Maexxna Strategy Guide (25 man)

Introduction
Maexxna is the third boss of the Arachnid Quarter (also known as the “Spider Wing”) of Naxxramas. This is a quick fight but it can easily be lost if the raid does not pay attention. Killing Maexxna completes the Arachnid Quarter.

Raid Setup
25 man : 1 tank, 4-5 healers (druids/shamans and at least 1 priest is preferred) and a mix of melee and ranged DPS (ranged DPS with AoE abilities are preferred). At least one shaman is needed.

10 man : 1 tank 2-3 healers (druids/shamans and at least 1 priest is preferred) and a mix of melee and ranged DPS (ranged DPS with AoE abilities are preferred). At least one shaman is needed.

Gear Requirements
Blue/Epic Dungeon/Heroic gear of i(tem) level 200 is sufficient.

Main Tank: It is recommended that at least 70% of all gems/enchants be stamina, especially in 25 man, due to the fact that you need to survive during the Web Spray without being able to use any cooldowns or even block/dodge/parry any attacks. If you lack stamina, it is recommended to bring more restoration druids (for HoTs during the Web Spray). Also, possession of the trinket “Essence of Gossamer” (which drops from Hadronox, the 2nd boss in heroic Azjol Nerub) is very helpful as it not only gives stamina, but an absorb buff which helps not only against Maexxna’s attacks, but also against the attacks of her summoned adds (even though they die quickly, they will likely hit you at least once).

Any Other Tanks: If any off-tanks are present, they should switch to their DPS gear as only one tank is needed for this boss.

Buffs and Consumables
A Poison Cleansing Totem is vital. No consumables are necessary, but buffs which grant passive healing such as a Healing Stream Totem are preferred to ease the fight.

If you’re not the tank, you may never get to enjoy Maexxna’s delicate features

Boss Abilities


25 man: 7 600 000 hit points. 5000 or less melee swing (on plate).
10 man: 2 510 000 hit points. 3000 or less melee swing (on plate).

Web Wrap:
This is Maexxna’s primary ability. It is cast every 20 seconds after the beginning of the fight. It sends one completely random player in her lair flying towards the webs on the walls of the room, encasing them in a cocoon dealing 2500-3000 nature damage to them every 2 seconds for one minute, or until the cocoon is destroyed. The affected player is incapacitated whilst cocooned. This ability will never be cast on the main aggro target of Maexxna (the main tank).

The place where a player is sent is always the same, so after the first player has been cocooned a few ranged DPS players should move into range of the cocoon spot to remove them quickly. To get rid of the cocoon, the raid must kill the object named “Web Wrap”. This has 15 000 (25 man) or 6 000 (10 man) health. Whilst the duration of this debuff is 1 minute, with ranged DPS players killing the Web Wraps when they appear, it shouldn’t last more than 10 seconds at the very most.

Poison Shock
This is cast every 10 seconds in a 15 yard frontal cone from Maexxna dealing 4500-5800 (25 man) or 3500-4500 (10 man) nature damage. It should never hit anyone except the tank as he will be tanking the boss so that she is facing away from the raid.

Web Spray
This is cast every 40 seconds after Maexxna is engaged, incapacitating everyone in the room for 6 seconds and also dealing ~2500 (25 man) or ~2000 (10 man) nature damage. It cannot be resisted by any means except a Flask of Petrification, Divine Intervention or being already affected by Web Wrap. To avoid the tank dying during the period of this ability, have druid healers put HoTs (heals over time) on the tank to continue healing him during the incapacitation (also put Abolish Poison on him since Maexxna continues casting Necrotic Poison during the 6 second duration of Web Spray).

Necrotic Poison
This is a poison cast on targets within the frontal melee range of Maexxna (which should be only the tank since she is tanked with her back to the raid). It reduces healing done by 90% for 30 seconds. It must be removed immediately (Abolish Poison is the preferred method, though Poison Cleansing Totem also works very well). Necrotic Poison is very deadly as it is often cast once during the Web Spray.

Frenzy
This is cast when Maexxna reaches 30% health. It increases her melee damage by 75% (25 man) or 50% (10 man), her melee haste by 50% and size by 15%. It cannot be removed.

Spawn Spiderlings
Spiderlings are spawned for the first time 30 seconds after Maexxna is engaged and every 40 seconds thereafter. Maexxna will spawn 8 Spiderlings near her with 14 000 (25 man) or 7 000 (10 man) health and a 2000 (25 man) or 1000 (10 man) melee swing on cloth. Usually a mage should stand in range of Maexxna to Frost Nova the Spiderlings when they spawn and then have the raid AoE them down.

The Fight
Maexxna is described as a two phase fight in this guide. The second phase is the same as the first but with the addition of Enrage.

Positioning


Maexxna Raid Positions

The tank will tank Maexxna with his back to the wall and with the boss facing away from the raid. Healers and ranged DPS should stand on a diagonal to her left. Melee DPS will stand behind her after she has turned towards the tank/wall. Ranged DPS and healers must be ready to move if she uses her Web Wrap ability and throws someone on to the opposite wall. If so, they must adjust and stand on the diagonal on her right. You only have to make this adjustment once at the start, because she always throws people to the same spot.

Maexxna Raid Positions

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The Pull
The tank should run ahead or Charge Maexxna, moving 15 yards or so ahead so that Poison Shock does not hit the raid. Misdirect Maexxna onto the tank, who turns Maexxna towards the wall behind her and tanks her there for the rest of the fight (with her facing the tank/wall and her back turned to the raid). Healers and ranged DPS stand on a diagonal to her left and melee DPS stand behind her. Note that DPS should give the tank some time to get enough threat; if they overaggro and get Maexxna to turn around, it will usually result in a wipe.

Phase 1
10 seconds into the fight, Maexxna will cast her first Poison Shock, dealing damage to the main tank. Do a small heal and continue DPSing her and healing. 10 seconds later she will cast her first Web Wrap (followed by another Poison Shock). Pay very close attention to which side she sends the Web Wrapped player to and quickly adjust your ranged DPS positions so that at least 1 ranged DPS and 1 healer are in range so future Web Wrapped players can quickly be freed and healed. Maexxna will always send people in Web Wraps to the same spot so you don’t need to worry about moving the next time she casts it.

Continue DPSing, healing and tanking. 10 seconds later (make sure you have freed your Web Wrapped players by now) she will spawn Spiderlings (followed by another Poison Shock). Quickly have a mage Blink into the Spiderlings and cast Frost Nova followed by AoE damage spells to kill them before they can do any significant damage.

Note that by now Maexxna will have cast Necrotic Poison at least twice on your main tank so if you can remove poisons, don’t forget to watch for it and quickly remove it (or keep Abolish Poison up on the main tank). All healers must start using HoTs (Heals over Time) on the main tank now to avoid him taking a Web Spray without them (which will most likely result in his death if he did not use a cooldown).

Maexxna strikes out


10 seconds later will come the Web Spray (followed by a Poison Shock), which is signaled by the raid message “Maexxna spreads her web everywhere”. All players are now helpless for its 6 second duration and can only wait until it wears off. Once it’s over, immediately start raid healing to compensate for the time in the webs, starting with the main tank, who will have lost at least 25% HP, assuming he had a good number of HoTs up before Web Spray was cast.

Continue to fight her in this manner.

Basically, there is an action happening every 10 seconds so be sure to stay on your toes. Here is a little summary list with the abilities she casts in the frame of 120 seconds:

10 – Poison Shock
20 – Web Wrap + Poison Shock
30 – Spawn Spiderlings + Poison Shock
40 – Web Spray + Poison Shock (She does not cast Web Wrap at this point)
50 – Poison Shock
60 – Web Wrap + Poison Shock
70 – Spawn Spiderlings + Poison Shock
80 – Web Spray + Poison Shock
90 – Poison Shock
100 – Web Wrap + Poison Shock
110 – Summon Spiderlings + Poison Shock
120 – Web Spray + Poison Shock

Phase 1 Class Tips
Main Tank: Throughout this phase, all you need to do is stand with your back to the wall and build your threat (and pop cooldowns when she approaches 30% health). Make sure someone doesn’t overaggro you or she might turn to the raid and use her Poison Shock, resulting in either a few deaths or a wipe (or just some damage if you’re lucky).

Melee DPS: Stand behind Maexxna and do your job: DPS!

Ranged DPS: Do your damage and be ready to move and destroy the Web Wrap cocoon as soon as it appears. If you have AoE abilities, watch out for when Maexxna spawns the Spiderlings and AoE them.

Mages: Do what all the ranged DPS are doing, but also try to stand within Frost Nova range of Maexxna. After you see the Spiderlings spawn use Frost Nova to prevent them from reaching the raid and doing damage. After that, simply AoE them down.

Restoration Druids: This is your fight. It depends almost completely on you doing your job. Always have full HoTs and Abolish Poison on the tank, especially after Maexxna spawns Spiderlings (which signals that the Web Spray will be soon). Concentrate on the tank and keeping the HoTs and Abolish Poison up. The other healers can cover the raid damage (which will be very low).

Shamans: Use a Healing Stream or Poison Cleansing Totem. It helps a lot.

Phase 2
Phase 2 starts when Maexxna’s health hits 30% and she is enraged. Nothing really changes except that she now does massive damage to the tank with incredible speed (Refer to the Enrage ability description for numbers).

During this phase, healing should not be a problem if Maexxna didn’t cast Web Spray. But she does. So, after the Spiderlings spawn you have about 10 seconds to put every damage lowering or negating effect on your main tank or you will most likely wipe. Those effects include Power Word: Shield, Renew, all restoration druid HoTs, Healing Stream Totem, Stoneskin Totem, Earthliving and more.

If you cannot kill Maexxna after 2 Web Sprays in phase 2, your healers will likely run out of mana and you will wipe. It is recommended that the tank use all cooldowns after Maexxna reaches 31% (1% before Enrage) to prevent the really annoying case of Maexxna enraging after casting Web Spray and the tank not having enough HoTs on to survive it.

If you haven’t used Heroism/Bloodlust or if Sated has already disappeared, then you should use it now. It’s vital to kill Maexxna as fast as possible during this phase.

Don’t forget to keep Abolish Poison on the tank as Maexxna will continue casting Necrotic Poison. You don’t want your tank having a -90% healing debuff on him whilst tanking a spider that can 2-3 shot him.

Miscellaneous Tips
- You can try to DPS Maexxna until she is around 35-32% and then wait for her Web Spray. After it has disappeared, pop all cooldowns to kill her before she uses it again (whilst she is Enraged). This is commonly used when there are not enough HoT healers (Druids) or damage prevention classes (priests and such) in the raid.

- Everybody needs to stay alert and pay attention to what’s happening.



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