Naxxramas

At a glance

Forever planning status: Naxxramas has no confirmed release or final rules in the WoW: Forever sources checked. Use these inherited Classic encounter plans to organize possible future progression. Raid size, access, resets, tuning and loot still need Forever confirmation before the encounter plan is used live. Confirmed Forever class changes are noted separately; a class having a control spell does not establish that it works on every inherited raid target.

Inherited Classic baseline:

Naxxramas is the final level 60, 40-player raid of original Classic. Its entrance is the teleport spire in Plaguewood, northern Eastern Plaguelands, around 39, 26. Every player needs the personal Argent Dawn attunement from Archmage Angela Dosantos at Light's Hope Chapel. See the separate Naxxramas attunement guide for the Honored, Revered and Exalted costs.

Four quarters can be approached in any order: Arachnid, Plague, Construct and Military. Defeat all four end bosses to access Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad in the Frostwyrm Lair. There are 15 encounters in total. The original raid uses a weekly instance save, so plan which wings fit each raid night rather than treating every visit as a new reset.

Wrath's ten- and 25-player versions, Season of Mastery additions and Season of Discovery empowerment systems are excluded.

Before you go

Progression groups commonly start with about 12 to 14 healers and adjust by encounter. Bring enough tank-capable players for the conventional eight-tank Four Horsemen rotation, Priests prepared to Mind Control on Razuvious and Faerlina, Hunters with Tranquilizing Shot for Gluth, and full curse, disease, poison and magic removal coverage. These are assignments, not a reason to assume every fight needs the same tank roster in tank gear. Control Priests must train Mind Control Rank 3 at level 58: the lower rank cannot control the inherited level 60–61 targets.

Prepare a frost resistance set and Greater Frost Protection Potions for Sapphiron. Agree a raid target in advance, often around 200 buffed for exposed players on progression, while preserving enough healing and damage. The main tank must also survive physical hits, so use a deliberate tank set rather than equipping every low-level frost piece. Frost resistance does not let you ignore Frost Breath cover.

For crafted frost gear, arrange eligible 300-skill crafters to learn the Icebane, Polar, Icy Scale or Glacial recipes from Master Craftsman Omarion before Razuvious. The teaching gates are Revered for hands and wrists, Exalted for chests and Glacial Cloak; buyers of the crafted gear do not need that standing. Use Words of Thawing looted from trash to collect Frozen Runes from the walls, using the raid's planned save: looting a wall rune binds that Classic raid ID even before a boss kill. Frozen Runes can also be traded or bought in this baseline; reserve crafting stock instead of activating its fire-protection use. The Argent Dawn guide covers the crafting and paid NPC routes.

For Loatheb, bring Greater Shadow Protection Potions, healing consumables and bandages, and write a healing rotation. Carry ordinary role consumables, food, water and ample repair funds for all wings. After attuning, accept Echoes of War from Commander Eligor Dawnbringer at Light's Hope Chapel before your first trash clear. It requires 5 Living Monstrosities, 5 Stoneskin Gargoyles, 8 Deathknight Captains and 3 Venom Stalkers, and unlocks the Tier 3 armor quests after you return. Clear assignments before entering a boss room; several pulls start events or close access behind the raid.

Forever preparation: The developers confirm continued access to Classic consumables. Check current item tooltips and stacking rules when preparing them. Traditional world-buff use inside raids still needs policy confirmation; do not require a collection circuit or count those effects in your guaranteed raid budget.

Threat buffs: If your roster includes a Paladin, assign Salvation by job: its current Forever effect reduces generated threat by 30%. Mass Salvation affects the target's whole class. Check both tank and backup-tank buffs, then have the Paladin use Revoke to remove Salvation from those tanks before pulling. See the Paladin guide for current utility.

The route and trash

Pull one marked pack at a time and watch patrols. Arachnid poison and charging enemies punish missed cleanses. Military packs need tank, interrupt and crowd-control assignments rather than indiscriminate area damage. Construct abominations can kill an unprepared tank before healers finish moving.

Use the cleared wing shortcuts and portals available in your save for recovery. Confirm a safe corridor before resurrectors advance. Make special calls explicit: do not automatically remove Grobbulus's Injection in the raid, do not spend Loatheb healing casts out of turn, and do not place an extra Shackle on Kel'Thuzad's guardians.

Anub'Rekhan

Tank him at one end of the room and use an off tank for Crypt Guards. Kill guards promptly and clear the scarabs released from corpses. Spread so Impale's line does not hit a whole group.

Before Locust Swarm, melee leave his nearby area and the main tank begins the planned kite around the room's outside. Healers follow from a safe distance, keeping range without entering the swarm's silence and stacking damage. Use the agreed movement aid or cooldown; do not improvise a route through the raid. Recover the tank position when the swarm ends.

Wipe and recovery: a late kite, loose Crypt Guard or unattended corpse scarabs are distinct failures. Restore those assignments before the next pull.

Grand Widow Faerlina

Tank Faerlina separately from her Followers and Worshippers. Kill the two dangerous Followers while preserving the four Worshippers for the enrage mechanic. A designated Priest Mind Controls a Worshipper and moves it beside Faerlina and stops moving before the expected Frenzy. On the Frenzy call, use Widow's Embrace, sacrificing that Worshipper to remove the effect. Expect Frenzy about once per minute. The four Worshippers are a finite supply: do not spend them early or sacrifice one out of range.

Keep another tank and Priest ready if control breaks. Healers watch the tank during any uncovered Frenzy. Everyone avoids Rain of Fire and cleanses poison. Do not kill all the Worshippers normally at the start: that is not this Classic control plan.

Wipe and recovery: a dead or out-of-range Worshipper removes an enrage answer. Check the sacrifice sequence and backups before repeating.

Maexxna

Face her away from the raid. Assign ranged players to destroy Web Wrap cocoons on the wall, with healers supporting the trapped players. Kill the spiderlings and remove Necrotic Poison from the tank promptly: its healing reduction is dangerous before Web Spray.

Top the tank and apply available protective effects and heals over time before the eight-second raid stun. Activate the assigned tank defensive before the dangerous Web Spray so it covers the stun. Push below 30% just after a Web Spray so the raid has time to damage her in Frenzy before the next stun.

Wipe and recovery: an uncleaned tank poison, late cocoon rescue or poorly timed 30% push causes different deaths. Identify which one happened first.

Noth the Plaguebringer

Assign off tanks to the skeleton spawns. Remove Curse of the Plaguebringer immediately before it develops into its damaging raid effect. Do not let ordinary damage priorities consume the decursers' attention.

On Blink, threat resets. Damage dealers pause and the tank reacquires him; healers preserve necessary tank healing while avoiding needless threat spikes. During his balcony periods, clear the summoned enemies under tank control, interrupting or prioritizing the dangerous casters. Regroup for his return and do not leave a healer alone with the remaining wave.

Wipe and recovery: a missed curse or continuing damage into a threat reset is usually the key failure. Reconfirm the decurse groups and Blink call.

Heigan the Unclean

During the ground phase, ranged and healers use the starting platform, while the tank keeps Heigan well away from it and moves with melee through the floor's safe sections. This avoids his nearby mana burn. Cleanse Decrepit Fever and keep the main tank in healing range.

Learn the four floor sections before pulling. The safe sequence moves 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1, then repeats. Use the actual floor boundaries and eruption pattern, not a blind follow-the-leader run through already unsafe ground.

When Heigan teleports to the platform for the fast dance, everyone leaves it and follows the faster safe sequence on the floor. Do not stop in an eruption lane to finish a long cast. Players teleported into the Eye Stalk tunnel during the fight must return promptly through its hazards; the tunnel is not a safe place to remain for the dance.

Wipe and recovery: standing on the platform during the dance or moving a section late causes deaths. Rehearse the section order outside the pull before spending more consumables.

Loatheb

Corrupted Mind restricts each healer's healing spells to a long cooldown, effectively one healing cast per minute. Write a healer order with a caller and backup, use strong planned tank heals and do not waste a turn on incidental damage. Healing consumables and bandages support the raid between those casts.

Kill spores beside the assigned groups of five damage dealers for their critical-strike and no-threat buff. Keep the main tank away from the spore buff so tank threat generation is preserved. Do not let the first spore go to random nearby players.

Inevitable Doom begins after about two minutes and becomes much faster late in the fight. Plan shadow protection potion timings before pulling, including a pre-pull use when appropriate, and use personal recovery on the agreed schedule. This is a sustained damage check with a healing plan, not a fight where healers can freely repair every mistake.

Wipe and recovery: missed healing turns or misallocated spores are fixable assignment failures. Check them before increasing the consumable budget.

Patchwerk

Use a main tank and a properly geared Hateful Strike team. In the Classic baseline, Hateful Strike chooses a high-current-health eligible melee target among the leading threat positions, excluding the main tank. Keep the three intended off tanks in those threat positions and melee range, with enough armor and health to survive the hits.

Assign healers to specific tanks and keep the Hateful targets restored. Damage dealers wait for the tanks and remain below their threat. This is not a random hit on the highest-health player anywhere in the raid, and ranged healers are not substitute Hateful tanks.

Prepare cooldowns for the 5% Frenzy and finish before the long hard enrage. There is no movement puzzle to compensate for weak tank healing.

Wipe and recovery: inspect the first Hateful death, tank threat and healer assignment. A dead off tank can expose a melee damage dealer next.

Grobbulus

Move him steadily around the room's edge with only the main tank in front. Slime Spray creates an add for each player hit; the off tank gathers the Fallout Slime and damage dealers kill it. Extra players in the cone create unnecessary adds.

Mutating Injection is a disease. Do not remove it while the target stands in the raid; keep Disease Cleansing Totem out of the group because its automatic pulses can trigger an early cloud. Forever's Simple Poultice requires leaving combat and has a low effect-level limit; it cannot replace the class-cleanse assignment during this fight. The affected player moves to the assigned space behind the raid's current route, then lets it expire or receives a called dispel there. It leaves a poison cloud. Do not stand inside an old cloud just to place the new one beside it.

Keep the middle and the next movement path clear. Healers follow the active tank while covering the Injection target and slime tank.

Wipe and recovery: automatic disease removal in the raid or overlapping cloud paths runs the group out of safe space. Fix that placement before another pull.

Gluth

Hold him near the far door, away from the zombie spawn grates. Gluth is taunt-immune in this Classic encounter. Keep two boss tanks ahead of the damage dealers on threat; the active tank eases threat generation when Mortal Wound stacks require a handover, while the second tank overtakes. Arrange the swap before healing becomes ineffective, rather than copying a Wrath taunt rotation. Prepare fear protection and have Hunters remove Frenzy with Tranquilizing Shot.

A separate kiting team gathers Zombie Chows from the grates, using slows, roots and controlled threat. Keep them away from Gluth: reaching him heals the boss. Do not spend the raid's normal damage trying to kill full-health zombies while neglecting the boss.

At Decimate, the raid and zombies drop to very low health. Healers immediately stabilize the tank and raid; damage dealers switch to the weakened zombies and kill them before they reach Gluth. Then restore the kiting plan for the next cycle. Keep a backup ready if a kiter is feared or dies.

Wipe and recovery: one missed Frenzy, an unsupported tank swap or zombies reaching the boss are different problems. Review the responsible team, not only the final boss health.

Thaddius

Split into platform teams for Feugen and Stalagg. Keep each add near its own platform machinery. Feugen's nearby mana burn means mana users and healers use range rather than crowd his feet; Stalagg's tank needs coverage through his stronger physical bursts. Magnetic Pull throws the active tanks between platforms and wipes their threat. Use a second tank already building threat on each platform to catch the add; the arriving tank then rebuilds threat or taunts on the agreed call. Healers track the tank currently holding their side's add rather than continuing to heal the departed tank.

Balance the two adds and kill them within about five seconds of one another. Jump the gap onto Thaddius's platform together; falling is a movement failure, not a missing quest trigger.

For Polarity Shift, assign a fixed positive side and negative side and one direction to move when changing. Stack with matching charges for the damage bonus and stay clear of the opposite charge. Read your new debuff every shift instead of following a familiar player. Tanks maintain melee contact, and healers keep both charge groups in range. Stay separated and keep healing after the kill until charges have expired; the debuffs persist and can still deal damage.

Wipe and recovery: an uneven add kill, failed jump or one player crossing the wrong charge group can end the attempt. Check that exact stage before restarting.

Instructor Razuvious

Clear the room's trash before pulling: any surviving trash joins Razuvious when the encounter starts. Use Priests to Mind Control Deathknight Understudies. The original 40-player encounter does not supply Wrath ten-player control orbs. Ordinary player tanks cannot safely replace the understudies against Razuvious's crushing attacks.

Assign at least two control Priests and an order across all four Understudies, with off tanks holding the inactive ones. Classic control Priests commonly prepare about 3% spell hit for these level 60 targets; still plan for an early resist or break. The first controlled add uses Shield Wall, then Taunt. Its Shield Wall reduces damage by 75% for 20 seconds, with a 30-second cooldown; that Understudy's Taunt has a one-minute cooldown.

The next controlled add uses its own Shield Wall and Taunt before the first one's protection ends. Healers restore the outgoing add before its Priest releases control. An off tank catches it while that Priest prepares the next eligible Understudy. Wait for Mind Exhaustion to expire before reusing a released add. Avoid armor-reducing debuffs on these future tanks, and call a control break immediately so the ready replacement takes over.

Mana users break line of sight for Disrupting Shout, using the room's cover without blocking the required healing or control path. It burns mana and deals severe damage; it is not an ordinary harmless raid shout.

Wipe and recovery: a control break with no protected replacement kills the current tank immediately. Recheck Priest positions, spell reliability and the handover call.

Gothik the Harvester

Split tanks and healers between the living and undead sides before starting. Put most casters on the living side and most physical damage on the undead side: the spectral enemies are immune to many magic schools. Keep the gate and each side's movement space clear. Living enemies killed on one side produce spectral enemies on the other, so the two teams must communicate their kill pace.

Living-side tanks control trainees, death knights and riders while damage follows the declared priority. The undead side handles the arriving spectral versions and horses under its own tank control. Prioritize Spectral Trainees before their Arcane Explosions accumulate. Do not finish several dangerous living targets together if the undead side is already overwhelmed.

When Gothik comes down, finish remaining adds and collect him when he teleports between sides. Damage dealers wait for tank control after each move. Once the gate opens, reunite without dragging a loose add through the healers.

Wipe and recovery: a one-sided damage race overloads the other half. Adjust the distribution and calls rather than merely asking both sides to kill faster.

The Four Horsemen

This Classic encounter uses Highlord Mograine, not Wrath's replacement Baron Rivendare. Looking into the room from the entrance, place Korth'azz front left, Mograine front right, Blaumeux back left and Zeliek back right. The conventional plan uses eight tanks and at least twelve healers; all four bosses require controlled tanking in this baseline.

Marks and the waiting zone

A fresh application refreshes that Horseman's Mark for 75 seconds. The inherited spell records list 65–70-yard radii, so establish the waiting zone on the entrance side of the central platform, with the bosses held far into their corners and the waiting players beyond 70 yards from every boss or remaining spirit. Verify that no fresh Marks arrive there. Pillars and line of sight do not block Marks. A cleared corner still containing a spirit is not this waiting zone.

A default eight-tank rotation

Assign tanks with trained taunts and rehearsed range and cooldown coverage, then split them into wave A and wave B, four per wave. Each wave has one initial tank for each boss. Tanks assigned to the front pair alternate Korth'azz and Mograine; those assigned to the back pair alternate Blaumeux and Zeliek. Wave B starts in the waiting zone.

Call incoming tanks forward before the scheduled handover so they can reach the boss on time; do not wait for three stacks before beginning the trip from the waiting zone. Incoming tanks establish the handover before outgoing tanks leave. If a taunt fails, call it and keep the old tank healed and protected until the replacement controls the boss. Follow the caller's Mark count and your actual debuffs; a delayed handover needs a recovery call rather than blindly running away at three stacks. Do not revisit a Horseman while its old Mark remains.

Four damage groups can mirror the front tanks' active/waiting turns, alternating Korth'azz and Mograine on their next active visit. At Korth'azz, preserve the Meteor-sharing group throughout each handover; leaving the tank alone before the next Meteor can kill them.

A twelve-healer rotation

Start one red, blue and green healer at each corner. Pick one circular route and rehearse it; for example, Korth'azz → Blaumeux → Zeliek → Mograine → Korth'azz. Move only the called color to the next corner:

• Red moves after raid-wide Marks 1, 4, 7, 10, then repeats.
• Blue moves after 2, 5, 8, 11.
• Green moves after 3, 6, 9, 12.

The other two healers keep that corner covered during the move. Each healer normally spends three applications at a corner before moving, and visits the other three corners before returning. Check the old Mark has actually expired; keep healing coverage during travel rather than sending all three healers away together. Once the front pair dies, continue assigned back-tank coverage and adapt damage movement while respecting the dead bosses' Marks.

Mark damage is separate from each boss's signature attack:

Shield Wall at 50% and 20% greatly reduces incoming damage for a time; it does not make the Horseman stop attacking. Dead Horsemen leave spirits that continue Marks, so a dead boss's corner is not automatically a permanent safe zone.

Wipe and recovery: a missed handover, stacked Marks or an undersized Meteor group causes specific failures. Rebuild the complete route and backup-taunt plan before the next pull.

Sapphiron

During the ground phase, tank him facing away. Melee avoid the front cleave and tail, everyone moves out of Blizzard, and Mages or Druids remove Life Drain's curse promptly. Healers sustain the constant frost aura while staying within the planned resistance support groups.

In the air phase, spread for Icebolt, which can produce up to five ice blocks. Splash can make a player ineligible for a later bolt, so do not rely on exactly five blocks appearing. Before Frost Breath, everyone else moves behind a block with the block directly between them and Sapphiron. Use several blocks rather than forcing the entire raid around one crowded edge. Frozen players are already protected and out of line of sight for outside healing; heal vulnerable players before the freeze and resume healing after it. The blocks provide cover from his breath.

On landing, restore tank position and ground spacing. Continue until the low-health finish, with no assumption that frost resistance replaces the cover mechanic.

Wipe and recovery: an exposed Frost Breath player, missed Life Drain or standing in Blizzard needs a different fix from insufficient frost resistance. Check the first death and block sight line.

Kel'Thuzad

Phase 1: approach waves

Stay near the center and let active enemies approach. Do not pull the inactive alcoves. Ranged kill Soldiers of the Frozen Wastes before their close-range detonation and prioritize Soul Weavers before their raid damage reaches the group. Tanks collect Unstoppable Abominations for controlled melee damage, with healers watching their tank debuff.

Phase 2: Kel'Thuzad

Set a tank threat lead and interrupt the single-target Frostbolt. Heal through the raid-wide volley rather than assume every frost cast is interruptible. Spread about 10 yards to limit Frost Blast chains. A Frost Blast target still needs immediate healing through its damage; being frozen is not a reason to stop healing them.

Move out of Shadow Fissure immediately. A Detonate Mana target separates before the explosion. Chains of Kel'Thuzad can control the main tank as well as other players, disrupting threat: off tanks recover the boss while the raid uses nonlethal crowd control on affected allies. Stop attacks or ongoing effects that would kill your own players.

Phase 3: 40% health

Guardians of Icecrown arrive. Assign at most three Shackle Undead targets to named Priests and tank the remaining guardians. A fourth simultaneous Shackle makes Kel'Thuzad break the controls, so no unassigned Priest should add one. Off-tank healers keep their guardians covered while the raid finishes Kel'Thuzad and continues all phase-2 movement and control mechanics.

Wipe and recovery: a chained Frost Blast, missed fissure, uncontrolled tank mind control or fourth Shackle is an actionable cause. Restore those assignments before spending another full opening phase.

Loot highlights

Tier 3 armor uses boss tokens, Wartorn scraps and the specified trade materials. Complete the Light's Hope Chapel prerequisites, including Echoes of War, and check the class quest before allocating a token. Kel'Thuzad's Tier 3 rings drop directly; they are not another armor-token hand-in.

Weapons and off-set rewards are spread across the raid. The Four Horsemen can drop Corrupted Ashbringer; Kel'Thuzad has major weapon rewards, while Sapphiron is known for trinkets and enchantment rewards.

Kel'Thuzad's bind-on-pickup Phylactery starts The Fall of Kel'Thuzad. Use it on the chosen recipient, then deliver it to Father Inigo Montoy at Light's Hope Chapel. The two Mark of the Champion rewards share a name: one supplies 150 attack power against Undead and Demons, the other up to 85 magical spell damage against those creature types. Choose by the actual effect, not the name; the spell-damage version is not a general healing bonus. This Phylactery is separate from Atiesh's Staff Head.

Atiesh planning

The inherited legendary has class versions for Druids, Mages, Priests and Warlocks. Assign one recipient before looting: Splinters of Atiesh are not tradable, including through the usual two-hour raid-loot trade window.

1. Gather 40 Splinters, combine them into the Frame of Atiesh and use the Frame to start its quest. The recipient also needs at least Neutral Brood of Nozdormu to speak to Anachronos outside Tanaris's Caverns of Time.
2. Turn in Frame of Atiesh and accept Atiesh, the Befouled Greatstaff before the relevant kills. Loot the Staff Head from Kel'Thuzad and the Base from C'Thun in AQ40. Reserve both under the raid's declared quest-loot policy.
3. Return both to Anachronos and take the cleansing follow-up with its provided staff. Bring a prepared five-player group into Stratholme.
4. Clear the route to Festival Lane, between Elders' Square and King's Square. At the glowing Consecrated Earth near the fountain, use the provided staff only after the tank and healer are ready: it summons the demon Atiesh.
5. Mages or Druids remove Breath of Sargeras's curse. A Warrior can Disarm the demon to drop the temporary Andonisus sword; warn the healer about the damage during that action, and have an eligible sword user collect and use it promptly. Defeat the demon, then return to Anachronos for the completed class staff.

The two raid components and Stratholme finale come after the forty-Splinter stage. Plan those saves and the Brood requirement before the last Splinter drops.