Kel'Thuzad Tactics

"He serves the Lich King without question, a necromancer of great prowess in life, turned to a master of necromancy after his death. It is said he is the most loyal of the Lich King's subjects." - Commander Eligor Dawnbringer


"Minions, servants, soldiers of the cold dark...obey the call of Kel'Thuzad!" - Kel'Thuzad
"I will freeze the blood in your veins!" - Kel'Thuzad

SETUP

As you arrive at the entrance to Kel'Thuzad's room, pay attention to the geography of the chamber. In the middle of the room is a large green circle (similar to that of Sapphiron's room) and all around it are small chambers. In front of this circle is Kel'Thuzad.

Kel'Thuzad will engage as soon as your raid touches the green circle in the middle, or reaches a similar distance to Kel'Thuzad. All players should move close to each other and together when starting to engage Kel'Thuzad, and should move into the green circle in the center.

Ranged DPS is required for this fight, and the stronger they are, the better off you are. try to limit your melee a bit more for this fight than usual.

Kel'Thuzad has a 16 minute enrage timer, from the moment he is engaged in Phase One.

PHASES

Kel'Thuzad has three phases to his encounter.

Phase one: Soldiers of the cold dark
Phase one lasts for 3 minutes and 48 seconds. During this phase, Kel'Thuzad will remain unattackable and adds will spawn in all the chambers around the room. For this reason, all players should begin the fight in the middle of the room, in the green circle. During this phase, the circle becomes the raid's safety camp. Players should create a circle and designate priority chambers which they will focus on. When adds come from those chambers, players assigned to that chamber should be attacking them, and should only change priority when other members call out for help.
The key to this phase is remembering that the circle in the middle is your safety net. You should not move away from it and should not allow any enemies except the Abominations to get inside it.

Phase two: Scream your dying breath
Phase two begins after 3 minutes and 48 seconds. Any adds not engaged from Phase one will despawn, but ones already aggro'd will continue to engage until they are killed. Kel'Thuzad activates during Phase two, and will actively attack the raid and be attackable by the raid.
Kel'Thuzad uses frost abilities mainly, meaning any reduction to spell damage or frost damage will be useful. He also uses many range-based attacks, that rely on the party to be seperated by X yards from their allies to avoid being harmed in some cases, and in most cases killed. On 25 player, he also mind controls and forces the players to deal with their own allies turning against them.

Phase three: The Lich King's assistance
At 45% health, Kel'Thuzad calls for the assistance of the Lich King. Arthas responds by summoning 2 (25 player: 4) Guardians of Icecrown, Nerubian enemies that have the same health as Kel'Thuzad and continually get stronger and healthier the longer the fight goes on. This forces the raid into a race until the Guardians (combined with Kel'Thuzad) kill the members. If you are able to survive this dangerous phase of the fight, then you have conquered Kel'Thuzad.

PHASE ONE: ABILITIES

There will be three types of adds to deal with during phase one, they can come from any chamber in the room:

Soldier of the Frozen Wastes - 71 of those will spawn during Phase 1. They have a 2,500 (25 Player: 4,000) hit points, slow movement speed, but will cast Dark Blast on any target in melee range. Dark Blast will instantly kill the skeleton and inflict 3,063 to 3,937 (25 Player: 4,375 to 5,625) Shadow damage to nearby players.
These Skeletons are the most common enemy you'll fight in Phase one. they take very little to kill, and move slow, but if they enter melee range they will harm your entire raid. Ranged damage dealers should quickly dispatch these with a low-damage quick-cooldown ability. They should be prioritized when they are getting too close to your party.

Unstoppable Abomination - 8 of those will spawn during Phase 1. They have ~75,000 (25 Player: ~190,000) hit points, don't hit too hard, but may apply a stacking Mortal Wound debuff, which decreases healing received by 10% per application.
The Abominations are an immediate threat, as they move at a normal speed and will openly attack your party. Tanks should be tanking these, and melee DPS should attack only these enemies. Ranged should only assist in killing these if the Melee DPS is low in the raid, and the other enemies are not a threat at the moment.

Soul Weaver - 8 of those will spawn during Phase 1. They have ~55,000 (25 Player: 130,000) hit points, and move very slowly, but will cast Wail of Souls if their primary aggro holder is in melee range. The spell knocks up to three players 30 yards back and inflicts 4,250 to 5,750 (25 Player: 6,375 to 8,625) Shadow damage.
The Ghosts are essentially a stronger, slower version of the Skeletons. If they reach melee range, they will cause major problems and possibly wipe your raid. These should be prioritized above all else for ranged, and only switched off if a skeleton is too close, or an abomination must be handled by some of the ranged.

PHASE ONE: STRATEGY
Before the fight begins, your raid should understand that the green circle in the middle is your safety zone for the duration of Phase one. No raid member should leave that circle until Phase 2.

Also, assign your raid members to different chambers of the room. This will help them to focus fire down enemies coming from that section, and allow your raid a constant knowledge of the entire area, should a new abomination or ghost appear. If one side of your raid is having trouble, call out and any member not currently dealing with a major threat should turn to help.

Ranged DPS should be the only ones to attack Ghosts or Skeletons. Melee should help out with ranged attacks ONLY if there is no Abomination currently up. Melee DPS should be fighting the Abominations by priority.

If a Ghost is nearing your party, you should prioritize killing it as fast as possible. Due to their knockback ability, they are a serious threat if they enter melee range, because they will knock you into a new chamber and essentially cause a wipe due to aggro'd enemies.

Ideally, the only damage anyone should take in Phase one is damage from the abominations.

As soon as Phase one ends (3 minutes and 48 seconds after engaging Kel'Thuzad), all non-aggro'd enemies will despawn and Kel'Thuzad will become active and attack your raid. No Abominations should be active when Phase two begins, as your tanks must switch targets to Kel'Thuzad.

PHASE TWO: ABILITIES

Frostbolt (Single) - A 2-second cast Frost Bolt, that hits Kel'Thuzad's target for 10,063 to 12,937 (25 Player: 29,250 to 30,750) partially resistible Frost damage
Increase your Frost Resistance by as much as you can to reduce the damage dealt by this ability. It is very useful, as this ability is interruptable, to interrupt it as much as possible. It will help to mitigate the damage dealt to the already heavily under fire Tank.

Frostbolt (Volley) - An instant Frost Bolt Volley, that hits everybody in the raid for 4,500 to 5,500 (25 Player: 7,200 to 8,800) fully resistable Frost damage. Used every 20-30 seconds.
Frost Resistance is also useful for this ability, and is the only way to mitigate the damage.

Shadow Fissure - Summons a Shadow Fissure underneath a random player. The fissure will stay inactive for about 3 seconds, after which it will become a beam of purple energy, instantly killing the player if they remain in it.
This ability summons a void zone underneath a player, giving them a 3 second warning before it activates. This ability will instantly kill the person it is targeting. There should never be any raid member hit by this, move out of it immediately.

Detonate Mana - A debuff placed randomly on mana users. After 5 seconds, it will deal AoE damage based on maximum mana, to nearby players, while also draining ~2,000 mana from the target. This has a 30 second cooldown.
Any player within 10 yards of the affected player will take damage equal to the maximum mana of the affected player, while also having that player's mana drained. This causes major damage to your raid, as well as your healers since it drains mana. You should have everyone 10 yards away from mana users at all times, or move away from affected players as soon as possible. You should also put as much mana regeneration up as possible to fight the mana drain.

Frost Blast - Throughout the fight, Kel'Thuzad will freeze a player (and their nearby allies, if within 10 yards) in an Ice Block. The spell will damage the players for 26% of their maximum health every 1 second, for 4 seconds, adding up to 104% of the players' maximum hit points. Affected players will need to receive very quick heals, or they will die. In 10 player only, the tank is not targetable by this ability, but is able to be frozen by the AoE. 45 second cooldown.
This ability is incredibly dangerous. After casting, the player (and anyone within 10 yards of the player) will be frozen and have 3 seconds to be healed for at least 5% of their health or else they'll die. Healers must react VERY fast, and somehow block or heal the damage dealt by this ability. Instant cast heals, fast heals, shields, and other such ways of quick reaction are the only way to survive this ability. Everyone must stay 10 yards away from all other players to avoid being chain frosted. Melee should make a formation around Kel'Thuzad to avoid being chain frosted.

Chains of Kel'Thuzad (25 Player) - Kel'Thuzad will randomly Mind Control up to 3 players, increasing their size and damage by 200%. Enslaved players will also turn red, making them easy to spot. They will try to buff and heal (at +500% efficiency) Kel'Thuzad, and should be CC'd as quickly as possible. This effect lasts 20 seconds, and wipes all threat.
This ability is only in effect for 25 player. This causes many, many problems in the fight, and can effectively wipe a raid if unlucky. CC must be done immediately to the affected players to handle it, otherwise interrupt and in any way incapacitate the players until the effect is over.

PHASE TWO: STRATEGY

Frost Resistance will greatly reduce the damage dealt by Kel'Thuzad's abilities.

As Phase two begins, any remaining adds from phase one will need to be quickly handled by the DPS while the tank goes onto Kel'Thuzad. No abominations should be alive when Phase Two begins.

All players should remain 10 yards away from everyone else at all times, with healers strategically placed around the middle to be in range of most everyone.

Melee should form a diamond formation around Kel'Thuzad to ensure safety. Any more than 4 melee, and you should have players all stacking in two's, so that only two members are hit rather than three or more.

Mana users must be very careful about their mana, as they will be constantly drained by the mana detonations.

Frostbolts should be interrupted whenever possible, as they deal a lot of damage.

Anyone entombed by Frost Blast should be healed immediately with something fast. Your first priority should be to heal them so they survive, and then to heal them back to full.

(25 player only): Anyone affected by the mind control ability must be CC'd or otherwise incapacitated until the effect wears off.

PHASE THREE

As Phase three begins (when Kel'Thuzad hits 45% health), Kel'Thuzad will call for 2 (25 player: 4) Guardians of Icecrown to join the fight. They have health equal to that of Kel'Thuzad, and must be offtanked.

Guardian of Icecrown - The high amount of hit points those adds will have requires Off-tanks to hold them, while the raid finishes Kel'Thuzad. The Guardians cast stackable Blood Tap, which increases their damage by 15% per application.

The only thing that changes in phase three, is that the new Guardians will make your healers even more pressed for mana and time, and your offtank will have to be able to survive many heavy hits.

Phase Three is a DPS race, as now your raid must defeat Kel'Thuzad before the Nerubians kill your Offtank and start wiping the raid.

Keep in mind that Kel'Thuzad continues to use all of his Phase two abilities while in this phase, and you must still practice phase two strategy to avoid wiping.

The final boss of Naxxramas defeated, your raid has endured many trials and dangers and has emerged victorious! Clean the frost off your shoulders and revel in your triumph! You have defeated Kel'Thuzad!


CONGRATULATIONS