High Warlord Naj’entus Strategy Guide (Black Temple)

high warlord naj'entus strategy guide (black temple) tbc classic
  • Author: Pride
  • Date: January 29, 2022
  • Updated: January 29, 2022
  • Expansion: TBC Classic
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High Warlord Naj’entus, the naga anomaly, is the first boss that players will encounter in the Black Temple raid. Players must defeat him in order to unlock the gate at the end of Karabor Sewers, leading up to the Illidari Training Grounds.

His stats are fairly average. He has just over 4 million HP, which is below average, but that is counter-balanced by his 7700 armor, which means that your physical damage dealers will be doing less damage than normal here. His mechanics are also pretty straightforward, making this encounter fairly easy, provided your raid is prepared.

This guide will offer a step-by-step explanation on how to send Naj’entus back to the depths once and for all.

Role Summaries

  • Use your personal DPS cooldowns during Heroism / Bloodlust for maximum DPS
  • Spread out as much as possible — never be within 6 yards of another player
  • Mages: Use Frost Ward to increase your chances of surviving Tidal Burst

  • This fight is largely about how good you are at staying focused and healing people who need it the most
  • Spread out as much as possible — never be within 6 yards of another player
  • Raid Healers: Everyone in the raid will need ~6000 HP at all times, to survive Impaling Spine
  • Raid Healers: Everyone in the raid will need ~9000 HP to survive Tidal Burst
  • Priests: Use Power Word: Shield before Tidal Burst on people who don’t have at least 9000 max HP
  • Move Naj’entus to his designated position and keep him there, facing away from the raid
  • Use personal defensive cooldowns just before Tidal Burst to increase your chances of survival
  • It doesn’t hurt to have an off-tank racing for threat in case the main tank dies

Abilities

Naj’entus’ primary ability. All of his other abilities essentially revolve around this one.

Naj’entus throws a massive spike at a random player in the raid, impaling them. That person takes 4513 to 4987 Physical damage and gets stunned for 30 seconds. While stunned, they will take 2750 damage every 3 seconds.

There will be a massive spike protruding from the targeted player, which other players can right click to free them, ending the stun and preventing them from taking additional damage. It will be very important that your raid pays attention and frees people quickly. Additionally, the person that did the freeing will loot Naj’entus Spine, which they can throw at Naje’ntus to inflict 1000 damage to him and counter his Tidal Shield.

It may not be avoided or removed in any way, and though its damage is Physical, it ignores armor, so everyone in your raid will need to have at least 6k health at all times to prevent accidental deaths to it.

Cast roughly every ~20 seconds.

Naj’entus gains a shield for 45 seconds, granting immunity to damage & regenerating 1% of his HP every 2 seconds.

You can break the shield by using the Naj’entus Spine‘s Hurl Spine ability, by right clicking the item in your inventory. However, doing so triggers his Tidal Burst ability, which deals a high amount of damage to your raid as explained in that ability’s section, so you’ll want to make sure you’re prepared for it — don’t just shatter the shield as soon as you can without paying attention.

Note that you can reduce the amount of health Naj’entus regenerates while shielded via healing effect reduction debuffs, like Mortal Strike and Wound Poison. If you don’t have an Arms Warrior in your raid, it’s not a bad idea to have a Rogue use Wound Poison to reduce the amount healed instead.

Cast almost precisely every 60 seconds.

This ability is triggered when you burst Naj’entus Tidal Shield using the Naj’entus Spine. It deals 8500 Frost damage to every player in the raid, which will kill most players if they are not at full health, so you should only break the shield after your healers have topped everyone off.

This ability is resistable, so it is not a bad idea for your raid to use Frost resistance boosting abilities, like Frost Resistance Totem and Frost Resistance Aura. However, it cannot be partially resisted, meaning you either take all of the damage or none at all, making Frost resistance an unreliable way of countering it.

Effects that increase damage taken, like Death Wish and Recklessness, will increase this damage. So your Warriors should be careful, and consider leaving Berserker Stance when you’re about to break the Tidal Shield.

As this ability only comes after Tidal Shield, you’re only seeing it about once per minute.

Naj’entus targets a random player and deals 2890 to 3910 Physical damage to them. Additionally, this spell triggers Needle Spine Explosion, dealing 2280 to 2520 Frost damage to all players within 6 yards of the original target.

The damage is not exceptionally high, but it can weaken someone enough to the point where they die to Impaling Spine immediately afterwards. Your raid will need to spread out to minimize the AoE damage & consequent deaths.

The spine’s Physical damage is reduced by armor so it won’t be as big of a problem for mail and plate users as it will for cloth users. The explosion’s damage is resistible, increasing the value of Frost resistance effects like Frost Resistance Totem and Frost Resistance Aura.

Cast roughly every 2 seconds, meaning you’ll be taking a lot of raid damage.

Raid Composition & Preparation

Your entire raid should have Master Healthstones, ready to use in order to survive Tidal Burst if needed.

Everyone in your raid will need to have at least 9000 HP fully buffed in order to comfortably survive Tidal Burst. Players who don’t meet that threshold should consider using a couple of high stamina / PvP items, or health boosting consumables, like Elixir of Major Fortitude, Fisherman’s Feast and Major Frost Protection Potion.

This fight is healing intensive, but only on the AoE side – and AoE healing is the name of the game here. So you could do it with as few as 4 healers, provided they are skilled Holy Priests or Restoration Shamans. The standard setup of 5-6 healers is still recommended, otherwise things might get a bit too hectic.

2 healers should be assigned to your main tank. This may as well be your Holy Paladins, as they have no AoE healing to speak of and their instant cast healing isn’t the best either. You might also want to assign Restoration Druids to this task — their AoE healing is not bad, but the other healers definitely have an edge.

The rest of your healers should be assigned to healing the raid. With Impaling Spine & Tidal Burst requiring everyone to be topped off at all times, as well as Needle Spine constantly dealing damage to your raid, they will definitely have their work cut out for them.

More healing power means fewer people dying due to not being topped off, so your healers should use +healing consumables for Naj’entus, such as Elixir of Healing Power and Golden Fish Sticks.

There are no specific DPS class / spec requirements for this fight. It’s also one of the few fights where melee and ranged DPS are somewhat equal in their ability to deal damage, as there’s high uptime for both.

Your DPS players should be using DPS consumables to make this fight shorter and reduce the likelihood of accidental deaths. Bear in mind however — Naj’entus is not a demon or undead, so do not use Elixir of Demonslaying, Mark of the Champion, and other such items — they won’t work here.

Only 1 tank is needed for this fight, though having a 2nd tank to pick up threat in case of an accidental tank death, is certainly not a bad idea. All classes are about as good at this task.

Naj’entus does not hit particularly hard. Your tanks can thus focus on using +threat / damage boosting gear and consumables for this fight, allowing your DPS to go all-out with damage ASAP.

The Pull

Before you engage High Warlord Naj’entus, you will want to clear all of the trash in his room. Note that the 2 Aqueous Lord standing menacingly in front of him will not pull him when pulled.

najentus

After all of the trash is cleared, your raid has all the room it will need to take on Naj’entus. Resurrect any dead players, rebuff fully, and make sure you are all ready to take him on.

Pulling Naj’entus is extremely simple. One of your Hunters should use Misdirection on the main tank, who goes in and begins dealing threat to him ASAP, pulling him out slowly in the process and finally turning him to face away from the raid.

The rest of your raid should spread out as much as it can around the large, empty area in the middle of the room, to reduce instances of Needle Spine spash damage as much as possible. Your melee should split up into 2 camps stacking behind Naj’entus, one camp on each side — left and right — standing at their maximum melee range.

Once the pull is done, your raid should be positioned similarly to this picture.

najentus 2 2

The Fight

Naj’entus will only wait 4-5 seconds before he starts casting Needle Spine on random raid members, so your healers will need to be ready to deal with it ASAP. Your main tank will also be taking damage, so don’t lose focus.

Your non-Elemental specced shamans should take a moment to drop a Frost Resistance Totem at this point, while your Paladins who can afford to use Frost Resistance Aura. Even though it’s a small amount of Frost resistance, it will reduce Needle Spine Explosion damage by a surprising amount.

The rest of your Hunters should use Misdirection on the MT, as your raid prepares to use Heroism / Bloodlust & personal DPS cooldowns as soon as possible. You don’t want to delay them until Tidal Shield is up, halting your damage.

About 20 seconds into the fight, Naj’entus will cast Impaling Spine for the first time. Your raid, and specially your healers, will need to be 100% prepared for it, monitoring its timer using a raid addon like DeadlyBossMods or BigWigs.

Assuming your healers were prepared and everyone was topped off, the targeted player should not die to the spine. Everyone will need to pay attention to who the target was, and a nearby player should free them immediately by right clicking the spine, looting the Naj’entus Spine in the process. That player should make sure they find the Naj’entus Spine in their inventory or have a macro for it on their bars, so they’re ready to use it immediately when necessary.

Naj’entus will cast Impaling Spine once more 20 seconds later, ~40 seconds into the fight. Then, 20 seconds after that, ~60 seconds into the fight, he will forego casting Impaling Spine and cast Tidal Shield instead, interrupting your raid’s momentum as he becomes invulnerable to all damage and starts rapidly regenerating health. Your raid leader should call out who’s using their Naj’entus Spine for the upcoming Tidal Shield in advance.

Ideally, you will want to have a healing reduction effect like Mortal Strike or Wound Poison up on Naj’entus in anticipation of the shield. Regardless, your healers will now have to quickly heal everyone to full HP. As soon as everyone’s healthy, your raid leader will make the call for the Naj’entus Spine holder to shatter the shield, triggering Tidal Burst in the process, dealing 8500 Frost damage to your entire raid.

Your DPS Warriors should exit Berserker Stance in anticipation of Tidal Burst — they don’t want to take extra damage there. If your raid has any players who are not comfortably above the ~9000 maximum HP mark, your healing Priests should take a moment to put a Power Word: Shield on them, increasing their chances of survival.

Assuming you have done everything right, everyone survives the Tidal Burst, and your raid can continue dealing damage to Naj’entus. The fight will play out in the exact same way until you’re victorious or you wipe: Naj’entus casts Impaling Spine twice, and then Tidal Shield once. There will always be ~20 second intervals between those abilities, meaning you’ll get an Impaling Spine at 1:20, then another at 1:40, and Tidal Shield at 2:00, and so on.

Provided your raid has figured out how to handle Tidal Shield and your healers have brought their A-game, you should have no problem turning Naj’entus into fish sticks. Congratulations on a well-earned victory! You have successfully taken your first step into the fortress of Illidan Stormrage, the betrayer, and gotten some shiny purple loot in the process.

 

About the Author

Pride

Classic WoW is my jam, with a passion for PvP. Most know me as Baranor, the ret paladin guy, but I'm secretly a druid main, don't tell anyone. In my free time I play Switch games, particularly JRPGs. Some day I'll be making my own games and I humbly hope you play those too!
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