the best final boss of the 4 expansions

[Deleted]

I can agree with this to a degree. While I absolutely loved H Spine as a fight, I do think Madness could have been done better. Platforms and tentacles just didn't scream epic. Best part of the H Madness fight is when his head drops, but even then everything is too crazy to enjoy it visually, if that makes sense. It really would have been cool to fight him on the ground, face to face type for the last fight. I mean, it was epic as shit seeing him land on stormwind, how awesome would it have been to actually fight him like that?

Am i the only one that find deathwing not that bad? I mean you ride on his back, get his armor off, crush into the maelstrom, and get a fight in a apocalyptic scenario.... we can argue on the fight, many dont like it and it was too easy ok.. but i don't think it was that bad

[Belisaurio]

i don't agree, back in tbc storytelling was awful compared to cata, Deathwing get the edge from that point of view in my opinion

Yep, BC was really bad explained. But Illidan appeared in 3 quest (If I remember correct) and in this three quests he was the leader, someone important, I don't know, but from my viewpoint, he was like a general or tyrant in front of his army (giving orders to their generals or just angry because someone fail an important mission).
In the other hand, Deathwing appeared in more quests (ignoring badlands quests), and in all of them, he was a powerful dragon that wanted to fight and kill : no development like Arthas, no feelings of someone important like Illidan, just destruction and death, and that was awesome to be that evil but looking for his old past, he was downgraded in all things apart from be the Aspect of the Death (this part was really well explained and configured).

[Louis CK]

Am i the only one that find deathwing not that bad? I mean you ride on his back, get his armor off, crush into the maelstrom, and get a fight in a apocalyptic scenario.... we can argue on the fight, many dont like it and it was too easy ok.. but i don't think it was that bad

Um... I had just stated that H Spine was one of my favorite fights...

[Deleted]

Um... I had just stated that H Spine was one of my favorite fights...

Yes XD, i meant the character himself, not just the fight

[Vintersol]

Arthas, rest not coming close.... one word Defile.... brrr

Darkness of a thousand souls disapproves this

[Bad Ashe]

as far as a character and story goes, no.
actual final fight mechanices, so-so, its not bad, but i'm not the biggest proponent of many things MoP so maybe i'm just biased.

best character: Lich King, the fight was tuned a little too strongly imo so i cant vote for that as the best either. it was either a huge fail, or a huge win. wasnt ever any in-between for me, maybe i'll just call it a tie between Wotlk and Mop.


edit; also, Arthas was not the Lich King. the Lich King was Arthas. there's a distinct difference.

[Danner]

Kil'jaeden:
- Mostly didn't do much in the entire TBC expansion. Feels - and was - tagged on at the end of it.
- The threat he posed was credible, but lacked buildup beyond the sunwell island. Feels like a waste of a good villain.
- Threat Class: End of the world as we know it.
- Final moments: Kil'jaeden is stuck in the bath-tub, players kick him back.
- Verdict: 5/10

Arthas:
- Constant presence in the entire contintent. Several appearances. Impossible to miss.
- His master plan was a whammer, revealed only when he beat you in the final encounter. Clever, if misguided cause. Good villain!
- Threat Class: turn everyone undead, ending life as we know it, all to unite the world against the legion.
- Final Moments: Deus Ex Machina taking him out. Cheap death. Even cheaper replacement. Should have won.
- Verdict: 8/10


Deathwing:
- Insane dragon destroying the world. Literally. Backed up by cults and lots of dragon action.
- I think Deathwing lacked a cause. Which contradicts all those cultists. Never fully explored beyond "these cultists are all insane"
- Threat Class: Burn everything to death. Reasoning be damned.
- Final Moments: Epic battle on the back of a dragon. Epicer battle in the maelstrom. Mary Sue moment with Thrall kicking his ass ruining most of it. Dragonflight suddenly saying "we're done". What?
- Verdict: 5/10

Garrosh:
- Warchief breaking under pressure. Warchief breaking character as well. Personality author penmanship disaster where the Garrosh character just went to pieces.
- Master plan: defeat the alliance... by uniting the horde. By making the horde orc-only, betraying everyone for no apparent reason. Self-contradicting plan.
- Threat Class: Orcs vs everyone else. Moral loss had he won, at worst he'd made a stronghold in central kalimdor, but devoid of any friends. Isolationism and colonialism would have followed, but it's hardly the end of the world. Not that scary. Seriously.
- Final Moments: Doesn't even die. Trial? Upcoming redemption arc is too obvious, making me cringe. Didn't feel like a real evil overlord since he just didn't pose a genuine threat to anyone... except the horde itself.
- Verdict: 5/10.

So yeah. Arthas wins out of these four.

For the heck of it, let's add the other antagonists as well.

Illidan:
- Demon hunter at the height of his power, chilling out in outland, when a bunch of horde and alliance players start attacking.
- Illidan makes no personal effort to stop these events, delegating it all to the blood elves, who mess it up royally. Never even managing to mount a counter-offensive.
- Seeing how the war goes badly, is betrayed by Akama and killed by Maiev. The end.
- Threat Class: None. He was minding his own business, and we messed his life and the stability of Outland up, for no good reason whatsoever.
- Final Moments: Pretty cool, even for a death scene. The hunter is nothing without the hunt.
- Verdict: 7/10.

Wrathion:
- Goading the player into spawning war between the alliance and the horde. Succeeds.
- Master plan to have the alliance crush the silly horde, creating a unified front against the legion. Fails on a technicality.
- Threat Class: Immature brat trying to act up. Chessmaster. Will strike again.
- Final Moments: Tantrum. Pretty rewarding.
- Verdict: 6/10.

Scarlet Onslaught:
- Kill the demons! And all the undead. And associates. And associates of associates. And their village. And their pet bunny! For justice!
- Threat Class: Stereotypical rotten apple paladins. Partially made the trope.
- Final Moments: You are what you kill. Seeing the organization fall, and exposing the mastermind behind them was very rewarding.
- Verdict: 7/10.

Old Gods:
- Uh, who knows what they are up to, beside messing with us.
- Threat Class: End of the world if killed. Probably. It's hard to say. End of the world if not killed.
- Final Moments: Just dies and falls over. Which is contradictory to their threat.
- Verdict: ??/10.

Panthenon or Titans:
- Rather unwilling to blow up Azeroth for whatever reason. Yet their messengers are willing to do so. Contradiction.
- Threat Class: End of the world. Literally.
- Final Moments: Not yet happened.
- Verdict: ??/10.

[Itisamuh]

1. The Lich King: obvious choice, this was easily the most interesting arc of the lore.

2. Illidan or Kiljaeden: second most interesting arc to me.

3. Garrosh: his story was far better delivered than any villain besides the Lich King, but as a Horde loyalist, I refused to partake in the Rebellion.

4. Deathwing: poorly delivered, and I also think regular mortals have no business fighting enemies of this calibur.

[KrazyK923]

snip

A lot of this was incorrect or high skewed.

Except for your assessment of Illidan. Its spot on.

[Deleted]

Kil'jaeden:
- Mostly didn't do much in the entire TBC expansion. Feels - and was - tagged on at the end of it.
- The threat he posed was credible, but lacked buildup beyond the sunwell island. Feels like a waste of a good villain.
- Threat Class: End of the world as we know it.
- Final moments: Kil'jaeden is stuck in the bath-tub, players kick him back.
- Verdict: 5/10

Arthas:
- Constant presence in the entire contintent. Several appearances. Impossible to miss.
- His master plan was a whammer, revealed only when he beat you in the final encounter. Clever, if misguided cause. Good villain!
- Threat Class: turn everyone undead, ending life as we know it, all to unite the world against the legion.
- Final Moments: Deus Ex Machina taking him out. Cheap death. Even cheaper replacement. Should have won.
- Verdict: 8/10


Deathwing:
- Insane dragon destroying the world. Literally. Backed up by cults and lots of dragon action.
- I think Deathwing lacked a cause. Which contradicts all those cultists. Never fully explored beyond "these cultists are all insane"
- Threat Class: Burn everything to death. Reasoning be damned.
- Final Moments: Epic battle on the back of a dragon. Epicer battle in the maelstrom. Mary Sue moment with Thrall kicking his ass ruining most of it. Dragonflight suddenly saying "we're done". What?
- Verdict: 5/10

Garrosh:
- Warchief breaking under pressure. Warchief breaking character as well. Personality author penmanship disaster where the Garrosh character just went to pieces.
- Master plan: defeat the alliance... by uniting the horde. By making the horde orc-only, betraying everyone for no apparent reason. Self-contradicting plan.
- Threat Class: Orcs vs everyone else. Moral loss had he won, at worst he'd made a stronghold in central kalimdor, but devoid of any friends. Isolationism and colonialism would have followed, but it's hardly the end of the world. Not that scary. Seriously.
- Final Moments: Doesn't even die. Trial? Upcoming redemption arc is too obvious, making me cringe. Didn't feel like a real evil overlord since he just didn't pose a genuine threat to anyone... except the horde itself.
- Verdict: 5/10.

So yeah. Arthas wins out of these four.

For the heck of it, let's add the other antagonists as well.

Illidan:
- Demon hunter at the height of his power, chilling out in outland, when a bunch of horde and alliance players start attacking.
- Illidan makes no personal effort to stop these events, delegating it all to the blood elves, who mess it up royally. Never even managing to mount a counter-offensive.
- Seeing how the war goes badly, is betrayed by Akama and killed by Maiev. The end.
- Threat Class: None. He was minding his own business, and we messed his life and the stability of Outland up, for no good reason whatsoever.
- Final Moments: Pretty cool, even for a death scene. The hunter is nothing without the hunt.
- Verdict: 7/10.

Wrathion:
- Goading the player into spawning war between the alliance and the horde. Succeeds.
- Master plan to have the alliance crush the silly horde, creating a unified front against the legion. Fails on a technicality.
- Threat Class: Immature brat trying to act up. Chessmaster. Will strike again.
- Final Moments: Tantrum. Pretty rewarding.
- Verdict: 6/10.

Scarlet Onslaught:
- Kill the demons! And all the undead. And associates. And associates of associates. And their village. And their pet bunny! For justice!
- Threat Class: Stereotypical rotten apple paladins. Partially made the trope.
- Final Moments: You are what you kill. Seeing the organization fall, and exposing the mastermind behind them was very rewarding.
- Verdict: 7/10.

Old Gods:
- Uh, who knows what they are up to, beside messing with us.
- Threat Class: End of the world if killed. Probably. It's hard to say. End of the world if not killed.
- Final Moments: Just dies and falls over. Which is contradictory to their threat.
- Verdict: ??/10.

Panthenon or Titans:
- Rather unwilling to blow up Azeroth for whatever reason. Yet their messengers are willing to do so. Contradiction.
- Threat Class: End of the world. Literally.
- Final Moments: Not yet happened.
- Verdict: ??/10.

Okay i really appreciate this post, it's awsome, thanks!

[babo7000]

This poll was scewed to begin with. Everyone voting Arthas is doing so because of WC3.
His and the Lich King's development was atrocious in WotLK, nowhere near to Garrosh, rushed as it is.

[Deleted]

This poll was scewed to begin with. Everyone voting Arthas is doing so because of WC3.
His and the Lich King's development was atrocious in WotLK, nowhere near to Garrosh, rushed as it is.

I Agree partially with that, i as a wc3 player too, but it's true that back in woltk the storytelling was not as good as now in wow, so arthas as yes good, but not as good as garrosh from that point of view.

However i think that the lich king is still more charismatic then other villains, that's why peapole vote him, it's just a great designed villain in m opinion, not only for wow, in general it's really well done

[Deleted]

Lick King wins. However Lei Shen and Ragnaros are 100000x better than the Lick King will ever be.

I still don't get how those two bosses couldn't have been the main evil, they would have owned it.

At least owned it more than Flopwing.

[Haywire5714]

This poll was scewed to begin with. Everyone voting Arthas is doing so because of WC3.
His and the Lich King's development was atrocious in WotLK, nowhere near to Garrosh, rushed as it is.

I don't care about lore at all, but I voted for Lich King because he was designed better as a boss.

[babo7000]

I Agree partially with that, i as a wc3 player too, but it's true that back in woltk the storytelling was not as good as now in wow, so arthas as yes good, but not as good as garrosh from that point of view.

However i think that the lich king is still more charismatic then other villains, that's why peapole vote him, it's just a great designed villain in m opinion, not only for wow, in general it's really well done

That is true. Like I said in my first post, ICC was the Lich King's saving grace. It did feel like an all or nothing raid with humanity being at risk. Garrosh was defeated too soon, so his defeat didn't feel as climactic.

[Deleted]

That is true. Like I said in my first post, ICC was the Lich King's saving grace. It did feel like an all or nothing raid with humanity being at risk. Garrosh was defeated too soon, so his defeat didn't feel as climactic.

Yeah that's the point, icc was a really great raid, not only the bosses, but what was really cool to me is that you see the exterior of the citadel all the expansion, then you finally get to see the inside of that damn giant bad-ass looking structure of death, wich is awsome, the whole architecture there is mind-blowing to me

[Sesto]

The Lich King.

Even if I didn't like WoTLK that much, he was definitely the best final boss. He showed up multiple times (perhaps too many) and felt like an actual threat. There was plenty of background lore surrounding him in the actual expansion itself. From the CoT instance, to the quests in Icecrown... he actually felt like a character, even if you hadn't played Warcraft 3.

Illidan, my favourite character, was butchered in his own expansion (don't consider KJ to be real final boss of TBC). He got little to no development. His reason for attacking us was just thrown in there to make him a villain. We see him very few times, and we don't even really understand who he is as a character. He is killed by his old jailer (maiev) and Akama, a guy he betrayed once. Not his brother, the one who banished him. Not the one he used to love and grew up with. He was killed out of simple, boring, revenge. That's it.

He got zero closure. He died taunting Maiev, despite her having almost nothing to do with his character. Maybe had we learned he was trying to build an army to stop the Legion it might have been okay. But no, Blizzard just turned him insane, made him decide to attack everyone, and then threw in Akama and Maiev as random, boring, characters to help us fight him.

This is the only reason I want him to come back. Blizzard butchered him, if he came back, I seriously doubt they could do any worse.

Garrosh is probably second, with Deathwing being last. Deathwing was an even worse job then Illidan because they made him look like an unintelligent dragon who only knows the word "Destroy". But as I never really cared about him, I don't care that much.

(This felt more like a rant about Blizzard's butchering of Illidan than an answer to the original question...)

[Deleted]

The Lich King.

Even if I didn't like WoTLK that much, he was definitely the best final boss. He showed up multiple times (perhaps too many) and felt like an actual threat. There was plenty of background lore surrounding him in the actual expansion itself. From the CoT instance, to the quests in Icecrown... he actually felt like a character, even if you hadn't played Warcraft 3.

Illidan, my favourite character, was butchered in his own expansion (don't consider KJ to be real final boss of TBC). He got little to no development. His reason for attacking us was just thrown in there to make him a villain. We see him very few times, and we don't even really understand who he is as a character. He is killed by his old jailer (maiev) and Akama, a guy he betrayed once. Not his brother, the one who banished him. Not the one he used to love and grew up with. He was killed out of simple, boring, revenge. That's it.

He got zero closure. He died taunting Maiev, despite her having almost nothing to do with his character. Maybe had we learned he was trying to build an army to stop the Legion it might have been okay. But no, Blizzard just turned him insane, made him decide to attack everyone, and then threw in Akama and Maiev as random, boring, characters to help us fight him.

This is the only reason I want him to come back. Blizzard butchered him, if he came back, I seriously doubt they could do any worse.

Garrosh is probably second, with Deathwing being last. Deathwing was an even worse job then Illidan because they made him look like an unintelligent dragon who only knows the word "Destroy". But as I never really cared about him, I don't care that much.

(This felt more like a rant about Blizzard's butchering of Illidan than an answer original question...)

haha, well you are right on Illidan, but i think the problem is that they kinda tried the best for the times, i mean the storytelling in TBC was horrible compared to these days, but more because of technical limitations. If Illidan was to be used now (and i guess we will see him soon...) he would be in a much better spot

[Brodeo]

regardless of SWP, i still consider illidan as the last boss. he had his hand in a lot more of the expansion than KJ. he was in the trailer, he was in the quests, he was in the world. KJ is just like sargeras in that hes just an omnibaddie that doesnt really do anything direct. So, illidan was done right.

Based on the rules of the thread though, arthas. he had a lot of the same elements, i just liked illidans story arc better