The Four Horsemen Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

The Four Horsemen is the third and final encounter of The Military Quarter that you will experience in Naxxramas, and now featuring Baron Rivendare as a horseman due to one of the four now leading the Knights of the Ebon Blade faction of rebellious Death Knights. Although this fight was infamous for requiring eight tanks during the original WoW Classic, in Wrath of the Lich King Classic you will be able to get by just fine with only two tanks.

• Stay stacked with other players to reduce the damage dealt by Thane Korth'azz's Meteor ability.
• Avoid standing in any of Lady Blaumeux's Void Zones.
• Be very careful when fighting Sir Zeliek, as his Holy Wrath will become lethal if allowed to jump too many times.

• Your goal is to defeat the first chosen Horsemen as quickly as possible. Commit your cooldowns to doing so.
• Stay stacked with other DPS to reduce the damage dealt by Thane Korth'azz's Meteor ability.
• Avoid standing in any of Lady Blaumeux's Void Zones.
• Be very careful when fighting Sir Zeliek, as his Holy Wrath will become lethal if allowed to jump too many times.

• One tank will be handling Baron Rivendare during this encounter while the other will be dealing with Thane Korth'azz.
• Avoid standing in any of Lady Blaumeux's Void Zones if you are tanking near her.

• Baron Rivendare
  • Mark of Rivendare — One of four "mark" auras present in this encounter. All players within 55 yards of Baron Rivendare will gradually acquire stacks of this mark, taking ever-increasing damage as a result.
  • Unholy Shadow — Baron Rivendare's "signature" ability for this encounter. This will be cast on his primary target, applying an immediate amount of Shadow damage followed by a lingering DoT.
• Thane Korth'azz
  • Mark of Korth'azz — One of four "mark" auras present in this encounter. All players within 55 yards of Thane Korth'azz will gradually acquire stacks of this mark, taking ever-increasing damage as a result.
  • Meteor — Thane Korth'azz's "signature" ability for this encounter. This ability is cast on a random player, and the damage will be split among all players standing next to the victim.
• Lady Blaumeux
  • Mark of Blaumeux — One of four "mark" auras present in this encounter. All players within 45 yards of Lady Blaumeux will gradually acquire stacks of this mark, taking ever-increasing damage as a result.
  • Shadow Bolt — Lady Blaumeux casts this as her primary means of attack, dealing Shadow damage.
  • Unyielding Pain — A stronger version of Shadow Bolt, Lady Blaumeux will cast this if there are no players within 55 yards of her.
  • Void Zone — Lady Blaumeux's "signature" ability for this encounter. She will create a void zone at the location of a random player that lingers for 90 seconds. Standing in this void zone will deal heavy damage to the player.
• Sir Zeliek
  • Mark of Zeliek — One of four "mark" auras present in this encounter. All players within 45 yards of Sir Zeliek will gradually acquire stacks of this mark, taking ever-increasing damage as a result.
  • Holy Bolt — Sir Zeliek casts this as his primary means of attack, dealing Holy damage.
  • Condemnation — A stronger version of Holy Bolt, Sir Zeliek will cast this if there are no players within 55 yards of him.
  • Holy Wrath — Sir Zeliek's "signature" ability for this encounter. A random player will be targeted by this ability, which will then attempt to bounce to another nearby player and grow in damage. This will repeat until there are no players close enough to jump to.

As mentioned in the ability list above, each of The Four Horsemen has a unique "mark" aura that they will periodically apply to all players within their 45-55 yard range. Although the marks themselves do nothing, each application of a mark will deal damage to you based on the number of mark stacks you have after the new one was added. This damage starts out small, but quickly becomes extreme once four stacks of one mark have been added, as shown below:

It is also important to remember that you will be taking damage from each mark being applied at the same time if you are within range of multiple Horsemen. Fortunately, with how you will be defeating this encounter, this will only be a concern for a short period of time.

Your kill order for The Four Horsemen will be as follows:

1. Thane Korth'azz
2. Baron Rivendare
3. Lady Blaumeux
4. Sir Zeliek

You will start by having most of your raid follow Thane Korth'azz to his corner when the encounter is started, with the exception of two healers, or one ranged DPS with a healer, that will instead go to the corners of Lady Blaumeux and Sir Zeliek. One tank will also go to the corner of Baron Rivendare and immediately drag him over to Thane Korth'azz. From here you will be defeating both of these Horsemen while they are stacked together before their mark stacks become overwhelming.

In the meantime, your two players that are in the corners of Lady Blaumeux and Sir Zeliek mostly need to focus on their own survival, swapping positions with one another if their mark stacks get too high as well.

With two Horsemen defeated, the raid as a whole will next focus on defeating Lady Blaumeux before finally moving on to finish Sir Zeliek. Remember to stay mindful of the Void Zones and especially be careful to not allow Holy Wrath to jump to lethal amounts of damage!

Finally, if at any time during the encounter a player has acquired too many stacks of a given mark, they may safely wait in the center of the room to allow their mark debuffs to expire before rejoining the fight.

Item	Type/Slot
Chestguard of the Lost Conqueror	Tier 7 token (Chest)
Chestguard of the Lost Protector	Tier 7 token (Chest)
Chestguard of the Lost Vanquisher	Tier 7 token (Chest)
Claymore of Ancient Power	Two-Hand Sword
Charmed Cierge	Staff
Gown of Blaumeux	Cloth Chest
Pauldrons of Havoc	Mail Shoulders
Thane's Tainted Greathelm	Plate Helm

Item	Type/Slot
Breastplate of the Lost Conqueror	Tier 7 token (Chest)
Breastplate of the Lost Protector	Tier 7 token (Chest)
Breastplate of the Lost Vanquisher	Tier 7 token (Chest)
Damnation
Armageddon	Two-Hand Sword
Broken Promise	One-Hand Sword
Final Voyage	Crossbow
Urn of Lost Memories	Off-hand
Mantle of the Corrupted	Cloth Shoulders
Gloves of Peaceful Death	Leather Gloves
Helm of the Grave	Mail Helm
Pauldrons of Havoc	Mail Shoulders
Leggings of Voracious Shadows	Mail Legs
Zeliek's Gauntlets	Plate Gloves

The Four Horsemen is just one of the 15 encounters present in the Naxxramas raid. 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.