Two Bosses Enter: Doom Lord Kazzak vs. Vaelastrasz the Corrupt
Another weekend, and you know what that means -- it's time for another episode of Two Bosses Enter, WoW Insider's series of fantasy deathmatches between some of the toughest bosses in the World of Warcraft. Each week, two bosses walk into our arena, but only one of them gets to walk out again -- and at the very end, we'll wind up with one boss who wins out over all. The best part of all this is that you get to tell us who winds up the winner every week.
Some internet connectivity issues caused us to skip last week, but this week we're back with a vengeance, talking about one of my favorite boss fights in the game -- Vaelastrasz the Corrupt, who we're pitting against Doom Lord Kazzak. So what are you still reading this for? Read on to find out a bit about each of these bosses and tell us who would win if they met up!
Older players will remember the Outland outdoor boss Doom Lord Kazzak back when he was just Lord Kazzak, wiping out level 60 raid groups in the Blasted Lands. But with the release of The Burning Crusade, Kazzak went through the Dark Portal to Outland and is tougher than ever. He relies on a not-too-exciting combination of melee and shadow damage to bring down his opponents, doing Cleaves (frontal AoE melee damage), Thunderstomps (a short-range damage and slow), Shadowbolt Volleys (AoE shadowbolts), and Void Bolts (single target shadowbolts). But what makes him dangerous isn't his base damage output: it's his ability to heal and enrage. He heals a large amount of health whenever someone dies (which shouldn't come into play in this fight) and can also put a Twisted Reflection debuff which heals him a large amount when he does damage to the debuffed individual. Also, after about a minute he'll Enrage, increasing his damage by 30%. During this time he'll also send out regular Shadowbolt Volleys, and the Enrage will end after the 6th volley, and the Enrage timer starts again. A raid group with some strategy can usually survive one Enrage, but the second is frequently deadly, so in this fight it's important to bring Kazzak down quickly.
If you'd like full details on the Kazzak fight, I point you to WoWWiki.
I doubt many people visit Vaelastrasz in Blackwing Lair these days, but there was a time when he was the bane of many a raid group attempting to progress. But just because he's in an old-world raid dungeon doesn't mean he's a pushover. Vaelastrasz hits his targets with heavy fire and melee damage, doing a Fire Nova (AoE fire damage), Flame Breath (frontal AoE fire damage), and Cleave (frontal AoE melee damage). The trouble with this fight for players is that it's on a timer -- at the beginning of the fight, you receive a buff giving you (essentially) unlimited health, mana, and rage regeneration for three minutes. Without this buff, it would be unlikely that you'd be able to do enough damage to bring him down, meaning the enconter is on a timer. However, Kazzak doesn't need any buffs to dish out the damage, so this hard-for-players encounter may not be so difficult for another boss.
For full encounter details, check out WoWWiki.
As always, please remember that we are attempting to compare these bosses with approximately equal level, health, and damage output. We're also not considering the instant-kill abilities that each of these bosses have, presuming the bosses themselves are immune to these things. When you're voting, remember we're trying to compare the skills and fighting styles of the two without making it a mathmatical equation. But keeping that in mind, tell us -- who wins?
Voting for this week's contest has come and gone, but we're still quite a way from deciding which boss should be crowned the boss of bosses. Check back for more of Two Bosses Enter to see every round of our competition!
