Favorite In-Game Old God Encounter

[Tziva]

Yogg, for sure. Awesome looking model, and a cool fight. Probably on my top ten of all raid bosses.

Cthun seems like a pretty cool fight, but I didn't see him for the first time until Burning Crusade. Maybe I'd feel more favourable if I had made it that deep into AQ40 in classic.

NZoth was whatever. I don't think the boss fight was particularly memorable.

[Houle]

anyone who sais c'thun was "too easy" obviously didnt play during vanilla lol
on topic:
1. yogg, objectively the best build-up and raid
2. c'thun, bc the theme and look of AQ was legit creepy. people have to remember, he was a vanilla boss
3. n'zoth, bc basically everything sucked. nyalotha looked generic, and him raging like a child the entire time was also laughable for an eldritch god

[Golden Yak]

I agree C'Thun and Yogg-Saron enjoyed better build-up storywise, I think owing to the mystery that still surrounded the Old Gods at the time. With C'Thun, the first traces we got of his presence were the silithid, encountered as early as the Barrens, and the impression was that they were just some race of bug-monsters. By the time we got to Silithus and saw the truly monumental hives, the floating obelisks, the presence of the Twilight Hammer everywhere, it became clear that they were something more. And when the Ahn'Qiraj storyline kicked off and it was all obsidian destroyers and anubisath and qiraji, until finally we get down there into the very heart of things and find out what the hell was really behind everything.

Yogg-Saron got a similar build-up. We were running into iron dwarves really early on, and hearing about saronite ore and its weird properties, the corruption in Vordrassil where Ursoc name-dropped Yogg-Saron himself as part of the coolest story climax in the zone, and the presence of the faceless in Azjol-Nerub suggested some Old God stuff certainly, but it wasn't until the Ulduar dungeons that these separate storylines all dove-tailed together and led into the excellent Ulduar raid, where creeping horror built up 'til the Descent into Madness and things got real serious real fast.

Ironically, while N'Zoth did get a lot of build-up, by then it was pretty well known that he was the last Old God we had to deal with, and that the Faceless were his minions and they were all over the place. As soon as you saw tentacle faces on something you knew, right then - N'Zoth was afoot. There wasn't as much of the creeping mystery and revelation. I think the concept of him being free and out in the world could've used more time to breathe - I even wonder if Eternal Palace/Azshara would've worked better as a climax instead, with N'Zoth showing up after Shadowlands - possibly some kind of underworld expansion with him burrowing for Azeroth's core.

I actually did enjoy N'Zoth's fight well enough (though Carapace felt even more spectacular) and I find the visual aesthetic of Ny'alotha and the Black Empire stuff to be beautiful, but I wish it could have been an entire dedicated zone, and the concept of building up our sanity resistance expanded through some kind of zone-wide storyline as we slowly conquered more and more of it.

[Dalheim]

While I never did Ulduar when it was current (didnt start playing 'til Cata release), I do think Yogg is the best one, the encounter feels like it would've been great fun back then.

Ironically, while N'Zoth did get a lot of build-up, by then it was pretty well known that he was the last Old God we had to deal with,

N'Zoth has actually been built since Cataclysm even!

[Golden Yak]

N'Zoth has actually been built since Cataclysm even!

Yeah, I remember him being name-dropped at a Blizzcon panel before Cata was even released.

[Delijica]

Yogg-Saron without a doubt. His story had a great build-up during leveling and the actual raid, as well as a satisfying conclusion. Not only that, but during the fight we got his visions with heavy lore implications, such as Bolvar not being dead after the events of the Wrathgate, but rather being a prisoner of the Lich King who was trying to turn him to his side.

[Codah]

Yogg is the best but he's probably also voted for the most because that's a boss more people did when he was live than the other options.

[cparle87]

Yogg and its not even a contest. He remained this mysterious creature who had tales of being the size of Northrend and living underneath it, and it took till the end of Storm Peaks where we saw that he has corrupted the watchers in Ulduar (except Thorim until later) from within his own prison which he broke out. His entire build up as a character was spot on, and makes for an excellent side story where we don't deal with the Lich King who doesn't seem to mind Yogg screwing around.

C'thun was also a solid encounter but he didn't have any build up outside of Ahn'Qiraj. I always liked his design which seem to took inspiration from the Forgotten One from WC3 with an eye on top of it. The Ahn'Qiraj gate event is also historical but C'thun himself doesn't play much of a role, but rather the Qiraji and their generals.

N'zoth was... well lets just say this: Remember how the Night King was written in the last season of Game of Thrones? Remember what Disney did to Snoke in The Last Jedi? That is all N'zoth.. so much potential to be an amazing villain but got completely screwed over at the end. Even when he was fully released unlike the previous Old God's he couldn't even attack more than 2 zones.

To be fair even though they were more contained Yogg and CT had millenia of time to build up their forces. Yogg had just about all of Northrend not under the Lich King under his thumb. C'thun ruled several zones and had influence as far as the Barrens. N'Zoth was totally free, but he was only free for... a couple months, maybe? Patches usually only last a few months in universe. And it wasn't just Vale and Uldum he attacked. He was in Highmountain attacking them during the HMT recruitment, he was in Twilight Highlands attacking the reds to try to turn them into Twilights. His minions were attacking you every step of the way while you were looking for Wrathion, from Blackrock Mountain to Karahzan.

[muto]

Yogg Saron 0 keeper was much more difficult than Mythic N’Zoth.

[Fayenoor]

Yogg - Alone in the Dark version.

[mizeri]

lol is it even a contest? yog wins it hands down, that entire raid still looks better then anything that came after it.

[Golden Yak]

Yshaarj missing?

I did consider adding Y'Shaarj 'in absentia' through the storyline with the Sha and the mantid and Garrosh tapping into the heart of darkness and everything.

But then I didn't.