Which encounter in the game is, in your opinion, the most well designed?

[Deleted]

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Sinestra yet! Though we didn't kill it pre Firelands, I thoroughly enjoyed it from a healers point of view.

(In no particular order) Honourable mentions to Spine HC, Professor Putricide, Sindragosa, Madness HC (our first kill my co-healer dc'd like 4 times, good times), Feng the Accursed, Garalon, Blade Lord, Wind Lord...

Probably more, but can't remember

[Lartok]

I don't think Lei Shen is getting enough credit, maybe not enough people did it but that was an excellent fight. I like fights that can be done different ways, and not just possible to be done differently like fully viable. High Botanist in Nighthold is a good example, Serenity used a different kill order to basically every other guild and then you had the common sacrifice strat in the last phase or From Scratch's way of actually doing the mechanic and not killing people.

[Saphyron]

Ultraxion as a solo healer.

Jokes aside.

Toss up between:
Blackhand, Lich King or Elisande.

[Evangeliste]

I dunno if anyone else has said but I enjoyed Algalon a lot... I also loved solo healing Heroic 25man Saurfang in ICC, use to be fun to try and judge marks and than spontaneous damage like adds getting too close and tanks taking smashes and it was all on you. Really rewarding.

I've seen bits of the new tier and I reckon that will steal a few likes too.

[cuafpr]

Star Arg is one of my favs, love tanking that fight. Also the original Nef just due to class call outs, loved how that worked and can't believe it hasn't been used since.

[Evangeliste]

Star Arg is one of my favs, love tanking that fight. Also the original Nef just due to class call outs, loved how that worked and can't believe it hasn't been used since.

My word I forgot about that, though Nef using Divine Shield was like... plain evil. Having to use Jeeves mid fight as he broke weapons...
It's fun but must be frustrating for new comers today.

[shyguybman]

Patchwerk 10/10. Top innovation.

doing this in vanilla as the 3rd OT I nearly shit my pants every ~5-10 seconds

[Deleted]

off the top of my head Nefarian in BWL, H Ragnaros in firelands, M Blackhand (wel maybe not since it required so many specific classes which is bad design). I want to include M Odyn too but it annoys me that not all tank mitigation works equally on spears.

there are likely more if i think about it a while, not all really good designed fights are also really memorable (ussualy you only remember hard fights well)

[cuafpr]

My word I forgot about that, though Nef using Divine Shield was like... plain evil. Having to use Jeeves mid fight as he broke weapons...
It's fun but must be frustrating for new comers today.

i was a holy priest back then... i may have healed the tank to death on drunk raid night >.>

[Deleted]

i was a holy priest back then... i may have healed the tank to death on drunk raid night >.>

The best part about that fight was that instead a bossmod timer, the ground shook before he did the bellowing roar. Though admittedly only the tank had to react to that in a meaningful way. That kind of telegraphing before a move doesn't really happen today anymore.

[ONCHEhap]

I'd say Imperator Mar'gok mythic,really great fight imo

[McFuu]

It was an easy fight, but I think it will always stick out to me as encountering mechanics I enjoy when I first started playing.

Naxx (40 the first time I played it)
Thaddius: The whole polarity switch thing and everyone running around every 30 seconds. Watching people die when they wanted to get that one last cast in...

[Mysd]

Not in order, just random bosses I enjoyed so much:

- Blade Lord Tayak
- The Lich King
- Mimiron
- Gothik on Naxramas
- Iskar
- Guldan
- Will of the Emperor

[Kuruption]

I loved BC Archimonde. The raid sucked before him, but man, he was a great fight.

25 man Lei shen (never did 10).

Siegecrafter Blackfuse

Operator Thogar.

And Kanrethad was pretty amazing too, I think I screamed about as loud when I beat him just as I did when my guild beat Heroic Lei Shen.

[Sarevokcz]

I'm curious to find out what elements constitute exceptional encounter design. Of course, this will vary depending on people's preferences, but I think it'd be interesting to see.

I've enjoyed a lot of bosses for different reasons; end bosses of course tend to be of quite a high quality these days, but a standout gem for me was Majordomo Staghelm on Heroic - the combination of rewarding perfect play with a damage increase, tightly controlled positioning and no 'filler' abilities or phases made that an enjoyable encounter to learn and repeat.

Which encounter stands out as a real masterpiece of boss design in WoW for you, and why?

I have my reservations against Staghelm fo rthe simple reason dmg buff didnt affect fire elemental

personally, I realllly liked Netherspite at the time, but liked the most probably Durumu, super fun boss for me

[Deleted]

I like Baron Geddon the bestest.

I remember it was very fun when people became the living bomb haha. Careful !

[Kirbypro]

In terms of raid leading, Sha of Pride in SoO was really interesting. It had minimal personal responsibility and one shot mechanics.

Heavy on organization, splitting the raid into 4 for prisons, into 2 for adds. Grouping for more adds. Making CD groups to handle massive aoe raid dmg.

Really cool.

[Deleted]

Of course nobody mentions ruby sanctum as it was actually hard as fuck. No, we talk about bosses with 3 mechanics being dynamic instead.

Heigan was well designed. He showed the world how 90% of raiders could not even walk properly.

[Deleted]

Imo kel'thas was very well designed. A milestone in encounter design.

[Rogalicus]

Thogar and Xhul'horac from the recent raids.