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Two Bosses Enter: Anub'Arak pounds Dred, Eregos faces Skadi
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. Welcome to the quarter-finals of the Original Five-Man Wrath of the Lich King season. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble! Last week's battle was all about size. In the end, being tougher trumped being larger, as Anub'Arak Pounded King Dred with 64% of the spectator vote. We'll get a view of the beat-down after the break -- plus we'll set up the vote for this week's battle between Ley-Guardian Eregos and Skadi the Ruthless. Alert fans will note a different schedule on their weekly Thunderdome tickets. Starting this week, you'll find the past week's roundup and the next week's fight and vote in a single post. Be sure to follow the jump if you'd like to debate and vote on the upcoming battle between Eregos and Skadi. Then starting next week, we'll be hosting the Two Bosses Thunderdome on Wednesdays (moved up from Thursdays). Join us after the break for last week's wrap-up plus next week's battle: Ley-Guardian Eregos (The Oculus) versus Skadi the Ruthless (Utgarde Pinnacle). Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ... Dyin' time's here.
Two Bosses Enter: Anub'Arak vs. King Dred
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. Welcome to the semi-finals of the five-man Wrath of the Lich King season. Scroll to the end of the last round's post for a listing of semi-final matches. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble! Welcome to the semi-finals of the Wrath of the Lich King Original Five-Mans season of Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves! This week's matchup is big -- really, really big. In fact, we're thinking about expanding the Two Bosses Thunderdome so that our opponents can physically fit inside (and because these adds are not something we want running loose in the stands). Top-seeded Anub'Arak of Azjol-Nerub squares off against the ever-popular King Dred in this week's Thunderdome match. There are sure to be plenty of hasty conclusions: "It's Anub, man -- he rocks ToC!" (wrong fight there, dude) and the inevitable "OMNOMNOM" of the dino fanboys. Rescuing us from the tedium are our loyal fans, who've built an entire season of convincing scenarios that make weighing your vote a real pleasure. Be sure to read (and contribute to) the comments before you cast your vote -- you just might change your mind after seeing what your fellow spectators have offered up for consideration.
[1.Local]: What's all that morrowgrain for, anyway?
Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. You know, Archdruid Fandouche Toolhelm Fandral Staghelm sure does ask for a lot of Morrowgrain ... So what's up with that? Shade: He constructed a World Tree without the blessing of the dragon flights, causing a tree that is warped and corrupted enough that it's being invaded by harpies, grell and grelkin, and corrupting the furbolgs that are supposed to be living happily on it. A tree that invites the invasion of satyr -- and the satyr are referenced in the War of the Ancients trilogy as being products of Sargeras, warping some dude with a god complex. Silithus? He defended Silithus once, yes -- and watched his son ripped apart before his eyes in the process. That broke him. He shattered the Sceptre of the Shifting Sands, the key to opening the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, when the dragon flights asked him to keep guard over it in the event that the Qiraj returned. He said he was done with the dragon flights and done with protecting the place. His last words upon leaving the scene were as follows: "My son's soul will find no comfort in this hollow victory, dragon. I will have him back. Though it takes millennia, I will have my son back!" You want to know what he's doing with the morrowgrain? He's trying to find a way to use it to bring his son back from the dead. He may have been a "leader" at some point, but after the War of the Shifting Sands, everything -- and I mean everything -- that man does is somehow related to his son's death. ... well, at least, that's what I'm putting my money on.
One Boss Leaves: King Dred chomps Herald Volazj
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. This season's combatants come from the original five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King. The heat's on in the Two Bosses Thunderdome -- not only in the ring itself, as competitors slash, cast and bash one another on their way toward the final matchup, but in the comments too. How will style balance substance? Who can make the best case for a victory? This week, the votes pointed to King Dred. The great devilsaur raked opponent Herald Volazj 50% to 46%. Spectators who sided with King Dred put their faith in his sheer power. "... I think this one will have to go to Dred," observed Psiwave. "I'm a Herald fanboy (Lovecraft FTW!), but the herald is punching at mist here. Dred runs on pure instinct: no doubts, no regrets, just hunger." But plenty of readers believed Volajz's tricks would carry the match.
Two Bosses Enter: Herald Volazj vs. King Dred
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. This season's combatants come from the original five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King. This week's Two Bosses fantasy deathmatch throws another loser who was voted back into the competition into the pit: King Dred, who lost his last match against King Ymiron, returns to test his claws against the subtle insinuations of Herald Volazj. Volazj is riding high in this season's tournament, easily winning his first matchup against Novos the Summoner and then shutting down Grand Magus Telestra. This week's ground rules: Assume that the opponents share similar levels, health pools and comparative overall damage output. This deathmatch takes place in neutral territory, which shall in no way hinder either opponent from using his usual resources. Don't get caught up in gameplay mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter. Don't neglect style, story and scale. Let the doors open, and let the contestants come forward. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ... Dyin' time's here.
One Boss Leaves: King Ymiron dethrones King Dred
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. Welcome to Round Two of the five-man Wrath of the Lich King season. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble! Despite King Ymiron's cavalier dismissal from the cage by the dino-fanboys ("On the one hand, Ymiron is a Viking. On the other hand, Dred is a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The part of my brain that is still 5 years old has decided this is no contest. If Ymiron is not allowed to use Dred as a mount, then he must die so that Dred may live. – DeathPaladin), the Vrykul king ruled King Dred in last week's Two Bosses Thunderdome, 51% to 44%. Comments from the stands were lively in what one fan called "one of the most deadly and greatest match-ups so far."Reader Pollux contributed not one but two viewpoints on the matchup.Pollux: The recounting of this clash begins with King Ymiron, who is in his throne room, rubbing the last few smatterings of blood off his face and armor. He's just finished hacking and blasting his way through a ragtag crew of miscreants who, like so many others, believed they could stand against him, even in his own hall. He's slightly weary after this latest confrontation and is forced to admit to himself that he is not quite as quick on his feet as he once was ... nor as resilient. The cuts from his enemies' blades seem to pierce deeper; the residual sting of their spells doesn't seem to fade as speedily as it used to. With downcast features, King Ymiron is momentarily lost in thought, but he is soon awakened by a distant rumbling.
Two Bosses Enter: King Dred vs. King Ymiron
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. Welcome to Round Two of the five-man Wrath of the Lich King season. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble! It's Battle Royale among the royals this week, as King Dred of Drak'tharon Keep squares off against King Ymiron of Utgarde Pinnacle. Both contenders enter the Thunderdome on the heels of impressive first-round victories. King Dred crunched the doomed, fanatical Jedoga Shadowseeker in less than two chomps of his great jaws, while King Ymiron practically ushered Drakkari Colossus out of the Thunderdome with a wave of one finger. Will a battle between the King of the Beasts and the King of the Vrykul prove more challenging to both?Here are the ground rules for this week's royal melee: Assume that the opponents along with their minions share similar levels, health pools and comparative overall damage output. This deathmatch takes place in King Ymiron's throne room, but this shall not hinder King Dred from being able to summon raptors during battle. All the usual minions will be available to each boss. Don't get caught up in gameplay mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter. Don't neglect style, story and scale. And now, the weekly Thunderdome call-out: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ... Dyin' time's here.
Shifting Perspectives: Leveling 51-60
Every week, Shifting Perspectives examines issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week, we haul ourselves to Outland and are shocked to discover that +spellpower sometimes comes on leather.The above video is the result of an idle question I was asked recently by a friend: "So how much damage would you guys do in caster form meleeing?" I started to answer and then realized I had no idea. The notion of actually hitting something with a weapon is utterly foreign to the class. We have claws and a can of celestial pain for that nonsense if provoked, but still, the question was pretty interesting, particularly because after seeing Prinnygod's comment from last week I started to wonder about all the different ways you could level as a Druid if you deliberately avoided Cat and Moonkin. Sure, you'd be a gibbering wreck at the level cap, but that's beside the point. Blizzard once had a talent called Weapon Balance in the Balance tree that improved our melee damage with weapons by 10% -- they were expecting us to hit things. I wondered how that would have worked out if Druid talent trees had never been overhauled.So I took my main to the mobs outside the Argent Tournament and smacked stuff while running a stopwatch. What you'll see here is a level 79 Frostbrood Whelp with 12,600 health which took me 34.4 seconds to kill, with two global cooldowns devoted to casting a Rejuvenation and then a Lifebloom. I'm currently on a Feral (Bear) spec and thus wearing gear that does help one's melee damage, mind you, but that still works out to a godawful 366.28 DPS. The moral of our little story can be found at the end of the video. Master of Arms is going to be a real trip.
One Boss Leaves: Dred devours Shadowseeker
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.King Dred demonstrated how he earned his title in this week's Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves, shredding Jedoga Shadowseeker with nearly three-fourths of the reader vote. Delightfully, quite a few fans stepped up to the plate this week with their own versions of how this deathmatch would go down. Let's look at a few of the more entertaining narratives.Blasterion: The face-off: Jedoga calls for her minions, while Dred calls one raptor to combat. Dred Grievous Bites Jedoga, as well as puts up his other debuffs. Jedoga calls for her first minion to be sacrificed. Dred uses his fear; the minion runs around while the raptor minion and Dred pick him off. DELICIOUS. Jedoga comes down, irritated how her minions were weak. She casts Thundershock and kills the raptor. The minions to their masters are different; to Jedoga, her minions are tools, but to Dred, his raptors are loyal subjects. Enraged, Dred savagely destroys Jedoga and the rest of her minions. DELICIOUS.
