Gluth Strategy Guide - Naxxramas (10) - WotLK Classic

Author: Passion
Date: September 23, 2022
Updated: September 23, 2022
Expansion: WotLK Classic

Gluth is the third boss in the Construct Quarter of Naxxramas. Another cruel creation fueled by noxious goo and sewn together from the undead that weren’t capable of fighting.

“Gluth, the foul plague-dog of Naxxramas, was said to have an appetite so voracious that even the living were not enough to satisfy his hunger. Feugen was said to feed him an army of zombies daily, recycling the remains of the undead too weak to use in combat.” –Commander Eligor Dawnbringer

This guide will offer a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on how to deal with Gluth and his unending swarm of the undead.

If you aren’t the kiter, make sure you are positioned away from the floor grates
Try to always be stacked so that AoE healing is simplified
Keep your eyes peeled for stray Zombie Chow, and be ready to CC them at a moment’s notice
When Decimate is cast, heal yourself however you can, use things like Healthstones for some easy health.
Be ready in advance for Decimate, precasting heals and repositioning to AoE the zombiess

When Decimate is about to be cast, reposition towards the Zombie Chow ahead of time so that you are ready to AoE the second they start running!

Keep your eyes peeled for stray Zombie Chow, making sure to CC them where needed
Be ready for the Decimate cast so that you can begin AoEing the Zombie Chow as soon as Decimate happens

Make sure you keep your eyes out for Zombie Chow that aggro you, they hit hard!
Keep the kiter at high health, you never know when things will go wrong and they’ll take a hit
Heal the tank proactively for Decimate, use absorbs like PW:S on them ASAP, and try to get them back to high health before the boss swings
Be smart with your AoE healing, focusing on stacked players primarily

Taunt swap every 15 or so seconds, so no one gets too many stacks of Mortal Wound
Use damage reduction defensive cooldowns at high stacks to ease healing
When Decimate goes out, heal yourself however possible, Healthstones and health-increasing cooldowns like Last Stand are great for this
Whoever is currently not tanking should help deal with zombies

Abilities

Most of this fight is a simple tank swap, with one player slowing and kiting the zombiess in the room.

The primary mechanic is Mortal Wound, a stacking healing debuff on the tanks that requires taunt swapping to handle. Outside of that, Gluth will periodically Enrage which needs to be dispelled by a Rogue or Hunter using Tranquilizing Shot or Anesthetic Poison.

Roughly every 90-seconds Gluth will cast Decimate, kicking off a brief burn phase. During this phase, all of the zombies will immediately run towards Gluth and heal him if they reach him.

Gluth

Every 10-seconds Gluth will debuff its target, reducing the effectiveness of healing on them by 10% for 15-seconds. This debuff stacks, potentially reducing healing effectiveness by up to 100%. To deal with this, two tanks should simply rotate tanking Gluth, taunting off each other regularly in order to let stacks fall off.

Every so often Gluth will Enrage, increasing its damage dealt by 25% and attack speed by 25% for 8-seconds. This can be dispelled with Tranquilizing Shot or Anesthetic Poison and should ideally be removed ASAP to minimize damage taken.

If a zombie reaches Gluth, he will devour it and heal himself for 5% of his maximum HP. This is marked by Gluth emoting “Gluth spots a nearby Zombie to devour!”. To avoid this happening you need to make sure the zombies never reach Gluth.

Decimate is a rough spell that instantly reduces everyone to 5% health. Your healers will have to very quickly get your tanks back to full health so that they do not get immediately killed by the bosses’ melee swings. This effect also hits the zombies, reducing them to 5% health and making them easy pickings.

Once this spell has been cast, all the zombies will run straight to Gluth, healing him for 5% of his health if they reach him.

Raid Composition & Preparation

You will want some classes that can slow, as well as one designated kiters. Classes like Mages, shamans, and Hunters excel here thanks to abilities like Frost Nova, Earthbind, Frost Trap. Paladins also make fantastic kiters thanks to Consecration and Holy Wrath.

You will want 1-3 Healers for this fight. AoE healing spells like Wild Growth and CoH and absorb spells like PW:S are very valuable here, so Priests are especially useful here.

You want to bring at least one Hunter and/or Rogue, for Tranquilizing Shot or Anesthetic Poison, to deal with Enrage. It is also important to have enough AoE damage to deal with the Zombie Chows quickly, so classes like Warlocks and Mages are fantastic here.

This fight needs 2 Tanks on the boss to deal with Mortal Wound stacks getting too high.

The Pull

This fight begins the second someone drops into the boss arena, so you want the group to be decently close together and ready to go in as soon as the tank does.

The main-tank should drop in first, immediately getting aggro on Gluth and pulling him to the opposite side of the room to make sure he is as far from the grates on the floor as possible. These grates will be constantly spawning Zombie Chow, so it is important that they aren’t close to him.

Ideally, your ranged DPS and healers should be stacked somewhere away from Gluth, so that Zombie Chows that aggro onto them do not run in his direction to reach their targets.

The Fight

During this fight, most of the focus will be on the boss. The tanks will be taunt swapping after a few stacks of Mortal Wound so that the debuff has time to fall off. Hunters will most likely be on Tranquilizing duty, always ready to dispel Enrage to reduce the pressure on healers.

The main focus for most of the fight will be on your raids assigned Kiter. This player’s responsibility is to gather the Zombie Chows, keeping them off of the rest of the raid and far away from Gluth. This is typically done with a Paladin tank, but anyone can do it, even DPSers, as long as they can maintain aggro on all of the Zombie Chows.

To aid in kiting, a few players may need to occasionally slow the zombies with spells like Frost Trap and Earthbind Totem, to make sure that they never reach the kiter. Most often the Zombies will go straight for the group’s healers, so the kiter will need to be on top of this constantly to make sure they never reach them!

Every 90-seconds, Gluth will cast Decimate, instantly reducing all players’ and zombies’ health to 5%. After this, all of the zombies will immediately stop what they are doing and run to Gluth, unable to be tanked or kited.

All DPS will need to immediately swap to the zombies and kill them quickly. If they reach Gluth they will heal him and draw out the fight drastically.

Healers will need to make sure the current tank is immediately healed or shielded, otherwise, they will die from Gluths next melee swing. Tanks can also help deal with this by using defensive cooldowns like Death Pact, Last Stand, and Survival Instincts after Decimate, giving them a lot of temporary HP. Be careful though, if you use this before Decimate you will still end up on 5% health, likely wasting the cooldown.

Once all the zombies are dead, the fight loops back to normal, spawning new zombies from grates to be kited.

Here are some of the main things that can typically go wrong in this fight:

The kiter accidentally gets too close to their stack of zombies, being immediately killed by synchronized attacks
The kiter fails to pick up the zombies, letting them reach and kill the healers
The tanks fail the taunt swap, causing one tank to get too many stacks of Mortal Wound and be impossible to heal
Zombies leak through into Gluth, healing him
Enrage isn’t removed quickly, adding a lot of extra pressure on the tank.
The DPS on zombies isn’t enough, letting them through and healing Gluth, either stalling the fight or potentially snowballing into a wipe
The tank is immediately killed after Decimate by a melee swing

The Decimate section is the most important section of the fight for everyone but the kiter, and if your group can’t AoE them down the boss is effectively reset to full health, but if you can reliably clear them, this fight is fairly simple.

Congratulations on defeating Gluth! After dealing with the pet, your next challenge is its master. Head on through the gates and towards the final challenge of the Construct Quarter, Thaddius, Feugen, and Stalagg.

About the Author

Passion

I love MMOs of all shades, especially the nitty gritty numbers parts of them. You might recognize me from the Shadow Priest discord, otherwise I play a little bit of everything, especially games with support roles available.