Four Horsemen

From WoWWiki

This article concerns the 10 and 25-man versions of the Four Horsemen encounter introduced with Wrath of the Lich King. For the original encounter, introduced in Patch 1.11, see Four Horsemen (original).

The Four Horsemen are four powerful death knights in the service of Kel'Thuzad, in his dread citadel of Naxxramas. They are Baron Rivendare, Thane Korth'azz, Lady Blaumeux, and Sir Zeliek. Highlord Alexandros Mograine <The Ashbringer> was once counted amongst them, but following their defeat in the Eastern Plaguelands he has gone missing, with Rivendare acting as his replacement.

They were originally based on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation, said to bring the end of the world — Zeliek as the White Rider of Conquest,^[1] Mograine as the Red Rider of War, Blaumeux as the Black Rider of Famine, and Korth'azz as the Pale Rider of Death.

Originally regarded as the most difficult encounter pre-Burning Crusade, the coordination, timing, and relatively unforgiving nature were a very large step up from the difficulty in the rest of the instance. With the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, the Four Horsemen, along with Naxxramas, have relocated to Northrend, where they will be featured in both 10 and 25-man versions of the raid.

Contents 1 Attacks and abilities 2 Strategies 3 Loot table 4 Discussion 5 References 6 External links

Attacks and abilities

The room shape is strange, as shown on the right side.

The four horsemen have several common features:

• Each horseman has about 800k health.
• All 4 horsemen can be disarmed.
• Enrage: At 100 marks cast, horsemen will enrage and use their abilities with no cooldown. This will take just over 20 minutes.
• Summon Spirit: When each horseman dies, his/her spirit is summoned out, stay at the place and keep giving out marks. DO NOT go near them, they can 1 shot melee range target. This means the safe zone will remain the same even after you killed some of the four horsemen. They are not targetable in this state.
• Shield Wall
  • All 4 horsemen will shield wall at 50% hp and 20% hp for 20 seconds.
• Horsemen Mark:
  1. Unique to each boss and acts just like Firemaw debuff.
  2. First Horsemen Mark is applied at 20 sec.
  3. Horsemen Mark reapply every 12 seconds.
  4. It is possible that every 12 sec when Marks hit, all players' aggros on horsemen are reduced by 50%, which means you need to stay easy on DPS when tank transition. If such a check wasn't in place, by the end of the fight, the tanks would have such a huge amount of aggro it would be impossible to lose aggro.
  5. Mark does damage as 0, 250, 1000, 3000, 5000, 6000, 7000...., which means that you can only stay in for 7 marks maximum. Any more is almost certain death.
  6. Lasts for 75 seconds since last time reapplied, then its timer resets.
  7. Has a range of 65-70 yards (can be outdistanced to drop the debuff)
  8. Does not persist after death.
  9. Applies regardless of LoS.
  10. Classified as physical school (meaning it is unresistable) but deals shadow damage (SR does not mitigate it, shadow protection potion can absorb it though).
  11. Nothing can remove the marks, including Ice Block, Divine Shield, Divine Intervention, or Flask of Petrification.

As well as a single unique ability:

Baron Rivendare — Unholy Shadow ^[2] 

Shadowy energy lashes out, inflicting 2160 to 2640 Shadow damage and a further 600 damage every 1 sec. for 8 sec.

Thane Korth'azz — Meteor 

14250-15750 fire damage, share between all people within 8 yards from the center the meteor drops. Cooldown is 12 secs. Random target in ~ 20 yards. Players will have to stack up when fighting Thane Korth'azz to avoid having the full damage piled upon one person.

Sir Zeliek — Holy Wrath 

Holy damage 495-605, hits aggro target and continues to chain until no one is within the 5 yards distance of the last target (no loop). Every chaining will double the damage. Cooldown is 12 secs. In contrast to his pre-Wrath counterpat, Sir Zeliek now attacks with a spell-based attack on the nearest player, making any class a possible tank if geared properly.^[3]

Lady Blaumeux — Void Zone 

Summon a Void Zone that deals shadow damage to enemies that stand within it (approx 3500-4500 damage per tick). Small radius, approximatley 5 yards. Persists for 90 seconds when dropped. Range: 45 yards. Cooldown is 12 seconds. Persist after she is killed. Lady Blaumeux attack similarly to Sir Zeliek and thus does not require a traditional tanking class.

Strategies

From the mechanics of the Horsemen marks, each Horseman must be taken to a separate corner, and tanked there. Whilst having one Mark stack up will do too much damage and kill you, it is possible to have all 4 marks stack to a lesser extent and survive. 4 Marks of Mograine(3000 damage per tick) hurt a lot more than one Mark from each (no damage at all).

This means tanks must be rotated in and out, otherwise they will die from the Mark stacking too much. A second tank must then be ready to taunt the enemy off the original tank as soon as the debuff becomes fatal. The range of these debuffs is ~50 yards, making rotation timing key.

Loot table

Discussion

When players pass beyond Gothik the Harvester the Four Horsemen have a sort of conversation during which the Horsemen are introduced.

• Sir Zeliek yells: Invaders! Cease this foolish venture at once! Turn away while you still can!
• Lady Blaumeux yells: Come, Zeliek, do not drive them out. Not until we've had our fun!
• Baron Rivendare yells: Enough prattling. Let them come. We shall grind their bones to dust.
• Lady Blaumeux yells: I do hope they stay long enough for me to... introduce myself.
• Sir Zeliek yells: Perhaps they will come to their senses... and run away as fast as they can.
• Thane Korth'azz yells: I've heard enough a' yer snivelin'! Shut your flytrap before I shut it for ye'!
• Baron Rivendare yells: Conserve your anger. Harness your rage. You will all have outlets for your frustrations soon enough.

References

1. ^ Wikipedia article on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse including the White Rider of Conquest
2. ^ http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=28882
3. ^ http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/09/13/ready-check-first-steps-into-naxxramas-10/

External links