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The subject of this article was removed in patch 3.0.2 but remains in World of Warcraft: Classic.
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- This article concerns the original Four Horsemen encounter introduced in Patch 1.11.0. For the 10 and 25-man versions introduced with Wrath of the Lich King, see Four Horsemen.
 The Four Horsemen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Race | Varies (Undead) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Level | ?? Boss | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reaction | Alliance Horde | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Military Quarter, Naxxramas | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Four Horsemen, Highlord Alexandros Mograine <The Ashbringer>, Thane Korth'azz, Lady Blaumeux, and Sir Zeliek, are four powerful death knights in the service of Kel'Thuzad. Together they comprise the third and final encounter of the Deathknight wing of Naxxramas.
Generally regarded as one of the most difficult encounters of the original World of Warcraft, the coordination, timing, and relatively unforgiving nature makes them one of the hardest bosses in the instance.
Abilities[]
[]
Enrage — At 100 marks cast the Four Horsemen go into a berserker enrage and cast their marks with no cooldown. This happens after 20 minutes into the encounter.- Shield Wall — Reduces physical and magical damage taken by 75% for 20 seconds. Cast at 50% and 20% health remaining.
- Summon Spirit — Upon death the Horseman lingers as a spirit, rooted to where they were slain. The spirit retains the Horseman's abilities and will attack and cast on any enemy within range. Spirits persist until the end of the encounter.
Unique Abilities[]
Highlord Mograine[]
- Mark of Mograine — Inflicts damage on all nearby enemies, and leaves a mark. The damage inflicted is increased by the number of mark stacks on the enemy. Lasts 75 seconds. 65 yard range.
- Righteous Fire — Each melee attack has a 25% chance to apply Righteous Fire, inflicting 2160 to 2640 Fire damage instantly and an additional 4800 Fire damage over 8 sec. Resistable. No cooldown on procs.
Thane Korth'azz[]
- Mark of the Korth'azz — Inflicts damage on all nearby enemies, and leaves a mark. The damage inflicted is increased by the number of mark stacks on the enemy. Lasts 75 seconds. 65 yard range.
- Meteor — Deals 12825 to 14275 fire damage, split between all enemies within 8 yards from the impact crater. Cast on a random target within 45 yards. (12 sec cooldown)
Sir Zeliek[]
- Mark of Zeliek — Inflicts damage on all nearby enemies, and leaves a mark. The damage inflicted is increased by the number of mark stacks on the enemy. Lasts 75 seconds. 65 yard range.
- Holy Wrath — Sends bolts of holy power in all directions, causing 495 to 605 Holy damage to the target and chaining to other nearby enemy targets, doubling with each jump. 35 yard range. Chains to players within 10 yards. (12 sec cooldown)
Lady Blaumeux[]
- Mark of Blaumeux — Inflicts damage on all nearby enemies, and leaves a mark. The damage inflicted is increased by the number of mark stacks on the enemy. Lasts 75 seconds. 65 yard range.
- Void Zone — Summon a Void Zone under a nearby enemy that causes Consumption, dealing shadow damage to enemies that stand within it. Void zones last for 90 sec. (12 sec cooldown)
- Consumption — Deals 3950 to 4750 shadow damage every second to all enemies within the Void Zone. Damage can be partially resisted.
Strategies[]
The Four Horsemen Positioning
The Four Horsemen are a single-phase council encounter that depend entirely on proper positioning for each Horseman, as well as predetermined positioning, rotation, and responsibility for each raid member in order to properly manage the Horsemen's Marks and their unique abilities.
From the mechanics of the Mark, each Horseman must be taken to a separate assigned corner, and tanked there. Whilst having one Mark stack up will do too much damage and kill you, it is possible to have all 4 marks stack to a lesser extent and survive. 4 stacks of Mark of Mograine (3000 damage) hurt a lot more than one stack of a Mark from each Horseman (no damage at all). The range of these marks is 70 yards, and with a 75 second duration, proper rotation timing is key.
Marks[]
Marks are the signature ability of the Four Horsemen that shape the entire encounter. Each Horseman has its own mark, but these marks function identically to one another.
The mechanics are as follows:
- 75 second duration, refreshed every time a stack is applied.
- 65 yard range, pierces line of sight.
- First mark cast at 20 seconds.
- Cast every 12 seconds following first mark.
- Deals unresistable Shadow damage. Damage depends on stacks:
- The first stack deals no damage. The second stack deals 250, third deals 1000, fourth deals 3000, fifth deals 5000.
- Each stack after five deals 1000 additional damage.
- Each time a player is struck by a mark their total threat is reduced by 50% against the Horseman who the mark belongs to.
- Cannot be resisted or removed by immunities.
Tanking[]
Eight tanks are required for this encounter, two per Horseman. On pull, each Horseman should be picked up by its first tank and dragged to their assigned corner, where they will be tanked for the entire encounter. Tanks must rotate in and out from their assigned Horseman, otherwise they will die from the Mark stacking too high. A second tank must be ready to taunt off the first tank as soon as the Mark reaches a fatal number of stacks.
As 
[Taunt] is considered a spell, tanks may want to consider some form of spell hit to counter taunt's resist chance (16% vs. bosses). Warrior tanks should prioritize Tier 3 for its 4-set bonus (+5% hit on taunt). Both tanks and healers should otherwise be prepared for taunt resists, especially if it resists twice in a row. Following proper strategy otherwise, taunt resists are generally the cause of wipes on this encounter.
Loot[]
While some had speculated that the Four Horsemen's loot tables were generated in similar fashion to the Silithid Royalty of the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, with the kill order determining the loot awarded, repeated kills have now indicated that the kill order does not affect the loot. In addition to their non-set drops, the Four Horsemen also drop two Tier 3 chest tokens.
| Item | Class |
|---|---|
 [Desecrated Breastplate] |
Warrior, Rogue |
 [Desecrated Robe] |
Priest, Mage, Warlock |
 [Desecrated Tunic] |
Paladin, Hunter, Shaman, Druid |
| Item | Type |
|---|---|
 [Soulstring] |
Bow |
 [Corrupted Ashbringer] |
Two-handed sword |
 [Leggings of Apocalypse] |
Leather pants |
 [Maul of the Redeemed Crusader] |
Two-handed mace |
 [Seal of the Damned] |
Caster ring |
 [Warmth of Forgiveness] |
Healer trinket |
| [{Splinter of Atiesh]] | Quest Item |
Quotes[]
Conversation[]
When players pass beyond Gothik the Harvester, the Four Horsemen have a sort of conversation during which they are all introduced.
- Thane Korth'azz yells: To arms, ye roustabouts! We've got company!
- Sir Zeliek yells: Invaders! Cease this foolish venture at once! Turn away while you still can!
- Lady Blaumeux yells: Come, Zeliek, do not drive them out. Not until we've had our fun!
- Highlord Mograine yells: Enough prattling. Let them come. We shall grind their bones to dust.
- Lady Blaumeux yells: I do hope they stay long enough for me to... introduce myself.
- Sir Zeliek yells: Perhaps they will come to their senses... and run away as fast as they can.
- Thane Korth'azz yells: I've heard enough a' yer snivelin'! Shut your flytrap before I shut it for ye'!
- Highlord Mograine yells: Conserve your anger. Harness your rage. You will all have outlets for your frustrations soon enough.
Thane Korth'azz[]
- Taunt
- I'm gonna enjoy killin' these slack-jawed daffodils!
- Aggro
- Come out and fight, ye wee ninny!
- Killing a player
- Next time, bring more friends!
- Special
- I like my meat extra crispy!
- Death
- What a bloody waste this is!
Sir Zeliek[]
- Taunt
- Do not continue! Turn back while there's still time!
- Flee, before it's too late!
- Aggro
- I have no choice but to obey!
- Killing a player
- Forgive me!
- Death
- It is... as it should be.
Lady Blaumeux[]
- Taunt
- The first kill goes to me! Anyone care to wager?
- Aggro
- Defend yourself!
- Killing a player
- Who's next?
- Special
- Your life is mine!
- Death
- Touche...
Highlord Mograine[]
- Taunt
- Life is meaningless. It is in death that we are truly tested.
- Aggro
- You seek death?
- None shall pass.
- Be still!
- Killing a player
- You'll find no peace in death!
- The master's will is done.
- Special
- Bow to the might of the Highlord!
- Death
- I...am...released! Perhaps it's not too late to—NOO! I need...more time...
Outro[]
- Killed first
- Kel'Thuzad yells: Who dares violate the sanctity of my domain? Be warned, all who trespass here are doomed.
- Killed second
- Kel'Thuzad yells: Fools, you think yourselves triumphant? You have only taken one step closer to the abyss!
- Killed third
- Kel'Thuzad yells: I grow tired of these games. Proceed, and I will banish your souls to oblivion!
- Killed last
- Kel'Thuzad yells: You have no idea what horrors lie ahead. You have seen nothing! The frozen heart of Naxxramas awaits you!
Trivia[]
- They appear to be 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, [1] Mograine as the Red Rider of War, Blaumeux as the Black Rider of Famine, and Korth'azz as the Pale Rider of Death.
- The Four Horsemen encounter stands to this day as the most amount of time a single encounter laid undefeated while also not requiring any re-tuning (nerfing) or bug fixing, at approximately 7 weeks from first engagement (time determined from Death and Taxes, who achieved the first world kill of the Horsemen on 25 August 2006, seven weeks after first engaging them). This was primarily due to the encounter requiring an excessive number of tanks, meaning that even once guilds had figured out what to do, it took a lot of time to gear and prepare all eight warrior tanks.
- Though some encounters had gone undefeated for a longer duration, this figure excludes encounters who have received tuning adjustments (nerfs) or bug fixes prior to being defeated, as well as bosses in Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair (due to those raids being available upon release of World of Warcraft). The Four Horsemen did not receive any adjustments or bug fixes prior to their first defeat.
Patch changes[]
- Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Removed.
- Patch 1.11.0 (2006-06-19): Added.
References[]
External links[]
- The Four Horsemen
| Thane Korth'azz | Lady Blaumeux |
|---|---|
| Highlord Mograine | Sir Zeliek |
- Four Horsemen Chest