Four Horsemen (tactics)

The Four Horsemen are the third and final boss encounter in the Military Quarter in Naxxramas.

Summary
At the beginning of the fight, each of the four horsemen will run into different corners of the room, the two melee horsemen closest to the entrance, the two ranged at the back. Each horseman will periodically Mark anybody within 45 feet with a debuff that causes more damage each time it stacks. If nobody is in range, the horseman will AOE the room and the raid will wipe.

Most strategies involve keeping all four horsemen occupied, while moving tanks and DPS between the bosses so that no player stacks more than three marks from any one horseman.

25-man Abilities
The Four Horsemen each have approximately 2,370,000 hit points. They will run into separate corners of the room when engaged.


 * [[Image:Spell Shadow DeathPact.png|32px]] [[Image:Spell Shadow SoulLeech 3.png|32px]] [[Image:Spell Shadow MindTwisting.png|32px]] [[Image:Spell Shadow SoulLeech 2.png|32px]]  Marks:
 * Each of the four horsemen cast their own Mark, which have identical effects. Cast after 24 seconds and then every 12 seconds for Kor'Thazz and Rivendare and every 15 seconds for Zeliek and Blaumeux.  Stacks infinitely.  The first stack will do 0 unresistable shadow damage.  The second 500.  The third 1500.  The fourth 4000.  The fifth 12,500.  The sixth 20,000.  The seventh 21,000.  The eighth 22,000 and so on increasing by 1,000 every subsequent mark.  While the initial damage caused by the application cannot be resisted, the application of the Mark can be resisted.  45 yard range.  25 second duration.  Marks hit everyone in range and will reduce the threat on the Horseman of everyone hit by 50%.  Should there be no one in range in the raid to receive a mark, the entire raid will instead be hit by a very powerful AoE.  Mark of Korth'azz will be cast at the same time as Mark of Rivendare, but at a higher frequency than the Mark of Blaumeux and Mark of Zeliek.

Note: Thane Korth'azz and Baron Rivendare will both cast their marks in unison, while Lady Blaumeux and Sir Zeliek will both cast their marks in unison. Because of Lady Blaumeux and Sir Zeliek's lower casting frequency, it is completely possible for their Mark debuffs to wear off and reset the stack counter.

After 100 marks have been cast the Horsemen will berserker enrage increasing all damage done by 1,000%. The encounter ends when all Four Horsemen have been slain.

Thane Korth'azz
A former dwarven king turned death knight. Melee fighter. He will run into the near left corner of the room when engaged.


 * [[Image:Spell Fire Fireball02.png|32px]] Meteor
 * 47500 to 52500 Fire damage split between all players in an 8 yard radius. Cast every ~15 seconds.


 * [[Image:Spell Shadow DeathPact.png|32px]] Mark of Korth'azz
 * See Marks above.

Baron Rivendare
A male human death knight, recently Scourge overlord of Stratholme. Melee fighter. He will run into the near right corner of the room when engaged.


 * [[Image:Spell Shadow Shadowfury.png|32px]] Unholy Shadow
 * 4,500 to 5,500 Shadow damage to his primary aggro target. Applies a dot which does 12,000 shadow damage over 8 seconds.  Cast every 15 seconds.


 * [[Image:Spell Shadow SoulLeech 3.png|32px]] Mark of Rivendare
 * See Marks above.

Lady Blaumeux
A female human death knight. Ranged combatant. She will run into the far left corner of the room when engaged.


 * [[Image:Spell Shadow ShadowBolt.png|32px]] Shadow Bolt
 * 45 yard range 2 second cast 8483 to 9517 Shadow damage. Cast on closest player.


 * [[Image:Spell Shadow GatherShadows.png|32px]] Void Zone
 * Summons a void zone on a random player within 45 yards that does 4250 Shadow damage per second to anything within it. Cast every 15 seconds.  Lasts 75 seconds.


 * [[Image:Spell Shadow MindTwisting.png|32px]] Mark of Blaumeux
 * See Marks above.

Sir Zeliek
A paladin who resisted turning into a death knight. Ranged combatant. He will run into the far right corner of the room when engaged.


 * [[Image:Spell Holy SearingLight.png|32px]] Holy Bolt
 * 45 yard range 2 second cast 8954 to 10046 Holy damage. Cast on closest player.


 * [[Image:Spell Shadow SiphonMana.png|32px]] Holy Wrath
 * Deals 2700 to 3300 Holy Damage to a random player within 45 yards. Can jump to any player within 10 yards and continue jumping, increasing in damage by 50% every jump with no limit.  Cast every 15 seconds.


 * [[Image:Spell Shadow SoulLeech 2.png|32px]] Mark of Zeliek
 * See Marks above.

10-man Abilities
The Four Horsemen each have approximately 781,000 hit points. They will run into separate corners of the room when engaged. Marks will reduce threat by 50%

Thane Korth'azz
A former dwarven king turned Death Knight. Melee fighter. He will run into the near left corner of the room when engaged.


 * Meteor - 13775 to 15225 Fire damage split between all players in an 8 yard radius. Cast every ~15 seconds.


 * Mark of Korth'azz
 * See Marks above.

Baron Rivendare
A male human Death Knight. Melee fighter. He will run into the near right corner of the room when engaged. He does not cleave, nor does he have a shadow damage aura besides marks, contrary to some rumours.


 * Unholy Shadow - 2160 to 2640 Shadow damage to his primary aggro target. Applies a dot which does 4,800 shadow damage over 8 seconds.  Cast every 15 seconds.


 * Mark of Rivendare
 * See Marks above.

Lady Blaumeux
A female human Death Knight. Ranged combatant. She will run into the far left corner of the room when engaged.


 * Shadow Bolt - Instead of melee-ing Lady Blaumeux will chain cast this on the closest player to her. 45 yard range 2 second cast 2357 to 2643 Shadow damage.


 * Void Zone - Summons a void zone on a random player within 45 yards that does 2750 Shadow damage per second to anything within it. Cast every 15 seconds.  Lasts 75 seconds.


 * Mark of Blaumeux
 * See Marks above.


 * Unyielding Pain - If there is no one within 55 yd range that has aggro on her, she will spam this AOE to ALL raid members.

Sir Zeliek
A former paladin turned Death Knight. Ranged Combatant. He will run into the far right corner of the room when engaged.


 * Holy Bolt - Instead of melee-ing Sir Zeliek will chain cast this on the closest player to him. 45 yard range 2 second cast 2357 to 2643 Holy damage.


 * Mark of Zeliek
 * See Marks above.


 * Condemnation - If there is no one within 55 yd range with aggro on him, he will spam this AOE to ALL raid members.

25-man Strategy
This encounter is a lot simpler than it seems. You will need two tanks.

The Horsemen will automatically run to their corners, the raid will split into four groups one for each Horseman. The Zeliek and Blaumeux healers can remain in the middle without taking mark stacks and heal their 'tanks'.


 * Rivendare and Korth'azz Groups - These will consist of a tank, 1-2 healers and half the DPS in each.
 * Zeliek and Blaumeux Groups - These will consist of one ranged class, ideally able to heal themselves such as Moonkin or Elemental Shaman, and 1-2 healers each. Although in a 25 man raid you may have more than 2 tanks in which case there is no reason that they can't fill the roll of tanking these two. Tanks with a large number of hit points, such as Protection Warriors, will be easier to heal through the bursty holy damage taken from Zeliek.
 * Zeliek and Blaumeux Alternate Strategy - Two holy paladins with a 3rd healer (preferably a druid) can easily tank these two horsemen with no additional players. Each paladin will place their Beacon on the other and heal themselves throughout the fight.  Initial positioning puts each paladin behind the Horsemen's starting platform, about 7-8 yards on either side of the circular disk on the ground.  The 3rd healer stands up on the Horsemen's starting platform to aid in keeping the two paladins up.  If positioned right, the 3rd healer will never take a mark.  Once the paladins have 2 marks (or 3 but 2 is safer), they carefully switch positions making sure to always have someone in range.  The 3rd healer can also move to help stay in range of the boss during the switch.  This strategy allows for more dps on on the first two horsemen.  On the pull and switch, each paladin needs to do damage to their horseman, otherwise they will not consider you to be in-range and the raid will wipe (just healing is not enough).  The paladins also need to make sure they don't line of sight the 3rd healing standing on the platform.  Staying just to either side of the circle on the ground works well.

Depending on what you find more difficult to heal you can switch the healers around but unless you are bringing 8 healers some groups will have to be covered by one healer.

Each group will run to their Horseman. The Korth'azz and Rivendare groups should stack up on their tank. The Zeliek and Blaumeux groups should be at max range in between Zeliek and Blaumeux. Every three marks the Korth'azz and Rivendare groups will switch places and the Zeliek and Blaumeux groups will switch places.

The Korth'azz and Rivendare tanks should drag their Horseman to near the door where you enter and taunt off each other, then drag their new Horseman back to their corner. Because of Meteor both groups will need to remain stacked on their tank. Another alternate more dps-efficient strategy is to wait for three marks and a meteor before switching, eliminating the need for the dps and healers on the melee bosses to move at all.

The Zeliek and Blaumeux ranged tanks should start running for each other's position as soon as the third mark goes off.


 * Korth'azz and Rivendare alternate strategy - Still requires two tanks, except instead of splitting the dps into two groups, you stack all of your dps on the Thane Korth'azz side and leave your second tank on the Rivendare side with a healer. The idea is to bloodlust right away and kill Korth'azz as fast as possible and once Korth'azz is dead have the tank and all dps focus on Rivendare, while the other tank and healer go to the back to help out with Zeliek and Blaumeux.

After Korth'azz and Rivendare are dead their groups will switch to Zeliek and Blaumeux, remember to stay spread out on Zeliek and be careful of Void Zones on Blaumeux. You will still need to switch sides every 3 marks. Keep in mind they will target the closest player to them with their nukes.

All the tanks except Korth'azz's will take a lot of damage in this encounter, be prepared.

10-man Strategy
The encounter is like the 25man. You will need two tanks.

The Horsemen will automatically run to their corners, the raid will split into three groups.


 * Zeliek and Blaumeux Group - This group consists of one ranged class and a healer.
 * Korth'azz Group - 1 tank, 2 dps, and 1 healer.
 * Rivendare Group - 1 tank, 2 dps, and 1 healer.

Each group will run to their Horseman. The Korth'azz group should stack up on their tank. With Baron Rivendare ranged and the healer can easily outrange his aura to ease the stress on healers. Every three marks the Korth'azz and Rivendare tanks will switch Horsemen and the healer and ranged dps tanking Zeliek and Blaumeux will switch places.

The Korth'azz and Rivendare tanks should drag their Horseman to near the door where you enter and taunt off each other, then drag their new Horseman back to their corner. Because of Meteor both groups will need to stack on their tank during the swap. Another alternate more dps-efficient strategy is to wait for three marks and a meteor before switching, eliminating the need for the dps and healers on the melee bosses to move at all.

The Zeliek and Blaumeux tanks should start running for each other's position as soon as the third mark goes off.

After Korth'azz and Rivendare are dead their groups will switch to Zeliek and Blaumeux, remember to stay spread out on Zeliek and be careful of Void Zones on Blaumeux. You will still need to switch sides every 3 marks. Keep in mind they will target the closest player to them with their nukes. Their nuke is however really weak and can be dealt with easily with any healer class.

In 10-man only the group tanking Korth'azz will be taking heavy damage.

Easy 10-man Strategy
Need: 2 tanks, 3 healers (tested with 3, probably 2 possible too), at least 1 caster dps, preferably with self-healing abilities.

Why / when to use: when your party dies from taking too much mark damage. This tactic will put fewer marks on the DPS(@ switch from 3 to 3-and-1 instead of from 3 to 4-and-1) and migrate damage a bit more to the tanks (meteor, marks) instead of party, so in most cases it will become easier to heal.

How it works:

All 4 horsemen will run to a corner, where they need to be tanked. The key in this fight is that you need to switch tanking targets after each few marks, or the stacking damage from the marks gets too big. You need to split up raid into groups, and let them stick in a corner.


 * Group yellow, west corner: healer
 * Group green, south corner: ranged dps
 * Group red, north corner: tank + healer
 * Group blue, east corner: tank + healer + rest of DPS

When the encounter starts, all groups start getting aggro on the bosses in their corner. BLUE group goes all out on Korth'azz, with skills, cooldowns, etc. He needs to be down fast because of the meteor. RED group will tank Rivendare and stay alive. YELLOW tanks the ranged boss in the west corner and heals itself and the green ranged tank. GREEN tanks its ranged boss.

(Note that Blaumeux and Sir Zeliek cast-attack the closest target in range, so all yellow and green need to do is stay with boss and don’t die with minor DPS.)

Now comes the switch. At the moment the 3rd mark hits, YELLOW and GREEN need to switch. They do this simply by running to the others position, because the boss will target the closest person. Now they start to tank the other boss and stack 3 other marks. Switch again after 3.

After the 3rd mark hits, the RED and BLUE tank move towards each other, so they can switch targets with taunt, before mark 4. Then move back to your old corner. Start DPS/tanking/healing again. Switch every other 3 marks. Repeat till Kor is dead, then move to Riv, followed by Blau, then Zel. Congrats!

NOTES


 * BLUE and RED got their own corner, only target changes corners. YELLOW and GREEN need to move, targets stay in corners.


 * No-one in 45yard range of any of the horsemen means wipe.


 * YELLOW and GREEN need to tag their bosses after encounter starts, so the bosses actually 'know' that someone is in range and there is no raid-wide AoE. Any offensive spell/ability like moonfire will be enough.


 * Meteor damage is divided between all who stand in 8 yards of impact! So if you are in group with the tank who tanks Korth'azz, stand on the tank.


 * During a switch, R and B healers make sure to stay in range of tanks but stay at max range so you don't get a extra mark of the other boss.


 * During a switch, BLUE group stay in your corner so you don’t get the mark.


 * Remember to keep switching targets if you get too many marks, and always some1 in close range of the casters to tank it. (so yellow and green, keep doing your job, even when the others are dpsing your targets)


 * Red and Blue tank share incoming meteor damage together during a switch.


 * Mark of Blaumeux will be cast at the same time as Mark of Zeliek, same for Mark of Korth'azz and Mark of Rivendare. Zel+Blau at a bit lower frequency, so it is completely possible for their Mark debuffs to wear off and reset the stack counter.


 * After 100 marks have been cast the Horsemen will berserker enrage increasing all damage done by 1,000%.


 * A Priest or Druid healer for the DPS group works nice (aoe healing)


 * Doing this with 2 healers would require 1 to (aoe) heal BLUE and yellow/green (depending on corner) and the other healer to heal RED and green/yellow.

CLASS NOTES

Remember to coordinate with the other tank, move to each other after mark 3, taunt quickly, move back fast. Don't forget that marks lower threat by 50%.
 * Tanks

Yellow heal yourself and green. Red heal yourself and red tank. Blue heal yourself and blue tank and DPS (AoE heals).
 * Healers

Nuke Korth'azz, save skills and CDs for Rivendare. Don’t walk along with the tanks or you may get an extra mark.
 * DPS rest

Zerg Strategy
It helps to have a shaman in group for Bloodlust/Heroism, as well as the raid having high DPS output. The setup is exactly the same as above, except instead of splitting the DPS between Korth'azz and Rivendare, all of the DPS group up with the tank for Korth'azz. It also helps for both range tanks to be able to heal themselves, so that the maximum number of DPS can be on Korth'azz.

As soon as the encounter begins, all CD's and heroism are popped to take Korth'azz down as fast as possible. Having a good AoE healer in group helps, as you will more than likely get close to 5 marks of his debuff. If you are having problems with one of the healers dying during this process, you can have only the healers switch in between meteor casts at about 2 or 3 stacks of the debuff.

As soon as Korth'azz is down, the DPS / Healer / Tank who were on him run over to Rivendare's corner and engage him, while the other tank (and healer if he has marks) move to Korth'azz's corner to remove marks. DPS and healers can stay at max range on Rivendare to avoid marks, or just step out of range at 3-4 ticks until marks are removed. The only rotation of players needed is for the tanks (and possibly healers) to switch when 3-4 marks are reached until Rivendare is down. If the debuff becomes a problem for DPS (too many are dying), the DPS can just follow the tank to Korth'azz's corner until the marks are removed.

Once Rivendare is down, the DPS helps finish off Zeliek and Blaumeux, again staying at max range or rotating to avoid marks.

Distracting Shot Strategy
Another possible alternative to this encounter is for a hunter to use Distracting Shot on their tank's new target, then allow their tank to taunt off of them. Obviously this strategy only works when there is one or more hunter in the group.

Beacon of Light 2-Healer Strategy
A slight variation to the 10-man strategy above is using a Holy Paladin to heal the front and another healer for the back. With the change to Beacon of Light in 3.2 (i.e. 60 yard range and over-healing being applied to the Beacon target), it is possible to cast Beacon on the single tank in the front and heal the rest of the group normally. Whenever the tanks swap, also swap the Beacon target. When using this approach, be sure to carefully calibrate the range between the two groups, as the single tank can get out of range easily. A range-displaying addon may prove helpful when using this approach.

Related Achievements

 * The Military Quarter (10 player)
 * The Military Quarter (25 player)
 * And They Would All Go Down Together (10 player)
 * And They Would All Go Down Together (25 player)

Conversation
When players pass beyond Gothik the Harvester, the Four Horsemen have a sort of conversation during which they are all introduced.
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell
 * yell

Thane Korth'azz

 * Taunt
 * yell


 * Aggro
 * say


 * Killing a player
 * say


 * Special
 * say


 * Death
 * say

Sir Zeliek

 * Taunt
 * yell
 * yell


 * Aggro
 * say


 * Killing a player
 * say


 * Death
 * say

Lady Blaumeux

 * Taunt
 * yell


 * Aggro
 * say


 * Killing a player
 * say


 * Special
 * say


 * Death
 * say

Baron Rivendare

 * Taunt
 * yell


 * Aggro
 * say
 * say
 * say


 * Killing a player
 * say
 * say


 * Special
 * say


 * Death
 * say

Outro

 * Killed first
 * yell


 * Killed second
 * yell


 * Killed third
 * yell


 * Killed last
 * yell

Inspiration
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, Rivendare / Mograine as the Red Rider of War, Blaumeux as the Black Rider of Famine, and Korth'azz as the Pale Rider of Death.