Beating Festergut's enrage

Tags: boss strategies, festergut, heal tips, icecrown citadel, ranged tips, tank tips
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This strategy is out of date and some of the information may be incorrect. It was written for the 3.3.0 patch (released 08 Dec 2009). The current patch is 3.3.2.
Boss: Festergut
Zone: Icecrown Citadel
Modes: 25N
Type: Normal boss kill
Quil
<The>
2 guides
Created: 12 Jan 2010
Updated: 9 weeks ago

Target Audience

This strat is intended to aid those who are seeing the Festergut enrage go off with most of their 25 still alive. For many, getting this kill before its inevitable nerf, or without overgearing, will come down to a matter of seconds - or even one second!

Overview

If you've gotten the kill, please feel free to post any damage-boosting tips (whether they be general, or class specific) in the comments section, and I'll add it to the bottom of the story and credit you for doing so.

Raid Composition

Tanks:2
Healers:5-6
Melee:any
Ranged:8

Switching out a ranged dps'er for a healer from the central clump (which will be explained) should be done only if you feel very confident in your ability to survive with a healer eating 4 seconds of Vile Gas stuns.

Strategy

The single most important concept to be aware of if you're seeing Festergut's enrage go off is the number of players that must stand at range to prevent Vile Gas from being tossed into your melee group. (Just as many of you did against General Vezax or The Deathbringer.)

Here's a refresher of Vile Gas, from Deathkrik's post on this site:
Inflicts a Vile plague in targeted area, inflicting 4k damage every 2 sec for 6 sec. The plague causes the infected targets to vomit uncontrollably inflicting 4k damage to nearby allies.
(Note that he'll do this to 3 targets, and that each of them are stunned for 4 seconds -- so put a healer in this position at your own peril.)

We got the kill with exactly 8 people standing at range, and had no problems with Vile Gas, and therefore believe that 8 is the number of people you must have do this.

The reason it is important to have only the minimum 8 stand at range, is to reduce the number of players that have to move. When ranged players do have to move to get their Innoculation, that movement must be kept to an absolute minimum for the purpose of maximizing their DPS.

Mages can cheat this ahead of the first Pungent Blight by Ice Blocking through it. (I'm not yet sure if this works for a Shadowpriest's Dispersion ability.) So, Mages are great for standing outside because they can limit their need to move greatly. Hunters obviously have no choice but to stand at ranged, as well.

The image below depicts exactly where we have everyone. 'T' is for whomever is tanking Festergut, 'R' is for your 8 designated ranged dps'ers, and 'Co' indicates a collapse point for where each of your 3 players who get the spore need to go. Have someone in your guild who is good at directing traffic call out which spore carrier is going to the left collapse point, which is going right, and who is staying put in the central clump - labeled 'Everyone else'. Of course, don't forget to have the center spore carrier stand close enough to inoculate the Festergut tank.

The 4 ranged dps'ers on each side must run to the corresponding collapse point on their side, and back to their native position asap. Performing this action as smoothly and quickly as possible may make or break your ability to beat the enrage timer. We also found it helpful to use flares or Warlock portals to label where these collapse points are, to make it easier for spore carriers to know where they have to go (thereby eliminating more excess movement).

Be sure all 8 ranged people are spread out to be near their appropriate position ahead of the pull. Bloodlusting (or popping Hero) is best immediately after everyone has gotten back in place after a spore.

You should also bring plenty of Potions of Wild Magic, Potions of Speed and Indestructible Potions for your 2 tanks. Each tank should pop an Indestructible right after Festergut hits 3 inhales. Hopefully it's a different tank the second time Fester goes to 3 inhales. Dps'ers can pop their potions right before the pull, and then a second time in the encounter.

General Tips

This is one of those fights where you just might have to tell someone pulling low dps on the meters to sit this one out. If you see this coming, inform your raid ahead of the pull that you might find yourself having to do this and that no one should take being sat personally. But before you sit someone, be sure you're seeing them eliminate all their excess movement as best as possible before you make that call.

Tank Tips

Feel free to taunt off at 8-9 stacks of bloat to maximize your contribution to overall dps. Drop your threat-inducing ability (i.e. Righteous Fury, Defensive Stance, etc.) when it's not your turn and go all out on Fester.

Heal Tips

Be sure to have some form of Nature Resistance and Shadow Resistance in place. Should you go to 5 healers, stacking your DPS ranks with Shadowpriests is a great way to go. We had 2 SP's on our first kill and they were each pulling 1.5k hps. That is no insignificant number, and furthermore, the constant ticking nature of VE heals corresponds very well to the constant ticking nature of the 'no ordinary gas cloud' surrounding your raid.

It also appears, at least for the moment, that a Bubble-Divine Sac will greatly reduce damage from Pungent Blight. I don't know if Blizz has a bug to fix there, but regardless of whether this is the case, having a Holy Paladin drop Bubble-Divine Sac is a great idea for when blights come down.

Ranged Tips

Have your non-tanking druids set up a Battle-res rotation. If you lose someone, anyone, they should be res'd instantly and without hesitation.

Common Problems

The obvious problem is hitting the enrage. I believe many people will see the enrage go off before they beat it. If you have spare survival cooldowns ready at the point of enrage, you should be able to get an extra 2-3 seconds before you wipe. We had someone log our first kill, and we JUST got it at 302.1 seconds, with 133+k dps.

Gwaeni   <Scarlet Dawn> Twisting Nether (US) 01 Feb 2010 06:06 3.3.0
 

I'm pretty sure its 7, based on what happened last night, 8 is safer though

Quil   <The> Echo Isles (US) 12 Jan 2010 19:41 3.3.0
Article author

I'm working on getting my positional diagram up. It'd be my first one I've posted here, so bear with me.

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