Two Bosses Enter: Nefarian vs. Kel'Thuzad
by Elizabeth Harper 
Jul 29th 2007 at 8:15PM
Two bosses enter... but only one will get to leave in WoW Insider's series of fantasy deathmatches. We've scoured the instances of Azeroth and Outland looking for the most interesting bosses Blizzard has to offer us and picked out a group of 32 to pit against one another until we come out with a single winner in the end. And the best part -- you get to tell us who wins. Today we're going to be considering a fight between Kel'Thuzad, the final boss in Naxxramas, and Nefarian, the final boss in Blackwing Lair. Want to learn more about these two bosses and voice your opinion on who would win in a fight? Keep reading!
Kel'Thuzad does frost and shadow damage with:
- single-target and multi-target frostbolts,
- the ability to mind-control up to 4 targets,
- the ability to create a shadow fissure, causing massive shadow damage to anyone in its radius,
- a frost blast that immobalizes and damages its target (100% of its health),
- a mana detonation which causes causes mana users to explode, dealing damage to all of those around them.
When he reaches 40% health, Kel'Thuzad will summon five Guardians of Icecrown to fight with him. Their only special ability is Blood Tap, which gives them +15% to all damage and stacks up to 99 times. When Kel'Thuzad dies, these will despawn.
This should be all of the information on the Kel'Thuzad fight necessary, but if you want all of the details, check WoWWiki.
The dragon Nefarian, son of Deathwing and leader of the Black Dragonflight, resides within his Blackwing Lair, a fortress inside Blackwing Mountain. As with Kel'thuzad, we're going to start considering this fight in phase 2, because phase 1 involves taking out adds.
Nefarian starts the fight by throwing a shadowflame out on his targets, dealing a decent amount of shadow damage up-front as well as applying a DoT doing additional shadow damage over time. Throughout the fight, he primarily relies on physical damage with the occasional shadowflame to bring down his targets, but he has a whole bag of tricks -- the latter of which probably wouldn't have any effect on Kel'Thuzad. He'll regularly shadowflame and cleave his primary target, as well as casting an AoE fear every 30 seconds.
When his health reaches 20%, Nefarian will summon a number of Bone Constructs, which hit fairly hard but have low health, and are easily taken out by AoE attacks.
This should be all of the pertinant information, but for full details on the fight, check WoWWiki.
Nefarian starts the fight by throwing a shadowflame out on his targets, dealing a decent amount of shadow damage up-front as well as applying a DoT doing additional shadow damage over time. Throughout the fight, he primarily relies on physical damage with the occasional shadowflame to bring down his targets, but he has a whole bag of tricks -- the latter of which probably wouldn't have any effect on Kel'Thuzad. He'll regularly shadowflame and cleave his primary target, as well as casting an AoE fear every 30 seconds.
When his health reaches 20%, Nefarian will summon a number of Bone Constructs, which hit fairly hard but have low health, and are easily taken out by AoE attacks.
This should be all of the pertinant information, but for full details on the fight, check WoWWiki.
Now, before we get to our vote, I want to be clear that we're considering these two bosses to have similar health, level, and damage capacity. We're trying to put them on an even playing field, instead of just presuming Kel'Thuzad would win because he's in the higher level dungeon. But bearing that in mind, tell us who you think would come out ahead if these two bosses met -- and why.
I'm sorry, everyone, but this week's voting is officially closed. You can check the results here!
Filed under: Bosses, Two Bosses Enter
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Baluki Jul 29th 2007 8:33PM
Hmm...I wonder if Kel'thuzad wears an Onyxia-Scale Cloak.
Sam Jul 29th 2007 8:52PM
Kel'thuzad.
He's the majordomo of the Lich King, who has been confirmed as the most powerful being on Azeroth. Take a second and try to imagine the kind of power the Lich King must give his generals.
Jason Jul 29th 2007 9:13PM
Every week, people ignore the 'similar health, damage and armor' bit at the end. Get a clue, people.
Anyway, all those things equal, I'll give this one to Nefarian. Son of a Dragon Aspect > Lackey of the Lich King.
keegan Jul 29th 2007 9:14PM
I thought we weren't counting adds as part of the boss fight? Apparently the rules change each week? You even state in this very feature that you are disregarding adds, but later go on to count the summoning of add's as one of each bosses abilities, without discounting those abilities? Good feature. What a joke.
Asspigeon Jul 29th 2007 9:15PM
I think Kel would just mc Nef off a cliff or something
Asspigeon Jul 29th 2007 9:16PM
But I guess he would just fly back up...
Shadowisp Jul 29th 2007 9:16PM
Lich Lord Kel'Thuzad... why?
How many Great Dragons have fallen and become undead ? Proof they die and succumb to being undead.
Xiphus Jul 29th 2007 9:53PM
I say Kel'thuzad. Immobilize Nefarian at one spot and then he goes far away and proceed to detonate his mana over and over again. By the end of it, Nefarian can no longer do anything but rely on melee, and even then, he still is going to get rooted and still be pelted by frostbolts and the occasional mana detonation.
However, if Nefarian managed to get off his shadow flame first, he might win.
Zuty Jul 29th 2007 9:59PM
@ 3 -
I agree, People seem to go with the higher instances (Except in very few cases) and they disregard a lot of information that would change the battle otherwise. Also, the add things shouldn't count either since it was established as a rule that NO adds will count. People just don't understand.
~Zuty
bwest0526 Jul 29th 2007 10:34PM
Nefarian, DoTs FTW!!! Even if Kal kills Nef first those DoTs will take him down as well...I like the Lich King, he is my favorite Blizz Char. and yet I still think that Nef would be able (with same health, power, etc.) take Kal down in a "BLAZE OF GLORY"
Des Jul 29th 2007 10:52PM
Nefarian would win by default if Kel has no Ony cloak...at the end of the DoT, you instantly die even if you survive it.
Well, we're making it so Nef is immune to any instant death spells, too, but the thing is that Kel'Thuzad doesn't have any instant death spells. Part of the challenge behind Nef is the requirement of an Onyxia cloak.
If we ignore that, if Nefarian doesn't move out of the shadow fissures and we're assuming total AI stupidity, the damage from each fissure will be too severe as he casts them very frequently. Ditto for not interrupting the single target frostbolt. Most of the major tricks of both bosses will not be able to do anything to one another, so it's down to brute force and who has the higher HP.
CauthonDM Jul 29th 2007 11:11PM
I see it being pretty even until the summoned adds arrive.
For the first half of the fight, Nefarian keeps in melee range, moving to avoid the fissures. His cleaves keeping up with the frost damage Kel is throwing out. Kel'Thuzad reaches 40% just before Nefarian and summons in the Guardians.
If they were humanoid or beast adds, then Nefarian would be at an advantage. He could either chain fear them, or as Kel'Thuzad was trained as a mage, could force Kel to Wild Polymorph them (ok, it's not likely, but it adds flavour to the fight). Unfortunately they are, of course, undead leaving Nefarian with little recourse but to allow them to hit him as he continues to concentrate on Kel.
Nefarian hits 20% and summons in 42+ Bone Constructs. However Kel'Thuzad's spells have no limitations in targetting undead. A quick Frost Blast into the oncoming horde of adds and they go down quickly. Throughout the carnage the Guardians are getting increasingly more powerful and without any more tricks to call on Nefarian is killed.
So the end result is Kel'Thuzad with a clear victory. If neither side had been allowed adds, I would have handed the victory to the Nefarian. With the Scourge Army behind him, Kel gets another undead dragon in his collection.
Ben Jul 30th 2007 2:16AM
Nefarian's Bone Constructs aren't new adds, he simply resurrects the dead draconids from phase 1. So if we skip phase 1, he has nothing to resurrect.
Genoce Jul 30th 2007 2:16AM
There's one really big thing about Kel'thuzad which even blizzard has forgotten. Lich Kings are supposed to be immortal, cannot be killed by any mortals.
Dnn Jul 30th 2007 2:21AM
Kel'Thuzad's iceblocks (caused by Frost Blast) deal damage over time based on the target's max HP. Unless Nefarian is immune to Frost Blast I don't see how he could ever survive that.
Cathormac Jul 31st 2007 12:07AM
I would have to vote Nef for this one. Yes, Kelthuzad's a Lich, yes, he as some badass powers (mc, frost skills that all mages wish they could have, etc), and as one person has mentioned, he can't be killed by mortals. However, he's mainly a clothy-type npc.
Nefarian though? He's a dragonkin -- more specifically the son of a dragon aspect. This would 1) make him non-mortal, and 2) make him immune to mind controlling effects. Add to this, oh yes, he's a dragon, so he's huge and has a lot of melee AP, and quite a bit of stamina.
Again, with the above stated, I'd have to vote Nef.
crapton Jul 30th 2007 4:44AM
this feature has become a running joke
Citra Jul 30th 2007 5:10AM
>14 Good job Kel isn't a Lich King then isn't it.
Forstias Jul 30th 2007 6:39AM
Power to the Black Dragonflight :P
Tridus Jul 30th 2007 8:39AM
Can we maybe get this text bolded so people actually see it:
"We're trying to put them on an even playing field, instead of just presuming Kel'Thuzad would win because he's in the higher level dungeon."