Best raid of all time?

[dwthrust]

Go. Let's hear it.

[Tatahe]

Firelands > ToT > Highmaul

[Durbi]

Black Temple, Throne of Thunder, Ulduar. Order doesn't matter.

[orgonutil]

Ulduar, Firelands, Tot

[Dracodraco]

Of the ones I've played (everything after ICC)? Throne of thunder.
Firelands was too small and quick to be done to be worth mentioning (spending twice as long on the end boss as every other boss combined isn't exactly my idea of fun). Cataclysm entry raid had too many hotfixes during the tier despite liking it a lot (walking on nef for dmg buffs, lolwat). Nothing else really comes very close to me.

[Deleted]

Definitely the Vaults of Archavon. Everything in WoTLK was great but that raid was so epic. Great storyline and boss design. So cool. I remember when we finally killed Archavon and I got the loot.

Second best was probably the Trial of the Crusader.

[Jazzhands]

Black Temple and Ulduar.

Should have made a poll.

[Leih]

Hard to pick just one. If we focus on first clears and ignore any bitterness about time spent farming them... my favourites are probably Blackwing Lair, Black Temple and Siege of Orgrimmar.

Last place being Dragon Soul, Trial of the Crusader and WotLK remake of Naxx which were all awful.

[Alydael]

Ulduar, kara, SSC for me. Yes, I know SSC is a bit of an outlier but(for some reason) I enjoyed the BC atunements and I enjoyed (as a tank) getting the special set for Hydros and the switching mechanic.

I did not tank in vanilla (was heals), so I had a question out of curiosity for the old schoolers...

Was Hydross the first raid boss with a tank switch mechanic? If not, who was and what was the mechanic exactly?

I still believe that Hydross is the first boss that required each tank to not only switch but to have a separate resist set.

I know most people don't like it, but I like the resist set. I remember my guild helped each tank build the set so it was a guild wide achievement which meant we were ready for SSC. It actually felt like a real accomplishment.

[Bartumus22]

Definitely LK

[Deleted]

Icecrown Citadel.

I'm not really a raider, so I can't comment much on mechanics and gameplay. But ICC was the finale of one of Warcraft's greatest stories. Confronting the Lich King upon the very peak of his stronghold was one of the iconic WoW moments for me. The atmosphere, the music, the bosses... everything felt so ultimate. Like it really was the last chance of survival to storm those halls where only the damned dared to walk.

[McNeil]

Icecrown Citadel and Ulduar. ICC mostly because of its story and how it concludes the story of WC3, and Ulduar has some of the games best boss fights with its use of hard modes. And the raids look awesome.

[Deleted]

I love lots of raids, so it's hard to pick one. The Lich King fight definitely made ICC great. Still one of the greatest final boss fights of an expansion, way better than Illidan (though of course he was awesome too).

For WotLK I have to go with Ulduar though, overall. Beautiful raid, great boss fights... I loved how you could choose the difficulty based on tactics after pulling the bosses. I wish Blizzard had kept that system, but I also understand how easily they might've run out of ideas after that raid and while choosing the dungeon difficulty isn't as engaging, it does allow the developers to design better fights overall.

In Cataclysm, I think Firelands was my favourite raid. It was a fairly small raid because there were only 7 bosses, but they were all pretty great encounters.

For Mists of Pandaria, Throne of Thunder was definitely my favourite. It reminded me of Ulduar a little bit.

For Warlords of Draenor, I actually liked all the raids equally. Sounds weird, but I don't feel too strongly one way or the other about any of them and can't really pick a favourite. BRF and HFC were both awesome - the only downside is how long HFC has lasted for, so no matter how good it is you're going to get bored of it eventually.

I never raided in vanilla, so I can't comment much on the raids back then, but I didn't mention TBC, which I did do all the raids for. Tempest Keep was just epic to walk into for the first time. It was huge. Had the same feeling with Black Temple. Even just getting attuned to Black Temple felt amazing. And of course Karazhan and Zul'Aman were both just insanely fun.

If there is one thing we know, it's that the quality of the raids Blizzard produces are pretty much always top notch. I haven't really been following any information about the raids that are coming out in Legion, but I'm sure they'll be awesome too.

[Deleted]

Subjectively speaking?

Probably Karazhan, that place felt vast and I had no idea what was comming after every door, also we had a steady pace of progression (1 new boss per week aprox) so it never felt stale + I had a pretty good raid group (and I was like 15 or so, so was a lot worse as a player)

Objectively speaking?

Probably ICC, really good ambiance, cool boss designs and a lot of boss names that I recognized.

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Ulduar, kara, SSC for me. Yes, I know SSC is a bit of an outlier but(for some reason) I enjoyed the BC atunements and I enjoyed (as a tank) getting the special set for Hydros and the switching mechanic.

I did not tank in vanilla (was heals), so I had a question out of curiosity for the old schoolers...

Was Hydross the first raid boss with a tank switch mechanic? If not, who was and what was the mechanic exactly?

I still believe that Hydross is the first boss that required each tank to not only switch but to have a separate resist set.

I know most people don't like it, but I like the resist set. I remember my guild helped each tank build the set so it was a guild wide achievement which meant we were ready for SSC. It actually felt like a real accomplishment.

There were quite a lot, especially in MC since a lot had undispellable debuffs that would stack up over time or an AOE fear that feared the entire main tank+main healer group.

[Belloc]

Definitely the Vaults of Archavon. Everything in WoTLK was great but that raid was so epic. Great storyline and boss design. So cool. I remember when we finally killed Archavon and I got the loot.

Second best was probably the Trial of the Crusader.

I know you're being sarcastic/joking, but Trial of the Grand Crusader had 2 or 3 of the best/most original boss fights in the game (Beasts of Northrend, Twin Val'kyr, Anub'arak, maybe even Faction Champions). Literally the only problem with the raid was that it took place in one arena (and the icy underground).

People give it a lot of shit, but the fights were great and there was no trash. Remember how everyone was always bitching about trash back then?

Anyway, my vote: Karazhan.

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ICC mostly because of its story and how it concludes the story of WC3

I see people saying this a lot lately, and it's not true. The story of WC3 was a Legion invasion. ICC only concluded one part of that story.

[Alydael]

I know you're being sarcastic/joking, but Trial of the Grand Crusader had 2 or 3 of the best/most original boss fights in the game (Beasts of Northrend, Twin Val'kyr, Anub'arak, maybe even Faction Champions). Literally the only problem with the raid was that it took place in one arena (and the icy underground).

People give it a lot of shit, but the fights were great and there was no trash. Remember how everyone was always bitching about trash back then?

Anyway, my vote: Karazhan.

I loved the beasts of nothrend fight (it was a perfect first fight for a raid) and the champions fight. I also can't argue with your Kara vote. Kara was a lot of fun. I can still hear that music....

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Definitely LK

LK was a sick fight. I still consider LK to be the first "modern" boss fight.

[Chaosshadow]

Ulduar > Kara > Throne of Thunder

Limited tries on bosses ruined ICC for me. And so many 1 phase fights.

[Alydael]

Icecrown Citadel and Ulduar. ICC mostly because of its story and how it concludes the story of WC3, and Ulduar has some of the games best boss fights with its use of hard modes. And the raids look awesome.

I loved Uld, especially Mim and firestarter (when it was current) that fight was epic.

[Sylvaeres]

I would say, in order, Ulduar>ICC>ToT>BRF

[Relapses]

I wonder if the Ulduar circlejerk has begu--

Oh right.

BRF > HFC > ToT > ICC for me.