Instructor Razuvious

Instructor Razuvious is the most feared of the Scourge's death knight trainers and the first boss of the Deathknight Wing (the Military Quarter) of Naxxramas. He hits so hard that no player tank can survive him. Instead, priests take control of his own students, the Deathknight Understudies, and use them as tanks. Few bosses before or since have been tanked this way.

Background

The Military Quarter of Naxxramas is where the Scourge trains its death knights, the fallen warriors who serve the Lich King as his elite. Razuvious runs the training yard. He paces among four [[forever:npc:16803]], barking orders and testing them in combat, and he's flanked by the stables and halls of the wing's riders and knights. Beyond his yard lie Gothik the Harvester and The Four Horsemen.

His shouts while drilling his students include "Sweep the leg! Do you have a problem with that?", a line Warcraft Wiki traces to the film The Karate Kid.

Abilities

• [[forever:spell:29107]]: every 25 seconds he screams, burning a large amount of mana from every player within 45 yards and in his line of sight and dealing twice that much damage. Players with no mana take no damage.
• [[forever:spell:26613]]: a blow for 350% weapon damage that lowers the target's defense by 100 for six seconds.
• Melee: his normal attacks kill any player tank in a few hits.

Deathknight Understudies

• While mind-controlled, an understudy can use Taunt to pull Razuvious onto itself and Shield Wall to take 75% less damage for 20 seconds.
• When mind control ends, an understudy can't be controlled again for 60 seconds.
• When Razuvious dies, his surviving understudies give up hope and take enormously more damage.

Strategy

Every trash pull in the stables nearby must be cleared first, since it is linked to him and joins the fight. At least two priests are required, and guides advised them to have spell hit gear so their Mind Control and Mind Soothe didn't miss.

The pull is the hardest part. Razuvious kills anyone he reaches, so an understudy has to be under control and ready before he arrives. Some raids had a hunter pull him and use Feign Death as soon as the first understudy taunted. Others used Mind Soothe to approach the understudies safely and took control while Razuvious was on the far side of his patrol.

Once an understudy has him, the priest keeps it in place, uses Shield Wall when it's ready, and taunts him back whenever control breaks. A second priest controls another understudy and takes over when the first one's control ends or its understudy dies. Healers keep the understudies alive. The raid stays out of line of sight or far away to avoid Disrupting Shout, or simply accepts the hit if it has no mana, as warriors and rogues do.

With all four understudies lost, there's no way to tank him, so the raid has to kill Razuvious before they run out.

Loot

From our database (patch 1.12):

Razuvious drops the Tier 3 boot tokens (see Tier Sets). The [[forever:item:23014]] is a one-handed sword with hit, critical strike and attack power. The [[forever:item:23017]] is a caster cloak, the [[forever:item:23009]] a healer's wand, and the [[forever:item:23219]] a plate belt for damage-dealing warriors. He also drops a druid relic, the [[forever:item:23004]]. The [[forever:item:22726]] is a piece of Atiesh.

Quests

• [[forever:quest:9229]]: he has a small chance to drop [[forever:item:22708]], which starts a quest at Light's Hope Chapel.
• Tier 3: his tokens go into quests such as [[forever:quest:9039]] for warriors and [[forever:quest:9115]] for priests.

Trivia

• Warcraft Wiki credits his voice to Alan Shearman, who also voiced General Rajaxx.
• In Wrath of the Lich King, Razuvious returned in the new Naxxramas, where players use Obedience Crystals instead of priests to control his understudies.

Sources

• Instructor Razuvious (Classic), Warcraft Wiki
• Instructor Razuvious, Warcraft Wiki