Naxxramas

Naxxramas is a 40-player raid inside a floating necropolis, a flying Scourge citadel, over the Plaguewood in the Eastern Plaguelands. It's the seat of the lich Kel'Thuzad. Added in patch 1.11, "Shadow of the Necropolis", in June 2006, it was the last raid of the original game and the hardest. Its fifteen bosses drop Tier 3 armor and the pieces of the legendary staff Atiesh. Few guilds cleared it before The Burning Crusade raised the level cap seven months later.

Background

Kel'Thuzad was once a mage of the Kirin Tor who turned to necromancy and founded the Cult of the Damned, which spread the plague across Lordaeron before the Third War. Arthas Menethil killed him and later raised him as a lich at the Sunwell. Since then he has commanded The Scourge in the Plaguelands from Naxxramas, a necropolis that began as an ancient nerubian ziggurat in Northrend before the Scourge lifted it into the sky.

The necropolis houses the Lich King's best servants. These include death knights, among them Alexandros Mograine, the hero who once carried the Ashbringer and is now one of the Four Horsemen. It also holds plague-makers, abominations, the nerubian dead, and the frost wyrm Sapphiron. In patch 1.11 the Scourge also invaded the rest of Azeroth: smaller necropolises appeared over zones across both continents, and players fought them for the Argent Dawn. The invasion paid out [[forever:item:22484]], which Argent Dawn quartermasters at Light's Hope exchanged for reputation and gear. That made it a common way to earn the Argent Dawn reputation the attunement asked for.

Getting in

The entrance is a teleport spire in the middle of the Plaguewood, north of Stratholme. To use it, a player needs the [[forever:spell:28006]] that [[forever:npc:16116]] casts at Light's Hope Chapel after [[forever:quest:9121]]. The price depends on Argent Dawn reputation. At Honored she asks for 5 Arcane Crystals, 2 Nexus Crystals, a Righteous Orb and 60 gold. At Revered ([[forever:quest:9122]]) it's 2 Arcane Crystals, a Nexus Crystal and 30 gold. At Exalted ([[forever:quest:9123]]) it's free.

The raid has no exit. Players inside leave by hearthstone, a mage portal, or dying and releasing.

Developer Ion Hazzikostas has said Naxxramas was first meant to be entered from Stratholme, the way Molten Core is reached through Blackrock Depths. An unused raid portal and an older copy of the necropolis are still in the game files behind Stratholme's Slaughter Square.

Bosses

Players start in a central hub and can take on the four wings in any order. Clearing all four opens the Frostwyrm Lair.

Strategy notes

Gear checks. Patchwerk, Loatheb and Thaddius checked a raid's damage and healing more than its tactics, and each was a wall for a while. Patchwerk's Hateful Strike made healers keep three or four off-tanks topped off at all times. Loatheb's healing limit turned the fight into a strict healer rotation built around his damage-boosting spores.

The Four Horsemen. Each Horseman sits in a corner and stacks a mark on everyone near him. A mark increases the damage the next one deals, so tanks can't stay on one Horseman for long. Guilds rotated eight tanks around the room on a timed schedule, and Sir Zeliek's Holy Wrath and Lady Blaumeux's Void Zones punished any mistake. Many guilds rated it the hardest fight in the raid.

Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad. Sapphiron's frost aura and Frost Breath meant the whole raid needed frost resistance gear. Players crafted it with the [[forever:item:22682]] that drops in Naxxramas, using Argent Dawn recipes for sets such as the [[forever:item:22652]] and [[forever:item:22669]]. Kel'Thuzad starts by sending waves of skeletons, abominations and banshees, then fights the raid himself. At 40% health he summons Guardians of Icecrown that need to be crowd-controlled.

Loot

Tier 3

Naxxramas bosses drop "Desecrated" tokens, such as [[forever:item:22353]] and [[forever:item:22351]]. Players take them to Light's Hope Chapel, along with crafting materials such as [[forever:item:22375]] and [[forever:item:22682]], and with enough Argent Dawn reputation trade them for their class's Tier 3 piece. The class sets are Dreadnaught ([[forever:item:22416]]), Redemption ([[forever:item:22425]]), Earthshatter ([[forever:item:22464]]), Cryptstalker ([[forever:item:22436]]), Bonescythe ([[forever:item:22476]]), Dreamwalker ([[forever:item:22488]]), Faith ([[forever:item:22512]]), Frostfire ([[forever:item:22496]]) and Plagueheart ([[forever:item:22504]]). Each set has nine pieces, the ninth being a ring from Kel'Thuzad such as [[forever:item:23059]]. See Tier Sets.

Atiesh

Almost every boss can drop a [[forever:item:22726]]. With 40 splinters, a mage, warlock, priest or druid starts [[forever:quest:9250]] with Anachronos in the Caverns of Time. The staff also needs the [[forever:item:22733]] from Kel'Thuzad and the [[forever:item:22734]] from C'Thun in the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj ([[forever:quest:9251]]). The last step, [[forever:quest:9257]], takes the staff to Stratholme to drive out the demon inside it. The finished staff, such as [[forever:item:22589]] for mages, comes in four class versions. Because every splinter went to one player, a guild usually finished only one or two in the raid's lifetime.

Corrupted Ashbringer

The Four Horsemen's chest has a small chance to hold [[forever:item:22691]], Alexandros Mograine's sword after the Scourge corrupted it. It was one of the rarest items in the game.

Kel'Thuzad

Kel'Thuzad always drops [[forever:item:22520]]. Taking it to [[forever:npc:16113]] at Light's Hope with [[forever:quest:9120]] rewards a trinket such as [[forever:item:23206]]. His loot table also includes the best weapons of the original game: [[forever:item:22798]], [[forever:item:22802]], [[forever:item:23577]], [[forever:item:23054]], [[forever:item:22812]] and [[forever:item:23056]].

History

Patch 1.11, "Shadow of the Necropolis", went live in June 2006 (Warcraft Wiki gives June 19 on the patch's page and June 20 on the raid's page). Naxxramas was built for guilds that had finished Ahn'Qiraj, and few had. Warcraft Wiki credits Nihilum, a Horde guild on the European realm Magtheridon, with the first full clear, on September 7, 2006.

The Burning Crusade came out in January 2007, raising the level cap to 70. Most players never set foot in the original Naxxramas, and later levels made the old raid trivial. In Wrath of the Lich King (patch 3.0), the 40-player raid was removed. Naxxramas moved to Northrend's Dragonblight with the returning Kel'Thuzad, as a level 80 raid for 10 and 25 players.

In the lore, the Argent Dawn under Darion Mograine raided the necropolis, killed the Four Horsemen and recovered the Ashbringer. A later assault led by Bolvar Fordragon killed Kel'Thuzad. Father Inigo Montoy, the priest who took the phylactery from players, disappeared with it, which let Kel'Thuzad return in Wrath of the Lich King.

Later history

The original 40-player Naxxramas came back in World of Warcraft Classic in December 2020 as the last content phase. For many players it was their first look at the raid.

Sources

• Naxxramas (Classic), Warcraft Wiki
• Patch 1.11.0, Warcraft Wiki
• Patch 1.11 Overview, Blizzard Entertainment (archived)
• Ion Hazzikostas on the original Naxxramas entrance, Twitter