Another weekend, and you know what that means -- it's time for another episode of
Two Bosses Enter, WoW Insider's series of fantasy deathmatches between some of the toughest bosses in the
World of Warcraft. Each week, two bosses walk into our arena, but only one of them gets to walk out again -- and at the very end, we'll wind up with one boss who wins out over all. The best part of all this is that you get to tell us who winds up the winner every week.
Some internet connectivity issues caused us to skip last week, but this week we're back with a vengeance, talking about one of my favorite boss fights in the game -- Vaelastrasz the Corrupt, who we're pitting against Doom Lord Kazzak. So what are you still reading this for? Read on to find out a bit about each of these bosses and tell us who would win if they met up!

Older players will remember the Outland outdoor boss Doom Lord Kazzak back when he was just Lord Kazzak, wiping out level 60 raid groups in the Blasted Lands. But with the release of The Burning Crusade, Kazzak went through the Dark Portal to Outland and is tougher than ever. He relies on a not-too-exciting combination of melee and shadow damage to bring down his opponents, doing Cleaves (frontal AoE melee damage), Thunderstomps (a short-range damage and slow), Shadowbolt Volleys (AoE shadowbolts), and Void Bolts (single target shadowbolts). But what makes him dangerous isn't his base damage output: it's his ability to heal and enrage. He heals a large amount of health whenever someone dies (which shouldn't come into play in this fight) and can also put a Twisted Reflection debuff which heals him a large amount when he does damage to the debuffed individual. Also, after about a minute he'll Enrage, increasing his damage by 30%. During this time he'll also send out regular Shadowbolt Volleys, and the Enrage will end after the 6th volley, and the Enrage timer starts again. A raid group with some strategy can usually survive one Enrage, but the second is frequently deadly, so in this fight it's important to bring Kazzak down quickly.
If you'd like full details on the Kazzak fight, I point you to
WoWWiki.
I doubt many people visit Vaelastrasz in Blackwing Lair these days, but there was a time when he was the bane of many a raid group attempting to progress. But just because he's in an old-world raid dungeon doesn't mean he's a pushover. Vaelastrasz hits his targets with heavy fire and melee damage, doing a Fire Nova (AoE fire damage), Flame Breath (frontal AoE fire damage), and Cleave (frontal AoE melee damage). The trouble with this fight for players is that it's on a timer -- at the beginning of the fight, you receive a buff giving you (essentially) unlimited health, mana, and rage regeneration for three minutes. Without this buff, it would be unlikely that you'd be able to do enough damage to bring him down, meaning the enconter is on a timer. However, Kazzak doesn't need any buffs to dish out the damage, so this hard-for-players encounter may not be so difficult for another boss.
For full encounter details, check out
WoWWiki.
As always, please remember that we are
attempting to compare these bosses with approximately equal level, health, and damage output. We're also
not considering the instant-kill abilities that each of these bosses have, presuming the bosses themselves are immune to these things. When you're voting, remember we're trying to compare the skills and fighting styles of the two without making it a mathmatical equation. But keeping that in mind, tell us -- who wins?
Voting for this week's contest has come and gone, but we're still quite a way from deciding which boss should be crowned the boss of bosses. Check back for more of
Two Bosses Enter to see every round of our competition!
Tags: doom lord kazzak, DoomLordKazzak, kazzak, two bosses enter, TwoBossesEnter, vael, vaelastrasz, world of warcraft, WorldOfWarcraft, wow
Filed under: Two Bosses Enter
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Arandalon Aug 18th 2007 9:08PM
I'm not sure if Ms. Harper has ever fought Vael, or perhaps just forgot to mention, that Vael managed to wipe 40-man raids while starting out at 30% health. If we are running on the assumption that the bosses both have full health, Vael would obliterate Kazzak.
Kyr Aug 18th 2007 9:08PM
Everyone who has ever fought Vael, especially the long, hard weeks before downing him for the first time, will know that he cannot be compared in any way, shape or form with the pushover that is Kazzak, both in his current and previous incarnation.
Forget comparing abilities. Vael is a mad, rad, steaming freight train of immense draconic fury that will inevitably crush and incinerate everything in its path.
wonga Aug 18th 2007 9:21PM
One abilty Burning Adrenaline ona kazzak and hes dead as a dodo, let just look at the tool tips shall we?
"Damage done increased by 100%. Attack speed increased by 100%. Spells become instant cast. Reduces max health by 5% every second; eventually causes player to die."
so we start kazzak smacks vaela bit kazzak gets BA , kazzak hits harder not much impact on vael unlike vaels BA on kazzak which is oding 5% of his Hp ever second so what 20 sec vael has to survive thats not taking into account vael other abiltys, no brainer vael would wipe the floor with kazzak
Ian Fay Aug 19th 2007 12:10PM
You forgot the Burning Adrenaline Vael puts on folks well. Kazzak has no way to survive it and it's a % of your health, as I recall.
Once Kazzak gets it, he has 20 seconds to live. Period.
Raziel Aug 18th 2007 9:34PM
From a lore and skill perspective I would put the fight in Vaels favor due to his age and not only association with the red dragonflight but his enhanced abilities by being corrupted by Nefarion. Kazzak may have a senior position in the legion but I don't think his experiences compare.
@2 - We run the assumption that they have EQUAL health, not full.. in such a case Vael would definitly wipe the floor with Kazzak.
Regardless my vote still goes to Vael. Even without BA (which may be considered an instant kill since it bases damage upon % of health) his flame breath debuffs would wreck Kazzak who I don't think has the equal amount of fire power... pun not intended.
If BA is allowed? Kazzak would be dead before he even enrages.
Vhailior Aug 18th 2007 9:55PM
Kazzak.
Twisted reflection would be permanently up on Vael. He'd just heal through any damage Vael gave him, including ba.
godai Aug 19th 2007 2:59AM
Twisted Reflection would keep him alive for a little bit but with BA reducing his max health by 5% every second, it would eventually get low enough that any damage would be enough to kill it in one hit.
BTW in the article, the buff Vael gives doesn't restore health, I think you meant energy.
Quitze Aug 18th 2007 10:14PM
You can't heal through BA--it isn't damage, it's a reduciton on your life total. Heal all you want, but if your max HP is 0, you're gonna die.
Vael all the way.
wobbles Aug 18th 2007 10:33PM
"at the beginning of the fight, you receive a buff giving you (essentially) unlimited health, mana, and rage regeneration for three minutes."
Hello? Did you even read the link you provided? Essence of the Red does not give health regeneration.
TotalBiscuit Aug 18th 2007 10:32PM
Vael due to Burning Adrenaline, it's no contest, as anyone who knows anything about Vael will clearly attest. Kazzak will die, guaranteed, there's no way around it, healing will NOT help you.
TB.
Kadamon Aug 19th 2007 12:38AM
I'd have to go with Kazzak, or at least I would if it was the older version. Having only three minutes to beat him before he goes completely nuts?
However, the new one? 'Eh...I'd like to change my vote to the Dragon.
The_FreeMan Aug 19th 2007 3:38AM
wouldnt burning adrenaline be null and void due to it only affecting players but kazzak is a raid boss
sfrimmel Aug 19th 2007 3:51AM
Vael, no question. Burning Adrenaline makes this completely one-sided, there's no way Kazzak could kill Vael in the 20 seconds of life he'd have.
@11, nowhere in the spell description does it say that it only affects players. See:
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=23620
The_FreeMan Aug 20th 2007 11:01PM
i meant #3 with
"Damage done increased by 100%. Attack speed increased by 100%. Spells become instant cast. Reduces max health by 5% every second; eventually causes player to die."
Lanth Aug 19th 2007 6:30AM
"We're also not considering the instant-kill abilities that each of these bosses have, presuming the bosses themselves are immune to these things."
Read, people! Burning Adrenaline would be classed as one of these. Yeah, I know, it kills over 20 seconds, but that doesn't make a difference. It is still an ability that kills an enemy no matter what, which is what makes it different from a DoT.
Elizabeth: I would suggest changing that notice from "instant-kill" to "garunteed kill" or however you spell it.
Now, here's my opinion on each Boss:
Vaelastrasz:
Essence of the Red: Useless, for I doubt Kazzak comes close to running out of mana.
Fire Nova: Not very useful against a single target.
Flame Breath: A powerful ability considering Kazzak is soley tanking Vael. It does 3-4k damage up front, but puts a stacking DoT on anyone who it's cast on. Usually countered by tank switching caused by Burning Adrenaline, but because we're not considering it, it will stack until it reaches 4.6k every few seconds.
Cleave: Meh, nothing special.
Doom Lord Kazzak:
Shadowbolt Volley: Nothing special, just normal damage.
Twisted Reflection: Not used in this fight, for it is cast "on a random player in range other than the player with aggro". Seeing as Vael has aggro, it can't be cast on him.
Mark of Kazzak: Interesting ability. It drains 5% of targets mana for 8 seconds. If the target has no mana left with the Mark on, it explodes. So the third time Kazzak casts this, Vael will be left with no mana, which may or may not be an issue, depending on mana costs of Vael's spells and Vael's mana regen.
Cleave: More damage than Vael's, but nothing battle-changing.
Thunderclap: Slows attack speed by 30%, which could be an issue if it affects spells.
Void Bolt: Plain old damage.
Capture Soul: Self-heal if player dies. Non-applicable in this fight.
Enrage: Increases damage, could make a difference.
In the end, I believe Vael will come out on top, because of his Flame Breath stacking. Kazzaks dependency on AoE spells (Thunderclap, Cleave, Shadowbolt Volley) is what lets him down in a one-on-one fight.
Walterion Aug 19th 2007 7:20AM
I whould go for kazzak this time. But as we all know...both are 100% (the Vaelastrasz we fight on BWL is on 30% and he is quite a pain), All kazzak's attacks are Shadow based damage and twisted reflection is always on Vael (he is the only one in the room)
It is a very close fight for me. Vael's Burning adrenaline also whould mark a very good diference...if it was on the attack chart of course ^^.
Cyas everyone soon.
BaboonNL Aug 19th 2007 7:23AM
I think next time, you should just specifically say what attacks they can and can't use.
Is Burning Adrenaline considered insta-kill?
Can Kazzak cast Twisted Reflection on Vael?
Etc.
Gogey Aug 19th 2007 9:03AM
Yeah, removing BA from vael pretty much ruins the fight. This concept looked good on paper, but it just failed in execution.
However, if its not an instant death spell anymore, then at 5% he'd get reduced to 1 hit point, as he cant die from the spell, and any attack would kill him.
Just go ahead and say that he can't use whichever skill if you're going to limit them, you can interpret it many ways.
TotalBiscuit Aug 19th 2007 12:09PM
There is nothing 'instant' about Burning Adrenaline, otherwise Vael would have been impossible ;)
TB.
Neowar Aug 19th 2007 11:19AM
"at the beginning of the fight, you receive a buff giving you (essentially) unlimited health, mana, and rage regeneration for three minutes."
Actually the essence of red buff does not give you unlimited health regeneration. Only crazy energy, rage, mana regen.