The best raid bosses in WoW!

[Haywire5714]

In your opinion, which raid bosses are the most enjoyable/difficult/innovative for you, based on the following categories:

- The best entry tier boss (1st or 2nd in the instance)
- The best end tier boss (2nd last or last)
- The best mid tier boss (everything in between).

For me:

Entry Boss: Stone Guards, (Honorable Mention: Razorgore)
Mid tier boss: Mimiron, Professor Putricide, Durumu equally, (Honorable Mention: Alysrazor)
End boss: Heroic Ragnaros (Honorable Mention: Lich king, Nef & Ony)

[Airwaves]

Heroic Ragnaros was the most fun i have ever had raiding.

[Haywire5714]

Heroic Ragnaros was the most fun i have ever had raiding.

ME TOO!! ... I killed it with my guild after the 5 million nerfs but It was still really fun and challenging.

[Rixarius]

FL Ragnaros is probably the best boss in WoW, runner up is LK. Haven't seen Lei Shen yet though.

[Tapzer]

Entry Boss - Al'akir (I know its the final boss of the tier, but it was only a 2 boss raid :P)
Mid Tier Boss - Teron Gorefiend (I remember playing the flash game forever trying to get the ghost down)
End Boss - Heroic Rag and Heroic LK 25 are very very close, I think with LK pulling ahead. So many unforgiving mechanics in that fight. But then, we havnt seen Ra'den yet.

[Nitros14]

I'll bite. When I think of these bosses I'm thinking 25 heroic for reference.




The best entry bosses are Al'ar <Phoenix God>, Flame Leviathan (4 towers), Lady Deathwhisper, Omnotron Defence System. Anub'Rekhan (40-man),
Akil'zon (10-man). Al'ar is just damn cool, Flame Leviathan was innovative and fun, Deathwhisper had so much going on in 25 heroic it was great, Omnotron did too, Anub'Rekhan was pretty neat from a tank and ranged perspective though his evade bugging was dumb, Akil'Zon was cinematic.

The best mid bosses are Shade of Aran, Reliquary of Souls, Mimiron (firefighter), Gothik the Harvester and Gluth (40-man), Maloriak, Ascendant Council, Spirit Kings and Dark Animus. Shade of Aran was brilliant, Reliquary was creative and changed the rules, Mimiron had so much going on, Gothik was a clever balance and Gluth was neat mechanics wise (fear swapping, zombie kiting). Maloriak had interesting phases and was amusing, Ascendant Council was well put together, Dark Animus is just clever design and Spirit Kings has a lot of stuff going on.


My favourite end bosses are Kel'Thuzad (40-man), Kael'thas Sunstrider, Lady Vashj, Yogg-Saron (probably the best encounter ever made), Al'Akir, Cho'gall, Will of the Emperor and Lei Shen. Kel'Thuzad was well voice acted and intense and chaotic and I liked the mind control tank swap mechanic. Nothing had ever been as complicated as Kael'thas before and the legendaries were great. Vashj had the raid split up and all do seperate things which I love. Yogg-Saron is brilliant mechanics wise. Al'Akir is just really cool and I like the flight phase. Cho'gall's corruption mechanic was really neat once you were on heroic and it mattered. I like that on 25 heroic Will of the Emperor is a fight that finally brought back some CC and planning. I love Lei Shen because there's many different paths to victory and different ways of doing the fight.

[JeanJacket]

For me its

Entry: 1) Lord Marrowgar 2) Alysrazor 3) Beasts of Northrend

Mid Tier: 1) Durumu 2) Elegon 3) Mimiron

End Boss: 1) Lei Shen 2) Ragnaros (FL) 3) Lich King

[Silver-Fox]

Entry: Flame Leviathan, not a lot of people liked the whole concept of a vehicle encounter but I had so much fun piloting the steam-powered tanks.

Mid-Tier: The Green Dragon from Icecrown; a type healing encounter I wish that was slightly more common in the game.

End Boss: The Lich King, perfect blend of epic storytelling and game-play, very satisfying end to the expansion.

[Zantera]

Entry:

*High King Maulgar (Gruul's Lair) - This was always a fun fight in my opinion. Different people had to tank the adds, and the boss himself was also a challenge. It was a lot about working well as a group, if someone failed with one of the adds, it was pretty much a whipe. Both challenging and fun until you got the hang of it.

*Kalecgos (Sunwell Plateau) - One of my favorite fights from TBC, and a boss I really loved in Sunwell. I don't remember the mechanics that well, but it was fun going into portals and I also remember this fight as needing a lot of teamwork to pull it off.

*Flame Leviathan (Ulduar) - Overall I just think the mechanics made it fun. Going around in vehicles was kinda new and exciting at the time, and I think the boss had a lot of charm.

Mid:

*Teron Gorefiend (Black Temple) - A fight I really loved. I remember the simulator on internet where you could practice being the undead spirit trying to stop the other spirits. It was a fun aspect of the fight that made it very unique.

*Mimiron (Ulduar) - I remember this fight as being very hectic with a lot of stuff going on. It was both challenging and required full attention, and I really liked that.

*Elegon (Mogu'shan Vaults) - One of the few fights that stands out in this expansion so far. Sure, to some it might be boring or straightforward, but I really like the throwback to Ulduar, and I think the fight is the best one in MSV.

End:

*Illidan (Black Temple) - This fight really had everything that makes an endboss epic. It had many different phases who were all challenging to learn and master, and it required a lot of perfect planning at the time to make it through the phases in a smooth way. It also had the RP-ness with Maiev joining in. I feel like they kinda tried to take the formula from the Illidan fight when they made the Lich King fight. The latter was not bad, but I think they pulled it off much better on Illidan.

*Archimonde (Mount Hyjal) - This was also a fight that required a lot of focus. It was a very hectic fight with fire everywhere, people flying in the air and the special trinket/ability you had to learn how to use for best effect. The fight itself was still challenging after you had done it a couple of times, people really needed to focus when it came to dispelling, not dying and so on.

*Yogg-Saron (Ulduar) - One of the bosses in Ulduar which just shows how well made that raid was. Nuking tentacles here and there, going into the boss to kill the brain. A lot of fun things going on, and also a very hectic fight.

There are more bossfights that I really love, but I picked 3 favorites in each tier.

[Deleted]

Start: Omnitron Defense system (heroic mode was really exciting)

Mid: Shade of Aran, Four Horsemen and Ascendant Council (heroic was a real steroid encounter)

End: Ragnaros heroic and Algalon

[Kapaya]

Since I didn't start seeing real endbosses until Cataclysm, I won't comment on the previous ones.

Best start: Omnitron Defense Systems.
Best middle: Asscendant Councile. ERRRAAAAADICAAAATE!
Best end boss: Ragnaros. No wonder many call him the true end boss of Cata... Cho'gall and Nefarian were great aswell.

[Deleted]

i like this thread :>

early: ODS(Heroic) <- that one seems very popular here, really nice fight ; Vaelastraz <- simple but cool; Patchwerk <- see Vael ("no more play?")
mid: hands down Mimiron(Heroic)... the emotes from him just made it super funny xD
end: Alone in the Darkness, imo best designed boss in the game by far; good ol' Nef with Classcalls

[Raidboss]

I'm slightly biased because I think raiding was at it's peak in BC.

Entry Boss: Hydross the Unstable / A'lar
Mid tier boss: Reliquiry of Souls
End boss: Illidan / Lich King

[olimp]

Shade of Aran
/thread

[Deleted]

Heroic Ragnaros,nothing comes even close to sheer epicness of the fight,and then when p4 starts and he rises from the lava,you know you are in big trouble.Lich king last phase was meh and non epic whatsoever ,but he was hard boss,but not as tough as rag was.

[dokilar]

Shade of Aran
/thread

one of the few bosses where youre actually supposed to stand in the fire!!

[egrus]

Entry boss: omnitron.

mid tier: Blood prince council, Mimiron, Faction champion (even when i hated it back then), Warmaster Blackhorn, Ascendant Council.

End bosses: Heroic LK 25, heroic Ragnaros

[Akylios]

I've only played classic and MOP, so my scope is limited.

Start: Razorgore, Vaelastrasz

Most of the guilds that actually did make it past these two bosses at release, wound up spending a month or two in doing so. The only guilds I remember bulldozing through them were the ones that had been farming Molten Core for ages.

Both Razorgore and Vaelastrasz were a real step up from what you were used to in the Molten Core, both from a guild coordination perspective, as well as a personal skill perspective. This may sound strange to some of you today, especially in the case of Vaelastrasz, but coming out of the Molten Core many guilds carried a lot of players who weren't very good. If you wanted to beat Vael before you simply outgeared the encounter, you needed a much higher proportion of good players in your raid group. While you still didn't need 40 good players, you certainly needed quite a few more than previously. (to put things into perspective, then T14 normal modes were probably about as hard as the Molten Core, with Garalon taking Ragnaros' place as the dps check)

In short, Razorgore and Valeastrasz were the first two encounters that forced people not be terrible at the game (at least this held true to begin with). While neither encounter was terribly complicated, they were they were a real stepping stone for most guilds. These were probably the first real guild-breakers in the game, and almost every guild I remember getting past Razor and Vael in the first couple of months after BWL's release ultimately made it all the way through Naxxramas.


Mid: Twin Emperors, Sartura

Don't have as much to say about these two encounters. Sartura was a very chaotic fight, which made healing very interesting. Twin Emperors was just a fun encounter overall, one where you really needed to be at the top of your game as a healer. While finally defeating the Four Horsemen was one of the very few times I've actually screamed from joy while playing video games, the encounter itself isn't anything I'd want to go through ever again. Chromaggus was also pretty fun to begin with, and it was always a bit fun seeing which colours you'd get each week... but I suppose I just slowly grew bored of the encounter, for some reason.

End: Can't really decide, but I guess I'd go with C'thun.

Ragnaros: The very first end boss most of us had ever seen. It was at a time where raiding was still such a huge adventure to everyone. There was something magical about the whole thing, and Ragnaros' model and voice acting only helped amplify the whole experience. In the end he was little more than a glorified DPS check, but some of my fondest gaming memories are still from my guild's adventure through the Molten Core, to our eventual victory over the elemental lord of fire.

Nefarian: A twenty minute, two phase encounter, with a huge randomness factor each week. Something of this caliber was entirely new to all of us. It was always interesting to me just how short a time it took us to bring Nefarian down, all things considered. Thanks to the stepping stones that were Razorgore, Vaelastrasz and Chromaggus, our guild just went into the encounter, slowly built up a tactic that worked (we didn't have any guides back in those days) and quite methodically ground our way to victory. It made me realize just how much we had grown as a guild since our first ventures into the Molten Core.

C'thun: We were far enough behind the top guilds that by the time we finally made it to this encounter, it was only a few days before it was nerfed. Seeing as we only spent a couple of days beating our heads against the impossible version, I probably wound up enjoying this encounter much more than the most hardcore guilds ever did. C'thun was an exceptionally fun encounter and I can't really think of anything in either Classic or MOP that I can really compare it to. If there is one encounter non-classic players should be sad about having missed, it is probably C'thun.

Kel'thuzad: The major problem with Kel'thuzad is the fact that by the time any guild made it to him, they already overgeared the encounter by quite a margin. This is due to the ridiculous cockblock that was the Four Horsemen. Seeing as there was no way to make it to Kel'thuzad before you outgeared him, this made the encounter much easier than it ever should have been. That being said, it is by far the hardest encounter I've ever done. You did not kill this boss unless you had a 40 man group of very good players with you. This is probably the one encounter in classic where you simply could not carry bad players. It's a bit sad that the Four Horsemen artificially made this encounter easier than it had to be.

The saddest part is that by the time my guild finally earned its crown jewel, by beating the ultimate boss of the classic era, it brought me scant little joy. As strange as it may sound, I have more fond memories randomly fumbling my way through the Molten Core than I ever did methodically hacking my way through Naxxramas. Somewhere along the way... the magic had gone.

[Haywire5714]

Oh ya I forgot about Omnitron Defence System, that was an awesome fight. I am surprised by the lack of Professor Putricide.

[rnbwtrout]

its the nostalgia talking:

entry: lord marrowgar - "bonestorm!". plus the QQ and nerdrage when bryntroll drops was priceless.

mid: mimiron - "hey whats the lever do?"

end: lich king - i think there are better encounters, better mechanics, better looking vaults/rooms etc...but to me, there's not been a better known or heralded or storied or engrossing boss as arthas (illidan comes a very close second - but i never raided him when relevant).