One Boss Leaves: King Ymiron proves the bane of Mal'ganis
by Lisa Poisso 
Dec 10th 2009 at 9:00AM
King Ymiron raised his weary head long enough this week to send Mal'ganis packing, with a 60% to 36% defeat of the dreadlord in the Two Bosses Thunderdome. The spectators seemed somewhat restless ("This would have to be one of the most boring fights to watch," muttered t0xic. "Sorta like a resto druid duel."), although we suppose that could have been some pre-patch malaise creeping in.
A conversation in the stands between Nazgûl and Danarok draws attention to a rule we've only recently begun clarifying in each fight's setup: All of the competitors' abilities, including crowd control and other effects to which bosses are usually immune, work on their opponents. In this case, we think Nazgûl's gotten it right. In the spirit of the Two Bosses Thunderdome, the king's undead racial immunities should probably be overlooked ... But we could probably be convinced by a strong case to the contrary, presented with confidence in the comments. What do you think?
Ymiron begins the fight strong with a Dark Slash. The weakened but still potent dreadlord is not one to be so easily conquered, and a Mind Blast and Carrion Swarm level the king's health to match his. Mal'ganis is stunned, however, by the Screams of the Dead, as Ymiron evokes the power of the longboats.
Ymiron, now versed in the ability to Spirit Strike, knocks the dreadlord down to 20% before the crafty demon sends the king back into a slumber. During this time, Mal'ganis uses Mind Blast and Carrion Swarm several times to bring the Vrykul to near defeat. Sleep expires before he can finish the job, and he is again hit by Screams of the Dead. Ymiron evokes Spirit Burst, dealing a chunk of shadow damage to the dreadlord. With a Dark Slash, Mal'ganis rests at a mere 7% of his full HP.
Ymiron, now understanding the dreadlord's tactics, casts an aura of Bane upon himself. He is again sent into a slumber, but as Mal'ganis moves to diminish the remaining health from the once-dead king, he is blasted by Bane, dealing the final blow. Like the coward he is, he vanishes, tail between his legs, back to his twisted home world.
(In the above scenario, I take a few liberties and assume that Fetid Rot and Vampiric Touch act against each other to essentially negate the extra healing Mal'ganis receives from Ymiron's melee attacks. Dark Slash would still be unaffected.)
Danarok: Nazgul: "....before the crafty demon sends the King back into a slumber. During this time, Mal'ganis uses Mind Blast and Carrion Swarm several times to bring the Vrykul to near defeat. Sleep expires before he can finish the job ..."
(following the wowhead spell link)
Sleep
2% of base mana 45 yd range
1 sec cast
Puts an enemy to sleep for up to 8 sec. Any damage caused will awaken the target.
Ymiron, as an undead, would normally be immune to sleep effects, but even if we assume he were not, the first damage from a hit or even the Carrion Swarm DoT would wake him up.
Nazgûl: Understood -- but if Mal'ganis couldn't Sleep him for 8 seconds, it'd be a boring and runaway victory for Ymiron.
Who rocks Wrath's five-man world? Come back this afternoon to cheer on your favorite inside the Two Bosses Thunderdome, during the next round of Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves: The Original Wrath Five-Man Season. Review the current fighting bracket and consider who you think will come out on top.Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Features, Lore, Bosses, Two Bosses Enter
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Procrastinator Dec 10th 2009 9:10AM
Something else: Ymiron skips Mal'ganis and goes straight to Infinite Corrupter.
splodesondeath Dec 10th 2009 10:06AM
[Reins of the Bronze Drake] drop.
King Ymiron rolls 97/100
Skadi the Ruthless rolls 98/100
Skadi the Ruthless receives [Reins of the Bronze Drake].
King Ymiron: $%#!?! Skadi, u lrdy hav a drake!!!1!
Skadi the Ruthless: STFU nub
Skadi the Ruthless leaves the group.
King Ymiron cries.
t0xic Dec 10th 2009 9:40AM
Great. I'm immortalized as the grumpy b@$tard of wow.com.
That's the last time I comment before my coffee =) Or maybe it was just the pre-patch malaise... Yeah. I kinda like that.
Mimzy Dec 10th 2009 9:50AM
I vote to make you the official grumpy old man of WoW Insider! Every week during this column you'll make a grumpy, snarky comment which shall be quoted so that the rest of us can think of you as only grumpy and snarky.
Make it so!
Bryan Dare Dec 10th 2009 11:52PM
/agree with Mimzy
WoWie Zowie Dec 10th 2009 9:46AM
are we going to work the folds of new bosses into these death matches? like confessor paletress and/or krik and ick and stuff? or do the winners from wrath launch then square off with patch bosses in semi finals?
taveena Dec 10th 2009 10:41AM
Krick's still alive, and apparantly not all-that-loyal to the Lich King, either. I'm getting the feeling she could pretty easily win just letting Ick beat himself to death on Paletress's bubble while Krick... um... inspects her.
... this comment was going to be about some winner getting pwned against Falric, but now I'm thinking...
How the HELL would the Wrath of the Lich King (yes, that bossfight is a title drop) face off against Tribunal of Ages? The computer runs away? The Lich King holds off adds while Kel'thuzad hammers on the keyboard? The Lich King throws his adds at their adds while walking slowly towards the keyboard? Maybe if the Tribunal could fly and defended and spawned the adds and the adds had to reach the end of the tunnel...
Okay, I challenge someone to write a Tribunal vs Wrath story. They manage it, I'll... do something awesome.
I think there was a point to this post but it was stolen by hormones.
Danarok Dec 10th 2009 10:51AM
"In the spirit of the Two Bosses Thunderdome, the king's undead racial immunities should probably be overlooked ..."
Correct, this was established in the rules prior to the match-up.
"... But we could probably be convinced by a strong case to the contrary, presented with confidence in the comments."
Thats not the issue here. I think it's *very* fair that one bosses CC works on another. The CC is an important part of a fight and dealing with it is one of the obstacles a group must overcome. The problem is that since we're having 1vs1 matches rather than the 5vs1 as in the usual party case, the effects scale rather differently depending on how they're taken to work.
Since boss characters have immunities (stun resist, etc), making the bosses themselves closer to being player characters and having stuns, etc effect them makes the fight closer to what the players would experience.
*However*, it was not stated that the spell-rules for the CC itself was modified.
In this case: Sleep would affect Ymiron, despite (as established) being undead, but the spell *specifically states* that damage cause would break the effect. Hence, when Mal'Ganis actually whacks Ymiron one round the noggin, he wakes up. If you were planning to modify the abilities of the spell question, then this really should be noted in the boss spell-list rundown, rather than assuming it to be the case.
"Nazgûl: Understood -- but if Mal'ganis couldn't Sleep him for 8 seconds, it'd be a boring and runaway victory for Ymiron."
I agree, that's why I voted for Ymiron. No-one said the match had to be a close one.
Nazgûl Dec 17th 2009 11:33AM
While those mechanics work, I was focused on story rather than an actual fight between the NPC's with all game mechanics in place. Hence without a full eight second Sleep, the match would be horribly boring.
thaloryder Dec 10th 2009 12:35PM
Right, well, you have Viking-Norse-Like-Fellow and a whiny b*tch of a demon lord.
Who did you expect to win?
Kar On E Dec 10th 2009 1:10PM
Wow...Keriastraza, Volazj, and Mal'Ganis are out already? I thought at least one of them would be in the Final Four. Man...this is starting to get interesting.
At this point, I'm thinking that either Anub'Arak or Ymiron has to be the odds-on favorite to take the trophy home!
Clydtsdk-Rivendare Dec 10th 2009 3:25PM
Ymiron and Chrono-lord Epoch for my dream finals--*insert standard rant about Taldaram here*--but what happens if it becomes a Ymiron versus Dino rematch? Would new bosses step in?
fearthefireblade Dec 10th 2009 1:34PM
Well, to be fair, King Ymiron was riding on King Dred, and Mal'ganis despawned and ran away at 1%.
joie Dec 10th 2009 4:52PM
I can gurentee 99% of people who come to this website think this whole One Boss enters One boss leaves is completly retarded and a waste of the sites bandwidth and space on the main page . It's dumb ...period
Massa Dec 10th 2009 5:46PM
I would have to guess that this one blog of fun is for the people that enjoy it then. It's out once a week, so if you don't like it, that's only one hour of blog time you had to miss.
And besides, I like being in a minority--woohoo for me being in the 1%.
Vodkamartini Dec 10th 2009 6:07PM
It's the Eternal Geek "if X fought Y" Question, such as "If Superman fought Batman," or "The Enterprise vs. a Super Star Destroyer with Darth Vader aboard." You can get the froth rolling from the mouth with the right amount of fanboys and loreboys. It's got more imagination than "Oh boy, a pet corehound!" that will be forgotten in a week.
Also, to each their own. I roll my eyes at pets, at most achievements, at holiday crap. But if Blizzard put in an arena where we could control bosses against one another? Hell, that would be epic. (I'd even settle for a Kara-style chess event vs. the other side's players in the next neutral capital in Cataclysm.)
"In this corner ... DTK's One and Only ... King Dred!"
"In this corner ... back and buffed up from making the trip from the Burning Crusade to Northrend ... That crab guy in the Slave Pens ... Rokmar the Crackler!"
Aaron Potts Dec 10th 2009 11:39PM
I'd like to propose a new rule:
"All of the competitors' abilities, including crowd control and other effects to which bosses are usually immune, work on their opponents, unless the opponent's racial or class type provides immunity against that effect."
Undead should be immune to sleep. Animals should be immune to Shackle (if it comes up). Demons should still be vulnerable to Exorcism and the like.
But the whole "Oh, hey, you can't stun me just because I'm a boss?" Just no.
Derbeste Dec 11th 2009 3:33AM
^This...
I know this is complete semantics, but there is a key word in the rules that I believe comes into play here.
The rules state that effects to which BOSSES are usually immune still affect them.
When it comes to sleep, it's not simply BOSSES that are immune but ALL undead. I believe that to be an important distinction. Same for, say, a fire elemental being immune to a fire based ability. Do you REALLY think a boss that could cast such an ability would ever try to use it on Ragnaros?
No....the new boss fight stipulations should only apply to those effects to which they are immune simply because they are bosses and fight mechanics call for it to avoid cheap victories (like stunlocks and the like). Established lore based immunities that simply make sense should stay intact imo.