Two Bosses Enter: Altairus vs. Eregos
In Two Bosses Enter, WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches, the bosses of World of Warcraft face off in the squared circle. Your vote determines who wins and claims the season title.
"What!?" I hear you ask, trembling with rage. "Eregos!? He was a Wrath of the Lich King boss!" He sure was. Not only was he a Wrath boss, he was the winner of the first season of Wrath of the Lich King's Two Bosses Enter, long before our previous wild card, Scourgelord Tyrannus, was even in the game.
"Uggghhh!" I hear you curse, trembling with only slightly less rage than before. "We've already had a Wrath boss wild card! You are just the worst!" Well, perhaps this bit of information will please you: There are no more Wrath bosses amidst the remaining wild cards. In fact, neither of them have appeared in Two Bosses Enter before at all. They could be anything. Anything.
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In last week's matchup, we saw Grim Batol's Erudax clash with Throne of Tides' Lady Naz'jar. There was a clear winner throughout the voting process, though it wasn't nearly the landslide that was Ozruk's win at the beginning of the tournament weeks ago.
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Follow along for the details of this week's matchup, as well as discussion on last week's matchup.
The rules of the ring
The WoW Insider Ring is considered neutral territory, where both combatants are able to access their usual encounter mechanics and abilities. If you can't visualize it inside the squared circle, visualize it someplace else -- but you must take into consideration all of each bosses' abilities and mechanics.
Assume that each opponent is intelligent and capable of strategic thinking.
All of the competitors' abilities, including crowd control and other effects to which bosses are usually immune, work on their opponents (with apologies to considerations of lore on this point).
Assume that the opponents share similar levels, health pools, and comparative overall damage output.
Don't get caught up in gameplay mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter.
Don't neglect style, story, and scale. Everything is a factor; seeking balance is your goal as a spectator and judge.
In Corner One: Altairus
I don't actually say anything in Vortex Pinnacle, so here's some trivia instead! My name is Arabic for "bird of prey" or "flying one"! Whooo-ooooa!
Altairus sits top Vortex Pinnacle, the realm of Al'Akir the Windlord. Altairus controls the wind and commands the sky itself. In this dragon-versus-dragon death match, can Eregos really top an opponent who controls the very battlefield in which they meet?
Altairus's abilities include:
Being downwind of Altairus will impede Eregos's combat ability, but being upwind of Altairus will be a benefit! Can Altairus keep Eregos downwind?
Want to know more about the drake of the north winds? Then you should read up on his background as well as what other adventurers have had to say about him.
In Corner Two: Ley-Guardian Eregos
Such insolence... such arrogance... must be PUNISHED!
Eregos dominated the first Wrath season of Two Bosses Enter. Even Loken, the most dangerous NPC in the game in the early months of the expansion, fell to Eregos. Sure, Altairus controls the skies, but Eregos has proven himself to be the most dangerous man dragon alive -- not to mention that as a blue dragon, he holds dominion over magic itself.
Eregos's beefy toolkit includes:
Weren't around in Wrath of the Lich King? Didn't have the pleasure of wiping in Oculus for hours? Read about the horrors from firsthand reports of other players, then!
Last Week's Winner: Erudax
Erudax rocked last week's competition, and I'm going to pretend it's entirely because of Rai's fiction in support of the Duke of Below. His write-up was quite popular last week, so here's his depiction of what went down between Erudax and Lady Naz'jar.
The deathly silence of the underground arena shattered as the Lord of Below smashed open the doors, lurching across to his half of the battlefield. As the entrance sealed behind him, Lady Naz'jar stood opposite him with her top two arms crossed. Both combatants eyed up one another, taking a moment to prepare. A pair of worker murlocs dragged in a cart of dragon eggs either side, carefully placing them on the ground against the wall. The Lady blinked and tilted her head at Erudax, who shrugged before charging.
"You think you can withstand the force of the seas themselves?" Lady Naz'jar hissed, firing off a Shock Blast at Erudax. The mighty Duke of Below took the hit directly, singed by the lightning but reaching the Lady and beginning to smack her around with his arms. The two were locked in combat, Naz'jar being quicker but Erudax hitting harder each time. He let out a roar, as the room began to fill with a swirling purple vortex. Smirking to herself, the Lady moved into the eye of the storm, a large obvious circle and stood there, firing off another shock blast.
"Predictable cretin!" she laughed.
"We shall see" Erudax replied, as the nova subsided. As Lady Naz'jar prepared to charge at the hulking creature, she spotted two Corruptors lurching into the arena. Peering at the eggs and then back to them, she worked it out.
"Oh no you don't!"
Lady Naz'jar began to summon a geyser under one of the two sets of eggs, before firing off a shock blast at the corruptor headed for the other pack. Erudax stomped after her, hitting at her but she continued the assault, reaching the corruptor as it began to channel a spell onto the eggs. As the geyser on the other side of the room exploded, the second corruptor was killed, the aftershock of the geyser pushing the Duke away as she finished off the first with another shock blast.
"Enough! Your pathetic attempts at egg scrambling are useless!" she cackled, leaping to the centre of the room and casting a waterspout. Water appeared from nowhere, encasing her as she grinned, her servants coming to her aid. Erudax stomped towards them, slowly being overwhelmed from all angles. Without a word, he began to cast Shadow Gale again, filling the entire room with the vortex. "Foolish creature! I am entirely protected for another minute! What could you possibly plan to achieve?"
Erudax said nothing, pointing what would otherwise be considered a finger at her underlings. One of them, a Tempest Witch, was stood in the eye, but the other two were not so lucky. Lady Naz'jar continued to laugh, shaking her head with pity. Suddenly, there was a look of terror in her eye. Two more corruptors stumbled into the room as the Shadow Gale faded, before Erudax glared at the last assistant, casting Binding Shadows and draining health from the naga before killing it. The two corruptors moved into position and began channeling as Erudax turned to face the Lady.
"Your cowardice will be your undoing."
The corruptors finished their deeds with the eggs at approximately the same time the Waterspout wore off. Whelps burst forth from the eggs, flapping towards Lady Naz'jar and clawing at her. The corruptors began to drain life from her, throwing a heal at their leader. The Naga Lady grunted in agony.
"You... Ozumat... you shall..."
"No" Erudax said, smashing the Lady with an Enfeebling Blow, shortly before his assistants drained the last of her life. He nodded at the whelps, which began to feast. The Duke then turned to his corruptors, performed the equivalent of a Faceless One clicking their fingers and walked towards the exit of the arena, his cohorts in tow and his Gale of Shadows trinket in hand.
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Personally, I was rooting for Lady Naz'jar so I could paste in this piece from Morohtar instead. C'est la vie.
The battle begins!
Remember, Two Bosses Enter matchups are all about substance and style, not gameplay, mechanics, and numbers. Don't base your strategies on player tactics, which opponent has been easiest or most difficult for you personally, or the difficulty of each opponent relative to instance progression. Vote for the spirit of the battle as set forth above. Set aside differences in opponents' health pools, game level, and actual damage output. Absolutely no game mechanics nitpicking!
Set aside the world order -- let the WoW Insider Ring determine who's the champion! Your votes determine the outcome in WoW Insider's series of fantasy deathmatches, Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves.
