Two Bosses Enter: Ozruk vs. Eregos
by Alex Ziebart 
Jun 13th 2011 at 2:00PM
Readers have been saying all along that Ozruk is going to sweep this tournament, and he's on course to do just that. He's in for his most difficult battle yet this week, however. Could Eregos, Wrath of the Lich King Two Bosses Enter champion, pull out a win over him?
Remember, audence -- we've put a roof on the Two Bosses Enter arena. Eregos is a formidable opponent, but he cannot just fly away and call it a win!
| Ozruk | |
|---|---|
| Eregos |
In last week's matchup, Shadowfang Keep's Baron Ashbury went head to head with the corrugated menace. How did he fare?
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.
Break yourselves upon my body!
Ozruk utterly dominated his opponent in round one with 81% of the popular vote. He knocked our Lord Godfrey with just shy of 70% of the popular vote. That's pretty good! Eregos has been faring pretty well, but he has yet to break the 60% threshold against any of his opponent this season. Will Ozruk's dominance continue?
Ozruk's arsenal includes ... If you haven't witnessed Ozruk's gleaming, perfectly chiseled body yourself, perhaps you'd like to learn more about his flawless physique or read other adventurers' first-hand reports.
Such insolence ... such arrogance ... must be PUNISHED!
Eregos may not have broken the 60% threshold against his opponents this season ... but is that important? All he needs is one single vote more than the other guy, right? The question is ... can he pull it off against the fan favorite?
Eregos's toolkit includes:
- Arcane Barrage
- Arcane Volley
- Enraged Assault
- Planar Shift and summon Planar Anomalies
- Eregos cannot fly in the Two Bosses Enter arena!
The Cardboard Assassin is easily the most reviled Two Bosses Enter competitor in the history of the tournament. Adolescent joke or complete badass? He's on a winning streak either way. His luck may be running out, however, as next week he's up against Whitemane and Mograine.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves, however. We still need to look back on his last battle.
| Baron Ashbury | |
|---|---|
| Cardboard Assassin |
Though Baron Ashbury ultimately met an untimely demise last week, I quite enjoyed Thayer's depiction of the encounter:
Firecrow provided an alternate scenario:The Baron enters the arena, his glowing yellow eyes alert for any movement until he spots the box in the middle of the room. Innocuous though it may seem, he nonetheless examines it from afar. He heard what happened to the leader of the Defias in a previous round and has no intention of suffering a similar fate. His skeletal toes click on the floor as he cautiously approaches the box. If he were inclined to emotion anymore he might feel pride at his lack of reaction when the Cardboard Assassin pops out of the box, but since his emotions have gone the way of his flesh he merely nods his satisfaction upon seeing his foe reveal itself.
Flexing his bony digits, the Baron prepares to deal with this mockery swiftly. "This is just too easy..." Shadow courses through him to inflict pain and suffering upon the engineer's creation before him. A hint of uncertainty crosses his features when his foe appears unconcerned, but he continues, casting wracking pain upon the bobbing cardboard figure. Still no reaction from his foe. He grits his teeth and raises his skeletal hands, intent on choking the life from the slowly swaying assassin, then thinks better of it. "I grow tired of this hunt .... time to die!"
Shadow-dark wings grow from his back and the Baron throws back his head and laughs, a bone-chilling sort of laugh, as wave after wave of Shadow pulses from his undead self, unleashing a Calamity upon the simple Cardboard Assassin. One might call it overkill, watching the Shadow tear the cardboard form to shreds. Baron Ashbury didn't think so. As he turns to leave he mutters scornfully, "There was no sport in that kill..."
... crap.As the Baron walks in to the roar of the crowd, his eyes scan the arena, expecting a monstrous competition. As his eyes befall the cardboard assassin, he let's out a raspy sigh. "Alex, I'm coming for you instead." He turns away, exiting the arena to begin his hunt. The judges, baffled, declare it a forfeit from the baron.
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 4)
jaypea Jun 13th 2011 2:03PM
Team Ozruk assemble. All must break themselves upon his body.
exogenesis. Jun 13th 2011 2:06PM
Cardboard Assassin is back next week?
Ugh.
MattKrotzer Jun 13th 2011 2:43PM
I'm so glad Cutaia and I begged for the return of this feature so that we could have Eregos and the Cardboard Assassin in the finals.
Aspirisis Jun 13th 2011 2:19PM
Let's all remember to vote DOWN Cardboard Assassin next week. I don't care if it's facing off against a baby Koala...let's return TBE to the true tournament of champions that it has been known for and not some valley girl party like American Idol where we vote for cutest/quirkiest instead of best (No, I've never watched that show, but I'm assuming that's how it goes...)
coville Jun 13th 2011 2:20PM
Seriously people, cardboard assassin? If CB Ass wins this thing they will never do it again.
MattKrotzer Jun 13th 2011 2:48PM
Meh. It's Ziebart's own fault for introducing the "wild cards" in the first place. Sure, they make for amusing results, but I miss the epic fights the community would spin from some of the boss fights in past seasons. There's some great, creative folks who really invest in this feature, and it's disappointing to see results like this.
/grabs Alex Ziebart
/looks for bus
/tosses Ziebart underneath
Sorry Alex. It had to be done.
Sumadin Jun 13th 2011 2:20PM
Eregos: Stupid earthling you cannot reach me in the sky.
Ozruk: *snaps fingers* PARALYZE.
Eregos: FUUUUUUUG... *Falls to his death*
Saf Jun 13th 2011 2:48PM
Nevermind Paralyze, Eregos has no way to dispell Ozruk's Spell Reflect. So, the fight would go like this:
Ozruk and Eregos enter the arena, and eye each other.
"This construct of stone is my opponent? Ha! The magic that binds you will bend to my will!"
"Magic...? I am no Magic construct. Come! Break yourself upon my body!!"
Ozruk charges in as Eregos begins hurling a number of Arcane Barrages, managing to get 3 off before Ozruk can close the distance. Once in melee range, Ozruk notices that Eregos is still spamming his Arcane Barrage, so he puts up his Spell Reflect. The reflection of his own spell momentarily stuns Eregos, and gives Ozruk a chance to use Ground Slam, which at point-blank range hits Eregos HARD.
Once he recovers, Eregos shifts to the Astral Plane, and summons his Planar Anomalies. While Ozruk is a little confused at why he can no longer hit Eregos, the Anomalies do hurt, so Ozruk is forced to flee, during which time, his Spell Reflect wears off. With the Planar Shift finished, Eregos once again begins blasting Ozruk, but also summons a number of Whelps to aid him.
As his Spell Reflect is still on cooldown, Ozruk decides to use his Paralyze/Shatter combo, which allows him to both close the distance to Eregos, and kill off the annoying Whelps.
With the death of his Whelps, Eregos goes into a Frenzied Assault, and justs pelts Ozruk with Arcane magic; however, Ozruk's Spell Reflect has just come off cooldown, and due to Eregos' reduced cast time, is able to Reflect over 5 fully charged blasts right back at Eregos, severly hurting him, and leaving him wide open to a Ground Slam, which finishes the fight.
"Hehehe... Your Magic has failed you dragon. This is the World's Heart, you should have stayed in Northrend..."
Twill Jun 13th 2011 5:05PM
As Eregos falls, his arcane energies create a small portal a week into the future. As Ozruk leaves the arena, we see a glimmer of two humans making s'mores over a lightly burnt piece of cardboard.
Ozruk and Whitemane have eye contact for a moment, both knowing that their future battle will be fierce.
Fraket Jun 13th 2011 8:42PM
@Saf:
I am not sure you are taking the character of these opponents into consideration. One is a member of the Blue Dragonflight: One of the most intelligent and learned factions in this game. He may fall for the Elementium Bulwark once, but since Ozruk calls it out every time he casts it, it won't be hard to avoid after the first time.
"Blue dragons are not cruel beasts, preferring a quick kill for enemies and prey alike. They often use their abilities and spells from afar... They are excellent tacticians and attempt to damage or disable any opposing spellcasters before they commit to a physical attack. Blue dragons prefer to fight from the air, using spells and breath weapons to their fullest." -via Wowpedia
Now normally that would mean paralyze+flying = fall. However certain rules prohibit flying, so Eregos will just keep his distance and be paralyzed at range. Oz always follows his paralyze immediately with a shatter (before closing any distance), making it useless against ranged foe (technically the whelps will all be ranged too). He will take the damage when the debuff wears off, which is hefty, but not devastating to a boss.
Ground Smash can also be sidestepped thanks to its 3 sec cast. So again, he will only get one off before Eregos learns how to out maneuver it.
Looking at Ozruk, we see he is a rock, which is as dumb as...a rock:
"Ozruk has served as Stonecore's guardian since Deepholm's creation. It is unknown why Ozruk has remained in the Stonecore, but it has become apparent that the guardian now believes that anyone opposed to Deathwing is a threat to Deepholm, and should therefore be destroyed." -Wowpedia
So he now aligns himself with Deathwing despite his shattering of the World Pillar which endangered the World's Heart to begin with. Ozruk is clearly the dullest in a series of very dull tools. As such I imagine he will just blindly go through his rotation without strategy, which is very easy to plan around.
direbadgercvlry Jun 13th 2011 2:22PM
I'm all for Eregos, smashed ozruk in my fiirst run with 4 others fairly new to the instance. Occulus, has more than my share of big fat tank and hunter corpses.
Eberron Jun 13th 2011 2:24PM
Eregos does not have a bad ass remix. Eregos is going down.
EXPOSE... my body.
Nadia Jun 13th 2011 3:18PM
Suffer, dragon, as your pathetic magic...Betraaaaaaaaaaaaaaays you! Upon my Bod-eee!
WylendrinEillas Jun 13th 2011 2:50PM
Ah, a true fight that is strong as this side is a true side unlike the other collum with the cardboard which will make this season hopefully invalid
Sumadin Jun 13th 2011 2:31PM
Isn't it sad btw that Ozruk is the last Cataclysm boss in the top 4. Please No more Wild cards. As in ever again.
Alex Ziebart Jun 13th 2011 3:35PM
I think it's more sad that the Cataclysm bosses aren't fun or interesting enough for them to win any of these things. In general, the Cata bosses aren't just losing -- they're getting CRUSHED.
Aspirisis Jun 13th 2011 4:17PM
I have to say the most interesting boss, and one I would think would've gone far was Vanessa VanCleef...but for some reason, UPS Packaging stands up to her...I hate Cardboard Assassin soooooo much...
Narshe Jun 13th 2011 5:46PM
If this competition only had bosses from Cata content then you wouldnt be able to make comments about how bad these bosses supposedly are compared to previous expansions. No other TBE had wild cards and joke characters like Cardboard Assassin (some bosses are silly, sure, but still), and of course people will vote for the wild cards just to be a pain.
Atlon Jun 13th 2011 2:40PM
Ah c'mon! Seriously, this cadboard shit is gettin' old!
Anyway, I think that although Ozruk is pretty badass he's no match for Ol' Eregos. The arena may have a roof, but it should be easy for the dragon to keep his distances from the shatter and the frontal cone stuff.
Also the planar shift is some serious trouble for anyone.
Jonisjalopy Jun 13th 2011 2:57PM
*sigh*
You ever have that thought of "Man, that seemed like a good idea at the time"? That should be what's going through Alex's mind about this stupid Cardboard thing being in the tourney.
Can it just forfeit now and we forget it ever happened?