Thaddius

[Air]

Thaddius is the 4th and final boss of the abomination wing in Naxxramas. This encounter is without a doubt one of my favorites. It’s a very unique encounter which provides a formidable challenge for any aspiring guild.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7YR3UPlec8&eurl=http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f206/41816-naxxramas-thaddius.html&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Thaddius Boss Strategy

Feugen’s Abilities

    * Static Field - Inflicts 2.5k nature damage every 3 seconds to everyone within a 60 yard range.
    * Magnetic Pull - Pulls the Stalagg tank over to Feugen’s platform and swaps aggro between tanks.

Stalagg’s Abilities

    * Power Surge - Increases haste by 200% for 10 seconds.
    * Magnetic Pull - Pulls the Feugen tank over to Stalagg’s platform and swaps aggro between tanks.

Phase 1 - Feugen and Stalagg

Phase 1 includes the killing of the 2 adds, Feugen and Stalagg. Neither of the adds hit all the hard, the only quarky mechanic of this portion of the fight is the tank “swap”, for lack of a better word. You’ll want to start by splitting your raid into 2 groups of 5. Generally, you should put casters in a group for Stalagg and melee in a group for Fuegen, this is simply so they avoid pushback via the static field ability that Fuegen casts.

That said, this is optional and casters or melee could kill either boss with ease. Either way, you’ll want your DPS to be fairly balanced. You must kill both Fuegen and Stalagg within 5 seconds of each other or they will be resurrect at full life.

When I mentioned the “swap” earlier, I was referring to the literally swapping of tanks. Both Fuegen and Stalagg cast the ability, magnetic pull, which will pull the other tank through the air to the opposite add platform. This pull also swaps aggro. Tank wise it’s no big deal, just continue building threat on what ever add you’re currently in front of. Just make sure your healers of aware what tank is currently on what platform.

Phase 1 Complete, Jump, and Position

Once you’ve killed Fuegen and Stalagg the entire raid must jump off to the platform below where Thaddius is standing. Note, you cannot just walk off the elevated platforms, you must jump right at the edge in order to make it to the lower platform.

At this point the entire raid should stack up on on the right side of Thaddius (right side as if you were entering from the Gluth’s room). Now we are prepared to enter phase 2 as Thaddius is about to awaken.
Thaddius Abilities

    * Chain Lightning - Casts every 15 seconds, hits 3 random players for 3600-4400 damage.
    * Polarity Shift - Aprx. half the raid will become negatively charged and half the raid will become positively charge. When the same charged players are near each other they provide a 10% damage buff per player, but if an opposite charged player is near the debuff will deal 3,500 damage to the player of the oppositve charge (IE…1 negative in 5 positives, 5 positives will hit negative for 3500 * 5, while the negative will hit each of the 5 positive players once for 3,500 damage). Casts every 30 seconds.
    * Ball Lightning - Thaddius will cast a ball lightning for 17,000-22,000 if no one is within melee range.
    * Enrage - Thaddius will enrage after 8 minutes, increasing his damage output by 1000%.

Phase 2 - Killing Thaddius and Positive / Negative Debuff Mechanic

A few seconds after you begin Thaddius will cast a positive or negative debuff charge on the entire raid. This debuff is 100% random, but 5 people will have a negative charge and 5 will have a positive. This debuff mechanic works just like the first boss in Mechanar heroic. All the positive charges should stay where they are on the right side of Thaddius, while all negative charges should move to the other side (left).

At this point you should have all 5 positive charged players on one side and all 5 negative charged players on the other. This will award you with a strong damage buff that increases your damage by 10% per player (40% total). If a player has the wrong charge they will “blow up”, causing and receiving lightning damage from the opposite charged players around him. This almost always leads to their death.

For this reason it’s incredibly important you look to see what buff you have immediatly following the polarity shifts. New players might consider having their raid leader or otherwise vocal strategy orriented players calling out the switches immediatly prior to their casting.



Making the Transition

When you’re switching make sure you don’t run to the side of Thaddius or indirectly to the other side in any manner. You must run directly through Thaddius’ model and to the other side. You don’t have much time during these transitions, and even a few moments of hesitation or indrect pathing will cause you to deal / receieve damage.

This really is the only element of this fight that should cause a wipe. Tanking is essentially a tank and spank fight, while healing involves primarily AoE healing. Thaddius himself does not hit all that hard, so if you can make it through these charge rotations then you’re going to be fine.

Side Note: Getting a Battle Rez Off

Due to the nature of the debuff mechanic there is only one way to successfully get a battle rez off. First, the druid must run out the raid (without bumping opposite charged players) to the green “safe battle rez zone” I’ve indicated above.

Here, you’ll be out of range of other players and can cast the battle rez. The player who is getting battle rezzed can go ahead and accept the rez, but should not move from this position until the polarity shift phase is complete and he /she has a new charge. If you don’t have a charge and attempt to go back into the raid you’ll get blown up just like you had the oppositve charge.

Once they have a new charge they can join their correct side.

[Shadowwolf]

Heres a diagram I did for Thaddius 25 movement. Its a full circular motion around the boss so that we avoid people with higher latency wiping themselves and others out.

Basically everyone but the tank moves in a clockwise motion when polarity changes. The tank shuttles thru the boss to change position so the boss doesnt move that much and cause positioning problems.

Everyone did fantastic this evening with this, its a little harder in 25 than 10, theres less room for error on 25, but we can do it. Our best was 27% and that was with a bunch of people dead, so we just need to minimize the deaths and we will be good.

Remember to move to your left around the OUTSIDE of the boss. This way if you are a second or 2 to react to your movement, you wont wipe the raid and will also likely survive if hit with an opposing charge.

[Shadowwolf]

The Thaddius Jump...

I know some people have difficulty with this, I did the first few times I did it, but with certain buffs, you can make it. If you have a hunter in group, [spell=13159]Aspect of the Pack[/spell] will help aid your jump, a Death Knight with [spell=50392]Unholy Aura[/spell] can do it for you also provided you jump down onto the platform. It needs you to move and jump at the same time, you dont want to jump till you are right at the very edge of the upper platform.

If you are really having difficulty, you can have some [item]2459[/item] made for yourself and take one right before you jump down, which will make it easy. The only drawback to this is that you use up your 1 pot per combat =/. Most of us have learned to not pot in combat these days anyhow, so for most thats not an issue.

[Grendeel]

For the Thaddius jump, lord knows i had my issues with it the first 2 times in there.  First time i never made it over on several attempts.   Second time in there i made it over on our second last attempt.  It was very frustrating.  The last 2 times in there Ive found it rather easy now.  There is a ledge as you approach the end of the platform we jump off.  Its a long jump so i was assuming you had to get to the edge before you jump.  What i realized is you don't have to be on the edge.  I found that once i was on the ledge, i jumped and made it just fine.  The ledge I'm talking about appears to be about an inch wide and slightly raised about the platform floor.

I would also suggest that if you get saved to the instance and Thaddius gets clear, take a few minutes and go in and practice the jump.   That probably would help lots.

[Lynette]

As Shadow pointed out last night, let's start using this same rotation for Naxx 10s.  It will train folks for the Naxx 25 strategy and enhance our chances of 1-shotting him.

[Shadowwolf]

A detailed guide has been compiled here:

http://wiki.twilightonalex.com/Thaddius

[Shadowwolf]

Please make sure you review the movement diagram on Thaddius. On 25, once everyone did this right, it went perfectly. Its a good idea to make it habit for 10 man as well.

This is only the only method to successfully complete Shocking! once we start working on achievements.