healing. Depending on the gear of your tanks and healers, you may find yourself spreading the love around a little differently. Almost invariably on 10 man with 3 healers, 1 person is assigned to the main tank, 1 to the offtank and 1 focusing on party healing.

The start of the encounter is fairly straight forward: the main tank will position the giant spider, while everyone else focuses down the add(s). Healing on the offtank(s) may be a little more stringent because of the Frenzy buff the adds acquire at low health, but everything should be fairly straight forward. The corpse scarabs coming from the adds’ bodies are troublesome to healers because of the instant threat we put on them, but it’s nothing that top-notch aoe (or a treepunch) can’t easily rectify. Staying spread out, but within range of the raid, is key for Impale. If you notice several of your allies flying up in the air, feel free to laugh a little then sprinkle on the Circle of Healing/Wild Growth/Chain Heal to bring them back up. Locust swarm is where it gets a little tricky. If your tank feels comfortable kiting, he will be moving around the ring. You’ll need a lot of hots and instant heals, and to be moving with the tank at all times, while keeping max distance from the boss to avoid being silenced yourself. If your tank stands still in the locust swarm, it’s completely up to the healers to keep him alive. You can position a lightwell (if you have a priest spec’d into it) next to the tank so he can use it in addition to healthstones and healing potions. Hots ticking and big heals landing will keep your tank in tip-top shape (as a side note, feel free to remind the melee dps to get the heck out of range and move back to the adds when locust swarm is active. You don’t need to be healing them while trying to keep the main tank alive). After this, it’s just rinse and repeat until Anub’Rekhan is dead….again….for good. He will enrage after 10 minutes of combat, but that shouldn’t be a problem for most groups =)

Tricks
Levitate is awesome to decrease the amount of damage after impale! And trees and boomkins look especially cute when they don’t touch the ground. Also, save heroism/blood lust until after a locust swarm; since it’s on a 90 second cooldown, using it immediately after Locust Swarm will give you the most bang for your buck.

Grand Widow Faerlina

A botanist in her previous light, this high ranking Cult of the Damned Mistress oversees the production of poison (taken, no doubt from the venomous fangs of her comrades) and breeding of the spiders in this quarter.

Abilities
Poison Bolt Volley – Will hit 3 players in 10 man and 10 players in 25 man. Players will also suffer from a poison damage over time after being hit.

Rain of Fire – Faerlina uses this at random intervals throughout the fight, using a player’s position to cast the AoE. Easy to avoid.

Frenzy – Every 50-60 seconds, Faerlina will frenzy, increasing her melee damage by 150% and her melee haste and size by 50%. To dispel the frenzy, you must kill one of her worshippers (there are four of these adds on her podium, and must be offtanked). In 10 man, you must dps one down next to Faerlina, and in 25 man you must mindcontrol a worshipper and use its suicidal Widow’s Embrace spell to dispel the frenzy.

Breakdown
For this fight, I usually like leaving 2 healers on Faerlina’s tank (with everyone paying attention to the tank during her Frenzies), one on the off-tank taking care of her adds, and everyone else raid healing and cleansing.

For healers, this is a fairly straight forward fight. The real challenge lies in making sure the person mind controlling the Worshipper in 25 man uses Widow’s Embrace before Faerlina kills her tank. The poison from her volley needs to be dispelled as soon as possible, and like most bosses, you must move out of her rain of fire aoe as quickly as you can. Having a cleansing totem in each group is ideal to keep the poison at bay., otherwise you non-priestly healers will have to keep dispelling the majority of your group. And heroism early in the fight just helps burn her down quicker.

Tricks

Shielding the mind-controller is always a good idea in order to keep your priest friend alive should their mind control break early. This also provides them some protection against Faerlina’s multiple forms of splash damage that will decrease the channel time on Mind Control. If your group happens to be having issues with the main tank dying on Faerlina’s frenzies, you might consider having 2 mind controls up at all times in case one breaks prematurely (only using one Widow’s Brace per Frenzy though). It also may be worthwhile to have an offtank taunt Faerlina to have threat in case the main tank dies in the middle of the fight.

Maexxna
Vanquishing the first foes thrown into your path, you have now made it to the final encounter in the zone (and I’m sure all the arachnophobes are rejoicing). Once living freely in Northrend, the colossal broodmother Maexxna now guards the last chamber of the quarter, feeding her young the remains of fallen heroes.

Abilities
Web Wrap – Maexxna knocks a player (2 in 25 man) against the wall and surrounds them in a cocoon. The Web Wrap then must be destroyed by other dps to free the trapped player. The wrap will also do periodic damage to the trapped player.

Poison Shock – Every 10 seconds, Maexnna will spray poison in a frontal cone attack.

Necrotic Poison – A poison debuff applied to any melee in front of Maexxna which reduces healing taken by 90% for 30 seconds.

Web Spray – Every 40 seconds, Maexnna will envelope the entire raid in silk webs, causing a fair bit of damage and immobilizing the raid for 6 seconds.

Spiderlings – At the 30 second mark, and every 40 seconds after that, Maexxna will summon 8 spider hatchlings.

Frenzy – At 30% health, Maexnna will frenzy, increasing her physical damage by 75%, her melee haste by 50% and her size by 15%.

Breakdown

F0r Maexnna, I usually like to have 3 healers on the main tank (especially those with heal over times) and the rest on raid, spread evenly from the far wall to the entrance of her lair (this is so no matter where the wrapped people are thrown, healers can keep them alive while DPS break them out).

When the pull starts, healers should run up with the tank to make sure they’re in range to immediately heal and dispel (healing is important should the tank accidentally leave his back open to Maexnna while adjusting her position). Hots should be kept up at all times to ensure the tank can survive the incapacitation that accompanies web sprays. Abolish poison should be continually reapplied to the tank to ensure the Necrotic poison is dispelled in a timely fashion (having a Cleansing Totem in the tank’s group also proves helpful). Players in web wraps should be healed through the damage by nearby healers (these healers can also help break the webs as they only have 15k health on 25 man and 6k health on 10 man *the garden variety level 79-80 Northrend monster you’ll find in the wild has about 12k*). The spiderlings should be aoe’d down fairly quickly, though they can be quite annoying because of the healing threat being generated throughout the fight. When Maexxna frenzies, it’s even more crucial that the Necrotic poison is quickly dispelled and that all healers focus their heals on the Main Tank, especially in the moments leading up to the final webspray. Before the final spray, you’ll want to make sure the tank is at or near full health and has plenty of hot’s and incidental heals (earth shield, prayer of mending) stacked up on him so he can survive the 6 second wrap. Don’t fret too much if you end up loosing the main tank; I know this sounds horrible, but every now and again my group still looses our main tank to the frenzy. Just have a reliable offtank standing by in case the preventative heals aren’t enough to keep the main tank up during the silence.

Tricks
To make it easier to turn Maexnna around as we position her for the fight, we often use Baby Spice to make her smaller and more manageable. Just remember that as she grows, so will her hit box. We also save heroism for her soft enrage. This is solely to dps her down as fast as possible and make the experience less stressful for the healers and the tank that is getting clobbered.

And, there you have it! The arachnid quarter has be squashed into a messy, icky goo! And you have kept your friends from being dinner for thousands of creepy crawlies! Now, where’s that recipe for Gooey Spider Cake?