Two Bosses Enter: Season 3 finale, Echo of Sylvanas vs. Murozond
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.
The fans have spoken, and your two finalists are chosen. The Echo of Sylvanas from the End Time dungeon will face off against Murozond, also from the End Time dungeon. I think we can say then that without a doubt, the new 5-man instances that dropped with patch 4.3 were popular enough to spawn some memorable bosses, specifically End Time. Nice job.
Murozond did not squeak by Mannoroth -- he trounced him. Taking 64% of the vote and beating Mannoroth by about a thousand votes, Murozond proved to be the real fan favorite and champion of his brackets. Using the cool hour glass factor as well as great encounter design memories and spectacular moments, the Murozond was raid-worthy in epicness but accessible to the entire World of Warcraft player base. That's an achievement all its own.
The real contest begins now, however, as Murozond and the Echo of Sylvanas go head-to-head, toe-to-toe, in a fan favorite matchup that will rival all previous finales. Rally your troops, because this is going to be down to the final few votes -- I can feel it. If you want to watch either one of these bosses dominate, it's time to vote now.
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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
In what was a much more one-sided fight than I thought would occur, the Echo of Sylvanas trounced the Echo of Baine two weeks ago. It appears that Sylvanas' fan base was living on both sides of the bracket, and when push came to shove, they sided with their Dark Lady. Influential tweets from mainstay community figures usually help, as well.
And it was a big win, too. With 2,986 votes, the Echo of Sylvanas carries with her a fan base that rivals any in the history of the column so far. A win against Sylvanas is a win against a torrential downpour of fans and votes. Advance at your own risk.
As for the fight itself, the Echo of Sylvanas has much, much more mobility than most of Mannoroth's other opponents in the tournament so far. She would easily be able to move to and trigger the hourglass and move from bombs on the ground. While the ghouls would die fairly quickly to breaths and bombs, Sylvanas's echo might not need to rely on them at all.
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: Murozond
While the win was not as lopsided as the Echo of Sylvanas', Murozond's fans cqame out to support their favorite aspect's wacky side. With 64% of the vote, Murozond moves into the second spot in the finals.
I had expected a better turnout for Mannoroth last week, but sadly, we saw the big old brute get knocked out pretty quickly. Oh, well. Murozond came out on top due, according to the comments, to his sexy voice and being a dragon aspect. I would have given it to him based on his ability to wield all that is past, present, and future. Sexy voice works too, I guess?
Murozond is going to have his work cut out for him against the Echo of Sylvanas. Her fan base is mighty, her arrows fired straight and true, and her creepy ghouls are creepy. Sylvanas' mobility could be a problem for Murozond, but his breath attacks give a distinct advantage over the ghouls and Sylvanas' travel arc. If Murozond can predict where she is going -- and I think he might be able to -- things will get a bit tricky for The Dark Lady.
Murozond's abilities include:
Temporal Blast Kaboom! Murazond hits his enemies with arcane energy.
Distortion Bomb Orbs of temporal energy are launched around the arena, exploding and causing a zone of temporal distortion that does damage.
Infinite Breath Much like other dragons, this one breathes.
Nozdormu does swoop in to buff up Murazond's enemies, and you guys know how the hourglass works.
Last Week's Winner: Murozond
Murozond is in no short supply of contempt for the timeways that cause his ultimate demise. Even he, the great seer, still cannot escape the eventual death that will consume him. I think the comments this week reflect an understand that Murozond's timelessness works more in favor than Mannoroth's army at his side.
Reader elevatorwiper makes an astute observation about Murozond, in that his name is also an anagram for "Bruce Wayne."
Murozond can see the intrecacies hidden away within even the most obsure pathways winding through time itself, he can send agents to manipulate, with both force and subterfuge, he conciders events many think so insignificant that they wouldnt give it a second glance yet altering just one them might have major concequences in the present or even distant future.
If a moment in time cannot be bent to serve his purpose then why would he bother attending?
If an outcome appears to be a hinderance to Murozond then its likely that your thinking too liniarly, if Murozond deigns to grace a moment with his presence and you manage to defeat him it can only because his defeat somehow furthers his grand timeline shattering scheme.
This competition exists because Murozond wills it, the competitiors win, die (or go on to serve him in instances with 'buggy' trash) because those outcomes suit him.
No matter who is fighting Murozond wins. Thats right. He's basically The Batman of warcraft.
Holy moly, you're right. Murozond has all the time in the world to figure out strategy. However, I'd like to think that Murozond's ability over time in this instance is relegated to the WoW Insider Arena, much like everything else. But, then again, just manipulating time inside the arena might be enough. Oh, time travel, this is why I occasionally detest you.
Nonetheless, I like the idea that Murozond would send Infinite Dragonflight forces into the past, change various little events, and then -- boom. Tables are turned. However, something that came to mind while writing this was that Murozond (and by extension, Nozdormu) only has control over time that involves Azeroth in some way. For one, we only see the Infinite Dragonflight in the timeways closest to the Caverns of Time. Or was it the other way around, and those specific timeways were opened up because they had problems in them?
Time travel, I want to kill you.
There is an amazing (and lengthy) story written by peritustyrionmograine that you should take a look at, so hit up the comments and scroll until you see the enormouse block of text. If you've reached another huge block of text, you've gone too far.
Reader jazmynslade gave the fight to Mannoroth with the understanding that Mannoroth is a bit smarter than we assume, considering he is a general and quite the conqueror.
I choose Mannoroth. People are not paying attention to the basic rules of "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."
Illidan is not there to tank Mannoroth. Strategic thinking means that he also would move out of the yellow stuff. Basically you take it down to the whole arena being full of Fire and yellow stuff, and a giant demon and a giant dragon smacking each other around. The edge would go to Mannoroth because if he retains his demon summoning ability, SOME of them will get through Especially if mannoroth is smart enough to kite Murzond out of the yellow.
I agree for the most part, because people need to give Mannoroth more credit. This crazy dude conquers worlds, subdues civilizations, and ends the lives of the most powerful beings across the galaxy. I'm sure he has faced countless demigods in the past. Murozond? Pfft. Just another demigod.
Uredus has a nice recap of two issues that will decide the fight for his favorite champion, Murozond.
The first thing to note is that Mannoroth is kinda big and heavy, and doesn't move much during the course of a normal fight.
The second thing to note is that his summoned demons always appear at the same place.
Both of these notations make distortion bomb EXCEEDINGLY dangerous, capable of wiping out the demons as they arrive and take down Mannoroth's health very quickly. Varo'then is nothing here.
Honestly, Mannoroth is worse off even if he tries to activate the hourglass himself (Varo'then would likely die too quickly to do it in one case, at least) as he'd just have to live through the pain again. I pity Varo'then's repair bills.
I agree, as well! I agree with everyone. Murozond's use of concentrated Distortion Bombs and, even with multiple hourglass uses, can quickly regain the advantage. Plus, the hourglass does not have unlimited uses, so if Mannoroth cannot defeat Murozon by the time those five charges are gone on the hourglass, Murozond becomes a much, much more dangerous threat.
While I won't quote you giant nerds about your love and obsession with Murozond's voice, I will agree that the voice acting in this expansion, for the most part, is pretty top notch.
ColterHuffman made a great point:
I'm going with Murozond. Nozdormu might have been unable to beat Mannoroth, but that's because he was calm and collected, with more care for the flow of time than winning. Murozond, on the other hand, would screw the space-time continuum in a heartbeat. Mannoroth is powerful, but he's no comparison to a maddened aspect.
I like this change of pace. Rather than being the calm, cool, collected version of himself, Murozond is the Danny DeVito half of the Twins, outrageous and unexpected. You don't expect him to stab you in the back with a time knife as Nozdormu. Murozond? Guy's got mad time knives.
This is it, folks. The final vote of season 3. Who takes it?
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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.
