Two Bosses Enter: The final matchup, Lord Godfrey vs. Zanzil
by Mathew McCurley 
Oct 25th 2011 at 2:00PM
Welcome to the grand season finale of Two Bosses Enter. This is the final matchup for the season, pitting Shadowfang Keep resident badass Lord Godfrey against Zul'Gurub resident badass Zanzil. Poisons versus pistols. Fire versus fashion. Ghouls versus zombies. This is the big one, people. Get ready to vote for who takes it all home on Two Bosses Enter Cataclysm Season 2.
I'll be honest -- I never thought that I would be writing down these words in this competition. Zanzil has won out over Vanessa VanCleef by a mere 13 votes. Thirteen votes. Almost 5,000 votes were tallied, and Zanzil won by only 13 votes. The legions of Vanessa VanCleef fans failed to stop the Troll juggernaut. We live in end times, friends.
| Lord Godfrey | |
|---|---|
| Zanzil |
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.
Having Lord Godfrey in the final matchup of the season is something that brings me all sorts of joy. Not only is Godfrey one bad melon farmer, but he also has the gumption, power, skills, and savvy to best the Dark Lady herself. No one crosses the Dark Lady, and Godfrey lived (died?) to tell the tale. Zanzil is going to have his work cut out for him, as a storm of bullets is heading his way. Lord Godfrey is your first contestant in the Two Bosses Enter final matchup.
Godfrey's abilities include:
The unlikeliest of champions has arisen from the wreckage of a season fraught with Troll-haters and devastating losses for the Troll heroic bosses. Zanzil stood above the rest, overcoming his status as Troll boss with cool aesthetics, a great storyline, badass quotes and a penchant for destroying those who can't follow simple directions. Can Zanzil turn the tide against Lord Godfrey and put cauldrons ahead of pistols? Zanzil is your second combatant in the Two Bosses Enter season finale fight.
Zanzil's abilities include:
- Zanzil Fire
- Voodoo Bolt
- Terible Tonic
- Zanzil's Graveyard Gas requires a drink from the green cauldron.
- Zanzil's Resurrection Elixir (blue) will call forth a resurrected Zanzili Berserker, which can be frozen after a drink from the blue cauldron.
- Zanzil's Resurrection Elixir (red) will raise a cadre of Zanzili Zombies who swarm Zanzil's enemies, which can be AOEed down after a drink from the red cauldron.
There has never been a greater upset in the history of Two Bosses Enter than a Troll boss beating out the fan-favoritest of fan-favorites, Vanessa VanCleef. A Troll beat Vanessa VanCleef. Alex Ziebart is crying his poor eyes out. The vote tally was so incredibly close. Can you believe this? I can't.
First off, we had almost 5,000 votes for this matchup, meaning people really wanted to see the conclusion of this whole mess. The commenters love Zanzil and would love nothing more than to see their favorite Troll in the finals, but not everyone likes to comment and, in reality, voters come from all walks of WoW life. Vanessa has her fans; Zanzil has his. There was nothing in the way of these two titans. Only votes mattered now.
Some fans like Marcoscr05 got a little too into wanting Vanessa to fall to the king of cauldrons:
I'm willing to become a zombie and help zanzil beating Vanessa if it's necessary. But for now Team Zanzil just has my vote.Slow down there, buddy. I don't think that's exactly what you want, but the sentiment comes across loud and clear. It was a decisive matchup for sure, but you might want to stick around with the living just for a bit longer.
Alurius brings down the cold hard facts with Zanzil's precedent as a force to be reckoned with.
Vanessa may be an expert in poison use, but Zanzil is the ORIGINAL witch doctor of Vanilla WoW. His quests were the bane of the Darkspear trolls, his concotions were used as far as the Shimmering Flats, and he was one of the few trolls to keep the original witch doctor model.Finally, my favorite description of the fight comes from GhostWhoWalks, who just goes with the most diabolic, awful, mean-spirited, two-timing, sneaky, and soul-crushing strategy used by Zanzil to best VanCleef. Seems appropriate, no?
Only through the use of many different Cardboard Assassins could the young VanCleef win. Maybe.
"Our first combatant for this match really knows how to wield her influence over the voting public, in this corner...Vanessa VanCleef!"Readers, the choice is yours and yours alone. Who takes the top spot this season on Two Bosses Enter?
Vanessa adjusted her red mask and checked her stock of venoms; she knew her upcoming opponent made extensive use of poisonous mixtures, and the young Defias boss would need to have her own toxins ready as a counter while ensuring that she breathed in as little of the deadly gasses as possible.
"And in this corner, a crafty survivor who has weathered the dangers of Stranglethorn for many years...Zanzil the Outcast!"
The troll witch-doctor entered the arena ahead of a crew of Argent soldiers, who grimaced from the stench of the supplies they were being forced to cart into the fight, including a pile of corpses and Zanzil's cauldrons.
"Oooh, pretty..." Zanzil commented, eyeing up the bare skin left exposed by Vanessa's outfit, then added with a giggle "Zanzil's got big plans for dis one!"
"Plans? Your plans are worthless, troll." Vanessa snapped her fingers and a team of Defias elites emerged from the shadows behind her. "My fate is my own, and no one else's."
"Hoho, little girl's got friends, eh?" The witch-doctor's voice suddenly turned indignant as he pulled out a vial of red chemicals. "Bah, who needs friends? Zanzil just makes his own, hahaha!" He tossed the vial into the cluster of corpses that the Argents had carried in for him, reanimating many of the bodies into zombies, and pulled out his green and blue vials as well.
Vanessa and her guards readied themselves to fight off the undead, until they noticed a human male among the crowd of zombies wearing the tatters of a black uniform and a red mask that covered the lower half of his face. Vanessa's mouth hung open behind her own mask, and her widened eyes began to water up with tears. "D...dad??"
Zanzil walked alongside his zombies as they slowly approached the stunned Defias. "You recognize dis one, no? Zanzil finds him washed up in de rivers, gets to thinking to himself 'Now dis one'd make a fine zombie!' Zanzil hears about who he's fightin' in de little tournament, decides to hurry up and stitch dis one back together so we could have a little family reunion!"
Vanessa fell to her knees and sobbed as the corpse of her father stood before her, the anguish of loss and grief from her childhood years rushing back to overpower her desire for revenge; after all, he was the reason why she had wanted that revenge so badly. "Father, I...I've tried so hard to m-make you proud...the things I've had to do...it's been so hard...without you and mom...b-but..."
"Heyyy, Zanzil knows how tough it be." The troll was now kneeling beside her, a comforting arm draped over her shoulders. "You try to show de world your talents, but nobody appreciates it. Here, you drink dis and feel better."
Wiping tears away from her face, Vanessa pulled down her mask, oblivious to the cries for aid from her guards as a Berserker pounded them flat, and accepted the cup the witch-doctor was offering her. "Thank you." she said before downing the cool liquid. Too late, she realized, the memories of the past had blinded her to the dangers of the present. Chocking rasps emanated from her throat and she fell backward onto the ground, her body convulsing. Zanzil rose to his feet and watched with amusement as the human girl writhed in agony for a few moments, then lay still.
"Hehehahahahaaa! Don't worry, little one. Zanzil won't leave you dead for long."
| Vanessa VanCleef | |
|---|---|
| Zanzil |
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)
niko Oct 25th 2011 2:05PM
nice way to end her.
/brofist
... and now, ON WITH THE SHOW!
/barnes fo-evs
Sumadin Oct 25th 2011 2:08PM
Godfrey knows a thing or two about dealing with a commander of undeads. Just saying.
Sarducci Oct 25th 2011 2:18PM
And his pistol barrage is good for shredding low grade undead, as we know.
gunstrak Oct 25th 2011 2:11PM
go team Zanzil!
Saeadame Oct 25th 2011 2:24PM
ZANZIL! ZANZIL! ZANZIL! ZANZIL!
GOGO TROLLSSSSSSS!!!
djsuursoo Oct 25th 2011 2:24PM
oh man. i have GOT to think this one through.
meta: both have got some of the most unique personal style. they're villians you love to fight. guys you wish would show up to help you at sethria's roost during dailies, they're so awesome.
mechanical(partial). they both summon undead types(zombies/ghouls). they both like to toss off really nasty directional AoEs. they both lay out a surprisingly massive amount of firepower.
godfrey's undead. poison gas is useless against those who don't breathe.
zanzil and godfrey both lay out enough damage with directional AoEs that the little adds like ghouls and zombies are more or less negated almost immediately(hilarious would be zanzil getting the ghoul slayer achievement if he won).
the berserkers are a wild-card i think, though not too hard for godfrey to deal with given how nimble he is.
it's going to come down to (former)mano-a-trollo.
this warrants some serious thinking.
madfigs Oct 25th 2011 2:54PM
All the Forsaken I've run ZG with would disagree about the effectiveness of poison gas on the undead.
Hierakles Oct 26th 2011 7:20AM
Don't forget, Godfrey may be enough of a crack shot that he could shoot Zanzil's vials out of the air, leaving him almost defenceless.
Bellajtok Oct 25th 2011 2:27PM
Oboy. I'm really, truly, actually torn on this one. I'm not even sure who has the better advantage- but I think I may have to give the win to Godfrey. Maybe.
sardai Oct 25th 2011 2:47PM
Zanzil is the obvious winner, if he can distract Godfrey long enough to catch him in a Zanzil fire while he's busy with a 'Zerker, he's done, and you lot say that Godfrey is nimble enough to dodge the fire, Zanzil managed to eke out a living in the dense jungles of STV, where everything wants to eat you, and the sundering of said jungles by Deathwing. Godfrey is a desiccated corpse and probably a bit unstable considering the height he jumped to kill himself. Zanzil will outlast Godfrey in a one on one, if he doesn't kill him with all of his abilities first
Revnah Oct 25th 2011 2:53PM
What's with this ridiculous Godfrey?? I mean, PISTOLS against witchdoctor-y? Pur-lease!
peppermintglow Oct 25th 2011 2:59PM
Hm... I can't decide. Can we just agree on a tie? :D
Saf Oct 25th 2011 3:00PM
This choice is hard...
On one hand, it's a battle between a Destro-Lock (Zanzil) and a Survival Hunter (Godfrey). Each have low-impact pets that are largely ignored (the pack of zombies vs. ghouls), and they each have ranged attacks with avoidable, directional AOEs. Though, the Zerker can be cancelled by the Blue Cauldron, while Cursed Bullets wears Zanzil down...
On the other hand, Zanzil can just stand and turret on Godfrey, while Godfrey has to keep moving to the various Cauldrons and out of Zanzil Fire in addition to getting in range for his Barrage.
:S
Based on the 'other hand' stance, I guess I'll go with Zanzil. Godfrey will be moving around too much to match the DPS that Zanzil would be dealing to him. Godfrey doesn't have Aspect of the Fox you know...
Amaxe Oct 25th 2011 3:03PM
Hmm, will we now see for the next 8 years people accusing Zanzil of stealing the election?
/flees the mon
GhostWhoWalks Oct 25th 2011 3:07PM
You know what? Zanzil's got this one too. He's got all the bases covered. He has a ranged attack (Voodoo Bolt), his Zanzili Fire will tear Godfrey's Ghouls apart (I've used it myself against Zanzil's zombies, and that rips right through minor adds) and Godfrey can't run from Graveyard Gas (though he is smart enough to grab the cauldron buff). But all of those are just cancelling out some of Godfrey's advantages. What can Zanzil do to put himself on top?
Simple: summon a Berserker...then summon another. Godfrey can freeze and then kite down one Berserker...but two? Not happening. He doesn't have the defenses to manage such a beat-down, he's not fast enough to escape BOTH of them and still handle Zanzil's other skills. It might not end quickly, it might be a close fight, but the odds are not in Godfrey's favor.
Or to put it another way...
***
The Gilnean nobelman and the Gurubashi outcast stared each other down. The arena was silent for several moments, as each competitor waited for the other to make the first move, a move which might decide the outcome of the match. Then Zanzil pulled out the Loot-Filled Pumpkin he had picked up earlier, removed its contents, and stuck the Worgen Mask over his face.
"NO!" Godfrey roared "More are turning into those mangy beasts?! Unacceptable! UNACCEPTABLE! I'd rather die again that be surrounded by more Worgen!" With that, Godfrey turned, ran, and hurled himself off the nearest cliff.
Zanzil chuckled to himself. "Hey, dis be more fun than Zanzil expected!"
Namus Oct 26th 2011 4:29PM
You dear sir or madam just won this and any other games ever invented, also a lollipop.
Shade Oct 25th 2011 3:10PM
"Welcome to the finals," boomed the well-worn voice of Highlord Fordring, "and welcome to our two contestants!" The crowd cheered as the gates to the coliseum creaked open, Lord Godfrey sauntering in from one side and Zanzil dashing back and forth at the other.
"Kekeke!" Zanzil's depraved cackle reverberated throughout the stadium. "To all me fans, I got a great surprise for ya dis evenin'!" Godfrey watched uninterestedly as the witch doctor lobbed a blue flask into the shadows from whence he had entered. The crowd fell silent as soft, errant footsteps grew closer to the battlefield.
"What is this treachery?!" Tirion shouted, seeing the slightly decomposed body of Vanessa VanCleef stumble into the light.
"Jes' wait, mon!" Zanzil chided. "De best is yet to come!" Vanessa slowly ambled toward the center of the ring, stopping short of her mark. Her zombie hands produced a box. A bead of sweat ran down Tirion's neck. He dared to hope that his worst fears would not come to pass, yet as the soft, rhythmic creaking of springs and fluttering of cardboard filled the arena, his face found itself resting hard against the palm of his hand.
"HAHAHAHA! Zanzil be a true genius! He be da only troll to resurrect cardboard! Ya remember what happened last time, don't ya, Highlord?"
Zanzil's glee was cut short as two gunshots pierced the air. Both Vanessa and the Cardboard Assassin crumpled as Godfrey's shadow magic took hold of their corpses. "This is the quality of assassin sent to kill me? Laughable."
Zanzil gave a strained whimper as he ran to duck behind one of his cauldrons. A third gunshot cracked the pewter base and strange green fluids leaked out onto the floor. "Yours is such a weak race," Godfrey mused, absentmindedly summoning a pack of ghouls to the stadium.
"Trolls got friends too, mon!" Zanzil retorted, throwing yet another flask into his waiting area. Moments later, ghoul and zombie clashed as Godfrey loaded his pistols, preparing for a barrage.
"Ya got nothin, Godfrey!" Zanzil taunted from behind a second cauldron, releasing noxious gas into the arena as the last of Godfrey's ghouls were destroyed.
"What madness would lead you to believe that one cauldron will protect you any better than the last?" Godfrey shouted, letting loose a barrage of bullets. Sure enough, Zanzil's cauldron shattered, red liquid swimming with green. Internally, Tirion began to despair for his cleaning staff.
Zanzil had taken several hits from Godfrey's salvo, limping over to his final cauldron while Godfrey picked off the remaining zombies. "Dat's right, zombie... pay no attention to Zanzil in de corner..." Zanzil let loose a stream of fire which Godfrey avoided with ease, though fire is admittedly not the stealthiest of attacks.
"How stupid do you think I am?!" Godfrey laughed, sliding more cursed bullets into his guns. "At least once I destroy your last pitiful bucket, you'll have nowhere left to run."
Crack. The final cauldron split in half, its viscous contents mixing with the others on the ground.
Crack. The floor of the arena gave way, too corroded by Zanzil's concoctions to support its own weight any longer. Both contestants fell into the abyss, screaming bloody murder at each other all the way down.
Surprised gasps filled the crowd, Tirion himself running to the floor to stare into the caverns that rested beneath the tournament grounds. Strange scents and distorted grunts wafted out of the hole, but there was one new clattering voice above all the others that froze the Highlord's blood.
"...set....back...."
Spectators fled left and right as scarabs and locusts swarmed the tournament grounds.
(You guys complete the story! Who wins - Godfrey, Zanzil, or Anub'Arak? Yes, I *am* that bored!)
Shade Oct 25th 2011 3:12PM
To specify: All of Zanzil's concoctions and flasks accidentally resurrected Anub'Arak's lifeless corpse when they torrented down from the arena. He doesn't really qualify as sentient. Just really annoying with his goddamn adds and healing locusts.
Nadia Oct 25th 2011 3:26PM
Murrrrgurggglah!
Zombie Cookie comes leaping out of the hole in the ground, with a cauldron full of plague-infested food...
Just kidding.
I got nothin.
schwonga Oct 25th 2011 3:35PM
Truly, if ever a tie was begged for, it was here. But someone has to die here, the crowd demands blood!
Zanil walks to the center of the arena and straightens out his back. Godfrey, his curiosity peaked, does the same. They wordlessly stare at one another, waiting for the other to make the first move. Fordring, hearing the crowds increased agitation, calls out to the combatants again "LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!"
The troll and the dead man both smile as the same thought crosses each of their minds. The then turn, leap on top of Fodring, and eat head.
The End.