Instructor Razuvious Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

Instructor Razuvious is the first boss of The Military Quarter that you will come up against in Naxxramas, and may be familiar to Death Knight players in particular, seeing as he was originally in Acherus during their starting experience. Razuvious now continues to perform his duties of training new recruits in Kel'Thuzad's domain.

• There are no special mechanics or tips to be aware of as a DPS player.

• Keep an eye on whatever Death Knight Understudy is currently tanking Razuvious.
• Be ready to heal players affected by Jagged Knife.

• You should not directly tank Razuvious, as his attacks are far too deadly. As a tank, you will instead either tank any Death Knight Understudys that are not currently being Mind Controlled (25-player), or Mind Control them yourself with a Controlling Orb (10-player).

• Instructor Razuvious
  • Disrupting Shout — Despite its name, this ability is not an interrupting effect and will instead deal a large amount of Physical damage to the entire raid on a 16-second timer.
  • Jagged Knife — Razuvious will frequently cast this ability on a random player, dealing Physical damage and applying an additional Physical DoT for 5 seconds.
  • Unbalancing Strike — Razuvious hits tremendously hard with this ability while also reducing the victim's Defense skill by 100 with every cast. A Death Knight Understudy must take this hit instead to avoid death.
• Death Knight Understudy and Controlling Orb — In the 10-player version of this encounter, players must click a nearby Controlling Orb to take control of a Death Knight Understudy. In 25-player, a Priest must instead use Mind Control to control them instead. These understudies have three abilities:
  • Blood Strike — This ability deals a small amount of extra damage.
  • Bone Barrier — This ability enables an Understudy to survive Razuvious's extreme damage output, but only lasts for 20 seconds on a 30-second cooldown.
  • Taunt — Force Razuvious to attack the Understudy for 20 seconds. This ability's cooldown is also 20 seconds, allowing for 100% uptime if you desire.

Begin this encounter by immediately taking control of a Death Knight Understudy either through a Priest's Mind Control or with a Controlling Orb. Any Understudies not currently being controlled should be grabbed by a tank player, but they should not be actively attacked.

The player controlling a Death Knight Understudy should immediately Taunt Razuvious while putting up a Bone Barrier and using Blood Strike as available. Once the Bone Barrier expires the Understudy will likely perish, so be ready to have another one taunt with bone barrier and repeat the process until Razuvious is defeated. While generally not necessary to succeed, you can also choose to rotate Understudies so that Razuvious is only ever attacking one that has Bone Barrier active.

Item	Type/Slot
Accursed Bow of the Elite	Bow
Scepter of Murmuring Spirits	Off-hand
Cloak of Darkening	Cape
Leggings of the Instructor	Cloth Legs
Mantle of the Extensive Mind	Cloth Shoulders
Rapid Attack Gloves	Leather Gloves
Girdle of Lenience	Leather Belt
Iron Rings of Endurance	Mail Wrist
Waistguard of the Tutor	Plate Belt
Plated Gloves of Relief	Plate Gloves

Item	Type/Slot
Idol of the Shooting Star	Idol
Totem of Dueling	Totem
Boots of Forlorn Wishes	Cloth Feet
Bindings of the Expansive Mind	Cloth Wrist
Chestpiece of Suspicion	Leather Chest
Spaulders of Egotism	Leather Shoulders
Esteemed Bindings	Leather Wrist
Shoulderpads of Secret Arts	Mail Shoulders
Girdle of Recuperation	Mail Belt
Bands of Mutual Respect	Mail Wrist
Faithful Steel Sabatons	Plate Feet
Gauntlets of Guiding Touch	Plate Gloves
Legplates of Double Strikes	Plate Legs
Girdle of Razuvious	Plate Belt
Bracers of the Unholy Knight	Plate Wrist

Instructor Razuvious is just one of the 15 encounters present in the Naxxramas raid of Wrath of the Lich King Classic. If you would like to learn more about the others, or would like to see the loot tables of every boss at the same time, please see our other pages for the raid below.