Instructor Razuvious Strategy Guide – Naxxramas (25)

wotlk classic naxxramas instructor razuvious featured image
  • Author: Passion
  • Date: September 7, 2022
  • Updated: September 19, 2022
  • Expansion: WotLK Classic

Instructor Razuvious is the first boss of the Military Quarter in Naxxramas. He is a stern and uncompromising teacher and trainer to the very best Death Knights the Scourge has to offer.

Pay attention. This is Instructor Razuvious, Kel’Thuzad’s appointed trainer of all death knights. It is said that his own technique is so potent, only a disciple of his could possibly withstand his might.” –Commander Eligor Dawnbringer

This guide will offer a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on how to use Instructor Razuvious’ biggest strength, his students, against him.

Role Summaries

Pre-Pull

  • Everyone should have potions, elixirs, and flasks appropriate for their role
  • Make sure you don’t hit Instructor Razuvious prematurely so that Priests have time to Mind Control

The Fight

  • Do what you can to top yourself up after Jagged Knife and Disrupting Shout
  • Make sure you don’t over aggro and throw off the taunt rotation

Pre-Pull

  • Make sure to pre-pop a potion in order to maximize your damage!

The Fight

Pre-Pull

  • Make sure to pre-pop a potion in order to maximize your damage!

The Fight

Pre-Pull

  • Avoid pre-HoTs, you might mess up the positioning of the Understudies

The Fight

Pre-Pull

  • Make sure to pre-pop a potion, you are mostly a DPS for this fight

The Fight

  • Make sure you pick up any Understudy that breaks Mind Control, otherwise they will kill a Priest
  • In an emergency, you might be able to take a hit from Razuvious if you use defensive cooldowns

Abilities

Instructor Razuvious

Razuvious main ability, Unbalancing Strike is not intended to be tanked by players, instead, it is expected to be tanked by a Death Knight Understudy that is Mind Controlled. Jagged Knife and Disrupting Shout will be the main sources of damage to players in the raid.

Instructor Razuvious will shout, dealing 7125 to 7875 Physical damage to everyone within 60-yards every 15-seconds. You won’t be able to outrange this, but the damage isn’t that hard to manage so long as you don’t get overwhelmed and keep up with AoE healing.

Around every 10-seconds Razuvious throws a knife at a random target within line of sight, dealing 5088 to 5912 Physical damage followed by 2000 Physical damage every second for 5-seconds. Your healers should be able to avoid this altogether with clever positioning, and in a pinch, your ranged DPS can avoid it by ducking in and out whenever it is available. The best way to deal with this is by healing the target to full and then keeping them at high health with Absorbs like Power Word: Shield or heal-over-time spells.

This spell is the entire reason that Instructor Razuvious can only be tanked by Death Knight Understudies. Razuvious instantly hits the target for 350% weapon damage and reduces their Defense by 100 for 6-seconds. While 350% weapon damage may not sound like the worst thing ever, Razuvious hits like a truck, and this attack can deal close to 100000 damage to a plate tank. Surviving one of these is possible, but surviving them for the entire fight is significantly less so. Deal with this by only ever letting them hit Death Knight Understudies.

Death Knight Understudy

Blood Strike is an instant hit for 50% weapon damage on a 4-second cooldown. This is bound to Button 4 by default when Mind Controlled. Just press this on cooldown for extra damage.

Outside of Mind Control this ability is negligible and nothing you have to worry about.

Taunts the target for 10-seconds on a 20-second cooldown. This is bound to Button 5 by default when Mind Controlled. Use this to swap which Understudy is currently tanking, rotating while Bone Barrier is on cooldown.

Outside of Mind Control this ability does nothing and does not need to be dealt with.

Reduces damage taken by 75% for 20-seconds on a 30-second cooldown. This is bound to Button 6 by default when Mind Controlled. This is used to be able to withstand Instructor Razuvious’s massive damage, and without this up you probably won’t survive for very long. Make sure to rotate Taunts while this isn’t up.

Outside of Mind Control this ability is not relevant and shouldn’t be an issue.

Raid Composition & Preparation

This fight requires you to have at least 2 Priests, preferably 3. Outside of that, there are no specific class or spec requirements.

You will want between 4-7 Healers for this fight, ideally having a solid mix of single target healing for Jagged Knife and AoE healing for Disrupting Shout. Remember, if you are having your Priest healers focus on Mind Control, they will not be available to heal and you will need to compensate for this.

There are no strict requirements for DPS classes or specs here, you simply want a combination of good raid buffs and debuffs, as well as the best players you can muster.

You will want at least 1 tank for this fight. Your tanks will exclusively be tanking the Death Knight Understudy‘s outside of Mind Control.

The Pull

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Your main-tank should use a ranged ability, such as Heroic Throw to pull the Understudies from a distance. This will aggro them all, but Instructor Razuvious will stay behind for a few seconds giving his students their orders. These precious seconds should be used for your Priests to Mind Control their Understudies, which should then be used to Taunt Instructor Razuvious.

The Fight

instructor razuvious positioning

The majority of the fights mechanics are dealt with by the Priests and their Death Knight Understudy. These Priests will need to coordinate taunt swaps every time Bone Barrier is about to fall off. Tanking Razuvious without Bone Barrier active is certain death, but you do have backup Understudies if things go very wrong. While you’re Mind Controlling, simply spam Blood Strike on cooldown.

Healers will have to focus on four different areas. Some will need to prioritize the tanking Death Knight Understudy, it will not survive without healing. At least one healer should be dedicated to taking care of people hit by Jagged Knife, ensuring that they do not die to the damage-over-time effect. Your other healers will need to focus on keeping the main-tank alive while they tank the Understudies that are not currently Mind Controlled, as well as keeping everyone healthy between Disrupting Shout casts.

When Razuvious dies, his Understudies will become Hopeless, taking 5000% increased damage from all sources, making them very quick and easy to clean up.

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

  • A Death Knight Understudy breaks Mind Control prematurely, aggroing onto a Priest and potentially killing them
  • Someone gets aggro on Razuvious, being quickly killed and creating chaos while the Priests attempt to reestablish their Taunt rotation
  • The target of Jagged Knife does not receive enough healing and dies to the damage-over-time
  • The tanking Death Knight Understudy does not receive enough healing and dies
  • The healers fail to keep up with Disrupting Shout and players slowly die to AoE damage

As long as your Priests manage their new role as tanks effectively, this fight is very simple. No pressure!

Congratulations on defeating Instructor Razuvious and starting your journey into the Military Quarter, next up is Gothik the Harvester, so make sure you have a drink, this one will take a lot longer!

 

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.
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