Two Bosses Enter: Ammunae vs. Baron Ashbury
by Alex Ziebart 
May 2nd 2011 at 4:00PM
This week on Two Bosses Enter, it's a battle between Ammunae, the Construct of Life, and Baron Ashbury, a scary dead guy. Oh, the anticipation!
| Ammunae | |
|---|---|
| Baron Ashbury |
In last week's matchup, Augh and Lockmaw slammed face-first into the Scarlet Wall that is Renault Mograine and Sally Whitemane. The pygmy and his pet didn't stand a chance.
Follow along for the details of this week's matchup, as well as discussion on last week's match.
The rules of the ring
- The WoW Insider Ring is considered neutral territory, where both combatants are able to access their usual encounter mechanics and abilities. If you can't visualize it inside the squared circle, visualize it someplace else -- but you must take into consideration all of each bosses' abilities and mechanics.
- Assume that each opponent is intelligent and capable of strategic thinking.
- All of the competitors' abilities, including crowd control and other effects to which bosses are usually immune, work on their opponents (with apologies to considerations of lore on this point).
- Assume that the opponents share similar levels, health pools, and comparative overall damage output.
- Don't get caught up in gameplay mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter.
- Don't neglect style, story, and scale. Everything is a factor; seeking balance is your goal as a spectator and judge.
This chamber will flourish with your life energy!
Ammunae is one of those boss encounters wherein inexperienced DPS is going to create some sort of mini-hell for all involved. Target switches? Kill priority? What are those? Luckily for Baron Ashbury, he's hardly inexperienced -- but can he overcome Ammunae's healing capabilities?
Ammunae's abilities include:
- Wither
- Rampant Growth
- Summon Seedling Pods that cast Energizing Growth on Ammunae
- Summon Spores that create Spore Clouds
Pathetic.
Immediately after the launch of Cataclysm, Baron Ashbury was one of the most intimidating heroic bosses around: Interrupt two spells and dispel two spells, while also keeping up with some mighty intense healing (before players were really familiar with the mechanics).
Ashbury's bag of tricks includes:
- Wracking Pain
- Pain and Suffering
- Mend Rotten Flesh
- Asphyxiate and, if he's feeling generous, Stay of Execution
- Dark Archangel Form and Calamity
Augh and Lockmaw put up practically no fight at all, taking only about 15% of the vote. Whitemane and Mograine completely dominated, with some predicting that they'll make it all the way to the finals -- after all, Whitemane and Mograine are built to last, with their healing spells and defensive cooldowns. Could we see a showdown between Ozruk and the Scarlet Duo in the finals?
Reader Al painted this scenario for the battle between the Scarlet Duo and the Terrible ... Terribles:
Renault looked wearily around the Uldum delta, wishing he were back at the Monastery.
"She complains about never going anywhere new, and then stays in the tent all week because her skin can't handle so much sun.. what kind of heretic travel agent arranges a desert trip for an albino?" he thought to himself as he wandered down a dune to investigate a ruined city he'd noticed the day before. Hearing a commotion, he ducked behind a pillar. Several strange creatures, appearing to be large humanoid cats made of stone, were in pursuit of two groups of Humans, each carrying a body as they raced out of the city.
Shaking his head in confusion at such a sight, he continued down a side alley. Looking in awe and disgust at such a heathen triumph in architechure, Renault accidentally kicked a small creature in the face as he walked. "You no take treasure!" it screamed as it ran away.
"A Kobold would dare horde treasure from the righteous? Infidel, you must be purged!" Mograine suddenly halted at the sight a large Crocolisk charging towards him, snapping hungrily at his heels. Protecting himself with Divine Shield, he looked in horror as more Crocolisks emerged from the reeds and began approaching. As the Shield disappated, he swallowed his fear and charged towards the largest. Blinded by dust the small creature threw into his face, Mograine quickly fell to the reptiles.
"Augh feed you to the crocs!" it laughed as it prodded Renault's corpse with a stick. "The Commander must have come this way, find him!" could be heard as a large group of Mograine's Scarlet Crusade guard detail finally caught up with their leader after realising he was in combat. Augh created another dust storm, as the Crusaders and Crocolisks charged at each other. A lone figure suddenly appeared behind the chaos.
"Mograine has fallen? You will pay for this treachery!" In her fury, Whitemane put everything before her to Sleep, before approaching Renault's body. "Arise, my champion!"
"At your side, my lady!" Renewed, Mograine took his vengeange upon Lockmaw while his remaining Knights hacked at the other Crocolisks. With the battle soon done, they surrended the trembling Pygmy in rage.
"What shall we do with this.. thing?" Mograine quickly grabbed Augh by the neck before he could try to escape. Emptying out a nearby sack, Renault stuffed his foe inside before tying the bag shut and dropping it into a crate. "Send him to Vishas, I'm sure he'll find a use for it." Two Crusaders nodded, grabbing the crate and walking back toward their encampment. "Say, you think there's a mailbox out this far?" "An entire region without one? Don't be absurd, Brother!"
Renault looked at the rest of his assembled followers and his beloved in triumph. "Now, we will purge the rest of this city's evil. Follow me..."
| Whitemane and Mograine | |
|---|---|
| Augh and Lockmaw |
The battle begins!
Remember, Two Bosses Enter matchups are all about substance and style, not gameplay, mechanics, and numbers. Don't base your strategies on player tactics, which opponent has been easiest or most difficult for you personally, or the difficulty of each opponent relative to instance progression. Vote for the spirit of the battle as set forth above. Set aside differences in opponents' health pools, game level, and actual damage output. Absolutely no game mechanics nitpicking!
Set aside the world order -- let the WoW Insider Ring determine who's the champion! Your votes determine the outcome in WoW Insider's series of fantasy deathmatches, Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves.
Filed under: Two Bosses Enter
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Chokaa May 2nd 2011 4:17PM
Wow, this one's a doozie. Neither boss has anyform of interrupt, so all that's going to happen is Ashbury bring everything down real low then healing everyone back up while ammunae also heals back up... I don't think we'll even be able to see dark angel form on this go round! Unless we decide he can xform whenever; then the calamity easily kills the adds which is the largest source of ammunae's pain. Hmm...
fallemwarrior May 2nd 2011 4:22PM
Its close but im going with ammunae
Those seed pods are gonna stack up and ashbury is gonna not be able to out do the healing especialy during darkangel being that they are immune to aoe
Drakkenfyre May 2nd 2011 4:33PM
Does it count if he no longer has Mend Rotten Flesh? It was removed from his abilities two patches ago.
rauldukeOG May 2nd 2011 4:34PM
Gotta give the edge to Ammunae but it will definitely be a close fight
Sturmovic May 2nd 2011 4:37PM
Come on guys, go easy on the Baron, he's only just back from the royal wedding.
Ilmyrn May 2nd 2011 4:40PM
As has been pointed out, neither contestant has an interrupt in this fight, so unless we concede that they can at least TRY and prevent each other's spells, this is a wash.
Also, Ashbury hasn't Mended anyone's Rotten Flesh for a few patches now, so that's one less thing for the Construct of Life to care about.
Deathknighty May 2nd 2011 4:48PM
Ancient titanic guardian of world-destroying superweapon vs random Glinean noble?
Gotta be Ashbury. :D
Fletcher May 2nd 2011 4:54PM
Doesn't Ammunae have that force-choke-like ability? Consume Life Energy or something? He lifts someone up into the air and drains their life out, healing him. That's an interrupt.
I know he does that because I've been running him daily for the throwing weapon ...
mibu.work1 May 2nd 2011 5:19PM
I'm going with Ashbury on this one, primarily because he seems smart enough to try varied tactics, and also because he's mostly fighting killer plants. He'll stack up the spores on Ammunae and then begin healing, bringing himself to full while Ammunae loses health. At this point, he'll go Darkangel and begin mowing down the plants still alive with volleys of shadowbolts.
GhostWhoWalks May 2nd 2011 5:38PM
I'm gonna say the Baron. Asphyxiate could be used as an interrupt, so Ashbury will end up outlasting Ammunae.
Twill May 2nd 2011 5:41PM
The Baron.
He is quite the tricky fellow. Even a construct of the titans can't beat out a fast wit and clever fighter. The Baron will win. How? I'm not sure -- but it will be quite a show.
Fletcher May 2nd 2011 5:49PM
Let's see ... the Baron does the health bar yoyo thing with Asphyxiate and Stay of Execution. Which means that Asphyxiate doesn't actually kill anything, including the seedling pods and bloodpetal lashers. All those lashers, meanwhile, will be hotting up Ammunae. Until Ashbury pops his Dark Archangel at 20% of his health or whatever it is, I think Ammunae will be pretty much unstoppable.
When Dark Archangel kills all the adds, and *keeps* killing them, it'll get harder ... but I think by then Ammunae will have enough of a lead to bring death to the dead man.
brian May 2nd 2011 7:31PM
Asphyxiate wouldn't kill by itself, but Ammunae doesn't have any way to dispel, so Wracking Pain as well as Pain and Suffering are a death sentence for the adds when he uses Asphyxiate.
Additionally, if Ashbury is able to get enough stacks of Wracking Pain on Ammunae, it's basically over, even if Ammunae is being energized.
squig_masta May 2nd 2011 5:53PM
I'm going with Ammune. Unless he can use Asphyxiate without Stay of Execution (in which case he literally cannot be beaten) then he has no real means to control the adds and will eventually get overwhelmed.
Tyllis May 2nd 2011 6:07PM
As the elevator finishes its climb to the highest and final hall, the Baron takes a brief scornful look south at Ammunae and her pesky entourage of plants and nature spirits. He immediately realizes that she holds nothing of value to him and is not worth the time of a second glance. He instead turns north in search of his valorous prize.
He and Rajh engage and the situation initially looks very balanced, but soon enough Baron Ashbury's relentless healing completely exhaust's Rajh's energy, forcing him to recharge with the Blessing of the Sun. Feeling the surge of power tear at his undead flesh, the Baron assumes the form of the Dark Angel and unleashes terrible devastation. Rajh is unable to withstand the enslaught and falls, yielding his Valor. Baron Ashbury claims his prize and leaves without a second thought of Ammunae or her two peers and vowing to never return to this awful desert land.
Firix May 2nd 2011 6:49PM
This. There is no way he would bother with Ammunae.
Janaan May 2nd 2011 7:09PM
The way that I see this fight going is that for most of the fight, both will be at or close to 100% HP. Stay of Execution will make sure of that. However, around 1.5 minutes into the fight, Wracking Pain will have stacked up to 30 (1 cast every 6 seconds) and Ammunae will be taking 600% more shadow damage from everything that the Baron does. At this point, it's a race to see who can kill the other faster. The problem is, once the Baron gets down to 20%, his damage will spike, and I think that Ammunae will be low enough at this point that the Baron will easily win before reaching 0 HP.
Quaza May 2nd 2011 7:51PM
You all assume Baron does NOT switch to attack adds, which as an intelligent person is not true. I'm handing this one to the Baron, he's healing while stopping Ammunae from doing the same.
poggg May 2nd 2011 7:55PM
Ashbury's awesome and all, but his most dangerous attack, Asphyxiate, is useless. It would have no effects to speak of on Ammunae, and choking plants would probably take a good, long while to amount to anything. His curses and especially Dark Archangel Form would be deadly, but ultimately, Ammunae is at a massive advantage, one that Ashbury simply can't overcome.
Saeadame May 2nd 2011 8:10PM
I can't decide D=...