The Four Horsemen Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

Last updated on Sep 27, 2022 at 18:43 by Sinzhu 2 comments

The Four Horsemen is the third and final encounter of The Military Quarter in Wrath of the Lich King Classic's version of the Naxxramas Raid and is commonly the ninth encounter of the instance as a whole. Do not forget to be aware of the various Raid Buffs and Debuffs as you work to optimize your Raid Composition for this encounter's mechanics!

1.

Overview of The Four Horsemen in Wrath of the Lich King Classic's Naxxramas

The Four Horsemen is the third and final encounter of The Military Quarter that you will experience in Naxxramas, and now featuring Baron Rivendare as a horseman due to one of the four now leading the Knights of the Ebon Blade faction of rebellious Death Knights. Although this fight was infamous for requiring eight tanks during the original WoW Classic, in Wrath of the Lich King Classic you will be able to get by just fine with only two tanks.

2.

Role-Specific Tips for The Four Horsemen

2.1.

Healer Tips

  • Stay stacked with other players to reduce the damage dealt by Thane Korth'azz's Meteor IconMeteor ability.
  • Avoid standing in any of Lady Blaumeux's Void Zone IconVoid Zones.
  • Be very careful when fighting Sir Zeliek, as his Holy Wrath IconHoly Wrath will become lethal if allowed to jump too many times.
2.2.

DPS Tips

  • Your goal is to defeat the first chosen Horsemen as quickly as possible. Commit your cooldowns to doing so.
  • Stay stacked with other DPS to reduce the damage dealt by Thane Korth'azz's Meteor IconMeteor ability.
  • Avoid standing in any of Lady Blaumeux's Void Zone IconVoid Zones.
  • Be very careful when fighting Sir Zeliek, as his Holy Wrath IconHoly Wrath will become lethal if allowed to jump too many times.
2.3.

Tank Tips

  • One tank will be handling Baron Rivendare during this encounter while the other will be dealing with Thane Korth'azz.
  • Avoid standing in any of Lady Blaumeux's Void Zone IconVoid Zones if you are tanking near her.
3.

The Four Horsemen Abilities

  • Baron Rivendare
    • Mark of Rivendare IconMark of Rivendare — One of four "mark" auras present in this encounter. All players within 55 yards of Baron Rivendare will gradually acquire stacks of this mark, taking ever-increasing damage as a result.
    • Unholy Shadow IconUnholy Shadow — Baron Rivendare's "signature" ability for this encounter. This will be cast on his primary target, applying an immediate amount of Shadow damage followed by a lingering DoT.
  • Thane Korth'azz
    • Mark of Korth'azz IconMark of Korth'azz — One of four "mark" auras present in this encounter. All players within 55 yards of Thane Korth'azz will gradually acquire stacks of this mark, taking ever-increasing damage as a result.
    • Meteor IconMeteor — Thane Korth'azz's "signature" ability for this encounter. This ability is cast on a random player, and the damage will be split among all players standing next to the victim.
  • Lady Blaumeux
    • Mark of Blaumeux IconMark of Blaumeux — One of four "mark" auras present in this encounter. All players within 45 yards of Lady Blaumeux will gradually acquire stacks of this mark, taking ever-increasing damage as a result.
    • Shadow Bolt IconShadow Bolt — Lady Blaumeux casts this as her primary means of attack, dealing Shadow damage.
    • Unyielding Pain IconUnyielding Pain — A stronger version of Shadow Bolt IconShadow Bolt, Lady Blaumeux will cast this if there are no players within 55 yards of her.
    • Void Zone IconVoid Zone — Lady Blaumeux's "signature" ability for this encounter. She will create a void zone at the location of a random player that lingers for 90 seconds. Standing in this void zone will deal heavy damage to the player.
  • Sir Zeliek
    • Mark of Zeliek IconMark of Zeliek — One of four "mark" auras present in this encounter. All players within 45 yards of Sir Zeliek will gradually acquire stacks of this mark, taking ever-increasing damage as a result.
    • Holy Bolt IconHoly Bolt — Sir Zeliek casts this as his primary means of attack, dealing Holy damage.
    • Condemnation IconCondemnation — A stronger version of Holy Bolt IconHoly Bolt, Sir Zeliek will cast this if there are no players within 55 yards of him.
    • Holy Wrath IconHoly Wrath — Sir Zeliek's "signature" ability for this encounter. A random player will be targeted by this ability, which will then attempt to bounce to another nearby player and grow in damage. This will repeat until there are no players close enough to jump to.
4.

Strategy for The Four Horsemen

4.1.

Marks

As mentioned in the ability list above, each of The Four Horsemen has a unique "mark" aura that they will periodically apply to all players within their 45-55 yard range. Although the marks themselves do nothing, each application of a mark will deal damage to you based on the number of mark stacks you have after the new one was added. This damage starts out small, but quickly becomes extreme once four stacks of one mark have been added, as shown below:

Mark Stacks Damage Taken
1 650
2 1,950
3 4,550
4 9,750
5 16,250

It is also important to remember that you will be taking damage from each mark being applied at the same time if you are within range of multiple Horsemen. Fortunately, with how you will be defeating this encounter, this will only be a concern for a short period of time.

4.2.

Kill Order

Your kill order for The Four Horsemen will be as follows:

  1. Thane Korth'azz
  2. Baron Rivendare
  3. Lady Blaumeux
  4. Sir Zeliek

You will start by having most of your raid follow Thane Korth'azz to his corner when the encounter is started, with the exception of two healers, or one ranged DPS with a healer, that will instead go to the corners of Lady Blaumeux and Sir Zeliek. One tank will also go to the corner of Baron Rivendare and immediately drag him over to Thane Korth'azz. From here you will be defeating both of these Horsemen while they are stacked together before their mark stacks become overwhelming.

In the meantime, your two players that are in the corners of Lady Blaumeux and Sir Zeliek mostly need to focus on their own survival, swapping positions with one another if their mark stacks get too high as well.

With two Horsemen defeated, the raid as a whole will next focus on defeating Lady Blaumeux before finally moving on to finish Sir Zeliek. Remember to stay mindful of the Void Zone IconVoid Zones and especially be careful to not allow Holy Wrath IconHoly Wrath to jump to lethal amounts of damage!

Finally, if at any time during the encounter a player has acquired too many stacks of a given mark, they may safely wait in the center of the room to allow their mark debuffs to expire before rejoining the fight.

5.

The Four Horsemen Loot

5.1.

10-Player

Item Type/Slot
Chestguard of the Lost Conqueror Icon Chestguard of the Lost Conqueror Tier 7 token (Chest)
Chestguard of the Lost Protector Icon Chestguard of the Lost Protector Tier 7 token (Chest)
Chestguard of the Lost Vanquisher Icon Chestguard of the Lost Vanquisher Tier 7 token (Chest)
Claymore of Ancient Power Icon Claymore of Ancient Power Two-Hand Sword
Charmed Cierge Icon Charmed Cierge Staff
Gown of Blaumeux Icon Gown of Blaumeux Cloth Chest
Pauldrons of Havoc Icon Pauldrons of Havoc Mail Shoulders
Thane's Tainted Greathelm Icon Thane's Tainted Greathelm Plate Helm
5.2.

25-Player

Item Type/Slot
Breastplate of the Lost Conqueror Icon Breastplate of the Lost Conqueror Tier 7 token (Chest)
Breastplate of the Lost Protector Icon Breastplate of the Lost Protector Tier 7 token (Chest)
Breastplate of the Lost Vanquisher Icon Breastplate of the Lost Vanquisher Tier 7 token (Chest)
Damnation Icon Damnation
Armageddon Icon Armageddon Two-Hand Sword
Broken Promise Icon Broken Promise One-Hand Sword
Final Voyage Icon Final Voyage Crossbow
Urn of Lost Memories Icon Urn of Lost Memories Off-hand
Mantle of the Corrupted Icon Mantle of the Corrupted Cloth Shoulders
Gloves of Peaceful Death Icon Gloves of Peaceful Death Leather Gloves
Helm of the Grave Icon Helm of the Grave Mail Helm
Pauldrons of Havoc Icon Pauldrons of Havoc Mail Shoulders
Leggings of Voracious Shadows Icon Leggings of Voracious Shadows Mail Legs
Zeliek's Gauntlets Icon Zeliek's Gauntlets Plate Gloves
6.

Further Reading

The Four Horsemen is just one of the 15 encounters present in the Naxxramas raid. If you would like to learn more about the others, or would like to see the loot tables of every boss at the same time, please see our other pages for the raid below.

7.

Changelog

  • 27 Sep. 2022: Page added
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