Patchwerk

Patchwerk is a colossal abomination, the self-proclaimed "avatar of war" of Kel'Thuzad, and the first boss of the Abomination Wing (the Construct Quarter) of Naxxramas. He has no tricks: no adds, no phases, nothing to dodge. He simply hits harder and faster than anything players had faced, and the raid either has the tanks, healers and damage to beat him in seven minutes or it doesn't. "Patchwerk want to play!" became one of the best-known boss yells in the game.

Background

Abominations are the Scourge's stitched-together brutes, built from the corpses of many victims. Patchwerk is one of Kel'Thuzad's most powerful. Warcraft Wiki describes how his speed and strength shocked those who fought him: when word of him first reached the Brotherhood of the Light, no one believed an abomination could be so fast and strong, and fewer still believed it when he fell.

He announces himself as Kel'Thuzad's avatar of war. Warcraft Wiki notes that the phrase is a nod to the Avatar of War, a boss in EverQuest that also dealt so much damage to its tank that players doubted anyone could survive it. His name is a play on "patchwork".

Abilities

• [[forever:spell:28308]]: about every second, Patchwerk hits one of the players near the top of his threat list, other than his main target, choosing the one with the most health. It deals 22,000 to 30,000 damage before armor, enough to kill anyone but a fully geared tank. It can't be a critical hit or a crushing blow.
• Melee: his normal attacks on the main tank hit for a couple of thousand each.
• Enrage: at 5% health he enrages, hitting harder.
• Berserk: after seven minutes he goes berserk, and his attacks wipe the raid within seconds. Warcraft Wiki also lists slime bolts on the whole raid after seven and a half minutes, probably added to stop raids from kiting him past the timer.

Strategy

The fight is built around Hateful Strike. Hateful Strike only hits players in melee range and high on his threat list, and it always picks the one with the most health. So raids give him three or four "Hateful Strike tanks", warriors in tanking gear, who stand in melee next to the main tank and build enough threat to stay in the top few spots. Their healers keep them at full health so that they, not the rogues, take every strike. A damage dealer who climbs into those top threat spots with more health than the tanks takes the strike instead, and dies.

Each of those tanks needs its own team of healers, who heal through a strike every second or so with no break. Meanwhile the rest of the raid deals as much damage as it can. Patchwerk has almost four million health and seven minutes on the clock, so the raid needs roughly 9,500 damage per second, high for its time. Since it's very hard to pull threat off his main tank, everyone else can attack all-out.

At 5%, the tanks use Shield Wall to survive the enrage.

Loot

From our database (patch 1.12):

Patchwerk drops the Tier 3 shoulder tokens (see Tier Sets). [[forever:item:22815]] is a two-handed axe with 43 strength and 2% critical strike. [[forever:item:22818]] is a tank's shield with defense and frost resistance. The [[forever:item:22961]] is a ring with 34 agility, and the [[forever:item:22960]] a healer's cloak. 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:9038]] for warriors and [[forever:quest:9098]] for mages.

Later history

Patchwerk returned as the first boss of the Construct Quarter in the Wrath of the Lich King version of Naxxramas, and in that expansion he was also sent to Acherus to put down the death knights' rebellion against the Lich King.

Sources

• Patchwerk (Classic), Warcraft Wiki
• Patchwerk, Warcraft Wiki