Naxxramas Runbook

Position the raid in the corner near the balcony before pulling Noth. This gives maximum room for the fight and keeps the raid grouped for healing during add phases. Noth alternates between ground phases (where the raid can damage him) and balcony phases (where he teleports to the balcony and is untargetable while sending waves of undead adds).

The main tank needs to build as much threat as possible on Noth because he will Blink (teleport roughly 20 yards) and completely reset his threat table every 25 seconds. After each Blink, the main tank must immediately re-establish threat. Off-tanks are responsible for picking up Plagued Warriors that spawn every 30 seconds during ground phases. During balcony phases, Plagued Champions and Plagued Guardians spawn in waves and must also be tanked and killed.

Noth applies Curse of the Plaguebringer to raid members. If the curse is not removed within 10 seconds, it triggers Wrath of the Plaguebringer — dealing 1,750 Nature damage instantly and then 875-1,125 Shadow damage every 2 seconds for 10 seconds to all nearby players. This can chain through the raid and cause a wipe. Mages and druids must decurse immediately as their highest priority.

Noth has a strict DPS check — he alternates between ground phases and balcony phases where he is untargetable. The raid should bring him to approximately 80% health before the first balcony transition at 90 seconds. When Noth Blinks, he resets his entire threat table. If you are the highest damage dealer and he Blinks near you, use a Limited Invulnerability Potion (makes you immune to physical damage for 6 seconds) to survive until the main tank re-establishes threat.

The raid uses the raised platform at the back of the room to keep ranged players and healers safe from the Eruption floor mechanic. Only the main tank and melee DPS need to be on the floor during Phase 1 (the first 90 seconds). The platform is safe from Eruptions during Phase 1 but becomes lethal during Phase 2 — Heigan teleports to the platform and poisons anyone standing on it, so everyone must jump down to the floor and perform the dance.

The main tank engages Heigan and positions him facing diagonally away from the platform where casters and healers are standing. Ranged players stand at the maximum distance they can while still being able to cast. This positioning keeps the raid safe from Decrepit Fever (which has a 20-yard radius around Heigan) and from Mana Burn. During Phase 2, when Heigan teleports to the platform, everyone on the platform must immediately jump down to the floor and run the safe-zone dance.

Heigan applies Decrepit Fever, a disease that reduces maximum health by 50% and deals 500 Nature damage every 3 seconds. This must be cleansed constantly. Shamans use Disease Cleansing Totem as their priority totem. In groups without a shaman, priests must manually dispel the disease. A player with Decrepit Fever active is at half maximum health and extremely vulnerable to dying from any other source of damage.

The goal is to kill Heigan during Phase 1 (the first 90 seconds) before he teleports to the platform and forces the Eruption dance. If the raid's damage is not sufficient, Phase 2 begins — all players must jump off the platform and run the Eruption safe-zone pattern on the floor. The safe zones shift in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1, repeating. Mark one experienced player with the Star raid marker as the dance leader. Everyone follows the Star. One misstep means instant death from the Eruption damage (~7,500 Nature damage, effectively a one-shot).

Shadow Priests in the main tank's group provide Vampiric Embrace healing, which triggers from their Shadow damage and bypasses Loatheb's Corrupted Mind healing restriction. This passive healing is one of the few reliable ways to keep the tank alive when direct healing is limited to one cast per minute per healer. All raid members should use a Shadow Protection Potion before the pull because Inevitable Doom deals Shadow damage. The tank wears maximum damage mitigation gear (armor, defense, stamina) rather than threat gear because surviving is the priority.

Loatheb's Corrupted Mind mechanic means that after you cast a healing spell, ALL healing spells are locked out for 60 seconds for that healer. Each healer gets only one heal per minute. Coordinate healing rotations so healers stagger their one heal at different times — do not have all healers cast at the same time or there will be a 60-second window with zero available heals. Save your heal for when the tank is critically low.

Druids apply Rejuvenation and Priests apply Renew as their primary healing contribution. Shamans alternate between Disease Cleansing Totem (to handle incoming damage-over-time debuffs) and Healing Stream Totem (to provide passive ticking healing to their group). The totem rotation provides consistent low-level healing without consuming each healer's single healing spell allowance.

Fungal Bloom spores spawn every ~12 seconds near Loatheb. When killed, the spore grants +50% melee critical strike chance, +60% spell critical strike chance, and eliminates all threat generated by abilities for 90 seconds — but only to the 5 nearest players. The raid must assign groups to rotate through the spores in priority order: your highest DPS groups first (for example, the warlock group, then the best melee group), then remaining groups. The raid leader calls out group numbers in rotation order.

This is a sample spore rotation order — adjust it based on your raid's composition. The key principle is that your highest damage-dealing groups receive the first spores so they can maximize their critical strike window across the longest portion of the fight. Threat is not a concern for players with the spore buff since it causes zero threat generation.

Only 5 players within close range of the spore receive the Fungal Bloom buff when it dies. If the spore is killed before the correct group is gathered around it, the buff goes to the wrong players and is wasted. Each spore is extremely valuable for raid DPS — a wasted spore significantly reduces the raid's ability to beat the Inevitable Doom enrage timer. Coordinate carefully.