One Boss Leaves: Mal'ganis chops Ormorok
by Lisa Poisso 
Aug 6th 2009 at 9:00AM
With a decisive 63 percent of the vote, Mal'ganis made firewood of Ormorok the Tree-Shaper in this week's Two Bosses Enter deathmatch. The matchup demonstrated the division between the two camps who vote in this series: those who base their decisions more on lore, and those who base their decisions more on the bosses and their mechanics as they are presented in the match itself.
"Even though Mal'ganis' abilities pose much less of a threat than Ormorok's do in this case ... I couldn't vote against him, because he's Mal'ganis," confessed andrewlnagy. "Lore-wise, I just don't think he'd lose." Tridus countered, "How so? In lore, there's no fight he actually wins. He's a commander and a manipulator, not a direct fighter. Forced to fight directly, he's never actually won a battle anywhere in lore. He has lost several, though. This 'Oh, in lore, I'm sure he'd win' stuff isn't grounded in any actual lore. :P"
"Mal'Ganis had to be killed the first time with the most powerful weapon in Azeroth," noted BlazingSky. "Ormorok was killed by five guys with mundane equipment. I'm going to have to go with a character that, while he is the evil version of brave Sir Robin, still required a runeblade to put him down semi-permanently."
Should "having lore" be an advantage in these fights? Does a boss' history dictate how he will react in today's deathmatches? Must these matches rely solely on abilities as set forth in each match? We suspect the best solution to these questions lies in blending these perspectives. We'll leave it to our readers to show us how they balance the mix through their votes.
Zasziden: If this were a popularity contest, Ormorok is going to lose by a landslide. Mal'Ganis' guys have been plastering his lousy mug all over the place, despite his horrible loss to Arthas.
In a toe-to-toe fight to the death, Ormorok has the decided advantage, what with spell reflect ability and all. Mind Blast? Reflected. Sleep? Doesn't affect elementals.
The one (and decidedly huge) advantage Mal'Ganis has is his sanity. Ormorok is nuts, having been exposed to a bit too much arcane energy. He's gone off his rocker. The demon, at least, still has his calculating brain. Unfortunately, he lacks any real abilities that could phase the elemental. Knowing that he can't win in a mano et mano (demono et elemento?) match, he'd pack up and leave.
There wouldn't be much of a fight, and in the end Mal'Ganis would run away (like he always does). Ormorok, being the only one left in the arena, wins by default. The judges really can't allow a fight to the death to be awarded to a coward that doesn't even stick around to the end.
Oznak: The problem with saying "Mal'Ganis does nothing but run away" is that his plan required him to. The only time we see him in an out and out fight, Arthas is wielding Frostmourne. At Stratholme the first time and the CoT time, he knew he had to draw Arthas to Northrend. Where he died, we thought. Which still didn't kill him, since we fight him again while he's possessing the Scarlet Admiral. That's the only time he does truly "run away."
As far as fighting Ormorok goes, those wings aren't just for show. While he never flies in an encounter with players, he has no reason to. Ormorok's Crystal Spikes, on the other hand, would give him an excellent reason. And Spell Reflection isn't up constantly. As I see it, Mal'ganis takes some damage from a Spell Reflect and Crystal Spikes, and realizes how he's gonna have to fight this. He takes to the air, throws a few minor spells at Ormorok and watches him waste his Spell Reflect. Mal'ganis quickly sleeps Ormorok, and deals some serious damage while Ormorok can't fight back. Rinse, repeat until dead. Ormorok is so insane he's not likely to catch on to Mal'ganis' strategy."
Stay tuned for the next match of Round Two of the five-man Wrath of the Lich King season and vote to determine who rocks Wrath's five-man world.Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Features, Bosses, Two Bosses Enter
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jafari Aug 6th 2009 9:03AM
This is the first time I've been surprised by the result. Malganis, really?
Silverdragon Aug 6th 2009 9:27AM
Me too, this one was just a popularity contest. Any noob group can take down Mal'ganis. Not that Ormorok is hard.
Tridus Aug 6th 2009 9:39AM
It's the "Mal'ganas has story, therefore he should win" effect in action. Nevermind that in lore he's a manipulator, not a fighter. None of the Nethraziem are very strong direct combat fighters. They work best manipulating and corrupting others.
I mean this is the only boss in the contest who had to be retconned back to life because Arthas already killed him. We then beat the snot out of him again in Icecrown.
If you changed his name to be something people hadn't heard of in story, he would have been oblitterated in the voting. Based on combat mechanics there is no way he wins. Based on lore he shouldn't win either, though. It's just name recognition.
Siddaru Aug 6th 2009 1:10PM
No, there were plenty of valid reasons for people to vote for him. He has a massive intelligence advantage, and he's a lot more maneuverable. Ormorok just has strength and one ability that sounds powerful but could be avoided through timing (spell reflect).
Strategy will always beat strength.
Gemini Aug 6th 2009 1:21PM
Uh, finish the Scarlet Onslaught questline. You'll find Mal'ganis is not quite dead.
MazokuRanma Aug 7th 2009 8:40AM
You're right, he's not quite dead. He's just alive enough to get yet another sound thrashing and be left to run away, tail between his legs.
In fact, this time you don't even need a 5 man group to kill him. He can be taking out with just two people. I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that death knights or paladins could take him down completely solo.
Does anyone actually take him seriously anymore?
Sulchwihantoki Aug 6th 2009 9:37AM
Didn't you say earlier that Elemental's aren't able to slept? So how is that a deciding factor when ormorok isn't gonna be napping?
Kyle Aug 6th 2009 10:06AM
this is just one of those fights where you can't look at in game abilities alone, because they really don't show what Mal'ganis is truly capable of. he's got more up his sleeve then some sleeps and mind blasts. the entire CoT encounter was merely him taunting Arthas to come to Northrend. not a show of strength to base a death match off of.
Tridus Aug 6th 2009 10:17AM
So when Arthas kills him with Frostmourne, he didn't use his tricks because...?
When we foil all his plans in Icecrown and he runs away like a little girl, he didn't use his tricks because...?
Face it, the guy is just not a front line fighter. If this was "who would win a prolonged war between these two and their armies", then yeah, he'd do really well. But it's not, its a 1v1 fight.
Kyle Aug 6th 2009 10:28AM
he was using frostmourne, nuff said. and you know damn well from WCIII that Mal'Ganis was supposed to be killed, it was part of the lich king's plan. there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. if anything the fact that he did somehow survive shows how strong he is. and the icecrown encounter is garbage, i can't even consider that actual lore, it just shows that he's alive and he's after his revenge.
Tridus Aug 6th 2009 10:59AM
No, what I learned from him being alive is that Blizzard likes to retcon things. I already knew that from the whole Draenei business though. :P
Actually Mal'Ganas in Wrath is pretty uninspired in general. Having the Crusade taken over by another demon in exactly the same way as the first time is just lazy writing. Using a character who already died (only now he's alive again!) is lazy writing.
And when we fight him, he fails, like he always does. The point remains, there is NO lore that suggests he can actually fight worth a damn. Plot and scheme? Sure. Manipulate? Absolutely. In a straight up fight, he gets owned every time.
People are just making up some stuff to justify how he must be a badass because he's a prominent name.
Angus Aug 6th 2009 1:15PM
While I agree with everyone that Mal'ganis is a punk. Ormorok isn't actually all that different. He's an elemental enslaved by a bunch of wussy dragons and mages. They certainly had no problem messing with him.
He and Mal are going toe to toe, mal uses his carrion swarm and Orm decides to spell reflect. It has a cast time and Mal is going to realize this can be used to good effect. So he waits, and continues beating on him, they trade blows and mal realizes he can strafe left 3 feet and avoid spikes... He waits till reflect is off, hits Orm with a spell and watches him start casting. So now Orm is busy casting a reflect while being beaten on, and when it is not up malganis is abusing him with spells until he starts to cast, where mal goes back to pummeling him. Rinse repeat.
It'd be close, but in the end Mal would be taunting a dead body and wondering how he's going to explain to the other dread lords how he almost lost to a crazy rock...
Jabadabadana Aug 6th 2009 3:09PM
Why do people keep saying dreadlords aren't melee fighters?
If you didn't play warcraft 3, here's a little heads up. They were strength based melee heroes that ripped thing's faces off while draining them and chucking spells.
They may be manipulators, they may have a lot of spells, but that only makes them more dangerous.
And, you can't spell reflect aoe (carrion swarm). I'm also going to bet that sleep is either unreflectable (hard to tell, he never casts it at the tank), or Mal'Ganis is immune to it. Sleep is probably a non-issue since it probably affects neither of them.
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Xonate Aug 6th 2009 9:20PM
Actually, Mal'ganis's Carrion Swarm is one of the few AoE spells that is reflectable, at least by a prot warrior's Spell Reflect. However, that works differently than Ormorok's, so it's hard to say.
Tridus Aug 7th 2009 5:35AM
In Warcraft 3, Mal'ganas also, you know, died. :P He's only in this at all because Blizzard retconned him back into existence for some lazy writing with the Onslaught.
Rekkla Aug 6th 2009 5:19PM
I vote for Elder Stonebark as the winner of every fight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j25ybSXr12s&feature=related%20
Zasziden Aug 6th 2009 5:27PM
Hmm... didn't expect my opinion to make it to the post, but I still stand by my views on the matter.
Someone's going to have to shut this demon down, surely he's not going to be able to find his way to the finals.