Copied from:  http://www.stratfu.com/strats/TheImmortal

Raid Composition

Trash deaths don't matter for The Immortal, bosses do.

For most of the bosses, extra healing wouldn't have prevented a death. Most non-tank deaths in Naxx are directly attributable to poor play, and even 10 more healers wouldn't have saved someone. So while you don't want to skimp on healing, there's no point in bringing 10-11 healers.

To quote a friend, "Higher DPS is the best MP5 there is" -- the safest way to finish a fight can often be to stack DPS, and not healing.

While it's true there's a handful of bosses where melee can die more easily than ranged (KT and 4H come to mind), there's no reason to raid stack and take zero melee. Just don't bring so many that you won't have room around KT.

Motivation

When we were pushing to get Immortal, we had a rule: if you are the first to die and it's deemed by the officers to have been your fault and preventable, then you owe the guild two Paris Hilton bags: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=38082

They're randomed off amongst the raid members. (We also have this rule for dying to void zones on Sarth.)

Similarly, if, e.g., your raiders are bad about decursing on Noth, you can offer a minimal reward (100g?) to whoever is the highest decurser on a successful Immortal run. (not too high, since not all classes can participate -- but it can foster some healthy competition.)

Uninstall Damage Meters

This is probably the best "tip", or some version of it: get your DPS to understand that their epeen doesn't matter that night in any way and if they can give up some DPS for a little safety, they should. The Immortal doesn't involve a minimum DPS amount, just zero deaths, and DPS is irrelevent in almost every fight in Naxx.

No prizes given out for top of the meters, just for staying alive.

The Disconnect Boss

The internet/disconnect boss is probably the hardest boss we ever face.

But there *are* things you can do: our achievement night had a disconnect that could have been fatal, and so did Premonition's.

One, understand ahead of time which bosses (and when) a DC will be a problem. Sometimes, if you're alert, you can just heal through it (e.g. Heigan.) Sometimes you can adjust the raid (e.g. Thaddius.) Sometimes it's just a key player and you can have a backup (e.g. Raz.) Sometimes you have no options (e.g. Sapphiron.)

I'm not sure of the exact mechanics of when you can heal a disconnected person and when you can't -- that's always worth trying however.

When it seems you have no options, you do: Guardian Spirit. http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47788

Guardian Spirit Increased healing received by 40% and will prevent 1 killing blow. 10 seconds remaining

Have all your holy priests spec into it ahead of time and know their order of casting it if it they need to. You *can* have disconnects even in the worst possible cases and survive, as long as your raiders react quickly.

Naxxramas

Naxx has four quarters: Arachnid, Construct, Military and Plague. And then, once you've cleared those, Frostwyrm Lair is available.

You can either start with the harder bosses first (Thaddius, Heigen, etc.) to follow the principle of "if you're going to fail, fail early", or you can start with the easier bosses, so you can still do "And They'll All Go Down Together" if someone died.

How to run a safe Naxx raid, quarter by quarter

Arachnid Quarter

Anub'Rekhan

It's very hard to lose someone here as long as your healers understand to stay away during Locust Swarm so they don't get silenced.

If someone disconnects and you can't land heals, you may need to use guardian spirit on them if they get locust swarm.

Grand Widow Faerlina

We opt to just burn her down, ignoring the adds. The fight is over a lot sooner and there are no mana concerns.

Even if you want to kill the adds like normal, have your healers *assume* the enrage will still go off, so in case the DPS messes up there's no risk of the tank dying.

If someone disconnects and you can't land heals, you may need to use guardian spirit on them if they get rain of fire or the poison dot on them.

Maexxna

Assign two people and two backups to the webs. Make sure, if you have a web healer, that *they* have a backup. Warriors and mages should both help control the spiderlings when they spawn.

Don't just burn straight through her enrage unless you're confident your tank can make it: hold DPS so you burn to 30% right *after* everyone gets web wrapped, so the healers aren't stunned right at the start of enrage.

If someone disconnects and you can't land heals, you may need to use guardian spirit on them if they get web wrapped -- it might get dicey.

 

Plague Quarter

Noth the Plaguebringer

Offer a small award to whoever decurses the most number of times (100g or whatever.)

Your DPS needs to be strong on Noth: just offtank the adds while he's on the ground, you can kill them when he goes up to the balcony. The last thing you want is the fight to go on forever.

Your DPS needs to know that, when Noth blinks, he drops threat. Your tank needs to be fast to pick him up, but your DPS also need to pause for a moment to make sure the tank gets him, otherwise it's very easy for them to outaggro the initial tank threat and die.

Your only disconnect concerns here are if they're a tank and had mobs on them.

Heigan the Unclean

For P2, your healers *must* heal anyone who clips the flames. It's not automatic death unless they take multiple ticks or aren't healed.

If someone disconnects on Heigan, you may be able to heal them through it even if they are standing in the flames -- Premonition did on their kill.

Loatheb

If you know you can beat the enrage on him easily, then bring some extra healers for safety. Make sure your ranged group up to maximize the value of AE heals. You can put one AE healer in each group and make them responsible for that group.

Make sure spores are being done in an orderly fashion: call the groups on vent in order as each spore spawns, and have someone responsible assigned to kill the spore when everyone is there (a healer can actually be a great choice for this.)

Just keep an eye on any disconnected people: if they can't be healed, they may need Guardian Spirit.

 

Military Quarter

Instructor Razuvious

The hardest part of Raz somehow seems to be the pull now. You can initiate it by having a warrior run out there when Raz is on the near side, near the raid, and just shieldwall while the priests pick up the adds.

DPS *must* wait until they see Raz has targetted a mind controlled mob.

Make sure your priests know to stagger their mind controls, not both picking them up at once, because you don't ever want them to both drop at the same time.

Have a backup MC'er (or two) in case a primary MC'er disconnects. Just keep anyone else alive through his periodic AE.

Gothik the Harvester

Make sure your tanks and healers are communicating well: healers need to be someplace where the tanks can easily get mobs headed for them. Your DPS shouldn't go crazy AE'ing unless they're certain they won't pull off the tanks.

The Four Horseman

The safest way to do this is with a full four tanks and 7-8 healers. Split up the tank and healer crews ahead of time so everyone knows what they're doing.

On engage, you may be able to just burn down Thane without the stacks getting too high. If so, do so, and burn down Rivendare after him.

If not, when you're swapping sides make sure the DPS stays in until the last meteor lands and *then* move: otherwise you will have deaths.

Melee should never get near Zeliak, it's just not worth it. The kill is slower, but the risk is too high. Ranged need to be spread out as well.

If someone disconnects, they should be fine as long as it's next to a boss already dead (we had someone disconnect during Thane.) Otherwise, it may be very challenging to keep them alive if they can't get back in very quickly.

 

Construct (Abomination) Quarter

Patchwerk

Melee do not have to slime dip. All they need to do is make absolutely 100% sure that your last hateful tank (2nd or 3rd depending on what you do -- we use three) has taken a hateful before they go in.

Have the third hateful tank call "Melee go" when he's taken a hateful and you won't have any melee deaths.

Grobbulus

Make sure everyone turns spell effects *up* to be able to see the slimes.

Your tank needs to be good at moving him gradually around the room, always being conscious of making sure there's room behind him to drop the slimes. Ranged run to a safe spot where the tank has already been (*not* where he's going.) Melee need to help kill the Toxic Slimes that spawn, those can't be allowed to accumulate.

Don't ever step in front of Grobb, otherwise he'll spawn extra slimes.

If someone disconnects it will be okay unless they get injected with the mutagen. In that case the entire ranged clump will need to reposition and be *very* careful to avoid the spreading cloud from the person -- and you need to hope they disappear from the game before they die.

If you die after Grobb has died, but before you get out of combat, it's reportedly okay and you will still get the achievement.

Gluth

Have an experienced kiter for every grate, and an extra one able to step in if need be. Use frosttraps and earthbind as needed. Don't be afraid to take DPS off Gluth, as long as your kiters are good you'll do fine.

On Decimate, everyone should pop a HS/pot just in case -- no harm in not doing it.

All AE (not just mages) need to be ready to AE on decimate, and ranged need to understand their number one priority is taking care of all of the decimated zombie chow.

Sebudai of <Juggernaut> notes: We had 3 people die to Decimate because our Commanding Shout faded at precisely the wrong split second causing us to get hit for more than our max health. Make sure you either refresh it early or don't use it -- although moving in and out of range of a warlock imp may cause the same problem.

The same problem can happen with lifetap -- it's just something your raiders need to be aware of and plan around.

Thaddius

In patch 3.0.8 mages and priests will be able to cast slow fall/levitate on others. So if you have someone who just *cannot* make the jump, you have an option.

We have found that Thaddius is most simple if we just engage him where he stands, and on the first polarity Positive goes right, Negative goes left.

On each Polarity shift after that, just run right through him. As long as you move quickly (have one person calling "shift!" on vent each time it's being cast) you won't ever hit anyone with your charge.

Melee need to make *extra* sure they are standing far enough back that they have no chance of dying to the opposite side's charge -- be at the limit of his hitbox.

If someone disconnects, simply move Thaddius. We had a disconnect on our kill and the entire raid shifted from his spawn spot to instead be up against the wall you jump down to after the first two mobs are dead.

Once someone reconnects, it's vitally important that they do *not* rejoin the raid until they get a charge in the next polarity shift, otherwise they will die.

 

Frostwyrm Lair

Sapphiron

If you currently split your raid in half, rather than having all ranged on one side, then designate a spot to group up during air phase -- this helps avoid the "all the iceblocks on one side" problem that has been the cause of at least two failed immortals in top guilds that I know of (not ours.)

We choose his tail, and as he raises up everyone moves in that direction.

Don't start moving to the iceblock after the first however: there's an AE effect each time one lands and you can't be clumped up for it. After the second it's safe to start moving forwards, and after the third everyone needs to rush behind one.

Check to see if you have LoS on Sapphiron': target Sapph and try to cast a hostile action. If you can, you are *not* behind an iceblock and you need to shift closer. Even healers need to do this.

Outside of that, emphasize to your melee that living is their highest priority, not DPS. Sapph *will* die as long as they live.

Consider giving an award to the highest decurser on each side, if you have problems with the DPS not prioritizing decursing.

Premonition had a disconnect on Sapphiron and they kept him alive with Guardian Spirit through the big frost bomb he breaths on the raid.

Kel'Thuzad

The biggest killers here are:

• mana bomb
• Ice Tomb
• killing MC'd people
• Deaths after MC goes off
• Void Zones

If you get mana bomb, might as well be safe and back up from the raid if you can, or back away from someone who just got it.

Emphasize to your raid how important it is to spread out. Their DPS does *not* matter: if a healer or a tank is moving through your area, as a DPS you must stop DPS'ing and move to avoid chaining Ice Tomb.

This is the one fight where it really can be beneficial to bring less melee if your melee aren't good at not chaining Ice Tomb.

We switched to using fear instead of Polymorph for the bulk of our mind controls, simply because polymorph on the melee kept them in place next to where all the AE's were going off (since so many classes have AE abilities that are worth using against single targets now) and it was too easy for them to die.

Your DPS needs to know that, when he mind controls, he drops threat. Your tank needs to be fast to pick him up, but your DPS also need to pause for a moment to make sure KT is on the tank and the tank has aggro if your next Pyroblast crits.

When moving to avoid a void zone, never get close enough to someone else that you'd change Tomb if it gets cast on either of you.

Make sure your Tomb healers can reach the entire raid, and that someone has backup if one of them gets Tombed.

Here's a tip for paladins from Lorn, in response to this article:

Just wanted to say that your paladins should all keep their Blessings of Sacrifice on cooldown constantly during the Kel’thuzad fight if you’re aiming for Immortal/Undying.

Kel can make you cast it on him during mind control and that will get you pretty much instantly killed, as my retribution paladin found out during this week’s Naxx.

If someone disconnects, just get away from them -- use Guardian Spirit if you have to, if they get Ice Tombed.