How to activate Empower mechanics in Naxxramas in WoW Classic Season of Discovery Phase 7 for more difficulty (and more loot)
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Naxxramas will go live in Season of Discovery Phase 7 on February 6, 2025, at 1PM pacific time and, like some of the other WoW Classic raids in Season of Discovery, will be a bit different. This time around, Naxxramas will be tailored as a 20 player experience (though a maximum of 40 players will be allowed into the raid) and will feature optional “Empower” mechanics that can be enabled by raid groups to add challenging new mechanics to each wing of Naxxramas.
Sanctified Gear introduced in Phase 7 will be necessary for players who want to beat Empowered quarters and earn the extra rewards the increased difficulty offers. Naxxramas rewards while Empower is active will work similar to Ahn’Qiraj’s Descent Into Madness — beating Empowered bosses in each wing won’t necessarily drop higher quality or higher ilevel loot: they’ll just drop more loot, including cosmetic only items.
The different Empower mechanics were datamined and tested on the Season of Discovery PTR, so there’s a chance they could still change before February 6, but the Phase 7 patch notes give us a good idea of what to expect. Based on what we know right now, here’s how to activate each quarter’s Empowered mechanics and what they do.
How to active Empowered quarters inside Naxxramas
Once inside Naxxramas’ starting area, players will notice four different crystal pylons near the Scarlet Crusade NPC, Caldoran. Each pylon has different decorative set pieces nearby to indicate which quarter it corresponds to. To Empower a quarter, at least 5 players will need to interact with its pylon, which prompts Caldoran to summon another interactable object. Once activated successfully, chains will wrap around the pylon preventing further interaction and the debuff Authority of the Frozen Wastes will appear. All enemies in an Empowered quarter will have an increased health pool and damage capabilities but there are also quarter-specific Empower mechanics:
- Arachnid — Abhorrent Infestation: While in combat, egg sacs will randomly spawn nearby and explode after a few seconds.
- Plague — Fungal Contagion: Bolstering mushrooms will randomly grow nearby, but will explode when they reach maturity.
- Military — Marching Orders: While in combat, orders (emotes) will be issued at random. Obey them, or suffer the consequences!
- Construct — Overcharged: Players are randomly targeted to be struck by energizing lightning
Players can Empower any number of quarters but choosing to activate all of them at once may grant a different Authority of the Frozen Wastes debuff. This may be connected to the extra rewards implied by Blizzard for defeating Sapphiron and Kel’Thuzad but for now we’ll have to wait until February 6 to learn what this debuff is connected to, what these extra rewards are, and what else Naxxramas may be hiding.
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