One Boss Leaves: Anomalus comes up short
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.
For the second week in a row, the victor of Two Bosses Enter ... One Boss Leaves was determined by a margin of fewer than 100 votes. Anomalus fell short of his task of protecting Brann Bronzebeard throughout the Hall of Stone's Tribunal of Ages event, falling to the combined forces of the Tribunal's defenses.
"Anomalus wins this one without a sweat," wrote Saravok for the dissenters. "Anomalus engages the adds while moving around to avoid the mobs. When he opens a rift, his own adds join the fray. Soon enough, having lost about 25% of his HP, he shields himself. The Tribunal adds now fight Anomalus' adds. Anomalus' adds are losing -- but BAM, the AoE evens up the contest, and the fight rages on.
"Anomalus retakes the battle, with the Tribunal kicking it up a few notches to boot. Once again, our elemental hero takes a beating, pops up some rifts and hides in his shield. The multiple rifts now attack the adds, with lots of AoE. The Tribunal adds are quickly slaughtered."
"Round 3 and Anomalus, being a wily one (he beat the Blue Dragonflight at its own game; that has got to count for something), has a new strat," Saravok continued. "He just runs about, kiting the adds, while his own build up (though a few dying to the faces of doom). He goes immune again, and his adds win the day. Brann is fine, but had the fight gone any longer, Anomalus would have gone down; when immune, his adds can easily protect the rifts and keep hold of the adds, while the AoE rips them apart.
"Anomalus, the Arcane Elemental, is too much for a Titian Defense Grid. Shielding himself, his many adds to even the score of numbers, and his deft dodging of the Tribunal bring victory."
Chaos rules
Even readers who felt the matchup offered the potential for a definitive victory or defeat believed that chaos would be the battle's defining characteristic.
"Anomalus is a physical embodiment of chaos and anarchy," noted Conrad. "I think he wouldn't recognize Brann as being 'on his side' and kill Brann either directly or via splash damage."
"Very high-end security system vs. a being born from pure arcane energy," mused Siaperas. "I have every bit of confidence Anomalus can survive the Tribunal event, but I don't think he could keep Brann alive during it. In fact, I think Anomalus would destroy the room and accidently kill Brann in the process. His energy is too unstable and too powerful -- so powerful that even the Blue Dragonflight couldn't control him. It would be like asking a bomb to protect Brann.
"As the fight goes on, Anomalus expends more and more arcane energy, and he would do that until everything is destroyed. Anomolus fails by accidently killing Brann."
Ccbutch concurred: "Never liked voting for this, but I think it's a tie. Just one or two adds slipping by will be enough to take down Brann; however, in the process, I think Anomalus will destroy the security system. There's just gonna be so much random chaos in the room. It would be like putting small rocks in a blender; the blender would destroy most of the rocks, but by the end, it would be cracked, chipped, broken and worthless.
"Brann dies, the security system is destroyed and Anomalus dies. Nobody wins. However, it would be very interesting to see."
