Two Bosses Enter: Echo of Sylvanas vs. Yor'sahj the Unsleeping
In Two Bosses Enter, WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches, bosses, leaders, and powerful figures of World of Warcraft face off in the squared circle. Your vote determines who wins and claims the season title.
Season 3 is full of surprises as the Echo of Jaina takes the win over Morchok by a smaller margin of votes than I could have ever predicted. Seriously, Jaina, call out the fan brigade, because you are not winning this tournament with numbers like that. Against Morchok. Seriously, that game? Gotta get upped.
This week's matchup is going to be an awesome treat for those of you who like to write your own posts about how these battles turn out. Check it out: Sylvanas, Banshee Queen and Dark Lady of the Forsaken, goes head to head with one of the Old Gods' most powerful, colored-slime lord Yor'sahj the Unsleeping. Two dark powers will rumble in the ring today on Two Bosses Enter.
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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: Echo of Sylvanas
From beyond the timeways, their shattered streams of time energy leaking into every conceivable path, fragments of Sylvanas' maddened remains find themselves on Azeroth at the End Time, trapped within the Ruby Dragonshrine. Forever.
In life, she was the greatest ranger there ever was. In her first death, she was the Banshee Queen, leader of the banshees, one of Arthas' greatest weapons against all who lived and all who opposed him. In her rebirth, she was Queen of the Forsaken, the Dark Lady, the most fearsome threat to life itself since the Lich King. And now, in her final death, she walks the charred remains of an Azeroth murdered in fire and chaos. Deathwing has won, and this is his prize.
The Echo of Sylvanas encounter has one mechanic that I particularly enjoy and loved seeing as an addition during patch 4.3. At one point during the fight, Sylvanas will pull all group members toward her, spawning ghouls around her in a circle and filling the Ruby Dragonshine with a deathly corruption. In order to escape certain death, players must quickly kill one of the ghouls to create a hole in their line to escape the corruption. It is intense, fast-paced, and frantic. Please, Blizzard, learn from the Sylvanas fight -- it's one of the best 5-man fights ever designed.
Echo of Sylvanas' abilities include:
Shriek of the Highborne Sylvanas shrieks with anguish, inflicting damage to an enemy and decreasing movement speed.
Black Arrow Sylvanas fires an explosive black arrow at an enemy, inflicting heavy AoE damage.
Unholy Shot Sylvanas fires a barrage of missiles at an enemy, striking up to three enemies within 10 yards, inflicting extra shadow damage.
Blighted Arrows Sylvanas blights the ground under an enemy, inflicting heavy damage and knocking back enemies caught in the arrow crossfire.
Wracking Pain When Sylvanas spawns ghouls, enemies are damaged when they pass through the ghoul link.
Sacrifice When the ghouls reach Sylvanas, they explode doing tons of damage. Kill a ghoul to break the line and escape!
In Corner Two: Yor'sahj the Unsleeping
Looming in the great Maw of Shu'ma, Yor'sahj the Unsleeping relentlessly assaults Wyrmrest Temple beside his corrupted bretheren. Though his lore in game is light, we do know that Yor'sahj is said to be the great being Deathwing is using to summon the Faceless Ones to his aid. Ever since we defeated Cho'gall and Sinestra in the Bastion of Twilight, Deathwing's connection with that aspect of the Old Gods has been presumably weakened, requiring the aid of the Unsleeping.
The globule mechanic, much like Sylvanas' ghouls above, is one of my favorite new mechanics from Cataclysm. Say what you want about content, but Cataclysm's broadness in encounter design was second to none as far as WoW expansions go. The slime mechanic, where combinations of slimes produce different difficulties in dealing with their consequences, is simple but inspired. Combining a light DPS race with basic coordination and teamwork, Yor'sahj is a simple encounter that leaves a lasting punch -- you will remember the Skittles for many expansions to come.
Yor'sahj the Unsleeping abilities include:
Void Bolt Yor'sahj blasts his enemy with dark energy, dealing significant damage and stacking a damage over time shadow attack.
Call Blood of Shu'ma Yor'sahj begins to summon the blood of Shu'ma, creating three or four slimes, depending on whether it's regular or heroic version.
Glowing Globule Void Bolt now does AoE damage shared between all hit, as well as increasing his attack speed and damage.
Cobalt Globule When a Cobalt Globule reaches Yor'sahj, it infuses Yor'sahj with the ability to summon Mana Voids.
Crimson Globule When a Crimson Globule reaches Yor'sahj, it infuses Yor'sahj with the Searing Blood ability, granting fire damage that increases as enemies move further from Yor'sahj.
Dark Globule When a Dark Globule reaches Yor'sahj, the corruption of the blood seeps out into the Maw of Shu'ma. This vile corruption then periodically creates many Forgotten Ones.
Acidic Globule When an Acidic Globule reaches Yor'sahj, the Maw of Shu'ma infuses with the acidic blood and stimulates further Digestive Acid production, inflicting poison which hurts enemies that are standing too close to each other.
Shadowed Globule When a Shadowed Globule reaches Yor'sahj, it infuses Yor'sahj with the Deep Corruption ability, which causes healing and absorption effects to trigger damaging detonations.
Who wins? You decide!
Last Week's Winner: Echo of Jaina
The tormented and twisted soul fragments of Jaina Proudmoore beat out Morchok in last week's round on Two Bosses Enter. I was incredibly surprised at the numbers from last week -- there is no way that I could have predicted Jaina's winning by as low of a margin as she did. And it's still a pretty big margin, don't get me wrong. She should be very proud. But I was thinking something more along the line of Brann Bronzebeard numbers. That guy can fill seats, let me tell you.
So, with a win under her belt, the Echo of Jaina moves on to the next round. You commenters had some great discussion and posts about the Jaina vs. Morchok matchup, and they all made me very happy to read. Smiles everywhere.
Commenter nickwashere pretty much provides undeniable proof that Jaina wins against Morchok, no questions asked.
You know who spends a lot of time reading books? Mages.
What are books made out of? Paper.
What's Morchok made from? Rock.
Paper wraps rock, so this one goes to Jania.
I don't really know what to say. Case closed, pack it up, get on in, we're done forever. Paper always wins, and tails never fails.
Vaniya is very, very passionate for Jaina and won't rest a night until she finds out that Jaina did, in fact, win last week's matchup. Get some sleep. Go. You have earned it. Also, I enjoy the story hook in Vaniya's post that Jaina's had concocted the Flarecores herself, since she is sort of supposed to be one of the most powerful mages ever. I find the inventiveness fun!
Please, pleeeeease let Jaina win! I mean, Tyrande will clearly win the whole thing, but Jaina is pretty strong. Here is how it will go:
Morchok lumbered up to the Azure Dragonshrine, unsure of how he got to where he was. Wasn't his master still attacking that tower over there, instead of idly laying... Through it? Morchok didn't quite care, for he had been walking around for several hours when he saw bright lights coming from the shrine.
Once there, he accidentally stepped on something hard that made a crunching sound. A whisper went through his mind, just a gentle "who's there?" Morchok lifted his foot, and was surprised when the fragments floated away, swirling in the air with other shards. Another flash of light sundered the air, and there stood a puny human.
"You Seek to halt an avalanche. I will bury you!" lumbered Morchok.
"I will defend this shrine with my life!" screamed the woman, who immediately shot a ball of fire at the elemental.
This did little but annoy Morchok, who went to crush her. His foot came down, but only hit empty space! "why won't you give up?!" she cried!
Morchok, furious, employed his earthen powers to pull her to his feet, where he started seeping the black blood of the earth. Before the woman could be overwhelmed, she sent blades of frost at her foe, freezing him and his blood. She blinked away, just in time for Morchok to break free!
He threw down a crystal that was sending off a high pitched sound, and Jaina quickly sent a pyroblast at it, shattering it. Fed up with this rabble, Jaina sent off frosty projectiles at her enemy, and he chilled, unable to move any faster than a crawl. She summoned several growing spheres of pure energy around him.
"My own invention. I call them Flarecores." she said cooly.
"This is impossible. I am inv-" Morchok started to say, but he was cut off by the massive explosion that turned him into a fine powder.
With her duty completed, the Echo of Jaina Proudmoore closed her eyes and faded into oblivion, her staff once again shattering into hundreds of pieces.
Great work everyone, and thank you for the comments, posts, and stories. This week's matchup is going to be a lot of fun, and I can't wait to read your reactions. Let the games begins!
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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.
