Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.

While last week's Two Bosses Moorabi/Trollgore matchup was downright gory, this week's battle appears no less likely to end up in a bloody mess. This week, we'll see King Dred of Drak'tharon Keep tear into Jedoga Shadowseeker and her minions inside Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom.

The ground rules:

• Assume that the opponents share similar levels, health pools and comparative overall damage output.
• In order to give Jedoga access to her minions, we'll set this deathmatch in her stomping grounds in Ahn'kahet – but we'll provide that King Dred arrives on the scene with a raptor posse of his own.
• Don't get caught up in gameplay mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter.
• Focus on the three S's: style, story and scale.
  

Can a ruthlessly bloodthirsty priestess hold off a rampaging Devilsaur? Join us after the break to cast your vote for who you think will emerge this week's victor.

Haven't done a shield in a while, so here's a cool-looking one to try for in Ulduar this weekend.

Name: The Boreal Guard (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory)
Type: Epic Shield
Armor: 7960 (223 Block)
Attributes:

• +39 Strength, +92 Stamina. Pretty standard for a tanking shield.
• Two sockets: Red and Blue. This is what pretty much puts this baby over the top in terms of endgame tanking shields -- get some extra Strength, Stamina, and/or Defense in there, and this shield matches up against stuff that drops from the very hardest bosses in the game.

I love this comic from the very talented miggy over at WoW Ladies, not only because it's funny, but because she's got a point. Back when the Battle for Mount Hyjal instance in the Caverns of Time appeared in game, we all wondered why we were going there in the first place -- unlike the other CoT instances, there were no dragons to fight or strange factions messing with the continuum. All that could happen in there is that we'd screw everything up and ruin time as we know it (and given all the wipes that went on in there, we probably did). But with the Argent Tournament, Blizzard seems to have gone even further: not only is there no clear reason for us to do it, but we're actually ignoring the threat at hand.

As you know if you've read Sacco's excellent (and completely spoilerrific) guides to the Coliseum raid and the Tournament 5-man, there is a tacked-on reason we're doing all of this stuff, and it's that the Horde and Alliance want to send their strongest people to go after Arthas, and the Tournament is a way of sussing out who's most worthy. But though that makes for some great lore cutscenes, doesn't it still undermine Arthas' strength? How powerful can the guy be if there are so many people lining up to kill him we have to fight over it?

Don't get me wrong, we're definitely looking forward to the Coliseum, and it's definitely brought some interesting things and rewards to the game. Just like CoT, in the light of the lore and the MMO genre at large, it's a great addition. But it is funny that the great Lich King's main tactic seems to be to have us fight it out between ourselves way before we ever bother taking a shot at him.

As we've heard, patch 3.2 will seriously streamline the Emblems system, allowing players to pick up Ulduar-level Emblems even just by running Heroics. Though lots of the other patch 3.2 changes have taken the spotlight lately, the Emblems change is definitely still a big deal, and while lots of "hardcore" players are up in arms about the changes (they had to raid for the same gear that people will now be able to get just by running Heroics, and even the brand new Emblems of Triumph gear will be attainable through Heroic dailies), other players are just confused by the whole thing. Fortunately, if you haven't yet wrapped your head around what all the changes mean, Clearcasting has a really excellent, thorough writeup about the Emblems changes, both explaining what you'll be able to get from where, and why Blizzard has decided to do things this way.

The biggest fear seems to be that players who have never raided before will start walking around in Ulduar- or even Coliseum-level gear, and they'll get invited to raids based on their gear, only to find that they're clueless about what to do. But I like Arioch's point there: does that mean we don't have clueless raiders now? Of course we do -- the gear you're wearing doesn't say anything about what you've done now, and it'll say even less after the patch. Players are already requiring achievements, and even that doesn't necessarily guarantee you're a good player.

Will there be bad PuGs after the patch? Of course, and there are bad PuGs now, too. But this is definitely a helpful change for anyone with alts, and while yes, it will allow non-raiders to get better gear, and it will probably bring raiders back into Heroics more often, it still won't affect those who are raiding at the highest levels. They'll still get the best gear earlier than everyone else, so if that's what's important to them, they've got nothing to complain about.

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Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!

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Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.

It was a bloody job, but someone had to do it – and that someone was Moorabi. The High Prophet of Man'toth made a mammoth mess as he gored Trollgore in this week's Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves. Sixty-five percent of readers handed this week's deathmatch to the Ice Troll. Spectators Heilig, Rowan and Grinton mulled it over from the stands:

Heilig: You're all forgetting the adds. Moorabi has no way to deal with the adds. If he ignores them, Trollgore gets buffed dramatically as the adds stack up and the Consume stacks to ridiculous levels. If he kills them, he gets raped by Corpse Explosions. There's a reason you tank Trollgore away from the person handling the adds, you know. Moorabi has no way to deal with this. Trollgore wins by a mile.

Rowan: He has Quake and Ground Tremor -- that's two AoEs! With adds being non-elite, he can easily pulverize them before they get too close to Trollgore. Moorabi wins this, hands down.

Heilig: Ground Tremor is close range, and Quake is primarily a stun. The adds wouldn't die until they got to Trollgore, whereupon he would explode the corpses right into Moorabi's trunk. Game over.

Grinton: What this fight comes down to is a battle of tusks. And though Trollgore would start off with the upper lower-bite, it's hard to beat what that pachyderm is paching (badum-tish!). Also, to respond to Heilig, Moorabi has two abilities to control adds. So between the stomping and the tusks, Moorabi wins by a long shot.

For years it has been a running joke that the level 11 elite Hogger should be a high level raid boss. Every server will have heard talk of a 40-man Hogger run or re-rolling a bunch of level 1's just to tackle this insurmountable foe. He is surely the scourge of Alliance toons everywhere simply because he is the first elite we encounter as we explore Elwynn. Well, it seems Blizzard have listened, Boubouille over at MMO Champion has been datamining the 3.2 patch files and has discovered tidbits about some of the bosses we'll be fighting. Indeed the most interesting part involves memories of past encounters -- including Hogger. Yes, you can also fight Algalon, Onyxia, Illidan and Edwin VanCleef but Hogger is the most important. What confuses me though is whose memories are you fighting? Those of your own past encounters or those of one of the Argent Crusade? If it's the former, what happens if you've not fought said boss? What if you're Horde?

But I digress. While you can bet Hogger won't be a level 11 anymore, it's a shocking revelation. While we know Blizzard pays attention to what WoW players are saying, it's nice to be reminded of that. So I want to know your reactions? Is it a good thing for Blizzard to pander to player's whims? Do you think reminding players where they came from and their past triumphs is a good thing? Not so keen? Is it just an excuse to be lazy and rehash old content? Tell us, constant readers, and drop your thoughts in the box below.

We reported last week that a guild named Exodus on the US realm of Ysondre had come out of nowhere to topple the world first of the Heroic: Alone in the Darkness achievement, which requires that you bring down the biggest bad currently in the game, Yogg-Saron, with no help from any of the Keepers in Ulduar. But not so fast, says Serennia over at WoWRiot -- over on their forums Ensidia is claiming that Exodus used an exploit, and that their kill doesn't count at all. Apparently, having Thorim help on the fight keeps the "Immortal Guardians" in the last phase of the fight from being a problem, and without Thorim, you have to not only do the fight without his extra 10% damage bonus (each Keeper ups your DPS that much), but you have to deal with the Guardians messing up your melee classes, and oh yeah: they both heal and get healed by Yogg. Not that it's impossible to do it, but it's definitely not easy, and Ensidia claims that Exodus found a known exploit that allows you to evade the Guardians out completely, thus turning the last phase into a straight tank-and-spank, obviously much easier.

After that, it gets into some guild back and forth (Ensidia apparently did something that might have been an exploit on Hodir, and when people call them out on that, they say that the exploits were different -- Ensidia's tactic was just an interesting use of game mechanics, while the exploit Exodus is suspected of using is more of a cheat), but the fact remains that Exodus is clearly not a guild that anyone expected to clear what might be the toughest raiding achievement in the game before anyone else, and yet that's exactly what they did. Ensidia says they won't be killing Yogg for the achievement using the exploit, and that they've reported the Exodus kill to the devs, so we'll have to see if the devs decide that Exodus did cheat, or if they let Exodus keep their achievements and mounts. We're not sure how much it all matters, with world first kills not being all that important any more (and that's exactly what the devs might say as well), but Ensidia is claiming that an exploit took place -- we'll have to see if that turns out to be true.

Thanks, Nimrod!

The Public Test Realm for Patch 3.2 is in full swing, and even though the Argent Coliseum isn't available for testing just yet, there's a brand-new wing in Wintergrasp's Vault of Archavon housing a brand-new giant to beat up. Enter Koralon, the Flame Watcher.

He's a stout fellow, and you probably recognize his model, which he shares with Volkhan from Halls of Lightning and Ignis from Ulduar, replete with crotch-pot. And as you may have also guessed, he uses fire spells and abilities. He doesn't currently drop loot on the PTR, though I assume the distribution will be much the same as it is with Emalon -- two or so pieces of Tier 9 gear along with a lion's share of PVP items.

Impressions and strategy after the jump.

Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.

Charging ... goring ... exploding ... cannibalizing ... This week's Two Bosses Enter deathmatch is ugly, ugly, ugly. In the ring: Moorabi of Gundrak versus Trollgore of Drak'tharon Keep. It's going to be rough, and it's going to be bloody.

The ground rules:

• Assume that the opponents share similar levels, health pools and comparative overall damage output.
• This match takes place in neutral territory, although the usual waves of Undead will come from ... someplace ... to accompany Trollgore.
• Don't get caught up in gameplay mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter.
• Focus on the three S's: style, story and scale.
  

What's your theory on how this fight goes down? Leave your comment, then cast a vote for who you think will be left standing.

We've been seeing sporadic reports today that the Mimiron hard mode was nerfed via hotfix at some point during the night, and it appears those reports were correct. Bornakk just posted in the "recent in-game fixes" thread that the following changes were made to the hard mode of Ulduar's ingenious keeper:

• Flame damage reduced.
• Damage/health gained from Emergency Mode reduced slightly.
• Range of Emergency Fire Bot's Deafening Siren reduced in heroic; no longer cast on normal.
• Damage from Heat Wave in phase 2 reduced.
• Damage from Plasma Blast in phase 1 reduced.

That's a pretty wide array of nerfs. I haven't tried the hard mode - my guild is still working on getting the normal mode down consistently. I do love the fight on normal, though; it's not easy, but it is super-fun.

Hard-mode raiders, what do you think? Does this fall in the category of "why would you nerf a hard mode," or was he simply ridiculous before?

Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy deathmatches. This season's bosses hail from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.

It was indeed the day that time stood still: Chrono-Lord Epoch (The Culling of Stratholme) shattered the Halls of Lightning's Volkhan in this week's Two Bosses Enter deathmatch. "Honestly, Chrono-Lord Epoch should be able to destroy pretty much any boss in the game," observed kabshiel. "He can stop time, for Pete's sake! All Volkhan does is make little robots and break them. Manipulating the space-time continuum > Toy making."

The only dissenting opinion this week came from Kar On E: "Although it's pretty obvious at this point that Chrono-Lord Epoch is going to win, I'm going to make the case for Volkhan. In this, I'm presuming that neither has read any strategy on the other and that each is going about it on wits alone."

We're running late on this one (the beginning of the month was quite busy), but it's not any less exciting: congratulations go out to our latest Guild of the Month for May: the Dragon Knights on Area 52. They sent us a nomination along with many other guilds in the game, and were selected for their originality, community, and raiding performance. Among other interesting things about the guild (which you can read in the second half of this post), they run a guild podcast, an email newsletter, and even a lotto, all along with raiding competitively and leveling up as a guild.

In addition to being profiled here on the site, the Dragon Knights will also win a raid pack from Swagdog.com, where they (and you) can pick up customized shirts and hats with their guild name and logo printed on them. Our Guild of the Month contest is ongoing, so stay tuned to the site for the next chance to nominate your guild to be recognized here on WoW.com. Read on to learn more about the Dragon Knights and why they're our winners for May.

After yet another Cracked Egg with nothing but a Cobra Hatchling in it, and the bigtime raiding proto-drakes constantly getting dropped out of the game, there's really only one other option: the Red Proto-drake, a reward for the Glory of the Hero meta-achievement. It's not easy: you've got to not only beat all of the heroics in the game, but all of the hard mode achievements for each of them. Guides like our OverAchievers can help, and a really great group to go along with helps more, but some of the achievements are so tough they need extra attention.

The Oculus' achievement, however, is one that needs an even closer look. And 4 Haelz kindly provides exactly that, with an in-depth guide to toppling two achievements in one, both the Emerald and Ruby Void, by doing the boss with five Amber drakes. The Amber drakes are usually meant as DPS, which makes this fight extra tough: you can't take much damage at all, because you can't get any damage back without healers. So what it requires, instead, is communication and coordination. Basically, you use the drakes' Time Stop ability to slow the fight down, and then try to do some coordinated kiting while DPSing like mad, all the time hoping that you can bring him down before he takes one of you out.

As Bell says, once you get the idea (and have wiped a few times -- you should probably be riding the drakes naked, since not only does your gear not affect their performance, but it'll save you repair costs), the fight's not actually that hard to pull off, but it's the learning that's going to hurt.

Like me and my guild, you may have found yourself wiping on Yogg-Saron phase 1 lately because there are people who just can't seem not to stand in clouds. We've been basically begging for a Failbot for this particular phase because, let's face it, when we have no way of finding out who's clipping or standing in clouds, it's impossible to berate them for it over Vent. And the general yell of "STOP STANDING IN CLOUDS" is grating for everyone who's not doing it.

Thankfully, Blizzard has heard our pleas. In the patch notes for Patch 3.2, a small note under the Ulduar section informed us that the clouds will be "more vocal" to players who stand in them.

Then again, by the time Patch 3.2 comes out, we might not even be running Ulduar as much, and people will have learned not to step in clouds ... well, probably not the latter. But still. Thanks for this, Blizz. It'll help separate the wheat from the chaff. And guildies from the raid group.

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Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!

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