Here’s some of my boss notes for handling the bosses in Naxxramas.
Much higher quality guides can be found at
- Arachnid (Spider)
- Plague
- Abomination (Construct)
and
- Arachnid (Spider)
- Plague
- Abomination (Construct)
- Deathknight
Here however is my take on the bosses. These are all taken from the role that I personally play in the instances in my raid team, so some fights are Zerg’s for us while they may well be harder for you.
Addons: Get BigWigs or Deadly Boss Mods. Get a Totem Timer so you can tell when e.g. EarthBind is going to expire. Have an encounter specific Hotkey, some encounters require a specific, but little used totem, this is where you put it for instant access.
Spider Wing
Anub’Rekhan
Cleanse Poisons. Heal away.
Grand Widow Faerlina
Usual.
Maexxna
Usual.
The Plague Quarter
Noth the Plaguebringer
Decurse
Heigan the Unclean
Two phases, “off platform” and “dance” (repeats).
When Heigan is “off platform” you stand on the platform and heal as per usual. Keep an eye out for the 3 times slower casting debuff and shuffle backwards if you get it, 9 second chain heals are no fun. You may need to shuffle across the front of the platform to keep range if your tank is doing a particularly good job of keeping Heigan at distance. Remember Chain heal will bounce so if there’s someone you can’t reach try chain healing someone you can. Cleanse.
When Heigan come on the platform the “dance” begins. Watch a video, it helps a bit, then watch it again and try to imagine yourself doing the dance. This is a constant mobility fight, you will only be able to riptide and Nature’s swiftness. Decide for yourself when to move, lag can kill. Watch the floor in front and mark a spot in front of you where the flames come up, when they go down run to that spot and watch for the next one. At the ends turn fast and repeat.
At the end of the dance phase Heigan will disease a bunch of players, drop a Disease Cleansing totem immediately (hotkey it) as you are running to the platform – it will cleanse your whole group instantly, probably doing 3 players. Let the other “cleansers” in your team know you can do this then they will be able to concentrate on the other players.
Tips:
As you leave the platform set yourself as a target. If you get hit by the flames a little bit you can riptide yourself with only one key press.
Drop a Healing Stream at a convenient spot as you run during the dance, you can use it as a landmark.
Keep yourself up, Heigan doesn’t enrage, as long as there’s a Healer and a Tank standing the fight isn’t lost.
If you die in the dance, wait. During the “off platform” phase there will come a time when your “sector” is not in flames, you might be able to reincarnate and run to the platform. This means in the dance don’t go too far from the platform.
Mana is NOT an issue in this fight, you will regen plenty during the dance.
Loatheb
Not a healy fight. You get a small window of opportunity to heal. Some people have incredibly detailed optimized casting rotations. Not me. My cast rotation is basically:
- Riptide a few seconds before the healy window (I’m going to bounce a Chain Heal off this person)
- Start Chain heal a couple of seconds before the window. Watch it heal and bounce just when it’s going to work.
- Lesser Healing Wave someone
- Riptide. (you might get lucky)
Save your Nature’s Swiftness for later on in the fight.
Enjoy your measly DPS contribution (dont run out of mana though).
The Military Quarter
Instructor Razuvious
Heal up as needed. When the raid isn’t taking much damage Healing Wave the “Understudies”, it won’t look like you’re doing much, but if they drop dead you’re wiped!
Gothik the Harvester
Heal up as needed. Drop a Fire Elemental totem right by the door when he comes down from his balcony. If your tanks pull close to the door the Fire Elemental can do damage even after the gates open.
Four Horsemen
Only seen from the position of the “group” that does the font horsemen. No Brainer, stick close to the others, the “meteorite” does a fixed amount of damage divided amongst the nearby’s so sticking close means you’ll all take a little instead of one player taking a lot. Once one of the horsemen is down keep an eye on your debuff and run to another horseman (or just a little away) so you dont get more than 3 of any one kind stacked on you. Heroism as soon (or just before) the first horseman goes down so you can polish off the second mobile DeathKnight and get onto the back two.
The Construct Quarter
Patchwerk
So easy you might even want to chuck in the odd Lightning Bolt.
Grobbulus
Now we’re getting onto the harder fights. The rules for you as a healer are pretty much the same as for everyone else. Nature Resistance totem is an option, but make sure you re-drop it where it’s going to be useful. The fight get tougher as time goes on. You’ll be sweating by the end.
Gluth
I’ve only seen this fight with the “kiters” at the back of the room, helping out with EarthBind totem. Try to keep EB down near the middle so the kiter can run his figure of 8 past it easily. When Gluth is going to do a decimate try to drop EB in the middle slightly nearer the boss so it catches the Zombie Chow for the maximum length of time when they rush towards him. Always keep an eye open for loose Zombies and Frost Shock them so your kiter has time to pick them up.
You will get a stacking, refreshing debuff everytime you’re hit by a Zombie Chow, if you’re smart you can clear this during the decimate phase by staying away from them for a whole minute. Try not to pull aggro for a bit after the Decimate phase is over (hug your hunter).
If you can get a high “dodge” factor kiter, this reduces the number of zombie hits and so the number of debuffs.
Untried ideas:
-
- alternate your kiters, that way one of the kiters will lose their debuffs before the next time they have to kite.
- Drop an Earth Elemental after the second decimate, I hope this will pull zombies for long enough for any debuffs on your kiters (and you) to fade. Be ready with the heals, of course, and also be ready with Earthbind when your porta tank dies, which he will because he’s not kiting, ideally you would dismiss when you kiter is free of debuffs.
Thaddius
Not even as tricksy as Heigan. I have a couple of tips for the two trash before him. If you have some slack healing on your side remember to drop a Riptide and an EarthShield on the tank just before he gets thrown to ease the load on the other side.
Not a healer strategy, but if you get stuck on the wrong “polarity” side and don’t think you can get to your correct side then run back, far enough that you don’t zap anyone with your polarity charge but close enough to heal a bit. There’s a 50/50 chance that on the next polarity change you can go back to the group.
Oh, and if you missed it, don’t stand back and cast, cuddle up to your groupies, it gives a buff.
Frostwyrm Lair
Sapphiron
Pig of a fight for shaman, constantly moving. Your job is almost certainly to decurse, you can’t stand back and do this, you’ll have to be in with the melee to avoid range issues. Pop chain heals while you’re standing behing the ice blocks with everyone else for full effect. Apart from that, keep on running.
Kel’Thuzad
Keep Riptide OFF cooldown, this is what you’ll be using to save the Frost Blasted victims, it’s fast enough to allow for slower reactions and if the raid is kept well topped off it will be enough.
Don’t do Chain Heal in phase 3 everyone is too far apart – unless you have so many melee that a couple of them have to be close – them you can chain-heal and it may even top up the hunter’s pet.
Tip: have a macro for Natures Swiftness + Chain Heal to use when two melee get Frost Blocked at the same time because they’re too close to each other. If they’re that close Chain heal will also heal both!
Heroism/Blooddlust when the two adds appear at the end, it’s something of a DPS race from there on in.
–
Malygos
Not part of Naxx, but the next step up. Maly is NOT fun, we can one-shot K’T fairly regularly, but have never downed Maly. These are all theoretical ideas at the moment, culled from a thread on Elitist Jerks.
Heroism in phase 2. Either early to help speed up clearing the trash or possibly at the end so your team can burn some extra health off Maly to speed up phase 3.
Druid Roots work on the sparks apparently, and this makes me think that Frost Shock (another site may confirms this) and Earthbind may also work (I’ve found some web stats that suggest that it may have some effect, but nothing definite). Of course you may prefer the Strength of Earth Totem. EJ say ” freezing traps, roots, snares, and even incapacitates(priest’s version) work on sparks”
Standing in the sparks: Standing in the sparks boosts DPS, I don’t know, but it might boost healing. Whatever it probably won’t hurt to stand in the sparks. Evidence is that multiple dead sparks on top of each other give a multiplying boost (i.e. 2*50% is 125% extra not 100%)
Grounding Totem will absorb Arcane Shock from the Nexus Lords in phasee 2, Almost certainly not worth dropping for the loss of Wrath of Air. The Arcane shots only make up 25% of the Nexus Lord’s damage.
Vortexes: riptide on the way up, and maybe a second one while you are still in the air. Chain heal yourself as soon as you hit the floor (if everyone doesn’t run away too fast).
If you get to phase 3 EJ says CoE affects drake dot damage.