Click any of the links throughout this to go directly to movie guides with encounter notes. This first movie is a general introduction to Wrath of the Lich King raiding. Also, please note that Donors can directly download most Project Marmot movies directly from our website -- click here to learn more!
Encounter Locations Wintergrasp: Archavon
Behind the portal from Dalaran. Available while your faction controls Wintergrasp.
Recommended Raid Progression (10 & 25-Man)
The following is a general recommended progression for most raids, assuming gear is not significantly beyond what the encounters were designed for. Links will take you directly to Project Marmot videos and guides.
Begin with Sartharion and Archavon. Sartharion provides a good cache of loot and multiple emblems so he's going to provide a good boost moving forward.
Move to Naxxramas and clear the Spider Wing, starting with Anub'rekhan, moving to Grand Widow Faerlina (You'll want a Priest for mind controls in 25-man), and finishing with Maexxna.
The Plague wing requires a bit more coordination than the Death Knight wing due to the Heigan dance, so it should generally come after the Death Knight wing unless your raid has generally low DPS. Begin with Noth the Plaguebringer, move to Heigan the Unclean, and finish with Loatheb.
For 25-mans, the Abomination Wing is going to be the biggest gear check and will provide the most challenge for healers and tanks. This should almost always be completed last of the four wings. Begin with Patchwerk, move to Grobbulus, move to Gluth, and finish with Thaddius. In 10-mans, you can do this step earlier, though it will still be the more difficult of the wings.
At this point, move to Sapphiron in Frostwyrm Lair. For 25-mans, you'll want Frost Resist crafted going into this (check the link for a Frost Resist list).
Once Sapphiron is dead you have the option of moving to either Kel'thuzad or Malygos. Kel'Thuzad is the easier of the two, so finish out Frostwyrm Lair.
I can just add to this thread that we tried Malygos 10 man last night and the fight has a serious gear check to it. We gave up quite fast. The MT was fine gear-wise with about 29K HP buffed where the raid members below 20K HP has very severe issues surviving.
With all the talks of raids being "push-overs" it could be good to have a hunch of what you need to manage difference fights. Might be good to have a "this level of raiding requires…". To start tank Naxx you should prob. be at defence 540 and around 21K HP and armor unbuffed as a warrior.
Raids are pushovers to people who know what's coming and have gathered extensive gear for it.
Normal casuals or serious casuals (two or three raids a week thing) will probably be in for a rude awakening as they walk into Naxxramas, not bothering to get a food buff, any flasks or having spent serious time on their gear.
I could think so as well Grakkur. I also think the casuals will get quite frustrated when reading posts like "Naxx is a push-over" while chain-wiping on what experienced people see as simple events.
We had a very odd composition in Naxx yesterday given it was only guild-members it was an odd-setup. Still it worked out, we got bosses down given some struggle. Going in here with SWP mentality will however make it a push-over, fully buffed and raid-composition though through.
I'd still say Naxx is close to a perfect entry level instance. You get to learn so many mechanics in the game with out getting overly stressed out.
I would say that the 10-man version of Four Horsemen is at the same level of progression of Maexxna. It's below Patchwerk for sure.
I've yet to try the 25man version of this fight.
__________________ In summary, TBC raiding is easy. 9/10 encounters can be summarized with 1 phrase. Stay out of the fucking fire. Panda Cub with a Gnome pet!
What gear level does the raid have to be made up of, i have done some work on my gear and last night my buffed health was 30750. I have crafted some pieces, rep rewards and heroics.
Now we had some brand new level 80s go in that were in quest rewards some t6 gear, we got MERKED to say the least. Our 1st boss was patchwork, we lasted 10 seconds the druid was the off tank and he kept getting owned from Hateful strikes, im guessing this is down to the healers to keep him up but they were going oom very quick, so i guess they need to be geared for this fight. We tried with me as the OT to eat the strikes this went a lot better but the druid took that much burst damage from Patch that he lasted like 30 seconds, he was at about 23k health. So we called patch and tried for the 1st spider boss.
This is complexed fight, we looked at strats on the web and some said different things and was confusing a lot of people. We gave up after 3 attempts, it was a big wake up call to us and we need to gear up fast i feel.
Would love to see videos on these two fights if possible cider
To be completely honest, as long as you're uncrittable your other gear should suffice. The gear requirements for 10 man Naxx mostly fall on the shoulders of your DPS being able to meet any gear checks - not the tanks. I tanked all of Naxx the night I hit 80 with full level 70 gear on, I just swapped all my gems/enchants to +defense to get uncrittable and it went fine.
That said, Patchwerk is probably not the best boss to start on, which Cider's first post also shows. Especially if your druid tank only has 23k buffed health. That's pretty low and it would be prudent to aim for at least 23k unbuffed health on all the tanks.
__________________ "We actually talked today about adding an item level 300 shirt that did absolutely nothing but mess with mods that attempt to boil down players to gear scores. " -Ghostcrawler
For anyone curious - Archevon (the Wintergrasp boss) ranks below all of these. Completely puggable by whoever you just took Wintergrasp with, as long as you've got at least two tanks.
On a scale of difficulty I rank him somewhere between Rend Blackhand and Hogger.
Source: Lore
For anyone curious - Archevon (the Wintergrasp boss) ranks below all of these. Completely puggable by whoever you just took Wintergrasp with, as long as you've got at least two tanks.
On a scale of difficulty I rank him somewhere between Rend Blackhand and Hogger.
The delivery vessel for the epix you already won for beating the opposing faction, eh?
__________________
your hat may be nice, but I have the little white tank top that says Legendary right across my boobs. I win. (or more correctly, H wins)
The unfortunate thing about Archevon is he doesn't drop tokens of any sort - he drops the set pieces.
The last two or three times we've killed him (in the 10man version at least) we've had items drop that no one in the raid can even equip. Rogue gear but no Rogues, Warlock gear but no Warlocks, etc.
Source: Narshe
I would say that the 10-man version of Four Horsemen is at the same level of progression of Maexxna. It's below Patchwerk for sure.
I've yet to try the 25man version of this fight.
Really? Thats a real surprise to me. Our guild has managed to get through about half of the instance with a really messed up group. (Not a single priest or Paladin, using a SV hunter for Replenishment.) Patchwerk felt like Brutallus on crack. I had only ever seen Naxx in TBC on my Paladin. So it was a wake up call for me. Especially while wearing about 50/50 TBC/Wrath epics and some blue upgrades. If Hourseman are easier...
We killed everything we tried this week in our limited excursion into Naxx. A lot of us were surprised by some of the changes. We were half way through with the old pre Heigan gauntlet before we realized stuff had loot on it and wasn't respawning.
All in all the instance has been enough of a challenge in simply relearning the encounters new little tweaks that we are all having a blast.
Source: Tol
Cider -
Thank you for narrating these strats. Our guild is starting 25 man content, will you be explaining 25 man raid strats as well as 10 man?
To some degree, though there are a lot of these encounters where the 10 and 25 are nearly identical save for numbers and DPS requirements.
Not sure if this is an error on wowhead or just a typo here (and considering I have yet to step foot in Wintergrasp I have no idea....) But wowhead shows it as Archavon whereas its Archevon here.
Not that its a big deal by any stretch of the imagination, this thread and the whole Project Marmot idea is incredible for those of us looking for a quick source of reliable information on new raids.
It is agrivating, to see so many people whine and complain, calling it the "Fail of the Lichking." Yes, there are several guilds now, who have burned through the content already, but what do those guilds have in common? I'm banking on the fact that most of them have been playing for a long time now, have made a habbit of trying to be the very best... heavy Theorycrafters... And probably above all else, expert raiders who learned how not to stand in the fire.
My thoughts on this though is, Wrath has more stable content, stable lore, and high quality content than BC did, and its not mind numbing, and dull like the Plain old wow content. I'm thinking that, with only so many instances avaliable, that in later patches, there will be harder raids, more challanging, complex, and Epic fights.
The possibilities of the Arthas fight alone is mind boggling... I could only imagine having an army of really PO'd NPC's from Arthas' campaign, of people he's hurt, betrayed, his kingdom he destroyed.
For hardcore players, don't despire, there will be a challange, I'm almost positive. For the regular joes, like me, who havn't gotten many chances to raid yet, waiting for slow levelers, and what not, They've made intro raiding a lot easier... and I imagine starting naxx will be nothing like Starting kara was. (Raise your hand if you were booted in early BC from kara groups for having a blue item equiped?) And thats all these raids really are. A way to introduce you to their newest concepts of raiding. I mean, fighting on Dragons? Thats pretty awesome!
Want to start off with a big Thank You!
For both the guides and site, been a major help in the last five to six months
My current question does not really pertain to this thread but felt its the best place to post it, If it has been answered before please excuse my arrogance!
Looking for the mods that you are utulizing (mainly the Enemy and Player Health bars that are around the center of your screen, And the combat text mod you are currently using. Personally like Parrot but takes up alot of space.
Source: Whispered
Want to start off with a big Thank You!
For both the guides and site, been a major help in the last five to six months
My current question does not really pertain to this thread but felt its the best place to post it, If it has been answered before please excuse my arrogance!
Looking for the mods that you are utulizing (mainly the Enemy and Player Health bars that are around the center of your screen, And the combat text mod you are currently using. Personally like Parrot but takes up alot of space.
Ty in advance for the feedback
What I did, that I found helpful, was just find out what the core addons of most all modpacks are, and designed it the way I liked, The usual suspects are like bartender for buttons, Pitbull for your unit frames. Simple things like that.
It Cut down a lot in memory, I saw less lag, and I got something I found functional, that felt natural to me.
Encounter Locations & Recommended Raid Progression
the druid was the off tank and he kept getting owned from Hateful strikes, im guessing this is down to the healers to keep him up but they were going oom very quick, so i guess they need to be geared for this fight. We tried with me as the OT to eat the strikes this went a lot better but the druid took that much burst damage from Patch that he lasted like 30 seconds, he was at about 23k health. So we called patch and tried for the 1st spider boss. 
