Yes Ulduar was pinnacle of raiding and WoW, been downhill since then.
Yes Ulduar was pinnacle of raiding and WoW, been downhill since then.
Because a lot of people joined WoW in TBC without raiding, and even more joined in WotLK, so Ulduar was the first (And some would say, last) time they experienced a proper raid. I've personally never understood why people go crazy for Ulduar to the extent they do. It was good, yes, but that's about it.Why Ulduar was and still remains to be the best raid ever?
My favorite was Kara. I kept running that place even after it was pretty much irrelevant and still do, both for the horse and light's justice, which have never dropped even though I've run that place like a billion times which just goes to show how abysmal my luck is.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Also, it's should HAVE. NOT "should of". "Should of" doesn't even make sense. If you think you should own a cat, do you say "I should of a cat" or "I should have a cat"? Do you HAVE cats, or do you OF cats?
Because it was the first actual raid of it's given expansion during the largest influx of new players in the game's history.
Similar reason why so many people love Kara and BWD.
I agree that Ulduar certainly had an epic feel. I was in there the other night just screwing around to see what's solo-able, how the mechanics worked for a single player, what transmog stuff might drop, etc.
And I caught myself standing in the Spark of Imagination just watching the giant spinning laser things funneling green energy into Mimiron's chamber for like 3 minutes. Ulduar brought back some of the awe that WoW had lost over time.
I just loved Kara cuz it was fun and quirky. Then again, I was a hunter during my MC days and that had to be the most boring thing in the universe. The only fight I had to do anything REALLY important was in Magmadar after I got my tranq shot spellbook. A fight which was made slightly easier by the fact that I was also alliance at the time and we had a dwarf priest.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Also, it's should HAVE. NOT "should of". "Should of" doesn't even make sense. If you think you should own a cat, do you say "I should of a cat" or "I should have a cat"? Do you HAVE cats, or do you OF cats?
Disliked it, stopped raiding pretty much on all my characters cause of that long ass boring garbage raid, no other raid vanilla to now has made me do that. There been many post explaining why blizzard haven't done hard modes like that again and why most raids have linear bosses.
One thing that were really awesome with Ulduar was the hardmodes, that was so much better than the heroic encounters we have now.
My favorite raids are still SWP and BT.
Everyone always says Ulduar is the best raid ever, i disagree, maybe because i raided all tiers since T1 when they where current.
The best raiding memories i have are from BWL, that place actually felt like raiding! All the frustration but also fun we shared with the guild and then the massive enjoyment when nef finally dropped.
Still, overall my fav raid ever is without a doubt BT, this place felt so awesome.... Like really raiding a bad guy's castle. After first 3 bosses the mechanics became very interesting too, and the illidan fight was just so much a proper endboss fight.
My personal top 5:
1. BT
2. BWL
3. Karazhan
4. Ulduar
5. SSC
Ulduar was pretty, had nice bosses, etc. I saw it on the PTR when it was still empty and I loved the look of it.
On live, it was the most PuG-unfriendly raid ever on a server where you could always find a PuG for Naxx and later on ToC and ICC. Nobody liked going into Ulduar, it seemed. It was even hard to build a 10-man group in the guild whose setup didn't totally suck. People just didn't want to go there outside of main raids - at least not unless they still wanted that protodrake.
The trash sucked. The way to Flame Leviathan was fun the first time, okay the second, annoying any time after. I also don't like this gnome technology stuff. Engineering crap that just feels kind of weird and out of place. The mechanical spiders, the helicopters, Flame Leviathan, XT, Mimiron... It's all quite interesting probably, but I don't like the look, style and feel of it. Mechanical metal beings just aren't my cup of tea in that setting, even if it might make sense in regards to lore.
Freya's area made me oooh and ahhh... The area on the way to Vezax looked awesome. It was a cool-looking place, yeah. And the encounters were creative enough. But not any more than they are now. The encounters were hard enough. But not any more challenging than the encounters of today (actually, any and all old raids have easier mechanics and would have way shorter encounter journal entries due to their simplicity).
So... while Ulduar was solid work as a raid and I remember occasionally having fun there, it's getting hyped more than it deserves.
metanoia ~*~ Wir rekrutieren für Mythic Hellfire Citadel!
Main: Seriss - Restoration Shaman ~ Favourite Alt: Syope
Why ulduar remains the best raid ever for me is actually because I like titans, old gods and the epic music, nothing else but maybe the mimiron button :P
I agree with everything that the OP said but I would also add the lore of Ulduar to the discussion. Fighting through a titan prison, defeating corrupted watchers who you would then use (or not use) in the final showdown with an Old God was just epic feeling. Really made you feel powerful and like you were making a difference. For a lot of us that was our first "in your face" Old God fight moment and it did not disappoint.
The actual boss fights (apart from Mimiron/Yogg) do not rank up to be the best, it also didn't look that good, there is far better looking instances.
The 2 main strong points it had were the way hardmodes were done and the non linear progression through most of the bosses.
If it didn't have either of them, it would be regarded as shit. Being the raid between Naxx and ToC certainly helped as well.
I think Ulduar was a lot of peoples first proper raid as well, as Naxx certainly didn't count.
I and my entire guild were bored of Ulduar after a month and so were many other people I knew, I don't recall anyone looking forward to it at the time. The first half was boring as hell, but had to be done every week and the only fights you looked forward to were firefighter.
Trash was only hard the first week, it got nerfed to hell the next and was easy after that and I doubt many of you witnessed that.
ICC had much better boss fights.
Last edited by Tekkommo; 2013-03-21 at 09:33 AM.
1. "Hard" trash
2. Trash takes serveral hours (combined)
3. Titan lore
4. Old god lore
5. Hardmodes (hard to implement now, since we got "heroic")
6. Different paths
But ToT is still on top 3 imo
Ulduar, ICC, ToT is my list.
Ulduar was alright. It was probably my favorite WotLK raid (although I also loved ICC).
Tier 14 and 15 both beat ulduar in terms of interesting boss mechanics, and ToT even has a setting and feeling that rivals that of Ulduar.
The only thing that no other raids have on Ulduar: the soundtrack, and the interesting way of activating hardmodes.
ToT>Ulduar Ulduar has nostalgic advantage. wait for next 2 xpac and ToT will be revered too.
while i admit i thought ulduar was awesome, i have to honestly say as far as pure enjoyment factor and fun level with my guild, zg and karazhan take the cake. to each their own