Baron Rivendare (tactics)

Baron Rivendare is a powerful death knight in the service of the Lich King. Originally ruling over the city of Stratholme for the Scourge, he now leads the Four Horsemen of Naxxramas in place of Highlord Mograine.

Biography
Once a wealthy human landowner, the plague corrupted Rivendare and he pledged himself as a death knight. Rivendare’s duty is to round up and murder any human survivors he can find, and he and his patrols do just that. He coordinates the efforts of the Lich King in the Plaguelands. He currently battles with agents of the Argent Dawn sent to Stratholme to kill him.

Strategy
The Baron Rivendare fight presents two major challenges. First, his damage aura, which applies shadow damage to everyone in range. Second, he periodically spawns waves of skeletons from the bone piles scattered around his room. If these skeletons survive long enough, he casts Death Pact on them, killing them but healing himself.

To deal with the shadow aura, have your tank position the Baron against one wall of the chamber. Have your healers and ranged damage dealers stand on the opposite wall. This will allow them to stay out of range of the aura, avoiding the damage and casting interruptions. The tank and melee damage dealers will have to absorb the aura's damage. A priest can buff the group with Shadow Protection, or a paladin can use the Shadow Resistance Aura to mitigate that damage. If the tank has any kind of shadow resistance gear, it's not a bad idea to equip it, although not absolutely required to defeat Baron.

The skeletons will almost always immediately aggro your healer. One of the easiest ways to deal with this is to have a class with high AoE damage, like a mage or a warlock in the group, and position them right next to the healer. They can then AoE the skeletons, which have moderate damage but very low hit points, as they rush towards the healer.

If you don't have a mage or a warlock in the group, there are other ways to deal with the skeletons. A priest with the Holy Nova talent can kill the skeletons and keep the ranged party members healed at the same time, but this is very mana intensive, and he might need that mana to heal through the Baron's damage. A paladin can use Holy Wrath as well, which will normally kill all the skeletons and hurt the Baron somewhat.

You can also try having members of your party use the that can be gathered throughout the instance. One bottle is generally enough for each wave of skeletons.

At the beginning of the Stratholme Undead side instance, there is an NPC you can talk to. If you have the Medallion of Faith, obtainable in the Stratholme Live side, you can give this to the NPC and he will assist you once you attack the Baron. This quest is repeatable.

Owners of pets must note to have their pets in passive mode as they enter the chamber, as their response to the shadow aura damage will likely trigger the encounter before the party is ready.

Spells and abilities

 * Cleave
 * Mortal Strike
 * Unholy Aura (passive, ~27 yard range, ticks for 150 shadow damage per sec)
 * Shadowbolt
 * Death Pact (destroys a minion of the caster, healing the caster)
 * Raise Dead (raises Skeletons from the dead)

Quotes

 * The Baron's Ultimatum is issued (45 Minutes)
 * yell


 * 10 minutes
 * yell


 * 5 minutes
 * yell
 * yell


 * Time's up
 * yell


 * Clearing out the abominations
 * yell


 * Defeating Ramstein, the mindless dead and the Black Guard Sentries
 * yell


 * The Baron's Ultimatum completed
 * say

Objective of

 * Above and Beyond