What is your favorite style of raid boss?

[grimsanta]

There are several kinds of raid bosses, and while from time to time blizzard makes something very original, most stick to some sort of template. There is a poll attached, and here are the explanations for each.

Multi-stage, w/ transitions - Lich King, Lei Shen - Different phases that have slightly different mechanics, seperated by transition phases that are themselves as difficult as fighting the boss.

Multi-phase bosses - Feng, Spirit Kings, Iron Qon - Fights that have distinct phases with completly different mechanics.

Councils - 3+ bosses that need to be handled, usually contains many mechanics to deal with all at once.

Dragons - Frontal breath, various avoidance mechanics and adds to deal with.

DPS races - Garajal, patchwerk, gruul - Must dps quickly before boss enrages, few difficult mechanics, but must be on your game to defeat.

Twins - 2 bosses that interact somehow with each other. Twin consorts, captain planet fight in BoT (even though there are 4, only fight 2 at a time), the sisters in Sunwell.

What is your preference?

[Deleted]

dps race wins for me, i want to see a rlly hard one tho were only the highest dps will kill it not just some grp of randoms doing average dps, i dont think they has been 1 yet tho

[Dole4011]

Altho it's a pain in LFR, Lei Shen is such a blast otherwise. One of my fav fights ever.

I also like there being at least one DPS-centric fight where most of the focus is on burning the boss down.

[Deleted]

Multi-phased twin dragons with a tight encounter and transistions where they summon their council of dragon priests.

[Bathazar]

Multi-phased twin dragons with a tight encounter and transistions where they summon their council of dragon priests.

So Nefarian and Onyxia in Blackwing Descent?

[Deleted]

So Nefarian and Onyxia in Blackwing Descent?

...Actually yes. I didn't even think of it. Heh.
It was a pretty nice encounter though.

[RoughJustice]

i voted for dps race.... just because that's probably the least type of fight they make, it really puts the pressure on the dps to do their best to beat the enrage. i remember seeing Ultraxion heroic on ptr streams and everyone thought that was one of the tightest enrage timers ever. but i think my favorite dps race fight was probably heroic Baleroc.

[Viggers]

multi-phase with transitions, but i like every tier to have a 'patchwerk' fight. one where i get to just go balls to the wall dps-wise and see what im capable of

[Golden Yak]

Multi-phase transitional.

Additionally, I love boss fights where the boss is a big giant stationary beastie, like Ragnaros, Kologarn, etc. Preferable one with the boss at one end of the combat area, as opposed to Yogg-Saron and C'Thun where you're running all around him. Those are good too, though.

[Nikkaszal]

Anything without adds.

I don't know why I'm adverse to fights with adds. They just really irk me.

[Tokru]

Multi phase w/o transition.

For me it's not really multi phase, when it's the same as before with 1 skill replaced by another.

But in the end every form of boss fight can be good.

[Raxxed]

Multiphase (100/75/50/25 or 100/66/33) with high individual responsibility. (Dark animus)
High DPS check and some funky ass tank mechanics (like primordius)

[Libertarian]

Multiphase (100/75/50/25 or 100/66/33) with high individual responsibility. (Dark animus)
High DPS check and some funky ass tank mechanics (like primordius)

Come on you're 11/13H. Dark animus isn't really about personal responsibility and more around how well your raid leader can setup the boss. The actual Dark animus fight after siphon is pretty simple.

I absolutely hate bosses like Heroic Lei shen. Long, boring first two phases and a random chaotic last phase.

Durumu, JinRokh and Megaera were probably my tops on heroic.

I haven't had a chance to do RaDen but I am sure he will be my favorite because it combines multi phase with a classic burn phase at the end. Seems like a very straight forward fight overall.

[Deleted]

Vizier style.

[Razecog]

Why can't I select all? I like every boss fight there is. (Except Dark Animus. Ring Duty sucks.)

[S7orm]

dps race all the way

[Raxxed]

Come on you're 11/13H. Dark animus isn't really about personal responsibility and more around how well your raid leader can setup the boss. The actual Dark animus fight after siphon is pretty simple.

I absolutely hate bosses like Heroic Lei shen. Long, boring first two phases and a random chaotic last phase.

Durumu, JinRokh and Megaera were probably my tops on heroic.

I haven't had a chance to do RaDen but I am sure he will be my favorite because it combines multi phase with a classic burn phase at the end. Seems like a very straight forward fight overall.

Dark animus is one of the most individual reliant bosses ever.
If someone pulls aggro on another add, wipe.
If someone accidentally links, wipe.
If someone positions badly for matter swap and links adds, wipe.
If you kill your add too fast, wipe.
If you kill your add too slow, wipe.
There's almost no other boss that if one person screws up they wipe the raid instantly. Simply brez and move on. (Unless it's something like first week heroic ultraxion and someone not dpsing for 5 seconds = wipe).

[Nobleshield]

I like various kinds outside of obvious pass/fail gimmick fights (e.g. Rhyolith) but my favorite is a straight up DPS race, mostly because I like the idea of having the first (or at least an early boss) being a straight Patchwerk fight to gauge your raid's DPS to make sure you're geared enough for the raid. It's dead boring, true, but it serves a great purpose IMO so it should always be present.

[Radio]

I like multi-phase transitional fights the most, especially if they do actually contain sections that aren't transitional but are still very different in feel.

Such as Lich King heroic, Phases 1, 2 and 3 had shared abilities but felt very different.

Bonus points for a fight if it gains significant flavour changes going from normal to heroic. I loved Ragnaros heroic for the bonus final phase, I loved the change of the spirit room in LK heroic p3 where the whole raid had to dodge shit as a group.

I also like fights which rely on tons of people doing bonus roles which all contribute to the kill. It's half the reason I played a hunter for so long until late Cata, since the opportunities to perform kite/MD/trap/dispell/etc roles in boss encounters were plentiful and made me feel like more than just another pure DPS... I tank now though XD

[Deleted]

Dps race, i like the idea of every class squeezing every bit of dps out they can(even healers) without anyone dying. Problem is it always leads to class stacking so im gonna go with any fight i have a chance to top meters!