The opening of Naxxramas has been one of the most anticipated events in WoW Classic ever since the game launched back in 2019. While a lot of players raided the floating citadel in Wrath of the Lich King, few bothered with it during Vanilla WoW. Mainly because its release came shortly before the launch of The Burning Crusade. Back then, players weren’t keen on struggling through Naxx only to have to replace their hard-earned geared a few months later once the new expansion launched. But things are very much different now.
These days, most people who play World of Warcraft Classic do it for fun (imagine that) and to complete as much of the content as possible in its original form. Players are unlikely to skip Naxxramas this time around. In fact, a lot of them have been preparing for it for weeks or even months. With WoW Classic Phase 6 scheduled to launch on December 1st, there’s still a bit of time to prepare for the upcoming challenges. But don’t worry if you’re not sure where to start because this guide will tell you everything you need to know about how to prepare for Phase 6 and Naxxaramas.
The Scourge Invasion
As mentioned, Phase 6 launches on December 1st (via patch 1.13.6), however, both Naxxramas and the Scourge Invasion event will only unlock a couple of days later on December 3rd. It’s probably going to take a while before the average player steps foot inside Naxxramas, but everybody will be able to take part in the Scourge Invasion event as soon as December 3rd rolls around.
The Scourge will invade various areas of Azeroth during this event, including major cities. If you’re a low level player you don’t have to worry about the mobs because they’re neutral until players attack them first. Just leave them alone and the guards will take care of them.
If you’re a high-level player, however, you’ll want to kill as many of the mobs as you can because they drop very useful items, such as Necrotic Runes and Invader’s Scourgestones. You’ll need the Runes to summon special elite undead mobs while the Scourgestones can be turned in for Argent Dawn reputation. More on that later Keep in mind that the Scourgestones only drop if you have the Argent Dawn Commission trinket equipped.
Zone Invasions
Assuming you don’t want to spend all day farming mobs around your home city, it’s time to head over to one of the main Scourge Invasion areas – Eastern Plaguelands, Burning Steppes, Blasted Lands, Tanaris, Wintersrping, and Azshara. A flying Necropolis will be present inside each of these areas, which you can attempt to get rid of. At least temporarily.
You do this by killing Scourge in the area until four Cultist Engineers spawns that you will have to eliminate one by one. The mobs won’t be hostile at first and you’ll need to talk to them and offer them Necrotic Runes in order to have them transform into elite mobs known as Shadows of Doom. Kill all of the elites to temporarily clear the area.
Shadow of Doom mobs drop gear that increases your damage against Undead. Make sure to get as much of that as possible because you’re going to need it in Naxxramas. In addition, the mobs also drop Corruptor’s Scourgestones. You’ve probably seen these before if you’ve been playing WoW Classic for a while. If not, just hang on to them because you’ll use these to increase your rep with the Argent Dawn.
If you’re looking for even more gear, roam around the invaded areas and keep a look out for the new Rare mobs as these also drop items that increase your damage against the Undead. There are four items that can drop from these mobs and, unlike the others, these are BoE. Given how useful they are, these items will probably be very expensive, so it’s probably a good idea to stock up on some WoW Classic gold beforehand if you plan to buy them from the auction house.
Naxxramas Attunement
Similar to other raids in WoW Classic, Naxxramas can only be accessed once you have completed the required attunement quest. Don’t worry, though, because this one isn’t as annoying as some of the others. In fact, all you need to do is complete a quick quest given by Archmage Angela Dosantos at Light’s Hope Chapel. The only caveat is that you’ll need to be at least Honored with the Argent Dawn for the quest to become available. This is where the Scourgestones mentioned earlier come in.
You can get a good chunk of reputation by turning in Scourgestones and you also get a bit of rep by killing the Undead mobs that drop them. Reaching Honored with the Argent Dawn is pretty simple but you’ll want to try and get at least to Revered if possible. That’s because, in addition to the reputation requirement, the attunement quest also requires you to bring gold and some rare materials. The amounts differ depending on your reputation.
At Exalted, you don’t need to bring anything but getting there requires you to farm Stratholme and Scholomance over and over, which is very time-consuming. Players who saved up a good amount of Valor Tokens will have a much easier time since that’s the only other reliable way of gaining reputation past Revered. If you haven’t and don’t feel like grinding dungeons for days, you’ll have to get your hands on 60 gold, 5 Arcane Crystals, 2 Nexus Crystals, and 1 Righteous Orb if you’re at Honored. At Revered, you’ll only need 30 gold, 2 Arcane Crystals, and 1 Nexus Crystal.
If you’re not exactly swimming in gold at the moment, we recommend checking out our list of the best WoW Classic Phase 5 gold farming spots. If farming isn’t your thing, you could try boosting lower level players or selling crafting materials to get the necessary funds. Otherwise, you could buy WoW Classic gold from websites that specialize in this sort of thing to speed up the process. Either way, you’ll need several hundred pieces of gold to buy everything if you can’t make it to Exalted. And, let’s face it, only a small percentage of players can.
Argent Dawn Rewards
Earning reputation with the Argent Dawn will not unlock the doors of Naxxramas to you, it will also give you a chance to buy some useful items in exchange for Necrotic Runes. Blessed Wizard Oil and Consecrated Sharpening Stones are arguably the most useful ones as they increase your damage again Undead by a significant amount. These items are only available during the Scourge Invasion so make sure to grab as many of them are you can. Same goes for several pairs of gloves that also make you stronger against Undead.
Meanwhile, you can also get various patterns and consumables at certain reputation milestones. Even more importantly, you’ll want to keep an eye out for the shoulder enchants. Specifically, the ones that give you +5 frost resistance. +5 may not seem like much but every little bit counts when you’re in Naxxramas.
Frost Resistance
Speaking of frost resistance, you’ll want to stack up on as much of it as you can because you’ll certainly need in once you’re in Naxxramas. Particularly towards the end of the raid. Phase 6 introduces Tier 3 armor sets that provide you with plenty of frost resistance, however, many of the pieces only drop from bosses within the raid. Meanwhile, all the other pieces need to be crafted using patterns that, you guessed it, can also only be found in Naxxramas.
But while you won’t be able to get a ton of frost resistance before entering the raid, you can get some. Aside from the aforementioned shoulder enchant, you’ll also want to get Ice Guard (from Light’s Hope Chapel), the head piece you get from the Onyxia quest, the Glacial Cloak and a Greater Resistance enchant to go along with it. Keep an eye out for any other pieces of gear that give you a decent amount of frost resistance and, of course, you’ll also want to get your hands on a few Greater Frost Protection potions as well.
Do Your Homework
An extra bit of preparation you can do is to learn the layout of Naxxramas and the mechanics employed by the bosses within. Now, you could do this by reading guides or watching YouTube videos but my advice is to simply go to Naxxramas and check it out for yourself. The raid has already been available on the PTR for some time and will give you a good idea of what to expect from the live version.
Alternatively, you can check out the Wrath of the Lich King version of Naxxramas found on retail WoW. This version is pretty much identical to the original one and you can easily solo it these days with a high-level character. And, coincidentally, retail WoW is facing a Scourge Invasion event of its own right now in preparation for the next expansion, so the timing couldn’t be more perfect.
Final Thoughts
Naxxramas may be the most difficult raid in WoW Classic but there’s definitely a lot you can do in order to make it easier. Since frost resistance gear is mandatory only towards the end of the raid, at first you’ll want to focus on getting items that help you deal more damage against the Undead. Then, you can start to complement or replace them with frost resistance gear and enchants as you progress.
Despite being considered very challenging at the time, you shouldn’t have any issues eventually completing Naxxramas if you’re in a guild that knows what it’s doing. World of Warcraft players are much better at the game now than they used to be back in 2006 and the World Buff meta already trivialized many of the other raids. It’s likely we’re going to see something similar with Naxxramas as well.
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