Rotface is the 2nd boss of the newly opened Plagueworks wing of Icecrown Citadel.  Some people claim he’s easier than Festergut, and in some ways he is.  Rotface requires much more coordination than Festergut, which is more of a gear check, so either fight can be more difficult depending on your group.  Rotface does require a great deal of coordination.  Every member of your raid has to know what to do and when to do it as even minor mistakes by anyone can mean a wipe for your group (with the exception of the main tank, who gets to sit still and look pretty the entire fight).  This fight will test how well your raiders can create a strategy and more importantly, execute on that strategy through some ever increasingly difficult mechanics.  The fight is pretty easy until about 70% health when the damage starts ramping up, can get a little hectic from 30% - 60% and gets absolutely insane at about 30% health, so make sure to save heroism and cooldowns until then.

Gear Requirement

Rotface does not require as high a level of gear as Festergut.  His enrage timer isn’t as unforgiving and the damage going out should be less if everyone is performing correctly.  However, since perfect execution is difficult, you can still expect a great deal of healing to be required for this fight, especially during the last 30%.  Better gear gives you a little more lee-way in the execution.

Group Make-up

My group actually downed Rotface while using only one tank and a hunter to kite the slimes.  This worked well for us because the hunter could create solid aggro on the slime from a long distance away.  However, using a second tank (like a death knight) is also recommended if he can hold aggro while kiting because he should be able to live through at least one hit of the big slime if he gets too close, unlike the hunter.  Using three healers should still give you enough dps and will make it easier while one of the healers is occupied running away with a slime in tow.  If you can have some sort of Nature Resistance up, it will help.

The Pull

The name is appropriate

The pull on Rotface is very simple and uneventful.  There isn’t a ton of tank damage in this fight and there’s little risk of the tank dying as long as you have Beacon on him the entire fight.  The first few seconds of the fight are by far the simplest as only the tank is taking minimal damage.  The fight gets more and more difficult as it progresses.  The boss should be tanked in the center of the room.

Slime Spray

The first mechanic of the fight you need to worry about is Slime Spray.  Slime Spray is very easy to avoid, but it does add a twist to the fight, especially at the end as things start getting crazy and there’s a lot to watch out for.  When Slime Spray happens, Rotface will turn and look at someone in the raid, do a 1 second cast (or so) and then channel a 3 second spray in front of him that will tick damage once every second.  As long as you make sure Rotface is never looking straight at you, you’ll have no problem avoiding Slime Spray.  When you see him turn and look at you, move out of the way.  You don’t have to move a lot to get out of the spray, and if you’re a little slow you’ll only take one tick of damage, which is definitely healable.  Even if you stand in the spray for the full duration, you shouldn’t die, although it can kill you if you’re also taking damage from something else.  Do everything you can to avoid the spray because your healers will need every GCD they have as the fight progresses.  If you think you’re in the spray a bit, hit yourself with a Holy Shock as you move out of the way.  When you hear the warning, be ready to heal up any stragglers quickly who are slow to move out of the way.

A good positioning strategy for this is to split the raid into two groups and have one group stand behind each leg.  That way half the raid can continue dps during each spray and he’s not spraying all over the room randomly.  All ranged and healers should also be in these groups and ready to move out of the sprays.

Ooze Flood

Ooze Flood is another mechanic of the fight that adds another twist to watch out for but isn’t terribly dangerous if you pay attention.  At regular intervals, one fourth of the room will be covered with huge, goopy green ooze.  The ooze does moderate damage when you walk through it.  The only person who should ever be in the ooze is the person kiting the slimes.  However, its very possible that others could get stuck in it if the ooze appears on top of them unexpectedly.  If that happens, they need to run out as soon as possible.  You can die fairly quickly if you just stop and stand in the ooze, especially since you’ll probably also be taking damage from something else at the same time.  People standing in the ooze will probably also have Mutating Infection on them or a nearby slime, so make sure to focus your heals on them and bomb them to keep them up until they can get out of the slime.

Mutated Infection

Mutated Infection is the big killer in this encounter.  This is what requires each person to pay close attention and to execute their job correctly.  Mutated Infection will be cast every 10 seconds or so on a random member of the raid.  It can be cast on anyone except the main tank.  The person who gets mutated infection will take moderately high damage every second until the debuff is disspelled.  They can pretty easily die from this damage alone, so you’ll need to focus your heals on them as soon as they get the debuff (you do have Beacon on the tank, right?). 

The person with the debuff needs to run out of the group and get the debuff dispelled as soon as possible so that he stops taking damage.  When the spell is disspelled, a small slime will spawn at their position.  This slime will immediately start doing a small amount of AoE damage in a 10 yard radius around him.  The AoE damage it does is quite small to a single person but can get hectic when hitting the entire group, especially if there are multiple slimes.  The slimes do a small amount of melee damage as well, but the total damage is much less than what the person had with Mutating Infection.  If you’re kiting the slime, you won’t take any damage at all.  You’ll want to be cleansed as fast as possible (once you leave the group) so that the damage is more manageable, and then you can kite the slime to where it needs to go.

So, when the first person gets Mutated Infection, he needs to run away from the group into a safe area on the outside ring, safely away from the raid.  Then, a designated cleanser removes the debuff to spawn the small slime.  At this point, the slime will start chasing the person it spawned from, who can kite it in order to avoid the AoE and melee damage.  I usually didn’t bother kiting the slime too much since I could better use my time healing instead of worrying about the mediocre damage.  However, you do want to merge two slimes quickly, so try to move toward another person with a slime if you can instead of just standing still.

When the second person gets Mutated Infection, he also needs to run away from the group into a safe area away from the raid.  Ideally, he will run towards the first person, carrying his slime with him.  When the two slimes meet up, they will merge into a big slime.  The big slimes are much more dangerous than the small slimes.  They will one-shot any non-tank if they get a melee hit off.  They also have a surprisingly large hit box, so they can one-shot you even if you seem far enough away.  Their AoE damage aura is also much stronger and will quickly wipe the raid if they move into the center.  The big slime also has a regular aggro table, unlike the small slime which will only chase the person who spawned it.  At this point, your designated kiter needs to taunt the big slime and begin kiting it around the room, careful not to let the big slime get too close to anyone in the raid (including himself).

Big Slime

Once the big slime is created, the original two slime carriers can return to the raid in the center.  New people with Mutation Infection need to carry their small slimes to the big slime and let their small slime merge with it.  Be sure to heal the people with Mutating Infection here.  The damage is starting to ramp up now.  The person with Mutating Injection may be taking damage from the injection, from the big slime’s AoE aura and possibly from walking on some ooze they come in contact with, so make sure to spam your heals on each person as they get the injection.  The off-tank may also be taking some damage from the same sources, so watch his health as well.  Keeping the off-tank up is a priority.  If he dies, your raid will likely wipe.  If the off-tank gets Mutating Injection, spam your heals on him like crazy because he may go down fast, especially since he’ll need to get closer to the big slime in order to merge his slime with it.  If your kiter is not a tank, he needs to make sure he does not get melee hit by the big slime or he will be one-shot and your raid will wipe unless you can get a new kiter quickly.

The key to this fight is keeping the big slimes (and the small ones too) away from the raid at all times.  If a big slime gets too close to the raid, its AoE damage will quickly wipe your raid.  It is definitely preferable for the slime kiter to run through some ooze if he has to, rather than trying to go around the ooze and bringing the slime closer to the center of the raid.  Hand of Freedom will remove the speed debuff he gets in the ooze, so send that over to him if you have time.

Things that can go wrong (especially if you get the Infection)

Its very possible to have two big slimes spawned at the same time.  This can happen if two small oozes merge together instead of merging with the big slime.  Things can get really crazy if this happens.  You’ll need to quickly merge the two big slimes together.  They’ll be doing a lot of AoE damage and will one-shot kill anyone in melee range.  More than likely, getting two big slimes will mean a wipe.  Make sure that people are quickly bringing their small slimes to the big slime so that you don’t end up with more than one big slime.

Don’t be afraid to bubble if you ever get in a dangerous position (like in the middle of ooze surrounded by two big slimes).  If you have a small slime following you, they will still follow through the bubble.  Make sure you’re not near anyone else.  Even though you’re not taking damage while in the bubble, the people around you are still taking damage from your slime.

Its very possible when a big slime merges that it will one-shot you as soon as it merges, likely causing a wipe.  This can happen even if you think you’re safely healing away near the center.  Your healing can aggro the big slime right away before the kiter can taunt and if its too close, it can slide over and whack you from quite aways away.  I suggest you try to stay on the opposite side of the boss from the big slimes unless you know that they’re far enough away and the kiter has good aggro.

After you’ve gotten hit with Mutating Infection and gotten rid of your small slime, try to get back to the group as quickly as possible.  However, don’t let people die while doing this.  Stopping on the outside and throwing some key heals might save your raid from a wipe.  Damage can get intense when a healer gets Mutating Infection, especially when that person is the main tank healer (you).  Try to throw as many Holy Shocks and other short heals as you can while you run to help your other healers out.  Most of all, don’t let yourself die.  Healing yourself is more important than merging the slimes immediately.  One death can mean a wipe here, especially if that death is you.  There’s also not really any reason for you to go immediately back to the center.  You won’t take any damage on the outside unless an ooze flood starts spraying on you or you’re near a slime, so just make sure to keep people alive and make your way back to the center as soon as you safely can.

Unstable Ooze Explosion

If you thought that was all you had to worry about, you’re wrong.  Once a big slime has absorbed five small slimes, it will explode, sending small slimes flying high into the air where they will eventually come down and explode causing damage over time in that area for a few seconds.  The exploding slimes will land at every spot a person was in the raid when the big slime exploded.  The best thing to do when this happens is to run as far away from the center as you can, to somewhere where no one was standing.   The exploding slimes can take quite awhile to get to you after the slime explodes, so keep an eye out and don’t move back into position until its really safe.  Make sure you’re not standing in a spot where someone else was standing.  If you do get caught in a slime spot, keep moving and hopefully the damage will only tick once.  One tick won’t kill you, but three probably will.  You can also see the slimes flying toward you pretty easily if you have your camera zoomed out.

Once the big slime explodes, its rinse and repeat after that.  You start over the process the same way, with the first person kiting his small slime until a new big slime is created.  Continue this until about 30% health when things start getting really crazy. You’ll probably end up with 3 to 4 big slime explosions total during the fight.

30% Soft Enrage

At about 30%, Rotface will start casting Mutating Infection much more quickly, about every 5 seconds or so.  Things will start getting really crazy here.  If the infection isn’t cleansed quickly, its very possible for two people to have it up at the same time, each taking a ton of damage.  If that happens, they’ll both need to be cleansed, causing two small slimes running around and the possibility of a second big slime.  You need to be very careful once Rotface reaches about 35% health.  Cleanse the Mutating Injection quickly, bring the small slimes to the big slimes quickly, make sure the slimes stay away from the raid, and heal like mad.  You’ve still got to deal with Slime Spray, Exploding Slimes, and Ooze flood as well.  This is by far the toughest part of the fight, but if you can get through it, you win.  Save heroism and cooldowns for about 30% and burn him down as quickly as possible.

Summary

• Keep the slimes away from the center
• Dodge Slime Spray
• Cleanse and merge slimes quickly
• Heal like mad

Good luck!

Loot to look for

• Lockjaw
• Choker of Filthy Diamonds
• Shuffling Shoes