One Boss Leaves: A Mal'Ganis landslide
by Lisa Poisso 
Mar 19th 2009 at 9:30AM
This week's boss deathmatch saw a landslide victory for Mal'Ganis (The Culling of Stratholme) over Varos Cloudstrider (The Oculus). Predictable? Frankly, we thought we might be in for at least a few more votes based on Mal'Ganis' relative ease of defeat in game.
Reader Tridus went on a multi-post tear against the ease of Mal'Ganis' reader victory. "Epic lore character who gets defeated and retreats over, and over, and over, vs. a random boss who doesn't?" asked Tridus. "I agree, tough call. Try them in game some time. Mal'Ganis is a joke. ... Never mind that Mal'Ganas died in Warcraft 3 and was retconned back, and never mind that he's so easy in WoW as to be a total joke. His only power is talks a lot and is invincible while talking. But people have heard of him, therefore he's going to win. ..."
"Mal'Ganas is a pathetic wimp of a boss every time you fight him, and is only even alive because of lazy retcon," he continued. "He stands still and shoots carrion swarms. Varos pretty well obliterates things that stand still. Seriously people, I get that everybody hates Oculus, but come on. ... We're talking about a major lore figure that loses every fight he enters in the lore and had to be retconned back to life. Why people think he'd suddenly manage to win something is beyond me."
Filed under: Features, Bosses, Two Bosses Enter
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
MazokuRanma Mar 19th 2009 9:44AM
These are just popularity contests. Most people don't think about how the fight would go, they just vote for the boss they like more.
CapnSkillet Mar 19th 2009 1:35PM
Agreed. However, Mal'Ganis is obviously not as powerful as lore indicates. As a dreadlord of the legion he should be more difficult. Perhaps he shall make a return in a future dungeon or raid.
bundee Mar 19th 2009 11:19AM
News flash: Polls are skewed by opinion. More at 11.
Esoteroth Mar 19th 2009 9:46AM
Wow does a rather poor job or representing some Warcraft Lore characters, Mal'ganis is one of them he won quite a few fights and Remember In the culling of Strath his job was not to actually kill arthas but to drive him to travel to northrend and set him on the path to becoming the Lich King's champion so its unfair to judge his strength by that fight.
Also Dread Lords are crafty critters and theres only a few certain ways to kill them so I wouldn't call it a lazy retcon for him to return(its also said in Wc3 that many demons don't die permanently when killed but return to the nether where they could theoretically be resummon to this plane
Axolotl Mar 19th 2009 10:03AM
Dreadlords also let others do the dirty work for them and they generally don't care about honor that much, that's why they win.
Auto Mar 19th 2009 10:16AM
Technically, its not a retcon.
Malganis is alive in the time you face him.
slartibart Mar 19th 2009 10:27AM
That's not the retcon we're talking about.
In WC3 he was finally betrayed by Arthas, when he thought he (arthas) was fully under the LK's sway. He was retconned back to take over the Scarlet Crusade.
Randy Mar 19th 2009 11:23AM
Woah, WTF....take over the Scarlet Crusade? Balnazar and Mal'Ganis are 2 seperate demons. Also, the Culling of Stratholme is a Caverns of Time instance, therefore you went back in time and fought him....so retcon my ass.
Hoggersbud Mar 19th 2009 11:37AM
Mal'Ganis shows up again in Wrath of the Lich King, manipulating the Scarlet Crusade Forces in Northrend.
Tridus Mar 19th 2009 11:38AM
@Randy
Do some more quests in Icecrown and get back to us.
Ragnorax Mar 19th 2009 11:40AM
By Scarlet Crusade he means Scarlet Onslaught and by Mal'Ganis, he means Mal'Ganis. Go do the quest line in Onslaught harbour...
slartibart Mar 19th 2009 12:04PM
Thank you for the correction, I did indeed mean onslaught.
@ Randy correction my ass :P
RetPallyJil Mar 19th 2009 10:15AM
The rules of One Boss Enters state that gameplay doesn't necessarily have anything at all to do with your choice.
Lore matters, too. Therefore, Mal'ganis won. You number-crunchers can cry all you want.
As stated in one of your previous articles, "Not everyone can be a raid boss".
Tridus Mar 19th 2009 10:38AM
If this is about who is the most important lore wise, we can end the contest right now. Malygos is the most important lore figure currently in Wrath as a boss.
It's supposed to be about who would win in a fight, and the answer there is certainly not Mal'Ganas.
bod Mar 19th 2009 10:26AM
"Mal'Ganas is a pathetic wimp of a boss every time you fight him, and is only even alive because of lazy retcon," he continued. "He stands still and shoots carrion swarms. Varos pretty well obliterates things that stand still. Seriously people, I get that everybody hates Oculus, but come on. ... We're talking about a major lore figure that loses every fight he enters in the lore and had to be retconned back to life. Why people think he'd suddenly manage to win something is beyond me"
Never has a truer thought been written down....the extreme skew voting for Mal'ganas shows people are voting on something other than who's most likely to win.
bundee Mar 19th 2009 12:16PM
so Darth Vader or Batman?
Tridus Mar 19th 2009 10:32AM
Well, glad to see someone read those comments. :)
This was just a case of popularity. People know who Mal'Ganas is. He's important.
Varos is a nobody boss in the most hated and least run instances in Wrath.
In a fight, Mal stands still. Varos' attacks (and his "call ring captain" attack was explicitly included in the pre-vote writeup) are all designed to inflict massive damage on things that stand still.
If Mal could kite? Sure. But Mal stands there and shoots carrion swarms. Varos would rip him to shreds.
What we saw in this vote is really the same thing we saw the first time this contest ran, during the 4 Horsemen vs Twin Emperors vote. Back then, almost nobody had done 40 man Naxx. People didn't know how the 4H Damage actually worked, and why it would scale up to the point that the Emperors wouldn't be able to heal through it.
But I guess anytime you have a voting system, sometimes the voters will get it wrong.
golffuul Mar 19th 2009 10:42AM
Yeah...umm...Mal'Ganis has to be one of the easiest if not THE easiest boss in the game, even on heroic. Varos is MUCH harder, especially if you've never seen him before.
Dreadskull Mar 19th 2009 11:02AM
It's funny how much Nerdrage can be had in these comments
Balius Mar 19th 2009 11:19AM
Any five players can beat Varos. Those same five can't beat Mal'Ganis.