Loatheb Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

Loatheb — coincidentally an anagram for the word "healbot" — is the third and final boss of The Plague Quarter that you will come across in Naxxramas. This encounter is noteworthy for allowing no healing to take place for the majority of the fight, instead giving players a massive empowerment to quickly defeat the boss before they themselves wither away.

• Ensure you are one of the five closest players to a Spore when it is defeated so that you can obtain the Fungal Creep debuff and maximize your damage output.

• Coordinate with your other healers to determine who will be handling what during the four seconds where healing is allowed between casts of Necrotic Aura.
• While healing effects are prevented with Necrotic Aura aura, absorbs are not. This means a Discipline Priest in particular will do astoundingly well on this encounter with Power Word: Shield.

• While it might be tempting to stand near a dying Spore to obtain the Fungal Creep buff, remember that it will prevent you from dealing threat!
• Due to being unhealable for the majority of this encounter, consider optimizing for more defense than you normally would.

• Summon Spore — Loatheb will periodically spawn Spores around the edge of the room. When these Spores are defeated they will cast Fungal Creep on the five nearest players.
  • Fungal Creep — This debuff gives a bonus 50% Critical Strike chance to all spells and abilities, but also causes them to deal no threat.
• Necrotic Aura — This aura prevents all healing effects from working for 17 seconds and is cast every 21 seconds (starting around 10 seconds into the encounter). What this means is that there is only a 4-second window that healing can be provided every 21 seconds, and will require coordination to play around.
• Deathbloom — Loatheb will apply a damage-over-time effect to all players for 6 seconds that will then erupt for additional damage when it expires.
• Inevitable Doom — When this ability is used the entire raid will be hit for a large amount of Shadow damage after 10 seconds. It is first cast after 90 seconds of the encounter have elapsed, with an additional cast every 30 seconds after that.

There is no special positioning required when fighting Loatheb. Instead, the main difficulty of this encounter will come from having to maximize the brief windows where healing is allowed. Remember, however, that absorb effects like Power Word: Shield and Sacred Shield will work at all times. Due to the short nature of these healing windows, it is especially important to asssign healers appropriately.

When it comes to the Spores created by Loatheb's Summon Spore, remember that they will gradually move closer to the boss on their own and do not require you to fully disengage from the boss to be killed and apply Fungal Creep. With that being said, be very careful to not let a tank receive this debuff, and generally avoid having healers receive it as well.

Item	Type/Slot
Spaulders of the Lost Conqueror	Tier 7 token (Shoulders)
Spaulders of the Lost Protector	Tier 7 token (Shoulders)
Spaulders of the Lost Vanquisher	Tier 7 token (Shoulders)
Sulfur Stave	Staff
Loatheb's Shadow	Trinket
Fungi-Stained Coverings	Leather Chest
Helm of the Corrupted Mind	Plate Helm
Legplates of Inescapable Death	Plate Legs

Item	Type/Slot
Mantle of the Lost Conqueror	Tier 7 token (Shoulders)
Mantle of the Lost Protector	Tier 7 token (Shoulders)
Mantle of the Lost Vanquisher	Tier 7 token (Shoulders)
The Hand of Nerub	Off Hand Fist Weapon
The Impossible Dream	Main Hand Mace
Fading Glow	Wand
Boots of Impetuous Ideals	Cloth Feet
Cowl of Innocent Delight	Cloth Helm
Vest of Vitality	Leather Chest
Footwraps of Vile Deceit	Leather Feet
Grotesque Handgrips	Mail Gloves
Greaves of Turbulence	Plate Legs
Girdle of Unity	Plate Belt

Loatheb is just one of the 15 encounters present in the Naxxramas raid. If you would like to learn more about the others, or would like to see the loot tables of every boss at the same time, please see our other pages for the raid below.