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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsTwo 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 2 of 4)
Zetsubou Jun 13th 2011 3:07PM
don't forget that as a dragon, Eregos has claws, fangs a tail etc. if he can't make use of flight i would expect him to do a lot of melee during a reflect uptime. maybe not as useful against a construct but better than doing his casts stupidly like Saf theorized.
dmberreth Jun 13th 2011 3:14PM
Adolescent joke sums it up pretty nicely.
Raijen Jun 13th 2011 3:17PM
Have we all forgotten that air beats ground?
Sarducci Jun 13th 2011 3:27PM
Rule of this fight prevent Eregos from flying.
Sumadin Jun 13th 2011 3:39PM
Ozruk is not a ground type he is rock. They do extra damage to flying enemies.
Dadruidess Jun 13th 2011 3:42PM
2 birds one stone;
Earth beats Air, no?
erragall Jun 13th 2011 3:47PM
stone is a rock. rock pummels ground , even if ergos could fly, as sumadin said, *paralyze* *fuuuuu-*) ground can not harm fly but fly has no advantage over ground, where as rock does over air. you simplified that wrong my friend. log off wow and play some more pokémon. your pokéfoo is weak.
The Dewd Jun 13th 2011 3:21PM
And we've lost Throngus - the last boss with a fire-based attack that I can think of - so no chance of the CA getting burniated. Apparently our last hope is that the Cardboard Assassin turn out to be something much more interesting in disguise. Or that Deathwing shows up and torches it before his next match.
musicchan Jun 13th 2011 3:26PM
Cardboard Assassin against Mograin and Whitemane? Ha, in last week's comments I even said that the assassin doesn't stand a chance against those two. Guess we'll see if I was right.
Secretly though, I'm hoping Ozruk wins overall.
shadcroly Jun 13th 2011 3:31PM
I'm gonna have to toss this one to Eregos.
The one thing that makes Ozruk a particularly dangerous foe is his Shatter ability, which will completely decimate anything that gets with 15 yards of him. However, that 15 yards is also Ozruk's biggest flaw in the Shatter ability. No ranged DPS ever has to be worried about getting hit by it, as they're always well out of range.
Eregos not just because he's a dragon that can fly, but also because he's a magical DPS, can easily keep himself out of range and pelt Ozruk with spells until he's down. Sure, he'll receive some damage back from Elementium Bulwark, but that only lasts a short amount of time.
Jack Mynock Jun 13th 2011 5:19PM
I disagree. What makes Ozruk so dangerous is his paralyze ability. Everything else can be dodged, but paralyze will hit (from across the zone, no less). Think of Erogos like an arcane mage; which is to say: he has no way of breaking paralyze via reflecting a dot. Not only does paralyze leave eregos open to any of Ozruk's high damage abilities, but if allowed to expire naturally, paralyze does a good chunk of damage on its own. If Ozruk wanted to he could simply cast paralyze each time it came off cooldown and deal no other damage to Eregos. By the time it wears off, Eregos only has a few seconds in which to deal damge before it comes off cooldown. IMO, it's almost impossible for Ozruk to lose this fight.
Fraket Jun 13th 2011 7:07PM
Ozruk could and would land some damage on each paralyze expiration, but it isn't particularly lethal. A player can take one or two of the debuff expirations, so a boss like Eregos could probably take more. Plus he avoids two with Planar Shifts. As long as Eregos keeps kiting, he can stay alive for at least 2-3 minutes, which is enough time to do a lot of damage.
vegetto375 Jun 13th 2011 3:32PM
While the arena may have a roof nothing syas that eros can't just hover above the gound.Gound slam HA! it will go something like this.
What is that noise in my domain.(says Ozruk as he hears loud screams comin' from behind)
Erogos: So now is but a mere golem that stands in my way. (Ergos open fire with a volley of aracane barrage from a distance) Ozruk screams "Come! Break yourselves upon my body!" as he runs toward the dragon.
Ozruk prepares for a gound slam while eregos simply opens his wings and jumps hovers about the ground. the blast from the shock wave sends the dragon flying backwards. Ozruk uses his elementium bulkwar as he prepares for another wave of arcane barrage.
Indeed Eregos fires his magic only to have it revert it to him knocking him of the air. Ozruk rushes for a paralize shatter combo only to be amazed that his attacks have no effect. Eregos having used his palnar shift to avoid the incoming damage.
While Ozruk looks perplex at his in-ability to hurt his opponent he finds himself surrounded by planar anomalities. With no way to defend himself Ozruk attemps to retread back the way came. With his planar shift over Eregos re-emerges and yells "Such insolence ... such arrogance ... must be PUNISHED!". He begings an enreaged assualt on the stone golem.
Ozruk rushes to get close enough to the enemy to even the scores but a multitude of whelpings slow his movement. Un-able to reach the dragon Ozruk falls.
MattKrotzer Jun 13th 2011 3:47PM
The only glitch in that being that before using Ground Slam, Ozruk uses Paralyze. Dragons don't stay aloft very well if they stop flapping their wings. Eregos would take fall damage, THEN Ground Slam damage.
Groth Jun 13th 2011 6:19PM
Actually MK, it's far worse for Eregos. He gets his Arcane attacks reflected back at him, forcing him to take wing. Then he gets paralyzed, leading him to drop like the provebial stone, taking fall damage. He then gets hit by Shatter- Ozruk likes to melee and Eregos has no need to seek distance in his initial view. Still reeling from the shatter, Eregos then takes a ground slam in the face. If he was quick enough to start hovering again, those sharp rock spikes are going to be right in his nether regions. Any whelps will find themselves taken out by Elementium Bullwark, so the main damage Ozruk is going to take will be from the Planar Anomalies. Those are going to sting, but the reflected arcane power would surely close the anomlaies during Bullwark.
mibu.work1 Jun 14th 2011 12:38AM
@ Matt
Ah, but may I remind you that Eregos regularly is paralyzed in his own encounter by players riding bronze drakes, and does indeed cease flapping during that time!.
In addition, I don't see why eregos can't hover at low altitudes, and it is frankly unusual to me that every single encounter Ozruk has had has been in that narrow tunnel of his. I know it makes sense that he wouldn't leave it, but still, let's even the playing field by having all of them in an arena of some kind where fair is fair.
squig_masta Jun 14th 2011 2:07AM
Bronze drakes don't paralyze Eregos, they freeze him in time. He doesn't lose altitude because, from a temporal standpoint, literaly zero time has passed since he last flapped his wings. When Ozruk paralyzes him, time will pass, gravity will take affect, and Eregos will fall to the ground like so many fresh 70s who walked blindly into that dungeon at the start of wrath.
Oh sweet irony, how I've longed for this day.
ukandrion Jun 13th 2011 3:49PM
please, we all know rock types beat flying types.
Naryn Jun 13th 2011 3:52PM
Ley-Guardian Eregos circled Coldarra in search of more prey coming her way, just as the Lord and Lady of the Deep had fallen before her when she spotted her next target; Ozruk.
Ozruk blinded by the brightness of Coldarra didn't see Eregos swoop in behind, her talons braced for an impact, the Ley-Guardian struck a abhorrent blow to Ozruk before he had time to prepare himself, Eregos screamed "You brash interlopers are out of your element! I will ground you!" However Ozruk took this time to prepare himself for Eregos' next attack, brutal as it was Ozruk's Elementium Bulwark took the brunt of Eregos' hit and turned it against her in a devastating counter-attack.
As Ozruk took the initiative he began to cast Ground Slam "None may pass the World's Heart" Eregos laughed at him, the power of the Earth was no match for her, "Such insolence should be punished" Enraged at Ozruk's clear contempt for her considerable power, Ozruk, unable to defend himself whilst Slamming into the ground took a mighty blow, but managed to keep himself up through the strength of his Earthern shields.
"Break yourself upon my body" he taunted Eregos with, instead of falling for the same trick twice, Eregos sent in her whelp to die for her, and went into a Phasar Shift, protecting her from his obvious shatter.
Ozruk became enraged, his attacks were useless he turned to face the whelps surrounding him and blinding him to the multitude of Planar Anomaly's surrounding him.
"A protector has fallen, The World's Heart lies exposed"
Eregos savours her victory briefly and begins her search for prey that might be.... more edible for her and her children.
exogenesis. Jun 13th 2011 4:01PM
A female Eregos would be 'Eregosa'.