Two Bosses Enter: Echo of Sylvanas vs. Yor'sahj the Unsleeping
by Mathew McCurley 
Jan 30th 2012 at 4:00PM
Season 3 is full of surprises as the Echo of Jaina takes the win over Morchok by a smaller margin of votes than I could have ever predicted. Seriously, Jaina, call out the fan brigade, because you are not winning this tournament with numbers like that. Against Morchok. Seriously, that game? Gotta get upped.
This week's matchup is going to be an awesome treat for those of you who like to write your own posts about how these battles turn out. Check it out: Sylvanas, Banshee Queen and Dark Lady of the Forsaken, goes head to head with one of the Old Gods' most powerful, colored-slime lord Yor'sahj the Unsleeping. Two dark powers will rumble in the ring today on Two Bosses Enter.
| Echo of Sylvanas (End Time) | |
|---|---|
| Yor'sahj the Unsleeping (Dragon Soul) |
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.
In Corner One: Echo of Sylvanas
From beyond the timeways, their shattered streams of time energy leaking into every conceivable path, fragments of Sylvanas' maddened remains find themselves on Azeroth at the End Time, trapped within the Ruby Dragonshrine. Forever.
In life, she was the greatest ranger there ever was. In her first death, she was the Banshee Queen, leader of the banshees, one of Arthas' greatest weapons against all who lived and all who opposed him. In her rebirth, she was Queen of the Forsaken, the Dark Lady, the most fearsome threat to life itself since the Lich King. And now, in her final death, she walks the charred remains of an Azeroth murdered in fire and chaos. Deathwing has won, and this is his prize.
The Echo of Sylvanas encounter has one mechanic that I particularly enjoy and loved seeing as an addition during patch 4.3. At one point during the fight, Sylvanas will pull all group members toward her, spawning ghouls around her in a circle and filling the Ruby Dragonshine with a deathly corruption. In order to escape certain death, players must quickly kill one of the ghouls to create a hole in their line to escape the corruption. It is intense, fast-paced, and frantic. Please, Blizzard, learn from the Sylvanas fight -- it's one of the best 5-man fights ever designed.
Echo of Sylvanas' abilities include:
- Shriek of the Highborne Sylvanas shrieks with anguish, inflicting damage to an enemy and decreasing movement speed.
- Black Arrow Sylvanas fires an explosive black arrow at an enemy, inflicting heavy AoE damage.
- Unholy Shot Sylvanas fires a barrage of missiles at an enemy, striking up to three enemies within 10 yards, inflicting extra shadow damage.
- Blighted Arrows Sylvanas blights the ground under an enemy, inflicting heavy damage and knocking back enemies caught in the arrow crossfire.
- Wracking Pain When Sylvanas spawns ghouls, enemies are damaged when they pass through the ghoul link.
- Sacrifice When the ghouls reach Sylvanas, they explode doing tons of damage. Kill a ghoul to break the line and escape!
Looming in the great Maw of Shu'ma, Yor'sahj the Unsleeping relentlessly assaults Wyrmrest Temple beside his corrupted bretheren. Though his lore in game is light, we do know that Yor'sahj is said to be the great being Deathwing is using to summon the Faceless Ones to his aid. Ever since we defeated Cho'gall and Sinestra in the Bastion of Twilight, Deathwing's connection with that aspect of the Old Gods has been presumably weakened, requiring the aid of the Unsleeping.
The globule mechanic, much like Sylvanas' ghouls above, is one of my favorite new mechanics from Cataclysm. Say what you want about content, but Cataclysm's broadness in encounter design was second to none as far as WoW expansions go. The slime mechanic, where combinations of slimes produce different difficulties in dealing with their consequences, is simple but inspired. Combining a light DPS race with basic coordination and teamwork, Yor'sahj is a simple encounter that leaves a lasting punch -- you will remember the Skittles for many expansions to come.
Yor'sahj the Unsleeping abilities include:
- Void Bolt Yor'sahj blasts his enemy with dark energy, dealing significant damage and stacking a damage over time shadow attack.
- Call Blood of Shu'ma Yor'sahj begins to summon the blood of Shu'ma, creating three or four slimes, depending on whether it's regular or heroic version.
- Glowing Globule Void Bolt now does AoE damage shared between all hit, as well as increasing his attack speed and damage.
- Cobalt Globule When a Cobalt Globule reaches Yor'sahj, it infuses Yor'sahj with the ability to summon Mana Voids.
- Crimson Globule When a Crimson Globule reaches Yor'sahj, it infuses Yor'sahj with the Searing Blood ability, granting fire damage that increases as enemies move further from Yor'sahj.
- Dark Globule When a Dark Globule reaches Yor'sahj, the corruption of the blood seeps out into the Maw of Shu'ma. This vile corruption then periodically creates many Forgotten Ones.
- Acidic Globule When an Acidic Globule reaches Yor'sahj, the Maw of Shu'ma infuses with the acidic blood and stimulates further Digestive Acid production, inflicting poison which hurts enemies that are standing too close to each other.
- Shadowed Globule When a Shadowed Globule reaches Yor'sahj, it infuses Yor'sahj with the Deep Corruption ability, which causes healing and absorption effects to trigger damaging detonations.
The tormented and twisted soul fragments of Jaina Proudmoore beat out Morchok in last week's round on Two Bosses Enter. I was incredibly surprised at the numbers from last week -- there is no way that I could have predicted Jaina's winning by as low of a margin as she did. And it's still a pretty big margin, don't get me wrong. She should be very proud. But I was thinking something more along the line of Brann Bronzebeard numbers. That guy can fill seats, let me tell you.
So, with a win under her belt, the Echo of Jaina moves on to the next round. You commenters had some great discussion and posts about the Jaina vs. Morchok matchup, and they all made me very happy to read. Smiles everywhere.
Commenter nickwashere pretty much provides undeniable proof that Jaina wins against Morchok, no questions asked.
You know who spends a lot of time reading books? Mages.What are books made out of? Paper.What's Morchok made from? Rock.Paper wraps rock, so this one goes to Jania.
I don't really know what to say. Case closed, pack it up, get on in, we're done forever. Paper always wins, and tails never fails.
Vaniya is very, very passionate for Jaina and won't rest a night until she finds out that Jaina did, in fact, win last week's matchup. Get some sleep. Go. You have earned it. Also, I enjoy the story hook in Vaniya's post that Jaina's had concocted the Flarecores herself, since she is sort of supposed to be one of the most powerful mages ever. I find the inventiveness fun!
Please, pleeeeease let Jaina win! I mean, Tyrande will clearly win the whole thing, but Jaina is pretty strong. Here is how it will go:Morchok lumbered up to the Azure Dragonshrine, unsure of how he got to where he was. Wasn't his master still attacking that tower over there, instead of idly laying... Through it? Morchok didn't quite care, for he had been walking around for several hours when he saw bright lights coming from the shrine.Once there, he accidentally stepped on something hard that made a crunching sound. A whisper went through his mind, just a gentle "who's there?" Morchok lifted his foot, and was surprised when the fragments floated away, swirling in the air with other shards. Another flash of light sundered the air, and there stood a puny human."You Seek to halt an avalanche. I will bury you!" lumbered Morchok."I will defend this shrine with my life!" screamed the woman, who immediately shot a ball of fire at the elemental.This did little but annoy Morchok, who went to crush her. His foot came down, but only hit empty space! "why won't you give up?!" she cried!Morchok, furious, employed his earthen powers to pull her to his feet, where he started seeping the black blood of the earth. Before the woman could be overwhelmed, she sent blades of frost at her foe, freezing him and his blood. She blinked away, just in time for Morchok to break free!He threw down a crystal that was sending off a high pitched sound, and Jaina quickly sent a pyroblast at it, shattering it. Fed up with this rabble, Jaina sent off frosty projectiles at her enemy, and he chilled, unable to move any faster than a crawl. She summoned several growing spheres of pure energy around him."My own invention. I call them Flarecores." she said cooly."This is impossible. I am inv-" Morchok started to say, but he was cut off by the massive explosion that turned him into a fine powder.With her duty completed, the Echo of Jaina Proudmoore closed her eyes and faded into oblivion, her staff once again shattering into hundreds of pieces.
Great work everyone, and thank you for the comments, posts, and stories. This week's matchup is going to be a lot of fun, and I can't wait to read your reactions. Let the games begins!
| Echo of Jaina | |
|---|---|
| Morchok |
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 1)
Travy Jan 30th 2012 5:02PM
I voted for Sylvanas because she is Sylvanas.
DarkFinch Jan 30th 2012 6:28PM
Sylvanas always wins. ALWAYS.
Angus Jan 30th 2012 8:23PM
"Sylvanas always wins. ALWAYS."
Except when she faces Godfrey...
(Oh look who's back in the tournament!)
Yea, oozes vs ghouls, I'm giving it to her too.
Rai Jan 30th 2012 5:09PM
"Assume that the opponents share similar levels, health pools, and comparative overall damage output" is the key thing to take note before I explain why I'm voting for Sylvanas.
Yor'sahj has a lot of nasty abilities here and might stand a chance if void bolt began stacking up, despite the fact a lot of the abilities are designed for multiple targets and Sylvanas is on her own (for most of the fight).
If comparative overall damage output is the name of the game, then Yor'sahj would be in trouble. Sylvanas' sacrifice ability is a killer: and if not, then more than enough to win this for her. Sylvanas is cunning, she'd realise that while Yor'sahj is channeling his oozes, he is unable to move. Therefore, that's the best time for her to summon her circle of ghouls. The ghouls would reach Yor'sahj around the same time his oozes would, if not before - either way he has no time to move out of his impending doom.
Even if he survived one, one of the three oozes would die from Wracking Pain so even with the best of luck, Yor'sahj just wouldn't be able to win this.
divinite Jan 30th 2012 6:26PM
If she doesn't start casting right before Yor'sahj, she's a goner. She'll pull everyone to the center, including his oozes, letting him absorb them and instantly start shadow bolting, add-spawning, or whatever combo Yor'sahj comes up with. She better be hoping it's not red, green, yellow or red, black, yellow! Sylvanas can't move while channeling either, so it's really a matter of who gets a jump on the other.
naixdra Jan 31st 2012 2:08AM
@divinite
Don't forget, when she casts it she becomes immune to all damage. So she could pound on damage with unholy, black, and blighted arrows. Then when he is buffed by the oozes she can summon the ghouls effectively bubbling and depending on the oozes absorbed hit Yor'sahj with sacrifice since most of his abilities become AoE and thus less effective against the ghouls who require focus fire to down in time.
So yea, Sylvanas wins.
Quaza Jan 30th 2012 5:10PM
Sylvanas sat on the hard marble floor, preparing herself for a battle. She verified that her quiver was chock-full of arrows, some of which imbued with powerful magic. Her armor gleamed with a dark grey that, although slightly revealing, allowed for agile movement. Eyes glowing a bright red was the only sign of un-life left, her already rotting body taken on a ghostly translucency that unnerved even herself.
Muttering to herself, Sylvanas flipped through the book the insufferable paladin Tirion had given her. This "tournament", as far as she was concerned, was a collosal waste of time. But it wasn't exactly her choice to participate; one does not argue with a member of the Bronze Dragonflight, even if in the form of a cute pigtailed gnome.
She sat near the center of a completely circular arena. In the middle, there seemed a pool of a substance that looked slightly viscious. Having tested it earlier, Sylvanas deemed it safe to stand in. Around the edges, spaced equally apart, were 6 liquid dispensers that reminded her of the plague wagons in the Ruins of Lordaeron. Each liquid glowed slightly, but each in its own colour: Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Black, and Purple. Sylvanas noted the irony that these slimes granted abilites similar to the dragons that wore those colours.
Standing in the center was... something. It stood on two legs, but thats where the similarities ended. It had two long tenticles as arms, and 10 short ones around its neck. To Sylvanas, it looked like someone plopped an octopus on their head and waltzed into battle. Properly named the faceless one, the thing stared at Sylvanas longingly, and it wasn't to give her a hug.
The journal Sylvanas was reading described the effects of each liquid, and slowly a plan was beginning to develop. Of course, the old god - Yor'sahj, the page read - standing in the middle of the room also had such a book, but had long since thrown it aside. Only the bronze dragon's powerful magic kept it bound while Sylvanas prepared. Sylvanas sighed and, already bored of this place but determined to win, threw aside the book and stood up.
"About time!" Tirion shouted. The bronze dragon snorted at his word choice. "What remains of Sylvanas, Former Leader of the Forsaken versus one of Deathwing's Old God servants, Yorz... Yoz... The Unsleeping!" With that, the gnome released her hold on the beast.
Sylvanas heard the monstrosity's mouth utter something quite different, but that hardly mattered. She knew what echoed in her head was what he really said, and knew that she had severely underestimated this thing's intellegence.
"Another one of Deathwing's minions? I'll be sure your death is especially painful!" Notching her arrow, Sylvanas began the deathmatch.
Her opponent seemed inferior at first, visibly hurt by the arrows but unable to inflict any serious wounds on Sylvanas. She was no fool though, Sylvanas knew that the true challenge was yet to come. It wasn't until Yor'sahj prepared its first real assault that she would strike. She was patient.
Not exactly the cursed earth the monster called upon, but the vats activated nonetheless. Sylvanas knew what to expect - slimes that enhance her opponent's abilities - but which ones... Yellow, black, blue. Perfect.
Sylvanas strafed right, circling around, putting Yor'sahj between her and her new target. She fired a blighted arrow at the ooze in the distance, and, jumping, notched a full dozen arrows at once and buried them all in her target.
The yellow ooze.
With only a puddle of yellow slime and 13 arrows to show for her work, Sylvanas turns her attention back to Yor'sahj as the blue and black oozes fused with the monster. She could feel the corruption from the repeated shadow bolts eating away at her, and felt that it would end her unless she could remove it.
She had thought of that.
As minions arose from the pool beneath her - now black in colour, and looking thoroughly unsafe - Sylvanas felt all the magic in the area drain away. She saw a blue, semi-transparent ball floating 20 yards away, and, recalling what that journal said, knew destroying it would return the magic in that area.
Of course, her magic was firmly entrenched in her arrows, and she hadn't planned on casting anything anyways. Well, one spell, and Sylvanas had just enough magic left to do it.
"Watch, heathen, as death surrounds you!"
Using the remainants of her magic, Sylvanas jumpped in the air, and dragged Yor'sahj and its minions to her. At the same time, she summoned 8 ghouls around her, each connected to the next in the ring via a black beam. Fully protected from any harm, she felt Yor'sahj's corruption leave her. She did not feel the 30 minions attempting to hit her fruitlessly.
Yor'sahj smashed one of her ghouls and broke the chain, fleeing from her. Annoyed that the beast did indeed know her tactics, Sylvanas nonetheless finished the spell, annihilating the minions and the mana-ball.
The second clash was slightly in Yor'sahj's favor, due to his newfound psychic slice, but still much of a stalemate. It dragged for a full minute.
Round 2, Syvanas thought. What now... Green, yellow, red.
Not a blue or a black ooze. That thing was learning. Sylvanas' estimate of the Faceless One's intelligence rose.
Again, Sylvanas picked the yellow ooze. The green one, she reasoned, was only dangerous to groups (whereas she was alone), and the red one easily countered by standing close. Sinking an explosive Black Arrow in it, Sylvanas turned away to not get ooze in her eyes as it splatted everywhere. She allowed herself a small smirk as she saw Tirion wipe the slime off of his helm. Again she felt the creature's magic, feeling the shadowbolts starting to hurt. She once again lept into the air and summoned minions to protect her. Once again, Yor'sahj smashed through her ghouls. Unlike last time though, it kept running. And running. All the way out to the wall, where it turned and waited.
Is it afraid? Sylvanas thought. And then it hit her; An entry in the journal shot to the front of her memory.
"Crimson Globule - ... The further the target stands from Yor'sahj, the greater shock recieved from the blast."
Sylvanas prepared herself for unimaginable pain as her shield wore off. She was not disappointed.
---------
*Author's Note: I totally stole the thought-speak quote idea from Animorphs. Alex should be proud.
Also, Sylvanas will win the vote count 'cause the kiddies like her boobies. Look at Vanessa.
Quaza Jan 30th 2012 5:24PM
Damnit, all my Yor'sahj quotes got deleted. Okay, where you see an extra, empty lines, those were Yor'sahj lines, okay?
clundgren Jan 30th 2012 5:56PM
You really think the Yor'Sahj is smarter than Sylvanas?
Arthas would like a word.
Quaza Jan 30th 2012 6:26PM
Sylvanas is arrogant. She still believes she has all her former power - and she'd be mostly right - but underestimating her opponent is something she's done in the past (RE: Arthas) and not something she's learned from. Yor'sahj, however, is a faceless one, not subject to such nuisances like "emotion".
orkmjolhus Jan 31st 2012 11:55AM
i like your story and agree with most of the fight, but i found the end of it as somewhat strange. Their where no adds when Yors´Sahj enscaped, so their was no reason for Sylvanas to continue with the cast, she could simply have canceld it, slown Yors and been relativly okey throuout the rest. still it was pretty clever with Yors running to the wall:), relly sad that all his quotes got deleted:p
christianrlopezg Jan 30th 2012 5:17PM
jaina looks so hot on that pic!!! /love
yagamimoon Jan 30th 2012 5:20PM
I'm actually curious to see if any of the Dragon Soul Raid bosses over-votes the echoes, or any popular character at all :P
Vaniya, Durid X-trordinare Jan 30th 2012 5:22PM
Yay! My story was picked! I'm just really into this season, and I hope Sylvanas or Tyrande or Jaina win, mostly because they are some of my favorite lore characters!
:)
clundgren Jan 30th 2012 5:58PM
Sylvanas versus Tyrande in the final for some hot hunter-on-hunter action!
What? Get your minds out of the gutter.
Rangen Jan 30th 2012 5:31PM
I voted for Sylvanas, because she's smart enough to know that purple comes before blue on the kill order...
clundgren Jan 30th 2012 5:47PM
Let's see...one of the greatest tacticians Azeroth has ever known, and such a badass hunter that she can shoot down an ice barrier with *arrows*, versus a guy who stands still for much of the fight and eats slime.
Tough call. Tough call.
Not really. Sylvanas crushes him. Unlike Vanessa, in this case the hawt outfit is just a bonus.
Dbhelix Jan 30th 2012 8:31PM
Victory for Sylvanas
Lechara Jan 30th 2012 9:55PM
Ok, we ALL know who's gonna win this vote. Everyone loves Sylvanas, and for a good reason - she is truly a force to be reckoned with and a terrific character/boss.
However, I think that the fact Sylvanas is a fan favorite will be a huge tipping factor, and that some people might not be giving Yor'sahj a fighting chance. He's supposedly a very intelligent creature and also one of Deathwing's generals, and you don't get to the top of the pack by watching the world go by. If we release Yor'sahj from the confines of the game's mechanics, then I think he would give Sylvanas a seriously hard time.
Who do I think will win the vote? Sylvanas, due to her being just totally awesome. Who do I think would win in the arena? That's up in the air for me, but I'm honestly leaning towards Sylvanas in the end, due to being seriously kick-butt and having a sharp mind combined with loads of battlefield experience.
Ballmung Jan 31st 2012 1:31PM
Ok another battle where setting matters. Assuming dead bodies can be raised as ghouls in the bowls of Shu'ma we'll have our fight there.
For the fight we a Faceless One who summons 3 oozes and you can only kill one. Since it's Raid Finder some start to matter less. Sadface. Yor'sahj can summon adds, a mana void, a nasty healing debuff, some AoE based on distance, and can do all these twice as often. Sylvanas however has plenty of AoE abilities herself, can slow her opponents and can in fact become immune while she wipes out any threat not smart enough to go after the same ghoul in her purple fog of death.
For lore....Need I say much really? This is our favorite crazy lady with an arsenal of killing adds at her disposal and a greater need to kill anything with a pulse than ever before. Not sure if Faceless Ones have pulses but it moves like it's alive so close enough.