Bossfights how long should they be?

[Deleted]

How long should a boss take to go down to still be enjoyable? While regular raid guilds kill bosses quicker every week LFR remains at very high (and boring) kill times - LFR decreases in killing times after raiders don't queue anymore. Some mythic guilds just remain stable because they only have to put effort into progress and have the rest of the tier "free-time". Average guilds plan like 3-4 nights per week as normal progression and farming path which includes high time investments into bosses you might have already killed.

So to get all players into this poll: How long should a boss last till his mechanics and your patients runs of?

[Deleted]

The fight length has nothing to do with it, it's all about how exciting the boss is. Mythic Odyn was an absolute pain because you had to repeat the same 3 things over and over for 12 minutes and then wiped in p3, in for another 12 min of progress, Gul'dan on the other hand is 9 - 11 minutes depending from guild to guild on Heroic, but the fight feels good all the way through if we discount the slightly lackluster first phase, because it changes all the time, it gets more difficult and doesn't feel repetitive.

[kaelleria]

5-8 minutes is about the sweet spot. We've had some insane outliers(I'm looking at you Sha of Fear HC) that honestly just get repetitive and boring. Odyn in it's original state was like that too. Any shorter than 5 and you get a lot of classes that don't get a second CD rotation.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

5-7 minutes for normal bosses, endbosses can be 8-10. More than 10 minutes is a fucking pain in the backside and less than 5 just feels like a glorified trash mob.

[Wild]

About 5min sounds right. We all have something else to do.

[Sierra85]

i think 6 minutes max. i dont like to concentrate on one thing for too long!

[Tyron]

Imo:

Filler bosses of a raid should be around 5-6 minutes.
End bosses of a raid/tier should be around 6-8 minutes.
And end boss of an expansion should be 10 minutes max.

[Jastall]

Depends. A 5 minute fight can be boring if there's no variation or overlong pauses (hello Assault). A 12 minute fight can be exciting if it changes things up and keeps players on their toes.

Albeit at 15+ minutes, a fight just starts being too long. Imperator was a really bad example.

[Yamuri]

Imo:

Filler bosses of a raid should be around 5-6 minutes.
End bosses of a raid/tier should be around 6-8 minutes.
And end boss of an expansion should be 10 minutes max.

As far as my opinion goes I agree with this.

Any longer than 10 it gets boring and then a wipe on the last phase is pretty discouraging. Any less than 6 though is a bit too easy to just burst your way to the win. The way the gear scales, it's hard to find a sweet spot for raids getting into heroic or leaving heroic for mythic as far as time goes since there's a huge difference.

[Toastyame]

Every fight in NH felt fine, time-wise. I wish Botanist was longer/more interesting and Gul'dan wasn't a 15-16 minute encounter.

That being said, I don't mind patchwerk fights like Butcher, Guarm and Krosus being on the 4-5 minute side while fights with more to offer mechanically are anywhere from 7 to 12.

[Deleted]

Every fight in NH felt fine, time-wise. I wish Botanist was longer/more interesting and Gul'dan wasn't a 15-16 minute encounter.

That being said, I don't mind patchwerk fights like Butcher, Guarm and Krosus being on the 4-5 minute side while fights with more to offer mechanically are anywhere from 7 to 12.

guldan on nm and hc is in no way 15-16min fight pretty sure his enrage is 12min and most kills are around 9-10min for hc.

[Floopa]

9-10 mins max

[Deleted]

10 min fight is not bad unless it's something like phase 1 and 2 on Odyn... you're just waiting for the real stuff to happen that lasts for 3 min

[Blade Wolf]

Some bosses can be good at like 10min while others can be absolute cancer. Iron Maidens is a good example of a shitty boss fight, you spend 80% of the fight in 1 phase where barely anything happens then the last 20% all hell breaks lose but it's more or less a burn phase then since you pop hero and nuke like crazy.

[Volardelis]

15-20 min fights.

Mythic Mar'gok anyone?

[Nitros14]

I like a few end tier fights to be really long, makes the last bit very nerve wracking and it's a huge high to win.

Needs to be used sparingly though.


Variety is good, some quick fights some longer.

[potis]

Variety but never something insane.

10min+ fights feel long and hectic, 2-4min fights seem pointless.

As someone above said i would totally for 4-5m for "easier" bosses, 5-8 for the rest, and something like 10m for the big bad of the expansion.

[Radaney]

Imo:

Filler bosses of a raid should be around 5-6 minutes.
End bosses of a raid/tier should be around 6-8 minutes.
And end boss of an expansion should be 10 minutes max.

Agree with this tbh but 10-12 on last boss isn't a big deal either.

I don't think length really matters too much but more the mechanics themselves.

Bosses like Garrosh and Odyn are snoozefests until the last phase so it's 8 minutes of sleeping and 4 minutes of actually playing the game.

Whilst bosses like Helya and Gul'dan are actually pretty solid for the entirety of their duration.

[Jester Joe]

Personally I enjoy fast pace, 5-6 minute long fights.

Things like Butcher from Highmaul and Krosus from Nighthold.
Best example though I think being Blackhand.

[Donald Hellscream]

4-5 minutes for early bosses, 5-8 for the middle bosses and 8-10 for penultimate and last boss. Anything longer than 10 is a pain, especially if the thing you struggle on is near the end, it really sucks to wipe 10 minutes into an encounter just to wipe and have to slog through the mechanics you can handle perfectly.