Naxxramas (original)

Naxxramas was originally a 40-man raid instance floating above the Eastern Plaguelands. It was a massive necropolis and had the unquestionable honor of serving as the seat of one of the Lich King's most powerful officers, the dreaded lich Kel'Thuzad.

The instance was regarded as the most difficult before the release of Burning Crusade, and should not have been attempted at level 60 without at least 40 well-equipped (preferably Tier 2 or Tier 2.5 armor) players. Naxxramas was also the home of many of the most powerful items of the pre-BC era, and 60+ quests with rewards such as and all Tier 3 items available in the game. With the release of The Burning Crusade, finishing this instance still required 25-30 well-equipped level 70 players. The dungeon was added in patch 1.11, making it the last non-expansion instance added to the core game as well as the last 40 man instance.

In the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion, Naxxramas was moved to Northrend and retuned to be the introductory level 80 raid dungeon. Like all other Wrath raid dungeons, Naxxramas has both 10-man and 25-man versions.

The move is claimed by some to not be a retcon, but a progression of the storyline. Naxxramas was indeed in the Eastern Plaguelands, but after Kel'Thuzad's phylactery was given to the treacherous Father Inigo Montoy, the lich was able to revive himself and make the transition along with his fortress. While at least one boss does not return in the new Naxxramas, there is no explanation yet as how the other bosses "survived" destruction during the original campaign led by the Argent Dawn.

Gaining entry
To enter Naxxramas, you had to be attuned through the Argent Dawn by completing, whose cost varied based on reputation level.

Attunement costs
If you chose to become exalted with the Argent Dawn, you could complete the attunement for free; however, this required a great deal of work. The reputation reward for the entrance quest was 1000 rep for a character that was Honored or Revered at the time of completion.

For more information on the Naxxramas attunement quest or the Argent Dawn, see the following resources:
 * Argent Dawn Reputation Grinds

Teleport spire
The teleport spire in the middle of the Plaguewood was the only way into Naxxramas. After becoming attuned, one had to step onto the runic circle in the center of the spire to teleport into Naxxramas' center chamber. In Patch 3.0.2, the entire structure was moved directly underground, with another Plague cauldron added to its place.

Dungeon information
Although glimpses of snowy terrain can be seen out the windows in each corner of Kel'thuzad's room, it is important to note that his chamber is still within Naxxramas. What you are seeing out those windows is Northrend, through portals from which Scourge emerge during the encounter.



Maps

 * A map from BlizzCon shows what Naxxramas looks like: Necropolis Naxxramas instance (registration required with IGN)
 * Map for Atlas: Here
 * Large size map: Here
 * Tactical map (large): Here (.png)
 * Tactical map (huge): Here (.tif)
 * Map for Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad: Here

Structure
Naxxramas is structured like a giant wheel. Players enter at the center of the Necropolis, and then choose one of four wings to progress through:

Abomination Wing

 * This wing is filled with abominations, of course. It is likely to be the most physically intensive wing, as abominations are known to hit rather hard. The Slimes there deal heavy nature damage, too. The final boss is the "Frankenstein's Monster"-esque Thaddius.

Plague Wing

 * In this wing players will have to deal with various diseases. Creatures known to populate this wing include bats, gargoyles, bog beasts, oozes, and Ghouls. The final boss is Loatheb, some sort of fungal monster.

Spider Wing

 * This wing contains loads of spiders, as well as Nerubians and few acolytes. The final boss is Maexxna, the giant spider.

Deathknight Wing

 * This wing is loaded with death knights, known for their combination of powerful shadow magic and raw melee skills. The final bosses are the Four Horsemen. One of the Four Horsemen is Highlord Mograine, who has an important role in the Ashbringer storyline, which should be obtainable after you acquire the Corrupted Ashbringer from Mograine. The Four Horsemen were considered the hardest bosses in the instance until Kel'Thuzad.

Frostwyrm Lair

 * Once the final bosses of the four wings are defeated, players will gain access to the final "wing" of Naxxramas, in which they will encounter the frost wyrm Sapphiron, and the lich Kel'Thuzad.

Progress
Each boss drops a different quest token for Tier 3 sets. Each boss and its drops are listed in the boss section below.

On the wall of each boss chamber and various places are some Frozen Rune objects, which requires a Word of Thawing (a tradeable drop from trash mobs) to defrost. Defrosting a Frozen Rune yields a number (4-6) of tradeable blue "Frozen Rune" items that are used in crafting frost resistance gear. Frozen Runes are also consumables, behaving like Greater Fire Protection potions (1500-2500 fire damage absorbed for 1 hour). Due to the high quality and projected need as reagents for the craftable Frost Resist recipes, it is not advisable to use these runes as consumables.

You have to beat the last boss in each wing to progress. Once you beat all four wings, you get a chance to fight Sapphiron. After you beat Sapphiron you may challenge Kel'Thuzad.

Encounters and bosses
Below is the full list of bosses (in parentheses are the Tier 3 armor part the boss drops quest item for).

There are fifteen boss encounters in Naxxramas. First full Naxx clear was done by the Horde guild Nihilum on Magtheridon (EU) on September 7, 2006 (two and one-half months after Naxx came out on June 20, 2006).

The easiest wing is the Spider Wing, Instructor Razuvious being the easiest boss (arguably comparable to Grobbulus, but Grobbulus sits behind a major gear check: Patchwerk). The Plague Wing bosses Noth and Heigan are on a similar level of difficulty of Anub'Rekhan, but in different aspects (Heigan is VERY difficult in the individual coordination aspect). Abomination wing bosses are in the middle (with the exception of very easy Grobbulus), Patchwerk is commonly conceived as a hard gear check and healer's fight. The most difficult bosses, in order of rising difficulty, are Thaddius, Loatheb, Gothik the Harvester and the Four Horsemen. (Thus, the wings below are listed in rising order of difficulty to fully clear.)

Nature
The beginning parts of 3 of the 4 wings (Plague, Spider, and Abomination) are rich in Nature damage. This is good news for players who built up their nature resistance gear in Ahn'Qiraj.

Frost
Players will need a lot of frost resistance to fight the final bosses in Naxxramas. Kel'Thuzad is a lich, but does not require a lot of frost resistance to defeat him. The Sapphiron encounter requires a very significant amount of Frost Resistance (150-200), but is NOT frost-based like Ragnaros is fire-based. Frost resistance gear has proven to be rather scarce thus far, luckily, the Argent Dawn has made available several armor patterns that provide considerable frost resistance and bosses in Naxxramas drop very high quality epic frost resistance pieces.

Shadow
Shadow is the third major resistance required. Death Knights and Necromancers use powerful shadow magic, and Kel'Thuzad has a few shadow spells as well. The final boss in the Plague wing, Loatheb (original), uses shadow based damage also. Shadow resist gear can be found scattered throughout various instances, so this shouldn't be a problem.

Fire
Certain boss encounters need some fire resistance, like Grand Widow Faerlina and the Four Horsemen.

Loot
Naxxramas loot included the Tier 3 raid set.

For more details, see Naxxramas (original) loot.