Two Bosses Enter: Echo of Jaina vs. Morchok
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.
At the beginning of season 3 of Two Bosses Enter, I changed the rules a tiny bit, finally allowing raid bosses to be a part of the competition. While some have brought up that the power differentials between a 5-man dungeon boss and a 10- or 25-man are an unfair dynamic, I counter those statements with only this: It's my fake arena show, not yours! Jaina vs. Morchok, go!
On the last thrilling and chilling episode of Two Bosses Enter, the lost and angry essence of Baine Bloodhoof utterly wiped out the satyr guard Peroth'arn from the Well of Eternity. It wasn't even close. You guys and gals love your tauren heroes, and I will not deny you the championing of one of your prolific and hooved role models. The Echo of Baine was well represented in the comments, as we will soon see after checking out this week's combatants.
Are you ready for a serious rumble between two powerhouses? Master of the arcane versus an elemental monstrosity -- one is going home next week.
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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 Jaina
Night has fallen on the Dragonblight. The Destroyer's once-hulking corpse forever bleeds molten fire. Deep within the Azure Dragonshrine walks the spiritual remains of one of the greatest masters of the arcane -- Jaina Proudmoore, daughter of the late Grand Admiral Daelin Proudmoore and leader of Theramore. Barely contained within her form is a broken and wracked remembrance of the leader once alive.
The Echo wields Jaina's signature staff, which must first be reconstituted from its 16 pieces before Jaina's spirit materializes. Fire, arcane, and frost are all at her disposal.
Jaina is already an interesting character who has been around in Warcraft lore for a long time now. That being said, it looks like Jaina's Cataclysm journey is only the beginning. With her own novel by Christie Golden coming out this year, we can expect a lot from this powerful mage.
The Echo of Jaina's abilities include:
Blink Jaina blinks.
Frost Blades Jaina will fire three large frost blades that fan out in front of her.
Frostbolt Volley Frostbolts erupt from Jaina's hands, dealing damage and slowing movement speed.
Flarecore Echo of Jaina throws a Flarecore ember on the ground near her enemies, which explodes if it is touched. If the embers are not triggered in 10 seconds, the Flarecore explodes for massive damage.
Pyroblast Jaina winds up a huge damaging fireball and launches it at a target, dealing heavy damage.
Read more about Jaina Proudmoore on Know Your Lore, our very own fantastic lore column about World of Warcraft. You can also see her article on Wowpedia.
In Corner Two: Morchok
In this corner lurks the great Morchok, a massive elemental that leads the assault against the foundation of Wyrmrest Temple itself. After the fall of Ragnaros and Al'akir, Deathwing's elemental allies quickly lost large numbers and support as their leaders were dispatched and the elemental planes once again belonged to natural chaos. Morchok, like most of those in Deathwing's shadow, has been broken so completely that he now believes the end of the world is the only way to break his painful bonds.
With the advent of the Raid Finder, more and more players are experiencing raid encounters than ever. The fact that most people in game these days can tell me what happens during the final Deathwing fight is pretty revolutionary in MMO terms. Morchok is the first raid boss to enter the tournament, but please do not let his raid boss status skew your power levels stuff too much.
For raid bosses, I will be using the Raid Finder abilities and boss kits that each combatant posseses. Morchok, for instance, will not have his Korchom ability, which changes the Morchok encounter for the heroic difficulty; Raid Finder mode is it, folks.
The great Morchok's abilities include:
Stomp Morchok stomps the ground real hard, squishing things.
Crush Armor Morchok slams his target, dealing extra damage and reducing the target's armor.
Resonating Crystal A crystal is conjured that explodes after 12 seconds. The damage is split between the nearest enemies.
Furious Morchok enrages at 20% health, increasing his damage and attack speed.
The Earth Consumes You! Morchok pulls all of his enemies toward him, inflicting damage. As Morchok pulls his enemies, Earth's Vengence calls forth earthen shards from the ground to block the terrain. Black Blood of the Earth begins to spew forth, covering the terrain and inflicting damage over time.
Check out WoW Insider's guide to Morchok.
Last Week's Winner: Echo of Baine
Baine Bloodhoof, son of the great Cairne Bloodhoof, easily trounced his demonic opponent by a solid number of votes. Many readers put some great stories, including some longer ones that I'm going to quote but not paste in full, so check those links.
Reader Fletcher had to remind us all of the practical problems we deal with every day. Save a PUG -- dodge the eyes:
Pugs have shown me that the most likely outcome is that Peroth'arn fails to dodge the dragon mobs, pulls aggro, runs to the rest of his party, dies, and wipes the group.
It's almost sad that I can feel the pain just oozing off Fletcher's post. Let's all sit in silence for a moment.
Quaza's long tale of the matchup was fantastic. You can read the whole thing here, and it's definitely worth a read. Some of my favorite excerpts from the post are below.
The Echo of Baine and Peroth'arn really get into it:
Leaping and landing on the rock with the beast - Baine, he remembered - Pero'than dips his claws in the lava and begins a punch filled with the raw power of molten earth. But the tauren has tricks of his own. Stepping back to dodge the blow, Baine dips his axe in the pool behind him and slashes at his opponent, slicing tufts of satyr hair off Pero'than's chest, and leaving a trail of smoke sprouting from the shortened fur.
Pero'than notices a shift in Baine's footing, and steps to the side to avoid hiss obvious kick. That would have worked well, except that the kick wasn't aimed at Pero'than, it was aimed at the extremely fragile rock beneath both of them.
The rock shatters.
The finale was the best part, as I am sure you will agree:
"This was supposed to be an easy fight!" Pero'than roars. "You're just a filthy animal." As if to prove his point, Baine snorts and paws the ground with his hoof.
"Now you will KNOW POWER!"
Pero'than's magic lifts Baine up as he begins to consume the apparition. But as luck would have it, he lost his footing and fell to one knee, shattering his concentration. Realizing his mistake, Pero'than fades into the shadows, and sends out his demonic eyes to search for the ghost, who seemingly vanished along with him.
Baine suddenly appears, though not die to his magic. He shatters the platform beneath Pero'than's feet, bringing renewed agony as lava burns skin already burnt. Feeling weak, Pero'than swims to the only platform not yet used (the one closest to shore).
"This filthy animal says hi."
Once more, the full force of Baine's totems slam into Perothan, knocking him back to the molten debris. Searing pain engulfs Pero'than, who knew that he spent much longer than is healthy in the lava. He blacks out.
Wonderful. This is the kind of stuff that really shines. Reader Rai also had a terrifically written piece with Peroth'arn as the victor, besting Baine by exploiting his sadness and weakness at the end of all things. Read the full post here, but here's one of my favorite parts:
"Whoever you let down, whoever you lost...you're going to fail as miserably as they did!" Peroth'arn cackled, casting an incantation and causing a fireball, constructed from fel magic and dangerous flame, to land directly on Baine, burning at the apparition's form. Baine howled in rage, raising his axe high and smashing down towards Peroth'arn, who stepped backwards nimbly. The axe struck the stone and the platform beneath them both disappeared into the lava. Hissing, Peroth'arn endured the heat and swiftly leapt onto another platform, turning to face where Baine had stood: there was nothing. He looked at his claws, which were red with heat, looking back up with only a moment to spare before the totem hit him in the face.
"Cheap trick!" the satyr groaned, climbing to his feet as the ferocious apparition clomped out of the lava, continuing his assault. His axe was red with molten fury, and one hit was enough to tell Peroth'arn that unless he did something, his minutes were numbered.
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Now it's your turn. Who wins this week's matchup?
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.
