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Love is in the air again in the World of Warcraft, and that means tons of achievements to be had by all, not to mention some fat lewts by the seasonal boss Apothecary Hummel who has taken up residence inside of Shadowfang Keep in Tristfall Glades. Closest road there is to take the flight path to Southshore and hang a left on the road till you get there. No worries though because the summoning stone is up and running for all levels for the duration of the Holiday.

This boss is a new boss this year and is a standard heroic level 82 elite boss.  I pugged a group in minutes, and once was there grabed the daily quest to kill him from the goblin inside the instance. Killing him will get you the holiday achievement Tough Love.  He asks you to serve Court Subpoena to the boss and gives you a package containing said subpena along with two potions, Perfume Neutralizer, Cologne Neutralizer, both of which you use during the fight to stop the poison damage.  Other than poping the potions to stop the AOE damage, there is a bit of crowd control for the adds but they aren’t tough.  Mostly its a tank and spank and I had no trouble healing it, just make sure to keep your hots up incase someone in group forgets to pop their potion on time because the poisons will tick off some heavy damage.  The following is the loot list…even a super epic new Flying Mount!

Apothecary Hummel drops epic quality (item level 226) amulets which are the equivalent of Wrath of the Lich King’s second tier Emblem of Conquest neckpieces.

• Winking Eye of Love (Frozen Tear of Elune)
• Heartbreak Charm (Evoker’s Charm)
• Shard of Pirouetting Happiness (Shard of the Crystal Forest)
• Sweet Perfume Broach (Broach of the Wailing Night)
• Choker of the Pure Heart (Spiked Battleguard Choker)

Apothecary Hummel also drops some fun seasonal items, including a fancy rose for your character’s hair, a gas mask (YES!), a non-combat oozeling companion, and an item so powerful it can break your heart!

• Forever-Lovely Rose
• Vile Fumigator’s Mask
• Toxic Wasteling
• The Heartbreaker

As if those things were cool enough, Apothecary Hummel also has an extremely low chance to drop the most stylish flying mount ever – the Big Love Rocket! Nah..no innuendo there…

So get out there, down that boss and have fun with the holiday.  Oh and send me any screenshots if you manage to get the new mount, I’ll post it on the site and give your credit for your epic win!  Ronne@worldofweirdcraft.net

Valithria Dreamwalker is the first boss in the Frostwing Halls of Icecrown Citadel.

She is a green dragon captured by the Scourge, likely used in experiments to reproduce the Emerald Nightmare effect.

Overview

Valithria is, in some ways, a very unique encounter. Unlike other bosses, Valithria needs to be healed from her starting 50% health to full, while continuous waves of adds assault her and the raid. Taking extra healers might seem like a lucrative option here, but considering how many adds will come, you are better off playing it safe and not sacrificing your DPS.

Two tanks are enough for this fight – one to the left, one to the right. There are five types of adds that will need to be taken care of – Risen Archmages, Blazing Skeletons, Suppressors, Blistering Zombies, and Gluttonous Abominations. In short, the Archmages will slow your melee with Frostbolt Volley, and annoy your healers with Mana Voids that burn mana and thus need to be avoided. The Blazing Skeletons can activate Lay Waste fire aura and use Fireball – they are high on the to-kill priority list, as Lay Waste will passively damage Valithria. The packs of Suppressors that come need to be AoE’d quickly too – they will channel Suppression, which reduces the healing taken by their target (Valithria) by 10% per application. Blistering Zombies are, unfortunately, another type of mobs you should kill quickly – both Corrosion and Acid Burst can do quite a bit of damage, some of which AoE. The Gluttonous Abominations and their Gut Spray are not too dangerous, and can usually be left out for a little while as long as they have a tank on them. They spawn Rot Worms upon death, which should also be tanked and quickly AoE’d.

Valithria will be able to help you a little during the fight. Every so often she will open 2(?) (6 on 25-player) portals to the Emerald Dream. Players who enter them will find Nightmare Clouds surrounding them. Killing a Nightmare Cloud grants Emerald Vigor to players nearby, which increases their damage, healing, and mana regeneration. It also phases them back to the room with Valithria. Both DPS and Healers will need to take those, lest your raid gets overwhelmed by adds, or stuck with the healing.

Valithria Dreamwalker Abilities

• Summon Nightmare Portal – Summons a number of (NPC #38429). Players that take the portals will be phased out of the room, and enter the Emerald Dream.
• Nightmare Clouds – Killing a Dream Cloud inside the Emerald Dream grants Emerald Vigor to nearby players and phases them out of the Dream.
• Emerald Vigor – Regenerates 200 mana per 3 seconds, and increases damage and healing by 10%. Lasts 35 seconds.
• Dreamwalker’s Rage – Inflicts 10,000,000 damage to all enemies. Used by Valithria when she is fully healed, and marks the encounter as over.

Sindragosa is the second boss in the Frostwing Halls of Icecrown Citadel.

Sindragosa was Malygos’ last consort from the time before his madness and the devastation of the Blue Dragonflight. When Neltharion betrayed the other Dragonflights and decimated the Blues, Sindragosa was separated from Malygos, and sent far into the frozen north, where her last thoughts were ones of anger, hatred, and revenge. When she was recently raised by the Lich King, she became one of his most fearsome servants.

Overview

The main tank begins the fight by positioning Sindragosa so she faces the south end of her platform. Any direction would serve, but south makes it easy for the raid to keep their sense of orientation. Everybody other than the tank should be on one side – either east or west. Stacking is not necessary, but people will need to watch out for the obligatory Tail Swipes and Cleaves.

Sindragosa will spend most of the fight in Phase 1, during which she will remain on the ground. Her Frost Aura will damage the entire raid, and her Frost Breath will hit the tank hard, reducing his or her attack speed by 50%, and movement speed by 15% – stacking. Casters will need to beware of Unchained Magic – a debuff that causes them to take damage over time for every spell they cast while the debuff is up. Melee and hunters have another thing to watch out for – Permeating Chill. Every successful physical attack they land on Sindragosa will have 20% chance to DoT them for 1,000 Frost damage every 2 seconds for 8 seconds (stacking). Tanks will probably want to stop attacking for a few seconds if the debuff starts stacking too high.

The raid-wipe mechanic in this phase is Blistering Cold. Occasionally while she is on land, Sindragosa will pull the entire raid next to her and start the 5-second cast of Blistering Cold. The spell does very high amount of Frost damage, so everybody should run out of its 25-yards range. The tank can either stay and eat it, or run away and charge back in after the cast is over.

First cast will be at 85%, and every 1:50 minutes after that, Sindragosa will lift off in the air and enter Phase 2. During this phase she will target 2 (25-player: 5) players and imprison them and anyone nearby in frost tombs. It is recommended to have the marked players run in the middle of the platform until they get hit, while everybody else goes to the outskirts, stacking. Sindragosa will fire 4 Frost Bombs in this phase, each one doing a lot of Frost damage. A mark on the ground will indicate where the Bomb is going to fall. Players not frozen should run to the middle and use the tombs to break line of sight with the bomb location, while breaking the tombs through damage. It is important not to break all the tombs before the 4th bomb, as the raid will take a lot of damage.

As soon as the 4th bomb drops, Sindragosa will land and re-enter Phase 1. At 30%, Sindragosa will start casting Mystic Buffet, a raid-wide debuff that stacks and increases magic damage taken – this stack works as a soft enrage mechanic as if it is allowed to stack too high the damage will be too difficult to heal through. She will also being to imprison random people in ice tombs – have those people run somewhere close enough, where they won’t chain anyone else with the Ice Tomb. Players can use the ice tombs to break line of sight with the boss and let the debuff drop (much like Forgemaster Garfrost), but the fight is a dangerous DPS race from this point on. Defensive and healing cooldowns should be used in this phase, specifically before a Frost Breath when the tank has accumulated several stacks of the Buffet. If you have a second tank and DPS seems low, you can let the fresh, stackless tank pick up the boss, while the new one runs behind an Ice Tomb. Sindragosa will not fly off after her health has reached 30%.

Toravon the Ice Watcher is an Ice giant boss, located in an eastern wing of the Vault of Archavon. He is only accessible if your faction controls Wintergrasp.

Overview

Toravon, much like the other bosses here, is mostly a DPS race while managing to kill his adds.

Occasionally Toravon will apply a stacking debuff to the tank which deals damage over time to the tank and also snares him. You will want to have a second tank to switch off with back and forth to deal with the debuff.

Every so often a tiny ring will appear on the floor, you must move away as adds will spawn that deal AoE frost damage. These adds must also be killed as quickly as possible.

Each wave of adds that spawns Toravon will cast Whiteout which will apply a stacking debuff that increases frost damage to the player by 25%. This acts as a soft enrage timer much like Koralon the Flame Watcher‘s stacking damage buff.

Good news everyone,  Crimson Halls the latest wing to open in Ice Crown Citadel dropped today, and here direct from WoWhead.com is your strategy guide to the  bosses.

The Blood Prince Council- Prince Keleseth, Prince Taldaram and Prince Valanar

The Blood Prince Council is a group of 3 of the strongest members of the San’layn, brought back by the Lich King to serve him once again. The princes Keleseth, Taldaram, and Valanar, easily dispatched by adventurers, now make their return in the Crimson Halls of Icecrown Citadel, refreshed and empowered. The Council needs to be defeated in order to gain access to the Royal Chambers.

Overview

The Blood Prince Council is a three-boss fight, where the 3 princes share a single health bar, similarly to the Twin Val’kyr and the Twin Emperors. A Darkfallen Orb will randomly empower a prince every so often, the prince will become empowered (one of his spells will become much stronger), and he will be the only one the raid can DPS – the other two will have 1 health, but will not die.

You will need at least two tanks, and one ranged DPS to play the third tank. The ranged tank will need to take care of Keleseth, while the two normal ones – of Valanir and Teldaram. Optionally in 25-man you can have your third tank just stay tank spec and play with Keleseth – higher health pool always helps when tanking. There will be no tank switching, so you can position the three princes where you want them in the beginning of the fight.

All three princes utilize different abilities, so the raid must adjust each time the Darkfallen Orb switches targets. Keleseth, tanked by the caster tank, will attack with Shadow Lance – a Shadow Bolt-like spell. He will also spawn Dark Nuclei around himself. The Nuclei follow normal threat rules, so it’s important that your ranged tank grabs aggro on all of them, and keeps them nearby. They will cause the tank to suffer some damage every second, but will also reduce all shadow damage taken by 35%, possibly stacking. The second effect will significantly reduce the damage the caster takes from the Shadow Lances and Empowered Shadow Lances, while Keleseth is under the effect of Invocation of Blood. The Dark Nuclei will die on their own after some time, so it’s also important that the caster tank doesn’t damage them too much.

Prince Taldaram will require a normal tank. You can think of him as the fire-based prince of the encounter. He will use Glittering Sparks to everyone in a frontal cone, applying a DoT to everyone hit by the spell. The spell will probably target a random player, so spread out. The other spell he will use is Conjure Flame, similarly to the one he used in Ahn’Kahet. Taldaram will summon a flame sphere, that will fly to a random raid member. The longer the sphere flies, the less damage it will do on impact, so kite as much as you can. Note that any players near its path will also suffer some fire damage, so be careful where you can. When Empowered, this spell will only lower its damage when it hits other players, so you will need to kite in such a manner that other raiders can “tap” the sphere for a second or two, take some damage, and get away.

The last of the blood princes, Valanar, seems to be using mostly physical damage. His main attack is the Kinetic Bomb he summons in the air. DPS needs to keep attacking the bomb until it dies, so it stays in the air, because every time it falls to the ground, it explodes for ~10k damage before bouncing back up. His other spell, Shock Vortex, spawns a vortex near a random player. Everybody needs to move away from it or suffer damage and knockback. When Empowered, Shock Vortexes will spawn near all players, so everybody will need to move to a safe area, 13 yards away from where a vortex has spawned.

Keleseth

• Shadow Resonance – Summons a Dark Nucleus. The Nucleus channels Shadow Resonance into the nearest target within 15 yards.

  • Shadow Resonance – Causes the target to suffer 1,000 Shadow damage every 3 seconds, and to take 35% less Shadow damage from all sources. Stacks (?).
• Shadow Lance – Inflicts 15,600 to 16,400 (25-player: 18,038 to 18,962) Shadow damage to his target. Empowered through Invocation of Blood.
• Empowered Shadow Lance – Inflicts 78,000 to 82,000 (25-player: 90,188 to 94,812) Shadow damage to his target. Used instead of Shadow Lance when under the effect of Invocation of Blood.
• Invocation of Blood – Allows Keleseth to cast Empowered Shadow Lance.

Taldaram

• Glittering Sparks – DoTs players in a frontal cone with Glittering Sparks, inflicting 3,230 to 3,570 (25-player: 3,705 to 4,095) Fire damage every 2 seconds for 8 seconds. Also reduces the movement speed of the affected targets by 20%.

• Conjure Flame – Conjures a ball of flames that flies through the air toward the target and explodes on impact. Empowered through Invocation of Blood.

  • Flames – Inflicts 7,500 (25-player: 11,250) Fire damage to all nearby players within 15 yards. Used when the ball of flames reaches its target.

• Conjure Empowered Flame – Conjures an empowered ball of flames that flies through the air toward the target and explodes on impact. As it moves, the ball of flames does Fire damage to nearby players and shrinks in size. Used when under the effect of Invocation of Blood.

  • Flames – Inflicts 7,500 (25-player: 11,250) Fire damage to all nearby players within 15 yards. The more flames the balls discharges while traveling, the less damage on impact it will do. Used when the ball of flames reaches its target.
  • Empowered Flare – Inflicts 1,000 Fire damage every 1 second to players within 10 yards.
• Invocation of Blood – Allows Taldaram to cast Conjure Empowered Flame.

Valanar

• Kinetic Bomb – Summons a Kinetic Bomb. The bomb drifts toward the ground and explodes on contact. Every explosion sends the bomb back in the air and causes Kinetic Bomb explosion.

  • Kinetic Bomb – Inflicts 9,000 to 11,000 (25-player: 9,900 to 12,100) Physical damage and knocks players back in 50 yards wide area.

• Shock Vortex – Summons a Shock Vortex that does damage and knocks player within 13 yards back. Empowered through Invocation of Blood.

  • Shock Vortex – Inflicts 5,000 (25-player: 7,000) Physical damage and knocks players back.

• Empowered Shock Vortex – Summons Shock Vortices near all players within 30 yards. The vorticis inflict damage and knock the players back. Used instead of Shock Vortex when under the effect of Invocation of Blood.

  • Shock Vortex – Inflicts 5,000 (25-player: 7,000) Physical damage and knocks players back.
• Invocation of Blood – Allows Valanar to use Empowered Shock Vortex.

Blood-Queen Lana’thel

Former countess, now Blood Queen of all San’layn, Lana’thel was one of the blood elves who followed Kael’thas’ lead into Northrend, in pursue of Arthas after he tainted the Sunwell. She was the one that brought Thalorien Dawnseeker’s famous blade – Quel’Delar – from the commander’s dying place at the Dead Scar into the frozen north. When she and some of her friends were slain by the Scourge, Lana’thel was raised by the Lich King as a San’layn, or a Darkfallen, to lead the undead armies in Northrend and to lead the other San’layn. She now resides in the Crimson Halls of Icecrown Citadel and is the second boss of the wing.

Overview

The majority of the fight is spent in the land phase 1, interrupted occasionally by healing intensive phase 2. During the land phase, you will want a few things kept in check. Two tanks will have to swap on the boss, so they don’t get overwhelmed by the bleed from Delirious Slash. The tanks will also have to be close to each other – the OT needs to be the closest player to the MT, so they soak the damage transferred through Blood Mirror. Other players will want to be relatively spread out (at 6-10 yards range), but still close enough to be able to run to each other quickly when Pact of the Darkfallen happens. Run out of the mandatory void zones Swarming Shadows, of course.

The trick to the fight is to not run out of people to bite as a vampire. Since Lana’thel will bite a player every 20-30 seconds or so, and those players will need to bite somebody after a minute, you may find yourself running out of people very soon. Do not risk and wait to bite another player though, as a single person gone frenzy can and will wipe the raid. Keep in mind, biting requires melee range with the target.

Phase 2 lasts only a few seconds and is preceded by the spawning of a few Blood Whirls throughout the room. Make note of them and spread out so you are at least 6 yards away from each other. Healers will have to heal through the high damage the raids will take, and then phase 1 will re-start.

Abilities

Phase 1: Ground

• Shroud of Sorrow – Inflicts 4,500 Shadow damage to all players every 3 seconds. Permanent aura.
• Presence of the Darkfallen – Increases the damage of Shroud of Sorrow by 5% for every vampyr in the room.
• Delirious Slash – Inflicts 50% weapon damage to the tank, and causes them to bleed for an additional 4,500 to 5,500 (25-player: 5,250 to 6,750) every 3 seconds for 15 seconds.
• Blood Mirror & Blood Mirror – Causes the player closest to the tank to take 100% of the damage done to tank as Shadow damage.

• Vampiric Bite – Inflicts 12,025 to 13,975 (25-player: 13,875 to 16,125) Physical damage to a target, granting them Essence of the Blood Queen.

  1. Essence of the Blood Queen – Increases damage by 100%, and causes attacks to heal the player for 15% of the damage done, as well as cause no threat. Causes Frenzied Bloodthirst after 60 seconds.
• Frenzied Bloodthirst – Causes Uncontrollable Frenzy after 10 (15?) seconds, giving Lana’thel control over the target, unless the player bites a friendly target. Biting another player refreshes the duration of Essence of the Blood Queen to 60 seconds, and also grants the debuff to the bitten player.
• Pact of the Darkfallen – Links a number of players together, causing them to inflict 3,500 Shadow damage every 1 second to non-linked players within 10 yards. This effect expires when all linked targets are within 5 yards of each other.
• Swarming Shadows – The affected player spawns a mass of shadows every 1 second for 6 seconds. Each mass inflicts 2,313 to 2,687 (25-player: 2,775 to 3,225 ) Shadow damage every 1 second to all targets within it.
• Twilight Bloodbolt – Inflicts 9,250 to 10,750 (25-player: 12,025 to 13,975) Shadow damage to a target and other players within 6 yards.

Phase 2: Air

• Bloodbolt Whirl – Summons a Bloodbolt Whirl every 2 seconds for 6 seconds. Each Whirl can cast Twilight Bloodbolt identical to the spell in Phase 1.

So I decided to finally get around to doing the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby that came out in Patch 3.3.  The Derby takes place every Saturday starting at 2pm server till 3pm server and requires you to catch a single Black Tip Shark the first to bring it back to the Kalu’ak in front of the fountain in Dalaran wins. Well to make a short story even shorter, by the time I managed to fly to a nice little fishing pool the world announcement came out that the derby was already over. So I doubt catching the required shark is very hard. It seems that all it takes is for someone to fly directly below Dalaran to the river below, drop like, catch and fly back up in a manner of about 3 minutes. Winning the Derby grants the acheivment Master Angler of Azeroth.  There is still some hope for those of us a bit slower in fishing, even if you miss winning, you can still get the result, Better Luck Next Time which still lets you choose one of two rewards Dread Pirate Ring (sorry the link color is legendary), its actually an heirloom item, and the Boots of the Bay.  Clearly both items are very valuable, the ring being most epic for the next alt you level and the boots being great for your fishing set and can compliment the fishing gear you get from the Stranglethorn Fishing Tournament.

Strategy for winning the Derby:

You do not need to take a quest to start the Derby, a world announcement is made the moment it starts so you can drop line in that exact moment, but where to fish you ask.  Well the rules state Black Tip Sharks can be found in any pool where you would catch Pygmy sucker fish, and since they have the highest rate of drops from schools of fish, find a good place with pools.  I personally recommend the very heart of Sholazar basin where the flight point is.  Take a potion of water walking and just keep running the circle fishing the schools of fish till you get your shark.  Also, forget the flight path back, pop your hearthstone (assuming your hearth is set to Dalaran).  This is by far the fastest and easiest way to start fishing in a high drop fishing zone and get back as fast as possible so good luck and good fishing.

After a 25 man ICC run last night and a few wipes trying it the way everyone else does ie: run and die mode, a guildie suggested a new method for Lord Marrowgar. He said he had watched a video do it on easy mode but thought there could even make  a single improvement not in this video to  help the raid take him down in record time. I will assume you watched the above video and have a familiarity with the fights.

• The single key to the ultimate speed kill and easy mode is to stay stacked! 2 stacks and two stacks only! Your 3 tanks with agro Lord Marrowgar and face him to the back wall, meanwhile ALL, yes ALL of your dps will stack on his back. This is not an issue for ranged because his hit box is large enough that both melee and ranged will still be able to stack on each other and land hits. Now the key to the speed kill lies in this formation of every dps and healer all stacked in one spot. Healers can chain heal, healing wind, aoe heal the entire raid all in one place.  YES even through the flames, DO NOT MOVE even through the flames with all of your healers casting aoe heals on you you will do fine, the flames do 2.5k damage at best.  Shammys throw up flame resist totem and your fine.

• When bone spikes come up, instead of having to run them down and losing dps on boss, they will all be right there in group,  hunters drop volley shot on group, death knights death and decay, any aoe you can and your group should drop all three bone spikes at once super fast.  This prevents the need to chase down the bone spikes since they will always spawn right in the middle of the stacked group every time.  Once again, heals can continue to aoe heal the entire group and the spiked persons at the same time.

• Bladestorm phase-  still once again DO NOT MOVE, you stay stacked, just as you stay stacked even in fire you will stay stacked during his spinning bone storm, why?  Because deaths occur in the raid for two reasons, first reason being, someone is spiked and not being brought down fast enough, which we already solved, or second, because when everyone runs from the bone storm, half the raid runs right out of healing range, gets cornered and mowed down.  If everyone remains stacked, the healers continue to AOE heal, no one goes out of range, everyone keeps big heals up.  Also, with everyone still stacked in the same place, Lord Marrowgar will not spin all over the room but remain dead center while spinning, thus allowing all dps to continue on him.

• Once Bone Storm is nearing its end though, it is vital for ALL dps to stop and allow tanks to regain their threat and move him back facing the back wall before dps begins again.

Now I know the above strategy relies very much on big heals…well…this is ICC people, I have mentioned before that a 4500 gear score won’t cut it, especially in 25 man which this guide is for.  If your heals can’t aoe heal through the flames and bone storm /boot.  This is the big game people, and your heals have to step up just as much as your tanks have to be able to take the big hits and your dps to deal 4k dps. These are facts, and if you can’t manage this strategy on the FIRST boss, you have no hope of passing Saurfang what so ever.

All the information that follows is provided by Wowhead.com.  Blizzard opened the doors to the second wing on Ice Crown Citadel, the Plague works.  The following is a boss by boss breakdown from Wowhead.

Festergut is one of the two abomination bosses in the Plagueworks section of Icecrown Citadel that players need to defeat in order to unlock Professor Putricide’s laboratory and fight him there. Festergut uses gaseous blight-based abilities.

Festergut is a surprisingly straight-forward fight for a boss that deep in the Icecrown Citadel. The 2 (possibly 3 on 25-player difficulty) tanks will have to switch every 8-9 stack of Gastric Bloat. The tank who is no longer tanking should stop attacking for a little while and then go easy on threat, as they will produce 80-90% more for the duration of the buff. Ranged DPS and Healers should be roughly 10-15 yards away from each other, to avoid multiple people being hit by Vile Gas.

A key mechanic to the fight is the Gaseous Blight that covers the floor of the room. Its basic function is to do damage-over-time to the entire raid – nothing too significant, but it all adds up. Festergut will periodically Inhale Blight, taking up about a fourth of the Blight in the room. This will reduce the damage it does, will improve the visibility of the floor (perhaps so you can see the Vile Gas and get away from it?), and increase the boss’ damage and attack speed (and size) by 30%. Every fourth inhale, Festergut will cast Pungent Blight instead (there will be very little Blight left). Pungent Blight will do a tremendous amount of Shadow damage to everybody in the raid, and will return the Blight to its maximum concentration. The boss’ damage buff will also be reset, and the cycle will repeat.

The way to deal with the 50k+ Shadow damage from the Pungent Blight is through Gas Spores Festergut will cast on the raid. Gas Spores stay on the people they are cast on for 12 seconds, after which they explode, inflicting minor Shadow damage, but increasing the Shadow resistance of the players in range by 25% per application. Festergut will target 2 (25-player: 3) people for Gas Spores, and will cast them 3-4 times between Pungent Blights. Everybody needs to go hug at least one affected player, so they get the Shadow resistance from the explosion. If executed properly, everybody should have 3 stacks of the resistance by the time Pungent Blight comes – which will reduce the overall damage to something not hard to heal.

Rotface is one of the two abomination bosses in the Plagueworks section of Icecrown Citadel that players need to defeat in order to unlock Professor Putricide’s laboratory and fight him there. Rotface uses ooze-based abilities.

Rotface is a fight similar to Grobbulus in some ways. Ooze adds, hurting ooze puddles on the ground, kiting of the boss – that kind of stuff. You will need at least 2 tanks for this – one for the boss, one for the adds.

The boss tank should start the fight engaging Rotface and keeping him in the center of the room. Melee, healers, and all casters should run in and stay right behind the boss, within his hitbox. Hunters should be at their minimum range, to the sides. The add tank should go somewhere to the outskirts of the room and wait for the adds to start coming. A paladin or a death knight might be better than warriors and druids because of the wider array of ranged attacks.

The first distinct feature of the fight are the ooze floods. There are four areas that might be flooded – south-west, south-east, north-west, and north-east. Floods will cover roughly 1/4 of the room, never reaching the middle of the room where everybody but the add tank is. They will also happen semi-randomly – the floods will go through cycles, each area being flooded exactly once per cycle. So if NW is the first flood, the second one will happen in either NE, SW, or SE. Let’s say it’s NE. Then the third one will be either SW or SE. Let’s say it’s SE. This guarantees that the fourth one will be in the SW. Then the cycle resets – identically to the Twin Val’kyr in ToC and their four special abilities.

The next thing to watch out for is the Slime Spray. Rotface will target a random raid member and being the 1.5 second cast of Slime Spray (during those 1.5 seconds the boss will follow his target). After the cast is over, Rotface will channel the spray for 5 seconds, inflicting damage every second. There are few ways to deal with this: You can have the targeted person swap places with the tank. This way only the target (note that the targeted person can run back to the group as soon as the channel starts, effectively taking no more than 1-2 ticks) and possibly the tank will get hit. However if the person is not quick enough, Rotface will being his channel under an angle that might hit more raiders. The alternative is have everybody who is not being targeted run to the tank as soon as Rotface picks a target – a raid warning will announce it. This way no raider should take more than 1-2 ticks, and even that will depend on their own reaction time, not the target’s. Of course, it is also risky.

The third and last aspect of the fight are the oozes spawned through Mutated Infection. Every so often Rotface will target a random raider and debuff them with removable Mutated Infection. The infection will last 12 seconds or until removed (it’s a disease), and will spawn a Small Ooze. It is recommended that the targeted person runs to the add tank, have their infection removed, and then run back to the group (while the add tank picks the small ooze up). If you have a paladin add tank, timing this should be even easier. The OT should then proceed to kite the ooze, avoiding the ooze floods (if the ooze damage isn’t particularly high, the OT can just sit and take the hits in a safe zone). Every Small Ooze after the first one should be dropped on the OT’s path, so it can merge with the already existing Small/Big Ooze. Note that Rotface will being to cast Mutated Infection more frequently as the fight progresses.

The first two Small Oozes that merge will form a Big Ooze. Every next Small Ooze that merges with the big one will add a stack to its Unstable Ooze. When that stack reaches 5 (after the 6th ooze has spawned), the Big Ooze will freeze in place and cast Unstable Ooze Explosion. As soon as that happens, everybody should scatter to avoid the flying ooze missiles. Don’t forget to avoid the ooze floods, and make sure to stack back in the middle as soon as you can.

Professor Putricide is the Scourge genius behind the development of all forms of blight, plague, ooze, scourge, and death delivery. He is the final boss in the Plagueworks section of Icecrown Citadel, the first Icecrown wing to be unlocked. In order to reach his laboratory, players must first defeat Festergut and Rotface.

Note: This is purely my speculation on how the fight will go, since there is very little information available.

Every so often Putricide will use Unstable Experiment, assigning either Ooze Variable or Gas Variable to everyone (?) in the raid. The debuffs work very much like the polarities during Thaddius. Ooze people can only DPS Volatile Oozes (and possibly Putricide?), and Gas people can only attack Gas Clouds (and Putricide?). Volatile Oozes and Gas Clouds are adds that will probably spawn over time or will appear as byproducts of some of Putricide’s spells (Create Concoction?).

Volatile Oozes will target a random raid member, root them in place and chase them. The Ooze either needs to die before it gets to the player, or several players need to get next to the target and split the damage from the incoming Ooze Eruption. The Eruption will knock everybody in range back, and the whole process will likely begin anew.

Gas Clouds will also chase a random target and do damage based on how “bloated” the target is. Bloating might be a buff people with Gas Variable get every time they attack, or a debuff that starts at a certain number when somebody gets Gas Variable, and then gradually falls off… But those are 100% guesses. At any rate, kite the Gas Clouds if you are targeted and try not to get very bloated.

Putricide himself will do a number of annoying things. He will create growing Slime Puddles under random players. People will need to drink a potion from one of the tables in the room, be transformed into an abomination, and eat those pools. Mutated players can reduce Putricide’s armor through Mutated Slash, and can possibly slow targets (Volatile Oozes, maybe Gas Clouds too?) with Regurgitated Ooze. I don’t know if players transformed into abominations will be able to go play to “player mode”, so it’s probably a good idea to assign 1-2 people to do that.

Choking Gas Bombs are the other thing Putricide will do. The tank will probably have to kite the boss away from the places taken by the bombs, as they seem to be doing quite a bit of damage. If it’s a channeled spell, everybody should run out.

Create Concoction is a mystery to me, but it’s probably something tied to his abilities, as it has only 15 seconds cooldown. Nothing deadly, I hope. Guzzle Potions is also a mystery. When Putricide uses that, he will gain 50% damage and attack speed (like a soft enrage), but his attacks will cause him to take damage over time (and possibly increase his damage buff even more?). There are also some slime pipes involved in the fight, I believe. It looks like they will periodically “flood” parts of the room, and somebody will have to stop them by clicking the appropriate object (next to the door, I believe).