Two Bosses Enter: Murozond vs. Queen Azshara
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.
Another exciting episode of Two Bosses Enter hits you in the face right now with an exciting matchup between the infinite master of time, Murozond, and Queen Azshara, one of the most revered night elves in Azeroth's history. You will get to decide who moves on to the next round by voting for your favorite combatant and discussing the fight in the comments. You're going to have a blast.
The fight last week was a real doozy, wasn't it? The Echo of Sylvanas pulled out a decisive victory over the hordes of Old God fanboys, eager to watch their champion move forward into the tournament as the world goes mad watching. Too bad, since Zon'ozz is out. Better find a new servant of the Old Gods to flip out over.
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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: Murozond
Players like Murozond. The fight is engaging and fun, the story between the Murozond and Nozdormu was compelling for a time travel piece, and the Infinite Dragonflight is quite the long-standing story to wrap up. That was one loose end that I never really thought would be explored. Nonetheless, there it is. Resolution.
As the alter ego of the master of time himself, Murozond's abilities revolve around the slowing and speeding up of time itself. His fight against Archbishop Benedictus was an utter blowout, with Murozond taking 77.4% of the total vote, crushing the bishop completely. How very sad. Murozond has a following, and I'd caution Queen Azshara to watch out come voting time.
Murozond's abilities include:
Temporal Blast Kaboom! Murazond hits his enemies with arcane energy.
Distortion Bomb Orbs of temporal energy are launched around the arena, exploding and causing a zone of temporal distortion that does damage.
Infinite Breath Much like other dragons, this one breathes.
Nozdormu does swoop in to buff up Murazond's enemies, and you guys know how the hourglass works.
In Corner Two: Queen Azshara
Queen Azshara is a revered figure in the lore of Warcraft. Not only was she responsible for much of the turmoil brought against the night elves during the original Sundering, but now she's causing all sorts of trouble under the sea. Our Azshara, however, is locked in time, back at the forming of the Dragon Soul and the horrific demonic invasion that would change Azeroth forever.
I did not expect Hagara Stormbinder to do as well in the votes against Queen Azshara as she did. With 55.8% of the vote, Azshara cemented her win but with no perfect certainty. Her fans may be fickle. Watch out. Hagara's popularity is still unquestionable, though. Her fight is fun and accessible, with lots of moves that can cause some pretty hilarious circumstances and stories for many raids to come. Hagara, however, did not win. Azshara did. Get in the ring!
Queen Azshara's abilities include:
Servant of the Queen Azshara charms an opponent, forcing them to become a puppet and do Azshara's bidding. Destroying the puppet hand ends the effect.
Total Obedience Queen Azshara attempts to charm all opponents and turn them into puppets.
Queen Azshara's enchanted magi court will join her in battle
Frost Magus Uses frost abilities like Ice Fling, Coldflame, and Blades of Ice to damage opponents of the queen.
Fire Magus A fire mage specializing in Fireballs, Firebombs, and Blast Waves.
Arcane Magus This student of the arcane uses Arcane Shocks and Arcane Bombs to debuff and damage opponents.
Last Week's Winner: Echo of Sylvanas
Popularity contest? Never. Not according to the Echo of Sylvanas, anyway. She has a bow to my head and is making me say these things, but I don't understand why the coercion when I'd say these things of my own free will. Some people just never change.
Reader Rai's explanations of these matchups have been great the last few weeks, and this matchup has a nice comment about both contestants' abilities, putting the win in the Echo of Sylvanas' column.
I'd like to summarise one key event of this fight to demonstrate what might happen.
If Zon'ozz pushes Sylvanas into casting Wracking Pain and Sacrifice, he'd be trapped in the middle of a ring of ghouls. If the shadowy orb is up, it'd have nowhere to go and be bounced back by any one of the ghouls, forcing him into his shadowy "take extra damage" phase, while Sylvanas is immune to all damage during that time. By that point, sacrifice will hit and wipe most, if not all, of his health.
It doesn't matter how much life he drains from her or the amount of damage he does before she jumps up into the air, poor Zon'ozz's abilities are his own handicap here.
While mechanically difficult to complete in-game, I do like the idea of Zon'ozz channeling so much Old God energy and influence that he basically succumbs to its power. The feeling of witnessing the lieutenants of the Old Gods rush for power grabs as Deathwing makes his final attempts at perfect chaos on Azeroth.
icepyro's explanation of the Warlord Zon'ozz and Echo of Sylvanas fight was long but worth it, as the breakdown of the abilities is top notch, discussion of each contestant's gimmick and flavor, and the way it all should end seems like a fight worthy of both of these two cool combatants.
I love Sylvanas as much as the next Forsaken, but this is a lot closer that most people give credit for. As a healer in dungeons and raids, I find Warlord Zon'ozz much more taxing and it's not just because of length of fight.
An intelligent boss (rules of the ring here remember) can avoid Sylvanas's spots on the ground. He can easily nuke a ghoul and get out of dodge.
His ball mechanic is BS in LFR and does nothing if Sylvanas fails to bounce it and not much if she does bounce it. In normal it will kill her to solo it, and kill her to bounce it, so unless she does Wracking Pain then and let the ghouls bounce it, but then the question becomes whether he returns to center before her sacrifice.
Then there are the dots. Given there is only one person here except during one phase, the dot will be placed on Sylvanas. Disrupting Shadows hurts without heals or dispel. h-u-r-t-s.
Now the scenario everyone seems to be thinking, that Sylvanas will use Wracking Pain so the ghouls bounce the balls, and it hits Zon'ozz just in time for him to stand still and go into the black phase, allowing Sacrifice to be cast right there where he stands and takes him out, that might happen, but I don't think that's enough damage. If Zon'ozz survives that, he's won. The DoT will catch up, the ball mechanic may help a little, as will the general attacks while she's running around, although leet hunters jump, twist, shoot, twist, land while still going in the direction they want. On second thought, he will die because he will have already taken damage from her arrows and whatnot.
I think the worst part is both bosses have their nasty side and their gimmick mechanic side. So really it all comes down to timing. Does Zon'ozz really stupidly return to the same spot as Sylvanas after the ball bounces and make himself more vulnerable just as she casts Sacrifice? Is the ball still bouncing when she casts Sacrifice (he will be safely out of the way if so)? Does the DoT do sufficient damage before this? How about the arrows that can't be avoided (they do pretty decent damage too if left unhealed)?
Whoever wins, I bet they will be one attack away from death. Still the timing is more reliant on Sylvanas than Zon'ozz which gives him the edge. And really, we wouldn't even be discussing this if it's normal difficulty as everything Zon'ozz does will do sufficient damage that he wins (and fairly quickly I might add). All things considered, I have to give it to the Warlord.
Vote for the next week's winner now!
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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.
