Rank the raids you enjoyed the most

[Relapses]

From a former Mythic raider (I quit right before ToS) who's raided since TBC:

God tier

Firelands -- H-Rag still one of my favorite encounters, Alysrazor is my all-time favorite
Throne of Thunder -- Great instance all around. H-Lei Shen being one of the best designed end bosses of any instance
Original Karazhan -- Drunk Karazhan cannot be topped

Good

Ulduar -- DAE ULDUAR????
ICC -- Consistently challenging and fun encounters
BT -- Very well designed instance
HFC -- Mostly fun encounters; Mythic Gorefiend was an extremely well-designed encounter
Malygos -- Really fun encounter

Meh

BRF -- Blackhand was fun, the rest of the instance was shit
ToGC -- Filler raid, but at least the encounters were fun
EN -- We heard you liked the color red
BWD -- Tier 11 sucked
DS -- I sexually identify as Deathwing (and Ultraxion is my favorite patchwerk of all time)
SoO -- Generally acceptable instance. H-Garrosh was a pretty fun encounter.

Fuck this shit

Nighthold -- Garbage, uninspired instance with shitty encounters and some of the most annoying trash I can remember
Highmaul -- Why was this a tier?
HoF -- Fuck Vizier, fuck Ambershaper, fuck Garalon, fuck Wind Seeker, fuck this dumb fucking instance
ToES -- 3 separate raid instances in Tier 14 was just Tsulong

Dumpster fire

Trial of Valor -- Can we collectively jettison into deep space the developers who thought this abortion of an instance was worth releasing?
Tomb of Soakgeras -- Quit before it was released and I haven't heard a single positive thing about the raid from friends still playing
Anything from Vanilla -- Your raids sucked. Even Naxx. Deal with it.
MSV -- Thank you for designing Will of the Emperor, the only encounter to effectively counter weapons-grade autistic raiders

I'm probably missing a bunch. That's it off the dome, though.

[Dangg]

your list is really good OP
finally someone who recognizes ICC as overrated

[Alvito]

Ruby Sanctum is so shitty and forgettable it doesn't even pop up on most of these lists.

[Dangg]

I rate them how I felt at the time and of course my opinion is heavily influenced on the raidteam I had in each one of them and the level I raided at

5/5
Karazhan (looks like a real place, not just artificially created rooms where they put bosses in)
Sunwell Plateau (love the atmosphere, very challenging bosses which gave a sense of accomplishment killing them)
Ulduar (best hardmodes, great enouncters, look amazing)
Throne of Thunder (looks great, fun bosses)
Siege of Orgrimmar (great times progressing later on)

4/5
Black Temple (the first 3 bosses and trash were pointless and took too long)
Blackrock Descent
Bastion of Twilight
Blackrock Foundry
Hellfire Citadel
The Nighthold

3/5
Molten Core (solid 1/5 by current standards)
Serpentshrine Cavern (what a mess that was at release, but still better than TK)
Naxxramas (WotLK) (Immortal/Undying run memories)
Obsidian Sanctum (3 drakes 10m was cool to progress)
Eye of Eternity (visually impressive)
Icecrown Citadel (Lich King best boss ever, rest is really disappointing, the whole place looks unfinished architecture wise)
Mogu'shan Vaults (the only bearable T14 raid)
Emerald Nightmare (alright)
Trial of Valor (look pretty good for a filler raid)
Tomb of Sargeras (good on hero, too much soaking on mythic)

2/5
Gruul's Lair (bugged crap until fix)
Magtheridon's Lair (that trash and tuning)
Tempest Keep (shittiest tuned raid I ever did, worst trash ever)
The Ruby Sanctum (whatever)
Throne of the Four Winds (shit loot for the effort)
Firelands (terrain gives me eyecancer, Ragnaros saves this from 1/5)
Highmaul (don't like ogre stuff, Mar'gok takes forever)

1/5
Mount Hyjal (that trash...)
Trial of the Crusader (lazy, 4 x a week during progress, gated)
Dragon Soul (lazy, spine worst boss ever)
Heart of Fear (Amber Shaper...)
Terrace of the Endless Spring (Lei Shi worst boss ever tied with Spine, Sha of Fear takes forever)

[jmcoo7]

For me i reckon....

Great.
Karazhan... my first ever raid after moving from casual leveller to raider, still amazing memories.
Ulduar... Beautiful raid for the eyes and good fights too.
Firelands... Great fights.
The Nighthold... love the setting and progress felt rewarding and my new guild raid team finally showed its value.
Black Temple... went here with one of the best guilds on server, was an amazing experience in a great setting with my favourite villain(well maybe not a villain).

Good.
ICC... my last raid as tank and raid leader in my first proper guild, emotionally attached to here even if i was not a fan of some fights.
Naxxramas(WotLK)... would be higher if it was not for Thaddius, damn those people who could not tell clockwise and anti-clockwise apart.... sigh.
Emerald Nightmare... good raid to start building my new team, fun times in drunken Sat night raids.
Tomb of Sargeras... nice raid, but roster hard to maintain thanks to grinding and burn out.

Middling.
Throne of Thunder.... first raid on my current main some nice fights and those dps numbers on my lock, happy times.
Siege of Orgrimmar.... big varied raid but not as good as i first thought and got fatigued at the end.
Blackrock Foundry.... by now WoD fatigue was setting in.
Serpentshrine Cavern.... ok raid was not that great for me.
Mogu'shan Vaults... so so nothing memorable.
Gruul's Lair... made me laugh a lot especially on mage fails.
Tempest Keep... trash from hell.

Meh.
Hellfire Citadel.... guild broke up during this spoiling my memories.
Obsidian Sanctum... bored me as tank.
Trial of Valor... hated it.

Everything else i did that i have not mentioned i have no real thoughts on at the moment.

[Deleted]

Ruby Sanctum is so shitty and forgettable it doesn't even pop up on most of these lists.

tbh - I like the Idea behind these 1-3 Boss raids and throughout their history I've enjoyed them. Simply because you used to be able to "quickly do some raidbosses" on alts, outside of your mainraid. Those Raids aren't designed to be a difficult long-term progress (maybe with the exception of sartharion with drakes) but rather a more challanging way of finishing up/starting stories.

For my List I will not list anything before WotLK (Because I only maxed my Warrior like 2 weeks prior to that expansion) and I will also not mention Throne of Thunder (since that is the only raid I didn't progress on heroic, thus I can't compare it with the other raids. Hower let it be said, that what I've seen of Throne of Thunder (encounter wise and visually) it should rank up pretty high. I will also exclude Siege because that was the point where I wanted to really raid again and joined a 10man-guild for the upcoming mythic difficulty and they were already on farm at that point.

Great
Bastion of Twilight/Blackwing Descent/Throne of the Four Winds:
I'm listing these as an entire tier because this is partly what makes them that great. You are stuck on one Boss in Raid-Y? Move to another instance, progress there on the easier bosses to get some more gear and continue later on. They offered an immense change of Visuals between each Raid and Throne was just stunning to me.
They also gave an opportunity to run alts through smaller raids without too much of a time investment.
Encounters that stand out for me are Al'Akir and his council as well as Ascendant Council / Cho'Gall

Ulduar:
I mean...come on, look at that place. The Hardmodes are a great addition to make encounters more or less difficult without "changing the difficulty" that was implemented later on in the Game.

Good
Icecrown Citadel:
The limited attempt model might be questionable. However, this is the conclusion of the LK-story. A massive point in the lore, a massive place and diverse encounters, including a "healing it to death encounter". Refreshing. It lasted a little bit too long imo but w/e

The Nighthold:
Diverse fights, conclusion to the Suramar Questline(which i really enjoyed - shame on me) and only here because of the AP-requirements on some fights, fast changes after the first-kills and the ability to cheese mechanics with some setups. I also enjoy the "first mythic bosses are somewhat of a freebie" when the progression afterwards isn't a brick-wall but offers choices like Nighthold did.

Firelands:
Once again choice on where to go. Great artwork and refreshing mechanics with alysrazor, swapping phases on Fandral depending on your positioning and not on a set timer.

Heart of Fear:
This is most likely higher up than the encounters deserve, but I just love the entire story around the Klaxxi and the feeling/art around the Dread Wastes the Heart of Fear

Mogu'shan Vault / Terrace:
Once again, slightly shorter raids, making alt-runs attractive besides main progression as well as another feeling to it with the mystical theme going on.

Naxxramas(80)/Sartharion/Malygos/Archavon:
I know this will get a lot of hate - but it was what got me into raiding when I started playing and will therefore always be special for me. Above I already mentioned why i like small raids (time-saving, alt-friendly).

Okay
I really tried to think of raids I would consider bad - but I simply can't so here stand all the raids I haven't listed so far. Also let me try to explain why I don't copy what others listed as bad:

Dragonsoul: I think the worst thing about DS is that it lasted waaaaay too long and that Spine on high-end progress required a very very specifc set-up. However many fights had, in my opinion, cool elements to them(control over the Globule-combination at Yor'sahj, chainlightning at Hagara, I like the power-ups on Ultraxion)

Trial of the (grand)Crusader: Setting, no trash...right? I'm raiding for the bosses, not to do hours of trash so this was a great bonus to begin with.
I didn't terribly mind the gating. I would not have complained if it was released in one go but hey - easing into things.
Most of the fights area rather straight foreward, however I really liked the PvP'ish-encounter (i know, hate me) because it changes the classical setup of PvE encounters and doesn't let you play with your eyes closed relying on notifications from dbm/bigwigs. Fast paced and forces communication. Big plus for me.
Also the Leech mechanic on Anub'arak is nerve wracking and you could always feel the tension during his last phase.

Halls of Valor: Story conclusion and finally a step-up in difficulty after the undertuned Emerald Nightmare. Much appreciated - enjoyed it.

Ruby Sanctum: small interlude (see above), story-telling. Felt nice after ages in Icecrown

Tomb of Sargeras: Soakeras...but jokes aside. Most fights felt pretty solid to me and after the first few nerfs to KJ/Avatar it's easily doable without 5 Rogues. Also I really enjoy Mistress because even on farm you have to pay a bit of attention instead of just steamrolling everything, which is nice.



Well...wrote more than I wanted but here we go

[Aggrophobic]

Just the top and bottom here. There has been a lot of raids that had a few good fights and a few really bad ones such as HfC or BT.

Best ones in no specific order:
Ulduar (Might be tied with BrF)
ToT
BrF (Probably the best one overall)
BwD
SoO

Worst ones in no specific order:
ToS (Ok, this one is the worst by a mile)
EN
HoF
I should probably add DS here as well but it had its fun fights here and there.

[Wries]

Ulduar and Blackrock Foundry.

Honorable mentions:
Trial of the Grand Crusader
I mean, the psuedo PvP fight was horrific for us, but all other encounters were great imho. And no trash, finally. Too bad that little raid was the only viable raid content come that patch, which left a really bad taste I think, because all of a sudden mid wotlk it felt like you had nothing to do than repeat Trial on four different difficulties.

Nighthold
Simply because I find the city gorgeous

Karazhan
Since like any other TBC noob it was the first raid I stepped into. Soo.. It was scary and exciting and pretty darn cool.

Worst raid? Probably any of the first tier raids of MoP. Or any of the first tier raids in Cata.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

All time favorites:

• ICC - I can't rank this one objectively; it's #1 nostalgic for me, where I learned to raid. The atmosphere and abience are spot-on for the lore, great theme, just overall impressive. What an introduction (for me) to the scene!
• Ulduar - Ranking this here even though I never played it as current content (I did it at level 80, but in ICC gear so...). Still I find myself going back sometimes for transmog pieces and find myself impressed with every visit. The shear grandeur of the place. Algalon and Yogg-Saron are two of the most memorable fights in the game!
• Karazhan - They've never done another raid quite like it. The creepy music, crazy opera, chess game... Return to Karazhan is my favorite 5 man too, btw.
• Nighthold - I think this one will age well and be remembered quite fondly. Beautiful, with interesting fights, and a great end boss in Gul'dan. The way they played with time magic was interesting, two different takes on it with Chromatic Anomaly and Elisande. And let's not forget the best voice acting from any raid ever! You all know which boss I'm talking about, even if he gets confused about the status of his boss!

As for the others: BRF had some fun fights, but it was another I didn't see as current content (returning from break during HFC). I liked Dragon Soul more than most, in part because it wasn't all bosses waiting in rooms for us to kill them. Chasing Deathwing across the skies and parachuting onto his back was both badass and insane - we were insanely badass and badly insane for even attempting such! Who does something like that? I also enjoyed Firelands; the idea of fighting the spider in her web, and the way Shannox came hunting us rather than waiting for us to find him.

[Doffen]

Awesome: Ulduar
Awesome: Ulduar
Awesome: Ulduar
Awesome: Ulduar
More Awesome: Ulduar


Also awesome: Ulduar

Edit: Ulduar

- - - Updated - - -

Ulduar

Agree with you.

[ryklin]

started raiding in BC and have been in and out of the game at points, also I feel I am a bit biased to 10H as a healer main as it was more interesting to handle and you were more impactful and I also played a resto shaman in Ulduar and that was... not fun... and I'm not really going to account for boredom of end-tier lengths

Top:
SoO
T11 (cata opening raids)
ToT
ICC

Great:
BRF (trying to overlook how awful blast furnace and maidens were, the rest was just so awesome)
Kara
Highmaul
Halion
SSC
Ulduar
ZA
T14 (mop opening raids, although admittedly, HoF had awful art direction)

Good:
Kara
ToS (almost solely in good instead of higher because of how much progression time feels wasted on getting to mistress p3 then getting shit RNG on where the wave and tornado line up)
Dragon Soul
NH (felt overtuned relative to most players' dps pre 7.2 and undertuned after, I feel like there was just some math failure or something, my guild had never had so much trouble handling dps checks before, that or they're just legitimately tighter nowadays and people still aren't keeping up with the best players in middle-mythic guilds despite 'simpler' class kits)
gruul's lair

OK:
Tempest Keep
BT
Sunwell (legitimately most of BC was just not that interesting to heal compared to wrath onwards)
ToC
Firelands
HFC (never really clicked with me)
EN
Malygos
ToV (odyn was great, guarm was an addon check and dps check, helya was class stacking incarnate despite being a neat fight once you had a stacked enough comp to do it, and it wasn't like Blast Furnace or Blackhand or Xhulhorac where there were alternatives, you just needed those shadow priests)

Bad:
naxx (wrath)
Sarth
magtheridon

[fiestatastic]

Favorites (probably in order, with ToT being a fair margin ahead of everything else):
Throne of Thunder #1
Ulduar
Blackwing Descent
Black Temple
Bastion of Twilight (mostly for Sindragosa, but I thought the rest of it was pretty fun too)

Really enjoyed:
The Nighthold
Naxx
ICC
Mogu Vaults
Firelands
Siege of Org
Kara

Enjoyed:
Tomb of Sargeras
Blackrock Foundry (just for trains and stampers, which are 2 of my favorite bosses of all time, but the rest of the raid can pretty much suck it)
Highmaul

Meh:
Hellfire Citadel
Emerald Nightmare

Bleh:
Eye of Eternity
Dragon Soul
Heart of Fear
Trial of the Grand Crusader
Hyjal Summit
Gruul's Lair

[Toogoodman]

Typically uninformed internet opinion is typically uninformed.

I agree, while i didn't like the raid, killing M KJ was the most satisfying kill i've ever had, and i've played since 2005. 500+ wipes, and a million soaks later, killing that MF was amazing.

- - - Updated - - -

Bastion of Twilight (mostly for Sindragosa, but I thought the rest of it was pretty fun too)

You mean Sinestra?

[schwank05]

1. Karazhan, my first raid and my all time favorite it was great and gigantic and just plain fun. I have never gotten sick of this raid
2-3. Gruul's Lair and Mags Lair both were equally amazing for me and I loved them.
4. Icecrown Citadel- was just plain awsome.
5. Ulduar- Loved the activated Hardmodes, I never actually got as far as I would have liked and never killed Yogg when it was current.