This is the first in a series of articles covering each boss in Naxxramas.

Anub’Rekhan is usually the first boss you will encounter when you step foot into Naxxramas.  However, don’t let that make you lazy or put your guard down.  Anub’Rekhan can be a difficult boss for groups who enter Naxxramas unprepared and undergeared.

Gear Requirements

The gear you need always depends on the skill level and gear of you and your raid members.  However, at a minimum, you should have a full set of ilvl 200 (or possibly 187) blues and ideally a few epics from Heroics.

Your healing team

A good way to wipe your group right off the bat is go into Naxx without enough healers.  Anub’Rekhan will test your group’s healing capability and give you a good sense of how the rest of your night will go.  A few wipes on Anub’Rekhan will make a huge impact on your group’s morale, so make sure you go into Naxx with enough healers to get the job done on the first or second try.  Any healing team should be able to do it, but make sure you have 5 - 7 healers in 25-man before you enter Naxx.  Four healers will usually not be able to cut it.  2 - 3 healers is good on the 10-man version.  When you’re first entering Naxx and learning the fights, the more healers you have, the better.

The Pull

Anub'Rekhan

The pull is one of those points in the fight where your tank has an increased chance of dying, at least until everyone gets settled in.  Your tank is going to pull Anub’Rekhan to one of the sides of the room.  Usually this is to the far side from where you ran in, but some tanks pull him back to the entrance, which makes the pull a little easier for you since you don’t have to run as far.  You’re going to want to follow your tank closely as he’s running in and throw up your Sacred Shield and Beacon on him while you run.  As soon as the tank pulls, throw your judgement on the boss to get your haste buff.  You might need to throw a Holy Shock on the tank also as you’re moving into position.  Feel free to spam as many heals as you can on the tank at this time since your other healers are probably moving into position as well and healing in general is going to be low.  Your tank may also be out or range of your other healers for a bit.

Healing the Raid

At this point, your off-tanks and dps will be picking up the Crypt Guards.  The Crypt Guards aren’t going to do a ton of damage, but feel free to throw some short heals on your off-tanks and your raid to take advantage of Beacon and to make things easier for everyone.  Its not likely anyone is going to die in this phase of the fight.  Heal anyone who needs it and take care to not waste your mana or do a ton of overhealing.  Since you have some time, try to spread out a bit from the others to avoid the damage and knock-up from Impale.  Keep your Sacred Shield, Beacon and judgement up at all times.  Now is a good time to use Divine Plea if you’re mana is in the 75% range or lower.

Impale

Occasionally, Anub’Rekhan will use Impale, which will target a specific player, doing damage and shooting them up in the air.  In addition, any player between the target and the boss will also take damage and fly in the air.  The best way to avoid this is by spreading out.  If you do get hit by Impale, use the opportunity to throw a Holy Shock on whoever has the lowest health while you’re in the air.  As soon as you land, get working on healing up the raid quickly.  Don’t worry too much about the tank, all your raid heals will be going to him anyway.  As long as people are topped off before-hand, no one should die from Impale.

Keep this up, healing the raid and the tank, until you get the warning for Locust Swarm.  This is when things will get really dicey.

Locust Swarm

Locust Swarm is an ability that will give a stacking debuff that does damage to anyone within 30 yards of Anub’Rekhan.  More importantly, it will silence anyone who gets hit by the debuff.  As soon as you get the warning for Locust Swarm, make sure to back up so you’re at max range from the tank.  You should be near the center of the green circle in the middle of the room.  You’re also going to want to make sure to quickly refresh Sacred Shield and Beacon on the tank.  Damage now is probably starting to get a bit hectic as people get hit by Impales and Corpse Scarabs, but make sure to keep your focus on the tank and keep him topped off.

The number one most important thing to remember during Locust Swarm is to absolutely stay over 30 yards away from the boss at all times.  If you get hit by Locust Swarm, you will be silenced for what seems like an infinitely long period of time, at the exact time when heals are needed the most.  This is especially difficult because your tank will be taking damage from the Locust Swarm stacks and you’ll want to get in range to heal him.  You only have a 10 yard window to stand though and its hard to find that window when the tank is moving.

The best strategy is to keep the tank topped off, shielded and Beaconed before the swarm, and then mostly forget about him as he kites Anub’Rekhan around the room.  You’ll want to run to the other side of the green circle while the tank kites.  Try to stay closer to the opposite side of the room from where Anub’Rekhan is.  A new Corpse Guard should spawn about the same time that Locust Swarm hits, so you and the rest of the raid should all focus on that Corpse Guard and healing raid and off-tank damage, hoping some of your heals get Beaconed onto the tank.  When your tank reaches the other side of the room, he will usually take a ton of damage right away from the Locust Swarm stacks as well as from Anub’Rekhan.  You’ll want to be ready to spam heals on him quickly as soon as he’s in position.  Healing will probably be low during this time as your healers get silenced and/or move around.  This is the point where your tank is most likely to die.  If the tank doesn’t kite the boss correctly, you could suffer a wipe from no fault of your own, especially if the entire raid gets silenced.  Just follow your tank around to the other side while staying at max range and be ready to spam heals on him when he’s in position and you should be good.

Alternative Strategy

If your tank and heals are geared enough, you may be able to heal through Locust swarm without kiting the boss at all.  This can actually be much easier for everyone, since you don’t have to move and there’s little chance of anyone getting silenced.  The tank will take a ton of damage though, so make sure you’re spamming him with Holy Light.

After Locust Swarm

After Locust Swarm, its rinse and repeat.  Locust Swarm will repeat about every 90 seconds.  You’ll usually go through two or possibly three Locust Swarms, although many groups only have one, depending on your dps.  Keep the heals up on the raid, watch your mana use, keep your buffs and judgements up, and watch out for Locust Swarm and you’ll soon be celebrating your first Naxx boss kill!

Loot to look for

Here’s the loot you should be watching for.

10-man

• Chivalric Chestguard - an awesome chestpiece that is better than the tier chest piece if you have an odd number of pieces.
• Band of Neglected Pleas - Ring
• Boots of Persistence - nice boots to shoot for if there are no shamans in the group

25-man

• Rescinding Grips - Plate Gloves
• Shield of Assimilation - Shield
• Chains of Adoration - Neck
• Siezed Beauty - Ring
• Corpse Scarab Handguards - Mail Gloves
• Sash of the Parlor - Cloth belt, go ahead and roll if no one else can use