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Two Bosses Enter: Sapphiron vs Kel'thuzad


Two bosses enter... but only one will get to leave in WoW Insider's series of fantasy deathmatches. We've scoured the instances of Azeroth and Outland looking for the most interesting bosses Blizzard has to offer us and picked out a group of 32 to pit against one another until we come out with a single winner in the end. And the best part -- you get to tell us who wins.

We're down to the Final Four. First up, two bosses of Naxxramas face off. Will the undead frost wyrm Sapphiron be able to take down his partner in crime, The Archlich of the Plaguelands Kel'Thuzad? Want to learn more about these two bosses and voice your opinion on who would win in a fight? Keep reading



Sapphiron was once a living member of the Blue Dragonflight -- though those times are long past. In a fight with Arthas, Sapphiron was transformed into a frost wyrm who thenceforth served the Scourge. In the game, he may be found in Naxxramas guarding Kel'Thuzad's inner sanctum. Sapphiron has a variety of hard-hitting frost spells and can also drain life from his targets. Further, he can take to the air during a fight to attack his targets from a safe distance.

In a combat, Sapphiron will use the following abilities:

  • Cleave: A standard frontal cleave.

  • Icebolt: A ranged frost attack that Sapphiron only uses from the air. It does frost damage to its primary target and stuns them for several seconds as well as splash damage to targets in the vicinity.

  • Frost Breath: A very high damage frost AoE that Sapphiron casts from the air before landing.

  • Frost Aura: An aura that does frost damage over time to anyone within range.

  • Life Drain: A DoT that (surprise!) drains life from the target and heals Sapphiron. (And be warned -- it heals him for more than it hurts you.)

  • Blizzard: A frost AoE that slows movement speed if you're caught in it.

And if the fight lasts longer than 15 minutes? Sapphiron will enrage, causing his Frost Aura to do 600% normal damage. Ouch.


The Lich Lord Kel'Thuzad rules over the Plaguelands from his citadel Naxxramas. While in his floating fortress, the fight begins with the raid taking out several adds, we're just considering the bosses themselves, so we'll start by talking about what would normally be considered phase 2 of this encounter, when you first get to fight Kel'thuzad himself.

Kel'Thuzad does frost and shadow damage with:

  • single-target and multi-target frostbolts,

  • the ability to mind-control up to 4 targets,

  • the ability to create a shadow fissure, causing massive shadow damage to anyone in its radius,

  • a frost blast that immobilizes and damages its target (100% of its health),

  • a mana detonation which causes causes mana users to explode, dealing damage to all of those around them.

Now, before we get to our vote, I want to be clear that we're considering these two bosses to have similar health, level, and damage capacity. We're trying to put them on an even playing field. But bearing that in mind, tell us who you think would come out ahead if these two bosses met -- and why.
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