What raid had the best bosses overall, excluding the final boss?

[Woobels]

Firelands is one of the most underrated raids in the game.

Not overly long
Good mix of gimmick and 'normal' fights
Really effective use of what would seem on the surface to be a hugely constraining theme
Strongly tied to the story (which isn't always the case)
Really good challenge scaling, no random "the first boss is the roadblock" nonsense.
Top tier mounts
Swagnaros
Sulfuras but actually obtainable and useful

I like Ragnaros but wasn't he generally considered to be too much of a difficulty spike relative to the rest of the instance? Not saying that's an issue necessarily, that's pretty common in raids nowadays even, just asking because you mention the pacing of difficulty.

[Eapoe]

Mogushan Vaults. Short(ish) introductory raid of the xpac, bosses were fun, and mechanics were a good mix of personal responsibility and normal “do what you’re told” style.

[salate]

I loved Ulduar, every version of Karazhan.

Personally my favorite boss is Rastakhan, damn that boss fight was awesome! And Opulence was really interesting one. Thanks for composers OST to that place is masterpiece for real.
Battle of Dazalor overall is really good and cool raid, I liked it, even I dont like faction conflict

Ghuun was interesting. I enjoyed the fight too.

But yeah, the best raids for me are Ulduar + BoD.

[Vampyrr]

Ulduar > Firelands > CN > Original Karazhan > BrF

I am having a LOT of fun in the new raid.

[A Chozo]

Castle Nahtria is top-tier.

B O O G I E Down!

[Moi2003]

Karazhan was best for me. The music was fantasic.
Ulduar and Firelands come in a close 2nd.

[Belloc]

Karazhan is probably my favorite raid for obvious reasons, so I won't go into that. Ulduar was top-notch, as well. Dragon Soul was a lot better than people give it credit for, but I understand that having it come at the end of the expansion ruined it for a lot of people, since WoW players don't know how to take breaks at the end of expansions.

They're not my favorites, but I really liked Trial of the Grand Crusader and Zul'Aman. Zul'Aman bear runs were a legitimate challenge and I really enjoyed working through them with my pre-Tier 6 guild (we had 10 great players, but not 25 :P).

Trial of the Grand Crusader, though? I'll never understand how a trashless raid gets shit on so hard by a community that doesn't like dealing with trash. The bosses in there were unique, especially at the time. The first boss was 3 completely different phases, at least two of which were interesting. The second boss was rather plain and not much of a challenge, but still a solid fight. The third boss was the first and probably only of its kind and I loved the way we handled it (hint: the healers targeted the NPCs with the lowest absolute health, not the lowest relative health. A few dots on the pets and the bosses would only be targeted with heals when they were nearly dead. Not having to interrupt healers made that fight a lot easier). The fourth boss was, once again, unique and interesting. The final boss was legitimately hard and I've never felt more accomplishment than when we killed it for the first time.

Just wanted to toss that all out there. Karazhan and Ulduar, yes, but also give props to the raids that no one ever talks about anymore, especially when they were much better than people give them credit for.

[valax]

Mist of pandaria raids are all on the top level . Mechanics wise i think MoP was the richest expansion with innovative concepts for fights.
I'm a big fan of having select people do something that isn't just dps while moving around

[Segus1992]

I'd have to go with Ulduar or ICC.

As much as I loved ICC for what it was (huge lore place, and the only raid post-hardmodes I fully cleared while it was current), calling it the best raid of all time when you're not taking LK into account is rich af. Most of the bosses are pretty uninteresting and the area is very samey. LK and the Frozen Throne is great for sure.

Ulduar was awesome for sure, and Blackrock Foundry is one of my personal favorites. Karazhan is comfy but I've always felt that the reason it's popular is because it was the only raid that felt designed in an expansion where all other raids were just huge hallways with trash and bosses.

- - - Updated - - -

Mist of pandaria raids are all on the top level . Mechanics wise i think MoP was the richest expansion with innovative concepts for fights.
I'm a big fan of having select people do something that isn't just dps while moving around

I'm not sure I can agree on MoP as a whole at all, ToT was pretty sweet, but you'd have to consider all the launch raids to be just one raid for that to even reach average in my eyes. SoO I really can't give any praise, especially if we're excluding Garrosh.

[Shaetha]

I've felt a lot of recent raids had really forgettable mid-bosses, but when I thought about it more most raids do, so I was curious which raid had the overall highest quality of fights excluding the final boss, which usually gets the most dev time and ends up being the most impressive from what I've noticed. Think your Durumu's, XT-002's, Fallen Avatars etc.

There are no more or less memorable boss fights comparing between raids outside the mini-raids, which are basically all forgettable as boss fights. You just don't remember the old boring ones.

People will usually state their first raid where they had success as their favorite. The reason you hear so many "Karazhan"s and "Ulduar"s is because an abnormally high amount of people had their first memorable raid moments there due to the circumstances surrounding them. Karazhan is the first raid that was accessible to casuals, and Ulduar is the first raid a lot of the huge influx of players during Wrath brought.


OT: Do I have a favorite raid? I dunno. Raiding is more about the group than the bosses for me. I remember lines from boss fights, but that doesn't mean anything. I remember particularly fun fights, but there are no standouts either way from normal-sized raids. There are several important raids. ZG brought catchup gear. Karazhan brought reasonable group sizes. Wrath brought us selectable raid sizes. Ulduar brought us fight difficulties. The next real innovation for raiding wasn't until SOO with scaleable group sizes, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of that, too.

I will say one thing: I don't remember any boss fight as actually being fun before MoP. There were a lot that had interesting design, and a lot of bosses that were interesting lorewise or as a joke, but fun and interesting design are only loosely connected at best.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Three really stick out to me. Ulduar, Throne of Thunder, and Nighthold.

[Stardrift]

ToC was my first raid. The boss fights were fun, and the idea of battling in an arena to become the argent crusader's champion was cool as hell. Felt like an actual medieval tournament.

BoD would be tied with BRF. Lots of fun fights in those raids. Especially loved the Jaina and Blackhand end bosses. Opulence and Hans and Franz are also pretty damn fun.

[Malania]

Black Temple deserves an honourable mention. I have a lot of good memories of that place and unlike Sunwell didn't need anything in the way of stacking. But Uludar was still my favourite. As said before the gimmicks to turn on or fight them in hard modes was fun.

[Baroclinic]

People talk trash about BfA, but Battle for Dazar'alor, until the last 3 bosses. Jaina was ok(but doesn't count), but the other two were trash.