I appreciate your insight into the situation, I just don’t think that I agree with it. The invasion of Azeroth is THE time to go thralls to the wall. This is the moment. The moment where the Legion finally found Azeroth. Portals were one thing. They actually discovered the planet’s location and could invade it full-scale.
There is no moment for Azeroth more dire than this one, at least in regards to the Burning Legion. You can’t just close a portal anymore. They can fly to your planet now.
I’d say this depends on if their using regular weapons or their artifacts.
If using their artifacts Brox wins since the Axe of Cenarius is just more powerful than Shalymane.
If using regular weapons I’d give it to Varian. Varian is a top tier human empowered by a demi god to increase that further, Brox is just a high tier orc warior.
Further Brox is entirely over rated.
A powerful Artifact weapon from a demigod allowing a hero to slay hordes of demons isn’t anything that impressive. Said Artifact is pretty much the only reason he was able to scratch Sargeras, who once he took things seriously just wiped the floor with him.
Too many people also claim he had some critical role in the survival of Azeroth, but that is only due to time travel altering the past. For Broxigar to be there in the first place the original timeline had to end in Sargeras failing without Broxigar’s intervention/help, so he was more a stop gap to counter the Legion getting more of an edge than he should have had.
The artifact isn’t what let him do it. Stamina and staying power allowed him to do it. The artifact provided neither of either.
A weapon that feels like its part of your body providing no additional encumbrance and cuts through nearly everything thing like a hot knife through butter greatly reduces the strain on the warrior.
And if he only killed 30 demons, I’d agree with you.
That’s great and all, but give that weapon to your average grunt or footman or whatnot and they still die nearly immediately facing a swarm of demons.
Never said he was bottom of the barrel but any other major orc hero probably could have produced similar feats with the Axe of Cenarius.
I feel like you haven’t read the book.
I looked up again, just to be sure i wasn’t making it up. The tree was damaged, it doesn’t say how much damaged, but that Haldrissa (the night elf in the story) judged that with enough strenght it could be forced to fall. She slammed her body against it and it cracked, and fell, the tree was enough to slam the shredder completely.
So is not a feat of strenght, but a feat of cunning?
Still pretty strong if it was a tree big enough to crush a shredder!
It definitely would be a feat of both. More so strength, because if it was enough to break a shredder? (Despite all the crap I give goblins, most of their stuff isn’t MEANT to fail spectacularly and can be pretty sturdy) it’d take a LOT of force to knock a tree that size over.
Even if severely damaged, I’d imagine. Trees stand up to car crashes all the time, and even dead ones can be near impossible to move without cutting it first.
That’s just so baffling… ESP if it was in the Hyjal region, because those trees are massive.
It was in Ashenvale.
Let me put the exact quotes.
"Haldrissa ducked. The blades of the lone shredder tore into the tree. Splinters and sawdust rained down upon the night elf. "
“A screeching sound tore at her eardrums. As she rolled aside, she saw that the shredder’s blades had met the glaive. The resultant collision had made both the shredder and the tree shake violently. Swearing, the goblin adjusted several levers. The other arm came up and braced against the trunk. With amazing strength, the shredder used the leverage to push free.”
“The damaged tree creaked ominously. Haldrissa stepped back but saw that the danger was not as imminent as she had thought. The tree shook slightly, then stilled.”
Later.
“Bracing herself, Haldrissa threw her body against the back of the tree. The collision shook her to the bone, but she heard the wood give a satisfying snap.
The tree toppled.”
“The huge tree fell toward the shredder.
The goblin looked up as the shadow covered him. He frantically adjusted the levers, raising both arms in an attempt to stop the tree. However, when it became clear that the arms would not stop the tree in time, the goblin pushed himself out of his seat.
He did not make it.
The tree reduced the shredder and its handler to a squat ruin.”
It might not look much, but it was the momment i decided to main night elves right here.
It can’t be that heavy if Anduin who does not have nearly that heroic a Chin as his father, was able to swing it with effect.
It is probably worth noting that Varian and Brox’s intentions were different. Varian only wanted to distract the Legion forces to allow the Alliance to escape. Also Varian did one shot an exceedingly massive Fel Reaver with enough strength to hold an airship from escaping before even beginning his slow battle with the demons.
We cannot really be sure of the true strength of Shalymane, though it smashed through reinforced (probably Felslate?) armor that put a modern tank to shame without any sign of damage to itself. It (or rather the two blades it is composed of) was made by Ancient Highborne Magesmiths who even the Reliquary acknowledge have forgotten more about magic than the Sin’dorei even know is possible.
With that said, if Shalymane could withstand the Axe’s normal property of just cutting through everything Varian could win. It all come down to that, because a weightless weapon that slices through anything is sort of impossible to deal with.