Two Bosses Enter: General Bjarngrim vs. Skadi the Ruthless
by Lisa Poisso 
Oct 15th 2009 at 4:00PM
Before we begin setting up this week's Two Bosses battle, let's dispense with the inevitable. Click this link into the Way-Back Machine, crank up the estimable Mr. Murphy and get your party on.
There. All done? Now let's get down to business, because the stakes are high in today's Thunderdome deathmatch as General Bjarngrim (Halls of Lightning) meets Skadi the Ruthless. The general commanded an impressive 66% of the vote in his first-bracket battle against Sjonnir the Ironshaper. He'll need the authority this week. His new opponent, Skadi, carved out an even larger first-round victory with his 82% thrashing of Dalronn and Skarvald.
Time for a quick review of the standard Two Bosses Thunderdome ground rules:
- Assume that the opponents along with their minions share similar levels, health pools and comparative overall damage output.
- This deathmatch takes place in Skadi's territory (or a Thunderdome facsimile thereof), which shall in no way hinder General Bjarngrim from using his usual resources.
- All the usual minions will be available to each boss.
- Don't get caught up in gameplay mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter.
- Don't neglect style, story and scale.
General Bjarngrim (Halls of Lightning)I am the greatest of my father's sons! Your end has come!
General Bjarngrim, the commander of the Unyielding Garrison, patrols the platforms of the first room in the Halls of Lightning. He is accompanied by two Stormforged Lieutenants. The General has the abilities of a Warrior, changing stances and deploying different abilities every 20 seconds or so. His Temporary Electrical Charge increases his damage by 30 percent and poses a nasty threat to unwary enemies -- and yes, we're going to allow this effect to persist as long as his lieutenants are still alive.
- Battle Aura
- Battle Stance
- Berserker Aura
- Berserker Stance
- Charge Up
- Cleave
- Defensive Aura
- Defensive Stance
- Intercept
- Ironform
- Knock Away
- Mortal Strike
- Pummel
- Slam
- Spell Reflection
- Whirlwind
Read more about fighting General Bjarngrim and check out tips from players who've fought him.
Skadi the Ruthless (Utgarde Pinnacle) What mongrels dare intrude here? Look alive, my brothers! A feast for the one that brings me their heads!
Skadi the Ruthless is an Undead Frost Vrykul who resides in Utgarde Pinnacle. He is named after the northern goddess of winter and the hunt in Norse mythology.
Upon engaging in battle, Skadi flies up above the terrace on his Protodrake, to strafe foes below as they push through waves of his Frost Vrykul. Opponents pick up harpoons to shoot the drake, eventually killing it and forcing Skadi to the ground and into hand-to-hand battle.
Read more about Skadi the Ruthless's battle tactics, and review comments from players who've faced him.
The smackdown
Two Boss matchups are about substance and style, not strict game play and mechanics. While the encounter will take place in Utgarde Pinnacle (or a Thunderdome setup that functions identically, for all practical purposes), this shall not in any way hinder the general from bringing along his lieutenants or possessing a Temporary Electrical Charge while they are still alive.
Don't get swept up into thinking about how players would react -- there are no players in the Thunderdome. No game-mechanic nitpicking! Vote for the spirit of the battle as set forth above. Set aside differences in opponents' health pools, game level and actual damage output.
Who wins, and why? We'll see you down below in the comments. Can you come up with a convincing scenario that will sway other readers to your point of view?
| Bjarngrim wins (Skadi dies) | |
|---|---|
| Skadi wins (Bjarngrim dies) | |
| Tie (something else happens) |
Who rocks Wrath's five-man world? We're winding up the second bracket in the five-man Wrath of the Lich King season. Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Features, Lore, Bosses, Two Bosses Enter
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
snowleopard233 Oct 15th 2009 4:08PM
I’ve never wiped on the general, but Skadi can be righteously mean to my groups. He’d probably ice half them down before they got him on to the ground (if they could even. I don’t know what ranged capabilites any of those guys have). Skadi would be able to weaken the general a lot before his drake died and by then he’s no slouch in a melee. The general’s got power but skadi’s got speed and a wicked whirlwind that would finish off any of the minions. After that, I’d be a match of Skadi’s axe against the general’s iron hide, but I still reason the general would be in a weakened state by this point, having been forced to contend with Skadi’s drake.
Overall, I’m calling Skadi. A good drake goes a long way.
Random Oct 16th 2009 7:22AM
This... doesn't make sense. Two points present themselves immediately.
One, it doesn't matter how your group would do against the respective competitors. Please remember that. This is a battle between the two bosses, not a battle between how hard each boss is for you.
And two... actually two is a series of points: Skadi's minions are weak, the drake is predictable, and the General is intelligent and has healers at his back that are not weak. They aren't boss level, but they're not weak. With his damage buff, the gauntlet phase is really not going to be a challenge for the General, and you can safely anticipate that he will bring Skadi to personal battle at full health and with his healers alive and kicking, if not at full health. Even if we anticipate that Skadi oneshots one of them as he lands, the General still has a healer at his back until Skadi has taken them down with poisoned spears or WW, giving the General his dmg buff. Considering these points and the vast toolkit the General has available to him to counter or defeat any tactic used by Skadi, the fight is fairly one-sided.
Me, I actually favor the General for the season's win right now. He's intelligent, quick, reactive, can dish out the damage as necessary, has a huge toolkit to deal with nearly any situation, and he has healers at his back. That's a winning combination if ever I've seen one.
snowleopard233 Oct 15th 2009 4:09PM
...to get downvoted into lightless oblivion.
videvekartuspaan Oct 15th 2009 4:10PM
skadi hands down, because............. i heart tanking bjarngrim because he has no ranged adds and last i checked, skadi still had his mount.
Oznak Oct 15th 2009 4:20PM
I see Bjarngrim and his lieutenants charging down the hall, slaughtering vrykul, and ignoring the harpoons. They reach the end, where Skadi unleashes some frost on them. Bjarngrim, realizing the threat, brings down Grauf by throwing an axe at him while his adds fling some lightning. Now extremely angry, Skadi and Bjarngrim begin to beat each other.
At first, the lieutenants are proving the tipping factor. Then Skadi whirlwinds them. The General, having lost two good men, responds by doing the same. But when Skadi's whirlwind ends, he moves out of range, depriving the General of a good bit of damage. The General, now alone, switches to defensive stance, but too late. He's already too hurt, and Skadi's spears and crushing blows force him into the ground. Bjarngrim makes a last attempt by using ironform to cleanse himself, but Skadi proves too much.
Sadly, the iron corpses prove to be unappetizing to Skadi's new drake.
Valent1ne Oct 15th 2009 4:22PM
Bjarngrim, hands down. He's a general, for one, which requires him to be smart and efficient, a must for fighting Skadi. He is also incredibly versatile, which is demonstrated by his impressive arsenal of abilities. While Skadi is a fearsome opponent, he wouldn't stand a chance.
As I said before, Bjarngrim is versatile and smart. That alone is enough to give him an edge in this fight (i.e. dodging the frost breath, firing the harpoons at the drake, and defending himself against Skadi's Whilrwind) - however, as he says, he is "the greatest of [his] father's sons," implying that he is an incredibly capable warrior capable of easily mowing down the undead that stand between him and Skadi, then standing toe-to-toe with Skadi himself.
Skadi's only chance would be to overwhelm Bjarngrim's lieutenants with sheer force and numbers, but even if that were to succeed, his chances are slim, as Bjargrim would se the focus on his lieutenants to be an opportunity to strike. Besides, serving directly under the general, they must be intelligent as well, likely knowing simple concepts like "OUT OF THE FIRE/WHIRLWIND AND LET THE BIG GUY TANK IT!"
TL;DR - To fight Skadi you just have to smart. Generals are smart, ergo Bjarngrim wins.
Mordockk Oct 15th 2009 4:26PM
Alright the GENERAL wins hands down. Skadi has 3 moves! Look at the damn utility from the General!!!!
The General has the same abilities as skadi with hus cleave and whirlwind which easy destroy skadi's adds.
The General can switch to defense stance during whirlwind while always trying to keep his distance between Skadi by using his knockback and charge/stun abilties.
But who's to say that Skadi is going to be on the offense and the general will be back pedaling? The generals offensive abilties are the same as Skadi's and just as plentiful......and the only thing that Skadi has different is the poison spear but General has STONEFORM.
Oh and the drake? please a kitten stepping on a keyboard could avoid his frost breath.
If skadi wins its because its only because of a popularity contest and i would call Bullsh***t.
Skadi has the abilities of a level 10 warrior.
So since we are looking at mechanics of the boss only, the general has the upper hand by a long shot. Give me a good reason why he would lose?
homesickalien Oct 20th 2009 3:34PM
these fantasy deathmatches are a little tired IMO.
please make a private server and hax0r the game to actually pit these bosses against each other in a video we can watch and I'll be very interested.
otherwise...filler content.
ZMES_Matt Oct 15th 2009 4:47PM
"If skadi wins its because of a popularity contest and I would call Bullsh***t."
Quoted for Truth
With General calling to his troops when to move out of the frost, while each of them takes control of the turrets and General one-shotting Skadi's adds and tossing his troops spears, Skadi would be down in the first swoop. At that point, the most fierce thing Skadi has going for him against the General is Whirlwind, and with General's adds using Arc Weld at his command, even that is a bad move for Skadi.
Skadi is outright out maneuvered and flanked. General wins so fast he doesn't even bother healing up afterward before he moves on to Ymiron.
shadowhowl1900 Oct 15th 2009 4:29PM
umm does general ever bring down skadi,
if so then the fight goes to General. Whirlwind with charge is really nasty and would kill just about all the mobs. The lieutenants would die from skadi's whirlwind but General could just pop defensive stance and take the dmg.
if general doesnt bring down skadi, then i dont see how General could kill skadi if he cant even hit him
bob Oct 15th 2009 4:31PM
Bjarn has no problem on this fight. Between ironform and def stance, he can take skadi's WW and poisoned spear, he doesnt even need to run out of WW. Skadi on the other hand has zero defense against Bjarn's WW. Bjarn makes it thru the drake phase fine, as he has lieutenants to heal his party up if they take a little frost cloud damage.
Far too often, despite wow.com's attempts to emphasize this to the voters, these polls come down to which fight annoys players more, and has nothing to do with the actual comparisons of abilities between bosses. In that kind of poll, Skadi is def the winner cause his air phase is annoyingly long, and there is VERY little room to maneuver away from his WW on that little platform.
Kar On E Oct 15th 2009 4:37PM
Despite all of the adds and everything else in this battle, it truly comes down to Bjarngrim's lieutenants. Bjarngrim will easily take care of the adds, but can't launch harpoons at the same time. One of them will have to do it. If they live long enough to send out the harpoons, Bjarngrim makes short work of Skadi. Otherwise, Skadi and dragon overwhelm him.
Personally, I think the adds stay close to Bjarngrim and live long enough to bring Skadi down to earth, where Bjarngrim truly shows why he is the "greatest of his father's sons."
BTW, did I miss something in the Vykrul lore or do we know who Bjarngrim's father is yet?
Zrob Oct 15th 2009 5:06PM
I'm thinking the answer is Loken or Thorim.
Shock Oct 15th 2009 4:40PM
This one turns into an easy fight because of Skaddi being airborne at the start of the fight.
General steps out onto the landing to see Skaddi standing proudly beside his drake. As the general makes his first move, Skaddi quickly jumps on his drake and laughs at the General before taking off.
Being quick to move the General along with hits Lts move effortlessly down the passageway killing vyrkuls as they helplessly attempt to slow him down. With the Lts healing General, he takes little to no damage. Problems arise when Skaddi makes his first pass. His drake releases his freezing breath and it damages the Lts who stand in the path of breath. Being unable to heal themselves, they move take a few steps back. Skaddi laughs maniacally yelling, "YOU ONLY ARE PROLONGING YOUR DEATH!!!"
General glares angrily at his two officers before moving to the platform with the harpoon turrets sit. Still set in Defensive Stance, General switches to Beserker Stance and whirlwinds his a group of vyrkul down collecting enough harpoons to shoot Skaddi out of the sky.
During his 2nd flyby, Skaddi notices the Lts took more damage from both the breath and also his minions that are sacrificing themselves to stop the General. Seeing the harpoons have been gathered, Skaddi unsheathes his weapon and prepares to finish off the work followers have started.
General aims the harpoon turret and fires off 5 rounds bringing Skaddi into the conflict, upfront and personal. As soon as he lands, Skaddi throws a poisoned harpoon and the weakest Lt before his and General's swords clash together. Unable the heal himself, the Lt struck with the harpoon dies within seconds.
The General lands Mortal Strike on Skaddi just as Skaddi begins to whirlwind. Focusing on healing the General, the second lieutenant fails to react in time to dodge the attack. Skaddi seeing the second one fall, grins and taunts the General. "You're next," he barks. "It's only a matter of time!"
Coming out of his whirlwind, Skaddi is met with the General's whirlwind of his own. Taking the brunt of the attack, Skaddi releases a harpoon that stabs the general in his right arm, just below the shoulder. Grimacing in pain, General pulls it out and looks for his Lts to heal him. He failed to realize they were both killed early.
It's now a race against the clock as he feels the poison draining his life away. Before he can switch into defensive stance to lessen the blows, Skaddi lets off another whirlwind, knocking him backwards.
In a last ditch effort, General once again moves into Beserker Stance and ignoring the chance to land a second Mortal Strike, he goes for whirlwind. Skaddi seeing this happen dodges the full force of the attack and throws another harpoon hitting General in the back. Sensing the fight is close to being over, Skaddi rushes in and hit General with Crush.
Laying on his back, knowing his defeat is imminent, the General closes his eyes to prepare for death. As death becomes closer, he feels the airs from Skaddi's whirlwind against his face, before the blade finishes him.
Standing, catching his breath, Skaddi looks at the three bodies motionless on the cold concrete floor. As his heart rate begins to slow back down, Skaddi investigates the cuts and bruises on his body. Knowing this tournament is far from over, he limps back to heal himself and prepare for his next opponent.
Tferr Oct 15th 2009 4:41PM
Hm, I think I'll give this one to Skadi.
First, Skadi if we count all the adds he has into the fight, clearly the advantage. Additionally, the General's adds might not be bright enough to stay out of the frost breath that Skadi's drake will do.
So, The General enters the arena and Skadi jumps up on his drake calling up all the adds to charge against Bjarngrim. Bjarngrim, going into zerker stance and charges forward to whirlwind the adds with his adds behind him keeping his +damage aura up. The General quickly disposes of the undead vrykul and picks up a few harpoons as he continues forward but as he and his two adds push forward Skadi comes in for a strafing run.
Having all but forgotten about Skadi, Bjarngrim and his two adds are trapped in the frost breath. While none of them is slain, one of the adds is wounded and slacks behind. In the meantime, Skadi is flying around and is in range of the harpoon launchers. Rushing forward and swapping to battle stance, the General quickly manages to fire off enough harpoons (thanks to the haste he gets from his Battle Stance) to kill Skadi's drake and bring him to the ground. However, Skadi as he is flying towards the ground notices the already wounded dark iron dwarf and throws a poisoned spear towards him. The dwarf, despite being made of iron, quickly succumbs to the poison and falls to the ground, dead.
Because of only having one of his support units left, Bjarngrim decides to go into defensive stance, equipping his sword and shield thinking he will tank Skadi to death. But he does not forsee Skadi's ruthless Crush ability and is stunned while Skadi starts his whirlwind and goes for the remaning Iron Dwarf. Struggling to get out of range, but failing, the sole Iron Dwarf is cut into shreds by Skadi's WhirlWind.
Bjarngrim, realizing he's lost his extra damage, decides it's time to go all out and goes back into zerker stance. But the wound he have already sustained is not enough against the virtually unharmed Skadi who after a short battle where the General tried to tip the odds into his favor with his Mortal Strike and Whirlwind, Bjarngrim ultimately falls to the ground, defeated. He failed Loken and the Iron Army. As the snow begins to cower the body, Skadi sets off by foot to find himself a new drake and a feast so he can eat to celebrate.
thebitterfig Oct 15th 2009 4:41PM
Step by step to the General's win:
~The Gauntlet: Bjarngrim has his charge active, and will WW and Cleave the adds while his minions grab the harpoons and keep the General's health topped up. It isn't much work to stay out of the frost, and I presume the General and crew will do OK with that.
~The Shooting: Of course, this *ALWAYS* happens at a bad time. Almost every run with actual players, someone is in the wrong place and Skadi downs one. Let's presume that the General has been netted and as Skadi comes down, he downs the lieutenants (and with it the lightning charge).
~The "Man" to "Man": Here things get interesting, the real test. However, for whatever Skadi does, the General has a counter. Knock Away against the whirlwind so that Bjarngrim can minimize the damage. Ironform wipes out the damage from the Poisoned Spear. Skadi can Crush, but the General matches with his own WW, Slam, and Mortal Strike. Yeah, I'll call that an attack.
~The Result: Fwost... is not... STWONGER! Skadi dead and General triumphant.
Nadia Oct 15th 2009 4:42PM
Skadi would win. Why? because he's more popular and less conceited.
Bjarngrim uses most of his brain power to think highly of himself and talk smack. Also, look at that ponytail. It gleams and glistens so much he has to spend tons of time polishing it (well, maybe that's so it will conduct electricity better, but what do I know about those things). The (too) good (for anyone) General would probably boast about himself to Skadi from behind the harpoon launcher, not bothering to use them at all, while his yes-men snickered behind their hands.
On the other hand, Skadi offers his buddies "a feast for the one that brings me their heads!" Of course half the Vrykul in the place run out to kick some ass. Add to that Grauf turning the Pinnacle's back porch into a skating rink every 10 seconds and you have got some serious trouble for the metallic contingent from Loken's foyer.
Bjarngrim's two paltry yes-men might put up a fight against all those hungry Vrykul who have been promised a party by their boss, but all they'd end up with for their trouble would be a lovely ice-coated view of the floor.
Without them, Bjarngrim would get his head ripped off by the vrykul attackers (shiny ponytail and all). Skadi would bring Grauf in for a landing and display his new Narcissist-head trophy right out on the balcony. All of the Vrykul at the Pinnacle would throw their hands in the air and party down in celebration!
Crim Oct 15th 2009 4:57PM
Weak iron dwarves don't stand a chance
ben Oct 15th 2009 5:20PM
Wiping on General Bjarngrim: 50g in repairs
Wiping on Skadi the Ruthless: 100g in repairs
Having General Bjarngrim have his ass handed to him by a frost-vrykul: 200g in repairs
Looting both the corpses after Skadi falls off his dragon into the abyss: priceless
For everything else, theres an Ironforge Bank card
richardson_g Oct 15th 2009 5:28PM
The match would go like this:
The General is slowly working his way through Utgarde Pinnacle, determined to fight his brother Skadi and prove that he truly is the greatest of his father's sons. As he rounds the corner he sees Skadi standing there, a smug look on his face. As he enters the hallway a large, blue proto-drake looks at Bjarngrim and his lieutenants and roars, frost forming around their iron beards. "So brother you have decided to finally settle this?!" says Skadi the Ruthless. "Look alive, my brothers! A feast for the one that brings me my brothers head!" Jumping onto Grauf he flies off into the air.
"I am the greatest of my father's sons! Your end has come Skadi!" bellowed the General. Working his way through the narrow hallway he encounters the horde of vrykul charging him. While his lieutenants fight them suddenly a biting chill hits the air. To late he sees Grauf swooping down toward him. Breathing his deadly frost breath Grauf covers one side of the hallway with ice, debilitating one of his weakened lieutenants. Pressing forward Bjarngrim intercepts one of the many vrykul running through the hallway. In his wake he sees his other lieutenants being felled. Deciding enough is enough he switches his technique, adopting a berserker's stance. As the puny vrykul minions swarm him he hears another roar. Grauf has begun his descent yet again. Realizing he needs to avoid this quickly he whirlwinds the surrounding vrykul, and avoids the frostfire yet again. As he finally nears the harpoons he is finally hit by the frostfire, not being able to get out of the way quick enough this time.
Using the harpoons he grabbed as he ran through the gauntlet Bjarngrim shoots them all at Grauf, felling the mighty proto-drake.
Angry Skadi yells at his iron brother, "Bjarngrim, you motherless knave! Your corpse will make a fine morsel for my new drake!" Skadi begins throwing his spears at his brother, many making it through Bjarngrim's now brittle hide. As the poison burns Bjarngrim's blood, he swings his mace at his brother, mortally striking him. His breath knocked out of him Skadi ruthlessly begins to swing his mace in a whirlwind, each strike smashing at his brother, his iron skin made brittle from the bitter frostfire. Feeling weak Bjarngrim adopts a battle stance and begins to cleave at his brother. Laughing, Skadi dodges his brother's futile attempts to hit him. "Feeling tired older brother? You should have done better to avoid my spears. That poison should be taking its final effect around now." A horrible grin in his eyes Skadi watches as Bjarngrim falls to the ground, breathing alive but utterly incapable of moving. Confidently walking towards his brother he bends down and whispers in his ears, "Looks like you're about to get powned brother." "Skadi!No! I don't want to start over at the graveyard!" begs the fallen General. "To late Bjarngrim. Heeyahh!," screams Skadi as he slams his mallet onto his brothers head, smashing it to bits.
Far away in Blizzard HQ we see GC throwing his headset to the ground yelling "God-fucking-dammit! You win this time Metzen" Laughing Metzen looks at GC and says "Let that teach you. Next time you decide to have a party on your yacht you better not leave me for T-Pain and Keith, and then have the gall to send a video of you guys singing "I'm on a boat!"