Gothik
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Overview
Instrumental in the devastation of New Avalon, the Harvester of Souls has returned to his lair within Naxxramas to continue his research...
The Gothik encounter revolves around a central mechanic that is easy to understand: adds spawn on the Live Side of the room, and convert to undead on the Dead Side of the room once they die. After a few minutes, adds stop spawning, and Gothik descends from his platform to deal with the raid personally.
In practice, the difficulty of this fight varies dramatically based on gear. The adds possess several abilities (such as Death Plague and the Shadow Mark/Shadow Bolt Volley combo) which can be dangerous to a raid with low DPS, but can largely be ignored once your gear has improved and you can kill adds more quickly.
Gear and consumables
Like most Wrath of the Lich King raid encounters, this fight is tuned for players who are using level 80 epic gear, as well as the best flasks and food buffs available. Getting the best possible gear for your character will make this fight a whole lot easier.
In WotLK, professions can be used to craft high quality epic gear. Most raid and heroic bosses also drop an epic bind-on-equip item. These items are the easiest way to get your character geared up fast, but they're expensive to craft or buy on the AH. The easiest way to get your hands on them is to use a guide like WoW Gold Secrets, which has tips for making several thousand gold per day. This is a great way to save time and down bosses faster.
Click here to try out WoW Gold Secrets.
Abilities
HP: 836,000 (Heroic: 2,300,000)
Shadow Bolt: Gothik will fire a Shadow Bolt every second at his threat target, dealing 3,200 (Heroic: 5,000) damage per Bolt. Used only during Phase 2.
Harvest Soul: Every 15 seconds, Gothik will apply this stacking debuff to all members of the raid. The debuff reduces all stats by 10%, and can stack up to 9 times, for a 90% reduction to all stats. Used only during Phase 2.
Live Side Adds
Unrelenting Trainee - HP: 6,000 (Heroic: 25,000)
Melee: Hits for very light damage.
Death Plague: On each melee attack, the Trainee has a chance to apply this stacking disease. Each application deals 85 nature damage (Heroic: 170) every 3 seconds for 15 seconds.
Rebirth: When killed, will be reborn as a Spectral Trainee on the Dead Side of the room.
Unrelenting Death Knight - HP: 34,000 (Heroic: 85,000)
Melee: Hits for light damage on a tank.
Intercept: Similar to the Warrior ability, charges a nearby opponent, stunning them for 3 seconds.
Shadow Mark: Similar to the Warrior ability Whirlwind, deals 3,500 (Heroic: 8,000) damage to anyone standing near the Death Knight. The victims are also afflicted by Shadow Mark, which makes them targetable by Shadow Bolt Volley for the next 15 seconds. Shadow Mark cannot be dispelled.
Rebirth: When killed, will be reborn as a Spectral Death Knight on the Dead Side of the room.
Unrelenting Rider - HP: 52,000 (Heroic: 135,000)
Unholy Aura: Deals 350 (Heroic: 500) Shadow damage every 3 seconds to all players within 45 yards.
Shadow Bolt Volley: The Unrelenting Rider will periodically fire Shadow Bolts at anyone in the raid who is afflicted by Shadow Mark, dealing 4,000 (Heroic: 6,000) Shadow damage per target.
Rebirth: When killed, will be reborn as a Spectral Rider and Spectral Horse (two seperate mobs) on the Dead Side of the room.
Dead Side Adds
Unlike in the 40-man version, these adds are not magic immune.
Spectral Trainee - HP: 10,000 (Heroic: 26,000)
Arcane Explosion: Similar to the Mage ability, deals 700 Arcane damage to all players within 20 yards of the Trainee.
Spectral Death Knight - HP: 33,000 (Heroic: 79,000)
Whirlwind: Similar to the Warrior ability, inflicts around 3,000 damage to all nearby players.
Spectral Rider - 55,000 (Heroic: 160,000)
Unholy Aura: Deals 350 (Heroic: 500) Shadow damage every 3 seconds to all players within 45 yards.
Drain Life: Channeled spell, inflicting 6,000 (Heroic: 12,000) Shadow damage to the Rider's threat target over 5 seconds.
Spectral Horse - 16,000 (Heroic: 40,000)
Stomp: Deals around 2,500 damage to all players within 10 yards of the Horse, and slows their movement speed by 60% for 8 seconds.
Preparation
Raid Composition
10 Man:
2 Tanks
3 Healers
5 DPS
Priests are highly desireable as healers or DPS for Shackle Undead.
Assignments
Raid Leader Upon aggro'ing Gothik, the gate connecting the Live Side and Dead Side of the room will close, so you must divide your raid up beforehand. Place the Offtank, 1-2 healers, and half your DPS on the Live Side. The Main Tank, 1-2 healers, and the other half of your DPS should go on the Dead Side of the room (with the bone piles). The key is that both sides should be killed adds at about the same rate.
Try to make sure that at least one Priest is present on the Live Side.
On the Pull
Main Tank To begin the fight, shoot Gothik.
Phase 1
In this phase, adds will spawn on the Live Side for several minutes. Once killed, their Spectral counterparts will resurrect on the Dead Side. There will usually be multiple mobs to deal with on each side of the room. After about 4:30, no more adds will spawn on the Live Side, and Phase 2 will begin.
Live Side
Live Side Offtank Your main job is to tank Unrelenting Riders whenever they appear. If your gear is good enough and you can tank additional mobs, focus on keeping the other mobs off of the healers. Any Priests present on your side will be shackling the Unrelenting Death Knights, so you can usually leave those for last. Make sure, however, that no Rider ever attacks the raid.
Live Side DPS The mobs currently present in the room determine your kill order. If there are Unrelenting Riders up, always kill them first (there should never be more than one). Next, kill Unrelenting Death Knights. Finally, kill any Unrelenting Trainees, but when a Rider or Death Knight spawns, you should switch your DPS back to those quickly.
Unrelenting Trainees have very low HP and can often be killed with AOE or pet offtanks. If you see a Trainee attacking a healer, you are encouraged to pull aggro from the healer, or use your pet to offtank the Trainee.
Live Side Healers Cleansing the Death Plague disease from all members of the raid quickly, including pets, will greatly reduce the overall amount of damage you have to heal on this fight, as Unrelenting Trainees tend to run around and hit everybody. Nonetheless, expect to be healing a substantial amount of raid damage. If two or more healers are present on your side, one should focus on healing the Offtank, while the other focuses on curing diseases and keeping the raid above 50% at all times. In the 10-man version, if DPS is strong and adds die fast, one motivated healer can solo heal this side.
Live Side Priest Shackle Unrelenting Death Knights as soon as they spawn.
Dead Side
Dead Side Main Tank Spectral mobs will appear on the bone piles, so stand near the bone piles. Tank all Spectral Riders, Spectral Horses, and Spectral Death Knights when they appear. Don't bother to tank Trainees.
Dead Side DPS Your DPS order is determined by which mobs are present in the room. Always kill Spectral Riders as soon as they appear. When no Spectral Riders are alive, kill Spectral Death Knights. Kill Spectral Trainees last.
Spectral Riders will cast Drain Life on the tank. Interrupt it immediately.
Spectral Death Knights apply a nasty Sunder Armor debuff to the tank. When DPS'ing them, try to keep them stunlocked so that Sunder Armor wears off.
Dead Side Healers Depending on how quickly adds are killed, the Dead Side of the raid will often take small amounts of damage from Unholy Aura, Stomp, Trainees, and Arcane Explosion. When only one or two adds are up, this can generally be resolved with HoTs, and you can stay focused on the tank. If additional adds begin to pile up, direct heals may be required on the raid. Abilities like Circle of Healing and Chain Heal are also very strong in this Phase.
Phase 2
Gothik will teleport from his platform to the Live Side. He will periodically teleport to the Dead Side, and then back. After two round trips, the gate between the two sides will open.
Tanks Tank Gothik when he arrives on your side. Move him close to the gate so the other side of the room can help out.
DPS DPS Gothik until he is dead.
Healers Heal the target of Gothik's Shadow Bolt.
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