WotLK 8+ Boxing Raid Strategies - Vault 1/1 - Naxx 4/15

[Deekhay]

Work in progress

We're not a lot of them boxing 8 or more toons in WotlK 10m Raids but I decided nevertheless to start a thread gathering all information about our experiences and hopefully get usefull tips from those with experience on boxing this type of content even with less toons. I think it's fairly easy for another n-boxer to at least have a good picture on how it'd be done while 8-9-10 boxing the encounter.

I'm putting wowiki links to give an idea on the powers and abilities.

Naxxramas:

Arachnid Quarter
Anub'Rekhan - DOWN
I'm putting Raid all packed in the extremity of the circle in front of the boss original position, right where you enter. Packed has the disadvantage of damaging and interrupting everyone but the big advatange is that it's easier to aoe scarabs or to get them with ot. The ot is placed in front of group near the border of the inner green circle. MT is placed to the right (near the green goo) about halfway (max range).
What made things easier to me is that the dps has the switch focus to ot key with the same binding than the ot taunt kay that I use to get the crypt guards as soon as they arrive. This way they're really quickly burned down.

MT uses all possible life saving cds a few seconds before swarm is cast. I just stay in place and heal him while raid burns down the crypt guard and then I switch dps to boss. The good thing is that by switching all dps to the adds aggro is very far from being an issue.
I deal with crypt guards otanking them and switching focus to burn them down.
I deal with scarabs with all aoe I have and if possible get some too with ot.
I deal with the impale with massive aoe heal (all 5 shaman and druid). it lowers my dps since my best four dpsers are busy but it's worth it.

I had 0 deaths the first try I played like this and commited no mistakes so I'm feeling pretty comfortable that I can farm this boss .

Grand Widow Faerlina - DOWN
I wasn't believing my eyes all throughout the fight always expecting this boss to come out with the incredible secret power... not...
I picked her and all the adds and tanked them on the circle. Killed all the adds with both my tanks aoe tanking before the boss did and well, yeah noticed a bit of her enrage but really...
Paladin with fire protection aura for the fire aoe, one shaman dropped nature protection. Didn't even bother to spread group (because it was my first try) just aoe healed when needed.

Moving on .

Maexxna

Construct Quarter
Patchwerk - DOWN
10 Boxing
Tank and spank, gear check.
Tried to solo tank it in the beginning, although I believe it's doable, it isn't with my current gear.
When I downed him I've put both tanks on it with one healer on each. OT died at 23%. Spammed heal till end of fight on MT. Only one dead, the OT.
Most important here is mana regen mainly for healers.
The previous try I had him down to 6% so I decided to go for food and flask. Good decision

Grobbulus
Gluth
Thaddius

Military Quarter
Instructor Razuvious - TRYING
10 Boxing
I did a few tries on him, very unsecsessful ones. Tried to get him tanking all 3 but he just hit too hard ^^. +100k unmodified, something like that.
I think it might be doable with a lot of macros and sequencing with both mind controlled. Read about a needed reset of control but didn't quite get it so I'll have to try.
Would love to know of an alternative strat besides controlling both.

Gothik the Harvester
Four Horsemen

Plague Quarter
Noth the Plaguebringer - DOWN
10 Boxing
A really easy fight. I think I made the fight more complicated than it actually is...
I tanked him around 20y away from group. Group stood packed. Everytime the adds popped I just taunted them with MT, both PH1 and PH2 adds. Be sure to get PH2 adds to you asap, I didn't, and they do bad things to the Raid.
Fortunately having 5 shaman is a real luxury for Raid Healing. I got two teleports but I think I'll be able to do just in one.
Adds aren't tough, Boss neither. 3 Dead. Main healer died really early in the fight...

Heigan the Unclean - TRYING
10 Boxing
I didn't know what to when I got there so it was fast . Now I believe dps must stay in platform while tanks do the dance. Tanks have to build enough aggro for Phase 2 when everyone must be dancing. Still to see what comes out of follow and the latency on Phase 2...

Loatheb

Frostwyrm Lair
Sapphiron
Kel'Thuzad

The Eye of Eternity
Malygos

The Obsidian Sanctum
Sartharion
Shadron
Tenebron
Vesperon

Vault of Archavon
Archavon the Stone Watcher - DOWN
Strategy:
10 Boxing
My OT, the Paladin has no bindings on movement, it makes things much easier as he'll always follow no matter what happens.
His tanking macros are based on assist with the name of the MT.

All totems placed including Nature Resistance. Paladin Aura is devotion since damage done by the AOEs seemed(?) to be mitigated by armor too.
The whole group is packed because it makes much easier aggro gain after charges and grabs (tried to spread them and it's chaotic!).
Never moved for any reason, just spammed chain heal*5 and a random of priest aoe healing everytime the clouds or spikes were there.
Group stays at third step of the stairs, dk moves in with paladin following, pulls comes back tanks very close to the group. Got a key binded only to both tanks to gain aggro. Did lilke 30k before starting to dps.
It seemed (next time i'll FRAPs it promise :/) that there is aggro wipe after grabbing so I just redo the tank only aggro gain. Got two healers they both heal both tanks.
I also have one key binded to both tanks taunt and spam it during the grab. Sometimes did some "manual" tuning to OT positioning.

[Bigfish]

Archavon Trash

The trash before Archavon is pretty simple, tank and spank, and when the use Cave in, move your caster base out of the falling rocks.

Archavon

Archavon himself is pretty simple once you understand how to control him. If you keep everyone within melee range, he won't jump and leave clouds. Knowing that, just keep everyone in melee range, and he becomes a tank and spank. Heal through the rock shards he shoots (Devotion Aura and Stoneskin Totem help here), and keep your taunt button close for the off tank for when the main tank gets grabbed. Once the MT gets free, run back, taunt him back, and continue.

Noth Trash

There are two types of pulls for Noth trash: 2 Ghouls and 2 Slimes, and lone and double gargoyles. For the ghoul/slime packs, keep your party fairly far back, and pull the ghouls a good distance. DPS them down and ideally they should both be near dead by the time the slimes approach. Try to avoid tanking both slimes and ghouls at the same time, as slimes hit for 6k on plate, but move at about 50% movement speed.

For Gargoyles, it is a DPS race, as they stack an undispellable DoT on the whole group that stacks and will eventually become unhealable. Also, when the gargoyles hit 100k health left, they start casting stoneskin. If the gargoyle doesn't die before it finishes casting, it goes immune and restores a large portion of its life.

Noth the Plaguebringer

Move your group to the back left corner of the room, just under the balcony. Noth himself is more or less a tank and spank with constantly spawning adds. Chances are you'll have to taunt the adds when they get close, so keep a mouseover taunt handy, and if you have a paladin, the AOE undead stun is good for grabbing the spawns as they run by. After about 4 waves of spawn, Noth will teleport to the balcony and becomes untatargetable. Beefier skeletons will continue to spawn for this phase, but if you can keep up with grabbing them you should be ok. After about 3-4 of these waves, Noth returns to the battlefield. He behaves just like the first phase. If you can kill him before he teleports away, great, if not, the second teleport phase gets messier, as skeletal mages will spawn and start AOEing. If you run toward and taunt them, this phase is difficult, but not impossible. If you can make it through the skeleton mages, Noth will again return, and its just a matter of burning down the last of his health.