Good news, everyone! I’ve decided to take a minute here and talk about how my guild does Heroic Professor Putricide on 25-man. Seems that there are a lot of people out there struggling with the fight and not a lot of information out there, so I thought I’d drop in my two cents.
Please bear in mind that I really don’t know a lot of the details as to how the DPS works on this fight, but I do know how healing works pretty darn well.
Our raid composition is rarely exactly the same, but our tanks almost always are. We have a warrior tank who is the MT. We have another warrior tank who is in the abomination. We have a bear tank who plays kitty for us until Phase 3.
For raid buffs, we find it essential to drop Nature Resistance Totem and have Prayer of Shadow Protection up, in addition to the regular raid buffs. In lieu of NR Totem, Aspect of the Wild may be used, but this is a serious DPS/healing check, so you don’t really want to gimp your DPS by forcing a hunter out of Aspect of the Dragonhawk.
For paladin auras, we prefer Improved Devotion Aura, if only for the extra armor (and the bonus healing if there’s no tree in the raid), Concentration Aura to help reduce or eliminate spell pushback and either Retribution Aura or Shadow Resistance Aura, though it doesn’t stack with Prayer of Shadow Protection. (A holy paladin can use Aura Mastery + Shadow Resistance Aura to boost everyone’s Shadow Resistance for a short time.)
Phase 1:
Healing: We typically run with six healers. Two holy paladins, one disc priest, one resto shaman and the remaining are a mix of either 2 resto druids or 1 resto/1 holy priest or even 1 resto shammy/1 holy priest. It really depends on who’s around, but we do our best to have at least two holy paladins, the disc and a shammy.
Paladins: Beacon MT, heal raid, focusing on Unbound Plague and Gaseous Bloat targets, helping out on Volatile Ooze Adhesive targets if possible.
1 Resto Shammy: Raid healing + Volatile Ooze Adhesive targets.
Disc Priest: Raid healing by virtue of shielding folks and tossing out Renews, Prayers of Mending and the odd Prayer of Healing. Spot heals with Penance and Flash Heal as well.
Other healers: Focused really on the raid and these are the people who will do the most moving. They’re the ones who stand on the Volatile Ooze Adhesive person, but the pallies and shammy generally won’t, since the melee and 3-4 healers is enough to absorb the damage.
We also find that a minimum of one resto druid with Revitalize is excellent for regenerating the abomination’s energy. If possible, two resto druids with this talent really helps out because it means the slime puddles really don’t have to stay up for long at all in order to regen the abom’s energy. In the comments, ambient reminds us all that Rapture works like Revitalize does. The important thing is having two of these effects on the abomination as often as possible. :) More energy = more slows on adds. Thanks for the reminder, ambient!
DPSing: Uh… moar pew pew? ;) No, seriously, the DPS really just focus on the boss, always prioritizing the adds when they come out. We WILL try to stop DPS at 84% if we’re due for another add. We have discovered, the hard way, that even one extra add up during any transition phase is a bad, bad thing.
Tanking/positioning: The tank is usually moving Putricide around, away from Unbound Plague targets, towards Volatile Ooze Adhesive targets. It’s a very mobile encounter and while we used to stand on various sides based on which add was coming out back on normal mode, we don’t tend to do this any longer and definitely not on heroic mode.
Once the adds are down and we’re not due another one for a bit, we will push Putricide to 80% and start the first transition phase.
Transition Phase 1:
Healing: We maintain the same assignments as during phase 1, with the paladins healing the Gaseous Bloats and a resto shammy on the Volatile Ooze Adhesives. Unbound Plague should fall off someone just as the transition is beginning, so we don’t have to worry about that again until Phase 2.
DPSing: What can be said but kill the add that you can attack? Something that helps us immeasurably, though, is a good Gaseous Bloat kiter. They’ll run the ooze away from the raid, initially, and then come running back towards the group, so that the DPS can get a good start on the Ooze and then can ruin the Gas. Go go focused fire!
Phase 2:
I hate Malleable Goo. :P
Healing: Nothing’s changed, everyone’s still doing what they’ve been doing up ’till now.
Tanking: Same thing, MT is on Putricide, OT is in the abomination and the other OT is playing kitty.
DPSing: Again, the same.
In reality, Phase 2 is so similar to Phase 1 that it’s hard to believe that the addition of Malleable Goo is such a problem. But it IS a problem. I believe that Putricide launches THREE Goos (I’m usually too busy to count!) and the only way to really avoid them is to watch for them. DXE, AVR, DBM, BigWigs, none of them will show you all the targets. Trust me, I’ve tried.
So what I do is move my big central warning text from the middle of my screen off to the side and watch my Malleable Goo timer as best I can. When the warning noise (from DXE, I believe) goes off, I stop whatever I’m doing and look up at Putricide and run like the dickens.
This does not mean that I don’t get hit, now and then, because I do. :P But it’s a lot less often now that I’ve trained myself to watch for it. Plus I still have DBM yelling at me if it’s targetting me specifically.
So, same as the end of Phase 1, we hold off DPS at around 38% or so until we’ve killed all the adds and then we push Putricide into transition.
Transition Phase 2:
Same as the first transition phase, with two exceptions:
1) We hit heroism.
2) We also try to pull out summonable pets for the Volatile Ooze Adhesive explosion, to help absorb the damage. We’re talking Army of the Dead, Ghost Wolves, Shadowfiends, hunter pets, warlock pets and shammy elementals. These pets are really key to absorbing damage and helping to finish off the transition adds so we can get on to Putricide ASAP in P3. Adds MUST go down before DPS switches to Putricide.
This is one reason why going into a transition with any kind of extra add up is recipe for disaster. It prevents you from getting back to the boss in a timely fashion.
Phase 3:
Okay, time to switch things up!
Tanking: OT pops out of the abom. OT pops out of kitty into bear form. MT tanks until he has two stacks of Mutated Plague, then Bear Tank taunts and holds the boss for two stacks. Then other OT taunts and holds the boss for two stacks.
Subsequent taunts are quick, just for one stack each, so it goes like this:
Tank 1: 2 stacks
Tank 2: 2 stacks
Tank 3: 2 stacks
Tank 1: 1 additional stack, for 3 stacks
Tank 2: 1 additional stack, for 3 stacks
Tank 3: 1 additional stack, for 3 stacks
Tank 1: 1 additional stack, for 4 stacks
Tank 2: 1 additional stack, for 4 stacks
Tank 3: 1 additional stack, for 4 stacks
If Putricide isn’t dead by now, chances are, the entire raid is.
The important thing for the tanks to do, apart from knowing when to taunt, is to NOT change direction abruptly. Keep moving him slowly, keeping him out of slime puddles and away from the orange vials and such, but you really don’t want to be going one way and then have another tank taunt and go back the way you just came.
Healing: Healers, I hope you’re ready for some insane freaking damage here. It’s just STUPID.
Paladins: Don’t worry about beacon yet. It should still be on your MT, but I encourage you to keep spamming Holy Light directly on your first tank. You MUST be aware of the tank rotation! As soon as you see that the first tank has two stacks (or whatever you stack to), you need to switch targets immediately. With any luck, your beacon is still up on the MT (although I wouldn’t waste the mana to refresh it) and you can pre-emptively heal the second tank a bit.
After everyone has two stacks is an ideal time to do three things:
1) Find a better place to stand. You want to stand somewhere far enough away from the tanks that you won’t have to move again for the encounter, barring environmental crap, but close enough that they’re still in range. You want to be near the area where they will be kiting the boss towards. But don’t just run over immediately when people have two stacks…
2) This is a great time for one paladin to hit Divine Shield/Divine Sacrifice. The 20% damage reduction for six seconds is enough of a buffer, usually, for you to run to a new place to be before you resume casting and the Divine Shield aspect allows you to run through slime if you need to in order to get to your new location. Any other paladins should chain DS/DS at this point, so when one finishes, the next begins.
3) As soon as you’ve done your DS/DS and moved to a better location, beacon YOURSELF and heal the active tank. This is pretty much the only way you’re going to be able to stay alive on the encounter because you’re taking 18k+ damage every time Mutated Plague ticks on the three tanks when it’s getting to 3 stacks. It’s actually really easy to keep up one tank (and yourself, via beacon) just by spamming the crap out of Holy Light and using all your cooldowns available to you — wings, Divine Illumination, Lay on Hands, anything you’ve got.
Priests: Derevka suggests chaining Divine Hymns at the end of P3, so probably at about the time the first stack of 3 appears and the raid damage gets significantly harder. Chaining them will allow subsequent Divine Hymns to benefit from the buff of the initial heal, with disc priests going first, then holy priests for maximum output. Thanks for the tip! :)
Raid healers: You are probably going to die unless your DPS is seriously on top of things. I honestly recommend priests use the occasional Binding Heal. Don’t worry about the paladins because they’ve beaconed themselves. Don’t worry about the tanks. Worry about yourselves and the DPS.
DPSing: Apart from killing the boss, your biggest responsibility is containing the Unbound Plague. I really haven’t spoken a lot about the plague, because it’s easy enough to hand off/avoid in the first two phases with just a little practice, but since everyone is basically bunched up for Phase 3, this is where it’s YOUR responsibility to get it the hell out of the raid. You do not want this ticking on your tanks or healers and you especially do not want anyone to have the plague ticking on them after they’ve already had the plague. Plague Sickness is bad, okay? The loss of your DPS (if you’re melee) or the slowdown of your DPS (if you’re ranged and have to move) is really minor compared to the havoc that the Unbound Plague can cause in melee range. So if you get it, RUN IT OUT. If you die with it, it’s not the end of the world, because at least you won’t spread the plague. But try to hand it off after about 10 seconds.
And that is, more or less, how my guild does Professor Putricide on 25-man heroic mode.
Comments or questions are welcome. :)
I’m amazed (and curious) at how you pull off the plague passing without using vent. Just in our 10m we are calling for different handoffs, shuffling the order based on ooze targets, etc. It’s hard to picture the chaos in a 25m.
Good write up… a note for priests; if you have more than 1 time your DHymns for the end of the phase. Putting out that much AOE Hymn healing can often provide your raid those 5 extra seconds to squeeze out that 1%. Chain them as the +healing buff from the previous priest will stack/buff the next priests Hymn. (Disc into Holy for maximum tastiness)
Ad – We basically all assume responsibility for the plague. If you see someone with it, keep an eye on them and snag it from them if they seem oblivious. The bonus of a 25m vs 10m is that there are a lot more targets in a 25m so despite the chaotic nature of it, we don’t usually have to worry about too many people getting the plague and the associated debuff.
Derevka – Thanks for the tip! Looking at our last kill (one-shot) it shows that only one of our two priests used Divine Hymn on the encounter, and both were alive at the end. That’ll be something to tweak. :)
Ewwwww. You put Disc and Renew together. :D
That’s actually a spell I’ve taken off my bars. I’m pretty sure that renew gains the least benefit from Disc, and, I really dislike the spell in general. I don’t think I ever have, haha.
Anyway, I’m gonna refer my RL to this strat and force my healing ‘lead’ to do what it says.
For the plague, what we’ve done in 10 (since the 25 raid doesn’t seem to care about heroics too much) is made a macro much like the Vashj core one. Even if you do have vent, I like to use the macro as well, since mine whispers the person if they can’t hear me. I can be pretty quiet ><
I'm not looking forward to this with our raiders, but we did a good job this week, so maybe it won't be so bad. /knock furiously on wood
Kal – I know it’s not something you usually use as a disc priest, but the priests in my guild WILL use it on Putricide if only if POM is on CD and they’re in motion. Every bit of healing counts versus Mutated Plague on heroic. I honestly haven’t seen damage that bad since we first looked at BQL. I’m trying to think of a Resurgence equivalent. Maybe back when we first tried XT and we died constantly to the quakes? Or, no, better yet, like Freya +1. Just insane damage in P3. I was not prepared. >< So what do you do re: plague whispers? You have the plague and then find your target to hand it off to and whisper them as you go in and hit them? Or what? As an aside, man, I loved that stupid macro from Vashj. :D Heroic Putricide should be your 10th hard mode, Sindragosa your 11th and LK obviously the 12th. If you're not 9/12 HM, go kill other stuff until you are. I recommend trying it a few times on heroic before killing it normally if you're still doing other HMs just so people get an idea of how the plague works. And do it without AVRE because that's gonna be broken in a couple of weeks. Apart from anything else, you'll need the gear you get from the other encounters to help you get Putricide down. The one you should REALLY look forward to is Deathwhisper. ;) But Council is easy, just split people up in the room so movement is minimal. :)
My macro says something along the lines of “Don’t move! Plague coming to you!” I’ve only had to do it on 10man so people have come to me to pick it up too.
Ugh. XT. Kaylora loved it. Haha.
We’ve never used AVRE, our RL sees it as cheating. That’s likely because we’re not too far into hardmodes. I think we’re 6/12. Merk is 33 shards into Shadowmourne so I doubt we’ll be doing more hardmodes later on, the officers are tired.
In addition to having Revitalize-enabled druids, you can also have the disc priest toss bubbles on the abom — Rapture has a energize effect for both the recipient and the priest. I agree that having two people able to provide energy boosts to the abom makes a big difference.
Kal – Interesting, re: macro! That sounds like it works well. And GOOD OL’ XT and Kay’s spamming CH and nothing but CH! AVRE is definitely cheating, but we’ve been using it. I’m not looking forward to the failure we experience when it’s busted when the patch comes out (possibly this week? Next week?). Awwww, grats to Merk for me. :)
ambient – Oh, excellent reminder, thank you! Rapture FTW.