One Boss Leaves: Loken clears Round One
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.
Loken. You knew he was going to win, even before you saw who he was going up against – he's just built that kind of a rep. As with all Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves matches, however, it's how they get there that makes it interesting. Apologies that I wasn't able to wrap up this battle for you last week while I was on vacation. Rest assured that I'd never leave our hungry spectators hanging! This week, let's look back at some of the lore-based points readers brought out about Loken versus Ley-Guardian Eregos.
Rai: Even if by some miracle Loken managed to win, due to Eregos' being faster, able to shift and most likely being more intelligent, he'd still die. Something so powerful that doesn't require five Drakes and coordination to take down the Ley-Guardian is bound to attract the attention of Malygos ...
Tridus: "Something so powerful that doesn't require five Drakes and coordination to take down the Ley-Guardian is bound to attract the attention of Malygos ..." But that's where it gets interesting!
Loken kills Eregos.
Malygos gets involved and kills Loken.
Loken, dying, summons Algalon.
I do believe Malygos now has a bit of a problem. :)
Oznak: But there you get into the fact that the Aspects (Alexstraza, Ysera, Deathwing/Neltharion, Nozdormu and Malygos, for those who don't know) were set to watch over Azeroth by none other than the Titans. Malygos may be very insane, but I doubt he will ignore the ramifications of killing the Titans' number one man on Azeroth. He would either know what's coming, or possibly expect one of their number to show up later demanding answers.
And to go along with that, lorewise, there's also the possibility that Loken has some control over the Aspects, if not all dragons. If he's the lord of the castle and they're the guard dogs, that puts him in charge. A fight with Malygos, even if in the cards, might not turn out so predictably.
malaika: I'm trying to see this, lore-wise. The first time as a player that I got to see Loken is through the quest The Reckoning -- basically Thorim and Razorscale versus Loken (two 25-man bosses versus a five-man end-boss), and Loken one-shots them. Both. However, he states that "This fight is anything but fair!" and ordinarily Thorim should win. But this is Loken's style: cunning and resourceful. Just like the god Loki, he is a trick-player, a liar, a deceiver. Unfair is his style.
If we just say that these two bosses are insta-summoned in an Roman-style Arena and convinced to fight gladiator style, Eregos might win.
The way I see it is that Malygos starts to feel the dark influence coming from Ulduar. He sends minions to spy and they say that Loken, the watcher of Ulduar, is insane. They realize that they have to bring this guy out, as he might be too powerful near Ulduar. However, Loken sees this happening and hatches a plan. Malygos sends his most powerful lackey, Eregos, to catch Loken but falls straight into the trap.
As Eregos is trapped down by dark tentacles, he cries: "We were supposed to be on neutral ground; the rules state it." Loken replies: "But all of Northrend and most of Azeroth is my masters' ground. And besides, I never agree to fair fights; not my style."
And then they poof away, and Loken sways Eregos' loyalties, fuses some metal to his body, and he becomes Razorscale's consort in Ulduar.
Tigron: Amid the frozen dunes of the Dragonblight, the leaders of the Wyrmrest Accord can only watch in growing despair from the roof of the Temple, as two mighty champions, once noble guardians of Azeroth, are locked in brutal combat, wielding energies that could tear the planet apart before their very eyes.
When the battle begins, it appears that Ley-Guardian Eregos has the upper hand. Haughtily, he hovers high above his opponent Loken, bombarding the Prime Watcher with massive arcane bolts from afar. All Loken can do at this point is endure the dragon's assault, clearing away the blue whelps that assist the dragon with an occasional Lightning Nova.
This continues for several minutes, until suddenly, Eregos shifts into the astral plane. "What?!" he shouts. "How could he have hurt me so much already?!" It is only now that the dragon realizes that he has been taking continual damage from Loken's Pulsing Shockwave, made potent by the distance he had kept between them. A humiliating setback, but the battle must go on. Seething with indignity, Eregos summons massive orbs of arcane energy and sends them towards the Titan.
In response to this new attack, Loken moves for the first time since the encounter began, evading the slow-moving orbs with little trouble. However, things become more complicated when whelps start to gather around him. Since he cannot pause to channel his Nova, Loken instead tries to pick off the insects with Arc Lightning. Eventually, a spark catches, setting off a chain reaction that kills off a great number of the tightly packed whelps and makes Loken's life a bit easier.
When Eregos comes out of his astral shift, he resolves not to repeat his previous mistake and swoops down to deal with the fallen Titan at close range. However, this is exactly where Loken wants him. After trading blows for a few seconds, Loken powers up a massive Lightning Nova, which takes the dragon completely by surprise. In an instant, the proud arcane guardian is shocked straight to his core, knocking him right back into the astral plane.
Loken's gambit has worked, but his triumph is short-lived. For now, the orbs are back again. At such close quarters, Loken has little time to maneuver and takes additional damage from the ethereal spheres. Also, since all remaining whelps were killed in that last Nova, his Arc Lightning chain is gone as well. Loken, the Prime Designate of Ulduar, now begins to wonder if perhaps he is not so perfect after all.
Having suffered embarrassing losses at both long and short range, the blue dragon comes out of his second astral shift and launches directly into a furious Enrage. Massive meteors of magical death fly everywhere. Having been bombarded, swarmed, bitten and zapped, Loken cannot long endure this renewed assault. The fresh swarm of whelps only adds a lighted match to the bonfire.
At last, Loken takes an enormous bolt of energy square in the chest, and his living stone form gives in with a sickening crack. "My death ... heralds the end ... of this world," he sighs as his heavy body crashes to the icy ground. Exhausted, with his muscles still shaking with electric current, the massive blue dragon also collapses, his breathing shallow.
And not far away, Alexstraza turns her head away from the tragic scene and weeps.
