Offtank Strategy: Kel'thuzad

Having done this a second time for my guild, again in 10-man, I figure that I wanted to bring up here that, as long as your tanking pet has a dedicated healer for this fight, he can be used as an extremely effective offtank for the Kel'thuzad adds. These adds, for those who might not know (you never know!) have as many HP as many full bosses, and therefore aren't killed, but just offtanked while Kel is nuked. This makes a pet perfect for them since you don't need to worry about 'nuke' threat. Just enough threat to keep them from running after healers.

First off, for this battle, I made sure I was at high HP. My natural tanking outfit gives me enough, but if you are just starting out in Naxx, gemming some frost res gear for stamina is probably giong to be a perfect idea. After all, as said above, threat isn't of the essence here. You may not even need Thunderstomp (as I did this originally without it), but trust me: it helps.

For the 'gauntlet stage', nothing is unusual. DPS the mobs and wait for stage 2.

In Stage 2, DPS as normal, but if possible, work your way toward the back. Make sure that you are out of 'freezing' range of everyone if possible. You don't want to chain a frost bolt if you get targeted. It'll be at about 35% that your time to shine will come. Make sure you're back there at that time, since those portal-looking things at the back is where your targets will be coming from.

When Kelly hits 35%, the adds will be summoned one at a time, but in very quick succession. Here, the best thing to have are two MDers: you and another person. If you only have yourself to MD, you may want to use a point or two of your tanking abilities for 'Charge' and/or Boar's Speed, to make sure your pet can speed over to one of the mobs. Have the pet run to one mob (or get one MDed from a party member) and MD the other when it appears. Then, once both mobs have aggro, drag them away from the raid so that people don't hit it with incidental AOE, and so you can have a short bit to pick them up if need be. Once the pet's got aggro on both mobs and the healer is healing, just return to DPSing Kel'thuzad. As long as you have Thunderstomp, you shouldn't even need to pay half attention to the mobs. If you don't have Thunderstomp, make sure that you use every MD CD you have to MD the 'non-focused' mob onto your pet, so that healing aggro doesn't pull the mob off.

First thing to remember: make sure they have a healer who will heal them. In my last attempt, we had to do it twice. Mainly because the first time, not one of the three healers dropped any heals on the poor pet. Apparently they assumed that Mend Pet was all-powerful. Needless to say, Mend Pet + Glyph + Talents is an awesome boost to your pet's health, but it won't keep them up against Kel'thuzad adds.

Second thing: you are still going to be targeted by Ke'thuzad while you're doing all this stuff. Keep avoiding chaining frost bolts. And if you do get frozen, pray that the healers are willing to keep the 'Frost Dot' from killing you. If you die, the pet dies, after all. So do whatever you can to stay alive. Your pet is immune to being frosted, fortunately. And being as its aggro on Kel'thuzad is almost nonexistant, and it's not in melee with him, his instant-death frost bolts won't be coming its way. At least, they never did for me.

Third thing: moving the mobs away from the tank is very important. Many tanks use AOE abilities to help keep up threat. This AOE can pull threat from the mob that your pet isn't Growling at. While most tanks can handle the extra beating, the whole idea is to keep them from having to. So pull the mobs aside enough to keep from being hit. Another 'I learned the hard way' moment as our warrior pulled aggro from one of the mobs with Thunderclap. For the record, it took multiple hits of it, so as long as you aren't getting the mobs hit quickly, you should be able to get them.

Fourth thing: the mobs move fast. They will generally go right for healers, so be ready *immediately* when the warnings come. You don't want them to rampage through your raid, killing your lifeblood, before you get them under control.