Two Bosses Enter: Sapphiron vs. Hakkar

Welcome to the beginning of the third bracket. It's been six months since we began this battle of the raid bosses and we are down from 32 to just 8 contenders for the title. Here's the line up for the next four weeks:

Sapphiron vs Hakkar
Ragnaros vs. Kel'Thuzad
Illidan Stormrage vs. The Twin Emperors
Princess Huhuran vs. C'Thun

Today, we jump into the first of these titanic battles with the undead frost wyrm Sapphiron vs. the Troll god of Zul'Gurub, Hakkar the Soulflayer. Who shall fall and who shall emerge victorious? Read on to decide for yourself and cast your vote!

Sapphiron was once a living member of the Blue Dragonflight -- though those times are long past. In a fight with Arthas, Sapphiron was transformed into a frost wyrm who thenceforth served the Scourge. In the game, he may be found in Naxxramas guarding Kel'Thuzad's inner sanctum. Sapphiron has a variety of hard-hitting frost spells and can also drain life from his targets. Further, he can take to the air during a fight to attack his targets from a safe distance.

In a combat, Sapphiron will use the following abilities:

• Cleave: A standard frontal cleave.

• Icebolt: A ranged frost attack that Sapphiron only uses from the air. It does frost damage to its primary target and stuns them for several seconds as well as splash damage to targets in the vicinity.

• Frost Breath: A very high damage frost AoE that Sapphiron casts from the air before landing.

• Frost Aura: An aura that does frost damage over time to anyone within range.

• Life Drain: A DoT that (surprise!) drains life from the target and heals Sapphiron. (And be warned -- it heals him for more than it hurts you.)

• Blizzard: A frost AoE that slows movement speed if you're caught in it.
  

And if the fight lasts longer than 15 minutes? Sapphiron will enrage, causing his Frost Aura to do 600% normal damage. Ouch.

For players, Hakkar is a gimmick fight. If you know the trick to the fight, the execution is simple, but if you don't know the trick, you'll never beat him. For his abilities, we're going to presume that he's on his own, without any support from his priests or priestesses, which leaves a simple encounter for us to think about. Hakkar brings down his opponents with the following abilities:

• Corrupted Blood: a shadow damage DoT

• Blood Siphon: a channeled spell that stuns the target, does damage, and heals Hakkar for about five times the damage done. Hakkar casts this like clockwork every 90 seconds. (For player raids, the trick is to get poisoned by nearby mobs -- then Hakkar's Blood Siphon will siphon the poison and damage him instead of healing him. Without this, he simply heals too much to be killable.)
  

• Enrage: after 10 minutes, Hakkar will enrage, greatly increasing his damage output

Hakkar also has two different mind control abilities, but these would both be rather pointless in a one on one situation.

Both raid mobs can drain the other's life to feed their own health. And while Hakkar Enrages sooner than Sapphiron kicks into super frostbite mode, Sapphiron has more damage abilities. Who will pull victory from the jaws of defeat and who will be heading back to their lair in shame? Cast your vote below and remember, this isn't about level differences so just consider fighting styles. Results will be tabulated next weekend and the winner will move on to the final four.
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