As we prepare for the public testing phase of minor content patch 3.3.3, some players might come across information regarding upcoming content that isn’t yet available. To avoid any confusion, we’d like to tell you about an exciting new raid dungeon we are working on for content patch 3.3.5.

The Ruby Sanctum

A powerful war party of the Black Dragonflight, led by the fearsome Twilight dragon, Halion, have launched an assault upon the Ruby Sanctum beneath Wyrmrest Temple. By destroying the sanctum, the Black Dragonflight look to crush those that would stand in the way of their master’s reemergence into Azeroth and to ultimately shatter the Wyrmrest Accord – the sacred bond that unites the dragonflights.

The battle that is to come will surely deal a crippling blow to the Red Dragonflight, however, it is up to you to stop this unprecedented offensive and defend the Ruby Sanctum. First you must face the assault of Halion’s servants, Saviana Ragefire, Baltharus the Warborn, and General Zarithrian, before squaring off against Halion the Twilight Destroyer, a new and deadly force in this realm.

The Ruby Sanctum will feature 10- and 25-player content, Heroic difficulties and all-new rewards! Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to its release.

The Plagueworks is an area inside the west side of Icecrown Citadel it is an area connected to the rest of the instance by the Spire surrounding the Frozen Throne in the middle level of the zone.

The Plagueworks is a laboratory for creation of potions, vials and containers of the Plague of Undeath and blight slimes. It is also the factory where several Abominations and horrific scourge creations are made. Professor Putricide is the leader of the Plagueworks.

A central theme of the Plagueworks seems to be the green liquid plague seen in Warcraft III and classic World of Warcraft, alongside the orange Blight Crystal plague seen throughout Northrend (mainly in Zul’Drak).

The Plagueworks opened on January 5, 2010, 28 days after the opening of Icecrown Citadel.

Professor Putricide is a boss in the Plagueworks wing of the Icecrown Citadel raid.
This boss is available since January 5, 2010 on US servers and January 6 on EU servers.

10-man Strategy

You will want an offtank to click the table Putricide stands at before he is pulled to become the Abomination for the fight. Then at 35%, the offtank helps tank Putricide. Since this encounter relies heavily on high DPS and much of the damage is avoidable, using two healers instead of three provides added DPS to the encounter.

Phase 1: 100% to 80%.

Putricide will spawn growing slime pools throughout the encounter, which the abomination pilot (the offtank) eats to gain ooze power. If you are almost out of ooze, stop eating the puddle to retain your source of ooze power, as you will need the ooze power to snare the Volatile Oozes and Gas Clouds. You will cause 4,000 damage every 2 seconds to the raid while an abomination is piloted. If your abominations dies, you can click the table again to obtain a new one.

Tank Putricide next to the Orange tank on the left side of the room to start with. Not long after the pull you will see a raid warning for “Unstable Experiment,” which causes a Volatile Ooze to spawn next to the Green tank on the right side of the room. Ranged DPS should switch to it immediately and melee DPS should switch to it as soon as it is clear who it is targetting. The Volatile Ooze will root a player in place and move towards them; your abomination pilot needs to snare it with Regurgitated Ooze. It will explode for 175,000 damage split between every player standing on top of the affected person. When the Volatize Ooze is close, all players should collapse on the affected player. If the Ooze is not yet dead it will acquire a new target and do the same thing. It needs to die quickly.

After the Ooze is dead, move Putricide next to the Green tank. He will soon cast another Unstable Experiment and spawn a Gas Cloud next to the Orange tank. The Gas Cloud also follows a random player, applying a dot called Gaseous Bloat on them, which requires a lot of healing. Gaseous Bloat starts with numerous stacks that decrease over time. Should the Gas Cloud reach its targetted player while stacks still remain, the raid takes a large amount of damage, potentailly wiping the raid. The targetted player must kite the cloud around the room while everyone else kills it. The abomination pilot should also snare it.

After this, Putricide should be moved back to the Orange tank. The add spawns alternately in a predictable manner.
Alternate Tactic

A different approach to dealing with the Volatile Oozes is to have the raid stack where the Volatile Ooze spawns. Healers will be near the ranged, but will move away from the target of the Volatile Ooze. When the Volatile Ooze spawns, melee and ranged will quickly kill it. If a healer is the target, ranged will move and stack with the targeted healer. Damage will be split between ranged and melee and they will be thrown back. Quickly finish off the Volatile Ooze before it hits another player. AoE healers can start pre-casting to quickly bring the health back up. With sufficient DPS and less movement, the raid should enter phase 2 before the first Gas Cloud spawns. Handling the Gas Cloud remains the same. This approach works in phase 2 for the Volatile Ooze as well, the raid will still need to watch for Choking Gas Bombs and Malleable Ooze.

Note: This method is not reccomended for low DPS groups.

Phase 2: 80% to 35%

Putricide casts Tear Gas, which stuns the raid for 10 seconds while he phases.

All previous abilities continue in this phase. In addition, Putricide gain two new abilities: Choking Gas Bomb and Malleable Goo.

You can see Putricide holding Choking Gas Bombs (one in each hand), which look like orange laboratory flasks. When Putricide tosses these to the ground near him (and relatively close together), they form an orange cloud on the floor. These flasks explode after 20 seconds, killing nearby players.

Malleable Goo looks like a bouncing green slime ball. Putricide randomly targets and tosses the goo to a ranged player. These cause 20,000 AoE damage on impact, and slow attack/cast speeds by 200% on impact. Easily avoidable by moving out of the way of the goo.

You will need to keep killing adds and controlling slime pools while dealing with these abilities.

Phase 3: 35% to 0%

Professor Putricide casts tear gas again and phases. No more adds will spawn, however adds that are up will remain.

Save Heroism/Bloodlust for this phase. Your abomination driver will need to tank Putricide now. Malleable Goo, Choking Gas Bomb, and Slime Pools continue. You cannot get rid of slime pools anymore so they will grow until you are overrun or Putricide dies.

Putricide stacks a debuff on his current tank every 10 seconds called Mutated Plague, which has a one-minute expiration timer. This causes damage to the entire group, and should a person die from Mutated Plague, heals Putricide for a massive amount. Tanks should switch over at four stacks, and if a tank is going to lose their mutated plague stack, they should taunt, since Putricide is healed if the debuff expires. Switching at four stacks eliminates this issue.

Putricide also stacks a buff on himself called Mutated Strength, causing him to do more damage over time. Phase 3 is a burn phase in which Putricide must be killed in short order or he will wipe your raid. After about 80 seconds when someone gains a 5th stack of Mutated Plague it will cause too much damage to handle.

Putricide will berserk after 10 minutes of combat.

25-man Differences

• Professor Putricide will launch three Malleable Goo projectiles rather than just one.
• Three tanks will give you the most time to kill Putricide in Phase 3 since Mutated Plague triples in damage every stack. You must keep the debuff on all three tanks. Therefore each tank in turn will gain 2 stacks then gain 4 stacks in a 2/2/2 4/4/4 setup. After 120 seconds someone will gain a 5th stack, wiping the raid.

Heroic Difficulty

Heroic difficulty will feature “Thaddius-like” charges in the form of Gas Variable and Ooze Variable debuffs during the encounter.

Sindragosa, formerly the prime-consort of Malygos, is a mighty frost wyrm who was raised by the Lich King himself at Sindragosa’s Fall in Icecrown. She is the very same frost wyrm that the Lich King raised in the Wrath of the Lich King cinematic, as the same scene is played out after completing the quest Where Dragons Fell.

Sindragosa is briefly seen in the Pit of Saron, the second 5-man Icecrown instance, after the defeat of Scourgelord Tyrannus. While the leader of the army of liberated slaves (Martin Victus for Alliance, Gorkun Ironskull for Horde) commends the players for their bravery and their efforts to free them, Sindragosa flies up from the pit below and unleashes her fury, killing the leader and his army. The players are pulled back to the entrance tunnel by Jaina Proudmoore or Sylvanas Windrunner, saving them from a grisly death.

Sindragosa appears as a boss encounter in the Frostwing Halls inside Icecrown Citadel. She was one of the first two bosses to be announced, the other of course being the Lich King himself.

Highlord Darion Mograine wants you to collect 50 Shadowfrost Shards.

Shadowfrost Shards may only be obtained in the 25 person difficulty setting.

Shadowfrost Shard (50)

Description
The Lich King’s throne once served as his prison. Kil’jaeden himself crafted the vessel of icy crystals from the twisting nether, its sole purpose to hold Ner’zhul’s vengeful spirit.

When Arthas struck the crystal with Frostmourne, he released Ner’zhul’s soul, allowing it to merge with his own. Splinters from that impact are now scattered throughout the citadel.

I shall require those shards, held only by the Lich King’s most powerful servants, to seal the power contained in your blade.

Rewards
You will receive: 31 gold 33 silver
Gains
Upon completion of this quest you will gain:

• 27550 experience

The Crimson Hall is an area inside the northern side of Icecrown Citadel. This section is the headquarters and home of the San’layn, the vampiric darkfallen blood elves in the service of the Scourge.

The area is luxuriously decorated in red decorations and scarlet coloured curtains similar to other blood elven decor. The Hall is connected to the rest of the instance by the Spire surrounding the Frozen Throne in the middle level of the zone.

Blood-Queen Lana’thel is the leader of the San’layn, a sect of blood elves who were raised in undeath by the Lich King.

Following the destruction of their homeland, the determined blood elves began to regroup and rebuild. It was during this time that the battle-hardened warrior Lana’thel stumbled upon Quel’Delar, and soon afterward the greatest opportunity to use the blade presented itself: Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider raised an army and combined forces with Illidan Stormrage, who led them north to Icecrown on a mission to destroy the Lich King. Lana’thel readily followed her prince with one thought in mind — revenge against the Scourge — but only tragedy awaited her.

In the icy hills of Northrend, Arthas ultimately defeated Illidan and Kael’thas, and the expedition’s few survivors were scattered across the frozen wastes. One by one the Lich King sought out those who had challenged him, and Lana’thel found herself cornered. Using Quel’Delar, she struck at him with all her might… but Frostmourne’s evil powers overwhelmed her. Through his blade, the Lich King chose Lana’thel to serve him in undeath as blood-queen of the San’layn, a group responsible for overseeing the Scourge’s operations across Azeroth.

Blood-Queen Lana’thel eagerly carried out her new duties, but every time she looked at her blade, maddening anger would swell within her as she remembered her former life. She could not afford such distractions, and with a scream that echoed throughout Icecrown, she shattered Quel’Delar and flung the fractured pieces as far as she could.

She now resides in the Crimson Halls of Icecrown Citadel and is the second boss of the wing.

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 swamp 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.

The Icecrown Gunship Battle is an encounter in Icecrown Citadel that involves an aerial battle between the gunships Skybreaker and Orgrim’s Hammer. Muradin Bronzebeard and High Overlord Saurfang are the gunship commanders.

IMPORTANT: All enemy NPCs except the Commanders and the Battle-Mage/Sorceror will gain experience the longer they are left alive, starting from Regular and progressing to Experienced, then Veteran, and finally Elite. At Experienced rank, opposing NPCs have damage increased by 30% and attack/cast speed increased by 20%. At Veteran rank this rises to 60% and 40% respectively, and finally at Elite rank this buff rises to 120% and 80% respectively. Thus it is important for gunners and boarding party members to pick off enemy NPCs when higher priority targets are absent, as enough Elite NPCs will stress the healers considerably.

Overview

The objective is to deal more siege damage to the enemy gunship than it does to yours. Siege damage is done by firing the guns on your gunship. The enemy gunship will attack yours mainly using rockets and hand-held ranged weapons. The enemy will periodically attack your ship with a boarding party, which must be tanked and killed before they can do too much damage. Ranged DPS are preferred for the defensive party. The enemy will periodically deploy a mage to stand on their deck and freeze the guns of your ship preventing them from firing, and this mage must be killed to free your guns so that you can keep damaging the enemy gunship. In order to do this you should form a boarding party of your own consisting of a single tank, some healers and some damage dealers (preferably melee). The boarding party can jump to the enemy gunship and back using jetpacks provided by your gunship’s engineer. The tank must tank the enemy commander while being healed. The enemy commander will gain a stacking buff over time while in combat that increases his damage, so the boarding party must kill the enemy mage before the commander gains enough buffs to kill the tank. If any time remains the boarding party can also kill the rocket teams. After this it is essential that the entire boarding party jumps back to the friendly ship in order for the enemy commander to be left alone and lose his stacking buff before the next mage comes out and freezes your guns. The enemy ranged infantry can be killed by the defending ranged DPS while they are not killing an enemy boarding party. If all of these things are done you should comfortably win the DPS race.

Tactics by Role

Defenders

Their main role is to eliminate enemy boarding parties that will teleport over. While there is no boarding party they can kill the ranged DPS on the enemy gunship, hence ranged DPS are preferred for this group. The boarding party can be tanked by a single tank, who will of course need healers. The enemy rocketeers will fire rockets at your gunship that should be avoided by looking for the (easy to spot) target markers and moving away before the rocket lands. The boarding party consists of Sergeants and Reavers/Marines. The Sergeants need to be tanked as they hit very hard and can flatten a non-tank. Reavers and Marines can also hit moderately hard but not hard enough to one-shot clothies (unless at elite rank). Any members of the enemy boarding party which have no raid members or NPCs on their aggro table will instead attack the ship with depth charges; this must be avoided at all costs, as this ability is extremely damaging and will sink your gunship in less than a minute if left unchecked.

Gunners

Their main role is to damage the enemy gunship while their guns are not frozen. While their guns are frozen they should leave their guns and help with another activity, such as defending against enemy boarding parties, or damaging the enemy’s ranged DPS. They can also join the boarding party and help kill the mage, but once the mage is down they should jump back immediately to fire their guns again rather than stay and kill the rocketeers.

Guns have two different attacks: a normal shot bound to “1″ which fires a shot that deals 1000 siege damage to the opposing ship, as well as some damage to any enemy NPCs caught in the blast radius. The normal shot also generates between 6 to 10 “heat”, which fills up the heat gauge on the gun (begins at 0, fills at 100, will lose 1-2 heat per second if the gun is not fired). The second shot is a heated shot which immediately expels all the accumulated heat on the gun and deals 1000 damage as well as additional damage for each unit of heat, up to 5000 damage with a nearly filled bar. If the heat meter reaches or exceeds 100, the gun overheats and both shots are locked for the next five seconds until all heat has been drained. Gunners should note that both gunshots not only damage the opposing ship but also damage enemy NPCs, thus shots should be angled at rocketeers/mortar soldiers to wear them down and kill them before they stack to dangerous levels of experience.

Boarding Party

Make sure you pick up a jump pack from your gunship’s engineer and equip it before the fight, as it is a clothing item and cannot be equipped once in combat. The jump pack is used by ‘using’ the item of clothing and selecting a destination to jump to (you can practice before the battle starts). They can defend against enemy boarding parties while not busy, but should remain ready to jump over to the enemy ship when the mage comes out (which will be announced by a raid emote by the enemy commander). A single tank is required who should jump first with his healers shortly after to keep the enemy commander busy. The commander has a ranged attack but should be tanked at melee range, as his ranged attack applies a stacking impale dot that is weak at first but will quickly become unhealable. The other enemy crew members will not bother you. The DPS should kill first the mage, then try to kill the rocketeers, and then jump back. The tank and healers should then make sure they jump back together to avoid being killed on the way out. The boarding party is on a time limit and must at least kill the mage before the enemy commander gets enough buff stacks to endanger the tank (around 20-25 stacks, though this will depend on the strength of your tank and healers and cooldowns used). The boarding party must all leave and wait for the enemy commander to lose his buff before they can return. For this reason the boarding party should only jump over when the mage freezes your guns, and not jump over early. It is not necessary or desirable to DPS the enemy commander – he is only tanked.

Be very careful about units you leave behind on the enemy gunship, namely summoned pets and totems. For example, totems left on the deck of the enemy gunship can keep the enemy boss attacking (and thereby refreshing his stacking damage buff) between two sorceror rounds. This can cause the damage buff to stack as high as 40 to 50, which is untankable. If you drop totems or summon pets on board the enemy ship, recall them as you’re leaving. In addition, after jumping back, be sure to move a comfortable distance away from the edge to ensure that the enemy commander breaks combat with you and resets, as he can use his ranged attack across the gap if you are too close to the edge, which will keep him in combat and delay losing his buff.

In the upcoming content patch there are many new additions and improvements. One of the largest changes is the introduction of the new Dungeon Finder. This new system will be available for all five-player dungeons. A Dungeon Finder button will replace the Looking For Group feature currently available in-game, and provides additional benefits to those who use it.

Join as a Group or Solo
Much like the current Looking For Group system, players will be able to join the Dungeon Finder and choose the role they would like to fill within groups: Healing, Damage, or Tank. In addition, once roles have been identified, they will be applied to all dungeons chosen. Players will now be able to choose multiple dungeons and will no longer be limited to three. The system has also improved group creation and matchmaking capabilities and will create more balanced groups when assessing the selected roles of players.

The LFG channel has been disconnected from the Dungeon Finder and can be used by anyone in a major city, much like the trade channel currently available.

Cross Realm Instances
When joining the Dungeon Finder as a solo player or with a partial group, additional random players can be found within the same Battlegroup via cross-realm instancing.

While the new system offers the ability to group with player from other realms within your Battlegroup, you won’t be able to use this to manually invite specific players to groups.

Instance Teleporting
When you use the Dungeon Finder to find a dungeon, you’ll get ported to the inside of the dungeon, much like the current Battleground system. When you leave the instance, you will be returned to your previous location. If you need to leave temporarily, such as for repairs or to purchase reagents, you can teleport back to the dungeon again. This feature can be used both by groups looking for other players and by premade groups of five who use the Dungeon Finder.

Smarter Group Matching
The new system will now work to match at least one experienced player for the assigned dungeon with less experienced players in the group. It will more carefully match class types, and will more consistently match players of equal levels for the dungeon chosen. The interface will also allow players to see how many players are looking for groups as well as the average wait time of groups that the tool has formed.

Daily Random Dungeons
Players or groups can choose specific dungeons or they can instead take their chances with a random Heroic or random normal dungeon. Picking randomly conveys some additional benefits. If you defeat the final boss in a dungeon, you receive 2 Emblems of Frost for Heroic dungeons and 2 Emblems of Triumph for normal dungeons. In addition, after players have received 2 Emblems of Frost for the first Heroic dungeon they do in a day, they will earn 2 Emblems of Triumph for each additional random Heroic dungeons in that day. These random rewards replace the current daily dungeon and daily Heroic dungeon quests. The current NPCs who offer those quests will offer weekly repeatable raid quests instead. You can also earn level-appropriate rewards for running random pre-Wrath of the Lich King dungeons while you are leveling up.

Lovin’ the PUG
Players who take part in groups with one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the Dungeon Finder will receive extra rewards, including the coveted Perky Pug non-combat pet. The more random players you group with, the faster you could get your new pet!

Vote Kick
Players who use the system to find additional random members for their party will be afforded a couple of extra conveniences to help them perform well. The loot option is fixed to the updated Need Before Greed option (and unalterable by any member) and players can vote to remove another party member from the group. It will take four votes in order to remove someone, however, so consider this newfound power carefully.

Looking for Raid
There will be a new option available to players that can be accessed via the raid information screen in the interface or by typing /lfr. Players will also be able to take part in raid-specific weekly quests and will be able to browse the system manually for any other players looking for a raid dungeon group.

Need Before Greed Updated
Need Before Greed will now recognize gear appropriate for a class in three ways: the class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spellpower items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type (for example, plate for paladins). All items will still be available via greed rolls should no member be able to use the item as well as the new disenchant option will be available for all parties.

Group Disenchanting
Players in a group with an enchanter will now have the option to automatically disenchant any items that are not claimed by a player from within the loot window. Players will have this option available to them in both premade groups and in randomly matched groups. This option is available in any loot system, even if players don’t use the new Dungeon Finder.

Grand Entrance of the Citadel

After breaching the fortress, players will face a legion of undead guards directed to repel any invaders. Commanding the defenders is Lord Marrowgar, a monstrosity fused together from the bones of the undead. Supreme Overseer of the Cult of the Damned, Lady Deathwhisper is the next opponent. She bolsters the faith of her followers by promising them the opportunity to give eternal service in undeath.

As they continue their ascent, the Alliance and Horde heroes ultimately end up outside of the citadel where their hatred for one another erupts into a battle for dominance over the Rampart of Skulls. Players will join in battle alongside High Overlord Saurfang on the Orgrim’s Hammer gunship or Muradin Bronzebeard on The Skybreaker in a unique encounter. Each faction will protect its gunship and try to destroy the other one in a back-and-forth battle to see who is truly worthy of facing the Lich King.

The Lich King’s most powerful death knight then stands as the final obstacle for the heroes to enter the upper reaches of the citadel.

The Wings of Icecrown Citadel

After the heroes of the Alliance or Horde defeat the other faction on the gunships and wipe out the creatures near the entrance, players will venture into an area with three separate wings. Here they will face a multitude of terrors that must be vanquished in order to confront the Lich King.

In the Frostwing Halls players will battle alongside the Ashen Verdict and push into the lair of the deadly frost wyrm Sindragosa, who continues to strengthen her brood with the help of Ymirheim’s vrykul. Along the way, the heroes will stumble upon Valithria Dreamwalker, a captured green dragon whom the Scourge is using as a test subject for their own ends….

The Plagueworks contains the most twisted experiments ever produced by the Scourge. In this wing players will face two new forms of abomination in Festergut and Rotface, who currently protect their devious creator, Professor Putricide.

The Crimson Hall contains the leaders of the San’layn, undead blood elves who oversee the Scourge’s operations throughout Azeroth. The blood-princes Valanar, Keleseth, and Taldaram were raised into undeath by the Lich King to avenge themselves while protecting their blood-queen, Lana’thel.

The Frozen Throne

After clearing all three wings, players will ascend to the Frozen Throne, where the Lich King and his runeblade, Frostmourne, await to deliver them to their deaths….