Toward the end of your romp through World of Warcraft‘s new Maldraxxus zone, a region of the Shadowlands caught in its own civil war, you’ll make your move on the desecrated land of Plaguefall. The former House of Plagues is home to the now utterly nuts Margrave Stradama, who needs putting down.
It’s a dungeon filled to the brim with poison clouds and goop-covered floors, making movement a big part of the trick to surviving its tunnels. It’s a tough one to heal, but everyone playing their part can make it far easier than it sometimes looks. Here’s the complete guide of Plaguefall boss strats.
How to unlock
Much like the first dungeon of the expansion — The Necrotic Wake — Plaguefall is unlocked simply by hitting a certain level. In this case, 54. On top of that, you’ll need to have an average item level of 100 to enter, after which you’ll be free to queue as and when you please.
If you’re using something like War Mode to level up quickly, you’ll be able to enter the dungeon far before the story takes you there. Wait until later in the Maldraxxus storyline, though, and you’ll get a quest or two to complete while you’re at it, netting you a good chunk more EXP than you’d otherwise get.
Globgrog
After dealing with a few big shrooms and the fungalmancer, you’ll reach a break where Globgrog, an amalgamation of the goop pouring out of the land, is guarding the treasure within. Constant kiting is a good way to deal with his major mechanic, but versatile DPS not too busy glaring at their damage meter and deal with them just as easily.
Globgrog will periodically summon Slimy Morsels far away from him. He’ll consume any close enough to heal for a massive 300% of their current HP. Do what you can to defeat the slimes. Even a half-health one is better than a full-health blob.
If you’re quick enough, Globgrog can be kited long enough to beat into oblivion. Miscalculate your damage output, though, and too many slime summons will threaten to undo all of your hard work.
He uses Slime Wave, a frontal cone attack that roots anyone caught within, making kiting not only difficult but easily capable of catching some players out of position. Healers will want to watch for the spike damage of Slime Wave while also dealing with the unavoidable party-wide damage of Plaguestomp.
Doctor Ickus
Here’s one that can get a little annoying. Surrounded by pools of deadly poison, Doctor Ickus can spend much of this fight bouncing around the place, making it pure hell for melee DPS looking to pad their numbers. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed by damage over time effects and large party-wide hits from exploding blobs. Thankfully, almost every mechanic can be negated one way or another.
Healers will want to cleanse party members infected with Slime Injection as quickly as possible, which deals damage every second and creates an additional slime for each stack applied. These slimes can (and should) be stepped on by anyone to remove from the field before they’re able to erupt for AoE damage.
At 66% and 33% health, Doctor Ickus takes off to a random nearby island, dropping a Plague Bomb that’s timed to blow. DPS should focus on taking the bombs down before they’re able to blast the party with heavy damage, which can quickly overwhelm the team.
As for the tank, focus on kiting Doctor Ickus away from Pestilence Slimes. They give him a potent 25% Haste buff when nearby. DPS can burst these down and, healer permitting, soak the damage from the field they leave behind to benefit from the 25% Haste buff themselves. Use that speed boost to deal with everything on the table.
Domina Venomblade
We’ll nickname this one “Blackwidow.” It’s a spider assassin, after all. Watch her energy meter: Once it’s full, she’ll summon other dagger-wielding cronies to do additional backstabbing for her that cloak, slowing nearby party members and eventually pouncing to use Assassinate for moderate damage. One of the easier ways to deal with them is to get the team packed close to the tank so that the resulting group of Brood Assassins can be quickly burned down with area attacks.
The only major thing to watch out for is the marker from Shadow Ambush. Whoever gets the marker should get away from other players to avoid any unnecessary team damage. Aside from this, healers just need to be aware that Domina Venomblade attacks swiftly, meaning damage to the tank is relatively heavy throughout the fight. Anyone hit by her will take additional damage from Assassinate and Venomblades, too, so the tank keeping her attention really is the key to keeping the team from getting overwhelmed.
Margrave Stradama
After that ordeal, you’re only a leap of faith and a mob pack away from your final fight. It’s pretty straightforward one once you know what you’re doing. The main threat throughout this is the Malignant Spawn that Margrave Stradama summons to her side. Pay attention, and you’ll notice its impending “Touch of Slime” attack has an impact zone. If nobody is inside when its fist comes flying down, the whole team takes a much larger hit instead.
The tank should rush over to soak this flying fist, although just about anyone can take the softer single blow in a pinch. The healer will be dealing with party-wide tick damage from Infectious Rain, so defeat the monster whenever it appears to prevent the slams from becoming too much to deal with.
Like one of the previous bosses, Margrave Stradama will introduce another attack at that all-important 66% and 33% HP threshold. The tentacles she summons here will eventually crash down, dealing damage to anything in front. And there’s no shortage of them, either. Pay attention to the direction they’re facing and slide yourself over to a safe spot to avoid a tough beatdown.
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