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The latest patch 5.4 newsTwo Bosses Enter: Anomalus vs. Tribunal of Ages
by Lisa Poisso 
Jun 4th 2009 at 6:00PM
This week's Two Bosses Enter is less boss-versus-boss than it is boss-versus-event: The Nexus' Anomalus versus the Tribunal of Ages encounter in the Halls of Stone. The Tribunal of Ages event tasks adventurers with protecting Dwarven explorer Brann Bronzebeard from waves of mobs as part of the Halls of Stone quest -- a boss-level encounter in terms of difficulty and loot, if not in actual boss-versus-boss combat. It'll be Anomalus' Chaotic Rifts and Crazed Mana-Wraiths against the Tribunal of Ages' Kaddrak, Abedneum and Marnak plus the cadre of Dark Rune Protectors, Dark Rune Stormcallers and the Iron Golem Custodian.
The ground rules:
- For the sake of this deathmatch, we'll have to get a little (ok, a lot) creative with Anomalus' presence here in the Tribunal. In this scenario, we'll retain the basic mechanic of the Tribunal of Ages encounter. Brann Bronzebeard's survival still determines the success or failure of the mission. Anomalus is therefore challenged with holding the Tribunal at bay long enough for Bronzebeard to complete his task.
- This match takes place inside the Tribunal of Ages in the Halls of Stone.
- If you assume that Anomalus is "too dumb to move," we'll have a very boring match indeed. Be open to other possibilities.
- Assume that foes share similar levels, health pools and a comparative overall damage output.
- Don't get caught up in game mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter.
- Style and scale are your main considerations.
AnomalusChaos beckons ... Reality unwoven ... Indestructible ... Of course ... Expiration is necessary...
Anomalus is an Arcane elemental inside the Nexus, created when the high amounts of magical energy streaming through the Nexus created the Rift. He used to guard the Nexus and Keristrasza's prison. Now, however, Anomalus seems to have gone out of control and his Chaos Rifts and lesser Arcane elementals are attacking the Blue Dragonflight.
At three points during battle, Anomalus creates a Chaotic Rift and uses Rift Shield to make himself immune to all damage. The Chaotic Rifts themselves can cast spells, as can the Crazed Mana-Wraiths that can be summoned from within them.
Chaotic Rift
Crazed Mana-Wraith
Read more about fighting Anomalus and review comments from players who've fought him.
The Tribunal of AgesAbedneum: Warning! Life form pattern not recognized. Archival processing terminated. Continued interference will result in targeted response.
Kaddrak: Security breach in progress. Analysis of historical archives transferred to lower priority queue. Countermeasures engaged.
Marnak: Threat index threshold exceeded. Celestial archive aborted. Security level heightened.
Abedneum: Critical threat index. Void analysis diverted. Initiating sanitization protocol.
During the Tribunal of Ages encounter, adventurers must protect Dwarven explorer Brann Bronzebeard long enough that he can access a database to retrieve information required to complete the Halls of Stone quest. Hindering Brann and his helpers are the three stone faces of the Tribunal, Kaddrak, Abedneum and Marnak, plus wave after wave of foes including Dark Rune Protectors, Dark Rune Stormcallers and an Iron Golem Custodian.
Kaddrak
Marnak
Abedneum
Dark Rune Protector
Dark Rune Stormcaller
Iron Golem Custodian
Read a description of the Tribunal of Ages event and review comments from players who've completed the related achievement.
The smackdown
For the sake of this deathmatch, we'll have to get creative with the details surrounding the Halls of Stone quest and the reason for Anomalus' presence. We'll retain the basic mechanic of the Tribunal of Ages encounter. Brann Bronzebeard's survival will determine the success or failure of the mission. Anomalus, then, will be challenged with holding Bronzebeard's foes at bay long enough for him to complete his task.
This match takes place inside the Tribunal of Ages in the Halls of Stone.
As usual, you should assume that overall, the foes share similar levels, health pools and a comparative overall damage output.
This matchup should offer plenty of variables to consider. What do you think would happen? Can you come up with a convincing scenario that will sway other readers to vote for your victor of choice? Show us your stuff in the comments.
| Anomalus wins; he successfully protects Brann Bronzebeard. | |
|---|---|
| Anomalus loses; he dies or is unable to protect Brann Brozebeard. |
Filed under: Features, Bosses, Two Bosses Enter
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Charneldeath Jun 4th 2009 10:35PM
^ win
Iwanttobeasleep Jun 4th 2009 10:33PM
Anomalus couldn't keep up with the Tribunal ads, enough would get through to kill him or Brann.
Maxilimus Jun 4th 2009 10:48PM
There is no way the adds would go directly for brann, the rifts do a AoE every second, all the adds need is a small tap on the shoulder (or a large shock from the nether) to be distracted from their goal of poking brann
Maxilimus Jun 4th 2009 10:53PM
Remember during the begining of the event, Anomalus if free to spawn as many rifts as he can, each spawning more and more wraiths. The number of wraiths start to build up exponentially, while the rifts continue to pulse. When anomalus goes immune, the adds would go to the rift that is doing the most aggro, being the rift which but him immune, as that rift gets extra charged, doing more damage then other rifts. This saves all the other rifts from death, and therefor keeps them adding up.
Winterhoof Jun 4th 2009 11:50PM
Tribual would win this.
Same thing as the rest said, one bad rift spawn and he'd be killing Brann himself (they spawn all over with no set points), not to mention the rifts that aren't in the back with Brann may get nuked by the phase 3 eye beam o' death, and hence be killing it, the adds that are hanging around near it, and possibly breaking him out of immunity to get pounded on some more with Dark matters and adds.
Finally, The tribunal was built by the Titans and Watchers themselves. The titans are responsible for creating the Dragon Aspects and pretty much Azeroth in general. Anomalus may be strong enough to beat the Blues, but he has no chance against a security system of the gods. Also, he's gonna eventually weaken being out of his element (neutral playing field = No giant rift in Nexus feeding him the energy to keep him going).
DeathPaladin Jun 5th 2009 12:21AM
Anomalus, being a creature of pure arcane chaos, does not care enough about Brann to protect him. Between the Tribunal firing their lasers and Anomalus opening chaotic rifts everywhere, everything dies. So I'm going to call this one for the Tribunal, because even though Anomalus will probably kill all the adds, he's probably going to keep friendly fire turned on, which will fry Brann as well. And even if Brann survives, he's not going to have enough time to listen to the data recordings and get out.
Mission Failed. Reload from last save?
Grimtar Jun 5th 2009 1:16AM
Anyone voting for the Tribunal has never done the achievement for Anomalus where you don't kill his rifts.
Since rifts don't do damage, the dumb adds will not kill them.
This means a LOT of spawns.
Players survive this event by kiting away from the portals.
With no room to move, the Tribunal adds are going to get owned by an ever-growing mass of rift spawns.
Assuming Brann is friendly to Anomalus, Anomalus will beat this scenario easily.
Rupert Jones Jun 5th 2009 4:17AM
There is no goddamn way the Tribunal adds would get close to Brann. The first couple waves of Tribunal adds are fairly weak and not all that numerous, so they wouldn't be able to kill off many Rifts before Anomalus + Wraiths+ Rift AoE dps them all down.
Then Anomalus spawns more and more Rifts, eventually leading to an unstoppable tsunami of Rifts and Wraiths (which will spawn faster than they are killed at this point) that the Tribunal adds would have to deal with before even going for Brann.
Essentially, it boils down to the fact that Anomalus can simply pump out too much AoE for Tribunal to handle. And since he's not just gonna stand there and take a ton of damage, there's no way he could be focused down effectively.
Rupert Jones Jun 5th 2009 4:26AM
Let's keep in mind here, Anomalus won't be putting friendly fire out on Brann. Otherwise, this whole thought experiment is a waste of time.
He's defending Brann. Therefore he's not gonna be the one to kill Brann. Find a new argument, Tribunal supporters.
Rupert Jones Jun 5th 2009 4:36AM
On second thought, Im thinking too along the lines of in-game mechanics.
From a purely stylistic perspective, I suppose Anomalus -- the embodiment of chaos -- would probably not be checking for friendly targets.
But then, if we're gonna use that argument, what's to stop wraiths and rifts from attacking Anomalus, or eachother? It's all chaos. Anomalus and his crew would self destruct before the second wave showed up.
Bjorndal Jun 5th 2009 5:35AM
Obviously, Anomalus is going to win this. The tribunal adds are just way to predictable, all entering at set times, thus giving Anomalus enough time to take countermeasures and place rifts and adds wherever he wants them.
ccbutch Jun 5th 2009 7:21AM
Never liked voting for this, but I think it's a tie. Just 1 or 2 adds slipping by will be enough to take down Brann, however in the process I think Anomalus will destroy the security system. There's just gunna be so much random chaos in the room it would be like putting small rocks in a blender, the blender would destroy most of the rocks but by the end it would be cracked, chipped, broken, and worthless.
Brann dies, the security system is destroyed, and Anomalus dies, nobody wins. However, it would be very interesting to see.
MK Jun 5th 2009 8:51AM
- Assume that foes share similar levels, health pools and a comparative overall damage output.
- Don't get caught up in game mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter.
- Style and scale are your main considerations.
What is the point of this kind of match-up if you level the playing field so much. You are taking away what makes one situation / boss better than another.
DanH Jun 5th 2009 9:48AM
It's a style consideration (or, if you prefer, a Lore consideration). "Who would win in a fight" in this kind of thing is really code for "who is cooler".
Look at it this way: if the question was "who would win in a fight, the Archmage Arugal or a random guard from Stormwind" the *mechanically correct* answer is the guard - they're level 75 now by default, while Arugal is only level 24. This, however, is a pure artefact of the way the game scales with level. "In-character", Arugal is an archmage, and therefore clearly more powerful than any ordinary guardsman.
To put it another way, if you go down that road, you have to ask why Thrall doesn't cast the uber-buffs from Battle of the Undercity every time the Alliance raids Orgrimmar.
el ranchero Jun 5th 2009 10:15AM
Either way, it will involve everyone getting sick of hearing "OF COURSE!" every 5 seconds.
If Anomalus gets to choose when to begin the event, he can flood the room with arcane elementals beforehand and have a chaos rift ready to go when the first dwarves spawn. Then he can spawn more baddies during the downtime that occurs between the early waves. By the end of it, the room will be filled with arcane elementals that tank the dwarves for him, and just when the dwarves start knocking out a couple of them...
"REALITY...UNWOVEN!"
A chaos rift, massive AoE, and another flood of elementals.
After all, it's worth remembering that he's not a welcome resident of the Nexus. Even the blue dragonflight can't wade through all the chaos rifts and elementals to get to him. Keeping throngs of minor baddies at bay is what Anomalus does best.
Meatbunz Jun 5th 2009 10:20AM
Have you guys seen the damage Anomalus dishes out when you don't kill his rifts? Judging by the crappy dps of the tribunal adds Anomalus probably can summon 4-6 of them before one actually goes down. And by the time the laser beam come down (which is usually near the end of the fight) Anomalus has too many rifts open to care.
Brian Jun 5th 2009 10:40AM
Anomalus gets tired of the Tribunal and leaves never to return to HoS on any difficulty.
silent_bob88 Jun 5th 2009 1:46PM
When players protect Bronzebeard, they can't do damage to him. The same would apply to anomolus. The adds entering the room would not make it to the room simply because when they are damaged in any way, they turn their attention to the attacker. With wraiths, Aoe rifts, and anomolus himself (which many may have not considered, has higher dps than any add), the adds will surely get hit and won't have any chance at bronzebeard. It would start out an even fight but the tribunal adds do not have enough DPS to take down the rifts and elementals fast enough, each wave will just go down faster than the last as Anomolus spawns more and more of his own adds. Anomolus wins hands down.
Unholysmiter Jun 6th 2009 5:39AM
I'm going with Anomalus, one thing to consider, is he might just decide to spawn a rift inside one of the crevises of the masks (eg ears, eyes), which would make it unattackable, and then if he was to target that during his imunity, mass AoE that can't be stopped. Also, maybe the adds will be too dumb to switch off Anomalus himself when he goes immune? I've seen players make this mistake.